For once, 'we must play games again soon', lead to actual playing of games!
I went round to Kerry's on Friday evening, where Fee was. Sadly Matt came down with an illness and called in sick, so it was just the three of us. Unless you count the many drunk people that seemed to be continuously walking past Kerry's house.
We started with RoboRally, which surprisingly I had never played before. Normally I can pick up games quickly from the rules, but unfortunately the Roborally rulebook is pretty bad - one of those disjointed rulebooks that put things in a strange order, some rules are just on the additional player aid, and some tiles are poorly explained (from an online review -"expect that a few rules - such as moving onto a turning conveyor belt - will be poorly worded, causing confusion").
We had enough trouble trying to setup the game. The setup recommended by the game (six checkpoints across four boards) is laughably long, so we settled for four checkpoints across four boards. It turns out this was both too spread out and slightly too long. I would guess four checkpoints across two boards might be reasonable. When we had worked out where we were supposed to start and put the flags down the game could finally begin.
I got a reasonable start, pushing Kerry down a pit near the first flag, but then just missed the flag when I got pushed off it onto a conveyor belt. I then had a 'turning conveyor belt problem' which left me facing the wrong direction with a hand containing only one turn but three Move3 cards. This left me little choice but to fly of in the wrong direction, leaving me miles behind Fee and Kerry. As I wasn't enjoying the game I decided to drop, so Fee and Kerry decided to just play to the next Flag. If we had played all four flags I think the game would have lasted all evening!
Fee and Kerry both reached the flag on the same turn, which lead to some interesting maneuvers. Fee was able to push Kerry off the Flag for the win.
For our second game, we played one of my Birthday presents - Ra: The Dice Game. It is basically a Yahtzee style game where you use your dice rolls to acquire Pharaohs, Civs, Niles and Monuments which score pretty much identically to original Ra. Unfortunately Fee hadn't played Ra for some time and Kerry had never played, so the rules explanation made the game seem more complicated than it really was. Luckily it all seems a lot easier once we started playing, and the rules summary cards for each player are excellent.
The game seemed to play very quickly. Fee and Kerry collected monuments, whilst I concentrated more on the Nile, and Fee two sets of three monuments was enough for her to beat me by a couple of points. Unfortunately I now realise that I set the game up incorrectly each Epoch, as I was starting with the Ra on the 4 player space, not the 3 player - this may have made monuments a better strategy!
Though Fee wanted to play Ra again, but Kerry was keen to learn another new game so we tried O Zoo Le Mio (aka ZooSim). This is a quick light blind bidding game played over 5 'years' (rounds) that is let down slightly by some poor components - the colours of the exhibits on the zoo tiles don't exactly match the visitors and the relevant information (the * rating of the exhibits) isn't clearly enough displayed. The animal pictures on the tiles add flavour, but I think the game might actually play better without them. I had a reasonable start, but my best exhibits weren't able to grow in year 4 and I lost several visitors to Kerry. She ended up the winner, while Fee recovered from a poor start to take second (you score points for each visitor equal to the the year, so you need to be strong at the end).
Finally we had a quick game of Amazing Labyrinth. This is a fun kids maze game, where the board consists of movable tiles. On each turn you have to move one row (or column) of tiles, causing the path connections to change and then move as far through the maze as you wish. The objective of the game is to be the first to visit each of the locations you have been dealt. I seem to always do well at this game and won again, a turn or two ahead of Fee.
Then I could have left, but decided to stay a little longer to get a quieter night time bus. So we played a couple of hands of Circus Flohcati (Flea Circus). I won the second with a very early Gala Show for a new lowest wining score record of 36.
Then it really was time to leave.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
13-08-09 Beowulf, Munchkin
I have some friends who can't make the usual Sunday night gaming (though if they all could we'd have far too many players). Every time I manage to get together with them for games we always say 'we must do this more often', but somehow it doesn't work out that way.
Anyway, with me being busy on several Sunday's in August we managed to arrange a weekday evening at Kerry's in Ryde. It was me, Kerry, Bekki, Scott and Tony. Tony was late, so we already had Beowulf set out when he arrived.
Beowulf doesn't hasn't got too many plays recently (nothing has really apart from Race for the Galaxy and Dominion) but everyone seemed very keen to play it. The risking adds a random element that can let someone get lucky once or twice, but you can't really be successful without good judgement on how much to bid and push your luck, and correctly valuing points, gold and cards.
As has happened previously I drop out without playing a card in an early auction whilst everyone else went to about 4 or 5 cards. None of the early auctions are that vital - I try to conserve cards early on and pick up some cheap gold.
I think I always took Scrolls at selection as I think it is vital to try and get at least some gold. Generally Gold seems undervalued, whilst the others tend to overvalue the special cards - especially the cards that just provide symbols - if you played several cards to just gain a card with some symbols have you really gained anything? I take a couple of wounds in the midgame, but everything is under control as I have Discard two scratches and Refuse a wound, scratch or misfortune in my hand.
Everything pretty much goes to plan, I think I am leading in points coming to the final few auctions as I have cashed in five cards for five points and two cards for three points in the Opportunities and still have a very good hand for the final battle with the Dragon. I win that and also have a decent showing at the final totting up of cards and treasure for a comfortable six point win from Tony. Another really enjoyable game of Beowulf, a game that deserves a much higher score on BGG (I rate it a 9 because I am very stingy with my 10s).
After that Scott has requested we play Munchkin. I haven't played munchkin for over 10 years, and this game reminded me why. Over the first five turns I can achieve absolutely nothing, and I decide I would have more fun by dropping from the game. By pretty much unanimous agreement the game is halted about 10 minutes later. Nothing more to say about that really.
Anyway, with me being busy on several Sunday's in August we managed to arrange a weekday evening at Kerry's in Ryde. It was me, Kerry, Bekki, Scott and Tony. Tony was late, so we already had Beowulf set out when he arrived.
Beowulf doesn't hasn't got too many plays recently (nothing has really apart from Race for the Galaxy and Dominion) but everyone seemed very keen to play it. The risking adds a random element that can let someone get lucky once or twice, but you can't really be successful without good judgement on how much to bid and push your luck, and correctly valuing points, gold and cards.
As has happened previously I drop out without playing a card in an early auction whilst everyone else went to about 4 or 5 cards. None of the early auctions are that vital - I try to conserve cards early on and pick up some cheap gold.
I think I always took Scrolls at selection as I think it is vital to try and get at least some gold. Generally Gold seems undervalued, whilst the others tend to overvalue the special cards - especially the cards that just provide symbols - if you played several cards to just gain a card with some symbols have you really gained anything? I take a couple of wounds in the midgame, but everything is under control as I have Discard two scratches and Refuse a wound, scratch or misfortune in my hand.
Everything pretty much goes to plan, I think I am leading in points coming to the final few auctions as I have cashed in five cards for five points and two cards for three points in the Opportunities and still have a very good hand for the final battle with the Dragon. I win that and also have a decent showing at the final totting up of cards and treasure for a comfortable six point win from Tony. Another really enjoyable game of Beowulf, a game that deserves a much higher score on BGG (I rate it a 9 because I am very stingy with my 10s).
After that Scott has requested we play Munchkin. I haven't played munchkin for over 10 years, and this game reminded me why. Over the first five turns I can achieve absolutely nothing, and I decide I would have more fun by dropping from the game. By pretty much unanimous agreement the game is halted about 10 minutes later. Nothing more to say about that really.
Monday, August 03, 2009
02/08/09: Notre Dame, RFTG: RvI
Only three of us this week, Tony, Colin and me.
We started with another new game from the recent Euro Math Trade - Notre Dame.
In Notre Dame each play drafts three cards from their action deck of 9, each card corresponding to an area of the board and offering various resources. You need cubes to play onto the board, coins to bribe persons and buy VP at Notre Dame and you need VP to win. And don't forget to not let the rat problem get out of hand.
Once three rounds have occurred a period ends and the 9 card decks are reassembled. I started the first period by making two plays into my park. This set me up for plenty of bonus VPs, but meant I would obviously struggle for resources most of the game. Colin concentrated in the Hotel during the first period, which is unfortunate as it's probably the weakest building, and he was the only person to make any coach moves. I think Tony concentrated generally on resources, ending the first period with more cubes and coins than he started with.
During the second period the rat problem intensified. Plague levels had slowly increased to the point where at the end of round 4 or 5 all three us at were at either 8 or 9 in the harbour. The next turn the cards revealed six rats! Tony already had a reasonable presence in the Hospital and was able to kill enough rats in his turn to be okay and Colin used the minstrel to move 3 cubes from his Hotel to the Hospital. I just accepted I was going to 'bust' this turn and didn't worry about it - in fact I went over 9 for most of the remaining turns. This meant I ended up with considerably less cubes on the board than Tony whilst Colin did not have plague problems, but did run short of cubes in hand and had to move cubes around a few times.
For the second and third periods I mostly got points from collecting messages, and I got decent VP from the Master Carpenter (point for every occupied region) . Tony scored big on Beggar King (points for low plague levels) , Master Carpenter and the Mayor (3VP for each region with 3+ cubes) . Colin had a few messages and scored for the Lady of the Court (VP for each cube in the most occupied region). Notre Dame points were split 4/4 each period, everyone visiting twice. Colin purchased 6VP on his first period visit, but ran short of gold later so this was a mistake I think.
Result: Tony low-mid 60s, Simon mid 50s, Colin high 30s
After Notre Dame we played a couple of games of Face for the Galaxy with both expansions (Gathering Storm and Rebel vs Imperium). Goals were on, and takeovers active for the second game. The second game saw a takeover attempt, the first I have seen! I managed a second place in both games - in the first I had Trade League plus several big VP alien worlds and 3VP Alien goal, and in the second a mixed bag that saw me claim 3VP for both first to discard and full house of powers and 5Vp for 3+ explore powers. I still don't really feel that RvI added a huge amount to the game - though it does seem that we shuffle the deck during play a lot less now. I guess that is good, given it's size!
Next weekend: Grand Prix Brighton! (Magic 2010 sealed)
We started with another new game from the recent Euro Math Trade - Notre Dame.
In Notre Dame each play drafts three cards from their action deck of 9, each card corresponding to an area of the board and offering various resources. You need cubes to play onto the board, coins to bribe persons and buy VP at Notre Dame and you need VP to win. And don't forget to not let the rat problem get out of hand.
Once three rounds have occurred a period ends and the 9 card decks are reassembled. I started the first period by making two plays into my park. This set me up for plenty of bonus VPs, but meant I would obviously struggle for resources most of the game. Colin concentrated in the Hotel during the first period, which is unfortunate as it's probably the weakest building, and he was the only person to make any coach moves. I think Tony concentrated generally on resources, ending the first period with more cubes and coins than he started with.
During the second period the rat problem intensified. Plague levels had slowly increased to the point where at the end of round 4 or 5 all three us at were at either 8 or 9 in the harbour. The next turn the cards revealed six rats! Tony already had a reasonable presence in the Hospital and was able to kill enough rats in his turn to be okay and Colin used the minstrel to move 3 cubes from his Hotel to the Hospital. I just accepted I was going to 'bust' this turn and didn't worry about it - in fact I went over 9 for most of the remaining turns. This meant I ended up with considerably less cubes on the board than Tony whilst Colin did not have plague problems, but did run short of cubes in hand and had to move cubes around a few times.
