Ah Holloween...
So long as many brains consumed, we are happy.
With this in mind, we reached for two All Hollows Eve favorites (?)... Betrayal at House on the Hill and Zombies!!!
We started out with Betrayal. After lowering the lights, putting on scary music and surrounding ourselves with as many black and orange snacks as we could think of, we delved into the madness which was: Invasion of the Firebats!!!!
As the priest, I had a mostly uneventful run searching the house. I would gain a point in something, only to lose it immediately in the same room. I had no equipment, no omens, nothing. The house was developing in quite a wide open fashion, but there was this one... long... dark corridor. It was there that Luch, as big, bumb "Ox", stumbled across the omen which triggered the haunt. Only, it wasn't him who went insane, it was I. An evil portal to HELL was opened in Luch's room, and Firebats started pouring through. He ran, as did the others. Craftily, the forces of good headed to the rooms which would allow them to exorcise the demons and close the gates. It took too long for me to find an effective weapon to attack them with, and the firebats couldn't come fast enough to prevent them from acheiving their goal. It was a victory for the forces of good.
In our second game, I switched my character to the professor. There was a little boy, a fortune teller (Madame Zostra!) and a jock. We searched the mansion and were suddenly confronted by... OURSELVES!!! Our evil twins singlemindedly pursued us until we were able to finally take them down with our "very sharp axe" and "Pulsating Spear of Power". I'm happy to note that I killed no less than 3 of the devils.
Last year we played this and it didn't go over very well. I had since played a few games with another group, and had enjoyed it more. Figuring that just about anything is worth a second shot, Shemp Luch and Kozure agreed to pull it out again for the occasion. Luckily, it went over much better this time! It's still not a very good game, in the sense that it's poorly balanced, poorly documented and not nearly as scary as it wants to be. What it does do, however, is succesfully capture the goofy "b" horror movie experience. I still feel that the game doesn't really get going until "the Haunt", and the process of stopping, reading the book and finding the appropriate pieces for the scenario can really slow the momentum (in fact, I would attribute last year's poor reception largely to the delay caused by the scenario we played, "Bugs", which had a huge amount of counters to find and special rules to absorb). Still, I have to compliment the designers for finding so many different fresh experiences for each haunt. So far, no two I've played have been similar, and many have been quite original. This game isn't about thinking too much, it's just about having fun while you're on the ride.
Speaking about not thinking too much... thought requires a brain. Brains, well, they're meant for eating.
Next up was Zombies! I'm not sure if we've ever reviewed this here, but I won't bother. All you have to know is that you are in a city hopelessly surrounded by hordes of Zombies. Luckily, you have bullets. Unluckily, you have very few. Players are racing to rack up a number of kills (which vary by # of players), or find the helicopter pad and be the first to reach it. As everyone started on their killing spree, I headed for a corridor of zombies which I intended to take down for a quick body count. Unfortunately, the only body count to be had was mine... Others were more successful, with Luch emerging as the leader and Kozure not far behind. We all ganged up on Luch, which knocked him pretty hard and left him struggling to get to 20 (the goal for 4 players). Meanwhile, the Helipad was revealed and it became a two horse race (Me and Kozure) to get there before Luch got the last kills he needed. I held back my ace in the hole... a card which let me control another player's movement for a turn, until after Kozure cleared the path to the Helipad for me. I then played the card and dispatched 2 or 3 zombies to board the helicopter and win!
We played with some "quick play" rules we downloaded from Boardgamegeek. I'd say the game is significatly improved by them, as mauch of the useless and distracting dice rolling is eliminated in favour of fixed values (ex: at the end of your turn, choose 3 zombies to move 1 space). It was fun, many brains were eaten, and that's what matters.
See you next week.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Thursday, October 20, 2005
We are the comic police, do not make us use farce
...or, more accurately, "We are the Karmic police, do not make use Force" (with a bad accent, the two sentences sound strangely similar)
The adventure continues for the most hapless trio to ever be in charge of saving the world... Stan McCormick (Psychic sensitive), Sam Buchanan (Nega-psychic) and Helmut von Stauffenberg auf Ulm (Genius)!
Our fearless gamemaster, Shemp, has given us the option of continuing the campaign we had just brought to a conclusion. We all thought that would be a great idea, but we wanted to change systems. He converted our characters from the mostly awful Paladium (Beyond the Supernatural, to be specific) to the Hero system, which he holds in much higher regard. To get our feet wet, we played a sample combat. The scenario was a brief flashback to an encounter which should have occurred in a plane of existence between the world we just saved (?) and the new world we "rifted" into.
As the scene opened, there was a large plain, the three of us, and (in the distance), three humanoids with really big helmets.
I can't remember their names, but they were funny enough that I hope Shemp chimes in with them for posterity. In addition to the funny names, they spoke in a funny accent, which had us misunderstanding many of their comments (se blog title). They were the Karmic Police, and they were here to have us settle our debt with "the force", or whatever. Armed with torn sleeves which gave us glimpses into a universe larger than ourselves (I am so insignificant!), "Cubes of Desolation" and invisible guns, they made for very interesting opponents.
Stanly rushed the leader, demanding to know where the temple they were just standing in had gone too. He was promptly attacked and responded with a quick (but effective) jab to the head. Sam started handling "Big Helmet #2" while Helmut fell prey to the cube of desolation. Soon after Stan knocked out his opponent and Sam crushed one of the cubes, the two remaining creatures regrouped with their fallen comrade and disappeared into nothingness. I have a feeling our debt isn't settled.
I'm happy to say that so far, the system looks promising. It's substantially heavier than what I would expect Shemp to choose, but I don't count that against it. The rules encourage "cinematic" combat, which means that it takes longer but is far more involving and satisfying than a random dicefest. Combat maneuvers are effective and affect future offensive and defensive positions, meaning that they actually get used as characters jockey to gain advantage in combat. It also means that there is more storytelling involved in the fighting, which is great. The fact that this system allows for meaningful character advancement is just icing on the cake...
My only (minor) complaint is with the initiative system. I don't find it very satisfying to act at the same time, every time. Not sure how to improve it without making things any more complicated than they are, but it would be nice.
With some time to spare, we pulled out "Tower of Babel", a recent Knizia release I just picked up. I wanted a few games which were relatively short, strategic and played well with 3-4 players (I also purchased China, and will pick up Ra when it's available). Other than some very positive comments by Chris Farrell at his blog, I didn't know much about it... I guess it was a bit of an impulse buy.
The idea is fairly straightforward: Players are cooperating to build the wonders of the world, each represented by three discs. It's an area majority and set collection game, but the method used to get tokens on the board is odd. On a turn, a player must either draw a card, or offer to build a section of a wonder (one of the three disks). If building is chosen, the disk will indicate a symbol and a number, which represents the number of matching cards which must be played in order for the player to successfully build it. If successful, a number of tokens equal to the value of the disc are placed on the wonder (the method to determine which player's tokens are placed will be described below). This is the crux of the "area majority" part of the game. The acting player normally takes the disc for end game scoring, forming the "set collecting" part of the game.
Of course, there is a Knizia twist:
A player will normally not have enough cards to satisfy the requirement of the disc. When the building action is announced, all other players simultaneously offer cards from their hand to "help" the acting player build the disc. Any, all or no offers can be accepted, but they must be accepted as offered. All players who's offer was accepted place tokens on the board for each card which was accepted, FOR ALL OTHER PLAYERS, A VICTORY POINT IS SCORED FOR EACH CARD OF THE APPROPRIATE COLOUR WHICH WAS OFFERED BUT REJECTED (bluffs are not scored). The majority of the decision making in the game happens here... An offer for lots of cards can help you conserve your own, but it will compromise your majority on the board. Rejecting the offer gives that player a lot of victory points. (A special card, the "Trader" adds another wrinkle: if offered along with other cards, the player is indicating that he/she wants the building disc rather than the tokens on the board as a reward for providing cards).
Wonders are scored "El Grande" Style (1st=points, 2nd= less points, etc, etc) when their third disc is "built". The points are on a sliding scale, however, so the first wonder to be built will be worth substantially less than the later ones. The game ends when all discs of one type have been built. Sets of discs (2 or more) are worth points at the end.
The fact that offers need to be accepted or rejected AS-IS makes the game, in my opinion. If I have three camels and try to build a 5 disc, and the other players offer 1, 1, and 4 camels... what do I do? I could accept 2 two singles and give the "4" player that many victory points, but retain the majority on the board (at the cost of giving away, in a best case scenario, easy third place points to those players). Alternatively, I could take the 4 and play only one card from my hand, preserving those cards to go after another camel disc on the board on my next turn, but giving up the majority on the wonder.
What if the trader is offered? Am I willing to give up the building disc? If i'm behind on the wonder area majority, it might be worth it.
The end result isn't bad at all, but is far from spectacular. It plays in the advertized time (+/- 45 minutes), offers continuous player interaction and offers various strategies worth pursuing. Unfortunately, the play itself feels a little awkward, the graphics are DULL, DULL, DULL, and the theme sets new standards for "pasted on". Also, the bonus cards a player gets for completing the third disc of a wonder feel fairly tacked on.
The session saw us all pursuing a fairly random agenda of wonder building and disc collecting. I tried to focus on picking up the white discs, and managed to get 4. The score was fairly even amongst us right to the end, and Shemp also managed to collect a set of 4, but a 5 point bonus card and a few points for unfinished works put me in the lead.
I wasn't blown away, but I didn't quite have a grasp of the possible strategies either. It's quite possible that this will get better with time (as has been said by others on the net), and the fact that it plays in such a short time pretty much ensures that it will come out again.
