Summertime Rolls

WARNING THIS IS A BUNCH OF WORDS BARFED ON THE BLOG AND IT MIGHT BE EDITED LATER I'M NOT PLANNING ON MAKING ANYONE'S COMMENTS LOOK SILLY THOUGH EDITING BUT IT COULD HAPPEN Y'KNOW? ANYWAY HERE GOES:

You know, at the end of every summer I think: "The board game playing group just doesn't work very well in the summer. Maybe we should take the summer off, and just start again in September..." And this is when you, dear reader, look at our last post, see it was in May, and think: "They took the summer off."

But we did not! Though things have been fairly haphazard. I'll attempt to recap what I can recall now.

LAST week, 'twas Easy and I and special guest Aussie Tim, in from Australia. We tried to keep things light + easy for our semin00b, and went with Galaxy Trucker, Kingdom Builder, and a new, Africana. [In retrospect, Easy, how did we not think to select King of Tokyo? We should have selected King of Tokyo!]

Africana had the feel of a slightly trickier Ticket to Ride, with a set collection aspect to scoring overlaid on the route completion mechanic. On the lighter side of things, but well done and quite fun. The end certainly came unexpectedly, and Easy won by a fair chunk, which wasn't how I thought the game was going, so there is some surprise there, also. [For the record, Easy swept that week, the third week in Aug]

Moving backwards, in the 2nd week of August, we played a 3 player round of *** some fantasy themed block game that Kozure owns, which comes in VHS style boxes *** Wizard Kings, which we adjourned w/ Easy in the clear lead. At the moment I don't have any clear thoughts on the game, as could be guessed by my earlier inability to remember it's name. I suppose I think it's a playable [meaning adequately non fiddly] fantasy wargamelite. And was fine, but kind of unmemorable.

Before that, Easy and I had a 2 player game of Vikings, the advanced version. [ The rules call this the "Progress Version", which nomenclature we spent a little time making fun of. ] The advanced version really does make decision making within the game much more difficult, particularly in the areas of resource management. Uncertainty is also upped through the special tiles won by buying the most expensive combo available. I like this version a lot, and managed to jump out to an early lead and hold on, thanks to picking up the tile that grants a bonus for nobles early on.

Further back, the 1st week of August, I wasn't there, and don't know what happened in Toronto. I did see this:

HM NOW JULY.

Fourth week of July, Last Will, along w/ MARIA. As Austria I pursued a bad strategy, and paid for it. Both other powers were in a victory position, tho I don't remember which technically took the game. I'm glad Last Will got another try, but don't think I'll be selecting it again. It's in the no man's land for me, too long and fiddly to be filler, not quite thinky enough or fun enough to be a main course.

Third week of July, BIOS MEGAFAUNA + Wildlife. A C&P: Megafauna, I knowingly took a risk and it failed due to randomness, throwing me into a spiral of larger risks, each of which failed. I'm OK w/ that, intellectually. Tho it stunk as an experience.

Wildlife, I played suboptimally, and would like another chance. Plus, it's fun and we hadn't played it in five years or somesuch.

Second week of July, I was absent, and am unsure of what happened. I DID hear that Bharmer has an impressive beard; the question remains, is it silky? I hope it's silky.

First week of July there was NO WAGS. NONE.

JUNE

Last week of June, I flaked, and Easy + Bharmer did something, I think?

Third week of June was RISK: LEGACY + Beowulf. I like the Risk Legacy. I need to get it on the table, w/ 4 or 5 players. I am kind of obsessed. In game three on our Earth, Easy in North America was targeted by the other 3 players, with Kozure attacking thru Alaska, Pablo thru Central America, and me through Greenland. I ended up winning by capturing the Easylander's HQ, which Kozure then fell JUST short of taking from me. Seeing that he was on the verge of trading in cards for a red star, I took a chance on launching 2 fronts from Europe, and took both remaining HQ's for the victory. Which means we got to open the "sign the board twice" packet, which is was pretty exciting.

Beowulf is always fun. Swedish betrayal, y'all. HM. Next RISK city is being put in Scandinavia and being named Betrayal. Book it. Unless it's something else of course.

Second week of June was three players, I was there, it happened. I don't know what happened. I am old. :(

First week of June we played 1812! I remember that week! Good game, really enjoyed it, and I'm not a wargame guy so much. Or I haven't been. Maybe en route to becoming one?

MAY

Last week of May, we played Luna, Innovation, and Kingdom Builder. I don't need to talk about Kingdom Builder, I am mostly indifferent towards Innovation, and I thought Luna was another middling Euro, but with neatish mechanics. Would play again.

