It was my turn to pick once more, so I selected an old and new favorite... Taj Mahal and Pandemic.
Taj Mahal
Sessions of this game don't lend themselves very well to description, so I won't bother. Suffice it to say that I pulled ahead of the pack about halfway through the game and ended up with a huge lead by the time it was over. Not a very exciting game, though at least Kozure and Shemp were neck and neck for 2nd place (they ended the game tied). I still really enjoy this one, despite the anticlimactic session. I've found in the past that this is best with 4, so maybe that was part of the problem.
Kozure mentioned that he felt the "pacing" was very important in order to do well in Taj Mahal. I absolutely agree.
1) Don't spend too many cards to get your second character chit if several other players are on the verge of getting that same chit. You'll spend your cards and lose the character ability next round as the others claim it.
2) Keep an eye on the connections you need on the board (for chains) and the goods available for winning the upcoming provinces. If the thing you really want is coming up in the next province, don't fight too hard in the current one.
3) If your priority is to place on the board to set up connections, it often pays to lead with a double noble card and then pull out early. You might get more stuff by staying in longer, but the space you need is probably taken. Alternatively, fight for the king.
4) Keep an eye on the suits other players have in front of them. If you avoid what has been played, you will be allowing the other players to get what they want, but if you cancel out another player's entire set you are encouraging them to fight back (in other words, if you cancel one of two things another player is going for, there is a chance they will pull out with what they have. If you cancel all the leads they had, they will surely play more cards in order to avoid coming away with nothing. Problem is, that other card they play might come in conflict with a suit you are going for)
*Edit* 5) It's easy to forget that the goal is to collect VPs, not nobles. Collecting nobles for their own sake will get you nowhere, and you will find yourself getting a single VP per round far too often. Make sure that you keep your goals focussed on collecting sets of goods or creating chains on the board, and seeing how the nobles can help you get there.
Pandemic
An expansion should be coming out soon for Pandemic, so I wanted to get a few games in of the basic set. I was worried that Shemp would reverse his positive rating on the game after playing it again (not because it's a bad game, but because Shemp typically dislikes cooperative games. Luckily, he came away from two back to back games still liking it, and I have to admit I feel the same.
I feel at three we did a great job of cooperating our abilities and cards. Rules I had not seen played often where being used frequently, such as the trading mechanics. We won both games on the regular difficulty, first as the Medic/ Scientist/ Dispatcher and second as the Medic/ Ops Expert/ Dispatcher. In the session there was only one outbreak all game, but in the second the last turn yielded a number of outbreaks which threatened the game. I think we are now ready to try the expert level of difficulty... and/or the expansion!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Now THAT's a tank (Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear)
Kozure and I gathered around our computers for a game of Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear on Vassal.
It's great to be able to play games such as these over the internet, because I rarely get the occasion to get together with Kozure to play wargames as it is. Anything that makes it easier gets my vote! I've only used this software once before, for a game of Lock'n Load a few months back. Vassal is a clumsy environment, so it always seems to take a while to get used to... and even then it leaves something to be desired. Still, it's far better than nothing! Having now played both modules, I'd say that the CoH one is a few notches better than the LnL one... due in large part to the fact that the CoH attempts to help you rather than just being a toolkit. Scenarios are setup for you, tokens that need to be placed at the beginning by the player are thankfully pre-organized in a "setup" window to make it quick and easy to get going fast.
The scenario we played was Firefight #7 "KV2". In this scenario, the Russians (me) has to defend a village that has been fortified with a number of makeshift roadblocks, defended by a handful of soldiers and protected by one... massive... tank. The KV2 is a huge tank which is dreadfully slow to act but packs a wallop when it does. A hidden anti-tank gun, truck and squad round out the defense. The germans (Kozure), a mix of footsoldiers and tanks, simply need to break through the defenses and claim the control marker behind them.
I've learned about myself that I frequently act too quickly in wargames, and leave myself defenseless as a result. I was determined to learn from my earlier mistakes. As Kozure advanced on my position, I passed repeatedly... neither revealing my hidden units or moving anybody out of position too early. Eventually, though, I felt I needed to act. With so few revealed units, I was forced to take an active role with my biggest weapon, the KV2. I chased a scout tank up and down a nearby hill, eventually destroying it. At this point, I had quite a lead in points and I felt confident I would eventually be the victor. Before the KV2 could get back into position, Kozure unleashed his Flak 18 and kept me pinned behind the hill for cover.
