Greed.
Sweet, sweet greed.
How many games encourage players to amass large quantities of riches as a sign of victory? Of those, how many don't even bother with the trinkets and go for straight cash as the mark of success?
Lots.
The folks here at WAGS gathered around the table for an evening of unabashed money grabbing. We bookended the evening with games of Fantasy Business, and played Knizia's Royal Turf and the brand new "Ca$h n' GunS" in between. All three were new to us, and all three revolve around accumulating cash.
First, Fantasy Business. Cool theme: Players are the merchants who sell all those magic items and weapons the characters in fantasy rpgs run around buying. Format-wise, it's a simple card game. As players build up an inventory of items to sell, each must decide how much to sell those items for. It's pretty simple if you have a monopoly because you simply charge the most the market will bear. Things get more interesting when a number of players are selling the same thing... they have to come to an agreement on the selling price before they open the market. Once negotiations are complete, players are free to set their prices at any level they want! Customers vote with their wallets... whomever set their price the HIGHEST sells NONE of their goods. Whomever sets their price the LOWEST sees a huge rush of sales and get a bonus to their income beyond the selling price. Anyone in between simply get what they've asked for. There are 10 rounds of aquiring new wares to sell/ setting prices and selling the items for profit.
Most money wins.
This game is nearly as nasty as Intrige (quite a high bar for nastiness). With the right crowd, it's a lot of fun. With the wrong crowd, it could quite easily bomb and sensitive people could get hurt. A sample hand: Luch made an offer to Kozure to trade 2 of each other's commodities so that they would both wind up with monopolies in the end. Once the deal was done, he immediately followed that with a special card which allowed him to steal Kozure's cards right back! Lying is the norm and backstabbing is the strategy. If that sounds fine by you, you'll likely enjoy the game.
I sucked at the game. I thought is was quite a bit of fun, but I sucked. In our first game, I came in dead last by a large margin. In the second game, the gap was narrower, but I was still last. I was working pretty hard to scam and screw over the other players. I was pretty successful, but as much as it was fun (for me) to keep doing this, it was far too much far too early... No one really trusted me so I had to resort to small amounts of income for far too long. Next time, I'll have to try to play more honestly and make a few significant "shafts" when they matter. Shemp, on the other hand, has this one DOWN. Although both Luch and Kozure were in the running, he won both games.
Royal Turf is the horse racing game by Reiner Knizia. There are a number of horses, everyone places bets on them and they race.
Most money wins.
The game was fun, but it felt like a less strategic version of Formula De (and I only consider Formula De to be mildly strategic). I simply could NOT identify any kind of strategy in the game beyond the initial betting (each horse has statistics and starting positions which vary, so the betting has to be adjusted accordingly). Like I said, it was enjoyable, but it just didn't feel like a Knizia at all. Well, I won't comment any further because it turns out we were playing it wrong! We were picking a horse, and THEN rolling the die. In fact, the reverse is supposed to occur. What a difference! We'll have to try it again to see how well it plays. For the record, Kozure won this one.
Last up was Ca$h n' GunS. If you've seen a "Mexican Standoff" in a Tarantino movie you'll know what to expect in this game (think the scene in Reservoir Dogs where all the characters have guns pointed at each other, and then they all pull the trigger and kill each other simultaneously). A random pile of cash is placed at the center of the table. Each player has a toy gun and simultaneously everyone chooses a target. The players who find themselves facing down the barrel of a gun need to make a decision: stay put or duck like a coward. You see, the gun MIGHT not be loaded. Each player had to choose from a hand of 8 cards at the start of the round, and 5 of those are blanks! Those who didn't flinch find out if the gun(s) pointed at them were loaded. Anyone who didn't run or get shot gets to split the cash. There are 8 rounds, and therefore each "ammo" card will eventually get used up, so the fun in the game is in trying to outguess when your opponents are likely to load their guns, and who they might point the gun at. (there are mosre details, and 2 variants we didn't play, but that's the essence of it)
Most money wins.
This is a fun, silly game if you are not offended by the theme. After every "gun pointing" Luch would chime in with the same comment: "Interesting..."
One of these two plays was my single shining moment this evening. I won! Kozure was the victor in the other.
Had a great time as usual, and my greed is satiated (for the moment)
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Rules Misinterpretations That Can Have a Big Impact...
A quick post to indicate that a mistake was made in the explanation of "Royal Turf", played in the most recent session. Turns out that you roll the die first, and then you choose which horse to move. A re-reading of the rules made this clearer.
Ugh.
Pretty major effect on gameplay, especially for the "faster" horses like Earl Grey and Albino - and much more opportunity to screw over your opponents, especially with horseshoe rolls.
Improves the game quite a bit, probably.
Another rule that was missed is that the horse cards from each race are discarded, so they are not used in subsequent races. In this way, each horse is sure to eventually use all three horse card variants.
Funny how a few slight misinterpretations can have a big impact. I'd say "my bad", but I really hate that expression, so I'll just say "ooops."
Ugh.
Pretty major effect on gameplay, especially for the "faster" horses like Earl Grey and Albino - and much more opportunity to screw over your opponents, especially with horseshoe rolls.
Improves the game quite a bit, probably.
Another rule that was missed is that the horse cards from each race are discarded, so they are not used in subsequent races. In this way, each horse is sure to eventually use all three horse card variants.
Funny how a few slight misinterpretations can have a big impact. I'd say "my bad", but I really hate that expression, so I'll just say "ooops."
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Put down that cupcake and RACE! (Through the Desert x2, Formula De, RoboRally)
This week was all about racing:
We burned rubber on Formula De's SPA track.
We braved the homicidal factory in RoboRally's "Bloodbath Chess" course.
We, ummm, had our camels cross the sands of Sahara REALLY FAST (?) in Through the Desert.
Oh, and we ate my wife's yummy Valentine's Day cupcakes.
It all started with a quick game of TtD for three. Shemp let us know ahead of time that he hadn't been sleeping well for a few days. This, combined with the fact that his colourblindness made it nearly impossible for him to follow what what going on on the board led him to apologize in advance for his weak playing. I did win, but he managed 2nd place. Poor Kozure...
I think this one is sneaking into my top 10... simple rules, scales well to any number of players and never takes much more than 30 minutes. (Shame about the pastel camels, though). We later closed the night with another round with 4 players. Kozure used an interesting initial placement strategy where he grouped 3 camels in one corner. This gave him an easy way to block other players from cutting him off as he went for a very large land grab. He made up for his earlier defeat!
Formula De was the first "Main Course". I wanted to try the SPA course with the group... it has the reputation of being the best of the tracks. I have to say I quite enjoyed it! Quite often the decision regarding which gear to be in on any given turn was quite tough. The leader changed frequently throughout the game and the course was often choked at the corners. I started at the Pole Position (and consequently in last place with my 2nd car). I was very hard on my lead car and blew most of my tires and brakes by the middle of the course. I did have the lead, but my conservative play after that allowed both Shemp and Kozure to pass me. In the end, Kozure crossed the finish line first and 5th, with Shemp 2nd and 3rd. I manages 4th and 6th with Luch limping in 7th (he lost a car in the chicane).
In Roborally, the "Bloodbath Chess" map proved to be quite interactive and lively. I seem to have a habit of totally screwing up my first move and this game was no different. I died right away because I didn't notice a wall in my path. I was behind for the entire game, but I accumulated quite an interesting array of special abilities along the way (dual CPU, extra memory, brakes and rear firing lasers). They weren't enough... I came in third (and the only reason I wasn't fourth was that Luch lost his third life token by flying into a pit near the 4th flag).
Until next time, may none or your registers be programmed randomly
We burned rubber on Formula De's SPA track.
We braved the homicidal factory in RoboRally's "Bloodbath Chess" course.
We, ummm, had our camels cross the sands of Sahara REALLY FAST (?) in Through the Desert.
Oh, and we ate my wife's yummy Valentine's Day cupcakes.
It all started with a quick game of TtD for three. Shemp let us know ahead of time that he hadn't been sleeping well for a few days. This, combined with the fact that his colourblindness made it nearly impossible for him to follow what what going on on the board led him to apologize in advance for his weak playing. I did win, but he managed 2nd place. Poor Kozure...