For the second and third periods I mostly got points from collecting messages, and I got decent VP from the Master Carpenter (point for every occupied region) . Tony scored big on Beggar King (points for low plague levels) , Master Carpenter and the Mayor (3VP for each region with 3+ cubes) . Colin had a few messages and scored for the Lady of the Court (VP for each cube in the most occupied region). Notre Dame points were split 4/4 each period, everyone visiting twice. Colin purchased 6VP on his first period visit, but ran short of gold later so this was a mistake I think.
Result: Tony low-mid 60s, Simon mid 50s, Colin high 30s
After Notre Dame we played a couple of games of Face for the Galaxy with both expansions (Gathering Storm and Rebel vs Imperium). Goals were on, and takeovers active for the second game. The second game saw a takeover attempt, the first I have seen! I managed a second place in both games - in the first I had Trade League plus several big VP alien worlds and 3VP Alien goal, and in the second a mixed bag that saw me claim 3VP for both first to discard and full house of powers and 5Vp for 3+ explore powers. I still don't really feel that RvI added a huge amount to the game - though it does seem that we shuffle the deck during play a lot less now. I guess that is good, given it's size!
Next weekend: Grand Prix Brighton! (Magic 2010 sealed)
Monday, July 27, 2009
26/07/09: Hacienda, Dominion: Intrigue
On Sunday evening we had our last 'large' gaming sessions for a while. People have various summer events coming up (GP Brighton, Tintagel) so it'll be a while until we have 4+ players.
Three of my new games from the July Euro Maths trade had arrived - Hacienda, Elasund & In the Year of the Dragon. We decided to play Hacienda (on the symmetric map)
After the rules explanation, Fiona began the game and over the first few turns was able to claim a long chain of land on the top side (she actually found an 8 in a row from her opening hand) , whilst Tony did the same on the bottom. I cut off one side of Tony's land chain and started connecting to markets, even though I know from online play that the winning strategy is to make a huge land chain.
At the halfway stage I was connected to 5 markets and in 3rd place slightly behind Tony & Fee. Colin was in last. In the second half I was able to increase that to 7 markets, but Colin cut me off from the 8th the turn before I was going to claim it. So I finished 3rd behind Tony & Fiona. With their huge land chains they were able to make loads of money and buy lots of Water tiles and Hacienda. Maybe next time we will play the asymmetric map, even though that is supposed to have some overpowered 'sweet' spots.
We didn't really have time for another new game after that, so we played a couple of hand of Intrigue only Dominion. The first was rather attack heavy with Swindler, Minion and Torturer. No Secret Chamber, but plenty of ways to remove Curses - Masquerade, Trading Post and Upgrade.
As is usual for me on a 3/4 split with Swindler in play I bought Swindler/Swindler. Soon the Curses started piling up in everyone's deck. I was purchasing Minions as my other buy after seing Tony use them very effectively several times. Sadly Tony also cast Minion for cards when my hand was Minion/Minion/Minion/x/x and I knew there was a Swindler in the last four cards of my library.
After I got a Minion swindled into a Duke, I decided this was going to be a lowish game, and that I should just be grabbing points. So I did that for the rest of the game, several times just casting Swindler and buying an Estate. This strategy almost paid off, I finished third - 24/23/22/18. I did realise my one mistake afterward - when swindling 5s I should be handing out Torturers - with my weak deck (full of VP & Curses) discarding 2 cards hardly hurts me.
In the second game Swindler had left (we use a 3 card evolution) and the new cards offered more action chain possibilities as they included Mining Village and Conspirator. I tried to set up a chain deck with Mining Village and Courtyard, but it was too slow and I felt like I was still setting up when Provinces started going. I think I should have bought some Scouts, cause Scout + Mining Village seems pretty good in an action chain deck. I must have also mistimed the end of game, I had a turn where I 'went off' including two Bridge and bought a Province and a Duchy, but I should have trashed some Mining Village's along the way, then I would have got double Province. Oh well - third again.
Three of my new games from the July Euro Maths trade had arrived - Hacienda, Elasund & In the Year of the Dragon. We decided to play Hacienda (on the symmetric map)
After the rules explanation, Fiona began the game and over the first few turns was able to claim a long chain of land on the top side (she actually found an 8 in a row from her opening hand) , whilst Tony did the same on the bottom. I cut off one side of Tony's land chain and started connecting to markets, even though I know from online play that the winning strategy is to make a huge land chain.
At the halfway stage I was connected to 5 markets and in 3rd place slightly behind Tony & Fee. Colin was in last. In the second half I was able to increase that to 7 markets, but Colin cut me off from the 8th the turn before I was going to claim it. So I finished 3rd behind Tony & Fiona. With their huge land chains they were able to make loads of money and buy lots of Water tiles and Hacienda. Maybe next time we will play the asymmetric map, even though that is supposed to have some overpowered 'sweet' spots.
We didn't really have time for another new game after that, so we played a couple of hand of Intrigue only Dominion. The first was rather attack heavy with Swindler, Minion and Torturer. No Secret Chamber, but plenty of ways to remove Curses - Masquerade, Trading Post and Upgrade.
As is usual for me on a 3/4 split with Swindler in play I bought Swindler/Swindler. Soon the Curses started piling up in everyone's deck. I was purchasing Minions as my other buy after seing Tony use them very effectively several times. Sadly Tony also cast Minion for cards when my hand was Minion/Minion/Minion/x/x and I knew there was a Swindler in the last four cards of my library.
After I got a Minion swindled into a Duke, I decided this was going to be a lowish game, and that I should just be grabbing points. So I did that for the rest of the game, several times just casting Swindler and buying an Estate. This strategy almost paid off, I finished third - 24/23/22/18. I did realise my one mistake afterward - when swindling 5s I should be handing out Torturers - with my weak deck (full of VP & Curses) discarding 2 cards hardly hurts me.
In the second game Swindler had left (we use a 3 card evolution) and the new cards offered more action chain possibilities as they included Mining Village and Conspirator. I tried to set up a chain deck with Mining Village and Courtyard, but it was too slow and I felt like I was still setting up when Provinces started going. I think I should have bought some Scouts, cause Scout + Mining Village seems pretty good in an action chain deck. I must have also mistimed the end of game, I had a turn where I 'went off' including two Bridge and bought a Province and a Duchy, but I should have trashed some Mining Village's along the way, then I would have got double Province. Oh well - third again.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
34/07/09 - Dominion: Intrigue
On Friday evening me Leon and Tony, played a couple of games of Intrigue only Dominion (I only realised it was Intrigue only when Tony mentioned it afterwards.) We played an evolving setup, which included Duke and Harem in both games.
I lost the first, getting too carried away with trying to set up a Pawn + Conspirator deck (after using Steward to trash my Estates) that wasn't really effective. Tony had a more effective Conspirator deck, using Minion to generate income and new hands. But we both lost to Leon's simple plan of buying Duchies and Dukes - he had 6 Duchies and multiple Dukes.
In the second game Torturer was available (though Secret Chamber also appeared), and Tony fell into the Harem trap - buying Harem's from the outset over Gold. This might be a reasonable plan in a VERY attack heavy tableaux where winning scores are often miniscule (ie we had a game with Swindler, Thief, Bureaucrat and Witch with a winning score of 3), but here I think it hurt him. He set up a similar Minion deck to the last game, whilst I concentrated more on Torturer. Mining Village helped to chain Actions together, and with my Gold I was able to buy enough Provinces to win. Leon tried to win with Dukes again, but couldn't buy enough to win - by the end Tony and I were both Torturing him too frequently.
Intrigue only Dominion was quite interesting - some Intrigue cards really come more to life in this environment.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
06/09/08 SSE draft
I decided to go over to Southampton for the last Shadowmmor draft before the Shards Pre-release in a few weeks time.
I took a Prison Term first pick, the next two picks were uninteresting (one was a Elsewhere Flask that I took just to keep options open). A fourth pick Burn Trail seemed like a sign to be in Red.
This time I made sure of getting enough cheap Red guys to use the Burn Trail effectively. Silkbind Faeries were also going round a little to late it seemed, so I was able to pick up a couple and a Power of Fire, leaving me with RW or RU as options going into the final booster, Eventide.
The cheap red guys became even more of a priority with the first Eventide pick, the excellent Crackleburr - a bomb in the deck I was drafting.
The deck
2 Intimidator Initiate
2 Rustrazor Butcher
1 Riverfall Mimic
2 Tattermunge Duo
2 Noggle Bandit
2 Silkbind Faerie
1 Crackleburr
1 Noggle Bridgebreaker
1 Scuzzback Marauder
1 Outrage Shaman
1 Spectral Procession
1 Cenn's Enlistenment
1 Niveous Wisps
1 Power of Fire
1 Double Cleave
1 Prison Term
1 Burn Trail
2 Manamorphose
10 Mountains
6 Swamps
I won all four matches to win the draft. Crackleburr won several games on his own.
I took a Prison Term first pick, the next two picks were uninteresting (one was a Elsewhere Flask that I took just to keep options open). A fourth pick Burn Trail seemed like a sign to be in Red.
This time I made sure of getting enough cheap Red guys to use the Burn Trail effectively. Silkbind Faeries were also going round a little to late it seemed, so I was able to pick up a couple and a Power of Fire, leaving me with RW or RU as options going into the final booster, Eventide.
The cheap red guys became even more of a priority with the first Eventide pick, the excellent Crackleburr - a bomb in the deck I was drafting.
The deck
2 Intimidator Initiate
2 Rustrazor Butcher
1 Riverfall Mimic
2 Tattermunge Duo
2 Noggle Bandit
2 Silkbind Faerie
1 Crackleburr
1 Noggle Bridgebreaker
1 Scuzzback Marauder
1 Outrage Shaman
1 Spectral Procession
1 Cenn's Enlistenment
1 Niveous Wisps
1 Power of Fire
1 Double Cleave
1 Prison Term
1 Burn Trail
2 Manamorphose
10 Mountains
6 Swamps
I won all four matches to win the draft. Crackleburr won several games on his own.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Netrunner deck; Rio de Janeiro City Grid
Netrunner is the one of most interesting CCG ever created in my opinion. This is one of the decks I still have built.
Rio de Janeiro City Grid
Cost: 1
Upgrade-Region-Random
Roll a die whenever Runner passes a piece of rezzed ice during a run on this fort. On a 1, end the run.
In most Corp decks RdJ City Grid isn't worthwhile, it's just too unreliable. To make RDJ work you need big forts. REALLY big forts. With the addition of 'payback' ice (that you get bits from when you rez them) in the Proteus expansion this became possible.