He soon started to rush my position, first with his truck (which blew up as it drove over my hidden mine field...) and then with other units. I lost a number of units due to poor play (I completely misplayed the truck and anti-tank gun, losing them and gaining nothing in the process). A single shot on the KV2 yielded a hit and then I drew the instant destroy token, which was bad. I was cut down and out of position. Kozure won.
It was a fun game, and I definitely hope we can do it again. I think we have pretty much played with all the rules by now, except the off site artillery. Although we had to brush up on many of the rules, once remembered everything flows quickly and smoothly. With the hurdle of learning the interface out of the way, the next game should be even better.
It's great to be able to play games such as these over the internet, because I rarely get the occasion to get together with Kozure to play wargames as it is. Anything that makes it easier gets my vote! I've only used this software once before, for a game of Lock'n Load a few months back. Vassal is a clumsy environment, so it always seems to take a while to get used to... and even then it leaves something to be desired. Still, it's far better than nothing! Having now played both modules, I'd say that the CoH one is a few notches better than the LnL one... due in large part to the fact that the CoH attempts to help you rather than just being a toolkit. Scenarios are setup for you, tokens that need to be placed at the beginning by the player are thankfully pre-organized in a "setup" window to make it quick and easy to get going fast.
The scenario we played was Firefight #7 "KV2". In this scenario, the Russians (me) has to defend a village that has been fortified with a number of makeshift roadblocks, defended by a handful of soldiers and protected by one... massive... tank. The KV2 is a huge tank which is dreadfully slow to act but packs a wallop when it does. A hidden anti-tank gun, truck and squad round out the defense. The germans (Kozure), a mix of footsoldiers and tanks, simply need to break through the defenses and claim the control marker behind them.
I've learned about myself that I frequently act too quickly in wargames, and leave myself defenseless as a result. I was determined to learn from my earlier mistakes. As Kozure advanced on my position, I passed repeatedly... neither revealing my hidden units or moving anybody out of position too early. Eventually, though, I felt I needed to act. With so few revealed units, I was forced to take an active role with my biggest weapon, the KV2. I chased a scout tank up and down a nearby hill, eventually destroying it. At this point, I had quite a lead in points and I felt confident I would eventually be the victor. Before the KV2 could get back into position, Kozure unleashed his Flak 18 and kept me pinned behind the hill for cover.
He soon started to rush my position, first with his truck (which blew up as it drove over my hidden mine field...) and then with other units. I lost a number of units due to poor play (I completely misplayed the truck and anti-tank gun, losing them and gaining nothing in the process). A single shot on the KV2 yielded a hit and then I drew the instant destroy token, which was bad. I was cut down and out of position. Kozure won.
It was a fun game, and I definitely hope we can do it again. I think we have pretty much played with all the rules by now, except the off site artillery. Although we had to brush up on many of the rules, once remembered everything flows quickly and smoothly. With the hurdle of learning the interface out of the way, the next game should be even better.
A few bad years (Entdecker, In the Year of the Dragon x2)
On Wednesday, June10th, it was Luch's pick and we played Entdecker and In the Year of the Dragon (twice).
Entdecker
The Entdecker session was interesting because despite a setup which didn't particularly seem to promote really large islands, we ended up with essentially just two land masses across the entire board. It was a tooth and nail battle between Luch and I for the really big island with two +5 and one +10 marker in it. Ultimately, I won the island but lost the game to Kozure, who won the second (smaller) island and then wasted no time putting scouts on the native track. Luch and I only completed the big island near the end of the game, so our scouts were tied up for far too long. He beat me by one point!
It was a fun enough session, but it confirmed my earlier feeling that this game is just too long, and too much like other games that scratch the same itch in less time. I'd be happy to play it again, but my copy will be going into the trade pile.
In the Year of the Dragon
The original idea was to play one session of ItYotD and then play Mexica, but since Luch had only played In the Year of the Dragon once before, after we completed the first session he decided he wanted to play again to try to improve his understanding of the mechanics. As a group, we've played +/-5 times, so Kozure and I were substantially more experienced... and in this game that helps.
In the first game, I stayed in front of the people track and the flexibility that afforded me gave me a win. I went for a Big Building strategy, building five temples and housing many workers in the process. This is something I don't normally do, as I normally prefer to keep two or three temples max., to make rice shortages easier to bear, and make my points with dragon tablets and courtisans.Of course, one of the nice things about this game is the multiple paths to victory, s trying a new one was fun.