I think this one is sneaking into my top 10... simple rules, scales well to any number of players and never takes much more than 30 minutes. (Shame about the pastel camels, though). We later closed the night with another round with 4 players. Kozure used an interesting initial placement strategy where he grouped 3 camels in one corner. This gave him an easy way to block other players from cutting him off as he went for a very large land grab. He made up for his earlier defeat!
Formula De was the first "Main Course". I wanted to try the SPA course with the group... it has the reputation of being the best of the tracks. I have to say I quite enjoyed it! Quite often the decision regarding which gear to be in on any given turn was quite tough. The leader changed frequently throughout the game and the course was often choked at the corners. I started at the Pole Position (and consequently in last place with my 2nd car). I was very hard on my lead car and blew most of my tires and brakes by the middle of the course. I did have the lead, but my conservative play after that allowed both Shemp and Kozure to pass me. In the end, Kozure crossed the finish line first and 5th, with Shemp 2nd and 3rd. I manages 4th and 6th with Luch limping in 7th (he lost a car in the chicane).
In Roborally, the "Bloodbath Chess" map proved to be quite interactive and lively. I seem to have a habit of totally screwing up my first move and this game was no different. I died right away because I didn't notice a wall in my path. I was behind for the entire game, but I accumulated quite an interesting array of special abilities along the way (dual CPU, extra memory, brakes and rear firing lasers). They weren't enough... I came in third (and the only reason I wasn't fourth was that Luch lost his third life token by flying into a pit near the 4th flag).
Until next time, may none or your registers be programmed randomly
Thursday, February 09, 2006
It takes a village... (Diamant, Tikal x2, Antike, Saboteur)
Quite a crowd at "Chez Kozure" this week.
JayWowzer just couldn't bear the California heat so a mere two weeks after his last visit, we had him in our midst once again. Shamus, having recently humbled us in his first ever evening of german games, thought enough of them to come back... and this time with his girlfriend, Robin!
So, with Shemp out house hunting we had 7 people together. What to play?
We started out with Diamant. Nice, easy fun and fast. In the 3rd cave, Robin found herself all alone and still feeling brave enough to keep going deeper. It paid off in a big way and she left us in the dust (somewhere between 20-30 gems collected in that cave alone). Didn't help that the next two caves were over before they started...
Next Luch requested we play Tikal. We had two copies, so after the explanations we split off and got started. I played with JayWowzer and Luch. It was a great game... competition was tight throughout. I was obscenely lucky and made a triple out of the first 3 treasures I drew. Assuming it would be all downhill from there, I opted to stay out from treasure collecting for the rest of the game (hoping to gain an advantage by not using up valuable action points taking/ trading treasures later on). I made 2 surprise "swoops", taking ownership of high value temples (a 7 and a 10) out from under the other player's noses, but it was too early... I lost a lot of workers in the process and I would need them later on. In the end, I couldn't keep control of enough other temples and JayWowzer's superior mobility and accumulated treasure beat us out in the last few rounds.
The others were still going strong (it was a learning game, after all). Kozure joined us and we moved on to Antike. JayWowzer was kind enough to bring it along so we could give it a spin. I'm sure glad he did! I like the idea of civilization type games, but they are really hard to pull off... Too long, not balanced, fiddly, etc. A truly brilliant civ. game would incorporate war, politics, religion, technological advancements and negotiations in a game which lasted less than 4 hours. Antike is NOT that game, but it IS lots of fun.
Antike is a game set in the ancient mediteranean. Each player starts with a set of three regions, each of which produces a different good (marble, Iron, Gold). Over the course of the game, players race to accumulate a set number of victory points.
The path to that goal is surprisingly clean and simple...
1) Expanding your empire increases your production. Every 5th region under a player's control is worth a VP.
2) GOLD can be accumulated and spent on technological advancements (the wheel, currency, etc). Any player who purchases an advancement gets it's benefit, but the FIRST player to purchase each advancement gets a VP.
3) MARBLE can be spent on building temples. Temples have the direct effect of increasing production and defenses in a region. Every THIRD temple nets a VP.
4) IRON can be spent on building armies (boats or land armies). Occupying 7 ocean hexes nets a VP. Destroying a temple nets a VP.
Actions are selected in a somewhat novel way: The top right corner of the board shows a wheel with each possible action on it (generate marble, build a temple, etc). On a turn, a player can move their marker around the wheel up to 3 spaces and carries out that action (moves beyond 3 spaces are possible at a cost). The wheel is set up in such a way that producing a given resource always leaves a player 1 step too far from the action where it would be spent. It works well and it results in a game which moves remarkably quickly. How many civilization themed games can claim that 4 players take their turns in 2-3 minutes TOTAL?
I started out as Greece. I had a fair number of gold producing regions nearby, so I decided to skip the empire building race and focus on purchasing technological advancements. I took over 4 of those gold regions and built 3 temples on them. I maxed out all the advancements (being the first to buy 5 of the 8). By the end of the game, I was producing 13 gold! Kozure, Luch and JayWowzer had accumulated quite the large empires, armed with a number of armies and fleets. I was VERY nervous that Kozure was going to attack my rather small and fragile territory. One more turn and I think the tide would have turned... As it was I finished the game by expanding to my 10th territory and purchasing 3 temples in quick succession. It was an entirely bloodless game!
In future sessions, I'd never get away with it.
Anyway, Antike manages to incorporate empire building, war and technological advancement in a very elegant and streamlined package which features virtually zero downtime and a very rapid 1.5 hour playtime. If I could find it locally, I'd surely buy it. Chris Farrell has criticized this game on his blog. I can't say I agree with him here. I quite like it.
We finished up with Saboteur. I bought this game, along with Diamant, specifically for our New Year's Eve party... thinking that a nice light game which could accomodate a large group would be a hit (and wanting an alternative to party games, though we would ultimately play those as well). It didn't go over too well.
In Saboteur, players assume the roles of dwarves digging mining tunnels trying to get to 3 different spots which MIGHT contain treasure. The twist is that one or more players MIGHT be traitors! They win if the dwarves finish the game without finding the treasure. It's a card game, and on a turn a player simply plays a card and then draws to replace. The card might be a section of tunnel or a "hazard" card which prevents another player from functioning until they play the appropriate "fix" card (this works exactly like the "hazard/ safety" mechanic from Mille Bornes). Obviously, the traitors try to inconspicuously lead the tunnel in the wrong direction, etc, because the moment they are discovered the hazards start to pile up quick.
The problem on New Year's Eve was that it was simply impossible for the good dwarves to win! The deck routinely ran out before the they could get close to any of the possible destinations. A quick visit to BGG proved to be very confusing... opinions there seemed to be that there was no way for the TRAITORS to win.
How is that possible?
Well, after playing last night I can concur that with 4 players the good dwarves have it pretty easy. The only hand where the traitor came close to stopping the others was caused by me and JayWowzer being completely convinced Luch was the traitor, burying him under a constant barrage of hazards. At the last minute, it became clear we were dead wrong and Kozure was actually the traitor. We recovered and found the gold, but it was pretty lucky (and I have to commend Luch for taking the punishment without letting on we were mistaken... the game lives and dies on players being able to keep their secrets)
Bottom line: Played as-is, the number of players seems to frequently predetermine which side will win. In a 4 player game, a maximum of 1 out of 4 players will be a traitor. In a 7 player game, 3 out of 7 could be traitors. Percentage wise, that's a big difference. Perhaps adding a potential 2nd traitor to the mix in the 4 player game might allow a less predictable shift of power. We'll see. There are probably "ideal" numbers of players where the ratio of traitors and good dwarves is balanced (I'd guess 6 and 9). The good news is that I enjoyed the game much more than I did the first time. It's nothing special, but there aren't a huge number of decent 10 player games, so it will find it's place (and it's certainly fun enough for the occasional play with fewer people).
Oh, and at the next table Robin proved once again that the newcomer should never be underestimated. She won. They are a crafty couple, it seems.
Antike: 9
Saboteur: 6
JayWowzer just couldn't bear the California heat so a mere two weeks after his last visit, we had him in our midst once again. Shamus, having recently humbled us in his first ever evening of german games, thought enough of them to come back... and this time with his girlfriend, Robin!