Week before that, Civilization, with Kozure, Shemp, Pablo [does he have a nom de blog?] An email fragment: Went well, by which I mean: Miltary Victory by ME as the Germans. Kozure's Russia was, erm, less successful. Pablo enjoyed a learning game as the Americans, mainly getting the hang of the mechanics. Had an error in that the Wonders came out in random order, rather than sorted by era. Will look fwd to trying 4 players.

Week before that, was Eclipse, I was absent, there was a guest teaching the game - JOTORA?

Week before that, was Civilization and Last Will, with 3. AND that's as caughtupish as I can get us.

...post peters out here. Contributers who wish to expand in comments would be welcome. MOST WELCOME. -LONG ABSENT FROM BLOGGING SHEMP

Boring Old Record Keeping

The record keeper blew the dust off the ledger and laid open the cracking spine. The pages waterfalled like October leaves.

Brushing a gnarled hand over the pages, he made some very boring notations in a spidery hand:

The March 1st and March 29th sessions were cancelled due to lack of attendees. The February 2nd session was also cancelled (I'm noting that in case anyone has to forensically reconstruct their play list at BGG for the year, as I had to go back and correct some notations).

On April 5th we played two sessions of 7 Wonders (victors unremembered), followed by a session of Panic Station (Agent Easy was original bug(?), David and Shemp joined them, bugs were victors.). On April 12, we played Risk Legacy (curiously, I can't remember whether Shemp or Agent East won; it was one of them - I think it was Shemp, which would make it two for two for him), Beowulf (strangely, once again, I can't remember the victor, though I think I was up there) and Jungle Speed (Kozure won).

Last week, April 19th, there was only Shemp and I. We played Dragon Dice with my son Daigoro. I don't have a lot of time for commentary on the game except to say it was actually "deeper" as a playing experience than I was expected - there's some difficult and interesting play choices to be made, and there's enough chrome to keep it interesting. Still not sure about long term replay-ability apart from the customization aspect of it, but willing to play again. We had to call it for time (Daigoro had to head to bed), but Shemp was well on his way to victory.

We finished the evening with two games of Jungle Wars - Deep Dwarves (Shemp) vs. Mountain Vargath (Me) and Sand Goblins (Shemp) vs. Jungle Elves. (Me). I won both games, more from my greater experience with the game than through any stellar play. Shemp was starting to pick up on the flow by the end.

Wishing for Gold (Pandemic, Beowulf, Dominion: Intrigue)

Still three players.

Pandemic

Since Pandemic was dropped from the lineup last week, I brought it again. Shemp picked it as our first game and we went with the mutation challenge (a.k.a. purple cube expansion). We had the dispatcher, the troubleshooter and the researcher.

Side note: Troubleshooter= awesome.

Things started out pretty leisurely, actually. Red was cured quickly and blue followed. The troubleshooter's ability to see where problems are going to be and then go there is very powerful. Suddenly, things started getting hairy and we were struggling to stay on top. We managed to get the four basic cures done, but purple still eluded us. I had five cards to spend to cure it, but none featured cities infected by purple, so I couldn't finish it. We drew the action card that allowed us to fish into the discard and drew what we needed to finish the game. After we won, I checked the infection cards to see what I would have drawn at the end of my turn... we would have lost the game because of an outbreak of Yellow in Johannesburg.

Close. Fun.

Beowulf

Beowulf made a rare repeat appearance. After last week's experiment to see if it played well with three (it did), it was nice to play it again. I unfortunately was unable to repeat last week's win, however. As the game was coming to a conclusion, I felt confident I would win the "battle with the dragon" episode. Kozure had pulled out, and it was me and Shemp left. I had the "All Iron Shield" (4 swords) and "Sword Hrunting" (3 swords), plus a few others. I lost. We had a good laugh at the odd turn of events, and it cost me a significant amount of points, but Shemp had a commanding lead regardless and it wouldn't have affected the outcome of the game.

As usual, this was a lot of fun. It's a nice mix of card management and luck.

Dominion: Intrigue

The closer for the evening was an all-intrigue Dominion. Shemp selected a deck called "Secrets and betrayal" (or something like that). All the cards with names like "Saboteur", "Shanty Town", etc, were in the deck. I won the game, so I hate saying that I played semi-randomly, but that's what happened. There was a memorable round where I drew my wishing well and wished for a "gold" treasure and drew it (remarkable because I only had one). I purchased a province and then immediately had to trash it as Shemp played his saboteur and my newly shuffled deck happened to have it on top. Easy come, easy go, I guess. I narrowly beat Kozure and we had a discussion afterwards about the danger of buying the Harem cards (2 VPs/ 2 treasure) near the end of the game... Duchies are worth 3 VPs for the same price but are dead weight. I had been buying them for some time, thinking the game was ending but it took longer than I thought and my deck was becoming inefficient (Shemp mentioned that the same thing was happening to him).

