Eleven O'Clock Shadow (Pillars of the Earth, In the Shadow of the Emperor)

In a satisfying Western Middle Ages-themed evening, we played two games new to the group: Pillars of the Earth and In the Shadow of the Emperor.

Pillars of the Earth is a game for 2-4 which evokes the trials and tribulations of building a late Romanesque/Early Gothic cathedral in 12th Century England.

Based on the novel by writer Ken Follett, players need not have read the source material to enjoy the game. I'll skip exacting details of the rules, but here's a general overview:

Players seem to be competing teams of craftsmen and workers trying to contribute most successfully to the construction of a cathedral. Turn order is determined initially by random selection.

Players then draft resource and craftsmen cards from a common market in turn order from the start player, which determines which craftsmen are hired (at a cost) and which resources their workers (labourers) will harvest in the upcoming turn.

Subsequent "round order" is determined by a fairly original blind draw method, which gives each player the option to select their action when their pawn is drawn from a bag by paying a set cost or passing. The cost decreases with each draw, each player having three pawns in the bag and selection (followed by payment or passing) continuing until all pawns of all players have accounted for an action. Players who pass on the opportunity to pay for an action select an action for the pawn much later in the round for no cost

The rest of the game is a sort of resource management and task optimization game - you need X number of Y type of material to get Z number of victory points - different craftsmen deliver different ratios of material (or gold) to VP (or occasionally gold) conversion. Other action/locations confer other benefits (gold for each worker at the Wool house, 1 or 2 VP at the Priory, skip random events at the Abbot's house, and so on).

After determining play order, the players conduct 17 (!) steps in each round - at each "stop" along the path, taking the actions in the order indicated by the placement of the pawns during the action draw mechanic. You resolve events, get paid, take VP, harvest resources, draw new craftsmen, gain temporary workers, sell or buy materials and convert said materials (as desired) into VPs, then determine the start player for the next round.

The game is fun and thematic but has a number of random elements which can significantly alter player success quite independently of their skill in playing the game. The pawn draw action order mechanic is the first heavily random element. Second is the material selection cards. Third is the craftsman cards, a fourth is privilege cards and the event cards also insert a considerable amount of luck to play. Now, I'm not against randomness on principal and in this case it seems to fit well with the theme, but it does get to be a little much. Balancing against the randomness (and in the designer's defence) you can select actions or use strategy to avoid being hurt drastically by either random events or the craftsmen/resource/privileges which you either receive or manage to miss. However, you cannot escape the fact that luck can be a major factor in your success or failure.

I like the look and general feel of the game. The round timer (a miniature, stylized wooden cathedral) is overdone but fun to use and gives a good sense of progress. Play is relatively quick (once you get the general concepts down) despite the drawn-out action selection process.

Overall, a decent game (if not something which grabbed me like Imperial did) with good production values and solid gameplay. Looking forward to additional plays.

From very random to not so random at all, In the Shadow of the Emperor is an area-influence game with some aspects of Way Out West, Intrige and a number of other area-influence games.

Players are powerful aristocratic families in Mediaeval Germany, vying for power and high political office in the Elector states of the Holy Roman Empire. One player is chosen at random as starting Emperor, but from that point onward, no randomness intrudes. Players place barons and knights into positions, and then have the option to conduct actions which move, negate, age, marry, promote (and so on) the barons and knights so as to achieve enough power in each of the three ecclesiastical states and four secular states to elect the emperor. Various machinations affect their positioning, along with an interesting mechanic for aging nobles, essentially putting a timer on how long you can hold onto power in each state.

The game suffers to some degree from a rulebook with some bad translations and oversights, but generally it's a challenging and very strategic game with a lot of direct player competition and intrigue. Some might criticize the clockwise-from-the-Emperor turn order mechanic, as seating position and initial Emperor selection can have a great effect on the outcome, but you can't complain about randomness in the game itself. Play continued past the 11:30 PM mark in order for us to be able to finish the game, but no one seemed anxious to abort the game early, which is always a promising sign.

Since the strategic depth is so great (and the gameplay mechanics relatively light) this is a game where multiple plays are possible and desirable for best appreciation. I hope this one gets that privilege.

In non-WAGS news but still game-related, I managed to get in a game of 1960: The Making of the President which is only two-player but worth mentioning. I had traded a few of my older and seldom-played wargames for 1960, which is an area influence game with a card-driven strategy mechanic and a wargame-y feel. Players take the roles of Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy in the American presidential election of 1960. It's sort of a re-themed version of the designer's earlier game, Twilight Struggle, but the games differ enough to be different games, while being similar enough to make transition from one to the other quite smooth.

I like Twilight Struggle more, of the two, but 1960 is no slouch either, and well worth owning, if only for its gorgeous production values, clear rules and concise player references.