So, with Shemp out house hunting we had 7 people together. What to play?
We started out with Diamant. Nice, easy fun and fast. In the 3rd cave, Robin found herself all alone and still feeling brave enough to keep going deeper. It paid off in a big way and she left us in the dust (somewhere between 20-30 gems collected in that cave alone). Didn't help that the next two caves were over before they started...
Next Luch requested we play Tikal. We had two copies, so after the explanations we split off and got started. I played with JayWowzer and Luch. It was a great game... competition was tight throughout. I was obscenely lucky and made a triple out of the first 3 treasures I drew. Assuming it would be all downhill from there, I opted to stay out from treasure collecting for the rest of the game (hoping to gain an advantage by not using up valuable action points taking/ trading treasures later on). I made 2 surprise "swoops", taking ownership of high value temples (a 7 and a 10) out from under the other player's noses, but it was too early... I lost a lot of workers in the process and I would need them later on. In the end, I couldn't keep control of enough other temples and JayWowzer's superior mobility and accumulated treasure beat us out in the last few rounds.
The others were still going strong (it was a learning game, after all). Kozure joined us and we moved on to Antike. JayWowzer was kind enough to bring it along so we could give it a spin. I'm sure glad he did! I like the idea of civilization type games, but they are really hard to pull off... Too long, not balanced, fiddly, etc. A truly brilliant civ. game would incorporate war, politics, religion, technological advancements and negotiations in a game which lasted less than 4 hours. Antike is NOT that game, but it IS lots of fun.
Antike is a game set in the ancient mediteranean. Each player starts with a set of three regions, each of which produces a different good (marble, Iron, Gold). Over the course of the game, players race to accumulate a set number of victory points.
The path to that goal is surprisingly clean and simple...
1) Expanding your empire increases your production. Every 5th region under a player's control is worth a VP.
2) GOLD can be accumulated and spent on technological advancements (the wheel, currency, etc). Any player who purchases an advancement gets it's benefit, but the FIRST player to purchase each advancement gets a VP.
3) MARBLE can be spent on building temples. Temples have the direct effect of increasing production and defenses in a region. Every THIRD temple nets a VP.
4) IRON can be spent on building armies (boats or land armies). Occupying 7 ocean hexes nets a VP. Destroying a temple nets a VP.
Actions are selected in a somewhat novel way: The top right corner of the board shows a wheel with each possible action on it (generate marble, build a temple, etc). On a turn, a player can move their marker around the wheel up to 3 spaces and carries out that action (moves beyond 3 spaces are possible at a cost). The wheel is set up in such a way that producing a given resource always leaves a player 1 step too far from the action where it would be spent. It works well and it results in a game which moves remarkably quickly. How many civilization themed games can claim that 4 players take their turns in 2-3 minutes TOTAL?
I started out as Greece. I had a fair number of gold producing regions nearby, so I decided to skip the empire building race and focus on purchasing technological advancements. I took over 4 of those gold regions and built 3 temples on them. I maxed out all the advancements (being the first to buy 5 of the 8). By the end of the game, I was producing 13 gold! Kozure, Luch and JayWowzer had accumulated quite the large empires, armed with a number of armies and fleets. I was VERY nervous that Kozure was going to attack my rather small and fragile territory. One more turn and I think the tide would have turned... As it was I finished the game by expanding to my 10th territory and purchasing 3 temples in quick succession. It was an entirely bloodless game!
In future sessions, I'd never get away with it.
Anyway, Antike manages to incorporate empire building, war and technological advancement in a very elegant and streamlined package which features virtually zero downtime and a very rapid 1.5 hour playtime. If I could find it locally, I'd surely buy it. Chris Farrell has criticized this game on his blog. I can't say I agree with him here. I quite like it.
We finished up with Saboteur. I bought this game, along with Diamant, specifically for our New Year's Eve party... thinking that a nice light game which could accomodate a large group would be a hit (and wanting an alternative to party games, though we would ultimately play those as well). It didn't go over too well.
In Saboteur, players assume the roles of dwarves digging mining tunnels trying to get to 3 different spots which MIGHT contain treasure. The twist is that one or more players MIGHT be traitors! They win if the dwarves finish the game without finding the treasure. It's a card game, and on a turn a player simply plays a card and then draws to replace. The card might be a section of tunnel or a "hazard" card which prevents another player from functioning until they play the appropriate "fix" card (this works exactly like the "hazard/ safety" mechanic from Mille Bornes). Obviously, the traitors try to inconspicuously lead the tunnel in the wrong direction, etc, because the moment they are discovered the hazards start to pile up quick.
The problem on New Year's Eve was that it was simply impossible for the good dwarves to win! The deck routinely ran out before the they could get close to any of the possible destinations. A quick visit to BGG proved to be very confusing... opinions there seemed to be that there was no way for the TRAITORS to win.
How is that possible?
Well, after playing last night I can concur that with 4 players the good dwarves have it pretty easy. The only hand where the traitor came close to stopping the others was caused by me and JayWowzer being completely convinced Luch was the traitor, burying him under a constant barrage of hazards. At the last minute, it became clear we were dead wrong and Kozure was actually the traitor. We recovered and found the gold, but it was pretty lucky (and I have to commend Luch for taking the punishment without letting on we were mistaken... the game lives and dies on players being able to keep their secrets)
Bottom line: Played as-is, the number of players seems to frequently predetermine which side will win. In a 4 player game, a maximum of 1 out of 4 players will be a traitor. In a 7 player game, 3 out of 7 could be traitors. Percentage wise, that's a big difference. Perhaps adding a potential 2nd traitor to the mix in the 4 player game might allow a less predictable shift of power. We'll see. There are probably "ideal" numbers of players where the ratio of traitors and good dwarves is balanced (I'd guess 6 and 9). The good news is that I enjoyed the game much more than I did the first time. It's nothing special, but there aren't a huge number of decent 10 player games, so it will find it's place (and it's certainly fun enough for the occasional play with fewer people).
Oh, and at the next table Robin proved once again that the newcomer should never be underestimated. She won. They are a crafty couple, it seems.
Antike: 9
Saboteur: 6
"Never Try to Play a Player" - Tikal, Film-Noir Style
*cue mournful sax solo and distant police siren*
Ever get the feeling you were being played?
It was a cold and wintery night on the mean streets of Hogtown. There was a knock on the door, the sort of knock that makes a man put down his cheap scotch and flat soda and bother to answer it. They stood there, looking cold and lost - they looked like the sort of people that get eaten if they stay out too long after dark. I had seem him before - he went by the handle of Shamus - strangely, he wasn't a brother gumshoe. He had a slim gal with him, a nice looker, but you could tell she had some brains to rattle around behind that pretty face. I figured her for his moll. Shamus introduced her as "Ms. Potter", and you could hear him put enough "zee" on the Ms. to make it clear they weren't married.
I invited them in.
I had some of the boys in the back already fixing to start up on a game of Tikal, so I pointed the loving couple in the direction of our couch and broke out another copy of the old Mayan shellgame for my new guests to play. Tikal is like a pretty dame from a Sicilian crime family - nice to look at, but you'll find a couple slugs in your back if you let your guard down. Shamus I knew was a bit of a player - he'd run away with a train job a couple of weeks previous, but I chalked that one up to beginner's luck. Tikal was a good game to get to know a person; the real person, if you know what I mean. It's easy enough to suss out, I guess, but it's got more twists than a cheap dimestore licorice, and defeat tasted just as bitter.
Shamus and "Ms. Potter" looked like easy pickings. I laid out the rules and the situation and we got down to brass tacks. Early on, I thought I'd be sailing into the win easy-like. On the first couple of scoring round, I was ahead. I shoulda checked the rear view, though; "Ms. Potter" wasn't far behind. It got a little cut-throat - Shamus and Ms. Potter muscled in on one of my pyramids early on, and I gave Shamus the heave-ho on one that he'd worked up from a 4 pointer. On the second scoring round, I could hear the dogs nipping at my heels... well, if a dog looked like a pretty dame and came at you sideways from an alley with a Saturday Night Special. "Ms. Potter" caught up and passed me by a hair on the second round, and it was off to the races after that. All I was able to eat for the rest of the same was that dame's dust, and it didn't taste nearly as good as Tili's lasagne, or a decent scotch and soda, for that matter. No, defeat was dry as Mayan pottery dust in my mouth, baked in the hot Guatemalan sun.
