Kozure purchased two new games recently, so we gathered Wednesday night and gave them a spin... both were strikingly reminiscent of other games we've already played while also being good enough to stand on their own.
Vegas Showdown
The first game was Vegas Showdown, a recent Avalon Hill title which got some pretty good reviews at BGG. The board, bits and title suggest that gambling is involved, but in fact there is none. Players are actually building casinos piece by piece, trying to earn victory points along the way. In practice, the game is essentially a cross between Princes of Florence and Amun-Re (but with a few elements which introduce chaos which is more akin to an american game). From PoF, the game borrows a grided map which players must fill with various "rooms" in a puzzle like fashion and from Amun-Re Vegas Showdown borrows the peculiar auction mechanism (for purchasing the "rooms"). Luckily, where the game falls down on originality it makes up in delivery... the game works and there is enough new in the mechanics that it stands on it's own. The biggest change is a deck of cards which is drawn from every time a "Room" is purchased. Each card will force an event, such as a monetary bonus for each "slots" room in your hotel, etc. Once the effect is applied, a symbol on the card determines which type of "room" will fill the empty space on the auction block. Since the game ends when one of the three types of rooms is exhausted, the result is a variable endgame which added a nice level of tension in our session. Other minor, but well received changes include: a "renovate" action which allows a player to replan their casino at the cost of a turn; a mechanic which reduces the price of items which aren't purchased at their existing price; a progression tree which prevents a player from building a premium room before purchasing the basic version (like the technology tree in Civilization); lastly, the casino layout is divided into three portions (the hotel, middle and restaurant) and points are awarded for certain layouts of rooms.
In our game, Kozure had the winning casino. His lead was padded by an event card which gave him an enormous amount of points for restaurants, but even without it he had enough to win. Shemp was aggressive in trying to connect the hotel portion of his casino to the restaurant, and Luch was the king of slots. JayWowzer and I had very similar casinos, but I made a critical error midway through the game and purchased a "premium" room I couldn't place since I didn't have the require "basic" room. I spent too long trying to get that back on the board and missed out on the income I would have earned if I had been able to place it. Ooops.
Vegas Showdown walks a fine line. It's heavy enough to require a certain amount of forward planning, money management and tactics, but the random events can swing the result in fairly significant ways. Despite my poor showing (tied for last), I enjoyed the game and would look forward to playing it again soon. Oh yeah, I just wanted to mention that the player mats are made of the same flimsy paper Avalon Hill used for the RoboRally mats. It's really too bad, because it really cheapens the overall appearance of the game.
Wildlife
A new Kramer title, which I'd never even heard of, was the second game of the evening. The setting is a small island where a variety of creatures attempt to become the dominant species. Each player plays a specific creature, from crocodile to eagle to human. The island is divided into several types of terrain, and each creature has different levels of ability in each terrain (for example, humans can migrate and expand into plains, but get no actions in deserts). Over the course of the game, players will have several opportunities to improve the lot of their creature type: expand territory, increase their abilties, aquire special powers, etc.
When regions are completely filled with creatures they are scored according to majorities, but every 3rd such scoring a "general scoring" occurs where quite a few other factors are taken into account (such as largest continuous chain of creatures, most advanced creatures, creatures with the most food, etc). As you may have already surmised, this game has more than a passing resemblance to another of Kramer's games: El Grande. However, where El Grande has chaos, Wildlife has bite. In this game, it's perfectly common for another player to come eat your creatures, to steal your card, etc.There is a level of direct competition here which is quite uncommon in german games. The expansion of territory, the conflict and the advancements opportunities for creature skills lend a "civilization" type feel to the game.
I played the humans. I started out in two corners of the board, not really knowing how to play the game. I was quickly threatened by Kozure's mammoths in both my starting areas. This, combined with a hand of cards completely devoid of the types I needed, forced me to play a game of opportunism rather than strategy. I was in last place while Luch's bears, Shemp's crocodiles and, particularly, JayWowzer's eagles were taking commanding leads. Lucky for me, I stumbled into a way to bring me back into contention: I was focussing on securing presences in a variety of territories (a common and generally successful strategy in area control games) while aggressively growing continuous chains of control. When the first "general" scoring occurred, we came to realize that chains were enormous sources of points (the largest chain is worth 10 points, whereas a monopoly in a region is only worth 5). In my case, I had two chains which netted me 1st AND a tie for 2nd longest chain (15 points, I beleive). I was suddenly back in the ballgame. As the game progressed, Shemp and Luch were locked in continuous back and forth struggles in the water, forest and desert zones, hurting both their chances. JayWowzer looked untouchable with a large lead and no obvious weakness on the board. In the end, my continuing success with chains and 2nd or 3rd place points in a variety of regions vaulted me towards the lead! As the final points were tallied, JayWowzer and I ended in a tie...
and so it came to pass that humans and eagles became the dominant species on earth.
Wildlife, like Vegas Showdown before it, turned out to be quite a bit heavier than expected. There are SO MANY options to consider on your turn that analysis paralysis can easily occur. Luckily, downtime is minimized through a clever auction mechanic which forces every player to auction one of their actions every turn (giving each player the opportunity to get actions on other player's turns!). In the end, Wildlife is a meaty game which seems like a cross between Civilization and El Grande... not a bad thing at all. for whatever reason, it didn't stand out for me though. Like Knizia's Tower of Babel, which also blends a number of disparate mechanics into one game, Wildlife is missing the "hook" which somehow distinguishes it from the pack and makes the whole thing click as more than the sum of it's parts (though I think I liked Wildlife more than Tower of Babel, but then again ToB is a much shorter game).