Conspiracy. Intrige. Paranoia.

3 games. I think the "theme" is clear. Italian Sausages, clearly a "suspicious" food, provided sustenance.

In attendance: Easy, Kozure, Luch, Shemp, Sonja.

Kozure hadn't yet arrived, so we started with Conspiracy (a 4 player game). We settled into our roles (I was Paris, Shemp was Tokyo, Luch was Washington and Sonja, new to the game, flexed her command of the German language as Berlin).

Brief recap: Conspiracy is a game where each player represents a major power who wants to reclaim a secret briefcase located at the center of the board. 12 spies (each with a terrible pun for a name), occupy the board... but they aren't controlled by particular players. Instead, the players are given $10 000 to "bribe" the spies to do their bidding. Since bribing is secret, no one ever really knows which spy is working for who until someone tries to make a move someone else doesn't want. And since additional bribes can be made throughout the game, loyalties shift.

As is often the case in this game, the likely winner changed several times over the course of the game. There aren't many "steps" between the center of the board and a player's home base (3 being the shortest route, I think), so it's not uncommon for the briefcase to move a single square and have everyone suddenly realize that a particular player is suddenly in a position to win.

My memory is hazy (as always), but I beleive I blew "Peking Tom"'s cover fairly early on... a character several players had invested heavily into. With "Miss Behavin'" nearby I tried a quick snatch and grab of the suitcase towards Paris but was intercepted. Soon after, Shemp looked like a threat as a series of characters under his sway gathered near Tokyo and seemed unstoppable. Through cooperation, we managed to get it out... and into Sonja's territory. She was within one move of winning, but it was not to be.... Luch, who's initial large investment in "Rock Bottom" seemed to be going to waste (since NO ONE was moving him anywhere), was pleasantly surprised to see that character suddenly find himself with the case 2 squares from his base. We had no way of stopping him.

Next up was Intrige. This was our first game with 5 players (Kozure had arrived by now), and the dynamics are quite different with an odd number of players! In a 4 player game, 2 pairs of players usually end up helping each other (using the term loosely!). With 5 players, things aren't quite as even, and "Friendships" (again, used loosely) come and go much faster. Backs were stabbed all around, and I can't think of any particular alliances which lasted more than a turn or two (Though my France saw a lot of Shemp's American employees, and vice versa, until the final few turns). Shemp had the unfortunate luck of being deemed the leader early on and was hopelessly shut out for the 2nd half of the game because of it. Sonja and I managed to accumulate quite a bit of wealth as things went on, but I ended the game with a very tiny lead for the win.

Last up was was Paranoia, Mandatory "Bonus Fun" Card game. I was pleasantly surprised last time as this seemed to be a decent game, for a "Take That" system. I liked that the "missions" focused the card play rather than letting it be a free for all. I liked that each player had objectives which would naturally lead to backstabbing, chaos and "general hilarity". It seemed to work, and we laughed a lot, so I was happy with the purchase (despite some of the obvious shortcomings concerning graphic design and play length issues). Having played it a second time, though, I'm not so sure. For whatever reason,things weren't "clicking". We kept forgetting the fiddly rules about discarding treason counters for exposing/killing traitors. We missplayed the way characters are meant to come back to the game after they get killed. etc, etc. I looked through the ruledbook too many times for a game of this "weight". Also, I had more hands filled with cards I couldn't use than last time. All these things contributed to a hand that wasn't much fun. I hope to try it again, with a cheat sheet at my side, but it's not likely to get many more chances if it goes like that again.

Random, Semi-Random and Un-Random (?)

An unusually abstract theme for Kozure this week: Degrees of randomness.

We played three games for the first time: Sid Sackson's "Can't Stop", Cheap Ass Games' "U.S. Patent #1" and Stefan Dorra's "Intrige". Each game is progressively less random than the last.

Can't Stop is a simple game which I would describe as "Yahtzee" Level fun. It's very random, but enjoyable for what it is. The theme is pasted on, but it ostensibly involves climbers going up a mountain. The first to reach the top of three peaks wins. The reality is that the game shows a spread of numbers from 2 to 12, distributed roughly (or exactly?) in columns according to the odds of rolling them (there are three 2s and 12s, four 3s and 11s, etc). On your turn, you roll 4 dice and pair them up into two totals and place a marker on those two numbers. You have a total of three markers to place... and therefore three numbers which can be advanced each turn. You can roll as often as you want, but if you ever roll the dice and wind up with a combination which doesn't let you advance a marker... you lose all your progress so far. Knowing when to pull out is the heart of the game (because when you pull out, you get to fix your markers at that spot on the column)

Most of us spent a few rounds pushing our luck too far and staying right at the bottom of the mountain for longer than we should have. Afterwards, we were more reasonable and the race was fairly close. Kozure did have the lead for much of the game, and in the end he won handily. A fun, light game.