The deck (50 cards)
Agendas (6)
4 Corporate Downsizing
2 Political Overthrow
Upgrades (8)
6 Rio de Janeiro City Grid
4 Chester Mix
2 Rasmin Bridger
2 Obsfucated Fortress
Operations (3)
3 Off Site Backups
Nodes (1)
1 Bel Digmo Antibody
Ice - Code Gates (7)
3 Misleading Access Menu
3 Quandry
1 Mazer
Ice - Walls (10)
6 Snowbank
2 Data Wall 2.0
1 Walking Wall
1 Glacier
Ice - Sentry (9)
7 Washed Up Solo Construct
1 Fragmentation Storm
1 Data Naga
With this deck the plan is to build three really big forts; R&D, HQ and one subsidiary (this deck is weak against Shredder Uplink Protocol - it can't effectively defend a fourth fort).
Typically you begin by setting up as much defense as you can on R&D and HQ. Then once those are secure setup a sudsidiary fort and try to score a Corporate Downsizing.
When you do, shuffle all the Agendas in your hand back into R&D. With this deck you want the game to go as long as is possible (warning; games using this deck can much longer than normal games of Netrunner). You can't lose due to running out of cards as you have Bel-Digmo Antibody, with Off-Site Backups to return it from Archives should the Runner manage to trash it from R&D or HQ.
More typically Off-Site Backups is used to return Rasmin Bridger or Obsfucated Fortress as these are crucial to the decks long term strategy - to make the Runner pay for runs that will fail. (Obviously RdJ City Grid is also crucial but the deck plays so many of these and the trash cost is so high that it isn't normally productive to trash these).
To make the runner lose bits on each run, each fort needs to have some ice that will cost the runner bits to pass, and the earlier in the run the better. Walking Wall and Glacier are excellent for this with their ability to move themselves. Rasmin Bridger means every ice will cost at 1 additional bit to pass, and Obsfucated Fortress will mean every run will cost the runner in full, even if you roll a 1 after the first piece of Ice!
Data Naga and Fragmentation Storm are there to keep the runner honest, so that they can't assume that all of the Ice is harmless.
This deck has one major weakness - it isn't that good! Even with 9 pieces of ice on a fort RDJ will still fail to stop a Runner 20% of the time. You are relying on the time needed for the runner to regain the bits needed for each failure to score your agendas. This is okay for Corporate Downsizing, but it's much more difficult to score a Political Overthrow.
Given this weakness the deck is only realy suitable for casual play. But as it takes so long to play it isn't really suitable for that either! Still, it was fun to play occasionally and remains an interesting design.
Rio de Janeiro City Grid
Cost: 1
Upgrade-Region-Random
Roll a die whenever Runner passes a piece of rezzed ice during a run on this fort. On a 1, end the run.
In most Corp decks RdJ City Grid isn't worthwhile, it's just too unreliable. To make RDJ work you need big forts. REALLY big forts. With the addition of 'payback' ice (that you get bits from when you rez them) in the Proteus expansion this became possible.
The deck (50 cards)
Agendas (6)
4 Corporate Downsizing
2 Political Overthrow
Upgrades (8)
6 Rio de Janeiro City Grid
4 Chester Mix
2 Rasmin Bridger
2 Obsfucated Fortress
Operations (3)
3 Off Site Backups
Nodes (1)
1 Bel Digmo Antibody
Ice - Code Gates (7)
3 Misleading Access Menu
3 Quandry
1 Mazer
Ice - Walls (10)
6 Snowbank
2 Data Wall 2.0
1 Walking Wall
1 Glacier
Ice - Sentry (9)
7 Washed Up Solo Construct
1 Fragmentation Storm
1 Data Naga
With this deck the plan is to build three really big forts; R&D, HQ and one subsidiary (this deck is weak against Shredder Uplink Protocol - it can't effectively defend a fourth fort).
Typically you begin by setting up as much defense as you can on R&D and HQ. Then once those are secure setup a sudsidiary fort and try to score a Corporate Downsizing.
When you do, shuffle all the Agendas in your hand back into R&D. With this deck you want the game to go as long as is possible (warning; games using this deck can much longer than normal games of Netrunner). You can't lose due to running out of cards as you have Bel-Digmo Antibody, with Off-Site Backups to return it from Archives should the Runner manage to trash it from R&D or HQ.
More typically Off-Site Backups is used to return Rasmin Bridger or Obsfucated Fortress as these are crucial to the decks long term strategy - to make the Runner pay for runs that will fail. (Obviously RdJ City Grid is also crucial but the deck plays so many of these and the trash cost is so high that it isn't normally productive to trash these).
To make the runner lose bits on each run, each fort needs to have some ice that will cost the runner bits to pass, and the earlier in the run the better. Walking Wall and Glacier are excellent for this with their ability to move themselves. Rasmin Bridger means every ice will cost at 1 additional bit to pass, and Obsfucated Fortress will mean every run will cost the runner in full, even if you roll a 1 after the first piece of Ice!
Data Naga and Fragmentation Storm are there to keep the runner honest, so that they can't assume that all of the Ice is harmless.
This deck has one major weakness - it isn't that good! Even with 9 pieces of ice on a fort RDJ will still fail to stop a Runner 20% of the time. You are relying on the time needed for the runner to regain the bits needed for each failure to score your agendas. This is okay for Corporate Downsizing, but it's much more difficult to score a Political Overthrow.
Given this weakness the deck is only realy suitable for casual play. But as it takes so long to play it isn't really suitable for that either! Still, it was fun to play occasionally and remains an interesting design.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
06/01/08: Ticket to Ride 1910, Traumfabrik, For Sale
The usual five of us met up at my flat for a Sunday evening of games. We decided to start with something “not too thinky” – Ticket to Ride (1910 Tickets + Bonus).
I kept my opening 3 tickets. Two of them were northwestern Cities to Miami, and the other was Salt Lake to a third northwestern City (they were Toronto, Chicago and New York).
On my second turn I claimed Toronto-Pittsburgh, and then I spent the early part of the game connecting my NW Cities through Pittsburgh and down toward Florida. By this stage both of the direct west routes out of Salt Lake City had been taken, but I had a couple of green in hand so I claimed Salt Lake – Helena a few turns later. I then worked on connecting Helena to Chicago and collecting the Purple trains I needed to get down to Miami.
After connecting Helena to Chicago and collecting the trains needed to reach Miami via Charleston I decided to draw more tickets. I hit the jackpot!
Los Angles – Atlanta
Las Vegas – a NW City I’m already in
A NW City I’m already in – Charleston.
I was worried that I might get blocked out of Salt Lake – Las Vegas – Los Angeles, but I made it okay, and then had time to claim Atlanta, Charleston and Miami a couple of turns before the game ended.
With my six (!) completed tickets I scored 140 points and won by about 20 points. Fiona was second on about 120 points. After completing her tickets she decided not to collect more, assuming I had the most tickets bonus won and she ended the game by claiming a couple of 15 point connections. And speeding up the game to try and make me fail my tickets was a reasonable plan too.
I really like how the 1910 tickets and most completed tickets bonus shake up the strategies compared to the unbalanced original. I won by 20 points after making multiple 2 train connections, only two 5 train connections and no 6s! (That would be impossible in the original edition).
After Ticket to Ride everyone demanded more tea. I acquiesced, on the condition that they pick out and setup another game whilst I’m gone. I didn’t want to come back in ten minutes to find them still discussing what to play.
When I returned they were setting out Traumfabrik. I think this might have been the first time we have played five handed.
After Tony wins the first **** director, the next auction is a couple of actors (one a guest star) and something else. The two actors should be enough for first picks at the first turn parties, and that should offer the possibility of finishing a film in time to win the first season best film award. So I decided to bid 11 to automatically win it (in hindsight I might have won with a lower bid – but I would guess that If I’d bid 8 that would have tempted somebody to bid 9 etc).
So my 11 won, and I got a good tile at the first party. All I needed was music (or an Agency) at the final party to complete a film, and I was picking first… There weren’t any. Tony also only needed one tile to complete a film but he was picking last and got Reiner Knizia who promptly got fired! (Back into the box).
So the first season 5 point award was unclaimed. During the second season I was still looking for music to complete my yellow film, but Fiona was also close to completing hers and stealing my 5 points! I bid her up to 11 in the auction with the tile she needed, but she decided it was worth it. Her film scores (4), a good early contender for Worst Film.
During this season Colin completed a Green film for (19)! That looked to make him an early favourite. There was a good chance that it would earn him 25 points of awards (first green, best second season film, best third season film, best green film) – it did.
Though I had lost out on the first film bonus I was aiming for I still had the best collection of actors and pretty high value tiles. The problem was I wasn’t sure where I was going to get any awards. However during the third season I won the **** director and was able to complete a Yellow film for 15. This put me in the lead for Best Yellow and made me a contender for Best Direction.
In the final season I was able to get the Director needed to win best Director – if I could finish King Kong. Thankfully I was able to win the tile needed at the last auction and didn’t have to rely on getting lucky at the party.
I thought Colin had won due to the many awards he won for his first film (and he also won Worst Film), but with Best Yellow and Best Director I beat him by a few points. Other than his 19 his films weren’t worth much, whilst mine were consistently good.
After the game Tony congratulated Colin. Colin pointed out that I had beaten him. Tony: “I’ve given up trying to win…” (Referring to the fact that I’ve won all six games we’ve played since Christmas…).
We ended with a couple of quick games of For Sale. Colin and I continued our trend of doing slightly better then average, with Fee and Tony less successful (Tony forgot there was a sixth auction in the first game!). Colin won the first game, Bekki the second.
Next week I think we’re going to play Aladdin’s Dragons, which I’ve never played before.
I kept my opening 3 tickets. Two of them were northwestern Cities to Miami, and the other was Salt Lake to a third northwestern City (they were Toronto, Chicago and New York).
On my second turn I claimed Toronto-Pittsburgh, and then I spent the early part of the game connecting my NW Cities through Pittsburgh and down toward Florida. By this stage both of the direct west routes out of Salt Lake City had been taken, but I had a couple of green in hand so I claimed Salt Lake – Helena a few turns later. I then worked on connecting Helena to Chicago and collecting the Purple trains I needed to get down to Miami.
After connecting Helena to Chicago and collecting the trains needed to reach Miami via Charleston I decided to draw more tickets. I hit the jackpot!
Los Angles – Atlanta
Las Vegas – a NW City I’m already in
A NW City I’m already in – Charleston.
I was worried that I might get blocked out of Salt Lake – Las Vegas – Los Angeles, but I made it okay, and then had time to claim Atlanta, Charleston and Miami a couple of turns before the game ended.
With my six (!) completed tickets I scored 140 points and won by about 20 points. Fiona was second on about 120 points. After completing her tickets she decided not to collect more, assuming I had the most tickets bonus won and she ended the game by claiming a couple of 15 point connections. And speeding up the game to try and make me fail my tickets was a reasonable plan too.
I really like how the 1910 tickets and most completed tickets bonus shake up the strategies compared to the unbalanced original. I won by 20 points after making multiple 2 train connections, only two 5 train connections and no 6s! (That would be impossible in the original edition).
After Ticket to Ride everyone demanded more tea. I acquiesced, on the condition that they pick out and setup another game whilst I’m gone. I didn’t want to come back in ten minutes to find them still discussing what to play.
