Another Sunday, another boardgame session! This week Becky joins us. Apparently she used to play, but hasn’t been around for a while.
We start with Domaine (the “knight and castles” game), which Fiona has been pestering me to bring again since we first played it a few weeks ago. I miss out a couple of rules during the explanation (we forget to place starting knights with the castle until about turn 3, and I forgot to mention about paying for knights in forests).
Everybody knew about the importance of starting round the edge, and gaining early income (which we all did), but Becky didn’t realise that the other main point of the game is claiming the large negative spaces that are left in the middle of the game, so she finished last by some way.
I was placing Castles last during setup, so I had less access to the external mines than the other players. So once I have my first mine, I concentrate on playing Knights onto my central castle to set up a high scoring central domaine. At one point Becky can screw me over before I complete it, expanding through the middle of it to cut off most of my points, but she probably doesn’t see it (she admitted afterwards that had trouble visualizing the empty spaces, which is completely normal for a first game), and I get to complete a high scoring domaine with four knights in it. My first prime target for expansion was Fiona’s domaine, but she has an alliance card, so after expanding into the Capital City I am forced to expand into Becky’s only decent domaine (feels a bit rude as she is the beginner, but I had no other decent choice).
Whilst I was plodding along with an income of 1 a turn (2 when I completed the central domaine) Tony quickly got an income of 2, then 3, and had 4 before the end of the game. He gets a decent large domaine, and has most money at the end for a five point win over me. (Fiona finishes second richest, but still a few points behind me).
I could have won on the very last turn, but Tony has an alliance card that prevents me from using my last expansion to get a Diamond monoply. Foiled!
After Domaine I want to play Ticket to Ride, to see if my extensive online experience (50+ games, almost all fourplayer), will tell in the real world. I’m pretty certain they won’t have seen strategies like “ignore almost everything except the six-train routes” and “complete your initial tickets, then ignore everything except six-train routes” (my favourite strategies for the original TTR).
But instead we play Alhambra. It’s the game that defines our group really; we always seem to end up playing it.
For the second time in the evening we bugger up the setup – this time everybody seems to assume that somebody else has dealt with the scoring cards, and they end up just randomly shuffled into the deck. I was in the toilet, so it’s wasn’t my fault!
The first round turns up almost all of the gardens, and goes on for slightly too long, before we get suspicious, and fix the scoring cards. I have a couple of majorities, for second place behind Fiona, who had Towers plus a huge wall. My strategy for this section of the game was not to waste money fighting over the Gardens, a decision that definitely paid off (I didn’t buy any throughout the entire game).
At the second scoring I go into the lead (I still have two outright majorities, and some seconds), just ahead of Fiona, but she just catches me on the final scoring round (111) with a huge wall (fourteen I think). Tony finishes third, and sadly Becky finishes miles behind.
This game is probably representative of our overall Alhambra results – generally Fiona and I tend to do the best I think.
I’ve now played Alhambra probably five or six times, and I developed a strategy that works for me, based on efficiently acquiring tiles that actually matter in terms of majorities (don’t buy stuff just cause it’s free!). I tend not to worry about building a really large wall, preferring to have a flexible city, with plenty of room for new purchases.
Fiona adopts a different plan – she tends to be more of a committed wall builder, as shown above. It works well for her.
After Alhambra, we have just about an hour before Tony has to get his bus, so we decide to play San Juan. Becky has played Puerto Rico before, and it’s not very difficult, so we’re underway pretty quickly. This time I remember to explain all the rules!
It takes Becky a while to fully comprehend what’s going on, but she has a really good early position (Smithy built & Guildhall in hand!), and is able to claim the victory by a few points from Fiona, who has a nice City Hall setup, but struggled to find good final builds (despite Councillor with Library double privilege!). Tony has an okay production position (Well & Aquaduct etc), and has both City Hall and Guildhall in hand when the game is about to end, but not enough time to build them both, and finished third. He probably underestimated how quickly the Smithy player can end the game. Once they’ve built the Guild Hall, they will quite happily build Indigo every turn if they can. I have a terrible hand all game, only seeing a Palace and Triumphal Arch very late in the game, and I’m only able to build them buy overbuilding with a crane. I get just over 20 points in last place.
I don’t think San Juan works particularly well as a four player, for two reasons.
Firstly, there just aren’t enough six-costs buildings to go around (this isn’t helped by the fact that Guild Hall and City Hall are so much better than the other two). If you don’t get one early you have to play flexibly, but then even if you do draw one you’ll still lose to the player who got Guildhall or City Hall early, and played to maximise it.
Secondly there aren’t enough roles - the ratio of three roles out of five that occurs in two and three-player feels right to me, as it requires you to think about what’s going to happen. With four of the five roles occurring every round, the balance seems off.