Next up was U.S. Patent #1. The crux of this one is that players represent inventors who have created a machine for time travel, and they are racing through time to go back to the U.S. Patent office in order to file the very first patent ever (before the other players can). I won't get into the specifics of the mechanics, but essentially, each player has a Time Machine in need of 4 parts: A power source, a chassis, a weapon and a shield (... because clearly every time machine should have a weapon and a shield...). Once a player has that, he/she can go to the patent office in the 19th century and take a ticket to stand in line and wait to be called by the clerk (in plain english: when you get there, roll the dice. The result is the number of turns you have to wait to submit your patent). During the course of the game, players hop from one time period to another, stealing items from laboratories and buying items found at markets (in order to equip their time machines). Along the way, players can attack each others with their unholy contraptions in order to slow each other's progress.

As the theme prescribed, this is a game which has a healthy dose of randomness, but it also involves a certain amount of decision making and players can somewhat determine their fate. As with most Cheap Ass games, the idea is humourous, the gameplay is humorous, the components are cheap and the game play is so-so. I didn't feel that this one worked terribly well on a "mechanics" level, and it didn't seem to be as effective at being humorous either. The rest of the group liked this one better than I did, but I felt that there was a certain pointlessness to the whole thing. Not bad, but not great.

I spent too much time combing the libraries looking for the chassis which matched the huge power supply I scored by accident early in the game (it's not necessary to match them, but there are bonuses if you do so). Meanwhile, Luch and Shemp built less expensive Time Machines out of missmatched parts and headed for the patent office. I made a few attempts to stop the leaders with my big gun (which can shoot forward in time to disable vehicle upgrades), but failed. In the end, Luch made it first and wasn't seriously challenged... winning with Shemp hot on his heels.

Last up was Intrige. There is NO luck in this game, aside from what the players personalities and choices bring to it. I was looking forward to this one, because the rules and reputation suggested a deceptively simple game which could result in a strange and potentially harrowing experience... and it delivered. The rules are short and sweet: You have 8 relatives looking for work (4 professions, 2 relatives in each profession). you also have 4 jobs available for other player's relatives to fill. Since there are half as many jobs as there are relatives, many will be out of luck. On a player's turn, there are three phases: First, he collects income for any positions his relatives hold. The second phase is where it gets interesting... If there are any of the other player's relatives at his company looking for work, he must decide who to employ, and who to send to prison (prison= out of the game). In order to sway his decision, the other players involved can make compliments, promise future consideration, make threats, etc... and then finally, in turn order, those players make a bribe to the player. The acting player then TAKES ALL THE MONEY, and makes his decision. The decision regarding who to employ is COMPLETELY UP TO THE PLAYER. He is not bound by the player who made the biggest bribe, cut the best deal or offered the most compelling promises. He is not bound by anything he said during the negotiations. It's kinda evil, in fact. For the record, there are a couple of rules dictating that no two relatives of one profession can exist at each company (spurring yet more bribes and threats)and that a player HAS to offer a position if it's available and not contested. In the third phase, the player simply sends two of his remaining relatives to other player's companies. At the end of five rounds of placing relatives, collecting cash and resolving the hiring of employees, a final round of income takes place and the game ends. Most money wins.

Wow. What an interesting game. This is a very pure game of diplomacy and cut throat treachery. For this reason, I think this would be a definitive "Love or Hate" game, because many people would take this stuff personally and wind up hurt. If you can take your knife in the back and smile, then this game is for you. You have to pick up on the subtleties of each player's personality, read how current events can shape future ones and bribe players/ strategise the order of deployment of your relatives to suit. In our first session, Shemp and I made an early alliance which proved mutually lucrative, distancing ourselves from Luch and Kozure. About halfway through the game, Shemp kicked me out in favour of the others and I did the same. Kozure climbed back on top (by being the "Least hated" and therefore winding up with a lot of high positions). He made a PILE of money on the last few turns, while Shemp made very little and I made a medium amount. When the dollars were counted, my early winnings carried me through and I came in first by a few dollars. In the second game, Kozure and I started out down a similar path of mutual back-scratching that had helped me and Shemp in the first game. I planted my daggar firmly in Kozure's back just before his third turn, having made two rounds of high earnings, so that he wouldn't get the benefit of his second round of cash (I kicked him out of two positions on my board). My hopes of a second alliance with Shemp after that were shafted since he percieved me as the early leader and routinely passed me over for positions. I couldn't successfully repair relations with Kozure, and Luch had a firm alliance with Shemp, so I again had a poor showing in the second half. Shemp won the game with a convincing lead.

I thought about this one for several days after the fact.

Can't Stop: 7
U.S. Patent #1: 5
Intrige: 9