When I returned they were setting out Traumfabrik. I think this might have been the first time we have played five handed.
After Tony wins the first **** director, the next auction is a couple of actors (one a guest star) and something else. The two actors should be enough for first picks at the first turn parties, and that should offer the possibility of finishing a film in time to win the first season best film award. So I decided to bid 11 to automatically win it (in hindsight I might have won with a lower bid – but I would guess that If I’d bid 8 that would have tempted somebody to bid 9 etc).
So my 11 won, and I got a good tile at the first party. All I needed was music (or an Agency) at the final party to complete a film, and I was picking first… There weren’t any. Tony also only needed one tile to complete a film but he was picking last and got Reiner Knizia who promptly got fired! (Back into the box).
So the first season 5 point award was unclaimed. During the second season I was still looking for music to complete my yellow film, but Fiona was also close to completing hers and stealing my 5 points! I bid her up to 11 in the auction with the tile she needed, but she decided it was worth it. Her film scores (4), a good early contender for Worst Film.
During this season Colin completed a Green film for (19)! That looked to make him an early favourite. There was a good chance that it would earn him 25 points of awards (first green, best second season film, best third season film, best green film) – it did.
Though I had lost out on the first film bonus I was aiming for I still had the best collection of actors and pretty high value tiles. The problem was I wasn’t sure where I was going to get any awards. However during the third season I won the **** director and was able to complete a Yellow film for 15. This put me in the lead for Best Yellow and made me a contender for Best Direction.
In the final season I was able to get the Director needed to win best Director – if I could finish King Kong. Thankfully I was able to win the tile needed at the last auction and didn’t have to rely on getting lucky at the party.
I thought Colin had won due to the many awards he won for his first film (and he also won Worst Film), but with Best Yellow and Best Director I beat him by a few points. Other than his 19 his films weren’t worth much, whilst mine were consistently good.
After the game Tony congratulated Colin. Colin pointed out that I had beaten him. Tony: “I’ve given up trying to win…” (Referring to the fact that I’ve won all six games we’ve played since Christmas…).
We ended with a couple of quick games of For Sale. Colin and I continued our trend of doing slightly better then average, with Fee and Tony less successful (Tony forgot there was a sixth auction in the first game!). Colin won the first game, Bekki the second.
Next week I think we’re going to play Aladdin’s Dragons, which I’ve never played before.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
29/12/07 - Power Grid, For Sale, Ticket to Ride (1910)
Five of us met up for games at Tony's house: Tony, me, Fiona, Colin and Rob (down for Christmas).
We started with a game of Power Grid on the USA map. The north-eastern region was unused.
I took the 5 cost plant first turn and Kansas City as my opening city. Rob was on the eastern coast with Tony in between me and Rob. Fiona and Colin were out west.
On the second turn I got 2Oil/Coal-4cities (21?) at cost, and with my relatively favourable turn order bought as much Coal and Oil as I could. A few turns later I also picked up 2Garbage-3Cities for cost, and soon after I triggered step 2.
At that stage I thought I was doing well. All of the goods became very cheap during step 2 - I think this was due to the many Wind Turbines in play. I quickly got a five city oil plant, and then was able to upgrade my garbage plant to 3Garbage-6 Cities (31?). At the time when I bought this the market was 3 lower capacity plants and this one, and after I bought it there weren't any more high capacity plants available until the final turn. I think I got it far too cheap.
So I looked well set for the win. I was almost able to win by connecting to (and powering) fifteen cities the turn before step 3, but Fiona spotted this and expanded agressively into cities I would have needed. So I waited on 13, with plants and fuel to power 15, and step 3 arrived next turn.
There was an outside chance that Rob or Fiona could beat me by powering 16 cities, but the fierce competition for the available 7 capacity plants made that unlikely - Tony and Colin both needed them and had been stockpiling cash.
Final Result
Simon 15 Cities / ~120E
Rob 15 Cities / ~50E
Fiona 15 Cities / ~10E
Tony 14 Cities / ~30E
Colin 14 Cities / ~20E (had sufficient plants for 15 but not enough cash to connect)
A good game, and for once it didn't take too long (just over 2 hours). I can understand the comments on BGG that the USA map is unbalanced for beginners. I think I can see how an opening position on the (expensive) West Coast shold be played, but I don't think the others have worked it out yet.
After Power Grid we played a few hands of For Sale. Whilst there is certainly a lot of luck involved (the auction mechanic can sometimes leave you with no good choices and force you to drop, giving everyone else cheap stuff, and blind bidding is inherently random) there is still some room for strategy and skill, and I think our results bore that out. Colin and I seem to have got the hang of it, whilst Fiona struggles with the blind bidding converting good property portfolios into poor scores.
A striking example of bad play - the following sequence happened (twice!) : too high opening bid followed by pass, pass, pass, pass. So somebody paid for the highest card whilst the others were all distributed for free.
Also Tony has noted that an non winning odd bid of X will costs the same as a non winning even bid of X-1, but hasn't properly thought through the implications of this.
So Colin won two of the three games and I had a first, a second and a third.
We ended with a game of Ticket to Ride with the 1910 Tickets and 15 point most routes bonus. We feel these really improve the game.
I kept Atlanta-LA and Nashville-Vancouver as my opening tickets. With sets like these I feel the best plan is to connect up the 'ends' and then fund a route cross-country. So I claim Nashville-Atlanta first turn, and then start collecting for LA-Vancouver. I get LA-SF, and then a few turns later it all kicks off around Vancouver...
Rob is sitting on my right, Fiona on my left. I can't remember the exact sequence but Rob claims Seattle-Calgary and Calgary-Helena. So my best route in Vancouver is now straight up the coast. So I claim Portland-Seattle-Vancouver. Rob then takes one of them as well, and Fiona is blocked out of the NW cities. She can't complete one of her tickets!
This means she probably can't win - unless she can catch most of the other players with unfinished tickets as well. So she speeds up the game, concentrating on the long routes.
There is a small hiccup in my plan when the green trains I have been saving for SF-Portland become useless when Colin claims that connection. So now I need Pinks, but there are literally none turning up. After a few turns of bad draws of the top I end up taking Locomotives from the display - seems like the only way I'll get that connection.
Eventually I make it, and get across the country fairly smoothly (SF, Salt Lake, Denver, Kansas, St Louis). Next turn I take Destination Tickets and strike lucky - one I've already done and for another I just need to get to Chicago. Luckily I have the trains needed in hand, cause Fiona ends the game.
On my last turn I claim St Louis-Chicago. The 48 points for my four tickets and the 15 points most tickets bonus is enough to take me from last to first. Which came as a surprise - I thought I was too far behind.
Overall a successful evening for me. Clearly the Strongbow I was drinking gave me an unfair advantage!
We started with a game of Power Grid on the USA map. The north-eastern region was unused.
I took the 5 cost plant first turn and Kansas City as my opening city. Rob was on the eastern coast with Tony in between me and Rob. Fiona and Colin were out west.
On the second turn I got 2Oil/Coal-4cities (21?) at cost, and with my relatively favourable turn order bought as much Coal and Oil as I could. A few turns later I also picked up 2Garbage-3Cities for cost, and soon after I triggered step 2.
At that stage I thought I was doing well. All of the goods became very cheap during step 2 - I think this was due to the many Wind Turbines in play. I quickly got a five city oil plant, and then was able to upgrade my garbage plant to 3Garbage-6 Cities (31?). At the time when I bought this the market was 3 lower capacity plants and this one, and after I bought it there weren't any more high capacity plants available until the final turn. I think I got it far too cheap.
So I looked well set for the win. I was almost able to win by connecting to (and powering) fifteen cities the turn before step 3, but Fiona spotted this and expanded agressively into cities I would have needed. So I waited on 13, with plants and fuel to power 15, and step 3 arrived next turn.
There was an outside chance that Rob or Fiona could beat me by powering 16 cities, but the fierce competition for the available 7 capacity plants made that unlikely - Tony and Colin both needed them and had been stockpiling cash.
Final Result
Simon 15 Cities / ~120E
Rob 15 Cities / ~50E
Fiona 15 Cities / ~10E
Tony 14 Cities / ~30E
Colin 14 Cities / ~20E (had sufficient plants for 15 but not enough cash to connect)
A good game, and for once it didn't take too long (just over 2 hours). I can understand the comments on BGG that the USA map is unbalanced for beginners. I think I can see how an opening position on the (expensive) West Coast shold be played, but I don't think the others have worked it out yet.
After Power Grid we played a few hands of For Sale. Whilst there is certainly a lot of luck involved (the auction mechanic can sometimes leave you with no good choices and force you to drop, giving everyone else cheap stuff, and blind bidding is inherently random) there is still some room for strategy and skill, and I think our results bore that out. Colin and I seem to have got the hang of it, whilst Fiona struggles with the blind bidding converting good property portfolios into poor scores.
A striking example of bad play - the following sequence happened (twice!) : too high opening bid followed by pass, pass, pass, pass. So somebody paid for the highest card whilst the others were all distributed for free.
Also Tony has noted that an non winning odd bid of X will costs the same as a non winning even bid of X-1, but hasn't properly thought through the implications of this.
So Colin won two of the three games and I had a first, a second and a third.
We ended with a game of Ticket to Ride with the 1910 Tickets and 15 point most routes bonus. We feel these really improve the game.
I kept Atlanta-LA and Nashville-Vancouver as my opening tickets. With sets like these I feel the best plan is to connect up the 'ends' and then fund a route cross-country. So I claim Nashville-Atlanta first turn, and then start collecting for LA-Vancouver. I get LA-SF, and then a few turns later it all kicks off around Vancouver...
Rob is sitting on my right, Fiona on my left. I can't remember the exact sequence but Rob claims Seattle-Calgary and Calgary-Helena. So my best route in Vancouver is now straight up the coast. So I claim Portland-Seattle-Vancouver. Rob then takes one of them as well, and Fiona is blocked out of the NW cities. She can't complete one of her tickets!
This means she probably can't win - unless she can catch most of the other players with unfinished tickets as well. So she speeds up the game, concentrating on the long routes.
There is a small hiccup in my plan when the green trains I have been saving for SF-Portland become useless when Colin claims that connection. So now I need Pinks, but there are literally none turning up. After a few turns of bad draws of the top I end up taking Locomotives from the display - seems like the only way I'll get that connection.
Eventually I make it, and get across the country fairly smoothly (SF, Salt Lake, Denver, Kansas, St Louis). Next turn I take Destination Tickets and strike lucky - one I've already done and for another I just need to get to Chicago. Luckily I have the trains needed in hand, cause Fiona ends the game.
On my last turn I claim St Louis-Chicago. The 48 points for my four tickets and the 15 points most tickets bonus is enough to take me from last to first. Which came as a surprise - I thought I was too far behind.
Overall a successful evening for me. Clearly the Strongbow I was drinking gave me an unfair advantage!
Games: Mar - Dec 07
According to the games I logged at BGG this is what I've been playing since my last post:
San Juan 19 - I don't play as much as I used to, but for me this remains the classic two player game.