For four player card game fillers I’ll try to stick to High Society in the future.
I was going to insert a rant here about people who chat too much when it’s their go, but it was probably a bit mean-spirited, so I’ll skip it. [During the evening I actually swore at Tony - he’s slow enough anyway, without spending his turn chatting about comic books characters. This drew a shocked “Simon swore!” from Fiona, that being the point of not generally swearing, people pay attention when you do.]
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Midweek games
Cribbage: Played two games against Fiona in the pub. She’s pretty new to Cribbage, and wanted somebody who knew the game to practice against. We played two games of six card Cribbage, 121 up.
I took an early lead in the first game, and have to give Fiona a few tips, (and some help with the scoring, which always flummoxes beginners). She is catching me by the end, and has the advantage last of not having the box. I finish up one point short in the play, and she is scoring first, and takes the game. The second game she has much the better of the cards and absolutlely smokes me, winning by about 30 points.
Backgammon: My chance for revenge after Fiona’s beginners luck at Cribbage came Friday evening, when I went round to see her & Pete . (I’m a decent backgammon player). Disappointingly the first game turns into a race, and I roll slightly higher, and win.
The second game makes up for it though. Fiona has the better of the early exchanges and I end up playing a back game. This isn’t something Fiona has seen before, so she makes some non-obvious mistakes, repeatedly hitting my blots, letting me establish two points in her inner board, whilst blocking off my own. Her final mistake comes when bearing off. She mistakenly leaves a blot, I hit it, and she can’t come back on before I establish a prime on my inner board! So it comes down to a straight race, and I just edge it.
After that we play a couple more games, both winning one each. Next time we might try a match (7 points) with the doubling cube, though I suspect she needs a few more games first.
San Juan: Fiona really likes this, so we played a few times after backgammon. Two-player can be really harsh on beginners, but after I beat her a few times I think my advice began to sink in, and she won the last game with a pretty good City Hall game.
After my victories at Backgammon and San Juan, we decide to play something I’m not very good at – Carcassonne: The Castle. I don’t know why but I very rarely win at any version of Carc, and sure enough Fiona beats me twice, the first time a rout, the second game is close, but I mistime the ending, leaving making impossible for me to finish both a large tower and a large house, so I miss out on the keep bonus.
I took an early lead in the first game, and have to give Fiona a few tips, (and some help with the scoring, which always flummoxes beginners). She is catching me by the end, and has the advantage last of not having the box. I finish up one point short in the play, and she is scoring first, and takes the game. The second game she has much the better of the cards and absolutlely smokes me, winning by about 30 points.
Backgammon: My chance for revenge after Fiona’s beginners luck at Cribbage came Friday evening, when I went round to see her & Pete . (I’m a decent backgammon player). Disappointingly the first game turns into a race, and I roll slightly higher, and win.
The second game makes up for it though. Fiona has the better of the early exchanges and I end up playing a back game. This isn’t something Fiona has seen before, so she makes some non-obvious mistakes, repeatedly hitting my blots, letting me establish two points in her inner board, whilst blocking off my own. Her final mistake comes when bearing off. She mistakenly leaves a blot, I hit it, and she can’t come back on before I establish a prime on my inner board! So it comes down to a straight race, and I just edge it.
After that we play a couple more games, both winning one each. Next time we might try a match (7 points) with the doubling cube, though I suspect she needs a few more games first.
San Juan: Fiona really likes this, so we played a few times after backgammon. Two-player can be really harsh on beginners, but after I beat her a few times I think my advice began to sink in, and she won the last game with a pretty good City Hall game.
After my victories at Backgammon and San Juan, we decide to play something I’m not very good at – Carcassonne: The Castle. I don’t know why but I very rarely win at any version of Carc, and sure enough Fiona beats me twice, the first time a rout, the second game is close, but I mistime the ending, leaving making impossible for me to finish both a large tower and a large house, so I miss out on the keep bonus.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Monday 17/04/06: Puerto Rico, High Society
Easter Monday (as with most other bank holidays) means board games with the Matts!
As usual not everybody can make the same time. So Matt OH (Matt), Dave and I start at 12, Matt (Bell) arrives about 1:00 and Matt (Stacey) around 2:30, after the Spurs game has finished.
We start with a 3-player Puerto Rico, the idea being that when Bell arrives we can play 4-player.
Three player: Dave, Matt, Me.