I've heard good things about the upcoming Prosperity expansion. We'll have to see how that plays out.

Threeny Madness! (Ra, Glory to Rome, Beowulf, Dominion)

Shemp's pick this week, and he went for Threeny Madness (a play on "weeny madness", the name we used to give Magic decks that focussed on many small creatures). Turns out many of the games played aren't particularly "weeny", but what can you do?

Ra

First up was Ra, with Tilli playing instead of Kozure. Auction games are often subject to groupthink, and so I think everyone was somewhat surprised at how differently me and Shemp evaluated things compared to Tilli (who would typically play outside our group). In particular, it is my habit to purchase many smaller lots early rather than go long and hope for quantity. At first, it looked like it was a losing strategy... Tilli had a huge first round and Shemp and I scored very little. As the game wore on, Ra looked with dissaproval at those wanting quantity over quality and rewarded me with an enormous last round for the win.

Glory to Rome

Kozure stepped back in and Shemp chose perennial favorite Glory to Rome. I've often said that this game is characterized by a new "unbalanced" combo every game. Just to prove me wrong, this session didn't have that. We were all building away and minding our own business when suddenly all the building sites had been used and the game ended. Another odd thing: None of us had a single piece of material in the vault. Shemp thought he had me based on the influence I had gathered from building, but what he hadn't noticed was that I had built the ... (I don't recall the name, but it gives me 1 VP for each 2 materials in the stockpile). This sneakery allowed me to surpass Shemp by 1 and win the game.

Beowulf

A few weeks ago we were wondering if Beowulf with 3 would be any good. Having now played it, I must say that it is! Knizia distributed the episodic rewards very well so that there is as much interest in the 3 player auction as the 4 or 5 player.

In the early episodes, luck was shining on Shemp as he was making out quite well at all the risking challenges. Kozure also appeared to have a persistently large hand of cards. I struggled early in the game but game but found my footing about a third of the way. Through sheer dumb luck I won an episode with a single card from my hand. This reward allowed me to snowball my successes and soon I felt like I was doing really well. Going into the battle with the dragon, I had a hand of 10-15 cards ALL of which could be used in the battle (i.e. just fists and axes and wilds). I don't often do well at this game, but clearly this was my evening!

Dominion

We ended, as we often do, with Dominon. Shemp noticed that the was a themed deck called "Hand Madness!", so being unable to resist the tie in with the evening's theme he chose it. As you'd expect, it's a deck that has players manipulating the number of cards in their own and their opponent's hands quite a lot. Dominion is another game I typically don't do well in, but unfortunately this time the result was in line with the odds... I came in last after an unsuccessful attempt to pull off a bureaucrat + Council room combo. It didn't help that Shemp was constantly playing Militias to keep my handsize down. I unfortunately do not remember who actually did win, however.

Kill the Leader (El Grande, Beowulf)

It was Shemp's pick, but he couldn't decide what to choose so I brought along a big bag of games. His choices were El Grande and Beowulf, despite his earlier assertion that "kill the leader" would be the theme for the evening (El Grande works, but Beowulf does not).

El Grande

El Grande was up first. Our last play was november of last year, and I found myself unsure of some of the setup despite this being just about my favorite game. I was dealt Old Castille, Kozure was Valencia, Luch was New Castille and Shemp was Basque.

Our group typically doesn't go out of it's way to practice "Kill the Leader" tactics. This time, we repeated the mantra frequently in order to keep the objective clear. Unsurprisingly, it worked... Whoever pulled out to a lead was quickly pulled back. For example, I was starting to break away when my Grande's province was neutralized by a mobile score board and an influx of other player's cubes. It was never clear who was going to win, and everyone was a contender at one point or another. In the end, Shemp (who struggled in the first three rounds with very few points) managed to win by +/-5 points in a VERY close game for all involved. Maybe 10 points separated us all. I've always loved this game, but this one was particularly excellent and I hope we'll carry forward the aggressive play in future sessions. Kozure mentioned again that this isn't a game he favors, but in my opinion there isn't a game out there that can touch it when 4-5 players want to match wits in a meaty game that offers tough choices and opportunities for clever play in an hour and a half.