Tower of Babel: 7
The adventure continues for the most hapless trio to ever be in charge of saving the world... Stan McCormick (Psychic sensitive), Sam Buchanan (Nega-psychic) and Helmut von Stauffenberg auf Ulm (Genius)!
Our fearless gamemaster, Shemp, has given us the option of continuing the campaign we had just brought to a conclusion. We all thought that would be a great idea, but we wanted to change systems. He converted our characters from the mostly awful Paladium (Beyond the Supernatural, to be specific) to the Hero system, which he holds in much higher regard. To get our feet wet, we played a sample combat. The scenario was a brief flashback to an encounter which should have occurred in a plane of existence between the world we just saved (?) and the new world we "rifted" into.
As the scene opened, there was a large plain, the three of us, and (in the distance), three humanoids with really big helmets.
I can't remember their names, but they were funny enough that I hope Shemp chimes in with them for posterity. In addition to the funny names, they spoke in a funny accent, which had us misunderstanding many of their comments (se blog title). They were the Karmic Police, and they were here to have us settle our debt with "the force", or whatever. Armed with torn sleeves which gave us glimpses into a universe larger than ourselves (I am so insignificant!), "Cubes of Desolation" and invisible guns, they made for very interesting opponents.
Stanly rushed the leader, demanding to know where the temple they were just standing in had gone too. He was promptly attacked and responded with a quick (but effective) jab to the head. Sam started handling "Big Helmet #2" while Helmut fell prey to the cube of desolation. Soon after Stan knocked out his opponent and Sam crushed one of the cubes, the two remaining creatures regrouped with their fallen comrade and disappeared into nothingness. I have a feeling our debt isn't settled.
I'm happy to say that so far, the system looks promising. It's substantially heavier than what I would expect Shemp to choose, but I don't count that against it. The rules encourage "cinematic" combat, which means that it takes longer but is far more involving and satisfying than a random dicefest. Combat maneuvers are effective and affect future offensive and defensive positions, meaning that they actually get used as characters jockey to gain advantage in combat. It also means that there is more storytelling involved in the fighting, which is great. The fact that this system allows for meaningful character advancement is just icing on the cake...
My only (minor) complaint is with the initiative system. I don't find it very satisfying to act at the same time, every time. Not sure how to improve it without making things any more complicated than they are, but it would be nice.
With some time to spare, we pulled out "Tower of Babel", a recent Knizia release I just picked up. I wanted a few games which were relatively short, strategic and played well with 3-4 players (I also purchased China, and will pick up Ra when it's available). Other than some very positive comments by Chris Farrell at his blog, I didn't know much about it... I guess it was a bit of an impulse buy.
The idea is fairly straightforward: Players are cooperating to build the wonders of the world, each represented by three discs. It's an area majority and set collection game, but the method used to get tokens on the board is odd. On a turn, a player must either draw a card, or offer to build a section of a wonder (one of the three disks). If building is chosen, the disk will indicate a symbol and a number, which represents the number of matching cards which must be played in order for the player to successfully build it. If successful, a number of tokens equal to the value of the disc are placed on the wonder (the method to determine which player's tokens are placed will be described below). This is the crux of the "area majority" part of the game. The acting player normally takes the disc for end game scoring, forming the "set collecting" part of the game.
Of course, there is a Knizia twist:
A player will normally not have enough cards to satisfy the requirement of the disc. When the building action is announced, all other players simultaneously offer cards from their hand to "help" the acting player build the disc. Any, all or no offers can be accepted, but they must be accepted as offered. All players who's offer was accepted place tokens on the board for each card which was accepted, FOR ALL OTHER PLAYERS, A VICTORY POINT IS SCORED FOR EACH CARD OF THE APPROPRIATE COLOUR WHICH WAS OFFERED BUT REJECTED (bluffs are not scored). The majority of the decision making in the game happens here... An offer for lots of cards can help you conserve your own, but it will compromise your majority on the board. Rejecting the offer gives that player a lot of victory points. (A special card, the "Trader" adds another wrinkle: if offered along with other cards, the player is indicating that he/she wants the building disc rather than the tokens on the board as a reward for providing cards).
Wonders are scored "El Grande" Style (1st=points, 2nd= less points, etc, etc) when their third disc is "built". The points are on a sliding scale, however, so the first wonder to be built will be worth substantially less than the later ones. The game ends when all discs of one type have been built. Sets of discs (2 or more) are worth points at the end.
The fact that offers need to be accepted or rejected AS-IS makes the game, in my opinion. If I have three camels and try to build a 5 disc, and the other players offer 1, 1, and 4 camels... what do I do? I could accept 2 two singles and give the "4" player that many victory points, but retain the majority on the board (at the cost of giving away, in a best case scenario, easy third place points to those players). Alternatively, I could take the 4 and play only one card from my hand, preserving those cards to go after another camel disc on the board on my next turn, but giving up the majority on the wonder.
What if the trader is offered? Am I willing to give up the building disc? If i'm behind on the wonder area majority, it might be worth it.
The end result isn't bad at all, but is far from spectacular. It plays in the advertized time (+/- 45 minutes), offers continuous player interaction and offers various strategies worth pursuing. Unfortunately, the play itself feels a little awkward, the graphics are DULL, DULL, DULL, and the theme sets new standards for "pasted on". Also, the bonus cards a player gets for completing the third disc of a wonder feel fairly tacked on.
The session saw us all pursuing a fairly random agenda of wonder building and disc collecting. I tried to focus on picking up the white discs, and managed to get 4. The score was fairly even amongst us right to the end, and Shemp also managed to collect a set of 4, but a 5 point bonus card and a few points for unfinished works put me in the lead.
I wasn't blown away, but I didn't quite have a grasp of the possible strategies either. It's quite possible that this will get better with time (as has been said by others on the net), and the fact that it plays in such a short time pretty much ensures that it will come out again.
Tower of Babel: 7
Friday, October 14, 2005
Passive Aggressive vs. Aggressive Aggressive
"This just in… it seems a number of… creatures… have started menacing the U.S. and Southern Canada. Reports are scattered, but apparently there are… What? A giant gorilla, squid and a floating eyeball?"
Dave… is this for real?
"Okay, we're going to connect with our correspondent in Chicago to get a better idea of what's happening over there. Stan, can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can. Thank you. Carl, I have to say, I can't believe what I'm seeing. There's this giant ape just… wrecking… everything. It's about a half mile away from me. I'm hiding at the mouth of a parking garage and watching it swat the army jets out of the sky like flies. Oh, it looks like one of the rockets scored a hit! Wait a minute… IT'S A ROBOT INSIDE. Sparks are flying everywhere. It looks angry. OH MY GOD IT"S RUNNING TOWARDS US. GET…"
"…"
"…"
"Stan?"
"…umm, do we have anyone else? OK, Helmut. OK."
"Allo, I am here vith ze giant creatures. There is a big noise here, ze gorilla is literally MASHING the eyeball. Now he has the squid by the neck. Oooh, that wasn't pretty. Uh-Oh. It looks angry. OH MY GOD IT"S RUNNING TOWARDS US. GET…"
"…"
"…"
"Helmut?"
"Ughhh"
Okay, enough of that. This Wednesday we played Monsters Menace America and Tikal. (Sadly Shemp couldn't make it due to possible illness).
Monsters Menace America is a straight up aggression fest. Players take the role of large monsters inspired by B-Movies (as well as the role of a branch of the US Military). The goal is to "Stomp" as many sites as possible with your monster, accumulating strength and mutation powers along the way, until a point were a climactic battle occurs between all the monsters. Players also use their military units to attack other player's monsters in order to try to weaken them (the monsters can't attack each other until the final battle).
The game is simple fun. On the good side, the graphic presentation is quite good and the theme is captured quite well by the game. On the bad side, the rules of the game don't feel like their as good as they could have been. For example, it's odd that the creatures can't interact for most of the game. Also, for all the time they take up in the game in deployment, combat, movement and upkeep, the military units don't feel as useful or integrated as they need to be.
These are all relatively minor criticisms. If you are looking for another Puerto Rico, look elsewhere, but if you are looking for big monsters to go out and fight, it fits the bill. There is carnage. Players have fun. It's just not a very sophisticated game (they don't all have to be!)
Next was Tikal.
Tikal is a game I kept hearing about (along with it's cousins Torres, Java and Mexica) but despite the fact that Kramer designed them I never felt compelled to investigate… This is particularly odd considering that two of my favorite games (EL Grande and Princes of Florence) where designed by him. However, when Kozure mentioned he had bought it, I got very excited to play.
Tikal is game involving the discovery and exploration of ancient temples. Players send out teams of explorers into the jungle, hoping to claim the greatest of the discoveries for themselves. There is a distinct "Indiana Jones" feel to the theme.
The gameboard is a very attractive depiction of a jungle. The canopy of trees prevents players from seeing what is underneath, but in one corner a jeep and base camp indicates that the exploration has begun… 2 temples and an empty field have already been uncovered. The first order of any player's turn is to draw a tile to place on the board (the tile is designed to look like the canopy of trees has been cleared, revealing either an empty space, a temple or a treasure site). The remainder of the turn involves spending 10 action points on various potential… ummm… actions. Introducing a researcher at the base camp costs 1, for example. Other actions include moving the researchers, searching for treasure, delving into temples, etc. On occasion, a volcano turns up as the tile to be placed, and players must score their position. Points are awarded for temples which have been claimed, for unclaimed temples where a player has a majority and for treasures acquired. The game ends once all jungle tiles have been placed on the board and a final scoring takes place.