Matt makes a Factory, and has both Coffee and Tobacco for trades, but he doesn’t have quarries, so he’s never really as rich as he seems, and doesn’t get many shipping points. He buys two large buildings and finishes third. Dave does well on the shipping (he and I get the Harbours) by concentrating on Corn and Indigo (he has extra plantations from his Hacienda), but never gets any trade goods. He realises late game that he should save for a Customs House, which he just gets before the game ends. I get both a decent income from my trade goods (I even buy an Office, which was okay with Matt also possessing trade goods and sitting to my right) and okay shipping points from my Harbour. With two large buildings that’s enough points to win.
Matt’s mistakes were overrating the Factory, which caused him to miss out on a Harbour, which is more important, and not getting quarries. Dave did almost the opposite – he had the Hacienda and Harbour for shipping points, but no decent income source to go with his multiple quarries, so he didn’t get much use out of them. He only finished with about seven buildings.
Four player: Bell, Dave, Me, Matt
I can’t remember much about this game, except I think I bought some slightly odd buildings to see what would happen (going “off-curve” as I put it), like Construction Hut, and Hospice. I think I even bought an Office again. Bell goes really early into Coffee (choosing it over Tobacco when both plantations are available), which looked like a mistake, but seemed to pay off for him, as he ended up the winner over me by a point. I think we did a good job clogging up the ships with Coffee / Tobacco, which hurt Matt and Dave.
Edit: now I remember – this is the game I went for turbo Guildhall – I ended up with GH and all the production buildings except Small Sugar.
When the four-player finishes Matt suggests we play Princes of Florence. But PR is just so more-ish, already out, and probably Stacey’s favourite, so we play five-player.
Five player: Stacey, Bell, Matt, Me, Dave.
This games starts really weirdly. Stacey selects Builder, and then builds an Indigo Plant (not Small), as does Bell. Matt and I grab Construction Huts, Dave sensibly grabs a Small Market. Then Bell Mayors. We’re really not in Kansas now. Matt and I both man our Huts, but then Matt skips Settler for Prospector as he has a Hut. I decide I’m not letting Dave have fifth (!!) pick Settler, so I grab it.
After Construction Hut I go for Hacienda (I think the idea was to get some goods to go with my Quarries, and with the double Indigo Plant purchase on turn 1 there are more men available), and then a third violet before getting any production buildings, it was either Hospice or Trading Post (I definitely got a Post at some point, but would I really buy it third??) Pretty weird, but it worked out okay, as I absolutely smoked everybody in this game. The Trading Post was great, and by the end of the game I was buying large buildings off four manned Quarries, and had Factory at 3 doubloons per Craftsman. I end up with two large buildings (I could have tried for three, but that would have meant passing on the Small Wharf, which I’m pretty certain would be wrong) and 51 points, about 15 ahead of everybody else.
After the final Puerto Rico game Bell has to leave, and we have about 90 minutes left. We’re not the quickest, so we decided to a few rounds of High Society (after I explain the rules) rather than breakout Princes or Tigris.
At the end of the first game Matt & I tie for least money, eliminating both of us, whilst Stacey has two recognitions for x4, but no luxury items, handing the game to Dave! I win the second game on a tiebreak over Matt (quite a heartbreaker, as I assume tiebreaker is most money, so we think Matt wins, but I check and it’s best luxury item, which does make sense when you think about it, and I win!). Dave takes the third.
This was the first time I played with four players – it was certainly better than three. I’m not sure how it’ll play with five. In the third game Matt was trying to actively track everybody’s money. I think I prefer the game played quickly, making money counting harder, so that the game is a fun risk-taking filler. If everybody tracks money, and knows how much the poorest player has it will become too calculational.
High Society’s weakness seems to be that sometimes the game will be more by when the game ends, than any mistakes the player makes. For example in the final game Matt & I both have more money than Dave and there is one red and four luxury items left. As the game played out the first tile was red and Dave won. But if we turn over two more luxury items then either Matt or I probably win. Still it’s fun and quick to play, so it’s not worth getting to worried about it.
We plan to meet again next Bank Holiday, in a couple of weeks time. Next time we’ll play something other than Puerto Rico! (probably Princes, but maybe Tigris or Goa,). Or maybe Beowulf will have arrived by then.
As usual not everybody can make the same time. So Matt OH (Matt), Dave and I start at 12, Matt (Bell) arrives about 1:00 and Matt (Stacey) around 2:30, after the Spurs game has finished.
We start with a 3-player Puerto Rico, the idea being that when Bell arrives we can play 4-player.
Three player: Dave, Matt, Me.
Matt makes a Factory, and has both Coffee and Tobacco for trades, but he doesn’t have quarries, so he’s never really as rich as he seems, and doesn’t get many shipping points. He buys two large buildings and finishes third. Dave does well on the shipping (he and I get the Harbours) by concentrating on Corn and Indigo (he has extra plantations from his Hacienda), but never gets any trade goods. He realises late game that he should save for a Customs House, which he just gets before the game ends. I get both a decent income from my trade goods (I even buy an Office, which was okay with Matt also possessing trade goods and sitting to my right) and okay shipping points from my Harbour. With two large buildings that’s enough points to win.