Friday, September 29, 2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
The art of the deal (Traders of Genoa, Ra)
A few returning favorites, this week.
Traders of Genoa saw it's first tabletime in quite a while. We were only four (Shemp, Kozure, Luch and myself). We all knew what we were doing, and it was pretty clear from the get-go that no one was going to be a pushover this time around. If you wanted something, you needed to make it worthwhile... or the acting player would end the turn. This is not new, of course, but it seemed like it was hapening a whole lot more often than it had in the past (and it started in the first round!). The game went long, but I found it to be extremely interesting. I wanted to try again the strategy I attempted unsuccessfully last time: collect 1:1 actions and convert them to privileges before that pile ran out. I spent the first few rounds collecting whatever goods came my way for cheap so I could trade them later on (1:1 trade markers aren't typically hot items in our group, either). I then traded 3 or 4 of them for privileges, bringing my total to 8. Obviously, with that number in hand, it was very hard to convince anyone to sell me theirs at any price, but unfortunately I did not have any big runs. I did eventually get 2 additional ones from Shemp, which fit in quite nicely and helped me out quite a bit in the end (side note: I almost didn't take one of them, because I mistakenly thought it didn't work very well with my cards!).
I had resisted playing the ownership marker game until the last few rounds (for whatever reason, I seem to gravitate to privileges and ownership markers every game!) By then I had concluded that Shemp was likely winning, so I picked up a number of them and started displacing his off the board (he had quite a few). Shemp immediately mentioned I might have handed Luch the victory by doing so, and I suddenly felt he might have been right. Then again, Kozure WAS fulfilling quite a number of large orders... maybe HE was winning. All I knew was that I mustered only a single large order and a single small order, so my privileges would have to carry me. I didn't think it was likely, though.
I did win. By 30 ducats. The ownership markers were the difference!
Next up was RA. We played two rounds, and both wound up being rather odd in their own way:
1) The first game, I went short. I always find that the more players there are, the more important it is to snag whatever you can and get out fast. With 4, the strategy is borderline, but I went with it anyway. I was often out before some players had played a single bid! The odd thing was that in the first round, the era lasted a LOOOONG time after I was done. The way things played out, the 2nd and 3rd era looked to be choked with RAs, so even though it burned me in the first round I stuck with my strategy. It worked for me, too... The horde of RAs which came out afterwards left Shemp, Luch and Kozure unable to aquire the temples or floods they were trying to collect and I reached the end in first place on the strength of my pharoahs and the gold+civ points I grabbed when I could.
2) The second game, I lost the pharoah struggle early. the other three seemed to be making a point of gathering them, so I decided to leave that alone and concentrate on rivers, civs or monuments. However, right up to the end of the game, virtually no monuments were drawn! It almost seems mathematically impossible that 3 eras could go by with so few monuments pulled, but there it was. I managed to get 7 different ones, and a mid sized river going, but it wasn't enough to stop Shemp, who won by 3 points.
... good times.
Traders of Genoa saw it's first tabletime in quite a while. We were only four (Shemp, Kozure, Luch and myself). We all knew what we were doing, and it was pretty clear from the get-go that no one was going to be a pushover this time around. If you wanted something, you needed to make it worthwhile... or the acting player would end the turn. This is not new, of course, but it seemed like it was hapening a whole lot more often than it had in the past (and it started in the first round!). The game went long, but I found it to be extremely interesting. I wanted to try again the strategy I attempted unsuccessfully last time: collect 1:1 actions and convert them to privileges before that pile ran out. I spent the first few rounds collecting whatever goods came my way for cheap so I could trade them later on (1:1 trade markers aren't typically hot items in our group, either). I then traded 3 or 4 of them for privileges, bringing my total to 8. Obviously, with that number in hand, it was very hard to convince anyone to sell me theirs at any price, but unfortunately I did not have any big runs. I did eventually get 2 additional ones from Shemp, which fit in quite nicely and helped me out quite a bit in the end (side note: I almost didn't take one of them, because I mistakenly thought it didn't work very well with my cards!).
I had resisted playing the ownership marker game until the last few rounds (for whatever reason, I seem to gravitate to privileges and ownership markers every game!) By then I had concluded that Shemp was likely winning, so I picked up a number of them and started displacing his off the board (he had quite a few). Shemp immediately mentioned I might have handed Luch the victory by doing so, and I suddenly felt he might have been right. Then again, Kozure WAS fulfilling quite a number of large orders... maybe HE was winning. All I knew was that I mustered only a single large order and a single small order, so my privileges would have to carry me. I didn't think it was likely, though.
I did win. By 30 ducats. The ownership markers were the difference!
Next up was RA. We played two rounds, and both wound up being rather odd in their own way:
1) The first game, I went short. I always find that the more players there are, the more important it is to snag whatever you can and get out fast. With 4, the strategy is borderline, but I went with it anyway. I was often out before some players had played a single bid! The odd thing was that in the first round, the era lasted a LOOOONG time after I was done. The way things played out, the 2nd and 3rd era looked to be choked with RAs, so even though it burned me in the first round I stuck with my strategy. It worked for me, too... The horde of RAs which came out afterwards left Shemp, Luch and Kozure unable to aquire the temples or floods they were trying to collect and I reached the end in first place on the strength of my pharoahs and the gold+civ points I grabbed when I could.
2) The second game, I lost the pharoah struggle early. the other three seemed to be making a point of gathering them, so I decided to leave that alone and concentrate on rivers, civs or monuments. However, right up to the end of the game, virtually no monuments were drawn! It almost seems mathematically impossible that 3 eras could go by with so few monuments pulled, but there it was. I managed to get 7 different ones, and a mid sized river going, but it wasn't enough to stop Shemp, who won by 3 points.