The result is an excellent, excellent game. It's not nearly as abstract as most German games, the play is strategic, and the theme is so accessible (and the rules so natural to the action), that I can't think of a medium weight game I would rather first introduce to new gamers. Carcassonne, High Society, For Sale!, Ticket to Ride, etc are all great gateway games but are decidedly "light". I much prefer this to Settlers of Catan, the medium weight "intro" game most would suggest.
The game does have one rather significant potential downfall… those 10 points can take a while to spend if you are not careful about analysis paralysis. On top of that, there isn't much to do when it's not your turn (I'm sure it's no coincidence, but these are also criticisms often leveled at El Grande and Princes of Florence). I'm perfectly happy to live with it as it is, however, because the number of points allows for some surprising comebacks and clever play. I think 3 players is probably the sweet spot for this one to keep downtime manageable (2 player might also be good, but I'm afraid that 4 player might drag).
I think my excitement for the game is partially due to a bit of Knizia overload. I REALLY enjoy those games, and have even purchased Tower of Babel recently because I think he is an amazing designer, but they have a very different feel than Kramer's games… Knizia games seem to revolve around a clever mechanic or two, with a theme applied (sometimes appropriate and well reflected by the system, sometimes not). Players must come to grips with the challenge and turn the system to their advantage against the other players. As much as they are intellectually challenging, the are a bit mechanical and often mathematical (the only Knizia game I find thematically engaging is LotR, although I consider that to be a huge achievement). Kramer's games avoid this… Elegance is found by tying theme to gameplay with innovative mechanics. The results can be abstract (Princes of Florence), Literal (Tikal) or in between (El Grande), but the results definitely have more "soul" than Knizia's games.
Not surprisingly, in my opinion the "Perfect" game (Ra) has been designed by the exact and calculating mind of Knizia, while the rest of the top 4… those I love playing but are each imperfect in one way or another, are all Kramers (El Grande, Princes of Florence and now Tikal).
For the record, as Konk in Monsters Menace America I CRUSHED Luch and Kozure, while Luch beat us both handily at Tikal.
Ratings:
Monsters Menace America: 6
Tikal: 9
Dave… is this for real?
"Okay, we're going to connect with our correspondent in Chicago to get a better idea of what's happening over there. Stan, can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can. Thank you. Carl, I have to say, I can't believe what I'm seeing. There's this giant ape just… wrecking… everything. It's about a half mile away from me. I'm hiding at the mouth of a parking garage and watching it swat the army jets out of the sky like flies. Oh, it looks like one of the rockets scored a hit! Wait a minute… IT'S A ROBOT INSIDE. Sparks are flying everywhere. It looks angry. OH MY GOD IT"S RUNNING TOWARDS US. GET…"
"…"
"…"
"Stan?"
"…umm, do we have anyone else? OK, Helmut. OK."
"Allo, I am here vith ze giant creatures. There is a big noise here, ze gorilla is literally MASHING the eyeball. Now he has the squid by the neck. Oooh, that wasn't pretty. Uh-Oh. It looks angry. OH MY GOD IT"S RUNNING TOWARDS US. GET…"
"…"
"…"
"Helmut?"
"Ughhh"
Okay, enough of that. This Wednesday we played Monsters Menace America and Tikal. (Sadly Shemp couldn't make it due to possible illness).
Monsters Menace America is a straight up aggression fest. Players take the role of large monsters inspired by B-Movies (as well as the role of a branch of the US Military). The goal is to "Stomp" as many sites as possible with your monster, accumulating strength and mutation powers along the way, until a point were a climactic battle occurs between all the monsters. Players also use their military units to attack other player's monsters in order to try to weaken them (the monsters can't attack each other until the final battle).
The game is simple fun. On the good side, the graphic presentation is quite good and the theme is captured quite well by the game. On the bad side, the rules of the game don't feel like their as good as they could have been. For example, it's odd that the creatures can't interact for most of the game. Also, for all the time they take up in the game in deployment, combat, movement and upkeep, the military units don't feel as useful or integrated as they need to be.
These are all relatively minor criticisms. If you are looking for another Puerto Rico, look elsewhere, but if you are looking for big monsters to go out and fight, it fits the bill. There is carnage. Players have fun. It's just not a very sophisticated game (they don't all have to be!)
Next was Tikal.
Tikal is a game I kept hearing about (along with it's cousins Torres, Java and Mexica) but despite the fact that Kramer designed them I never felt compelled to investigate… This is particularly odd considering that two of my favorite games (EL Grande and Princes of Florence) where designed by him. However, when Kozure mentioned he had bought it, I got very excited to play.
Tikal is game involving the discovery and exploration of ancient temples. Players send out teams of explorers into the jungle, hoping to claim the greatest of the discoveries for themselves. There is a distinct "Indiana Jones" feel to the theme.
The gameboard is a very attractive depiction of a jungle. The canopy of trees prevents players from seeing what is underneath, but in one corner a jeep and base camp indicates that the exploration has begun… 2 temples and an empty field have already been uncovered. The first order of any player's turn is to draw a tile to place on the board (the tile is designed to look like the canopy of trees has been cleared, revealing either an empty space, a temple or a treasure site). The remainder of the turn involves spending 10 action points on various potential… ummm… actions. Introducing a researcher at the base camp costs 1, for example. Other actions include moving the researchers, searching for treasure, delving into temples, etc. On occasion, a volcano turns up as the tile to be placed, and players must score their position. Points are awarded for temples which have been claimed, for unclaimed temples where a player has a majority and for treasures acquired. The game ends once all jungle tiles have been placed on the board and a final scoring takes place.
The result is an excellent, excellent game. It's not nearly as abstract as most German games, the play is strategic, and the theme is so accessible (and the rules so natural to the action), that I can't think of a medium weight game I would rather first introduce to new gamers. Carcassonne, High Society, For Sale!, Ticket to Ride, etc are all great gateway games but are decidedly "light". I much prefer this to Settlers of Catan, the medium weight "intro" game most would suggest.
The game does have one rather significant potential downfall… those 10 points can take a while to spend if you are not careful about analysis paralysis. On top of that, there isn't much to do when it's not your turn (I'm sure it's no coincidence, but these are also criticisms often leveled at El Grande and Princes of Florence). I'm perfectly happy to live with it as it is, however, because the number of points allows for some surprising comebacks and clever play. I think 3 players is probably the sweet spot for this one to keep downtime manageable (2 player might also be good, but I'm afraid that 4 player might drag).
I think my excitement for the game is partially due to a bit of Knizia overload. I REALLY enjoy those games, and have even purchased Tower of Babel recently because I think he is an amazing designer, but they have a very different feel than Kramer's games… Knizia games seem to revolve around a clever mechanic or two, with a theme applied (sometimes appropriate and well reflected by the system, sometimes not). Players must come to grips with the challenge and turn the system to their advantage against the other players. As much as they are intellectually challenging, the are a bit mechanical and often mathematical (the only Knizia game I find thematically engaging is LotR, although I consider that to be a huge achievement). Kramer's games avoid this… Elegance is found by tying theme to gameplay with innovative mechanics. The results can be abstract (Princes of Florence), Literal (Tikal) or in between (El Grande), but the results definitely have more "soul" than Knizia's games.
Not surprisingly, in my opinion the "Perfect" game (Ra) has been designed by the exact and calculating mind of Knizia, while the rest of the top 4… those I love playing but are each imperfect in one way or another, are all Kramers (El Grande, Princes of Florence and now Tikal).
For the record, as Konk in Monsters Menace America I CRUSHED Luch and Kozure, while Luch beat us both handily at Tikal.
Ratings:
Monsters Menace America: 6
Tikal: 9
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Big is IN
Wednesday this week found us down a player once more, as Kozure was unable to attend. What works with three? Not too much in my collection, as it turns out. I didn't feel like Puerto Rico, and we had just played Robo-Rally (I am going to make it a point to make my next purchase 3 player friendly...) Anyway, I settled on a jumbo sized game of Carcassonne (with EVERY expansion included) to start out the evening. I have also had an itch to play Duel of Ages for quite a while now, so I was determined to make it work for three (DoA says it's a game for 2-16 players, but in fact the game consists strictly of two teams... a 3 player game would force 1 player to play twice as many characters as the others... far from ideal).
Started with Carc. I really like this game, because it's exactly as complex and strategic as you want to make it (sure, it's random... but it works for what it is) . With all expansions in, it's got quite a lot going on! We played with: "The River","The King and Scout", "The Count of Carcassonne", "Inns and Cathedrals", "Traders and Builders" and "The Princess and the Dragon" (As far as I know, that is every expansion available). Since we don't seem to get around to playing any one game really often, remembering all the rules for each expansion was a little daunting (particularly "The Count" and "The Princess and the Dragon"). What this mega game really pointed out, for me, is how well most of these expansions ratchet up the strategy just a little bit at a time. There are two, however, which are exceptions: The Count is fairly complex and fiddly in comparison to most, but luckily I like what it adds. The same can't be said for "The Prncess and the Dragon". The rules this adds are interesting in principle (various ways of getting meeples off the board, along with a method to get meeples into unfinished cities/roads/cloisters), but in practice it doesn't quite fit. I've said before that I felt this expansion would probably best be played on it's own, and this session backs that up. The fairy, in particular, is a pain to keep track of with so much going on. I'd love to try this mega-Carc again sometime soon, but without "The Princess and the Dragon", I think it would be much better.