Matt’s mistakes were overrating the Factory, which caused him to miss out on a Harbour, which is more important, and not getting quarries. Dave did almost the opposite – he had the Hacienda and Harbour for shipping points, but no decent income source to go with his multiple quarries, so he didn’t get much use out of them. He only finished with about seven buildings.
Four player: Bell, Dave, Me, Matt
I can’t remember much about this game, except I think I bought some slightly odd buildings to see what would happen (going “off-curve” as I put it), like Construction Hut, and Hospice. I think I even bought an Office again. Bell goes really early into Coffee (choosing it over Tobacco when both plantations are available), which looked like a mistake, but seemed to pay off for him, as he ended up the winner over me by a point. I think we did a good job clogging up the ships with Coffee / Tobacco, which hurt Matt and Dave.
Edit: now I remember – this is the game I went for turbo Guildhall – I ended up with GH and all the production buildings except Small Sugar.
When the four-player finishes Matt suggests we play Princes of Florence. But PR is just so more-ish, already out, and probably Stacey’s favourite, so we play five-player.
Five player: Stacey, Bell, Matt, Me, Dave.
This games starts really weirdly. Stacey selects Builder, and then builds an Indigo Plant (not Small), as does Bell. Matt and I grab Construction Huts, Dave sensibly grabs a Small Market. Then Bell Mayors. We’re really not in Kansas now. Matt and I both man our Huts, but then Matt skips Settler for Prospector as he has a Hut. I decide I’m not letting Dave have fifth (!!) pick Settler, so I grab it.
After Construction Hut I go for Hacienda (I think the idea was to get some goods to go with my Quarries, and with the double Indigo Plant purchase on turn 1 there are more men available), and then a third violet before getting any production buildings, it was either Hospice or Trading Post (I definitely got a Post at some point, but would I really buy it third??) Pretty weird, but it worked out okay, as I absolutely smoked everybody in this game. The Trading Post was great, and by the end of the game I was buying large buildings off four manned Quarries, and had Factory at 3 doubloons per Craftsman. I end up with two large buildings (I could have tried for three, but that would have meant passing on the Small Wharf, which I’m pretty certain would be wrong) and 51 points, about 15 ahead of everybody else.
After the final Puerto Rico game Bell has to leave, and we have about 90 minutes left. We’re not the quickest, so we decided to a few rounds of High Society (after I explain the rules) rather than breakout Princes or Tigris.
At the end of the first game Matt & I tie for least money, eliminating both of us, whilst Stacey has two recognitions for x4, but no luxury items, handing the game to Dave! I win the second game on a tiebreak over Matt (quite a heartbreaker, as I assume tiebreaker is most money, so we think Matt wins, but I check and it’s best luxury item, which does make sense when you think about it, and I win!). Dave takes the third.
This was the first time I played with four players – it was certainly better than three. I’m not sure how it’ll play with five. In the third game Matt was trying to actively track everybody’s money. I think I prefer the game played quickly, making money counting harder, so that the game is a fun risk-taking filler. If everybody tracks money, and knows how much the poorest player has it will become too calculational.
High Society’s weakness seems to be that sometimes the game will be more by when the game ends, than any mistakes the player makes. For example in the final game Matt & I both have more money than Dave and there is one red and four luxury items left. As the game played out the first tile was red and Dave won. But if we turn over two more luxury items then either Matt or I probably win. Still it’s fun and quick to play, so it’s not worth getting to worried about it.
We plan to meet again next Bank Holiday, in a couple of weeks time. Next time we’ll play something other than Puerto Rico! (probably Princes, but maybe Tigris or Goa,). Or maybe Beowulf will have arrived by then.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Sunday 16/04/06 - Perudo, Alhambra, Acquire
As is usual for Easter Weekend, some long lost sons of the Isle, return to the land of their forefathers. And afterwards they depart, not to be seen until Christmas.
Players present at Tony's : Tony, Fiona, me, Colin, Rob, Simon . Six(!)
Once again I took completely the wrong games. I should have taken some six player fillers (Razzia, Saboteur, Formula Motor Racing).
First game: Perudo. First time for everybody except Fiona & Tony. Two players (Simon & Colin) have been eliminated before Fiona loses a dice, then she loses them all rapidly. Comes down to me with 2 dice against Tony's 2 dice, then one dice each, and I win. Good fun.