No Thanks! 9 - A fun filler. It replaced Circus Flohcati for a while, but in turn has been replaced by For Sale. Once everybody knows what's going on it seems like the game is more decided by which cards urn up than the players actions.
Alhambra 8 - Remains a firm favourite of some of my group.
Lost Cities 8 - A regular two-player filler.
Diamant 7 - My game group has got bigger in the last few months, so anything that plays up to six is getting more play.
Power Grid 7 - This is the current favourite 'heavy' game for my group. I don't like it as much as the others (I'd rather play Princes of Florence or Amun-Re).
Scrabble 6 - Ocassional evening games with a friend.
Circus Flohcati 5 - Filler, sees less play now I have No Thanks and For Sale.
For Sale 5 - I really enjoy this. Very easy to play 'just one more game'.
Puerto Rico 5 - Still a great game. Whatever happened to the second expansion that was rumoured?
Torres 5 - Torres seems like it should be a chess-like brain-burner, but it doesn't play that way. One three-player game saw the newbie win!
Ingenious 4 - Two players is fun, three player has seating issue problems. I haven't tried the four-player partnership version.
Jambo 4 - I prefer San Juan.
Apples to Apples British Isles Edition 3 - Fun, but the UK card mix seems a little off to me somehow.
Runebound Second Edition 3 - Multiplayer solitaire effectively and has runaway leader problems.
Blue Moon 2 - I like this but don't really have anybody to play regularly against.
Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers 2 - I prefer this to original Carc.
Carcassonne: The Castle 2 - And with two players, I prefer the Castle.
Citadels 2 - Playing in English really helps, and some of the expansion stuff is interesting. One guy in my group really dislikes this though.
Great Wall of China 2 - Okay, but nothing special.
HeroScape Master Set: Rise of the Valkyrie 2 - Mindless dice rolling fun if you're in the right mood.
Hollywood Blockbuster 2 - I really like this, it should get played more.
Liar's Dice 2 - Fun, but somehow the rules regarding bids of 1s seem slightly wonky to me.
Razzia 2 - Useful for large numbers, but not played so much as I have got other games that can handle six (For Sale, Diamant)
Atlantic Star 2 - Okay game that works with six (like Alhambra you just have to accept that it's going to be slighltly out of your control and go with flow)
Blood Bowl: Living RuleBook 1 - A good game but it takes too long, and can get overcomplicated once experienced teams with many skills face off.
Caesar and Cleopatra 1 - Played once, didn't think much of this.
Carcassonne 1 - I prefer H&G
Caylus Magna Carta 1 - Only played once, and that was with the basic rules - which suck. That's a shame, from my online plays I'm pretty certain this is a good game.
Domaine 1 - A good game, but only really at it's best with three players which limits it's plays.
Family Fluxx 1 - Family Fluxx seems to end more realiably than normal Fluxx (probably a function of having a much smaller deck).
Kaboodl 1 - Silly set collecting card game.
Lunch Money 1 - Slilly overcomplicated card game that gets dragged out by the need to keep checking the rules.
Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 2 - The 1910 destination tickets and 15pt most tickets bonus greatly improve TTR.
Tigris & Euphrates 1 - Still a great game.
I also played some Shadowfist during the year, after the release of the new set.
San Juan 19 - I don't play as much as I used to, but for me this remains the classic two player game.
No Thanks! 9 - A fun filler. It replaced Circus Flohcati for a while, but in turn has been replaced by For Sale. Once everybody knows what's going on it seems like the game is more decided by which cards urn up than the players actions.
Alhambra 8 - Remains a firm favourite of some of my group.
Lost Cities 8 - A regular two-player filler.
Diamant 7 - My game group has got bigger in the last few months, so anything that plays up to six is getting more play.
Power Grid 7 - This is the current favourite 'heavy' game for my group. I don't like it as much as the others (I'd rather play Princes of Florence or Amun-Re).
Scrabble 6 - Ocassional evening games with a friend.
Circus Flohcati 5 - Filler, sees less play now I have No Thanks and For Sale.
For Sale 5 - I really enjoy this. Very easy to play 'just one more game'.
Puerto Rico 5 - Still a great game. Whatever happened to the second expansion that was rumoured?
Torres 5 - Torres seems like it should be a chess-like brain-burner, but it doesn't play that way. One three-player game saw the newbie win!
Ingenious 4 - Two players is fun, three player has seating issue problems. I haven't tried the four-player partnership version.
Jambo 4 - I prefer San Juan.
Apples to Apples British Isles Edition 3 - Fun, but the UK card mix seems a little off to me somehow.
Runebound Second Edition 3 - Multiplayer solitaire effectively and has runaway leader problems.
Blue Moon 2 - I like this but don't really have anybody to play regularly against.
Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers 2 - I prefer this to original Carc.
Carcassonne: The Castle 2 - And with two players, I prefer the Castle.
Citadels 2 - Playing in English really helps, and some of the expansion stuff is interesting. One guy in my group really dislikes this though.
Great Wall of China 2 - Okay, but nothing special.
HeroScape Master Set: Rise of the Valkyrie 2 - Mindless dice rolling fun if you're in the right mood.
Hollywood Blockbuster 2 - I really like this, it should get played more.
Liar's Dice 2 - Fun, but somehow the rules regarding bids of 1s seem slightly wonky to me.
Razzia 2 - Useful for large numbers, but not played so much as I have got other games that can handle six (For Sale, Diamant)
Atlantic Star 2 - Okay game that works with six (like Alhambra you just have to accept that it's going to be slighltly out of your control and go with flow)
Blood Bowl: Living RuleBook 1 - A good game but it takes too long, and can get overcomplicated once experienced teams with many skills face off.
Caesar and Cleopatra 1 - Played once, didn't think much of this.
Carcassonne 1 - I prefer H&G
Caylus Magna Carta 1 - Only played once, and that was with the basic rules - which suck. That's a shame, from my online plays I'm pretty certain this is a good game.
Domaine 1 - A good game, but only really at it's best with three players which limits it's plays.
Family Fluxx 1 - Family Fluxx seems to end more realiably than normal Fluxx (probably a function of having a much smaller deck).
Kaboodl 1 - Silly set collecting card game.
Lunch Money 1 - Slilly overcomplicated card game that gets dragged out by the need to keep checking the rules.
Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 2 - The 1910 destination tickets and 15pt most tickets bonus greatly improve TTR.
Tigris & Euphrates 1 - Still a great game.
I also played some Shadowfist during the year, after the release of the new set.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Sunday 25/02/07: Puerto Rico, Citadels
After a couple of weeks with just the three of us, numbers were back up again this week. Bekki and Colin were both there, and Marleena turned up later.
I though we might get to start with El Grande which I was looking forward to (Tony had bought it the last couple of weeks, and apparently it’s best with 5), but he didn’t have it with him.
Tony suggests Hare and Tortoise which I’m not hugely keen on (and his rules translation is very dodgy) or Princes of Florence, which I love but I know Bekki will hate – far too calculational and too much downtime.
So I suggest Puerto Rico, and then start unpacking it to seal the deal. We replace Large Market, Large Warehouse and University with Trading Post,
We are seated as follows: Colin, Bekki, Fee, Tony, Simon.
The game begins relatively normally, Colin picking Settler (I get Sugar) and then Bekki builds (I take a small sugar mill). Nobody takes a Small Market straight off – in fact nobody takes one at all for a long time, which was part of a trend that continued throughout the game.
There was less building during this game than I’ve ever seen in a five player. Normally towards the end of the game there is very little worthwile to buy any more. I think this time there was still a Harbour AND a Wharf left at the end of the game (or they were bought just before the end), as well as one of the 10 cost buildings.
Part of the reason for this seems to be that nobody is very keen to take Quarries or produce trade goods. I’m the only player to make any coffee all game!
As well as the obvious trading benefit this gives me, I also sacrifice one trading opportunity to ship my only coffee onto the largest boat. This completely blocks that boat for the rest of the game (I’m only making one coffee per craft and it ends the game with four coffee onboard), denying the others many shipping points. (We actually still end by running out of shipping points, but reducing the rate let me build much more than would have been possible otherwise).
I get a decent factory going (everything except Indigo, though its often less due to shortage of goods), and am able to buy and man both Guild Hall and City Hall before the game ends (we run out of shipping points).
I finish a couple of points ahead of Tony who had no large buildings, but plenty of corn combined with Harbor and Wharf gave him lots of shipping points.
Fee also has quite a few shipping points, but she had one of those games where she was just short of enough money to buy a large building (9 doubloons on the penultimate turn, that always annoys) and finishes third.
Bekki managed to buy a large building but had trouble shipping her sugar and indigo and finished fourth.
Colin had an okay position I though at one point, but finished last. I think he made the mistake of getting quarries but not having any coffee or tobacco to sell, so he didn’t get to actually use his quarries very much.
Marleena arrived during the game of PR (and made some very nice cups of tea for everyone), so afterwards we had about an hour and a half for a six player game. That’s too short for Elfenland, and I didn’t bring Alhambra for once. Still didn’t want to play Hare & Tortoise, but I had Citadels with me. It’s like Ohne Furcht und Adel but you can read the cards! (which vastly improves the experience, Bekki seemed to agree).
We didn’t try any of the alternative characters or buildings. I think I’ll have to make some character summary cards before we use the characters (it’s the one useful component the English version is missing).
Marleena had a strong start, getting some good income from being the Merchant and the King. She was the King for like three rounds in a row, and as I was sitting to her right that means I get to pick from just two characters each time, which isn’t great. But I got Warlord three times in a row, and had a red Building, so it wasn’t too bad.
Then Marleena got assassinated and soon after Fee had a strong turn where she built three one cost buildings with the Architect, and was then able to be the Bishop (who can’t be targeted by the Warlord) next turn, and got to eight buildings the turn after, again making her immune to the Warlord. She finished first.
Marleena was second and I think I finished third. I only built five buildings, but they were one of each colour for the three point bonus, and included the 8 point Dragons Gate.
I’m not sure what order Colin, Tony and Bekki finished in. I think they had problems with getting robbed and stabbed.
Pub Quiz next week. We are the reigning champions (more 30 point bonus rounds on stuff I know probably required for us to win again).
I though we might get to start with El Grande which I was looking forward to (Tony had bought it the last couple of weeks, and apparently it’s best with 5), but he didn’t have it with him.
Tony suggests Hare and Tortoise which I’m not hugely keen on (and his rules translation is very dodgy) or Princes of Florence, which I love but I know Bekki will hate – far too calculational and too much downtime.
So I suggest Puerto Rico, and then start unpacking it to seal the deal. We replace Large Market, Large Warehouse and University with Trading Post,
We are seated as follows: Colin, Bekki, Fee, Tony, Simon.
The game begins relatively normally, Colin picking Settler (I get Sugar) and then Bekki builds (I take a small sugar mill). Nobody takes a Small Market straight off – in fact nobody takes one at all for a long time, which was part of a trend that continued throughout the game.