I had to hand the game over to Trixie... er... Tili, because the other game was done with and the boys were explaining the rules for Antike, but from what I heard, Ms. Potter cleaned up. Ms. Potter won by a good eleven points.
Nope. These kids weren't amateurs. They were players through and through. They'd be back; I could tell by the way they smiled that they knew an easy mark when they saw one. Shamus and his moll Ms. Potter: a couple of cool cucumbers who knew their way around a game of Tikal. I've played the game enough to know when I had been played, and I had been played like a Stradivarius violin; smooth and expert-like, with a clear finish.
*siren fades out, echoing in the street*
[To be honest, I couldn't figure out a way to fit the review of Antike into the film-noir themed session report above, so I'll just do it the old-fashioned way.]
Antike is that rarity of rarieties, the Civilization building game that doesn't go too far into detail (Sid Meier's Civilization) and doesn't gloss over details a little too much (Vinci). After a quick rules explanation by JayWowzer, we were good to go.
I have to say that the roundel-based turn and action selection method is pretty unique. I have to laugh a tiny bit at the concept of a game where gold and currency are two separate and quite distinctly differently used commodities, but that's pretty much my only quibble with the game (oh, and the cover box art. That needed work).
Antike uses a fairly standard area-movement based movement mechanic, but resource acquisition and building are handled in phases which exist as sectors on a roundel. The players place a marker on the action they took, and then can advance up to three sectors for free (or pay one currency unit per sector to advance more) and then take the action on the next section. There are four commodities - iron, marble, gold and currency. The first three can be mined from specific area-based cities - the second, currency, is a per turn income and can be used to substitute like a wild-card for any of the other three resources.
Victory is point based, and varies from 9 points in a 4 player game, up to something like 12 or 13 in a three player game. Players acquire points (one point each) by gaining 5 land areas (king), being the first to develop "know-how" in two steps of five (six?) different categories (scholar), having ships in 7 different sea areas (seafarer), building 3 temples (citizen), conquering a city with a temple (general).
There are basically two types of manoeuvrable units, a land-army (which look like militant meeples) and a fleet (which are cute galley-like things). Other markers and pieces include a white temple, which triples resource output from a city, cities, which are little round dics, and eight-sided tall pieces which are used for markers on the techology tracks and the above mentioned roundel (which governs action types). The components are well made of wood, all are distinct colours and all (with the possible exception of the angry meeple) seem suited to their use.
Combat is similar to the Vinci one-for-one exchange of mutual destruction, with a few modifiers thrown in for defensive know-how (monarchies and democracies defend themselves more effectively) and for temples.
I'm really quite impressed with the game, which combines a simple but clever method for managing resources and buying different types of units and improvements. Combat is simple, but evocative, and options for attacking from sea, land or both at once add a little uncertainty to the strategic scope. It is quite possible to win without attacking anyone, as Agent Easy admirably demonstrated during the game, but I think in future games closer attention will be paid to leaders to prevent a straighforward purchase of victory.
This one is a definite keeper. I'd rate it a 8.5, which might bump up to 9 in subsequent plays. It has the fantastic attribute of being playable in 60-90 minutes, which for this level of detail (medium-light, admittedly, but better than Vinci, for example) is really quite remarkable.
Agent Easy walked away with the win, with JayWowzer coming a close second; Hapi and I fell to distant fourth and third place respectively.
Ever get the feeling you were being played?
It was a cold and wintery night on the mean streets of Hogtown. There was a knock on the door, the sort of knock that makes a man put down his cheap scotch and flat soda and bother to answer it. They stood there, looking cold and lost - they looked like the sort of people that get eaten if they stay out too long after dark. I had seem him before - he went by the handle of Shamus - strangely, he wasn't a brother gumshoe. He had a slim gal with him, a nice looker, but you could tell she had some brains to rattle around behind that pretty face. I figured her for his moll. Shamus introduced her as "Ms. Potter", and you could hear him put enough "zee" on the Ms. to make it clear they weren't married.
I invited them in.
I had some of the boys in the back already fixing to start up on a game of Tikal, so I pointed the loving couple in the direction of our couch and broke out another copy of the old Mayan shellgame for my new guests to play. Tikal is like a pretty dame from a Sicilian crime family - nice to look at, but you'll find a couple slugs in your back if you let your guard down. Shamus I knew was a bit of a player - he'd run away with a train job a couple of weeks previous, but I chalked that one up to beginner's luck. Tikal was a good game to get to know a person; the real person, if you know what I mean. It's easy enough to suss out, I guess, but it's got more twists than a cheap dimestore licorice, and defeat tasted just as bitter.
Shamus and "Ms. Potter" looked like easy pickings. I laid out the rules and the situation and we got down to brass tacks. Early on, I thought I'd be sailing into the win easy-like. On the first couple of scoring round, I was ahead. I shoulda checked the rear view, though; "Ms. Potter" wasn't far behind. It got a little cut-throat - Shamus and Ms. Potter muscled in on one of my pyramids early on, and I gave Shamus the heave-ho on one that he'd worked up from a 4 pointer. On the second scoring round, I could hear the dogs nipping at my heels... well, if a dog looked like a pretty dame and came at you sideways from an alley with a Saturday Night Special. "Ms. Potter" caught up and passed me by a hair on the second round, and it was off to the races after that. All I was able to eat for the rest of the same was that dame's dust, and it didn't taste nearly as good as Tili's lasagne, or a decent scotch and soda, for that matter. No, defeat was dry as Mayan pottery dust in my mouth, baked in the hot Guatemalan sun.
I had to hand the game over to Trixie... er... Tili, because the other game was done with and the boys were explaining the rules for Antike, but from what I heard, Ms. Potter cleaned up. Ms. Potter won by a good eleven points.
Nope. These kids weren't amateurs. They were players through and through. They'd be back; I could tell by the way they smiled that they knew an easy mark when they saw one. Shamus and his moll Ms. Potter: a couple of cool cucumbers who knew their way around a game of Tikal. I've played the game enough to know when I had been played, and I had been played like a Stradivarius violin; smooth and expert-like, with a clear finish.
*siren fades out, echoing in the street*
[To be honest, I couldn't figure out a way to fit the review of Antike into the film-noir themed session report above, so I'll just do it the old-fashioned way.]
Antike is that rarity of rarieties, the Civilization building game that doesn't go too far into detail (Sid Meier's Civilization) and doesn't gloss over details a little too much (Vinci). After a quick rules explanation by JayWowzer, we were good to go.
I have to say that the roundel-based turn and action selection method is pretty unique. I have to laugh a tiny bit at the concept of a game where gold and currency are two separate and quite distinctly differently used commodities, but that's pretty much my only quibble with the game (oh, and the cover box art. That needed work).
Antike uses a fairly standard area-movement based movement mechanic, but resource acquisition and building are handled in phases which exist as sectors on a roundel. The players place a marker on the action they took, and then can advance up to three sectors for free (or pay one currency unit per sector to advance more) and then take the action on the next section. There are four commodities - iron, marble, gold and currency. The first three can be mined from specific area-based cities - the second, currency, is a per turn income and can be used to substitute like a wild-card for any of the other three resources.
Victory is point based, and varies from 9 points in a 4 player game, up to something like 12 or 13 in a three player game. Players acquire points (one point each) by gaining 5 land areas (king), being the first to develop "know-how" in two steps of five (six?) different categories (scholar), having ships in 7 different sea areas (seafarer), building 3 temples (citizen), conquering a city with a temple (general).
There are basically two types of manoeuvrable units, a land-army (which look like militant meeples) and a fleet (which are cute galley-like things). Other markers and pieces include a white temple, which triples resource output from a city, cities, which are little round dics, and eight-sided tall pieces which are used for markers on the techology tracks and the above mentioned roundel (which governs action types). The components are well made of wood, all are distinct colours and all (with the possible exception of the angry meeple) seem suited to their use.