For the record, I made an effort to go for goods and large cities (to snag the King). I did manage to get the majority in 2 of 3 goods, but unfortunately, Luch managed to beat me out for every large city or road I would try to build! In the end, he won by quite a large margin (I find that the more expansions we play with, the larger the spread in scores). This didn't seem to be Shemp's night... he had a hard time getting things going and came in last.
Next up was Duel of Ages.I checked out the official website and downloaded their 3-4 player variant rules (termed "Cutthroat Rules") and decided to give them a try. How did it go? Great! The rules add minor changes which effectively eliminate many of the problems inherent in any 3 player free for all battle game (two fight it out, and the third swoops in to win, or two gang up on the third, leaving that player no chance).
The changes are fairly simple: 2 players form a temporary alliance, and the third is termed the "Loner". The loner gets an additional character+ 2 equipment to start, but is otherwise at a disadvantage due to fewer characters compared to the alliance. The "Alliance" take their turn as though they were 1 team (i.e., they both move, then they both battle, then they both do challenges, etc). They are considered allies as far as special powers, combat and movement go. HOWEVER, the twist is that once a player manages to kill one of the Loner's characters, that player becomes the NEW Loner,drawing a new character+2 equipment at the start of his/ her next turn (the previous Loner joins forces with the third player in the Alliance). This interesting mechanic constantly shifts the forces of power, keeps the target moving to avoid kingmaker problems and creates interesting temporary alliances. There are also changes in the scoring which gives diminishing points for placing 1st or 2nd in the labyrinths.
We played a simple game, including only the basic labyrinths and no special keys. We used 5 characters apiece (4 might have been better). I started out as the Loner, and drew a competent mix of fast and powerful characters. I was fairly successful in completing challenges (drawing far too many mounts than I needed as rewards). In time, my Robin Hood was killed and Luch took over as loner. I did eventually get the title back (drawing the pile of WeeWaks for my trouble), and had a very successful finish with a score of 13-3-1 (or something like that).
Unfortunately, this session didn't feature too many really memorable moments. The game mostly involved each player making straight lines to their labyrinths, with a few combats along the way. Not sure why it didn't click, but I'm not going to blame the 3 player variant, as I'm quite happy with how that turned out.
Started with Carc. I really like this game, because it's exactly as complex and strategic as you want to make it (sure, it's random... but it works for what it is) . With all expansions in, it's got quite a lot going on! We played with: "The River","The King and Scout", "The Count of Carcassonne", "Inns and Cathedrals", "Traders and Builders" and "The Princess and the Dragon" (As far as I know, that is every expansion available). Since we don't seem to get around to playing any one game really often, remembering all the rules for each expansion was a little daunting (particularly "The Count" and "The Princess and the Dragon"). What this mega game really pointed out, for me, is how well most of these expansions ratchet up the strategy just a little bit at a time. There are two, however, which are exceptions: The Count is fairly complex and fiddly in comparison to most, but luckily I like what it adds. The same can't be said for "The Prncess and the Dragon". The rules this adds are interesting in principle (various ways of getting meeples off the board, along with a method to get meeples into unfinished cities/roads/cloisters), but in practice it doesn't quite fit. I've said before that I felt this expansion would probably best be played on it's own, and this session backs that up. The fairy, in particular, is a pain to keep track of with so much going on. I'd love to try this mega-Carc again sometime soon, but without "The Princess and the Dragon", I think it would be much better.
For the record, I made an effort to go for goods and large cities (to snag the King). I did manage to get the majority in 2 of 3 goods, but unfortunately, Luch managed to beat me out for every large city or road I would try to build! In the end, he won by quite a large margin (I find that the more expansions we play with, the larger the spread in scores). This didn't seem to be Shemp's night... he had a hard time getting things going and came in last.
Next up was Duel of Ages.I checked out the official website and downloaded their 3-4 player variant rules (termed "Cutthroat Rules") and decided to give them a try. How did it go? Great! The rules add minor changes which effectively eliminate many of the problems inherent in any 3 player free for all battle game (two fight it out, and the third swoops in to win, or two gang up on the third, leaving that player no chance).
The changes are fairly simple: 2 players form a temporary alliance, and the third is termed the "Loner". The loner gets an additional character+ 2 equipment to start, but is otherwise at a disadvantage due to fewer characters compared to the alliance. The "Alliance" take their turn as though they were 1 team (i.e., they both move, then they both battle, then they both do challenges, etc). They are considered allies as far as special powers, combat and movement go. HOWEVER, the twist is that once a player manages to kill one of the Loner's characters, that player becomes the NEW Loner,drawing a new character+2 equipment at the start of his/ her next turn (the previous Loner joins forces with the third player in the Alliance). This interesting mechanic constantly shifts the forces of power, keeps the target moving to avoid kingmaker problems and creates interesting temporary alliances. There are also changes in the scoring which gives diminishing points for placing 1st or 2nd in the labyrinths.
We played a simple game, including only the basic labyrinths and no special keys. We used 5 characters apiece (4 might have been better). I started out as the Loner, and drew a competent mix of fast and powerful characters. I was fairly successful in completing challenges (drawing far too many mounts than I needed as rewards). In time, my Robin Hood was killed and Luch took over as loner. I did eventually get the title back (drawing the pile of WeeWaks for my trouble), and had a very successful finish with a score of 13-3-1 (or something like that).
Unfortunately, this session didn't feature too many really memorable moments. The game mostly involved each player making straight lines to their labyrinths, with a few combats along the way. Not sure why it didn't click, but I'm not going to blame the 3 player variant, as I'm quite happy with how that turned out.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
All Hell Broke Loose
We gathered this week, visited once more by our friend JayWowser from California, for an ambitious attempt at playing both a "long" course of Robo-Rally and a session of Arkham Horror. Turns out, we were too ambitious, but just by a little.
This was JayWowser's first go at RoboRally. We had five players, and we chose a 2 board scenario from the "beginner's" courses. I have to hand it to the course designers in the new edition... the two we've tried so far have been real winners. The length is well represented in the description, the courses encourage good interaction and keeps leaders in check by forcing "double backs" in most (all?) cases.
We played with my "Pirate's Cove" variant. I have always felt that this game penalizes the players that are behind too harshly (they go back to their last save point AND start with damage!). It's hard enough to come back from a death and stay in the race, why make it harder? In this variant, players who suffer a setback are given a chance to bounce back by being given the option to come at full health or take two damage and draw an "option" card (similar to Pirate Cove's rules, giving pirates a choice of option cards when they are beaten in battle). I'll probably post this to BGG eventually.
I made a bee line towards the first flag and got there largely unopposed. In contrast, the other four were battling it out from the start. Kozure made a habit out of zapping Jaywowser. Meanwhile, Shemp took a few too many rides on the looped conveyor belts. I had made it to the 2nd flag as all hell broke loose at the first one. JayWowser, heavily damaged and with several locked registers, along with an otherwise healthy Kozure, was sent flying off the board by a charging Luch (Kozure almost immediately went over again). As I made my end run across the board back to the final flag, Shemp decided to give up the race and focus on taking me out. Kozure was terminally stuck in the crossfire of too many robots, and was eliminated from the game. Meanwhile, JayWowser and Luch headed for flag 2... holding out hope that Shemp would screw me over. I got shot up good on the way to the final flag, well enough to lock 3 of my registers before I could reach it. I tried valiantly to get there anyway, and I did make it to within one space twice, but I was never able to make it work. JayWowser snuck down the middle and claimed the victory as Luch was destroyed by Shemp close to the final flag.
All in all, a very chaotic and exciting race (well, maybe not exciting for Kozure). I really enjoy this game.
Next up was Arkham Horror. The guys had hyped this up for me, and my brief solo game seemed very intriguing, so I was looking forward to trying it out. We started at 8pm, giving us 3 hours for the game (assuming we finished up at our regular time). 4.5 hours later, we still hadn't finished, so we called it a night!
Our group was a solid mix of brains and brawn. All in all, I never really felt like we were in serious danger of failing (of course, Shemp as our own personal army clearing the streets, all the healing abilities we could ask for, and a well timed visit from the feds, helped a lot in this regard). When we quit, we were very close to successfully sealing all the gates we needed, so we packed up confident we would have won.
My reaction to the game itself is mixed. On one hand, there is a large number of very cool concepts and mechanics in the game. I appreciate the sheer variety of "stuff" it offers (characters, monsters, equipment, Great Old Ones, etc). I feel like there was an honest effort to capture a huge amount of the flavour of the mythos (the stories, the rpg, etc). But in the end... there is too much. A serious amount of editing should have taken place.
A (very) brief synopsis:
Each player takes on the role of an investigator from a particular walk of life (psychologist, student, doctor, private eye, etc). Each has different strengths and weaknesses. A Great Old One is randomly selected as the evil which is about to awake, and the game begins. Each turn, "mythos" events occur, clues are discovered around town and portals open up in unstable locations on the board (spitting out monsters in the process). It is up to the players to seal these "gates" before too many open, awakening the sleeping evil... (the bulk of the game involves working toghether to roam the streets, collect items and "clues", fighting creatures and sealing gates. They can win by sealing them all, but if the condition is met for the Great Old One to awaken before they can do that, everything stops and the group must collectively fights it).