As an aside, I used to frequently glide into the last turn as the starting player with my 13 power card, move the king to my advantage and score huge points. Over the years, others have been trying to do the same, so we keep having to start earlier and earlier with the low power cards in order to control the bidding. This week, I managed to pull it off after several games where I failed (Shemp is usually the one who steals it from me), but I had to start in round 5 for it to work. Pretty soon, we'll start off the game with our power cards all planned out for the final round!

Beowulf

Beowulf has been a game that has sat on my trade pile for quite some time, despite the fact that I like it. I didn't think the group liked it much, and the odd pairing of theme and mechanics prevented me from introducing it to others. Turns out that many in the group did like it, but thought I had traded it away long ago so they never requested it. Since I had it in the bag of games, Shemp thought it was time to try it out again (the last time was January 2008).

It's hard to pinpoint exactly why, but I particularly enjoyed this session. The risking felt right, in the sense that it worked often but people who risked too often did get bit on occasion. The was an epic battle at the end at the dragon, which saw many players pull out all the stops and some engage in high stakes risking. Shemp and I where both in a tight spot because we both had two wounds and two scratches, so in order to not suffer the exorbitant penalty for ending the game with three wounds we both NEEDED to stay in longer than the other. When the dust settled, I made managed to stay in longer than he did (almost outlasting Kozure and Luch despite their substantially bigger starting hands), but ultimately luck didn't last quite long enough. When we tallied the score at the end of the game, it initially looked like Luch was the victor. However, Shemp pointed out how he would have won if he had been the start player for the last two endgame encounters, which prompted me to revisit the last few turns and I realized that he was, in fact, the starting player due to the result of that dragon battle. Shemp won.

It's worth noting that Shemp had SO MANY POINTS that he would have almost won despite the -15 point penalty even if we hadn't noticed the error. He had obviously picked up a lot of 3 VP scrolls over the course of the game! I've always assumed that if you had three wounds you might as well not bother counting points, I guess I was wrong.

Anyway, after such a fun session, I'll be removing it from the trade pile.

PREvenge (Zooloretto, Perikles, Beowulf, Ra)

PREvenge: The act of exacting revenge for something another player may do in the future.

A new year, another new term which should see much circulation amongst Wagsters in 2008 (2007 was unquestionably the year of "Bharmering", though "Swedish Betrayal" also made a strong showing).

Our first Wags gathering of 2008 was a very good one. We were able to start a little earlier than normal since most of us aren't working this week, so we were able to get a good number of games in.

Zooloretto

Zooloretto is the Spiel de Jares winner for last year. It's a game about building a zoo aimed squarely at a family audience. It's a simple exercise of drawing animal tiles and trying to fill your pens constrained by the fact that each one must be single species. There are various details which add some decision making, such as the fertility of some animals, currency which allows you to swap animals, purchase them from other players, etc. There are also vending stalls which add another method of scoring points. When I was playing it, I was sure it reminded me of something, but couldn't quite place it... Ra maybe? Not sure (I haven't played Coloretto, the card game Zooloretto is based on, so that's not it). The drafting and aquiring of tiles is similar: each round you essentially draw a tile and place it in a truck, or take all the tiles in a truck. You might therefore be tempted to take a truck before it's full just to get a particular tile you really need, or you might find yourself cursing because a tile you want is accompanied by one you don't.

It's a good family game. There are decisions to be made, it's not too complicated. and it's quite attractive (I especially like the box cover). I tried a three player game with my 4.5 year old son and he said he liked it, but it seemed to me to be a bit beyond him so I guess it's probably best suited for 5/6 and up. For a group of adult gamers, it's fun but not mindblowing.

Perikles

Perikles is a game by the same designer as Way Out West and Conquest of the Empire (as well as Age of Steam and many other games which we have not played as a group). His designs tend to be characterized by fairly lengthly play, moderately heavy rules/ strategy and intricate interelationships between the mechanics of the game. They also often walk the line between a german style game and an american style one. Perikles is no different.