Second game: Alhambra. I win with 70-something points, with a 10-15 points lead over Tony. I adopted what I felt was the correct strategy, but Tony said he was doing the opposite (if I understood him correctly), so I guess I'm still not certain what the correct six-player strategy is (to the extent there is one).
Third game: Acquire. Colin and I hadn't played before, and Rob and Simon seemed pretty rusty. Nobody came close to running out of money (I was down to $100 at one point, but new I could do a merger in a chain in which I had majority next turn).This game ended up pretty close (maybe that's a feature of six player - with six players the mergers seem to happen pretty frequently). Colin and I came joint fifth with just under $28k, Rob had a little more, Fiona and Simon had over $30k and Tony won with about $33k.
Players present at Tony's : Tony, Fiona, me, Colin, Rob, Simon . Six(!)
Once again I took completely the wrong games. I should have taken some six player fillers (Razzia, Saboteur, Formula Motor Racing).
First game: Perudo. First time for everybody except Fiona & Tony. Two players (Simon & Colin) have been eliminated before Fiona loses a dice, then she loses them all rapidly. Comes down to me with 2 dice against Tony's 2 dice, then one dice each, and I win. Good fun.
Second game: Alhambra. I win with 70-something points, with a 10-15 points lead over Tony. I adopted what I felt was the correct strategy, but Tony said he was doing the opposite (if I understood him correctly), so I guess I'm still not certain what the correct six-player strategy is (to the extent there is one).
Third game: Acquire. Colin and I hadn't played before, and Rob and Simon seemed pretty rusty. Nobody came close to running out of money (I was down to $100 at one point, but new I could do a merger in a chain in which I had majority next turn).This game ended up pretty close (maybe that's a feature of six player - with six players the mergers seem to happen pretty frequently). Colin and I came joint fifth with just under $28k, Rob had a little more, Fiona and Simon had over $30k and Tony won with about $33k.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Star Wars - Epic Duels
Last Friday was spring accountancy updates courses – a fun day of learning about new tax, accountancy and audit rules and legislation.
Not the most fun day ever, but at lunchtime I did get to wonder into Cowes High Street at lunchtime, to visit Chiverton’s, a newsagents that has a small stock of games (I’ve no idea why). They had a half price sale, so I grabbed a copy of Star Wars - Epic Duels. My girlfriend is a big Star Wars fan, and I had read that it was actually an okay game (for a licensed movie game produced by a major non-eurogame game company).
The game components consist of two doubled sided game boards, 12 characters cards (each with one major character and one or two minor characters), a deck of 31 action cards for each character pair, and 31 small plastic figures, which are actually pretty good representations of the characters. The components are pretty neat, although the lack of any sort of any sort of proper insert for storage is annoying – I can just see lightsabers and guns snapping off.
Each player starts by placing their characters in predetermined positions on which gameboard has been selected, and drawing a hand of three cards. On a players turn they roll dice to determine movement, move their characters, and then take two actions, which are to either play a card or draw a card. Cards come in three types, basic combat cards with attack and defense values, special cards with funky effects, and special combat cards that combine attack or defense (or both) with a funky effect. When attacking damage is simply equal to the attackers attack value less then defenders defense value (which is zero if they don’t defend). Characters have between 3 endurance (robot droid) and 20+ endurance (Darth Vader), and you lose when your main character is killed.
The characters vary wildly in type and abilities. Some teams consists of a main character with one strong supporting character (Han & Chewie), some teams have a main character with two much lesser allies (Darth Vader & 2 Stormtroopers). Combat cards vary from heavily offense based (Darth Maul) to highly defensive (Yoda). Some characters have ranged attacks; others have to get up close (the Jedis only get to attack with lightsabers, although there are special cards that give force lightning attacks).
The special cards include some very powerful effects, that will certainly shock you the first time somebody springs them on you, along with more basic but still useful options like additional movement or cards. Perhaps the biggest ‘wow’ value card, Darth Vader’s ‘All Too Easy’ is a special combat card with an attack value of 3 if defended against, but 20 if not defended (attack card are played face down, so the defender doesn’t know what the attack is). Twenty damage will kill anyone in one attack!
Lucy and I played the game with one set of light vs one set of dark characters. The game is simple enough for non-gamers, but I can see gamers who are Star Wars fans enjoying it as well. The basic 1v1 doesn’t seem to have much lasting appeal (it’s too limited) but you can play four player as 2v2 teams (in multiplayer free for all the best plan would almost certainly be to turtle), or just play two player with each player controlling 2 sets of characters. Having more characters in play increases the tactical opportunities for good movements and attacks, and I can see how some characters special cards might combine to create good combos.