Combat is similar to the Vinci one-for-one exchange of mutual destruction, with a few modifiers thrown in for defensive know-how (monarchies and democracies defend themselves more effectively) and for temples.
I'm really quite impressed with the game, which combines a simple but clever method for managing resources and buying different types of units and improvements. Combat is simple, but evocative, and options for attacking from sea, land or both at once add a little uncertainty to the strategic scope. It is quite possible to win without attacking anyone, as Agent Easy admirably demonstrated during the game, but I think in future games closer attention will be paid to leaders to prevent a straighforward purchase of victory.
This one is a definite keeper. I'd rate it a 8.5, which might bump up to 9 in subsequent plays. It has the fantastic attribute of being playable in 60-90 minutes, which for this level of detail (medium-light, admittedly, but better than Vinci, for example) is really quite remarkable.
Agent Easy walked away with the win, with JayWowzer coming a close second; Hapi and I fell to distant fourth and third place respectively.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
I'm Billy from Interpol, I have salt on my zipper and I want a muffin membership (RPG, High Society x2)
This week marked the return of RPGing to WAGS.
With all three characters one the verge of death, wandering aimlessly in an unknown world they just RIFTED into, the session was understandibly dedicated to finding safe haven and rest.
The strange man from the trailer in the field gave us some salt and rations before we shoved off. After some discussion, we decided to head for the relatively near town of Wichen. On the way, we witnessed a floating ball of light scouring an open field (a probe? a Will'O Wisp?) and witnessed a massive battle between a giant cyclops, various werewolves and goblins and a giant robot.
Skirting around the fight, we found oursleves stuck on one side of a giant river. Behind us, the pounding of footsteps made it obvious that the robot had survived the fight and was heading our way. Lucky for us, it was heavily damaged and collapsed before it reached us. Upon closer inspection, the robot was being "driven" by a human inside! After treating the human, we discovered many things:
We were actually in a parallel or future version of the US. The river was the Mississipi. The human was part of an army patrol who's duty was to scour the "Magic Zone" we were in. The army came from Chitown in the North, a centre of the "Confederation". The Confederation was intolerant of anything magical, paranormal, or "different" in any way. As we hadn't let on that I was a Psychic Sensitive, and since we look outwardly normal, he agreed to take us to a nearby settlement. He also told us that Devil's Gate, a city across the river which cast a large glow even from a distance, was a center for all things magical and was therefore an enemy. We also discovered that the Federation employed "Psi-Units", groups specially trained to identify supernaturals... not a good sign for Stan.
At the small town, we encountered a "doctor" who seemed to be a cybernetic implant surgeon (and a shady one at that). He shot us up with some type of drug which would promote healing, but we were still in rough shape.
It was at this point that we found out that the "Walker in the East" was tearing up nearby villages looking for whoever was responsible for killing the "Walker in the West". Problem was, that was us (it was an accident... a chunk of the temple we blew up in our native world RIFTED with us and crushed him). We still don't really know what a "Walker" is, but it's apparently aligned with the Devil's Gate, so it's likely to be plenty "supernatural".
We stopped since it was getting late and an encounter with the Walker would likely take a while. Shemp commented on how he was surprised that we were so restrained. He shouldn't have been! We were so close to dying we couldn't risk any sort of combat, much less in a world we don't understand against opponents which are several magnitudes more powerful.
For posterity, had Stan been feeling better he would likely have "borrowed" the robot armor vehicle and raced north to the city with Sam and Helmut. I bet that would have led to a confrontation with the Walker much sooner, probably right after the battle with the rest of the army units waiting nearby...
Now that we're getting a feeling for the dynamics of the place, and were not in complete dire straights health wise, I suspect the next session will involve far more pyrotechnics.
(We killed the last 20 minutes with 2 hands of High Society. Kozure won the first and Shemp won the second)
...and no, I'm not going to explain the blog title. It's an amalgamation of missunderstood sentences and poorly conceived plans which somehow came together in a sentence which had us all laughing late in the evening.
With all three characters one the verge of death, wandering aimlessly in an unknown world they just RIFTED into, the session was understandibly dedicated to finding safe haven and rest.
The strange man from the trailer in the field gave us some salt and rations before we shoved off. After some discussion, we decided to head for the relatively near town of Wichen. On the way, we witnessed a floating ball of light scouring an open field (a probe? a Will'O Wisp?) and witnessed a massive battle between a giant cyclops, various werewolves and goblins and a giant robot.
Skirting around the fight, we found oursleves stuck on one side of a giant river. Behind us, the pounding of footsteps made it obvious that the robot had survived the fight and was heading our way. Lucky for us, it was heavily damaged and collapsed before it reached us. Upon closer inspection, the robot was being "driven" by a human inside! After treating the human, we discovered many things:
We were actually in a parallel or future version of the US. The river was the Mississipi. The human was part of an army patrol who's duty was to scour the "Magic Zone" we were in. The army came from Chitown in the North, a centre of the "Confederation". The Confederation was intolerant of anything magical, paranormal, or "different" in any way. As we hadn't let on that I was a Psychic Sensitive, and since we look outwardly normal, he agreed to take us to a nearby settlement. He also told us that Devil's Gate, a city across the river which cast a large glow even from a distance, was a center for all things magical and was therefore an enemy. We also discovered that the Federation employed "Psi-Units", groups specially trained to identify supernaturals... not a good sign for Stan.
At the small town, we encountered a "doctor" who seemed to be a cybernetic implant surgeon (and a shady one at that). He shot us up with some type of drug which would promote healing, but we were still in rough shape.
It was at this point that we found out that the "Walker in the East" was tearing up nearby villages looking for whoever was responsible for killing the "Walker in the West". Problem was, that was us (it was an accident... a chunk of the temple we blew up in our native world RIFTED with us and crushed him). We still don't really know what a "Walker" is, but it's apparently aligned with the Devil's Gate, so it's likely to be plenty "supernatural".
We stopped since it was getting late and an encounter with the Walker would likely take a while. Shemp commented on how he was surprised that we were so restrained. He shouldn't have been! We were so close to dying we couldn't risk any sort of combat, much less in a world we don't understand against opponents which are several magnitudes more powerful.
For posterity, had Stan been feeling better he would likely have "borrowed" the robot armor vehicle and raced north to the city with Sam and Helmut. I bet that would have led to a confrontation with the Walker much sooner, probably right after the battle with the rest of the army units waiting nearby...
Now that we're getting a feeling for the dynamics of the place, and were not in complete dire straights health wise, I suspect the next session will involve far more pyrotechnics.
(We killed the last 20 minutes with 2 hands of High Society. Kozure won the first and Shemp won the second)
...and no, I'm not going to explain the blog title. It's an amalgamation of missunderstood sentences and poorly conceived plans which somehow came together in a sentence which had us all laughing late in the evening.
Monday, January 30, 2006
A bronze Medal for WAGS!
We received an honorable mention at the Gone Gaming awards!
Thanks to Gone Gaming for the consideration. We were surprised at the nomination, even moreso to place...
I hope that our session reports/ capsule reviews and opinions continue to be of some interest to the interweb, it's fun to know that there are people reading.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Choo-choo-choosing (Settlers of Catan, Railroad Tycoon)
Not only did JayWowzer, our occasional visitor from California, join us on this cold Toronto evening but so did Shamus… a brand new player! It's always great to meet new people, and I hope he enjoyed it enough to come back (he'll always be welcome, but WAGS can be an oppressive* and intimidating* place, so he may not want to!)
* WAGS is neither oppressive or intimidating, but we ARE geeky. Oppressive and intimidating sounds cooler, though.
Being new to the group (and german games in general), we started him off with the "mandatory german intro game"… Settlers of Catan. Kozure, JayWowzer and I set up the board and explained the rules. We used the suggested starting layout from the rules to level the playing field and ensure a balanced game for everyone. We also used the "tournament rules" I read about at BGG, starting everyone with a city and a village. Shamus seemed to catch on pretty quick, so we dove right in
One awkward aspect of introducing new players to eurogames is that you want them to have fun, so there is sometimes a sense that you might have to play "sub-optimally" so they don't get trashed. I shouldn't have worried... In his very first game, not only did Shamus play a very tight game BUT HE WON.