Perikles is a game of politics and combat in Greece during the Peloponesian war. The rather sparse board shows 6 greek city states where players vie for political control (using an interesting twist on area majority where the win goes to the player who has the biggest presence AND has been nominated as leader there). Once the leaders of each city-state are determined, those players receive their armies and go to war. Each city-state's army has it's characteristics... Sparta has a powerful army, Athens has an enormous fleet, etc. Once the wars are resolved, players who won battles get VPs and then the leaders of all the city-states have statues erected in their honour. The trick is that every loss a city-state suffers reduces it's prestige, so the endgame VPs those statues give a player go down if it loses. Rinse and repeat 3 times. It all boils down to a game where each decision has an impact on many aspects of the game and, like Way Out West, most decisions that help you will often hurt you elsewhere. A couple of examples:

1) If you are elected leader of a city-state, your presence there will be severely weakened there for the next round.
2) If you were once the leader of a city state, your statue there gives you motivation to help defend it in the future even if it's not currently yours (to keep that city's prestige high)

In our game, the first round saw Luch lead his army to several victories so we were all weary of him as the early leader (my only army was thebes, and I was soundly crushed in three battles so that particular already unspectacular army became even worse). The second round was mostly "bash Athens" due to the battles we drew. By the end of the that round, it became clear that Shemp's many leaders on the board would net him many points unless those cities were handed a few defeats before the end of the game. We did what we could, but Shemp prevailed (and a key win in that last round with the odds slightly against him didn't help). PREvenge, the title of the blog, was used when Shemp decided to screw Luch through a political nomination in anticipation of a move he was sure Luch would do to him. Honestly, as much as we laughed about the concept of "PREvenge", I can't remember if his hunch was right.

The group loved this game... I was pretty unsure about the purchase after reading the rules (it was an impulse buy at the Fantasy Flight christmas sale for $10), so it was a bit of a relief to actually play it. Trying to piece together how to place your influence in the cities, where to nominate yourself, how to try and get weak opponents nominated against you, deciding which battles to fight, which to defend, etc, makes for a deep and satisfying puzzler that succesfully walks the line between euro strategy and wargame immersion. Personally, I was engrossed in a similar way that I tend to get with El Grande, but on a somewhat larger scale (that's a compliment). At 2-3 hours, we won't be playing that often, but I get the feeling we'll be seeing it again in the not too distant future.

We ended the evening with a game of Beowulf which Kozure won (man, oh man where the risks not on my side!). Looks like he may have regained the knack that allowed him to dominate us for the first few games... Despite my awful showing, I still really enjoy this game. I'm glad I ignored the negative hype and bought it.

Finally, we ended with a very fun session of Ra. Kozure also won this one after a lengthy drought.

A great beginning to the new year. Here's hoping it's a good one.

So, Grendel Ate My Legs... Again.

Christofer Marcusson the Battle-Scarred rolled over in his cot of straw and stared at his guest, one rheumy eye drilling a hole of intensity into the young thane, the other eye-socket a mass of healed burns and claw scars.

"Aye, young thane. I travelled with Beowulf Grendel-slayer in my youth. But beware, says I; The path to glory leads but to the halls of Valhalla, or the sodden bunk of a battered old man."

Marcusson sat up gingerly, leg stumps dangling where powerful calves once donned thick leather boots.

"I have dined in the halls of Hrothgar-King, and I have heard the fell screams of the Sea Hag. I drained full the draughts of the victory over the great Dragon when the great Geat himself fell."

A shadow passed over his one good eye, "and aye, I carried him on his shield to his cremation. He met his doom like a warrior, not as an old and useless churl."

"So hear my tale and know that not all who would sail into glory die happy or in the heat of battle."

Beowulf plus Taj Mahal, two fine auction/bidding games from Knizia, paired up to be our gaming entertainment last week. Unfortunately, as the intro to this entry alludes, my foray into Beowulf was not as successful as previous efforts. I had won both of our previous games with scores in the 40s (or thereabouts). This time I limped away from the final chapter with something like 14 points. At least I avoided the dreaded three-wound penalty of -5 points per wound, which would've probably put me into the negative. Shemp came away with this one, though I believe Easy and Bharmer weren't too far behind. About halfway through, my main goal morphed from coming in first to not being last, which is never a good sign.

This does bring up the question of whether it's very possible to come back after an early game disaster (or disasters) in Beowulf. I suppose later games will tell. I still enjoyed this game, but more from a survival perspective rather than a competition for first standpoint. I just felt like I was almost constantly fighting to keep my head above water (avoiding additional wounds and scratches) instead of being able to gain new cards and points.

This game is both more competitive and shorter than Knizia's previous game with a similar mechanic, Lord of the Rings. I enjoy both, but for very different reasons.

Taj Mahal falls into the category of games which I admire from a design point of view, but don't find very engaging personally. Once again, after falling behind early, I felt like I was largely out of the running for the remainder of the game. There are mechanics to assist in this regard, so I don't intend this as a criticism (yet). Maybe after two or three more games. Easy and Shemp duked it out for first, with Shemp coming in first, I believe and Bharmer not too far behind.

A bad night for me, but enjoyable for friendship and gaming in general as always.