There was less building during this game than I’ve ever seen in a five player. Normally towards the end of the game there is very little worthwile to buy any more. I think this time there was still a Harbour AND a Wharf left at the end of the game (or they were bought just before the end), as well as one of the 10 cost buildings.
Part of the reason for this seems to be that nobody is very keen to take Quarries or produce trade goods. I’m the only player to make any coffee all game!
As well as the obvious trading benefit this gives me, I also sacrifice one trading opportunity to ship my only coffee onto the largest boat. This completely blocks that boat for the rest of the game (I’m only making one coffee per craft and it ends the game with four coffee onboard), denying the others many shipping points. (We actually still end by running out of shipping points, but reducing the rate let me build much more than would have been possible otherwise).
I get a decent factory going (everything except Indigo, though its often less due to shortage of goods), and am able to buy and man both Guild Hall and City Hall before the game ends (we run out of shipping points).
I finish a couple of points ahead of Tony who had no large buildings, but plenty of corn combined with Harbor and Wharf gave him lots of shipping points.
Fee also has quite a few shipping points, but she had one of those games where she was just short of enough money to buy a large building (9 doubloons on the penultimate turn, that always annoys) and finishes third.
Bekki managed to buy a large building but had trouble shipping her sugar and indigo and finished fourth.
Colin had an okay position I though at one point, but finished last. I think he made the mistake of getting quarries but not having any coffee or tobacco to sell, so he didn’t get to actually use his quarries very much.
Marleena arrived during the game of PR (and made some very nice cups of tea for everyone), so afterwards we had about an hour and a half for a six player game. That’s too short for Elfenland, and I didn’t bring Alhambra for once. Still didn’t want to play Hare & Tortoise, but I had Citadels with me. It’s like Ohne Furcht und Adel but you can read the cards! (which vastly improves the experience, Bekki seemed to agree).
We didn’t try any of the alternative characters or buildings. I think I’ll have to make some character summary cards before we use the characters (it’s the one useful component the English version is missing).
Marleena had a strong start, getting some good income from being the Merchant and the King. She was the King for like three rounds in a row, and as I was sitting to her right that means I get to pick from just two characters each time, which isn’t great. But I got Warlord three times in a row, and had a red Building, so it wasn’t too bad.
Then Marleena got assassinated and soon after Fee had a strong turn where she built three one cost buildings with the Architect, and was then able to be the Bishop (who can’t be targeted by the Warlord) next turn, and got to eight buildings the turn after, again making her immune to the Warlord. She finished first.
Marleena was second and I think I finished third. I only built five buildings, but they were one of each colour for the three point bonus, and included the 8 point Dragons Gate.
I’m not sure what order Colin, Tony and Bekki finished in. I think they had problems with getting robbed and stabbed.
Pub Quiz next week. We are the reigning champions (more 30 point bonus rounds on stuff I know probably required for us to win again).
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Sunday 18/02/07 : San Juan, Tigris & Euphrates (Princes of Florence)
For the second week running it’s just Tony, Fee and me. Last week we were able to play Princes of Florence. It’s not at it’s best with three, but seeing as I hadn’t played it for over a year I wasn’t going to say no!
Tony won Princes by a couple of points: he bought mostly Jesters and Recruitments at auction, and bought several extra profession cards. I bought mostly Builders and Prestige cards. In the end Tony’s late game large works gave him a 2 point victory over me. My 19 points of prestige cards (least empty spaces, most buildings, two large buildings) weren’t quite enough.
I wasted a couple of early actions I think, so much so that I only actually completed two works. Early on I should have just concentrated on scoring the works I had, rather than buying stuff to try and make them better. I had forgotten how hard it is to hit the late game work requirements when you don’t have any jesters.
Fee was competing with Tony for the Jesters and Recruitments, but unlike Tony she was playing her works early (indeed after the fourth turn she had no profession cards in hand). This wins her a few early best work bonuses, but generally you don’t get as many points playing that way. At least by competing with Tony she was making their money management tricky, thus boosting my chances.
As neither of them had much interest in competing with me for Builders or Prestige cards my money management was relatively simple. I think both my works were for points (maybe with an odd hundred florins), and I still had a little left at the end.
Princes of Florence is a great game. I must try to play it more this year.
This week both Tony and I have brought Tigris and Euphrates, another classic game that we don’t play anywhere near enough.
Still Tony doesn’t want to jump straight into such a hard game (probably a wise move) so we start with a quick hand of San Juan. Tony and I are pretty strongly violet (he is convinced it is the best plan), whilst Fiona is building many production buildings. She gets a Guild Hall and a Palace, but it’s not enough to beat my City Hall plus Palace.
The main difference being that I had a Quarry whilst she didn’t have a Smithy, and I was able to get down a couple of one cost violets for ‘free’ (I know they’re not literally free unless you have Carpenter as well). The Guild Hall players should really be looking to close the game out with 12 builds, but Fiona’s income wasn’t as good ( a function of being the only player heavily invested in production), so she only finished with 10 builds.
After this game Tony starts explaining how the violet plan is so much better than Guild Halls, and that the game is therefore slightly broken. I try to convince him otherwise, but despite the fact that I have played the game about ten times more than him, he apparently knows more than I do. That’s annoys me.
After San Juan we unpack T&E, and Tony reminds Fee of the rules whilst I take a loo break. He does his usual effective job. I get back just in time to repeat some of his gibberish regarding the scoring of external conflicts into actual English.
The game gets underway with me giving Fee a few basic strategy tips (Green and Black leaders are the most obvious to play early, remember to support your leaders with Temples etc). I have a glut of opening Green tiles so I start my own kingdom in the bottom right of the board. The plan was to make a monument, but it turned out to not be necessary.
I also have my Black leader in this kingdom, and join with the lower central treasure. At this point this kingdom is quite close to an external confict with Fee’s central kingdom, and I still have a glut of Green and Black tiles in hand. So I deliberately keep my kingdom a little weaker than hers, until she attacks, and I have enough for the tie in black to win that conflict. That ends the external conflict and breaks up her kingdom, so that soon my Green leader boots hers off as well.
That basically gives me enough Green and Black points for the game. I pick up some Blue and Red points throughout the game, and as my Green leader never gets displaced I get 5 of the 8 treasures collected for quite a confortable win (my score is 8/9/9/12)
Fee got most her leaders booted off midway throughout the game, but just re-entered her black leader in the empty bottom left corner and spent several turns getting a couple of cubes per turn in the colours she was weakest. And she also picked up a treasure relatively simply in the top right hand corner to end the game (I wanted the game to end, so I was helping).
Tony has a couple of strong colours, but is very weak in black and another colour (green?) and finishes last. He complains that he got dreadful draws (which might be true, he did change a load of tiles a couple of times), but I think he overstates his bad luck. In particular I think he got loads of reds but didn’t make the best use of them. He may have forgotten that you can remove leaders from the board (at one stage he had a four temple leader in red – I think he could have removed it, tried to kick off my green or black leader with an internal conflict then completed a B/G temple).
After T&E there’s time for one more quick game, something a bit longer than filler, but not too long. Whilst some groups can play Puerto Rico in 45 minutes we’re not one of them, so it’s San Juan again.
I want to try and win with a Guild Hall strategy this time, but after building an early Prefecture my counselling attempts aren’t helpful (though I do build Silver), and quickly Tony, and then Fiona have Prefectures as well.
This game is a little odd. Everybody builds a mixture of violet and production and eventually Tony and Fiona find the Guild Halls. But because they aren’t huge Halls the scores aren’t that high, and I’m keeping pace just with a couple of Monuments (I also have Library & Silver). I close with a Triumphal Arch, but lose by one card on the tiebreaker to Tony.
Tony won Princes by a couple of points: he bought mostly Jesters and Recruitments at auction, and bought several extra profession cards. I bought mostly Builders and Prestige cards. In the end Tony’s late game large works gave him a 2 point victory over me. My 19 points of prestige cards (least empty spaces, most buildings, two large buildings) weren’t quite enough.
I wasted a couple of early actions I think, so much so that I only actually completed two works. Early on I should have just concentrated on scoring the works I had, rather than buying stuff to try and make them better. I had forgotten how hard it is to hit the late game work requirements when you don’t have any jesters.
Fee was competing with Tony for the Jesters and Recruitments, but unlike Tony she was playing her works early (indeed after the fourth turn she had no profession cards in hand). This wins her a few early best work bonuses, but generally you don’t get as many points playing that way. At least by competing with Tony she was making their money management tricky, thus boosting my chances.
As neither of them had much interest in competing with me for Builders or Prestige cards my money management was relatively simple. I think both my works were for points (maybe with an odd hundred florins), and I still had a little left at the end.
Princes of Florence is a great game. I must try to play it more this year.
This week both Tony and I have brought Tigris and Euphrates, another classic game that we don’t play anywhere near enough.
Still Tony doesn’t want to jump straight into such a hard game (probably a wise move) so we start with a quick hand of San Juan. Tony and I are pretty strongly violet (he is convinced it is the best plan), whilst Fiona is building many production buildings. She gets a Guild Hall and a Palace, but it’s not enough to beat my City Hall plus Palace.
The main difference being that I had a Quarry whilst she didn’t have a Smithy, and I was able to get down a couple of one cost violets for ‘free’ (I know they’re not literally free unless you have Carpenter as well). The Guild Hall players should really be looking to close the game out with 12 builds, but Fiona’s income wasn’t as good ( a function of being the only player heavily invested in production), so she only finished with 10 builds.
After this game Tony starts explaining how the violet plan is so much better than Guild Halls, and that the game is therefore slightly broken. I try to convince him otherwise, but despite the fact that I have played the game about ten times more than him, he apparently knows more than I do. That’s annoys me.
After San Juan we unpack T&E, and Tony reminds Fee of the rules whilst I take a loo break. He does his usual effective job. I get back just in time to repeat some of his gibberish regarding the scoring of external conflicts into actual English.
The game gets underway with me giving Fee a few basic strategy tips (Green and Black leaders are the most obvious to play early, remember to support your leaders with Temples etc). I have a glut of opening Green tiles so I start my own kingdom in the bottom right of the board. The plan was to make a monument, but it turned out to not be necessary.
I also have my Black leader in this kingdom, and join with the lower central treasure. At this point this kingdom is quite close to an external confict with Fee’s central kingdom, and I still have a glut of Green and Black tiles in hand. So I deliberately keep my kingdom a little weaker than hers, until she attacks, and I have enough for the tie in black to win that conflict. That ends the external conflict and breaks up her kingdom, so that soon my Green leader boots hers off as well.
That basically gives me enough Green and Black points for the game. I pick up some Blue and Red points throughout the game, and as my Green leader never gets displaced I get 5 of the 8 treasures collected for quite a confortable win (my score is 8/9/9/12)
Fee got most her leaders booted off midway throughout the game, but just re-entered her black leader in the empty bottom left corner and spent several turns getting a couple of cubes per turn in the colours she was weakest. And she also picked up a treasure relatively simply in the top right hand corner to end the game (I wanted the game to end, so I was helping).