Not the most fun day ever, but at lunchtime I did get to wonder into Cowes High Street at lunchtime, to visit Chiverton’s, a newsagents that has a small stock of games (I’ve no idea why). They had a half price sale, so I grabbed a copy of Star Wars - Epic Duels. My girlfriend is a big Star Wars fan, and I had read that it was actually an okay game (for a licensed movie game produced by a major non-eurogame game company).
The game components consist of two doubled sided game boards, 12 characters cards (each with one major character and one or two minor characters), a deck of 31 action cards for each character pair, and 31 small plastic figures, which are actually pretty good representations of the characters. The components are pretty neat, although the lack of any sort of any sort of proper insert for storage is annoying – I can just see lightsabers and guns snapping off.
Each player starts by placing their characters in predetermined positions on which gameboard has been selected, and drawing a hand of three cards. On a players turn they roll dice to determine movement, move their characters, and then take two actions, which are to either play a card or draw a card. Cards come in three types, basic combat cards with attack and defense values, special cards with funky effects, and special combat cards that combine attack or defense (or both) with a funky effect. When attacking damage is simply equal to the attackers attack value less then defenders defense value (which is zero if they don’t defend). Characters have between 3 endurance (robot droid) and 20+ endurance (Darth Vader), and you lose when your main character is killed.
The characters vary wildly in type and abilities. Some teams consists of a main character with one strong supporting character (Han & Chewie), some teams have a main character with two much lesser allies (Darth Vader & 2 Stormtroopers). Combat cards vary from heavily offense based (Darth Maul) to highly defensive (Yoda). Some characters have ranged attacks; others have to get up close (the Jedis only get to attack with lightsabers, although there are special cards that give force lightning attacks).
The special cards include some very powerful effects, that will certainly shock you the first time somebody springs them on you, along with more basic but still useful options like additional movement or cards. Perhaps the biggest ‘wow’ value card, Darth Vader’s ‘All Too Easy’ is a special combat card with an attack value of 3 if defended against, but 20 if not defended (attack card are played face down, so the defender doesn’t know what the attack is). Twenty damage will kill anyone in one attack!
Lucy and I played the game with one set of light vs one set of dark characters. The game is simple enough for non-gamers, but I can see gamers who are Star Wars fans enjoying it as well. The basic 1v1 doesn’t seem to have much lasting appeal (it’s too limited) but you can play four player as 2v2 teams (in multiplayer free for all the best plan would almost certainly be to turtle), or just play two player with each player controlling 2 sets of characters. Having more characters in play increases the tactical opportunities for good movements and attacks, and I can see how some characters special cards might combine to create good combos.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Sunday 09/04/06: Palabra, Puerto Rico, Dos Rios
Sunday night is boardgames at Fiona’s house. For the last few weeks it’s been Fiona, Tony and me, so I packed the following games: Goa, Dos Rios, Clans and San Juan.
I arrive to find Fiona playing Palabra with Marlena and Jim – so we have five players, and I haven’t brought any games that play with five. Doh! Luckily Tony did bring some suitable games.
Palabra is a card based word game. It basically plays like Scrabble, with you trying to make the highest scoring word from the seven letters you have, but some of the play options and scoring are quite unbalanced. As the score multipliers are on the cards (rather than on the board as in Scrabble), you have very little chance if you don’t draw multipliers. And two of the cards let you cancel somebody else’s word and you can draw a card to replace it!, Still, it plays quite quickly, so you can overlook the deficiencies.
Tony arrives 10 minutes later, in time to see the end of the game of Palabra, which Jim wins, despite Fiona’s first word scoring 106, and Fiona only telling Jim and Marlena that cards in hand at the end count negative after the draw deck has gone!
After Palabra we decide to play Puerto Rico. Jim and Marlena have never played before, so we take some time explaining the rules before we start, and the rest of us haven’t played five player for a long time. The player order is Simon, Tony, Marlena, Fiona, Jim.
The game plays really weirdly. Part of the reason is probably the destabilizing effect of two beginners and the unfamiliarity of five player, but probably a bigger reason is that I don’t flip up any corn for the first three Settlers phases!
Early on shipping is very slow, and everyone is trying to make and sell more expensive goods. I am trying for coffee, but it’s very slow, because I just miss out on the Roaster by 1 doubloon. Meanwhile Fiona, one of the starting corn players is accumulating a lot of shipping points, whilst Tony has the first Tobacco trade – taking trader with two bonus doubloons! (set-up by a beginner mistake from Jim).
Still I am the first player to trade coffee, and have realised that I am only going to win by concentrating on building, so I grab a second quarry, and set myself up for a second coffee trade. I even make good use of office. The shortage of buildings in five player does make you use buildings that you wouldn’t normally touch.
With both offices purchased we get some really weird trade houses like Coffee / Coffee / Corn / Corn and Coffee / Coffee / Indigo / Coffee.