... good times.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Oh where, oh where, could our little count be ? (Fury of Dracula)
Kozure, Shemp and I played our 2nd game of Fury of Dracula Wednesday night. I was Dracula once again, but unfortunately I wouldn't enjoy the same success I did last time...
The hunters started out spread across the board. Mina was the only hunter in Eastern Europe, so I thought I'd start there (in Sarajevo, I beleive). Lucky for me, Mina quickly picked up a piece of equipment she felt another Lord Godalming should have, and promptly exited the east to go give it to him. This ultimately allowed me free reign on my half of the board as the hunters systematically swept the west. It was looking liek a cake-walk for a while, but then disaster struck... Mina had returned to the east and was beginning to search there. She was two cities away from a vampire which would mature as soon as her turn ended. I felt confident. To my horror, Mina rode some fast horses to the site of Dracula's young vampire and destroyed it in broad daylight.
This was an enormous stroke of good luck for the hunters. Until that point, they had not even found my trail. There was about a dozen destinations Mina COULD have searched that turn, and any of them COULD have been on my trail. I still don't really understand why Shemp felt the need to play that card when all the cities surrounding Mina were equally viable targets, but it turned out to be very useful for them, indeed (Shemp must have some sort of spidey sense).
I had been delt a big blow, but somehow I still felt pretty good. I hadn't sufferred a single point of damage, hadn't been forced to resort to a voyage by sea, and they still couldn't really know where I was. I tried a bold move and attempted to slip right between the oncoming Dr. Seward and Van Helsing as they headed east and I headed west. It was a bad gamble, as Van Helsing found me rather quickly. In the dark of night, I chose to teach him a lesson and attacked rather than try to escape. Van Helsing was almost killed, but he escape my wrath before I could finish the deed. Day had dawned, Van Helsing had healed himself, and I decided to head north rather than push my luck further.
The hunters spent quite a bit of time clearing my trail. They did not want to chance any maturing vampires! Sadly, I was ddrawing none, so they didn't have much to fear. They then drew the card which allows Dracula to teleport to any destination, so I went to Spain and made a Dark Call. I now had 3 young vampires I could sire, and therefore a new lease on life. Beef, some guy I left behind in central Europe with a shotgun and a knife, gave the Dr. a tougher fight than he expected (see the post titled "Beef...STAKE" by Kozure). The hunters where hot on my trail, though, and a few lucky guesses* brought them quickly onto my path. Combat wasn't going so well for me anymore, and a heavily armed Dr. Seward knocked me around a fair bit (I stupidly tried to fight back, taking heavy damage before I escaped).
I was down to 5 life. I tried to get away from my predators. Mina found me and played Heroic Leap. I rolled a 5.
I lost.
Well, once more I quite enjoyed the game. Playing as Dracula is quite exciting, as close calls and interesting twists of fate are fairly common in the game. There is a fair amount of luck involved in the draw of cards, and the roll of the dice in combat but I haven't yet felt like anything I was doing was pointless or anything. On the hunter's side, things might be a little different. Having now played with three, I think this is the ideal number of players. With two hunters apiece, decision making is quicker and if Dracula manages to incapacitate a hunter for a few turns (though fog or bats, for example) the player can still participate through his 2nd one. It's still long, and it's still complicated, but it's fun and you wind up with a much more interesting story arc than most german games provide.
The hunters started out spread across the board. Mina was the only hunter in Eastern Europe, so I thought I'd start there (in Sarajevo, I beleive). Lucky for me, Mina quickly picked up a piece of equipment she felt another Lord Godalming should have, and promptly exited the east to go give it to him. This ultimately allowed me free reign on my half of the board as the hunters systematically swept the west. It was looking liek a cake-walk for a while, but then disaster struck... Mina had returned to the east and was beginning to search there. She was two cities away from a vampire which would mature as soon as her turn ended. I felt confident. To my horror, Mina rode some fast horses to the site of Dracula's young vampire and destroyed it in broad daylight.
This was an enormous stroke of good luck for the hunters. Until that point, they had not even found my trail. There was about a dozen destinations Mina COULD have searched that turn, and any of them COULD have been on my trail. I still don't really understand why Shemp felt the need to play that card when all the cities surrounding Mina were equally viable targets, but it turned out to be very useful for them, indeed (Shemp must have some sort of spidey sense).
I had been delt a big blow, but somehow I still felt pretty good. I hadn't sufferred a single point of damage, hadn't been forced to resort to a voyage by sea, and they still couldn't really know where I was. I tried a bold move and attempted to slip right between the oncoming Dr. Seward and Van Helsing as they headed east and I headed west. It was a bad gamble, as Van Helsing found me rather quickly. In the dark of night, I chose to teach him a lesson and attacked rather than try to escape. Van Helsing was almost killed, but he escape my wrath before I could finish the deed. Day had dawned, Van Helsing had healed himself, and I decided to head north rather than push my luck further.
The hunters spent quite a bit of time clearing my trail. They did not want to chance any maturing vampires! Sadly, I was ddrawing none, so they didn't have much to fear. They then drew the card which allows Dracula to teleport to any destination, so I went to Spain and made a Dark Call. I now had 3 young vampires I could sire, and therefore a new lease on life. Beef, some guy I left behind in central Europe with a shotgun and a knife, gave the Dr. a tougher fight than he expected (see the post titled "Beef...STAKE" by Kozure). The hunters where hot on my trail, though, and a few lucky guesses* brought them quickly onto my path. Combat wasn't going so well for me anymore, and a heavily armed Dr. Seward knocked me around a fair bit (I stupidly tried to fight back, taking heavy damage before I escaped).
