Few games strike fear in the hearts of Wagsters like LOTR w/ Sauron expansion.
Well, that may not be exactly true. In the case of Shemp, this game inspires hatred. Our first play was a pretty brutal experience, since we tried to play it with the "black tiles" mini-expansion... and it was way too hard. That was February 2005. I happen to really like it, and so I took the opportunity of Shemp's temporary absence to give it a second shot.
After a quick game of of Wheedle (which continues to be a fun game, BTW) I again took the role of Sauron.
Lord of the Rings w/ Sauron expansion
The 4 hobbits (Kozure, Bharmer, Ouch and JayWowzer) undertook the hopeless quest. Moria was quite difficult for them. As they clawed thier way through the mines, Frodo became seriously corrupted and the Nazgul had succeeded in finding him (although he didn't make it back in time to end the game). Luckily for the hobbits, Helm's Deep and Shelob's Lair proved much easier. Things were looking pretty good for the halflings: Merry, barely corrupted, held the ring. The Nazgul found them once more, but again did not make it back. The fellowship hadn't yet been forced to resort to calling Gandalf or using many of their powers.
Then, in Mordor, it all went to hell. A substantially corrupted Sam unwillingly inherented The Ring at the conclusion of Shelob's Lair. What's worse, Jaywowzer drew many "bad" tiles on his turn (he was only the second player to act on that board, and by the time he was done there were 5 bad tiles drawn). I had been saving up cards to hit them hard at the end, and the combination was overwhelming. They were crushed just a few steps into Mordor.
I'm really happy I was able to play this again. The Sauron character is lots of fun to play, but the experience is quite different than the other players simply because victory is virtually assured... it's more a question of "when". I was frankly quite surprised at how easily the group made it to Mordor. I was doing my best, but they seemed to easily absorb my attacks (well, not easily, but I didn't really feel like they were struggling THAT hard). It's a bit of a hollow victory that the game was essentially handed to me by several unfortunate draws by JayWowzer. Oh well, the fun is in the experience with this one.
I do wish there was a way to eliminate the possibility of a long line of bad draws, particularly at the beginning of a scenario.
Mall of horror
We finished up the evening with Mall of Horror. Luch locked up the Security Headquarters in the initial placement, and with virtually no zombies attacking he was able to stay there. This meant the Luch was the Security Officer for most of the game.
Hapless movie extras scurried from one location to the next, hot bimbos gathered at the "toy" shop, zombies arrived "en mass". JayWowser had a bad run and was nearly eliminated early on. Then Bharmer found himself with no survivors and gleefully placed zombies on the board until the game ended. As the survivors dwindled, the security Headquarters and the Parking Lot were the places to be. I had my bimbo left, and was holding 2 cards, so I won the tie-breaker against Kozure.
I was a little dissapointed at the lack of deal-making during this session. It seemed that the result of nearly every zombie meal was a foregone conclusion. Not sure why it happened this way, but the theory is that Luch's lock on security combined with the surpringly low volume of Zombies to that room should be blamed for "breaking the game" a little.
Showing posts with label LOTR: Sauron. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LOTR: Sauron. Show all posts
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Sauron. Tough.
This week saw an edition of WAGS dedicated to the German master designer Reiner Knizia (He is responsible for some of my favorite games, particularly Tigris & Euphrates). The games for the evening were Lord of the Rings (With Sauron expansion), and Modern Art
In keeping with the german theme, we had delicious sausage with sauerkraut(less related, but still close, were mushroom and cabbage filled perogies)!!!
First up was Sauron. Some of the group had experience with the base game (as well as Friends and Foes), but Shemp in particular hadn't really played. Even to those familiar with the original, this was the first time we had played this particular expansion. Still, despite the warning in the rules (and Kozure's pleading), I went ahead and included all the bad tiles in our first go around... Of ocurse, I was later nominated to play Sauron, so that worked out just fine.
Since we haven't really played the original at a WAGS session, I'm going to start with my impressions of that. This is a game which really took me by surprise when I first played it. It's cooperative (all players work toghether to beat the game), which is highly unusual. It's a very abstract representation of the story. The boards are really attractive, and the corruption track is very appealing to me, but I was skeptical that all the "theme" provided by these things might be undermined by such an abstracted system. After playing a few times I feel that this game is not only very good, but actually accomplishes many things few games manage to do. I'll start with a complaint: the game is loaded with a few too many bits (cards of various functions, multiple boards, various tokens and minis, "money", the Ring, etc) and rules to go with each one. This gives the game a very "fiddly" feeling which I don't normally associate with Knizia's games. It also takes up a lot of space, with many distinct piles all over the place.