Speaking of trying different paths, in the second game I was determined to try to make points primarily through the scholars. I've said I would try that before and strayed, and I did it again this time. For some reason, I can't take my eyes off all the incoming disasters long enough to make this strategy work. I fell behind on the people track halfway through the game and so I could never choose the scholar action to take advantage of the scholars I had aquired. I lost the second game in distant last.
Lesson learned... do not fall behind in the people track!
Excellent game. I'll make the scholar strategy work someday!...
Entdecker
The Entdecker session was interesting because despite a setup which didn't particularly seem to promote really large islands, we ended up with essentially just two land masses across the entire board. It was a tooth and nail battle between Luch and I for the really big island with two +5 and one +10 marker in it. Ultimately, I won the island but lost the game to Kozure, who won the second (smaller) island and then wasted no time putting scouts on the native track. Luch and I only completed the big island near the end of the game, so our scouts were tied up for far too long. He beat me by one point!
It was a fun enough session, but it confirmed my earlier feeling that this game is just too long, and too much like other games that scratch the same itch in less time. I'd be happy to play it again, but my copy will be going into the trade pile.
In the Year of the Dragon
The original idea was to play one session of ItYotD and then play Mexica, but since Luch had only played In the Year of the Dragon once before, after we completed the first session he decided he wanted to play again to try to improve his understanding of the mechanics. As a group, we've played +/-5 times, so Kozure and I were substantially more experienced... and in this game that helps.
In the first game, I stayed in front of the people track and the flexibility that afforded me gave me a win. I went for a Big Building strategy, building five temples and housing many workers in the process. This is something I don't normally do, as I normally prefer to keep two or three temples max., to make rice shortages easier to bear, and make my points with dragon tablets and courtisans.Of course, one of the nice things about this game is the multiple paths to victory, s trying a new one was fun.
Speaking of trying different paths, in the second game I was determined to try to make points primarily through the scholars. I've said I would try that before and strayed, and I did it again this time. For some reason, I can't take my eyes off all the incoming disasters long enough to make this strategy work. I fell behind on the people track halfway through the game and so I could never choose the scholar action to take advantage of the scholars I had aquired. I lost the second game in distant last.
Lesson learned... do not fall behind in the people track!
Excellent game. I'll make the scholar strategy work someday!...
Monday, June 08, 2009
These are the gnomes I know (Illuminati: Deluxe edition)
In university, many of us went through a brief Magic: The gathering period. Me and Luch quickly moved on to Jyhad.
Shemp moved on to the Illuminati CCG.
The Illuminati CCG was a game that I enjoyed playing, but felt was ultimately frustrating because the sheer number of variables to consider made the game nearly impossible to play, and the decks needed to be changed rather frequently because surprise was required to win. Recently, Shemp decided to pick up the Illuminati board game. This week, we tried it out.
Illuminati is a game about powerful underground groups that control the world through the manipulation of other groups. Mysteries, wrapped in enigmas, surrounded by riddles and dipped in the sweet sauce of betrayal. Every player controls one such uber-group, and proceeds to try to influence enough real world groups to fulfill their goal. In doing so, players need to pit their group's power against the other group's resistance in order to control them, made easier if the two groups have the same alignments (peaceful, criminal, weird, etc) or harder if the opposite is true. Slightly different rules apply if attacking to destroy.
I played the Bermuda Triangle, and my special goal was to control groups until I had at least one group with each alignment in my power structure. Luch played the Gnomes of Zurich, Shemp played the U.F.O.s and Kozure played the Bavarian Illuminati.
We played the game pretty straight (which, I suspect, isn't the way it's meant to be played). We mostly tried to take over from the uncontrolled pool in the middle of the table, though a couple of takeovers did occur between players. Luch appeared to be breaking away with a big lead as he consolidated a number of high income groups, which also happen to generally be powerful groups. Given his special goal to accumulate a certain amount of health, things looked good for him. We all suspected that Shemp's secret goal was to accumulate a number of weird groups, so we kept an eye on that. Most remarkable of all, however, was fantastically bad rolling on Kozure's part. He missed an ENORMOUS amount of rolls, resulting in being somewhat behind for much of the game. For my part, I was plucking along collecting groups with all the alignments. I managed to get the orbital mind control lazers, which can temporarily add an alignment to your powerstructure, and snuck in a win just before Luch could finish it off.