Impressive…. Most impressive.
Shamus won by building on his lucrative patches of land, connecting a few ports and establishing the largest army. JayWowzer built up the coast of Catan, running away with longest road and founding quite a few villages and cities along the way. Kozure was building his own little empire on the opposite side of the board (he made a run for longest road near the end but never made it). I started in the center and eventually was blocked from any paths for expansion. Still, I had 3 cities and 2 VP cards in hand, so I was hardly out of contention. I spent the endgame buying development cards in the hopes of surpassing Shamus' largest army or gaining a few more VP cards. When he won, it was close. All scores within 1-2 of winning.
Next up was Railroad Tycoon. By now Luch had arrived and Tili wanted to join us (baby Kozure had gone to sleep). I was initially concerned that a 6 player game would take too long, but the whole thing wrapped up in 3 hours including rules explanations!
Many of us had played at least once before. Shamus, of course, hadn't and JayWowzer only had experience with Age of Steam.
Last game I kept getting beaten to the punch by Kozure when attempting to get the operation card bonuses, so I resolved to be very aggressive on those this game. I started by bidding enough to go first and quickly grabbed the card which gave me two actions. With those two actions I built a link to (?) and made a delivery… netting me a bonus for making the first delivery AND for claiming the "Service Bounty" card (first delivery to that town). It was a very lucrative first turn which put me in the lead and I worked the rest of the game to stay there! (unfortunately, the other 5 didn't feel like letting that happen).
I next set my sights on the first delivery to Mobile and grabbed that soon enough. I was getting worried, though. The folks building up the East Coast were upgrading their engines and starting to make longer deliveries. At this rate, my lead would evaporate quickly and I wouldn't have much in the way to catch up.
As an aside: I may have been more effective than last game with the operations cards, but I was having some serious lapses with my track building. On a few occasions, I built less efficiently than I could (placing 2 tiles where I could have placed 1, etc). Lucky for me, on one particularly terrible mistake (I was laying 4 tracks where I only needed 2), JayWowzer "suggested" I should reconsider... Thanks!
While I spent the entire game connecting the mid to lower half of the board, Kozure, Shamus and JayWowzer continued to battle for control of the East Coast (Luch was also involved, but he started south and moved north as opposed to the rest of the group). Tili spent her time in disparate areas, focusing on the Detroit/ Toronto area and the South East. Some of the action eventually moved over to the Chicago area, but the big dollars never really made it there (and no one built a Western Link).
Hotels played a big part in the game. My Baltimore and Atlanta netted me quite a few points, and Shamus had a goldmine one in New York. Luch has the distinction of holding the record for most shares issued, ever (22). Kozure has the similarly dubious distinction of "most shafted this game", for having his attempt at completing the "Major Line" from Atlanta to (?) blocked by Luch. A double blow, as it also prevented him from potential long deliveries after the fact.
In the end, it was a race between myself and Shamus for the win. Clearly, this guy has a knack for these games! I did win, as I had fewer shares and a good setup for a large number of 5 link deliveries for the end run, but he was not far behind. Most of us didn't fulfill our Tycoon cards… I think the only exception was Tili (most money).
I enjoyed myself quite a bit. This is a great game to accommodate new and experienced players alike. The cards available and goods cube distribution really shape the game, making it develop differently each time so far. I was also pleasantly surprised that it works just as well with 6 as it did with 4. If they had only thought a bit more about the board (design and production values), and the functionality of some of the bits, this game could go from great to truly exceptional.
Since JayWowzer is the only WAGSter to have tried both this and Age of Steam, I hope he can chime in with some comments on his experience.
* WAGS is neither oppressive or intimidating, but we ARE geeky. Oppressive and intimidating sounds cooler, though.
Being new to the group (and german games in general), we started him off with the "mandatory german intro game"… Settlers of Catan. Kozure, JayWowzer and I set up the board and explained the rules. We used the suggested starting layout from the rules to level the playing field and ensure a balanced game for everyone. We also used the "tournament rules" I read about at BGG, starting everyone with a city and a village. Shamus seemed to catch on pretty quick, so we dove right in
One awkward aspect of introducing new players to eurogames is that you want them to have fun, so there is sometimes a sense that you might have to play "sub-optimally" so they don't get trashed. I shouldn't have worried... In his very first game, not only did Shamus play a very tight game BUT HE WON.
Impressive…. Most impressive.
Shamus won by building on his lucrative patches of land, connecting a few ports and establishing the largest army. JayWowzer built up the coast of Catan, running away with longest road and founding quite a few villages and cities along the way. Kozure was building his own little empire on the opposite side of the board (he made a run for longest road near the end but never made it). I started in the center and eventually was blocked from any paths for expansion. Still, I had 3 cities and 2 VP cards in hand, so I was hardly out of contention. I spent the endgame buying development cards in the hopes of surpassing Shamus' largest army or gaining a few more VP cards. When he won, it was close. All scores within 1-2 of winning.
Next up was Railroad Tycoon. By now Luch had arrived and Tili wanted to join us (baby Kozure had gone to sleep). I was initially concerned that a 6 player game would take too long, but the whole thing wrapped up in 3 hours including rules explanations!
Many of us had played at least once before. Shamus, of course, hadn't and JayWowzer only had experience with Age of Steam.
Last game I kept getting beaten to the punch by Kozure when attempting to get the operation card bonuses, so I resolved to be very aggressive on those this game. I started by bidding enough to go first and quickly grabbed the card which gave me two actions. With those two actions I built a link to (?) and made a delivery… netting me a bonus for making the first delivery AND for claiming the "Service Bounty" card (first delivery to that town). It was a very lucrative first turn which put me in the lead and I worked the rest of the game to stay there! (unfortunately, the other 5 didn't feel like letting that happen).
I next set my sights on the first delivery to Mobile and grabbed that soon enough. I was getting worried, though. The folks building up the East Coast were upgrading their engines and starting to make longer deliveries. At this rate, my lead would evaporate quickly and I wouldn't have much in the way to catch up.
As an aside: I may have been more effective than last game with the operations cards, but I was having some serious lapses with my track building. On a few occasions, I built less efficiently than I could (placing 2 tiles where I could have placed 1, etc). Lucky for me, on one particularly terrible mistake (I was laying 4 tracks where I only needed 2), JayWowzer "suggested" I should reconsider... Thanks!
While I spent the entire game connecting the mid to lower half of the board, Kozure, Shamus and JayWowzer continued to battle for control of the East Coast (Luch was also involved, but he started south and moved north as opposed to the rest of the group). Tili spent her time in disparate areas, focusing on the Detroit/ Toronto area and the South East. Some of the action eventually moved over to the Chicago area, but the big dollars never really made it there (and no one built a Western Link).
Hotels played a big part in the game. My Baltimore and Atlanta netted me quite a few points, and Shamus had a goldmine one in New York. Luch has the distinction of holding the record for most shares issued, ever (22). Kozure has the similarly dubious distinction of "most shafted this game", for having his attempt at completing the "Major Line" from Atlanta to (?) blocked by Luch. A double blow, as it also prevented him from potential long deliveries after the fact.
In the end, it was a race between myself and Shamus for the win. Clearly, this guy has a knack for these games! I did win, as I had fewer shares and a good setup for a large number of 5 link deliveries for the end run, but he was not far behind. Most of us didn't fulfill our Tycoon cards… I think the only exception was Tili (most money).
I enjoyed myself quite a bit. This is a great game to accommodate new and experienced players alike. The cards available and goods cube distribution really shape the game, making it develop differently each time so far. I was also pleasantly surprised that it works just as well with 6 as it did with 4. If they had only thought a bit more about the board (design and production values), and the functionality of some of the bits, this game could go from great to truly exceptional.
Since JayWowzer is the only WAGSter to have tried both this and Age of Steam, I hope he can chime in with some comments on his experience.
2005 was a good year
The WAGS group enjoyed a great gaming year in 2005. We managed to keep it up just about every week, and finally amassed quite a good total of games played.
126 games played.
58 different games.