What I liked:
There is a clever character stat system which allows players to adjust their skills every round, but every time they raise something, something else gets lowered (such as raising your "speed" reduces your "sneak"). It's a very elegant little touch which gives good flexibility to the characters to adapt to situations in a way that is balanced and simple. The monster movement system is also interesting; routes in black and/or white are traced on the board. Every time monster movement occurs, creature's who's symbols are called that turn move along the track they have been assigned to (ex: All "Star" cleatures move along the white path). It's a bit cumbursome to scan every creature each round for the symbols, but it's an original way to have a multitude of creatures move in an unpredictable way (and better than just rolling dice for all of them). Each location has a deck of cards which determine the types of encounters which will happen there (it's a little overwhelming to see all the decks of cards, and it doesn't result in as much variety of events as you'd expect, but it's a nice idea nonetheless). The whole "upkeep","Move/fight","Location Encounters","Mythos Event" systems works pretty well, despite some confusion regarding WHEN combats actually occur in certain circumstances, and despite the poor layout of the mythos cards themselves. Finally, I like the dynamics of gate opening: Each mythos card calls for a new gate in a location on the board. If it already has a gate, all open gates spit out monsters. If a gate has already been sealed there, the players are spared. This system accomplishes many things with simple and logical mechanics.
What I don't like:
The biggest problem is that the game is fairly long, but it feels like it should be going faster. The issue, in my mind, is that on top of the core rules there are a myriad of other, tiny rules which are individually simple and add flavour, but collectively just feel cumbursome. The "doom" counters (I think that's what they were called), which track the slow awakening of the Great Old One, kept getting forgotten. Money is bordeline unecessary. The terror level is an interesting concept (with residents of town and shops closing as it rises), but it doesn't add enough to be included. The creature "overflow" area is similar, unecessary clutter. Between the modifiers to the game from the Great Old One, the 3 types of Mythos cards, the character abilities and the myriad equipment and spells... it's hard to really be sure to apply all modifiers at a given time. While the "Sky" space adds an interesting element, "Lost in Time and Space" seems like a kludge solution to a problem they couldn't solve. There is a lot more, but the last one I'll mention is that the creatures have two flaws which bothered me: 1) the colour coding for special movement should have been replaced with text on the card (in fact, in some cases there is both!). 2) The double sided tokens meant that we were constantly flipping to see how hard something was to kill, how hard it was to sneak past, what symbol it was for movement purposes, etc.
In short: Simplify! Consolidate!
The fact that no one can agree on how some rules work is clearly a problem. The fact that the climax of the game, the encounter with the Great Old One, is one such situation, is pretty awful. I haven't yet had such an encounter, but considering that I don't understand how "fighting" such powerful creatures is in the spirit of the mythos, I'd probably like to see the whole process eliminated or re-worked.
It would be interesting to see if the game would work like this:
1) No money (simple draw three, choose 1 mechanic at the shops instead)
2) no blessings or curses
3) No terror level/ Overflow stack
4) Eliminate the trip to the outer planes. When a player wants to seal a gate, draw and resolve 1 card of the appropriate plane. If he/she survives, try to seal the gate immediately (or possibly the next turn)
5) Agree that combat always takes place in the movement phase, no matter what.
6) The Great Old One chosen determines the special conditions of the game (as usual), but if it awakens, the game ends. (B.T.W. An idea for a better way of keeping track of the doom track: Count out a # of gate markers equal the length of the doom track and return the others to the box. When the last one is placed, the Great Old One awakens and the game is over. When an Elder sign seals a gate, return it to the bottom of the stack. I haven't tested it, but it seems like it would work)
A few items that could have simplified the game, but couldn't be done now without going back to the drawing board:
1)Reduce the equipment cards to one stack (combining spells, unique items and common items).
2)Possibly eliminate the location card stacks (and go with a simpler streets=nothing, locations=printed text at the location, Mythos card=game events). Some of the flavour would be lost, but it would dramatically improve the pace of the game.
Summary: A VERY ambitious game. Succeeds in many ways, but fails in just as many. I enjoyed myself as always, but I don't think I'll be requesting it in the future.
Rating: 6
This was JayWowser's first go at RoboRally. We had five players, and we chose a 2 board scenario from the "beginner's" courses. I have to hand it to the course designers in the new edition... the two we've tried so far have been real winners. The length is well represented in the description, the courses encourage good interaction and keeps leaders in check by forcing "double backs" in most (all?) cases.
We played with my "Pirate's Cove" variant. I have always felt that this game penalizes the players that are behind too harshly (they go back to their last save point AND start with damage!). It's hard enough to come back from a death and stay in the race, why make it harder? In this variant, players who suffer a setback are given a chance to bounce back by being given the option to come at full health or take two damage and draw an "option" card (similar to Pirate Cove's rules, giving pirates a choice of option cards when they are beaten in battle). I'll probably post this to BGG eventually.
I made a bee line towards the first flag and got there largely unopposed. In contrast, the other four were battling it out from the start. Kozure made a habit out of zapping Jaywowser. Meanwhile, Shemp took a few too many rides on the looped conveyor belts. I had made it to the 2nd flag as all hell broke loose at the first one. JayWowser, heavily damaged and with several locked registers, along with an otherwise healthy Kozure, was sent flying off the board by a charging Luch (Kozure almost immediately went over again). As I made my end run across the board back to the final flag, Shemp decided to give up the race and focus on taking me out. Kozure was terminally stuck in the crossfire of too many robots, and was eliminated from the game. Meanwhile, JayWowser and Luch headed for flag 2... holding out hope that Shemp would screw me over. I got shot up good on the way to the final flag, well enough to lock 3 of my registers before I could reach it. I tried valiantly to get there anyway, and I did make it to within one space twice, but I was never able to make it work. JayWowser snuck down the middle and claimed the victory as Luch was destroyed by Shemp close to the final flag.
All in all, a very chaotic and exciting race (well, maybe not exciting for Kozure). I really enjoy this game.
Next up was Arkham Horror. The guys had hyped this up for me, and my brief solo game seemed very intriguing, so I was looking forward to trying it out. We started at 8pm, giving us 3 hours for the game (assuming we finished up at our regular time). 4.5 hours later, we still hadn't finished, so we called it a night!
Our group was a solid mix of brains and brawn. All in all, I never really felt like we were in serious danger of failing (of course, Shemp as our own personal army clearing the streets, all the healing abilities we could ask for, and a well timed visit from the feds, helped a lot in this regard). When we quit, we were very close to successfully sealing all the gates we needed, so we packed up confident we would have won.
My reaction to the game itself is mixed. On one hand, there is a large number of very cool concepts and mechanics in the game. I appreciate the sheer variety of "stuff" it offers (characters, monsters, equipment, Great Old Ones, etc). I feel like there was an honest effort to capture a huge amount of the flavour of the mythos (the stories, the rpg, etc). But in the end... there is too much. A serious amount of editing should have taken place.
A (very) brief synopsis:
Each player takes on the role of an investigator from a particular walk of life (psychologist, student, doctor, private eye, etc). Each has different strengths and weaknesses. A Great Old One is randomly selected as the evil which is about to awake, and the game begins. Each turn, "mythos" events occur, clues are discovered around town and portals open up in unstable locations on the board (spitting out monsters in the process). It is up to the players to seal these "gates" before too many open, awakening the sleeping evil... (the bulk of the game involves working toghether to roam the streets, collect items and "clues", fighting creatures and sealing gates. They can win by sealing them all, but if the condition is met for the Great Old One to awaken before they can do that, everything stops and the group must collectively fights it).
What I liked:
There is a clever character stat system which allows players to adjust their skills every round, but every time they raise something, something else gets lowered (such as raising your "speed" reduces your "sneak"). It's a very elegant little touch which gives good flexibility to the characters to adapt to situations in a way that is balanced and simple. The monster movement system is also interesting; routes in black and/or white are traced on the board. Every time monster movement occurs, creature's who's symbols are called that turn move along the track they have been assigned to (ex: All "Star" cleatures move along the white path). It's a bit cumbursome to scan every creature each round for the symbols, but it's an original way to have a multitude of creatures move in an unpredictable way (and better than just rolling dice for all of them). Each location has a deck of cards which determine the types of encounters which will happen there (it's a little overwhelming to see all the decks of cards, and it doesn't result in as much variety of events as you'd expect, but it's a nice idea nonetheless). The whole "upkeep","Move/fight","Location Encounters","Mythos Event" systems works pretty well, despite some confusion regarding WHEN combats actually occur in certain circumstances, and despite the poor layout of the mythos cards themselves. Finally, I like the dynamics of gate opening: Each mythos card calls for a new gate in a location on the board. If it already has a gate, all open gates spit out monsters. If a gate has already been sealed there, the players are spared. This system accomplishes many things with simple and logical mechanics.
What I don't like:
The biggest problem is that the game is fairly long, but it feels like it should be going faster. The issue, in my mind, is that on top of the core rules there are a myriad of other, tiny rules which are individually simple and add flavour, but collectively just feel cumbursome. The "doom" counters (I think that's what they were called), which track the slow awakening of the Great Old One, kept getting forgotten. Money is bordeline unecessary. The terror level is an interesting concept (with residents of town and shops closing as it rises), but it doesn't add enough to be included. The creature "overflow" area is similar, unecessary clutter. Between the modifiers to the game from the Great Old One, the 3 types of Mythos cards, the character abilities and the myriad equipment and spells... it's hard to really be sure to apply all modifiers at a given time. While the "Sky" space adds an interesting element, "Lost in Time and Space" seems like a kludge solution to a problem they couldn't solve. There is a lot more, but the last one I'll mention is that the creatures have two flaws which bothered me: 1) the colour coding for special movement should have been replaced with text on the card (in fact, in some cases there is both!). 2) The double sided tokens meant that we were constantly flipping to see how hard something was to kill, how hard it was to sneak past, what symbol it was for movement purposes, etc.