I was down to 5 life. I tried to get away from my predators. Mina found me and played Heroic Leap. I rolled a 5.
I lost.
Well, once more I quite enjoyed the game. Playing as Dracula is quite exciting, as close calls and interesting twists of fate are fairly common in the game. There is a fair amount of luck involved in the draw of cards, and the roll of the dice in combat but I haven't yet felt like anything I was doing was pointless or anything. On the hunter's side, things might be a little different. Having now played with three, I think this is the ideal number of players. With two hunters apiece, decision making is quicker and if Dracula manages to incapacitate a hunter for a few turns (though fog or bats, for example) the player can still participate through his 2nd one. It's still long, and it's still complicated, but it's fun and you wind up with a much more interesting story arc than most german games provide.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Beef... STAKE. (Fury of Dracula)
Me not know why funny man in black cape ask me to attack English bloke. He give me knife and gun-thingy and say "You vill vait here in ambush for Dr. Seward. Vhen he arrives on the east road, prewent him from pursuing me."
Beef always remember exactly what people tell him. Beef not always understand good what they say, but Beef always remember. Me not know what 'prewent' or 'pursuing' mean. But me find good bush. Funny man have sharp pointy teeth and look at Beef funny, but Beef obey him anyway. Beef like funny man's big doggies and funny flying mousies.
So Beef wait in bush for English Doctor to come. When he arrive, Beef yell "Beef smash!" and attack him. Doctor look all not scared and shoot his big long gun at me, but Beef tricky and shoot him first. Bloke look surprised and bleed a little bit. Then Beef pull out knife (Beef like knife...s. They all shiny and pointy.) Doctor come at Beef again, but Beef quicker and stabby-stabby him in arm. Doctor look angry now and pull out pointy stick. Beef not think pointy stick make good weapon, but Beef attack anyway. Beef miss Bloke. Bloke miss Beef. Beef think this funny. Not know why Doctor not think funny.
Now Doctor take out knife again. Beef think this not good way for Doctor to help people, but funny man in cape say 'prewent', so Beef will 'prewent'.
Doctor get really angry and put knife right in Beef's head. This hurt not so much as Beef think, but Beef fall down. Doctor say:
"Poor misguided fool. This evil monster now employs imbeciles in his growing legions of unholy servants. I pray for your soul, sir."
Then Doctor leave all in hurry. Beef bleed a lot.
Hard to move with knife in head. Bleeding stop not too long. Beef hope funny man with cape get away from mean English Doctor. Doctor make Beef feel funny and bleedy.
Beef have had worse boo-boos. Someday, Beef will hurt Doctor back. For now, Beef lay down in comfy pile of leaves. Stupid Doctor.
[A game of "Fury of Dracula" lead to a victory by the hunters, but not before a certain "Man with Pistol and Knife" made more trouble than was expected for Dr. Seward over several rounds of combat. I'll leave to Shemp and Easy the details of the chase - I had to immortalize "Beef" in the blog for now]
Beef always remember exactly what people tell him. Beef not always understand good what they say, but Beef always remember. Me not know what 'prewent' or 'pursuing' mean. But me find good bush. Funny man have sharp pointy teeth and look at Beef funny, but Beef obey him anyway. Beef like funny man's big doggies and funny flying mousies.
So Beef wait in bush for English Doctor to come. When he arrive, Beef yell "Beef smash!" and attack him. Doctor look all not scared and shoot his big long gun at me, but Beef tricky and shoot him first. Bloke look surprised and bleed a little bit. Then Beef pull out knife (Beef like knife...s. They all shiny and pointy.) Doctor come at Beef again, but Beef quicker and stabby-stabby him in arm. Doctor look angry now and pull out pointy stick. Beef not think pointy stick make good weapon, but Beef attack anyway. Beef miss Bloke. Bloke miss Beef. Beef think this funny. Not know why Doctor not think funny.
Now Doctor take out knife again. Beef think this not good way for Doctor to help people, but funny man in cape say 'prewent', so Beef will 'prewent'.
Doctor get really angry and put knife right in Beef's head. This hurt not so much as Beef think, but Beef fall down. Doctor say:
"Poor misguided fool. This evil monster now employs imbeciles in his growing legions of unholy servants. I pray for your soul, sir."
Then Doctor leave all in hurry. Beef bleed a lot.
Hard to move with knife in head. Bleeding stop not too long. Beef hope funny man with cape get away from mean English Doctor. Doctor make Beef feel funny and bleedy.
Beef have had worse boo-boos. Someday, Beef will hurt Doctor back. For now, Beef lay down in comfy pile of leaves. Stupid Doctor.
[A game of "Fury of Dracula" lead to a victory by the hunters, but not before a certain "Man with Pistol and Knife" made more trouble than was expected for Dr. Seward over several rounds of combat. I'll leave to Shemp and Easy the details of the chase - I had to immortalize "Beef" in the blog for now]
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Friedmann Friese Fest! (Power Grid, Funny Friends)
I suppose it's a bit much to call an evening with only two games played a "fest", but I'm going to anyway.
Power Grid
We pulled out the first olive box, Power Grid, and set up the USA board. We were four players (Bharmer, Shemp, Tili and myself), so 2 regions were excluded from play: randomly, the northern central and eastern regions were chosen. I was quite happy with this result, as both my previous games on this board were played on the northern half.
out of the gate, I chose the second lowest power plant, so I was second to place. Bharmer had set up camp near L.A., so I thought I'd try to grab a few cheap cities near the east... where the playable area narrowed (obviously, I was hoping to encourage other players to go elsewhere, leaving me the east coast). Sadly, Tili didn't bite. Despite the wide open west, she tried to box me in, leaving us both with a very constrained play area. Even worse, Shemp ended the first round of placement by grabbing the central portion of the board, drawing a line down the middle which saw me and Tili tight to one side, and Bharmer all alone on the other. By now, I felt that things already looked grim.