Coming in to the endgame the games is too close to call, Tony and I both have two large buildings each, whilst Fiona has the Customs House and obviously more shipping points. In the end I take the game by 53 points, to Tony's 52 and Fiona's 51, but it' s fortunate for me that Marlena causes the game to end by picking mayor. If the game goes another round I definitely get overtaken.
I arrive to find Fiona playing Palabra with Marlena and Jim – so we have five players, and I haven’t brought any games that play with five. Doh! Luckily Tony did bring some suitable games.
Palabra is a card based word game. It basically plays like Scrabble, with you trying to make the highest scoring word from the seven letters you have, but some of the play options and scoring are quite unbalanced. As the score multipliers are on the cards (rather than on the board as in Scrabble), you have very little chance if you don’t draw multipliers. And two of the cards let you cancel somebody else’s word and you can draw a card to replace it!, Still, it plays quite quickly, so you can overlook the deficiencies.
Tony arrives 10 minutes later, in time to see the end of the game of Palabra, which Jim wins, despite Fiona’s first word scoring 106, and Fiona only telling Jim and Marlena that cards in hand at the end count negative after the draw deck has gone!
After Palabra we decide to play Puerto Rico. Jim and Marlena have never played before, so we take some time explaining the rules before we start, and the rest of us haven’t played five player for a long time. The player order is Simon, Tony, Marlena, Fiona, Jim.
The game plays really weirdly. Part of the reason is probably the destabilizing effect of two beginners and the unfamiliarity of five player, but probably a bigger reason is that I don’t flip up any corn for the first three Settlers phases!
Early on shipping is very slow, and everyone is trying to make and sell more expensive goods. I am trying for coffee, but it’s very slow, because I just miss out on the Roaster by 1 doubloon. Meanwhile Fiona, one of the starting corn players is accumulating a lot of shipping points, whilst Tony has the first Tobacco trade – taking trader with two bonus doubloons! (set-up by a beginner mistake from Jim).
Still I am the first player to trade coffee, and have realised that I am only going to win by concentrating on building, so I grab a second quarry, and set myself up for a second coffee trade. I even make good use of office. The shortage of buildings in five player does make you use buildings that you wouldn’t normally touch.
With both offices purchased we get some really weird trade houses like Coffee / Coffee / Corn / Corn and Coffee / Coffee / Indigo / Coffee.
Coming in to the endgame the games is too close to call, Tony and I both have two large buildings each, whilst Fiona has the Customs House and obviously more shipping points. In the end I take the game by 53 points, to Tony's 52 and Fiona's 51, but it' s fortunate for me that Marlena causes the game to end by picking mayor. If the game goes another round I definitely get overtaken.
After PR, it's getting late and Jim and Marlena have to leave, leaving about 75 minutes for Tony, Fiona and me. Instead of sensibly playing Carcassonne or Alhambra, we decide to play Dos Rios, after I teach it to them. As we take 15 minutes setting up and going through the rules, we don't get anywhere near finishing. When we call time Tony probably has an unassailable lead - with a good postion on the board, and plenty of Dams.
After playing with both two and three players I think Dos Rios is hitting the trade list (or maybe the UK math trade!)- the position can change so quickly that it isn't worth planning much before your turn, making the downtime bad, and the huge changes to the board make the individual tactics each turn seem to dominate the long term strategy. In the two player game you could plan a coherent strategy, but the game can be decided by favourable harvest draws, which can overwhelm an advantadge gained through good play. I don't have any desire to play four-player.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
M:TG Extended "Tournement", Southampton 08/04/06
Extended is probably my favourite constructed M:TG format, as my collection is mostly based in Invasion and Odyssey blocks, with a decent amount of Mirrodin but very little that is currently type 2 legal. At Gencon last November I played MTG in several GPTs and PTQs to a decent amount of sucess (won a GPT, made top 8 of a PTQ) despite (a) not having played magic for many months and (b) my decks were my own constructions.
So when the local games store in Southampton announced they were running an Extended tournement "by popular request", I made plans to go, and assumed there would be a decent turnout. I decided to play U/G Madness, and Colin, who was also going over from the IW, was running a UB Leyline of the Void / Mists of Singularity Prison deck.
U/G Madness
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Thought Courier
4 Arrogant Wurm
3 Wonder
1 Golgari Brownscale
4 Careful Study
4 Circular Logic
3 Deep Analysis
3 Roar of the Wurn
3 Rushing River
1 Stupefying Touch
9 Forest
9 Mountain
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 Stupefying Touch
3 Golgari Brownscale
1 Roar of the Wurm
1 Deep Analysis
2 Naturalize
2 Oxidize
1 Krosnan Reclamation
1 Ground Seal
2 Counterspell
So, Saturday morning I get up early to finish building the deck, catch a bus to Cowes, and the Red Jet to Southampton. Walk to Hidden Fortress - -and the only people who haved turned up are me and Colin. I am not pleased.