Partially inspired by playing the game this week, I rented "Beowulf and Grendel" (2005 Canadian-Danish-UK co-production) on the weekend. It's not bad - a few great lines and a few real clunkers. Sarah Polly in particular seems out of place. Worth watching, though.

"Fusion" games (Mission: Red Planet, Space Dealer, Beowulf)

To a certain extent, all new games owe a debt to previous ones... whether it's an elaboration of an old game mechanic, a variation on a theme, or a refinement of a game system. However, recently we've played games which seem to wear their inspirations so prominently that they feel more like combinations of other games, rather than wholly original works. Three such games are Mission: Red Planet, Beowulf and Vegas Showdown. I've started calling these "fusion" games, for whatever reason. I have nothing against this sort of game! As long as the result is fun, and different enough from it's sources to be worth pulling off the shelf, I'm happy to play them.

I thought it would be fun to combine them into a gaming session. JayWowzer was in attendence this evening (though Bharmer was not), and he brought along Space Dealer. Space dealer is definitely NOT what I would classify as a "Fusion" game... I haven't really played anything like it! Still, themes are meant to be broken, right?

Mission: Red Planet (Citadels + El Grande)

We started off with Mission: Red Planet. I drew the mission card with a bonus for having the most astronauts on Mars, so I decided to make that my guiding principle for the game. I figured I would pick the roles offering the most astronauts, and then use the prospector a few times to maximize their use. That didn't happen.

Maybe I'm missing something, but an earlier irritation of mine came back: there is something odd (and unsatisfying) about the number and types of roles! The penalty for playing the prospector (only placing one astronaut, no other ability), is simply to strong to allow a player to use him twice. If the powers of the other characters were of wildly different strengths, then I could see swallowing the penalty in order to get the powerful ones back, but as it is all the roles are normally usefull at all times. If I have the soldier left, I'll remove another player's astronaut, if I have the temptress, I'll convert another player's astronaut. Changing the destination and blowing up a ship are both usefull and disruptive. The scientist has it's place. etc, etc. All are useful, but none so much that I would pick the prospector twice to see it three times (for example). So, the game becomes: which one or two roles will I use twice, and when will I make the switch (which follows that every game will see each player play each role once over the course of the game)? That's too bad, because it seems like it would be interesting to build an alternate strategy out of recycling the same characters to achieve a specific goal.

Anyway, I played the scientist early, and it netted me a second mission card (have an astronaut in each of the eastern regions). I focussed on fulfilling those missions, but watched as my spaceships routinely got redirected to other regions (seriously, it happened several times). I actually quite enjoy this aspect of the game. This is area control done with a healthy dose of chaos, but it is fun as long as it's played fast. I found myself mostly in competition with Jaywowzer in the East, and since my ships kept getting redirected I was constantly in competition with Luch in the north-west (a region I had no interest in, yet which had nearly half my astronauts!!!). Shane had free reign of the south-west and Luch was sitting quietly in the center all on his own (two ice regions). Kozure had his eyes on the north and south poles.

When the dust settled, Shemp was the winner by a nose. He had 37, Kozure and I had 35. Things might have been different if Jaywowzer and I hadn't placed astronauts in Luch's center regions on the last turn... he had a major bonus for any regions he solely occupied (not a card either of us were familiar with. We'll be more careful in the future).

Space Dealer

We followed with Space Dealer. I'm not going to get into detail, but this is an odd one. Players each have a ship and a home base. They each develop their home base in order to be able to produce resources. They then take their resources and deliver them to another player's home base in order to sell them. Victoy points are aquired by 1) being the player to have sold the goods another player's base needed, and 2) having a section of your base receive what it wants by another player.

Therefore, you win by building a base others want to deliver to, and by beating other players to satisfying the needs of other bases. Nothing terribly special yet.

The game stands out because of the way it deals with time. A game will always last 30 minutes, because it comes with a CD which must be played along with the game. When it ends, the game ends. Secondly, each player gets two sand timers. When they want to take an action, they place a sand timer on the item they want to build/ move or use to produce a good. When the timer ends, the effect happens and the timer can be moved to another location. In other words, there are no turns. There is no downtime. No time to analyse, so no analysis-paralysis.