Fast forward a few turns, and I've purchased a really excellent power plant (it powers 4 cities with 1 coal or oil). I managed to expand very quickly to 7 cities by grabbing all the remaining empty cities in the east. This triggers step 2, which then allows me to start expanding into Tili and Shemp's cities they had been blocking me with. Meanwhile, Shemp has expanded his dividing line down the middle and begun working his way north west. Bharmer, free of any real competition but forced to expand through pricey real estate, grows slowly but steadily.
The power plant auction reaches a point where it stagnates. Nobody wants anything on offer, because they don't want to waste money on a plant which isn't going to take them to the end. This has happened before, but not normally for this long. It is apparent that the end of the game could well come before anyone is ready to power the 17 cities which are built.
On (what became) the last round, I bought a plant which brought my power capacity to 18 cities. Shemp, the other player who appeared ready to end the game, was only able to power 17. It came down to my finances: Could I actually BUY an 18th city? It turns out I could, and I won the game (though Shemp tried to buy up all the coal so that I couldn't actually power the cities, but there was just enough left for me to do it).
This turned out to be a very long, but very fun session of Power Grid. One of the things I really enjoy about this game is the palpable tension which results from trying to get your cities in place before other players get there. Manipulating turn order and pacing the purchase of power plants vs. expansion of your territory is extremely critical. On the other hand, if another player takes a city you really needed, there is enough flexibility in the system that mounting an alternate strategy is not impossible.
Funny Friends
Funny Friends is a game I bought because it sounded extremely unique: A humourous game with a real game system underneath! Many games are funny. Many games have solid gameplay. Few that I can think of have both (Robo-Rally?).
Anyway, players take on the roles of people going through life. It all starts in puberty and then progresses through a series of life shaping events. Amidst all this, players hope to guide their characters in the hopes of achieving a number of life goals. Every player has a board which tracks their weight, their intelligence, their friends, their ...ummm ....addictions, and their ...ahhh.... sexual history, etc, etc. Let's just say that the game possesses a very sarcastic and cynical view on life. If you are easily offended, skip this game.
The game progresses as a series of auctions. Every "Hand", a number of life event cards are turned up, and players bid on them. Many cards have requirements which must be met in order to bid on the card. Every life event transforms the character which does it to a certain extent. Successfully aquiring a card called "the cigarette after", for example, requires having a girlfirend/ boyfriend. Once aquired, the result is a bit of nicotine addiction and "having sex" with that girlfriend/boyfriend. Once you've reached a particular combination of statistics, you can "achieve a life goal". The first to achieve 5 life goals wins the game. This would ultimately add up to a game of competitive solitaire except for one thing: If the friend you bring along is another player, that player gets (suffers?) the effects of the card as well! This means that you can actively mess with other player's plans, and it injects a lot of metagame humour as well.
In our game (my fourth, the rest were playing for the first time), I found it interesting that the goals in our hands seemed to be shaping the lives of our characters in rather consistent ways. My character was bad news. His puberty was marked by drug use, theft, gossip, bullying, etc. Real life was no different. After being coerced into a relationship with Tili, I needed to get out to fill half of my life goals. A "Divorce" card came up, so I quickly married her so that I could divorce her one turn later! Tili turned out to be the sexpot of the group. I think she slept with just about all of us (and I think she was even dating a few of us). By the time she announced she was gay, it was obvious she was much more comfortable in that role when the sex was anonymous (all her real relationships were with guys. Of course, they were all failing, but that's another story). Kozure, however, was leading quite a reasonable life. The highlight of his adolescence occured when he made a best friend. Aww shucks. Shemp was having much more significant swings as time went on... being driven to drink and then going sober, etc, etc.
In the end, Tili managed to end her promiscuous ways by checking herself into a looney bin... winning her the game.
Some comments on the game:
1) The art in this game is FABULOUS. I think the game is worth owning just for the sake of laughing at the funny situations depicted on the cards. The theme carries very well, and it's quite funny to play the game if players take the time to reflect on the life story which is developing during the game.
2) The rulebook is quite weak. The way friends work is central to the game, yet is very difficult to figure out as written.*
3) I'm a little torn about the game system. On one hand, there is a real game there. You have to plan your course, manage your currency for the auctions, meddle in other player's plans, etc. Your decisions and your gameplay matter. On the downside, the rules are more fiddly than a game with this "theme" should be. Combined with the analysis paralysis which can come about as players try to absorb how the cards available for auction mesh with their life goals, the game can be slower paced than you'd like. This has the effect of creating early games where discovering the cards makes it funny, but dealing with the game rules and analyisis paralysis makes it clunky (while later games move much more efficiently, but the humour is more up to the players).
4) The "Make a Connection", the secure relationships and the "phone tokens" are all examples of rules which should have been better explained AND better streamlined.
*I've settled on the interpretation that friends which are REQUIRED to come along receive the effects of the card, but that NEW friends which are met as the result of a card do NOT. I tried it the other way (where new friends also get the effects of the card), but a number of odd situations came up, and we decided it was cleaner this way. Anyone care to chime in and tell us if we played it correctly?