In short: Simplify! Consolidate!
The fact that no one can agree on how some rules work is clearly a problem. The fact that the climax of the game, the encounter with the Great Old One, is one such situation, is pretty awful. I haven't yet had such an encounter, but considering that I don't understand how "fighting" such powerful creatures is in the spirit of the mythos, I'd probably like to see the whole process eliminated or re-worked.
It would be interesting to see if the game would work like this:
1) No money (simple draw three, choose 1 mechanic at the shops instead)
2) no blessings or curses
3) No terror level/ Overflow stack
4) Eliminate the trip to the outer planes. When a player wants to seal a gate, draw and resolve 1 card of the appropriate plane. If he/she survives, try to seal the gate immediately (or possibly the next turn)
5) Agree that combat always takes place in the movement phase, no matter what.
6) The Great Old One chosen determines the special conditions of the game (as usual), but if it awakens, the game ends. (B.T.W. An idea for a better way of keeping track of the doom track: Count out a # of gate markers equal the length of the doom track and return the others to the box. When the last one is placed, the Great Old One awakens and the game is over. When an Elder sign seals a gate, return it to the bottom of the stack. I haven't tested it, but it seems like it would work)
A few items that could have simplified the game, but couldn't be done now without going back to the drawing board:
1)Reduce the equipment cards to one stack (combining spells, unique items and common items).
2)Possibly eliminate the location card stacks (and go with a simpler streets=nothing, locations=printed text at the location, Mythos card=game events). Some of the flavour would be lost, but it would dramatically improve the pace of the game.
Summary: A VERY ambitious game. Succeeds in many ways, but fails in just as many. I enjoyed myself as always, but I don't think I'll be requesting it in the future.
Rating: 6
Sunday, September 25, 2005
I Made a Math!
Luch's fancy this week were Puerto Rico and Princes of Florence, two excellent games (in my opinion). Sonja was playing with us again, and trying Puerto Rico out for the first time. Sadly, Kozure couldn't make it!
First things first: We decided to come clean about some of the mistitled roles in Puerto Rico. The Mayor? Since when is it a mayor's role to take "workers" off a boat and give them work. The "workers"... well that's pretty sketchy too. The theme of this game is pretty tasteless, but luckily it's a good game anyway! I had taught Sonja briefly before playing... so she wasn't going in completely blind. Luch and I were racing with the same strategy, harbor and wharf, but I managed to win. I tend to gravitate towards that style of play every game (Buy a market and coffee or tobacco early for income). Speaking of strategy tendencies... we talked a little about the fact that in every game we've played, Shemp has built a warehouse, and I've NEVER built one... kind of odd. I think Sonja liked it well enough, but I don't think she'll run out and buy it.
Next up was Princes of Florence. Shemp likes this game but historically does very poorly with it (last in every case, in fact). I encouraged him to play against his instincts, to see if that would help.... I'm not sure if that's what he actually did, but SOMETHING worked, because he would have won (!) the game if not for a bidding war with Luch on the last round (which he lost due to lack of funds, messing up his plan). His loss was my gain, as I narrowly snatched the victory. We had a good laugh as Sonja exclaimed she "Made a Math" as she completed a work.
This was my first time really going after the jesters (I don't think I've ever bought more than 1 per game before). The verdict? Of course, the experts are correct... they are really quite powerful. Suddenly, all the turn minimum became very easy to meet (I had 3). Still, Shemp's end run made it clear to me that the game has many avenues of strategy which can work, and the key to winning is open to any of them.
Does this change Shemp's opinion of the game? Sonja's? Both commented on the down time between turns, which can definitely be an issue when players aren't snappy. But it's a worthwhile experience in my mind, hope others agree (so I can keep playing it!)
Lastly, we played a couple of rounds of Sonja's favorite game: For Sale! This is a very simple and quick game which involves bidding on properties over several rounds in phase 1, and then selling them to prospective buyers in round 2. In my opinion, this game is excellent filler. It's fast and fun, and everyone is involved at all times until the end. There is a good balance of luck and strategy, which keeps everyone in the running but gives an edge to the player who puts his (her) mind to it. Although this feels similar in weight to High Society, I give this one the edge in the fun factor. Hmmm, I might have to get it eventually.
First things first: We decided to come clean about some of the mistitled roles in Puerto Rico. The Mayor? Since when is it a mayor's role to take "workers" off a boat and give them work. The "workers"... well that's pretty sketchy too. The theme of this game is pretty tasteless, but luckily it's a good game anyway! I had taught Sonja briefly before playing... so she wasn't going in completely blind. Luch and I were racing with the same strategy, harbor and wharf, but I managed to win. I tend to gravitate towards that style of play every game (Buy a market and coffee or tobacco early for income). Speaking of strategy tendencies... we talked a little about the fact that in every game we've played, Shemp has built a warehouse, and I've NEVER built one... kind of odd. I think Sonja liked it well enough, but I don't think she'll run out and buy it.
Next up was Princes of Florence. Shemp likes this game but historically does very poorly with it (last in every case, in fact). I encouraged him to play against his instincts, to see if that would help.... I'm not sure if that's what he actually did, but SOMETHING worked, because he would have won (!) the game if not for a bidding war with Luch on the last round (which he lost due to lack of funds, messing up his plan). His loss was my gain, as I narrowly snatched the victory. We had a good laugh as Sonja exclaimed she "Made a Math" as she completed a work.
This was my first time really going after the jesters (I don't think I've ever bought more than 1 per game before). The verdict? Of course, the experts are correct... they are really quite powerful. Suddenly, all the turn minimum became very easy to meet (I had 3). Still, Shemp's end run made it clear to me that the game has many avenues of strategy which can work, and the key to winning is open to any of them.
Does this change Shemp's opinion of the game? Sonja's? Both commented on the down time between turns, which can definitely be an issue when players aren't snappy. But it's a worthwhile experience in my mind, hope others agree (so I can keep playing it!)
Lastly, we played a couple of rounds of Sonja's favorite game: For Sale! This is a very simple and quick game which involves bidding on properties over several rounds in phase 1, and then selling them to prospective buyers in round 2. In my opinion, this game is excellent filler. It's fast and fun, and everyone is involved at all times until the end. There is a good balance of luck and strategy, which keeps everyone in the running but gives an edge to the player who puts his (her) mind to it. Although this feels similar in weight to High Society, I give this one the edge in the fun factor. Hmmm, I might have to get it eventually.
Labels:
For Sale,
Princes of Florence,
Puerto Rico,
Session
Friday, September 09, 2005
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
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
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
WAGS + Cards = Old School FUN!
We had a surprise request from Tili last week: Let's play cards. Not fancy Shmancy designer card games. Cards.
Always happy to indulge a craving, we gathered around the table for an evening of Hearts and Poker!
With 5 players, the character of Hearts changes a bit. It's very hard to shoot the moon, so it was rarely attempted (and never accomplished). Still, it was a fun bit of nostalgia (I used to play this a lot in high school).
Next up was Poker. We played for fun (Read: not for money) and took turns calling the game. While the others were mostly content calling standard poker variations (from the standard: This is how many cards you get, this is what's wild and this is how many times you get to drop cards to the fancier pre-set variations such as "Samurai" and "The King and his children" (I don't think I remembered that title quite right)). I did my best to come up with new, "exciting" and "original" variations such as "Squeeze the Weasel" and "Secrets of the Dead". Please note that the fact that the established variations worked much better than my homebrews is irrelevant. IRRELEVANT. We finished the night off with a few rounds of Texas Hold'em.
I love playing cards... I grew up playing 500, Kanasta, Hearts, Asshole, etc. Poker is not a game I have played very much, but it was a fun way to spend an evening. Texas Hold'Em, though, I just don't "get". To me, it just isn't very fun... I honestly don't understand how this became such a rage. They've eliminated card playing and replaced it with limited bluffing (the other versions have both... a much more interesting combination in my mind).
All in all, I had a great time. Tili should suggest games more often!
Always happy to indulge a craving, we gathered around the table for an evening of Hearts and Poker!
With 5 players, the character of Hearts changes a bit. It's very hard to shoot the moon, so it was rarely attempted (and never accomplished). Still, it was a fun bit of nostalgia (I used to play this a lot in high school).
Next up was Poker. We played for fun (Read: not for money) and took turns calling the game. While the others were mostly content calling standard poker variations (from the standard: This is how many cards you get, this is what's wild and this is how many times you get to drop cards to the fancier pre-set variations such as "Samurai" and "The King and his children" (I don't think I remembered that title quite right)). I did my best to come up with new, "exciting" and "original" variations such as "Squeeze the Weasel" and "Secrets of the Dead". Please note that the fact that the established variations worked much better than my homebrews is irrelevant. IRRELEVANT. We finished the night off with a few rounds of Texas Hold'em.
I love playing cards... I grew up playing 500, Kanasta, Hearts, Asshole, etc. Poker is not a game I have played very much, but it was a fun way to spend an evening. Texas Hold'Em, though, I just don't "get". To me, it just isn't very fun... I honestly don't understand how this became such a rage. They've eliminated card playing and replaced it with limited bluffing (the other versions have both... a much more interesting combination in my mind).
All in all, I had a great time. Tili should suggest games more often!
Friday, August 26, 2005
Shadows Over The Castillo
Well, no fancy first-person narratives this time, just straight reporting.
We were joined by the lovely and talented Sonja this week, who proved to be both an able teammate in Shadows Over Camelot and a cagey competitor in El Grande. Everyone seemed to get along famously and we're hoping she can join us again in the future.