Colin and I play a couple of games anyway, while waiting.
Game 1 he drops a Leyline for free, but doesn't have any counters to prevent my Thought Courier - Arrogant Wurm. He then taps low to cast an Isochron Scepter, but I have a kicked Rushing River to bounce the Specter and the Leyline, and that's bascially game.
I sideboard in Naturalize, Counterspell and some more Brownscales (the Dredge really hurts Colins plan to empty my graveyard).
Game 2 and again Colin has the free Leyline. But I have a Thought Courier, and the card advantadge, combined with my cheap beatdown and answers (Counterspell, Naturalize), let me take the game fairly easily.
So I won the "tournement". Afterwards we played a game of VS, and my JLI/EE 4-resource took down his JLI/TT team attack deck. I got a pretty good draw, while Colin got the TTGs! to stun loads of chracters turn 4, but I have a JLI embassy, and Colin didn't have an Arsenal to make best use of his large number of characters.
Browsing round the shop it really struck me how much the internet has changed things. Five years ago a day out in Southampton would have been an opportunity to buy stuff that you can't get on the Island. Now they have stuff I want (they had TTR:M, Calyus and Elasund), but I know I get them cheaper on the Internet. When it costs you 15 quid and several hours to go to your FLGS, suddenly online stores with free postage seem very attractive. So I didn't buy anything (just as well, having picked up Star Wars Epic Duels half price for my girlfriend the day before).
And after travelling for over an hour to get to a shop running a tournment "by popular request" to which only two people turned up, I am not inclined to give them more of my money. It seems the CCG scene in south Hampshire is pretty dead, apart from Yu-Gi-Oh.
So when the local games store in Southampton announced they were running an Extended tournement "by popular request", I made plans to go, and assumed there would be a decent turnout. I decided to play U/G Madness, and Colin, who was also going over from the IW, was running a UB Leyline of the Void / Mists of Singularity Prison deck.
U/G Madness
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Thought Courier
4 Arrogant Wurm
3 Wonder
1 Golgari Brownscale
4 Careful Study
4 Circular Logic
3 Deep Analysis
3 Roar of the Wurn
3 Rushing River
1 Stupefying Touch
9 Forest
9 Mountain
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 Stupefying Touch
3 Golgari Brownscale
1 Roar of the Wurm
1 Deep Analysis
2 Naturalize
2 Oxidize
1 Krosnan Reclamation
1 Ground Seal
2 Counterspell
So, Saturday morning I get up early to finish building the deck, catch a bus to Cowes, and the Red Jet to Southampton. Walk to Hidden Fortress - -and the only people who haved turned up are me and Colin. I am not pleased.
Colin and I play a couple of games anyway, while waiting.
Game 1 he drops a Leyline for free, but doesn't have any counters to prevent my Thought Courier - Arrogant Wurm. He then taps low to cast an Isochron Scepter, but I have a kicked Rushing River to bounce the Specter and the Leyline, and that's bascially game.
I sideboard in Naturalize, Counterspell and some more Brownscales (the Dredge really hurts Colins plan to empty my graveyard).
Game 2 and again Colin has the free Leyline. But I have a Thought Courier, and the card advantadge, combined with my cheap beatdown and answers (Counterspell, Naturalize), let me take the game fairly easily.
So I won the "tournement". Afterwards we played a game of VS, and my JLI/EE 4-resource took down his JLI/TT team attack deck. I got a pretty good draw, while Colin got the TTGs! to stun loads of chracters turn 4, but I have a JLI embassy, and Colin didn't have an Arsenal to make best use of his large number of characters.
Browsing round the shop it really struck me how much the internet has changed things. Five years ago a day out in Southampton would have been an opportunity to buy stuff that you can't get on the Island. Now they have stuff I want (they had TTR:M, Calyus and Elasund), but I know I get them cheaper on the Internet. When it costs you 15 quid and several hours to go to your FLGS, suddenly online stores with free postage seem very attractive. So I didn't buy anything (just as well, having picked up Star Wars Epic Duels half price for my girlfriend the day before).
And after travelling for over an hour to get to a shop running a tournment "by popular request" to which only two people turned up, I am not inclined to give them more of my money. It seems the CCG scene in south Hampshire is pretty dead, apart from Yu-Gi-Oh.
First post!
This is the first of (hopefully) many posts. I play CCGs once a week (mainly VS, but occassionaly Shadowfist and M:TG) and board games once a week, so there should be at least two posts every week.
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