Having played four times now, I can honestly say that I quite like the game, despite it's flaws. The game has stayed fun and engaging beyond the initial laughter of discovering the cards, which is not something I can say about too many humourous games (cheapass games, anyone?). The game system works, even though it could have been improved (In my third game with my first group of friends, people were clearly bidding each other up, taking people along on life events which were contrary to those people's goals, etc). All the while, we were still having a fun time poking fun at each other for having too much anonymous sex, too many ex lovers, etc. The first group I played it with LOVED it. WAGS seemed a little more subdued, but I think the reception was generally positive.
It's not an excellent game, but it's a good one. Combined with the unique theme, the experience becomes very good. As a change of pace, I highly recommend it.
Power Grid
We pulled out the first olive box, Power Grid, and set up the USA board. We were four players (Bharmer, Shemp, Tili and myself), so 2 regions were excluded from play: randomly, the northern central and eastern regions were chosen. I was quite happy with this result, as both my previous games on this board were played on the northern half.
out of the gate, I chose the second lowest power plant, so I was second to place. Bharmer had set up camp near L.A., so I thought I'd try to grab a few cheap cities near the east... where the playable area narrowed (obviously, I was hoping to encourage other players to go elsewhere, leaving me the east coast). Sadly, Tili didn't bite. Despite the wide open west, she tried to box me in, leaving us both with a very constrained play area. Even worse, Shemp ended the first round of placement by grabbing the central portion of the board, drawing a line down the middle which saw me and Tili tight to one side, and Bharmer all alone on the other. By now, I felt that things already looked grim.
Fast forward a few turns, and I've purchased a really excellent power plant (it powers 4 cities with 1 coal or oil). I managed to expand very quickly to 7 cities by grabbing all the remaining empty cities in the east. This triggers step 2, which then allows me to start expanding into Tili and Shemp's cities they had been blocking me with. Meanwhile, Shemp has expanded his dividing line down the middle and begun working his way north west. Bharmer, free of any real competition but forced to expand through pricey real estate, grows slowly but steadily.
The power plant auction reaches a point where it stagnates. Nobody wants anything on offer, because they don't want to waste money on a plant which isn't going to take them to the end. This has happened before, but not normally for this long. It is apparent that the end of the game could well come before anyone is ready to power the 17 cities which are built.
On (what became) the last round, I bought a plant which brought my power capacity to 18 cities. Shemp, the other player who appeared ready to end the game, was only able to power 17. It came down to my finances: Could I actually BUY an 18th city? It turns out I could, and I won the game (though Shemp tried to buy up all the coal so that I couldn't actually power the cities, but there was just enough left for me to do it).
This turned out to be a very long, but very fun session of Power Grid. One of the things I really enjoy about this game is the palpable tension which results from trying to get your cities in place before other players get there. Manipulating turn order and pacing the purchase of power plants vs. expansion of your territory is extremely critical. On the other hand, if another player takes a city you really needed, there is enough flexibility in the system that mounting an alternate strategy is not impossible.
Funny Friends
Funny Friends is a game I bought because it sounded extremely unique: A humourous game with a real game system underneath! Many games are funny. Many games have solid gameplay. Few that I can think of have both (Robo-Rally?).
Anyway, players take on the roles of people going through life. It all starts in puberty and then progresses through a series of life shaping events. Amidst all this, players hope to guide their characters in the hopes of achieving a number of life goals. Every player has a board which tracks their weight, their intelligence, their friends, their ...ummm ....addictions, and their ...ahhh.... sexual history, etc, etc. Let's just say that the game possesses a very sarcastic and cynical view on life. If you are easily offended, skip this game.
The game progresses as a series of auctions. Every "Hand", a number of life event cards are turned up, and players bid on them. Many cards have requirements which must be met in order to bid on the card. Every life event transforms the character which does it to a certain extent. Successfully aquiring a card called "the cigarette after", for example, requires having a girlfirend/ boyfriend. Once aquired, the result is a bit of nicotine addiction and "having sex" with that girlfriend/boyfriend. Once you've reached a particular combination of statistics, you can "achieve a life goal". The first to achieve 5 life goals wins the game. This would ultimately add up to a game of competitive solitaire except for one thing: If the friend you bring along is another player, that player gets (suffers?) the effects of the card as well! This means that you can actively mess with other player's plans, and it injects a lot of metagame humour as well.
In our game (my fourth, the rest were playing for the first time), I found it interesting that the goals in our hands seemed to be shaping the lives of our characters in rather consistent ways. My character was bad news. His puberty was marked by drug use, theft, gossip, bullying, etc. Real life was no different. After being coerced into a relationship with Tili, I needed to get out to fill half of my life goals. A "Divorce" card came up, so I quickly married her so that I could divorce her one turn later! Tili turned out to be the sexpot of the group. I think she slept with just about all of us (and I think she was even dating a few of us). By the time she announced she was gay, it was obvious she was much more comfortable in that role when the sex was anonymous (all her real relationships were with guys. Of course, they were all failing, but that's another story). Kozure, however, was leading quite a reasonable life. The highlight of his adolescence occured when he made a best friend. Aww shucks. Shemp was having much more significant swings as time went on... being driven to drink and then going sober, etc, etc.
In the end, Tili managed to end her promiscuous ways by checking herself into a looney bin... winning her the game.
Some comments on the game:
1) The art in this game is FABULOUS. I think the game is worth owning just for the sake of laughing at the funny situations depicted on the cards. The theme carries very well, and it's quite funny to play the game if players take the time to reflect on the life story which is developing during the game.