Does it work? I have no idea. In our first (and only) game, I committed so many mistakes that it was embarrassing. I would place my timer on resource production, only to realize that since my ship was gone all the resources would go to waste. I would put my timer on a new section for my base, only to realize I couldn't fit it anywhere. I'm pretty sure others were doing the same. It was fun, in a wacky sort of way. There was tension in trying to orchestrate things to produce the right goods and then send your ship to the other player's base before the guy across from you could do the same. A few times I would be waiting with my hand next to the timer, staring at Kozure's across from me, watching the sand go down to see who would make it first to Luch's base and satisfy the request (since you have to focus so much on what you are doing, it's not uncommon to go through the trouble of producing something and start delivering it, only to discover it's no longer available or someone else is trying to do the same thing at the same time). Anyway, it was fun and definitely a change of pace.

Beowulf (Lord of the Rings + Taj Mahal)

We finished up with our second playing of Beowulf. We corrected a rule we played incorrectly last time: players can risk once EVERY TIME an auction comes around to them (we were playing that each player could only risk once per auction). Still not that familiar with the board, but certainly it helped to know roughly what was ahead. With the risking system properly implemented, the tone of the game really changed. The first circular auction (Grendel's attack) was a brutal, long battle which saw players risking turn after turn. I've read that the odds of failing a risk is roughly 30%. I think that it must be less than that (15-20%, perhaps?). That, or we all were quite lucky throughout the game! Either way, risking featured so prominently this game that it seemed our hand was roughly 50% of what was necessary to win any hotly contested auction. It was dramatic and exciting, and certainly fun, but also very luck heavy. Knowing Knizia, there is a way to win at Beowulf without risking too much, but it probably takes a much sharper player to win that way. Right now, I'm seeing this as a game where you stack the odds in your favour and hope things pan out (this is an aspect of RA which I really like... that you play the odds and do your best, but things can play out in unexpected ways despite your best layed plans. Despite this, the better player will win most of the games)

I actually had a lot of fun. Certainly, Kozure seems to know something we don't, because he won this second game as handily as the first! I limped into the end and managed a second last place (as opposed to my last place showing last time). He seemed to always work it out so that he'd have the right resources at the right time. He had his share of lucky draws, but so did the rest of us. I hope the risks stay fun, and don't become an annoyance (I know, I know, that those who play this game a lot say that this can all be controlled to a certain extent. I'm even willing to beleive it. Like Ra, percieved chaos is a frequent complaint levelled at the game). It only mention it because there was SO MUCH successful risking this game that I can't imagine the next would see less. I feel that risking should hurt a little more often, to make the decision to risk a little harder, but we'll see.

It was too late to play Vegas Showdown, but I'm sure we'll see it again soon. Thanks to JayWowzer for coming, and for being our connection hot new games!

Beowulf and Ideology

Two games tonight: Beowulf and Ideology

Beowulf is a game I've been curious about for some time, but couldn't justify the cost... opinions were simply to varied. Still, many people on the internet who's opinion I respect said it was great, so when I saw it on clearance I decided to take a chance.

Beowulf

The idea: The players are all accompanying Beowulf on his adventure, vying to impress him in order to be named his successor.

The components: The presentation of the game is very reminiscent of the Lord of the Rings. The layout of the cards is almost identical to that game (illustrations + a 1-4 symbols in the corner). The board, which is a very odd "L" shape, has a meandering path reminiscent of the scenario boards in LOTR. Of course, all the art on the board and the cards is by John Howe and this further increases the resemblance. A plastic figure representing Beowulf and various good quality cardboard components (treasures, fame points, wounds, etc) round out the package. One complaint: the graphic design could have been better. The text on the board is far too small, and the symbols for auction results should have been 10% bigger to accomodate the place markers. Definitely a case of form over function.

The mechanics: The game is structured around a linear path containing approx. 30 major and minor "episodes" from the book. Players will have to manage their hand of cards and compete in auctions along the way. Ultimately, the goal is to acquire the most laurels, but there are many paths available to obtain them. A second preoccupation is that players can get wounded or cursed along the way, and these can potentially reduce a player's score.

Major episodes are the main focus of the game. Each is an auction of some type, and a number of results equal to the number of players are on offer. The winner of the auction gets first pick, 2nd place picks next (and so on). It's worth noting that while certain items are definitely going to be worth more to one player than another (according to the strategy they are pursuing, for example), some of the results are simply better than others. This means that there is definitely incentive to to do well (and often definite incentive NOT to do poorly), but the value of the options will often be different for each player.

Minor episodes are typically opportunities between the major episodes to acquire or convert resources in order to better face the challenges ahead.

Risking: A central concept in the game is "taking a Risk". In many circumstances, a player can flip two cards in the hopes of turning up one or two particular symbols. If they succeed, there is a beneficial result (such as adding the cards to the player's hand, or contributing the cards to the current auction). If they fail, they get a "scratch".