Tony has a couple of strong colours, but is very weak in black and another colour (green?) and finishes last. He complains that he got dreadful draws (which might be true, he did change a load of tiles a couple of times), but I think he overstates his bad luck. In particular I think he got loads of reds but didn’t make the best use of them. He may have forgotten that you can remove leaders from the board (at one stage he had a four temple leader in red – I think he could have removed it, tried to kick off my green or black leader with an internal conflict then completed a B/G temple).
After T&E there’s time for one more quick game, something a bit longer than filler, but not too long. Whilst some groups can play Puerto Rico in 45 minutes we’re not one of them, so it’s San Juan again.
I want to try and win with a Guild Hall strategy this time, but after building an early Prefecture my counselling attempts aren’t helpful (though I do build Silver), and quickly Tony, and then Fiona have Prefectures as well.
This game is a little odd. Everybody builds a mixture of violet and production and eventually Tony and Fiona find the Guild Halls. But because they aren’t huge Halls the scores aren’t that high, and I’m keeping pace just with a couple of Monuments (I also have Library & Silver). I close with a Triumphal Arch, but lose by one card on the tiebreaker to Tony.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Sunday 04/02/2007: Pub Quiz, Super Bowl XLI
As it was the first Sunday of the month, it was the pub quiz at The Prince of Wales. We had a larger team than usual: Fee, Marleena & Luke, Jim, Colin, and me.
Normally in quizzes the bigger the team the better, and you want people to know about different stuff, so as to have a chance on all the questions. Colin, in his first pub quiz appearance, definitely added some new areas of knowledge to the team (for example Dr Who’s home planet is Gallifrey).
The first round is fairly easy, and we get 17 (each round is 20 questions).
The second round is slightly harder and we get 13, leaving us in fifth place on 30 points (there are nine teams)
After a strong third round (16), we had moved up to fourth on 46 points. First place is on 51 – they’ve been in the lead ever since the first round when they got 19.
Each month there is also a bonus round that is handed out at the beginning. This month it is a sheet of thirty ‘thumbnail’ size pictures of famous people (mostly actors, a few music and sport).
To me this kind of thing is very simple. 28 (!) of them are obvious, there’s just two that I spent most of the evening thinking about.
No 29 is a woman wearing pink with untidy mousey blonde hair. She’s singing. Eventually I realise that it’s Suzi Quattro.
No 21 is a young looking woman wearing a yellow rain mac. I have a couple of unlikely ideas (who seem too obscure, based on the other people), and then I decide it’s a young Jane Fonda. Colin isn’t so sure.
Reading out the answers, I have all the first 20 correct. No big surprise. No 21… is Jane Fonda. Yes! Numbers 22 through 28 are correct, and I’m pretty confident Suzi Quattro is correct. It is! Now I think I’ve got all thirty in the bag, but can’t avoid the nagging feeling that maybe I’ve made a hideous mistake somewhere…. No, I got 30!
This gets me a big cheer from everyone on the team, and many congratulations are sent my way.
The final scores are announced in reverse order. With the 30 points from the bonus round we have 76, and when fourth place is reached with a score of under 70 points it is apparent most teams didn’t do quite as well on the bonus round as we did…
Sure enough, the team that had been leading throughout finish second with 74, and we have won. This is only the second time ever (the first was a couple of years back, before I was on the team).
After the quiz, it’s home to watch the Super Bowl. Historically I’ve always been an AFC fan (I first become a fan of American Football during the NFC’s winning streak in the 80s), and Tony Dungy deserves a Super Bowl, so I’m supporting the Colts.
After the opening kickoff is returned for a Chicago TD, the first quarter is strewn with errors. In the pouring rain that’s not completely surprising.
As well as the many turnovers during the first half the Chicago secondary completely blows the coverage for a 55yd touchdown. Still, by this stage the Bears had already scored a second touchdown, from a decent drive that included a 50+ yard run, and it looks like they might make a game of it.
Sadly it’s not to be. The Indy offence is totally dominating the Chicago defense with a short passing game, and having established the pass, they are also able to run with some success. The only thing that keeps the game close is the Colts inability to convert all of their yardage into points. Several times they get into good positions but have to settle for field goal attempts. Vinatieri misses a 36 yarder (!), another is fumbled by the holder, so they enter half time only 16-14 ahead.
At half time I cook Burgers for Lucy and me, so I’ve no idea if Prince was any good.
During a third quarter in which they again dominate possession they extend the lead to 22-17. By this stage they have completely dominated in terms of both possession time and yardage, but it’s still only a one score game!
The thing is the Bears don’t look like scoring even once. In the fourth quarter Grossman has a long pass intercepted, it’s returned for a Touchdown, and that’s basically game.
Eli Manning gets MVP, which was always a dead cert. I was really impressed by Rhodes and Addai, the two Colt running backs, who both had over 100 total yards. And so that's it for another postseason (I don't have Sky Sports so I only watch Football during January).
Normally in quizzes the bigger the team the better, and you want people to know about different stuff, so as to have a chance on all the questions. Colin, in his first pub quiz appearance, definitely added some new areas of knowledge to the team (for example Dr Who’s home planet is Gallifrey).
The first round is fairly easy, and we get 17 (each round is 20 questions).
The second round is slightly harder and we get 13, leaving us in fifth place on 30 points (there are nine teams)
After a strong third round (16), we had moved up to fourth on 46 points. First place is on 51 – they’ve been in the lead ever since the first round when they got 19.
Each month there is also a bonus round that is handed out at the beginning. This month it is a sheet of thirty ‘thumbnail’ size pictures of famous people (mostly actors, a few music and sport).
To me this kind of thing is very simple. 28 (!) of them are obvious, there’s just two that I spent most of the evening thinking about.
No 29 is a woman wearing pink with untidy mousey blonde hair. She’s singing. Eventually I realise that it’s Suzi Quattro.
No 21 is a young looking woman wearing a yellow rain mac. I have a couple of unlikely ideas (who seem too obscure, based on the other people), and then I decide it’s a young Jane Fonda. Colin isn’t so sure.
Reading out the answers, I have all the first 20 correct. No big surprise. No 21… is Jane Fonda. Yes! Numbers 22 through 28 are correct, and I’m pretty confident Suzi Quattro is correct. It is! Now I think I’ve got all thirty in the bag, but can’t avoid the nagging feeling that maybe I’ve made a hideous mistake somewhere…. No, I got 30!
This gets me a big cheer from everyone on the team, and many congratulations are sent my way.
The final scores are announced in reverse order. With the 30 points from the bonus round we have 76, and when fourth place is reached with a score of under 70 points it is apparent most teams didn’t do quite as well on the bonus round as we did…
Sure enough, the team that had been leading throughout finish second with 74, and we have won. This is only the second time ever (the first was a couple of years back, before I was on the team).
After the quiz, it’s home to watch the Super Bowl. Historically I’ve always been an AFC fan (I first become a fan of American Football during the NFC’s winning streak in the 80s), and Tony Dungy deserves a Super Bowl, so I’m supporting the Colts.
After the opening kickoff is returned for a Chicago TD, the first quarter is strewn with errors. In the pouring rain that’s not completely surprising.
As well as the many turnovers during the first half the Chicago secondary completely blows the coverage for a 55yd touchdown. Still, by this stage the Bears had already scored a second touchdown, from a decent drive that included a 50+ yard run, and it looks like they might make a game of it.
Sadly it’s not to be. The Indy offence is totally dominating the Chicago defense with a short passing game, and having established the pass, they are also able to run with some success. The only thing that keeps the game close is the Colts inability to convert all of their yardage into points. Several times they get into good positions but have to settle for field goal attempts. Vinatieri misses a 36 yarder (!), another is fumbled by the holder, so they enter half time only 16-14 ahead.
At half time I cook Burgers for Lucy and me, so I’ve no idea if Prince was any good.
During a third quarter in which they again dominate possession they extend the lead to 22-17. By this stage they have completely dominated in terms of both possession time and yardage, but it’s still only a one score game!
The thing is the Bears don’t look like scoring even once. In the fourth quarter Grossman has a long pass intercepted, it’s returned for a Touchdown, and that’s basically game.
Eli Manning gets MVP, which was always a dead cert. I was really impressed by Rhodes and Addai, the two Colt running backs, who both had over 100 total yards. And so that's it for another postseason (I don't have Sky Sports so I only watch Football during January).
Monday, February 05, 2007
EVERY SINGLE BOOK I OWN!!!
This is currently a work in progress!
Created - 05/02/2007
Edited 05/03/2007 (added Science / Tech)
Sci-Fi / Fantasy
Isaac Asimov
The Early Years Vol 1 The Early Years Vol 2 The Early Years Vol 3 Buy Jupiter Nightfall The Bicentennial Man The End of Eternity The Currents of Space Earth is Room Enough The Winds of Change The Positronic Man (with Robert Silverberg) Nightfall (with Robert Silverberg) I, Robot Robot Visions The Caves of Steel The Robots of Dawn Foundation Second Foundation Foundation and Empire Foundations's Edge Foundation and Earth Forward the Foundation
Douglas Adams
The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Life, the Universe and Everything So Long, and Thanks for all Fish Mostly Harmless Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (by Neil Gaiman)
Clive Barker
Weaveworld The Great and Secret Show Imajica
Greg Bear
Blood Music The Infinity Concerto Queens of Angels Slant Moving Mars Eon Eternity Darwin's Children
David Brin
Glory Season Earth Sundiver Startide Rising The Uplift War Brightness Reef Infinity's Shore Heaven's Reach Kil'n People
Arthur C Clarke
Imperial Earth Of Time and Stars Rendevous with Rama Rama II (with Gentry Lee) Garden of Rama (with Gentry Lee) Rama Revealed (with Gentry Lee)
Greg Egan
Quarantine Permutation City Axiomatic Luminous Diaspora Terenesia Schild's Ladder
Jon Courtney Grimwood - Pashazade
Peter F Hamilton
The Reality Dysfuntion The Neutron Alchemist The Naked God Fallen Dragon Pandora's Star Judas Unchained
Frank Herbert - Dune
Robin Hobb
Assassin's Apprentice Royal Assassin Assassin's Quest Ship of Magic The Mad Ship Ship of Destiny Fool's Errand Golden Fool Fool's Fate Shaman's Crossing
Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon
George R R Martin
A Game of Thrones A Clash of Kings
Richard Morgan
Altered Carbon Broken Angels Market Forces Woken Furies
Alastair Reynolds
Revelation Space Chasm City Redemption Ark Absolution Gap Century Rain Galactic North
Kim Stanley Robinson
Icehenge The Wild Shore Red Mars Green Mars Blue Mars The Martians Antartica The Years of Rice and Salt
J R R Tolkien
The Hobbit The Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers The Return of the King The Silmarillion
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Dragons of Autumn Twilight Dragons of Winter Night Dragons of Spring Dawning Dragons of Summer Flame Time of The Twins War of the Twins Test of the Twins
Tad Williams
The Dragonbone Chair Stone of Farewell To Green Angel Tower: Siege To Green Angel Tower: Storm Otherland: City of Golden Shadows Otherland: River of Blue Fire Otherland: Mountain of Black Glass Otherland: Sea of Silver Light The War of the Flowers Shadowmarch
Jane Austen - Emma
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility
Iain Banks - The Crow Road
Pat Barker - Regeneration
Pat Barker - The Eye in the Door
Pat Barker - The Ghost Road
Julian Barnes - Arthur & George
Louis De Bernieres - Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Umboerto Eco - The Name of The Rose
Umboerto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum
EM Forster - A Passage to India
Charles Frazier - Cold Mountain
Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Jospeh Heller - Catch 22
Joseph Heller - God Knows
Joseph Heller - Closing Time
Nick Hornby - Fever Pitch
Nick Hornby - High Fidelity
Nick Hornby - About A Boy
Jack Kerouac - On The Road
TE Lawrence - Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Ursula Le Guin - Always Coming Home
David Mitchell - Cloud Altlas
William Nicholson - The Wind on Fire
Richard Dawkins - The Blind Watchmaker
Richard Dawkins - Climbing Mount Improbable
Richard Dawkins - The Ancestors Tale
Richard P Feynman - QED: The strange theory of light and matter
Richard P Feynman - The Character of Physical Law
Richard P Feynman - "Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman!"