2) The rulebook is quite weak. The way friends work is central to the game, yet is very difficult to figure out as written.*
3) I'm a little torn about the game system. On one hand, there is a real game there. You have to plan your course, manage your currency for the auctions, meddle in other player's plans, etc. Your decisions and your gameplay matter. On the downside, the rules are more fiddly than a game with this "theme" should be. Combined with the analysis paralysis which can come about as players try to absorb how the cards available for auction mesh with their life goals, the game can be slower paced than you'd like. This has the effect of creating early games where discovering the cards makes it funny, but dealing with the game rules and analyisis paralysis makes it clunky (while later games move much more efficiently, but the humour is more up to the players).
4) The "Make a Connection", the secure relationships and the "phone tokens" are all examples of rules which should have been better explained AND better streamlined.
*I've settled on the interpretation that friends which are REQUIRED to come along receive the effects of the card, but that NEW friends which are met as the result of a card do NOT. I tried it the other way (where new friends also get the effects of the card), but a number of odd situations came up, and we decided it was cleaner this way. Anyone care to chime in and tell us if we played it correctly?
Having played four times now, I can honestly say that I quite like the game, despite it's flaws. The game has stayed fun and engaging beyond the initial laughter of discovering the cards, which is not something I can say about too many humourous games (cheapass games, anyone?). The game system works, even though it could have been improved (In my third game with my first group of friends, people were clearly bidding each other up, taking people along on life events which were contrary to those people's goals, etc). All the while, we were still having a fun time poking fun at each other for having too much anonymous sex, too many ex lovers, etc. The first group I played it with LOVED it. WAGS seemed a little more subdued, but I think the reception was generally positive.
It's not an excellent game, but it's a good one. Combined with the unique theme, the experience becomes very good. As a change of pace, I highly recommend it.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Roman Holiday (Der Untergang von Pompeji, Conquest of the Empire)
Alongside a wonderful roman feast (marinaded meats, authentic sauces, dates, etc), we played Der Untergang von Pompeji and Conquest of the Empire.
Der Untergang von Pompeji
This is a weird one. A light game about escaping certain death at the hands of an erupting volcano. The idea is quite simple: The board depicts the city of Pompei, identifying major buildings and the gates out of the city. In phase A, players place their meeples in the buildings. In phase B (once the volcano explodes) try to have your meeples get out of the city before being burned alive!
The mechanics themselves are quite simple as well (other than some of the strange deck management). Phase A is all about setting yourself up for the big escape. I haven't played often enough to know all the strategies, but it seems that you want to accomplish two major things: Get as many meeples on the board as possible, and place them in buildings which provide speedy escape routes (there are "omen" cards which allow a player to arbitrarily remove a meeple from the board, which lends a "take that" aspect to this phase which discourages players from taking the very best spots, for fear of being targeted). In phase B, lava tiles are drawn from a bag, and placed according to the symbol on the tile (if it has a helmet in the bottom corner, then it must be placed onto to the "helmet" space). Once a lava tile of a particular symbol has been placed, the next tile with that symbol must be placed adjacent to it. If any poor meeples are on that space (or completely surrounded by lava), they are thrown into the volcano!!!
Anyway, I quite liked it. It's a bit grim as a theme, but it's abstract enough to be funny. Throwing meeples into the volcano is fun! As I said, it's light, but there is definite strategy in the initial placement and in the order that the meeples are evacuated. Lots of luck, too, but the balance felt right for the game (it's short, too. Maybe 30-45 minutes).
I fared poorly. I didn't get enough meeples down, underestimating the importance of that phase in the game (also, Luch targeted me repeatedly with omen cards and volcano tiles... not sure why... anticipation of wanting to beat me at Conquest of the Empire, perhaps?). Bharmer managed to get a lot of Pompeians out early, and looked like a lock for the win. JayWowzer came from behind, though, and evacuated right until the bitter end. It was a two way tie, but Bharmer's death toll in the volcano exceeded JayWowzer's... so he lost.
Quite fun, look forward to playing that one again soon.
Conquest of the Empire
Another session of Conquest of the Empire. We wanted to play this again soon after the last game in order to cement our knowledge of the rules so that things would run faster in future sessions. Despite this, the game proceeded at a leisurely pace. Combined with a rather late start, we didn't get anywhere close to finishing!
In our last game, we messed up two important rules: 1) You can't start in Italia, and 2) You can't take two cards on a turn. As both those issues came up and shaped the game in important ways, it was good to clear that up.
I started spread out across the north. For the first time in three games, I had a presence east of Italia! Also, for the first time, I started with four distinct provinces. Kozure dexcribed last game how difficult this starting position can be, and I'm inclined to agree.
I spread out my forces, trying to maintain the influence tokens I started with. A skipped an opportunity to expand in order to grab the "assassin" card (flashes of losing my general in the first game going through my head). However, as it turns out I wasn't even close to being the leader, so I probably wouldn't have been a target anyway. Kozure and Luch split up Italia, and JayWowzer dominated the south. Kozure, well he had it tough at first. On two occasions I hurt him fairly badly (I stole some large vote cards, and assassinated his general out of unfounded fear he was going to attack me). Again, those moves were ill advised on my part because targeting Luch or Bharmer would have prevented more losses, and I never did get around to purchasing a political card so all those turns picking up votes were essentially wasted.
Two seasons in, we called it a night. Kozure and Luch tied for first, but Kozure held the tiebreaker (most influence). Bharmer was in the middle and JayWowzer and I tied for last. Oh well! Bharmer and JayWowzer expressed dissatisfaction with some aspects of the game... particularly that in several situations, there is nothing to do. I found that odd, because I always feel like there is way more that I want to do than the 2 actions allow! The biggest problem, I think, is that it's very easy to fall into a situation where there isn't enough time or funds to accomplish the things you want to do... so there is nothing left to do. I have to admit that this week, I put myself in that situation time and time again (I was constantly cash poor, and overspending the small income I had on troops. This left me unable to purchase the cards/ influence tokens I needed as they became available). I still quite like the game!