In a nutshell, aach player takes on the role of a hobbit, and collectively they work together to journey to Mount Doom to destroy the ring, without being killed, discovered by Sauron or corrupted by the Ring. A series of boards represent the various steps in the storyline, and markers on those boards identify the progress of the hobbits in various "main" and "Sub" missions. A track down the side of each board describes the nasty events which could occur in that scenario if the hobbits are unlucky and/or take too long. Players must randomly select tiles to see if the good or bad tracks advance, and then play cards out of their hands to help move things in the direction they want things to go. Money, represented as shields, can be accumulated to purchase "Gandalf" cards at any time, providing much needed reinforcements. The Ring can be put on to advance on a particular track without activating the spaces... at the cost of possible corruption. Resources representing firends and items can be picked up here and there to help the hobbits along. All the while, a "corruption" track starts with the hobbits at one end and Sauron on the other. If the ringbearer ever meets Sauron, the game ends. It's a very difficult quest, which basically boils down to management of a hand of cards and resources on the table (with an eye towards the bad things on the horizon and a strategy to overcome eahc scenario). Another interesting aspect is that the game plays solo quite well, and goes right up to 5 players (with very different strategies at each number).
This is the only game I've ever played which successfully conveyes a sense of desperation and a need for effective cooperation. It manages to create tension from the very beginning (It would have been very unfortunate if the first three boards were easy and/or irrelevant and things only got interesting at the end). When I play, I get a sense of how difficult the quest really is in the books. By the time I've crossed Moria, I often feel like there is no possible way I can make it. Still, there are many opportunties for reinforcements as the game progresses and if you play smart it is possible to finish successfully.
The Sauron expansion brings a whole new level of challenge. The players are no longer working together against the mechanics of the game. A player takes on the role of Sauron and can pay attention to the discussions and actions of the players and react to their weaknesses as they become apparent. The game also introduces a new threat on the corruption track... a Nazgul token which races towards the Ringbearer, and then races back to Mordor. If this happens before the end of the scenario, the game ends. Last, but not least, are a large number of new "Bad" tiles to throw into the mix to make the game even harder (the flipside of adding the extra tiles is that a player is no longer forced to accept the tile they draw... they can reject it and draw again. Unfortunately, they must take the second tile).
I REALLY liked the expansion. Playing Sauron is not easy, as opportunites are limited (he acts in a limited way at the beginning of each players turn. He only plays in his full capacity when players must roll the die... something they will work very hard never to have to do). It is very difficult to have the Nazgul reach the hobbits and return to Mordor in the course of one scenario (however, knowing what I know now, I would try to save that for the end when the hobbits are much closer. Seems obvious now!). On the other hand, I think that Sauron is likely to win most games, and the goal would be to see HOW FAR THE HOBBITS CAN GET (for score keeping, the Hobbit's score might be the space they were when they died, and Sauron's score would be 60-the highest hobbit's score, assuming "60" is the highest possible score. It might also be appropriate to shift his one way or the other to account for the relative difficulty of disposing of the players early... maybe 80-the highest hobbit's score, for example.) The additional black tiles make the game even harder than it normally would be. The new odds for getting a "good" tile drop from 50% to 20%, but in return the hobbits get to control their fate somewhat. While the net effect is certainly not in the hobbit's favour, I think that the choices make the system more balanced than it seems. Kozure, Shemp and Luch seemed very discouraged by the difficulty, however, so I think next time we'll try without them (personally, since I would be playing for a score rather than to "beat" the game, I would prefer to play WITH the extra tiles since I enjoy the added level of decision making, and the less predetermined series of events... but I can definitely see the other point of view).
Predictably, I won as Sauron. The hobbits did get all the way to Mordor, however, which means they were probably playing much better than I was.
Exhausted from the experience of Sauron, we moved on to Modern Art. I enjoyed it, as always, and even managed to pull a win (although slim, with Luch hot on my tail). As in Traders of Genoa, we are getting better at actually making money in this game. I still don't think I fully grasp how to swing the dynamics of the game in my favour as much as I could, but I'm learning! A fun game.
Ratings:
Lord of the Rings: 8.5
Lord of the Rings, Sauron Expansion: 8.5
In keeping with the german theme, we had delicious sausage with sauerkraut(less related, but still close, were mushroom and cabbage filled perogies)!!!
First up was Sauron. Some of the group had experience with the base game (as well as Friends and Foes), but Shemp in particular hadn't really played. Even to those familiar with the original, this was the first time we had played this particular expansion. Still, despite the warning in the rules (and Kozure's pleading), I went ahead and included all the bad tiles in our first go around... Of ocurse, I was later nominated to play Sauron, so that worked out just fine.