I controlled the Moonies, who controlled the Photocopier shops, who control the junk mail. Girly magazines and a few others also unwittingly served the Triangle. It wasn't the most powerful powerstructure, nor the most coherent, but it sure was mysterious.
Anyway, Illuminati is a good time if played in the right spirit. Like Funny Friends, it's a fantastic theme stuck to mediocre mechanics, and if that's OK with you it's quite possible to really enjoy the game. Compared to the CCG, the boardgame has a much more manageable set of variables to consider (the NEW WORLD ORDERS, artifacts, secret goals, secret groups, personalities, nations, assassinations, etc, are all gone). The money system is much easier to keep track of than the token system in the CCG, etc, etc. All in all, the removed items make for a better game IMHO. Oddly, the graphic design of this newer, "Deluxe" edition looks much cheaper and dated than the CCGs of the 90s. Downtime could be an issue, but not too bad because you are potentially involved in everyone else's turn.
Bottom line: It's impossible not to chuckle at the combinations of group power structures that play out on the board, and just for that it's fun to play. If the players are in the mood to backstab and deceive, even better. Fun game.
As an aside, it's really remarkable how many of the groups are now made obsolete by today's technologies, particularly the internet. Interesting the impact that the web has had on our culture in so short a time.
Shemp moved on to the Illuminati CCG.
The Illuminati CCG was a game that I enjoyed playing, but felt was ultimately frustrating because the sheer number of variables to consider made the game nearly impossible to play, and the decks needed to be changed rather frequently because surprise was required to win. Recently, Shemp decided to pick up the Illuminati board game. This week, we tried it out.
Illuminati is a game about powerful underground groups that control the world through the manipulation of other groups. Mysteries, wrapped in enigmas, surrounded by riddles and dipped in the sweet sauce of betrayal. Every player controls one such uber-group, and proceeds to try to influence enough real world groups to fulfill their goal. In doing so, players need to pit their group's power against the other group's resistance in order to control them, made easier if the two groups have the same alignments (peaceful, criminal, weird, etc) or harder if the opposite is true. Slightly different rules apply if attacking to destroy.
I played the Bermuda Triangle, and my special goal was to control groups until I had at least one group with each alignment in my power structure. Luch played the Gnomes of Zurich, Shemp played the U.F.O.s and Kozure played the Bavarian Illuminati.
We played the game pretty straight (which, I suspect, isn't the way it's meant to be played). We mostly tried to take over from the uncontrolled pool in the middle of the table, though a couple of takeovers did occur between players. Luch appeared to be breaking away with a big lead as he consolidated a number of high income groups, which also happen to generally be powerful groups. Given his special goal to accumulate a certain amount of health, things looked good for him. We all suspected that Shemp's secret goal was to accumulate a number of weird groups, so we kept an eye on that. Most remarkable of all, however, was fantastically bad rolling on Kozure's part. He missed an ENORMOUS amount of rolls, resulting in being somewhat behind for much of the game. For my part, I was plucking along collecting groups with all the alignments. I managed to get the orbital mind control lazers, which can temporarily add an alignment to your powerstructure, and snuck in a win just before Luch could finish it off.
I controlled the Moonies, who controlled the Photocopier shops, who control the junk mail. Girly magazines and a few others also unwittingly served the Triangle. It wasn't the most powerful powerstructure, nor the most coherent, but it sure was mysterious.
Anyway, Illuminati is a good time if played in the right spirit. Like Funny Friends, it's a fantastic theme stuck to mediocre mechanics, and if that's OK with you it's quite possible to really enjoy the game. Compared to the CCG, the boardgame has a much more manageable set of variables to consider (the NEW WORLD ORDERS, artifacts, secret goals, secret groups, personalities, nations, assassinations, etc, are all gone). The money system is much easier to keep track of than the token system in the CCG, etc, etc. All in all, the removed items make for a better game IMHO. Oddly, the graphic design of this newer, "Deluxe" edition looks much cheaper and dated than the CCGs of the 90s. Downtime could be an issue, but not too bad because you are potentially involved in everyone else's turn.
Bottom line: It's impossible not to chuckle at the combinations of group power structures that play out on the board, and just for that it's fun to play. If the players are in the mood to backstab and deceive, even better. Fun game.
As an aside, it's really remarkable how many of the groups are now made obsolete by today's technologies, particularly the internet. Interesting the impact that the web has had on our culture in so short a time.
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