I'm curious if a few tweaks might streamline the experience. Special taxes, for example, don't seem well balanced. The maximum of 25 talents raised by special tax seems too low (particularly in light of how much chaos it costs). Also, it would be interesting to see what would happen if we went back to the original Struggle of Empire rules and allowed conversion of influence without spending an action (maybe do a similar thing with combat?). The political angle also looks like it could be improved... with so many votes in everyone's hand, it's hard to make those cards pay for themselves. Maybe players shouldn't start with votes? I don't know, just rambling.
All in all, a good night. I wish we could figure out how to accelerate Conquest of the Empire, but in the meantime we'll just have to make sure that we have enough time in the future.
Der Untergang von Pompeji
This is a weird one. A light game about escaping certain death at the hands of an erupting volcano. The idea is quite simple: The board depicts the city of Pompei, identifying major buildings and the gates out of the city. In phase A, players place their meeples in the buildings. In phase B (once the volcano explodes) try to have your meeples get out of the city before being burned alive!
The mechanics themselves are quite simple as well (other than some of the strange deck management). Phase A is all about setting yourself up for the big escape. I haven't played often enough to know all the strategies, but it seems that you want to accomplish two major things: Get as many meeples on the board as possible, and place them in buildings which provide speedy escape routes (there are "omen" cards which allow a player to arbitrarily remove a meeple from the board, which lends a "take that" aspect to this phase which discourages players from taking the very best spots, for fear of being targeted). In phase B, lava tiles are drawn from a bag, and placed according to the symbol on the tile (if it has a helmet in the bottom corner, then it must be placed onto to the "helmet" space). Once a lava tile of a particular symbol has been placed, the next tile with that symbol must be placed adjacent to it. If any poor meeples are on that space (or completely surrounded by lava), they are thrown into the volcano!!!
Anyway, I quite liked it. It's a bit grim as a theme, but it's abstract enough to be funny. Throwing meeples into the volcano is fun! As I said, it's light, but there is definite strategy in the initial placement and in the order that the meeples are evacuated. Lots of luck, too, but the balance felt right for the game (it's short, too. Maybe 30-45 minutes).
I fared poorly. I didn't get enough meeples down, underestimating the importance of that phase in the game (also, Luch targeted me repeatedly with omen cards and volcano tiles... not sure why... anticipation of wanting to beat me at Conquest of the Empire, perhaps?). Bharmer managed to get a lot of Pompeians out early, and looked like a lock for the win. JayWowzer came from behind, though, and evacuated right until the bitter end. It was a two way tie, but Bharmer's death toll in the volcano exceeded JayWowzer's... so he lost.
Quite fun, look forward to playing that one again soon.
Conquest of the Empire
Another session of Conquest of the Empire. We wanted to play this again soon after the last game in order to cement our knowledge of the rules so that things would run faster in future sessions. Despite this, the game proceeded at a leisurely pace. Combined with a rather late start, we didn't get anywhere close to finishing!
In our last game, we messed up two important rules: 1) You can't start in Italia, and 2) You can't take two cards on a turn. As both those issues came up and shaped the game in important ways, it was good to clear that up.
I started spread out across the north. For the first time in three games, I had a presence east of Italia! Also, for the first time, I started with four distinct provinces. Kozure dexcribed last game how difficult this starting position can be, and I'm inclined to agree.
I spread out my forces, trying to maintain the influence tokens I started with. A skipped an opportunity to expand in order to grab the "assassin" card (flashes of losing my general in the first game going through my head). However, as it turns out I wasn't even close to being the leader, so I probably wouldn't have been a target anyway. Kozure and Luch split up Italia, and JayWowzer dominated the south. Kozure, well he had it tough at first. On two occasions I hurt him fairly badly (I stole some large vote cards, and assassinated his general out of unfounded fear he was going to attack me). Again, those moves were ill advised on my part because targeting Luch or Bharmer would have prevented more losses, and I never did get around to purchasing a political card so all those turns picking up votes were essentially wasted.
Two seasons in, we called it a night. Kozure and Luch tied for first, but Kozure held the tiebreaker (most influence). Bharmer was in the middle and JayWowzer and I tied for last. Oh well! Bharmer and JayWowzer expressed dissatisfaction with some aspects of the game... particularly that in several situations, there is nothing to do. I found that odd, because I always feel like there is way more that I want to do than the 2 actions allow! The biggest problem, I think, is that it's very easy to fall into a situation where there isn't enough time or funds to accomplish the things you want to do... so there is nothing left to do. I have to admit that this week, I put myself in that situation time and time again (I was constantly cash poor, and overspending the small income I had on troops. This left me unable to purchase the cards/ influence tokens I needed as they became available). I still quite like the game!
I'm curious if a few tweaks might streamline the experience. Special taxes, for example, don't seem well balanced. The maximum of 25 talents raised by special tax seems too low (particularly in light of how much chaos it costs). Also, it would be interesting to see what would happen if we went back to the original Struggle of Empire rules and allowed conversion of influence without spending an action (maybe do a similar thing with combat?). The political angle also looks like it could be improved... with so many votes in everyone's hand, it's hard to make those cards pay for themselves. Maybe players shouldn't start with votes? I don't know, just rambling.
All in all, a good night. I wish we could figure out how to accelerate Conquest of the Empire, but in the meantime we'll just have to make sure that we have enough time in the future.
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