Shadows Over Camelot began the evening. We have played and discussed the game here on the blog before, so I won't get into details about mechanics or components. SoC remains a somewhat so-so game for me, though I do look forward to playing it when it is brought out. I say "so-so" because I can't help feeling that the challenges are too many and the sense of accomplishment too little - much less than LotR. I enjoy SoC slightly more than LotR, but for different reasons.
This time, with five players, we thought that there might be the chance to accomplish more. We actually did, losing only 7 black swords to 5 white, and two of those black swords were flipped over white swords by the traitor, who managed to remain (mostly) undetected throughout the game. More on that later.
With all of us, including Sonja, knowing pretty much what had to be done, there was a lot more table talk about where to go and how to assign people. Also, people took more time to make sure they used their special powers effectively. Sonja was Sir Palomedes, Shemp was King Arthur, Hapi was Sir Kay, I was sir Percival. I believe Easy was Sir Gawain. Due to some cognitive dissonance, some of us kept moving the knight that was their traditional colour, but after a few rounds, we got straightened out.
I went immediately to the Black Knight quest, while Hapi beelined for the Grail, Shemp to Excalibur and Easy stuck around in the castle to draw extra cards.
We made a good dent in the grail quest early through a combination of removing desolation and despair cards with Merlin cards. We might have won it earlier but for a string of despair and desolation cards which seemed to come up in rapid succession. I managed to pull off the Black Knight joust, winning handily. Shemp attempted the Excalibur quest, but hadn't made much progress when he flipped over to the grail quest. We were slapped with a Mists of Avalon card and voted against stopping it (we would regret that later). I had moved over to the Saxon invasion while the rest alternated between the Picts and the Grail. Sonja and I fought off the Picts, and the others won the Grail quest with some teamwork, but in the meantime, the catapults were piling up and the Lancelot quest was lost. Someone (Hapi, I believe) had played the heroism card on the Grail quest, so we earned a whopping four white swords from its completion.
Around this time, Sonja played a card which she misread as revealing the traitor. In actuality, it said "reveal yourself if you ARE the traitor". Unfortunately, this caused Shemp to begin turning over his card. When someone pointed out that the card didn't say to reveal the traitor, Shemp quickly flipped his card face-down again. Sonja and Hapi missed this subtle hand motion, but both Easy and I noticed his slip. However, as this was an error, both of us decided independently to proceed as if we didn't know who the traitor was, though certainly we scruntinized Shemp's moves from then on for any excuse to believe that he was the traitor. Unfortunately Shemp was a cunning enough foe that neither of us felt that his actions were traitorous enough to warrant an accusation for the rest of the game.
Ignoring this accidental revelation, we continued playing, fighting off the Pict invasion and starting the Dragon Quest while simultaneously killing catapults. We were actually up to seven white swords and four black when a failed quest caused another black to be placed, ending the game. Because Shemp had gone undiscovered, two of our seven white swords were flipped to black.
In the end, the tally was 4 white swords for succeeding at the grail quest with heroism; 1 sword each for the Black Knight, Pict and Saxon Quests. (7 white)
Black swords came from failing the lancelot quest (2 black, due to "mists") and the Excalibur quest (2 or 3 black?). I can't remember which quest was failed that earned us the final game-ending black sword.
Once again, this game is challenging, but it's apparent that it's not all luck. Luck IS a major factor, but good teamwork, experience and skillful gameplay can help to mitigate. One thing that did happen this game is that poor Hapi got stuck on the grail quest for a major portion of the game - he was basically doing the same thing over and over every turn. Easy mentioned that this is an occasional complaint about the game in general.
El Grande with five players is also challenging - and a little too slow for my liking, but not bad. Sonja did excellently in picking up the game quickly and catching on to the ebb and flow of caballero placement. I managed to alter my strategy from a wargame-based "take and hold territory" strategy to the more sucessful "fluid placement and grab points whereever and whenever you can" strategy. This approach was much more successful for me this time, and I managed to earn first place as a result. All of our scores were higher than usual, which is promising, since I believe the tendency is to get lower scores with more players. Sonja finished with a respectable score, even more respectable for the fact that this was her first time playing, in a five-player game, with relatively experienced players, no less.
A very enjoyable evening, made even more enjoyable by a new and friendly face in the form of Sonja. (And everyone loves the Castillo).
We were joined by the lovely and talented Sonja this week, who proved to be both an able teammate in Shadows Over Camelot and a cagey competitor in El Grande. Everyone seemed to get along famously and we're hoping she can join us again in the future.
Shadows Over Camelot began the evening. We have played and discussed the game here on the blog before, so I won't get into details about mechanics or components. SoC remains a somewhat so-so game for me, though I do look forward to playing it when it is brought out. I say "so-so" because I can't help feeling that the challenges are too many and the sense of accomplishment too little - much less than LotR. I enjoy SoC slightly more than LotR, but for different reasons.
This time, with five players, we thought that there might be the chance to accomplish more. We actually did, losing only 7 black swords to 5 white, and two of those black swords were flipped over white swords by the traitor, who managed to remain (mostly) undetected throughout the game. More on that later.
With all of us, including Sonja, knowing pretty much what had to be done, there was a lot more table talk about where to go and how to assign people. Also, people took more time to make sure they used their special powers effectively. Sonja was Sir Palomedes, Shemp was King Arthur, Hapi was Sir Kay, I was sir Percival. I believe Easy was Sir Gawain. Due to some cognitive dissonance, some of us kept moving the knight that was their traditional colour, but after a few rounds, we got straightened out.
I went immediately to the Black Knight quest, while Hapi beelined for the Grail, Shemp to Excalibur and Easy stuck around in the castle to draw extra cards.
We made a good dent in the grail quest early through a combination of removing desolation and despair cards with Merlin cards. We might have won it earlier but for a string of despair and desolation cards which seemed to come up in rapid succession. I managed to pull off the Black Knight joust, winning handily. Shemp attempted the Excalibur quest, but hadn't made much progress when he flipped over to the grail quest. We were slapped with a Mists of Avalon card and voted against stopping it (we would regret that later). I had moved over to the Saxon invasion while the rest alternated between the Picts and the Grail. Sonja and I fought off the Picts, and the others won the Grail quest with some teamwork, but in the meantime, the catapults were piling up and the Lancelot quest was lost. Someone (Hapi, I believe) had played the heroism card on the Grail quest, so we earned a whopping four white swords from its completion.
Around this time, Sonja played a card which she misread as revealing the traitor. In actuality, it said "reveal yourself if you ARE the traitor". Unfortunately, this caused Shemp to begin turning over his card. When someone pointed out that the card didn't say to reveal the traitor, Shemp quickly flipped his card face-down again. Sonja and Hapi missed this subtle hand motion, but both Easy and I noticed his slip. However, as this was an error, both of us decided independently to proceed as if we didn't know who the traitor was, though certainly we scruntinized Shemp's moves from then on for any excuse to believe that he was the traitor. Unfortunately Shemp was a cunning enough foe that neither of us felt that his actions were traitorous enough to warrant an accusation for the rest of the game.
Ignoring this accidental revelation, we continued playing, fighting off the Pict invasion and starting the Dragon Quest while simultaneously killing catapults. We were actually up to seven white swords and four black when a failed quest caused another black to be placed, ending the game. Because Shemp had gone undiscovered, two of our seven white swords were flipped to black.
In the end, the tally was 4 white swords for succeeding at the grail quest with heroism; 1 sword each for the Black Knight, Pict and Saxon Quests. (7 white)
Black swords came from failing the lancelot quest (2 black, due to "mists") and the Excalibur quest (2 or 3 black?). I can't remember which quest was failed that earned us the final game-ending black sword.
Once again, this game is challenging, but it's apparent that it's not all luck. Luck IS a major factor, but good teamwork, experience and skillful gameplay can help to mitigate. One thing that did happen this game is that poor Hapi got stuck on the grail quest for a major portion of the game - he was basically doing the same thing over and over every turn. Easy mentioned that this is an occasional complaint about the game in general.
El Grande with five players is also challenging - and a little too slow for my liking, but not bad. Sonja did excellently in picking up the game quickly and catching on to the ebb and flow of caballero placement. I managed to alter my strategy from a wargame-based "take and hold territory" strategy to the more sucessful "fluid placement and grab points whereever and whenever you can" strategy. This approach was much more successful for me this time, and I managed to earn first place as a result. All of our scores were higher than usual, which is promising, since I believe the tendency is to get lower scores with more players. Sonja finished with a respectable score, even more respectable for the fact that this was her first time playing, in a five-player game, with relatively experienced players, no less.
A very enjoyable evening, made even more enjoyable by a new and friendly face in the form of Sonja. (And everyone loves the Castillo).
Friday, August 19, 2005
Microwave Popcorn
I tried to come up with a theme for this Wednesday, but couldn't. The closest I came to a common thread between this week's games was during my thoughts on food for the evening, and it occured to me that microwaved popcorn nicely tied together RoboRally and Power Grid . Couldn't get Colossal Arena to fit, though.
