Terakh, Tikal and Tan Tuan...er... San Juan

Or, "How Bharmer Kicked our Behinds Repeatedly"

First up was Terakh, the light strategy game with a fantasy/magic theme. I enjoy this game for its combination of chess-like strategy with a few wargame-y aspects like attack and defence modifiers, asymmetrical player powers and to-hit rolls. The designers have done a good job of finding the right balance between simplicity and theme for a game of this size and intended investment of time.

I came out swinging and dealt some pretty good hits quite early, eventually knocking both Ouch and Bharmer down to 2 and 1 points respectively (with a little help from Ouch), remaining at 3 points myself. Bharmer was in a tight spot, sandwiched between the two of us (an unfortunate but common occurrence when you're the third player to place in a three player game) and was attacked from both sides. I was feeling pretty satisfied with myself, but then Bharmer laid both Jason and I low with two successive Plague (?) cards, which reduce all Elders by one point unless they are already at one point or on a purple tria. Then the Terakh Crisis hit, which promptly killed Ouch and I, leaving Bharmer standing. So, after about 50 minutes of play, the game winner was decided by a dice roll. Normally, not my ideal ending, but a fun game and all the more impressive to see Bharmer win after being knocked down so thoroughly earlier in the game.

Tikal followed. For the first time in about a half-dozen or more plays, I think we actually managed to remember to place a new hex tile at the beginning of each player's turn, rather than forgetting and placing it afterwards, or not placing one at all, or remembering a turn or two later. This simple rules error has been the bane of our Tikal-playing careers, for some reason, we never got into the solid habit of remembering to do it at the right time.

So, this time we really cracked down on each other, heaping scorn on people who forgot.

Despite this revolutionary advance in gameplay, Bharmer pulled away early on and remained in the lead for the rest of the game. He grabbed at least two three-sets and three (or more) two-sets of treasure by the end (something like that, I can't remember), having scored between 12 and 21 points on treasure alone almost every scoring round but the first. I fell behind initially but eventually regained a little ground with treasure and careful positioning, though in the end it wasn't enough. Bharmer scored somewhere in the 110-115 range, I scored in the 85-90 range, and I think Ouch was 70-75 range. My personal mistakes here were failing to block Bharmer as often as I was able to block Ouch, and not getting in position to take treasures first before Bharmer. Our Tikal games are typically closer than this, so this substantial victory by Bharmer was pretty embarassing for both Ouch and I. Bharmer was helped substantially by placing almost every treasure site save one (as I recall), so luck of the draw did enter into it, but not to detract from his victory; he did play quite well.

At this point, Ouch had to leave, claiming the need to retire early.

With only about half an hour left in the evening, we turned to the only short two player we had on hand, San Juan.

What a shambles. Bharmer thoroughly trounced me, scoring something like 48 to my measly 21. I was completely outclassed in every category, failing to build even a single 6 building.

In my defence, I never actually drew a six-building to begin with, but I still played horribly. I missed several opportunities to build silver mines due to bad planning, and invested too many cards in the chapel before I had cards to spare. I was beaten by Bharmer's good play and my own poor judgement and timing.

I build a coffee roaster early, but my second build, a black market, and third build, the archive, were poorly chosen. I added stupidity to mismanagement by building a chapel fourth. I did have some poor draws, but this was a hole of my own digging. I had built all of seven (eight?) buildings when Bharmer plunked down his twelfth. Bharmer did well with the production building + guild hall combo, and also managed some other 6-point building bonuses, including a bunch from his palace.

I limped to the finish line, my only uncertainty about the victor being whether he doubled or tripled my score in the end.

This remains a decent game, and very elegant in its size, playing time and complexity. I remain somewhat leary of the problem like mine; once you fall behind you are almost certainly doomed against any player of competence - and it is not terribly difficult to fall behind due to bad early draws. Still, I deserved to lose that one.

And that, my fellow WAGSters, is why I vote that Bharmer not be allowed to play any more.

Just kidding. Mostly. Well... sorta.

Die Bharmer, die!

Dying the Sky with Blood, and Pounding the Earth (Crimson Skies, Jungle Speed) 8454

Short post:

We played Crimson Skies, a "Clix" game featuring a boardless movement system (similar to Wreckage). In it, concept planes face off in arial combat. I beleive it's a two player game, but it worked fine with 4. Not much to say, except that I thought it was quite a bit better than HeroClix (and wreckage, for that matter) due to a more reasonable learning curve. This would be due to the fact that planes tend to start off with powers which they can only lose as they get hit... HeroClix characters aften gain abilities as they weaken. Also, those powers are relatively easy to absorb since the colour chart matches up reasonably well. The most interesting part (also the one I had the most problems with) was the movement mechanic. After initiative is determined, you play a "Maneuvre" card (my term, not theirs) to describe how your plane will fly. The card shows a flight path and you essentially place cardboard hex pieces end to end and match the flight path until your flight reaches it's speed rating in spaces. In theory, it's a nice way to encapsulate many of the possible movements that a plane could do without adding much complexity. In practice, I sometimes wished I could deviate slightly from the flight paths available since it seemed arbitrarily limiting at times. Also, while the cardboard spacers eliminate the need for a board, precision is lost and alignments can get out of wack if people aren't careful.