Scratches and Wounds: Scratches are most often acquired as a result of a failed "Risk", but are also quite common the result of placing last (or second last) in an auction. 3 scratches equal a wound. 1 or 2 wounds do not affect your score, but 3 wounds or more come with an enormous penalty.

Thoughts on the Game

First of all, comparisons to LOTRs are superficial at best. Other than appearances, and some of the hand management mechanics, this is a totally different game. It's also been compared to RA, but ultimately I think it reminds me most of Taj Mahal. Both games revolve around a linear path of auctions (though the initial setup in Taj is random). Both have, as principal challenges, to manage a hand of cards in such a way as to have what you need, when you need it. Both require advanced planning in order to look down the road, choose the fights you want to win, and those you are willing to lose. Both offer various paths to victory, and the relative worth of the items up for auction changes according to the paths you are taking.

Also, like Taj, the game can initially seem uncontrollable (or, more accurately, that card draws are controlling you). However, there are enough hand management opportunities that I don't really feel this is the case. If you want to conserve cards for an auction which matters to you, don't get drawn into spending them on those that don't !

Obviously, the specifics differ quite a lot (there is no board play in Beowulf, and nothing equivalent to "Risking" in Taj. Auctions are handled completely differently), but it would be interesting to see if a player inclined to do well at one would do well in the other.

The linear,static layout of the board makes me wonder if the game will eventually get repetitive, but ironically it's cited as a strength by those who like it. I imagine the idea is that players can begin to know what is important, what to anticipate, etc. I wonder if this means that eventually the game would boil down to playing against groupthink? (i.e. everyone has decided that auction A is not worth fighting over, but auction C is crucial. Do you go for A because it will be easy, and let others waste resources fighting over C?). Hard to say. Would Taj Mahal be better if the layout was the same every time? Another bone of contention is the "Risk" system. Does it introduce too much luck? Again, I didn't think so. The system adds a level of excitement to the game, and yet punishment for over-risking is real. I'd be curious to know if a player who chose to never risk had as much chance to win as someone who risked at every opportunity, or whether the optimum strategy lies somewhere in between. Knowing Knizia, all three are viable in some way!

Because of all the dissenting opinion at BGG, I really expected this to be a "Love it or Hate it" experience. It really wasn't. I found the game to be good, but not great (a little like Tower of babel before it... the game works, it's enjoyable, but not overly compelling). Still, it seemed to be generally well received by the rest of the group (Shemp declared it to be "roughly a million times better than Lord of the Rings"). Since repeated playing are said to be necessary to really appreciate the game, I'll definitely be picking it again next week to see if it gets better.

Session

I played horribly my first time out. I acquired 2 cursed (-2 score markers) early on, and did not manage to get many laurels along the way. I think I was focusing so much on a few auctions near the end that I ignored the rest (being happy to just avoid scratches and wounds). I did have a spectacular "Risk" where I played a special card which allowed me to turn 5 cards instead of 3, netting me a starting bid of 5! Surprisingly, Kozure and Luch still made me work for 1st place in that auction, but it cost them far more cards than it did me. I had plans to accumulate enough treasure to get the All iron shield, and then hoard cards to win the dragon battle and the highest number of symbols at the end. Somehow, I lost track of all that and limped into the end of the game in last place. Along the way, Luch distinguished himself as the largest Risk taker (getting hurt early and often, but managing to heal himself enough to avoid serious detriment). Kozure did very well and came in a distant first.

Ideology

This was our 3rd or 4th playing of Ideology, but our 1st with 5 players. As the communist, I had the much feared "Iron Curtain" ability. It's a powerful advantage, and with it the red army has won every game we've had save one (our last game, when everyone wised up to the danger and made sure Russia didn't have a chance). Lucky for me, time has assuaged these fears, and I was allowed to play as freely as the others.

As far as Ideology games go, this one was rather straightforward. Most people concentrated on their own goals, and conflict over countries was mostly left to the end of the game. I brought Russia to 6, took over Central Europe and Scandinavia... bringing me to 10. Shemp's capitalists stole Central Europe away, but luckily Vietnam became available and I grabbed it. With the capitalists and bharmer's Islamics all reaching the goal of twelve on the same turn as me, I purchased a weapon of mass destruction giving me the win with 13 points.

Ideology continues to be a fun world conquest game. It's obviously a great opportunity to ham it up and role play the stereotypes, making for a lot of laughter... but the game system is compelling as well. I keep feeling that there is potential for a never ending cycle of "bash the leader" at the end of the game, but only one of our sessions have had this problem so it's probably just in my head.