Our role playing sessions tied with "High Society" for first place in games played (6 ea.) We were playing the RPG once a month for a while, so it's not surprising that it ranks high on the list. High Society, being a quick filler often played multiple times in a row, is also not a surprise (though I expect to see "For Sale!" in this spot next year).
Carcassonne (in various combinations of base game and expansions), comes next with 5.
(So far, pretty predictable)
The next games are a little surprising... Pueblo, Blokus, Colossal Arena and Puerto Rico are tied with 4 plays.
A good number of WAGS favorites make up the next list: For Sale!, Intrige, Pirate's Cove, Power Grid, Ra, Robo-Rally, Shadows over Camelot, Tower of Babel, Traders of Genoa, Unexploded Cow, Way Out West and Zero! have each been played 3 times.
39 other games have only been played once or twice.
Special Honours (According to me):
Standout game of the Year: Railroad Tycoon
Standout "new to me" game of the Year: Tikal, Intrige
Standout reprint of the Year: Ra, Robo-Rally
Game I really wish would see more table time: El Grande
Game which grew in my esteem in 2005: Domaine
Biggest Dissapointments: Arkham Horror, Shadows over Camelot (neither are BAD, but they both could have been GREAT)
I'm very curious to see what this list will look like a year from now... I'd say that myself and Kozure went on a game buying binge in 2005 that is unlikely to get repeated in 2006. My personal collection has nearly hit it's upper limit (hey you back there, stop laughing).
What games will continue to have the WAGS seal of approval?
Which will be relegated to "games we pull out once in a while for variety"?
What titles will dwindle in obscurity?
Let's see next year!
126 games played.
58 different games.
Our role playing sessions tied with "High Society" for first place in games played (6 ea.) We were playing the RPG once a month for a while, so it's not surprising that it ranks high on the list. High Society, being a quick filler often played multiple times in a row, is also not a surprise (though I expect to see "For Sale!" in this spot next year).
Carcassonne (in various combinations of base game and expansions), comes next with 5.
(So far, pretty predictable)
The next games are a little surprising... Pueblo, Blokus, Colossal Arena and Puerto Rico are tied with 4 plays.
A good number of WAGS favorites make up the next list: For Sale!, Intrige, Pirate's Cove, Power Grid, Ra, Robo-Rally, Shadows over Camelot, Tower of Babel, Traders of Genoa, Unexploded Cow, Way Out West and Zero! have each been played 3 times.
39 other games have only been played once or twice.
Special Honours (According to me):
Standout game of the Year: Railroad Tycoon
Standout "new to me" game of the Year: Tikal, Intrige
Standout reprint of the Year: Ra, Robo-Rally
Game I really wish would see more table time: El Grande
Game which grew in my esteem in 2005: Domaine
Biggest Dissapointments: Arkham Horror, Shadows over Camelot (neither are BAD, but they both could have been GREAT)
I'm very curious to see what this list will look like a year from now... I'd say that myself and Kozure went on a game buying binge in 2005 that is unlikely to get repeated in 2006. My personal collection has nearly hit it's upper limit (hey you back there, stop laughing).
What games will continue to have the WAGS seal of approval?
Which will be relegated to "games we pull out once in a while for variety"?
What titles will dwindle in obscurity?
Let's see next year!
Thursday, January 19, 2006
A GigaWak of Games (Carcassonne - The City, China x2, Pueblo, Formula Motor Racing x3, )
Something OLD: Pueblo
Something NEW: China
Something BORROWED: Formula Motor Racing
Something BLUE: Carcassonne - The City (ok, I'm cheating here... the original is in a blue box!)
I think we've set a new record for number of games played in a single WAGS evening... 7!
It was my pick this week. I really enjoyed our "Invasion of the Middleweight Euros!" evening in December, so I thought I'd try it again.
We started the evening with my new copy of Carcassonne - The City.
First off, it's a beautiful package (the box, in particular is very nice). The set comes with a promo pamphlet encouraging people to visit the town in France! I wonder... are they making the assumption that anyone who has enough cash to buy this deluxe set might be good targets for travel ads? (If so, it's really a shame that there's no real Catan!). It was a Christmas gift, and the obvious question was "is a Carc variant different enough from the original to be worth owning?"
I own the basic set and just about all the expansions. I quite like it for the simplicity of the original and the way the expansions each increase the complexity/strategy as desired (most of them are well conceived). Still, it has problems (and I don't mean the randomness): Roads are not well balanced, the farmers are fiddly and the endgame scoring can be tedious. On top of that, it's really much better with 2 than with 3-6.
At one point, I tried playing Hunters and Gatherers online to see if it improved on the original. There's a lot to like, particularly the way the "farmers" are scored (the hunters get points for every deer and mammoth in the field, minus one animal for each tiger which has been placed in the field). "Roads" (rivers) are better balanced with "cities" (forests). Finally, incentive to finish other player's forests is included in the base set through a "bonus tile" mechanic. It's a good game, and it does a good job of being a more interesting and better balanced game out of the box, with new mechanics which substantially change the "spirit" of the game (the deer vs tiger mechanic is overtly confrontational, and the bonus tiles can swing the fortunes on the board faster than the incremental nature of the original ever did). I hate to say it, but I thought the art was so bad that I honestly felt I'd never want to pull it out (the fact that a few of the bonus tiles seemed overly powerful and the added complication for newbies didn't help)
Carcassonne - The City seems closer to the base game in spirit. As always, the game mechanics continue to be basically the same (draw a tile, place it on the table and decide if you want to place a meeple on one of the features). In the beginning of the game, the three locations are quite familiar: 1) Roads 2) Markets (forests in the original) 3) Residential areas (Farms in the original). Effort has been made to make each strategy viable: Roads continue to score only 1 point per tile, but if it ever stretches to 4 tiles or more each tile is worth double. Markets can potentially show 3 different types of goods for sale, and the value of the market equals the number of tiles x the number of different goods in it. The residential districts are worth 2 points per market which surrounds it.
The most obvious change, in the beginning, is that tiles only need to match at the roads (a mechanic lifted from Carcassonne - The Castle, yet another previously released standalone version of the game). As the game progresses, subtler things begin to reveal themselves. The nature of the scoring mechanism for the roads and markets encourages players to end their opponent's scoring opportunities early before they are worth much. The distribution of the tiles & flexible placement rules seem to encourage smaller "fields", which are both easier to visualize and simpler to score.
The big twist are the city walls. The game is split into 3 rounds, and a few very different element are introduced once the 2nd round begins: City walls, towers and guards.
The tiles are split into 3 nearly equal piles. Once the first pile runs out, the first player to score points must place the first segment of the city wall. Every other player follows suit by placing a piece of wall, attached to the first one, along the perimeter of the tiles already placed on the table. The walls effectively limit expansion of the city and "finish" features on the board. Therefore, they can be used offensively to end a large market or road (or kill it before it's worth more than just a couple of points). In additon, meeples can be placed on a just placed wall as "knights". Knights score points for "seeing" certain types of buildings in the residential districts in a straight line from where they stand. The towers are an additonal oportuntiy for the the player who initiated the wall building to score a few points.
Round 3 is the same as round 2, except that the number of walls placed everytime a player causes points to be scored is doubled.
The game ends once the tiles run out, or once the city wall comes within 4 pieces of surrounding the city.
The end result is interesting. I appreciate that the game is better balanced, I enjoy that the rythm of the game changes as the rounds progress (indeed, at each step a new layer of things to consider is introduced), and I like that the scoring happens much more quickly at the endgame. For whatever reason, the whole thing works just as well as a multiplayer game as it does with 2 (not something I feel about the base game... I think it's the way the walls work, but I'm not sure).
Also, the whole things looks quite nice once completed. A lot of my coworkers were very interested in the game on the strength of the appearance alone! This, combined with the fact that the rules ramp up as the game progresses (rather than being more complex from the start as in Hunters and Gatherers) means the game can be quite approachable despite the added depth. One coworker bit immediately and wanted to play at lunch. He loved it.