Ultimately, though, it's not a game for rules lawyers. It's a fun game if you accept the inherent "sloppyness" of a board-free environment and some of the game's limitations (and let's be honest... planes go fast. I might be kidding myself that such modifications in flight would be easy).

Team Easy-Bharmer took the skies in a tight formation and barreled towards Luch, leaving Kozure to fight a single one of Bharmer's planes. Much questionable maneuvring occured, mostly on my part, and planes threatened to crash on multiple occasions (that was mostly Luch, Kozure, Bharmer. Mostly.) I took down one of Luch's planes and Kozure got enough solid hits on Bharmer that he decided it was wise to escape rather than crash and burn. Team Easy-Bharmer ultimately shot our way to victory, despite much flying ineptitude all around. Well, everyone but Kozure (and that was expected).

We finished off with Jungle Speed.

Let's build cities (Blue Moon City, Carcassonne:The City)

Just Bharmer and myself this night. I brought along a selection of two player games and we each picked one. I did my best to convince him to go with Rommel in the Desert, but he didn't bite.

Blue Moon City

We started out with Blue Moon City (Bharmer's pick). It was an interesting mix of completing each other's buildings and running off and doing our own thing. With only two players, it seemed like cards were more abundant (though I can't explain why that would be). On a couple of occasions, we would complete three section buildings on one turn! (after calling a dragon or two, of course). This obviously led to big swings in position. I had the early lead, building three sections of the obelisk pretty quickly. Bharmer had only one, but late in the game he managed to complete a lot of buildings without giving much to me, so he was winning the crystal race pretty handily. I tried to force a last minute scale payout to get the last few crytals I needed in time... but it wasn't fast enough. He swooped in and placed his last two cubes in the obelisk for the win.

This game continues to be good fun for me. It's typically a very tight race, and the way payouts work keeps everyone in the running while making the leader hard to spot. I noticed once again that Knizia's math was pretty honed in making this game: every time I play a two player game there appears to be JUST ENOUGH crystals on the board to allow both players to win (and then only if they've managed some shared payouts earlier in the game). Very tight indeed.

Looking at your hand and coming up with a clever use of your cards is always satisfying, and is probably my favorite aspect of the game.

Carcassonne: The City

The second (and last) game of the evening was Carcassonne: The City... a game I enjoy but rarely play due to it's similarities to the original (if it weren't such an attractive set, I'd probably trade it away) . Anyway, the session was unfortunately hurt by a number of rules missunderstandings (caused by the overly brief overview I gave Bharmer), which led to moves he wouldn't have made otherwise. Example: thinking he knew that roads split neighbourhoods, I didn't mention it. Boy, that led to an "aha!" moment, and not in a good way! Anyway, I did manage a very lucrative guard which overlooked a loooong section of the city full of public buildings, but I also scored a ton of points from the neighborhoods I won due to the rules mistakes. Anyway, I had a good time... hopefully so did Bharmer!

Oh, and judging by the city we've built, Iwould guess we would make terribly poor city planners. I won't be quitting my day job.

This is a "Hot" scene, with... "Heat"... and ... "Chemistry" (Maharaja, Taj Mahal, Yspahan) 8237

Games set in the Middle-East, played in a very hot apartment.

Maharaja

We've played Maharaja many times. My opinion on the game has swayed, but one thing that has remained constant is that Bharmer always wins. He is always very much in control, always a few steps ahead. I was determined to make this evening the exception...

Out of the gate, I had the lowest character so I went first (we dealt these randomly... more on that later). I of course went to the next scoring area and secured a majority by claiming the center palace. With money in hand, I proceeded to the next scoring area (though I also accelerated the return of the first scoring area by advancing the character track). As the game went on, I was awash with money and doing very well. On my final turn, I placed two palaces and ended the game with a comfortable lead.

Here's the thing: this game got me thinking, and I'm pretty sure that the player who goes first in the first turn usually wins. The money earned in the easy majority on the first scoring round makes the rest of the game significantly easier. Unless we are collectively doing something wrong, it seems very difficult to catch up once you've fallen behind. I'm not sure why it's taken so long for me to notice it, but it seems rather mandatory to bid for starting order in the future! There's probably a way to take a loss on the fist round and secure a majority on the next scoring, but all it takes is a single person messing with the track to kill that strategy. Anyway, I had fun but I suspect that those who weren't in the running didn't enjoy it much.

Taj Mahal

We played our first four player of this wonderful game. Not much to tell, but I has a great time as always. Easily one of my favorite games (funny, too, because this is one I normally win but Luch beat me by a point). Kozure, who vowed to make this the "time he played Taj Mahal and didn't suck at it" was doing quite well for the majority of the game, but fell back in the last few rounds. Oh well!

Yspahan

We finished off with a three player of Yspahan. In my second outing, I tried to go for cards rather than the camel track. I was monumentally lucky by pulling the exact card I wanted the first time I drew (I gathered lots of gold and then immediately drew the card that lets you build a building ignoring the cost of the camels). I built the one that gives me a bonus cube every time I placed in a disctrict. Wow, that's a powerful ability to have from the beginning! That, combined with a very lucky die roll for 4 souks in the most expensive disctrict on the last round combined to give me a decisive win. It's actually a little boring when exceptional good luck gives you a win over your opponents, but it's a short game and it's too early to tell whether this sort of thing happens often. I still like it.