Since we haven't really played the original at a WAGS session, I'm going to start with my impressions of that. This is a game which really took me by surprise when I first played it. It's cooperative (all players work toghether to beat the game), which is highly unusual. It's a very abstract representation of the story. The boards are really attractive, and the corruption track is very appealing to me, but I was skeptical that all the "theme" provided by these things might be undermined by such an abstracted system. After playing a few times I feel that this game is not only very good, but actually accomplishes many things few games manage to do. I'll start with a complaint: the game is loaded with a few too many bits (cards of various functions, multiple boards, various tokens and minis, "money", the Ring, etc) and rules to go with each one. This gives the game a very "fiddly" feeling which I don't normally associate with Knizia's games. It also takes up a lot of space, with many distinct piles all over the place.
In a nutshell, aach player takes on the role of a hobbit, and collectively they work together to journey to Mount Doom to destroy the ring, without being killed, discovered by Sauron or corrupted by the Ring. A series of boards represent the various steps in the storyline, and markers on those boards identify the progress of the hobbits in various "main" and "Sub" missions. A track down the side of each board describes the nasty events which could occur in that scenario if the hobbits are unlucky and/or take too long. Players must randomly select tiles to see if the good or bad tracks advance, and then play cards out of their hands to help move things in the direction they want things to go. Money, represented as shields, can be accumulated to purchase "Gandalf" cards at any time, providing much needed reinforcements. The Ring can be put on to advance on a particular track without activating the spaces... at the cost of possible corruption. Resources representing firends and items can be picked up here and there to help the hobbits along. All the while, a "corruption" track starts with the hobbits at one end and Sauron on the other. If the ringbearer ever meets Sauron, the game ends. It's a very difficult quest, which basically boils down to management of a hand of cards and resources on the table (with an eye towards the bad things on the horizon and a strategy to overcome eahc scenario). Another interesting aspect is that the game plays solo quite well, and goes right up to 5 players (with very different strategies at each number).
This is the only game I've ever played which successfully conveyes a sense of desperation and a need for effective cooperation. It manages to create tension from the very beginning (It would have been very unfortunate if the first three boards were easy and/or irrelevant and things only got interesting at the end). When I play, I get a sense of how difficult the quest really is in the books. By the time I've crossed Moria, I often feel like there is no possible way I can make it. Still, there are many opportunties for reinforcements as the game progresses and if you play smart it is possible to finish successfully.
The Sauron expansion brings a whole new level of challenge. The players are no longer working together against the mechanics of the game. A player takes on the role of Sauron and can pay attention to the discussions and actions of the players and react to their weaknesses as they become apparent. The game also introduces a new threat on the corruption track... a Nazgul token which races towards the Ringbearer, and then races back to Mordor. If this happens before the end of the scenario, the game ends. Last, but not least, are a large number of new "Bad" tiles to throw into the mix to make the game even harder (the flipside of adding the extra tiles is that a player is no longer forced to accept the tile they draw... they can reject it and draw again. Unfortunately, they must take the second tile).
I REALLY liked the expansion. Playing Sauron is not easy, as opportunites are limited (he acts in a limited way at the beginning of each players turn. He only plays in his full capacity when players must roll the die... something they will work very hard never to have to do). It is very difficult to have the Nazgul reach the hobbits and return to Mordor in the course of one scenario (however, knowing what I know now, I would try to save that for the end when the hobbits are much closer. Seems obvious now!). On the other hand, I think that Sauron is likely to win most games, and the goal would be to see HOW FAR THE HOBBITS CAN GET (for score keeping, the Hobbit's score might be the space they were when they died, and Sauron's score would be 60-the highest hobbit's score, assuming "60" is the highest possible score. It might also be appropriate to shift his one way or the other to account for the relative difficulty of disposing of the players early... maybe 80-the highest hobbit's score, for example.) The additional black tiles make the game even harder than it normally would be. The new odds for getting a "good" tile drop from 50% to 20%, but in return the hobbits get to control their fate somewhat. While the net effect is certainly not in the hobbit's favour, I think that the choices make the system more balanced than it seems. Kozure, Shemp and Luch seemed very discouraged by the difficulty, however, so I think next time we'll try without them (personally, since I would be playing for a score rather than to "beat" the game, I would prefer to play WITH the extra tiles since I enjoy the added level of decision making, and the less predetermined series of events... but I can definitely see the other point of view).
Predictably, I won as Sauron. The hobbits did get all the way to Mordor, however, which means they were probably playing much better than I was.
Exhausted from the experience of Sauron, we moved on to Modern Art. I enjoyed it, as always, and even managed to pull a win (although slim, with Luch hot on my tail). As in Traders of Genoa, we are getting better at actually making money in this game. I still don't think I fully grasp how to swing the dynamics of the game in my favour as much as I could, but I'm learning! A fun game.
Ratings:
Lord of the Rings: 8.5
Lord of the Rings, Sauron Expansion: 8.5
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