So, is it worth owning if you've already got the original and lots of expansions? I'd say yes. Not a must buy unless you are really taken by the appearance (as I was), but solid nonetheless. I'd probably pick this as the better game to introduce to new players, so long as they are not really afraid of a little complexity. In the context of our WAGS group, I think that I still slightly prefer the base set (when played with King and Scout, Inns and Cathedrals and Traders and Builders).
Hmmm. That was a lot longer than I expected it to be!
I won the game. An unlikely tile placement wound up connecting me to Kozure's lucrative residential district. Also, I tried fairly hard to shut down my opponent's scoring oportunities before they became too valuable (my previous experience with the game gave me an advantage there). Still, it was close... I doubt I'll have any advantage next time.
We followed with 2 games of China, joined by Tili. I won't spend too much time here, but this play solidified my opinion that this is a very good (if unspectacular) strategy game with a surprisingly short play time. It was nice to see that Shemp managed a win while totally ignoring the advisors, as it proves there is more than one way to succeed.
Pueblo was played with all four sacred sites, using the advanced rules. Our Pueblo quickly became difficult to manage and "good" moves were few and far between. The location of the sacred sites effectively neutralized two corners of the board! I overbid for starting position and never quite recovered. Shemp and I were losing pretty badly through the game and it was a race between Luch and Kozure for "least proud" master builder. Luch seems to have a knack for the game... he was well protected through to the end and won.
We finished with 3 rounds of Formula Motor Racing... the silly (but very quick) Knizia racing game. Yet again, us humans were hopelessly outmatched by the non player cars (this keeps happening because we beat each other up and leave those cars alone). Luch had the lead in the first round (amongst human players), lost most of it in the 2nd, and had the choice to hand it to me or Shemp in the last round. He chose me, but that's a hollow victory. I say we call it a tie!
It's a stretch to call this an evening of middleweights, but we sure played a lot of games!
Something NEW: China
Something BORROWED: Formula Motor Racing
Something BLUE: Carcassonne - The City (ok, I'm cheating here... the original is in a blue box!)
I think we've set a new record for number of games played in a single WAGS evening... 7!
It was my pick this week. I really enjoyed our "Invasion of the Middleweight Euros!" evening in December, so I thought I'd try it again.
We started the evening with my new copy of Carcassonne - The City.
First off, it's a beautiful package (the box, in particular is very nice). The set comes with a promo pamphlet encouraging people to visit the town in France! I wonder... are they making the assumption that anyone who has enough cash to buy this deluxe set might be good targets for travel ads? (If so, it's really a shame that there's no real Catan!). It was a Christmas gift, and the obvious question was "is a Carc variant different enough from the original to be worth owning?"
I own the basic set and just about all the expansions. I quite like it for the simplicity of the original and the way the expansions each increase the complexity/strategy as desired (most of them are well conceived). Still, it has problems (and I don't mean the randomness): Roads are not well balanced, the farmers are fiddly and the endgame scoring can be tedious. On top of that, it's really much better with 2 than with 3-6.
At one point, I tried playing Hunters and Gatherers online to see if it improved on the original. There's a lot to like, particularly the way the "farmers" are scored (the hunters get points for every deer and mammoth in the field, minus one animal for each tiger which has been placed in the field). "Roads" (rivers) are better balanced with "cities" (forests). Finally, incentive to finish other player's forests is included in the base set through a "bonus tile" mechanic. It's a good game, and it does a good job of being a more interesting and better balanced game out of the box, with new mechanics which substantially change the "spirit" of the game (the deer vs tiger mechanic is overtly confrontational, and the bonus tiles can swing the fortunes on the board faster than the incremental nature of the original ever did). I hate to say it, but I thought the art was so bad that I honestly felt I'd never want to pull it out (the fact that a few of the bonus tiles seemed overly powerful and the added complication for newbies didn't help)
Carcassonne - The City seems closer to the base game in spirit. As always, the game mechanics continue to be basically the same (draw a tile, place it on the table and decide if you want to place a meeple on one of the features). In the beginning of the game, the three locations are quite familiar: 1) Roads 2) Markets (forests in the original) 3) Residential areas (Farms in the original). Effort has been made to make each strategy viable: Roads continue to score only 1 point per tile, but if it ever stretches to 4 tiles or more each tile is worth double. Markets can potentially show 3 different types of goods for sale, and the value of the market equals the number of tiles x the number of different goods in it. The residential districts are worth 2 points per market which surrounds it.
The most obvious change, in the beginning, is that tiles only need to match at the roads (a mechanic lifted from Carcassonne - The Castle, yet another previously released standalone version of the game). As the game progresses, subtler things begin to reveal themselves. The nature of the scoring mechanism for the roads and markets encourages players to end their opponent's scoring opportunities early before they are worth much. The distribution of the tiles & flexible placement rules seem to encourage smaller "fields", which are both easier to visualize and simpler to score.
The big twist are the city walls. The game is split into 3 rounds, and a few very different element are introduced once the 2nd round begins: City walls, towers and guards.
The tiles are split into 3 nearly equal piles. Once the first pile runs out, the first player to score points must place the first segment of the city wall. Every other player follows suit by placing a piece of wall, attached to the first one, along the perimeter of the tiles already placed on the table. The walls effectively limit expansion of the city and "finish" features on the board. Therefore, they can be used offensively to end a large market or road (or kill it before it's worth more than just a couple of points). In additon, meeples can be placed on a just placed wall as "knights". Knights score points for "seeing" certain types of buildings in the residential districts in a straight line from where they stand. The towers are an additonal oportuntiy for the the player who initiated the wall building to score a few points.
Round 3 is the same as round 2, except that the number of walls placed everytime a player causes points to be scored is doubled.
The game ends once the tiles run out, or once the city wall comes within 4 pieces of surrounding the city.
The end result is interesting. I appreciate that the game is better balanced, I enjoy that the rythm of the game changes as the rounds progress (indeed, at each step a new layer of things to consider is introduced), and I like that the scoring happens much more quickly at the endgame. For whatever reason, the whole thing works just as well as a multiplayer game as it does with 2 (not something I feel about the base game... I think it's the way the walls work, but I'm not sure).
Also, the whole things looks quite nice once completed. A lot of my coworkers were very interested in the game on the strength of the appearance alone! This, combined with the fact that the rules ramp up as the game progresses (rather than being more complex from the start as in Hunters and Gatherers) means the game can be quite approachable despite the added depth. One coworker bit immediately and wanted to play at lunch. He loved it.
So, is it worth owning if you've already got the original and lots of expansions? I'd say yes. Not a must buy unless you are really taken by the appearance (as I was), but solid nonetheless. I'd probably pick this as the better game to introduce to new players, so long as they are not really afraid of a little complexity. In the context of our WAGS group, I think that I still slightly prefer the base set (when played with King and Scout, Inns and Cathedrals and Traders and Builders).
Hmmm. That was a lot longer than I expected it to be!
I won the game. An unlikely tile placement wound up connecting me to Kozure's lucrative residential district. Also, I tried fairly hard to shut down my opponent's scoring oportunities before they became too valuable (my previous experience with the game gave me an advantage there). Still, it was close... I doubt I'll have any advantage next time.
We followed with 2 games of China, joined by Tili. I won't spend too much time here, but this play solidified my opinion that this is a very good (if unspectacular) strategy game with a surprisingly short play time. It was nice to see that Shemp managed a win while totally ignoring the advisors, as it proves there is more than one way to succeed.
Pueblo was played with all four sacred sites, using the advanced rules. Our Pueblo quickly became difficult to manage and "good" moves were few and far between. The location of the sacred sites effectively neutralized two corners of the board! I overbid for starting position and never quite recovered. Shemp and I were losing pretty badly through the game and it was a race between Luch and Kozure for "least proud" master builder. Luch seems to have a knack for the game... he was well protected through to the end and won.
We finished with 3 rounds of Formula Motor Racing... the silly (but very quick) Knizia racing game. Yet again, us humans were hopelessly outmatched by the non player cars (this keeps happening because we beat each other up and leave those cars alone). Luch had the lead in the first round (amongst human players), lost most of it in the 2nd, and had the choice to hand it to me or Shemp in the last round. He chose me, but that's a hollow victory. I say we call it a tie!
It's a stretch to call this an evening of middleweights, but we sure played a lot of games!
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