I broke out my somewhat recently aquired RoboRally (the re-release by Avalon Hill). We had all played with the earlier version before, so I was curious how they would compare. I'm going to assume that anyone reading this already knows how to play the game, and focus on the changes which have been made. To put it succinctly, they went for quantity, not quality. The new box has all sorts of counters (life tokens, damage counters, power down tokens), bits (plastic robots, plastic flag markers, players mats, timer) and boards (4 double sided boars + 1 double sided starter board). None of it, however, is up to the quality standards of the original. The robots are squat, largely undifferentiated plastic figures which are painted to look like pewter. The boards are thick, but do not match the originals in heft and quality of finish. I don't want to be too harsh, however, because some of the additional stuff is pretty good. The plastic flags are quite nice because they do not obscure what is beneath them. The player mats are a nice idea (although they could have been MUCH smaller), and the timer is a welcome addition. The biggest change, rules and component wise, are the starter boards. Gone are "virtual robots", the kludgy mechanic which made robots indestructible for a turn as they scrambled away from the start position. Now, every 'bot gets it's own start spot on the new 1/3rd sized board and it's off to the races. I also want to mention what is probably my favorite part of the new release... the revamped course guide. There are now LOTS of layouts to choose from, categorized by difficulty and length (many with interesting variations, such as capture the flag, team play, moving flags, etc).
I chose a single board expert course described as "short" called "Raid the Vault" (I think). On my very first turn, I completely missprogrammed my robot (because I thought I was a different robot on another starting space). Basically, I flew right into a pit... That was the start of a very "interactive" race, which saw us interfering with each others' plans more often than not (and since we were making efforts to play quickly, we fairly often made mistakes on our own). In short, it was exactly what RoboRally should be: Chaotic and unpredictable. I died again on the second or third round (pushed by another robot off track, and spent several turns sitting in front of Luch's lasers until I killed myself to start fresh with my last life). Despite this, I successfully caught up to Kozure, the leader, and managed to make it to the end first for the improbable win!
We followed with Power Grid. The game started quite oddly with quite a few large power plants making it out very early. This had the effect of stalling the regular process of the "future" power plants making their way into the "present" market because every new plant we would draw was lower than those to come (and yes, we did remember to get rid of the highest one each round). I started strong with control of northern Germany (kozure, Shemp and Luch divied up the south), and a lead in powered cities, which gave me the cash to buy up some of the expensive plants early. Thinking that I could safely wait until later on to develop the rest of the north, I started hoarding cash so that i could make a charge south once step 2 came along... however two things messed up my plans: 1) Kozure made a daring push through my 2 city thick barrier to the north, and started gobbling up my cities and 2) My ranking as first bit me, because Luch had the same plan to charge the south of Germany once step two came around... since he was last he acted first and bought up ALL the cities I planned to take with his hoard of cash. i tried to learn from my mistakes and purposefully fell to last place in the ranking by not building for several turns. I thought of a plan: My early aquisitions of big power plants mean that I had capacity to power a large number of cities (14), while the stalled power plant market meant that even late in the game the other players still had small plants. I decided to hoard cash and wait for step 3, then buy up all remaining cities i needed to finish the game (9 of them) before the rest bought enough power plant capacity to power more than me. Amazingly, it worked! I ended the game before anyone suspected it was close to finishing (I think).
All this, and we still had time for a game of Colossal Arena. I hadn't played before, but I had heard very good things from my fellow WAGSters (who had played it on a few occasions when I couldn't make it). The game, on the surface, is very simple. 9 creatures (from a pool of 12) are layed out side by side, and the story is that they are fighting in an arena. On your turn, you MAY place a bet on a creature and you HAVE TO play a card numbered 1 to 10 on any of the creatures (not necesarily the one you bet on). Once all the creatures have a numbered card, the round ends and the one with the lowest value is "killed". Therefore, you bet on the ones you think/ hope will make it to the end of the 5 rounds of combat (bets in ealrier rounds are worth more), and you play numbered cards to boost the ones you want to survive or weaken the ones others have bet on. It's a tough decision, though, because you can only play one card each turn. The game is complicated somewhat because each creature has a power which can be activated by the player with the biggest bet riding on it. I didn't really get comfortable enough to benefit from the powers, but I'm sure that in the long run they should add some additional strategic depth to the combat.
The game started out normally (I assume). Kozure went long on two creatures by using two of his 5 bets in the first round. The third round seemed to go on forever, as players opted to save the creatures they invested in rather than attack and finish the round. With so much of the deck spent, the game ended when the last card was drawn. After the dust settled, I tied Kozure for points, but he won on the secondary win conditions.
I thought it had the potential to be a very good game. I was a little shell-shocked on this play because I tried to absorb the creature powers right away, and i don't think it was necessary. I definitely look forward to more plays, though! It's amazing what knizia does with the numbers 1 through 10!!! (High Society, Lost Cities, etc)
2 wins and a virtual tie. Not a bad night! (though we never did microwave any popcorn)
Colossal Arena: 7
I broke out my somewhat recently aquired RoboRally (the re-release by Avalon Hill). We had all played with the earlier version before, so I was curious how they would compare. I'm going to assume that anyone reading this already knows how to play the game, and focus on the changes which have been made. To put it succinctly, they went for quantity, not quality. The new box has all sorts of counters (life tokens, damage counters, power down tokens), bits (plastic robots, plastic flag markers, players mats, timer) and boards (4 double sided boars + 1 double sided starter board). None of it, however, is up to the quality standards of the original. The robots are squat, largely undifferentiated plastic figures which are painted to look like pewter. The boards are thick, but do not match the originals in heft and quality of finish. I don't want to be too harsh, however, because some of the additional stuff is pretty good. The plastic flags are quite nice because they do not obscure what is beneath them. The player mats are a nice idea (although they could have been MUCH smaller), and the timer is a welcome addition. The biggest change, rules and component wise, are the starter boards. Gone are "virtual robots", the kludgy mechanic which made robots indestructible for a turn as they scrambled away from the start position. Now, every 'bot gets it's own start spot on the new 1/3rd sized board and it's off to the races. I also want to mention what is probably my favorite part of the new release... the revamped course guide. There are now LOTS of layouts to choose from, categorized by difficulty and length (many with interesting variations, such as capture the flag, team play, moving flags, etc).
I chose a single board expert course described as "short" called "Raid the Vault" (I think). On my very first turn, I completely missprogrammed my robot (because I thought I was a different robot on another starting space). Basically, I flew right into a pit... That was the start of a very "interactive" race, which saw us interfering with each others' plans more often than not (and since we were making efforts to play quickly, we fairly often made mistakes on our own). In short, it was exactly what RoboRally should be: Chaotic and unpredictable. I died again on the second or third round (pushed by another robot off track, and spent several turns sitting in front of Luch's lasers until I killed myself to start fresh with my last life). Despite this, I successfully caught up to Kozure, the leader, and managed to make it to the end first for the improbable win!
We followed with Power Grid. The game started quite oddly with quite a few large power plants making it out very early. This had the effect of stalling the regular process of the "future" power plants making their way into the "present" market because every new plant we would draw was lower than those to come (and yes, we did remember to get rid of the highest one each round). I started strong with control of northern Germany (kozure, Shemp and Luch divied up the south), and a lead in powered cities, which gave me the cash to buy up some of the expensive plants early. Thinking that I could safely wait until later on to develop the rest of the north, I started hoarding cash so that i could make a charge south once step 2 came along... however two things messed up my plans: 1) Kozure made a daring push through my 2 city thick barrier to the north, and started gobbling up my cities and 2) My ranking as first bit me, because Luch had the same plan to charge the south of Germany once step two came around... since he was last he acted first and bought up ALL the cities I planned to take with his hoard of cash. i tried to learn from my mistakes and purposefully fell to last place in the ranking by not building for several turns. I thought of a plan: My early aquisitions of big power plants mean that I had capacity to power a large number of cities (14), while the stalled power plant market meant that even late in the game the other players still had small plants. I decided to hoard cash and wait for step 3, then buy up all remaining cities i needed to finish the game (9 of them) before the rest bought enough power plant capacity to power more than me. Amazingly, it worked! I ended the game before anyone suspected it was close to finishing (I think).
All this, and we still had time for a game of Colossal Arena. I hadn't played before, but I had heard very good things from my fellow WAGSters (who had played it on a few occasions when I couldn't make it). The game, on the surface, is very simple. 9 creatures (from a pool of 12) are layed out side by side, and the story is that they are fighting in an arena. On your turn, you MAY place a bet on a creature and you HAVE TO play a card numbered 1 to 10 on any of the creatures (not necesarily the one you bet on). Once all the creatures have a numbered card, the round ends and the one with the lowest value is "killed". Therefore, you bet on the ones you think/ hope will make it to the end of the 5 rounds of combat (bets in ealrier rounds are worth more), and you play numbered cards to boost the ones you want to survive or weaken the ones others have bet on. It's a tough decision, though, because you can only play one card each turn. The game is complicated somewhat because each creature has a power which can be activated by the player with the biggest bet riding on it. I didn't really get comfortable enough to benefit from the powers, but I'm sure that in the long run they should add some additional strategic depth to the combat.
The game started out normally (I assume). Kozure went long on two creatures by using two of his 5 bets in the first round. The third round seemed to go on forever, as players opted to save the creatures they invested in rather than attack and finish the round. With so much of the deck spent, the game ended when the last card was drawn. After the dust settled, I tied Kozure for points, but he won on the secondary win conditions.
I thought it had the potential to be a very good game. I was a little shell-shocked on this play because I tried to absorb the creature powers right away, and i don't think it was necessary. I definitely look forward to more plays, though! It's amazing what knizia does with the numbers 1 through 10!!! (High Society, Lost Cities, etc)
2 wins and a virtual tie. Not a bad night! (though we never did microwave any popcorn)
Colossal Arena: 7
Labels:
Collossal Arena,
Power Grid,
Robo-Rally,
Session
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