Richard P Feynman - "What do you care what other people think?"
Richard P Feynman - Don't you have time to think?
James Gleick - Genius: Richard Feynman and modern physics
James Gleick - Chaos
John Gribbin - Science: A History 1543-2001
Brian Greene - The Elegant Universe
Stephen W Hawking - A Brief History of Time
Douglas R Hofstader - Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Brian Penrose - The Emperor's New Mind
Brian Penrose - The Road to Reality
Steven Pinger - How The Mind Works
Karl Sigmund - Games of Life
Bruce Sterling - The Hacker Crackdown
Clifford Stoll - The Cuckoo's Egg
Created - 05/02/2007
Edited 05/03/2007 (added Science / Tech)
Sci-Fi / Fantasy
Isaac Asimov
Douglas Adams
Clive Barker
Greg Bear
David Brin
Arthur C Clarke
Greg Egan
Jon Courtney Grimwood - Pashazade
Peter F Hamilton
Frank Herbert - Dune
Robin Hobb
Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon
George R R Martin
Richard Morgan
Alastair Reynolds
Kim Stanley Robinson
J R R Tolkien
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Tad Williams
Other Fiction
Jane Austen - Emma
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility
Iain Banks - The Crow Road
Pat Barker - Regeneration
Pat Barker - The Eye in the Door
Pat Barker - The Ghost Road
Julian Barnes - Arthur & George
Louis De Bernieres - Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Umboerto Eco - The Name of The Rose
Umboerto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum
EM Forster - A Passage to India
Charles Frazier - Cold Mountain
Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Jospeh Heller - Catch 22
Joseph Heller - God Knows
Joseph Heller - Closing Time
Nick Hornby - Fever Pitch
Nick Hornby - High Fidelity
Nick Hornby - About A Boy
Jack Kerouac - On The Road
TE Lawrence - Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Ursula Le Guin - Always Coming Home
David Mitchell - Cloud Altlas
William Nicholson - The Wind on Fire
Science / Technology
Richard Dawkins - The Blind Watchmaker
Richard Dawkins - Climbing Mount Improbable
Richard Dawkins - The Ancestors Tale
Richard P Feynman - QED: The strange theory of light and matter
Richard P Feynman - The Character of Physical Law
Richard P Feynman - "Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman!"
Richard P Feynman - "What do you care what other people think?"
Richard P Feynman - Don't you have time to think?
James Gleick - Genius: Richard Feynman and modern physics
James Gleick - Chaos
John Gribbin - Science: A History 1543-2001
Brian Greene - The Elegant Universe
Stephen W Hawking - A Brief History of Time
Douglas R Hofstader - Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Brian Penrose - The Emperor's New Mind
Brian Penrose - The Road to Reality
Steven Pinger - How The Mind Works
Karl Sigmund - Games of Life
Bruce Sterling - The Hacker Crackdown
Clifford Stoll - The Cuckoo's Egg
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Wednesday 31/01/06: Disposition at Yates
A change from the normal stuff: The last Wednesday of every month is live Metal at Yates. I’d been meaning to suggest to Matt that we go for a while, so this month we went.
Matt & I are obviously completely out of the loop when it comes to the current Metal scene – we don’t recognise any of the tracks the DJ plays (apart from Angel of Death), though Matt does at least thinks who knows who some of them are, which is a start I guess. Clearly having Scuzz as your background of choice at home isn’t enough to keep up to date.
Polonium 210
The least heavy band of the evening. I actually thought they had a pretty good grove going on, and really enjoyed the music. Shame about the awful ‘singing’ though, which dragged everything down. (Obviously a complaint that you could level at many bands in this genre: when you can achieve international success by just screaming and grunting, why would you bother learning to sing?)
After Polonium 210 I think the DJ forgot to start playing music again. So it was actually quite nice to have a conversation for a bit. As accountants are usually ‘quite’ busy in January I hadn’t seen Matt for a while, and I can’t remember the last time we went for a drink together.
Apart from the temporary lull it seems the only other place to hold a conversation is on the stairs to the toilets. I am taken aback when somebody starts a conversation just cause I’m wearing my Audioslave shirt. And on the way back down, I bump into Kerry, who seems surprised to see me. Clearly my everyday disguise of a quiet intellectual type is very convincing (actually of course, I am both quiet and intellectual).
Heterodox
An amazing development – the guy fronting this band can actually sing, and really well. A couple of times he holds long notes and he seems to have a decent range. Not so sure about the music, seemed okay, but for me this was all about the guy singing, he was great.
Sentenced to Rebirth
The headliners, and the only band of the evening I’d heard before (there’s four or five tracks on their myspace site). I’d actually quite enjoyed the tracks online, but live it just didn’t seem to work for me. Being the heaviest band of the evening didn’t do them any favours, it just sounded like a bit of a racket to me I’m afraid.
Luckily Kerry came over while STR where playing to chat to me and Matt, so the music was just (very loud) background. She actually remembers Matt from the Squadron – “the guy with crutches” (She doesn’t remember me, but then why would she?) Apart from that her and Matt have something else to talk about, because she lives in one of his old homes, so they can gossip about the neighbours from hell.
Kerry is even nice enough to buy us Sambucas. Which are pretty hideous, I discovered.
Matt & I are obviously completely out of the loop when it comes to the current Metal scene – we don’t recognise any of the tracks the DJ plays (apart from Angel of Death), though Matt does at least thinks who knows who some of them are, which is a start I guess. Clearly having Scuzz as your background of choice at home isn’t enough to keep up to date.
Polonium 210
The least heavy band of the evening. I actually thought they had a pretty good grove going on, and really enjoyed the music. Shame about the awful ‘singing’ though, which dragged everything down. (Obviously a complaint that you could level at many bands in this genre: when you can achieve international success by just screaming and grunting, why would you bother learning to sing?)
After Polonium 210 I think the DJ forgot to start playing music again. So it was actually quite nice to have a conversation for a bit. As accountants are usually ‘quite’ busy in January I hadn’t seen Matt for a while, and I can’t remember the last time we went for a drink together.
Apart from the temporary lull it seems the only other place to hold a conversation is on the stairs to the toilets. I am taken aback when somebody starts a conversation just cause I’m wearing my Audioslave shirt. And on the way back down, I bump into Kerry, who seems surprised to see me. Clearly my everyday disguise of a quiet intellectual type is very convincing (actually of course, I am both quiet and intellectual).
Heterodox
An amazing development – the guy fronting this band can actually sing, and really well. A couple of times he holds long notes and he seems to have a decent range. Not so sure about the music, seemed okay, but for me this was all about the guy singing, he was great.
Sentenced to Rebirth
The headliners, and the only band of the evening I’d heard before (there’s four or five tracks on their myspace site). I’d actually quite enjoyed the tracks online, but live it just didn’t seem to work for me. Being the heaviest band of the evening didn’t do them any favours, it just sounded like a bit of a racket to me I’m afraid.
Luckily Kerry came over while STR where playing to chat to me and Matt, so the music was just (very loud) background. She actually remembers Matt from the Squadron – “the guy with crutches” (She doesn’t remember me, but then why would she?) Apart from that her and Matt have something else to talk about, because she lives in one of his old homes, so they can gossip about the neighbours from hell.
Kerry is even nice enough to buy us Sambucas. Which are pretty hideous, I discovered.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Sunday 28/01/07: Beowulf, Acquire
Five of us were at Fiona’s this Sunday evening: me and Fee, Tony, Bekki and Colin. It seems like Colin might be joining us more regularly.
Tony had; Acquire, Ticket to Ride, Puerto Rico
I had: Elfenland, Traumfabrik, Puerto Rico, Citadels, David & Goliath, No Thanks!, Zirkus Flohati
We start by playing Beowulf (my idea). This was only our second game (Colin’s first – and he did a good job of picking it up quickly). This game I decide to Risk much less than everyone else, particularly early on, and not to compete in Auctions where I feel I am outmatched.
These strategies pay off. At the first bidding episode, where neither the rewards nor penalties are too extreme I drop without playing a card whilst everyone else bids at least four cards (though some may have been from risks). That might be okay for the person who wins, but seems bad for those who expend four cards and don’t really get much.
I also decide I can’t compete on the first serious major episode, cause I don’t have enough of the right cards. So I drop out, accepting that I’ll take the wound, without playing any cards.
I win the Gold auction for 5pts, and then get a nice bonus at the next major auction. Bekki and I are the last two players left in, but she outlasts me with some lucky risking. When she gets two matching symbols on a risk, meaning I would have to do the same, I decide it’s not worth trying. So Bekki gets first pick… and doesn’t take the 5pts! So I get 5pts for coming second.
I also win the gold auction to remove the Wound I received early on, and the All Iron Shield (and still had enough Gold for first place at Recover Treasures!) With the All Iron Shield I put up a good fight at the Dragon Battle, but again it turns into a showdown between Bekki and I (everyone else had to start risking early). I can’t afford to scratch because I have no wounds and two scratches, so she takes first.
But I am able to retain enough cards to win Death of Beowulf. I finish with 27 points, just ahead of Colin on 25 and Tony on 22. Fee and Bekki were in the teens.
After Beowulf we have enough time for another long game, so we play Acquire which Fee and Tony like, but I am lukewarm about. Anyway, I get an incredibly good start – I’m able to found chains on my first three turns.
Once all the chains have been founded there are four chains on the left hand side of the board, one in the centre, one top right and one centre right. I am strongly invested in the two on the right (I founded them both). These both start to grow, and then Festival takes over the other, giving Fiona and I a big payout. I retain my Imperial shares (so I’ll have the majority when it gets refounded) and reinvest my bonus in the central chain Continental, which gets fairly large, before it is also taken is taken over by Festival.
Given the initial chain layout, it surprising how few mergers there are on the left hand side of the board. The top left chain Luxor is eventually taken over by Festival (I founded Luxor as well, another payout for me), as Festival reaches right across the top of the board, but of the other three, two are still in play at the end of the game – American got fairly large, whilst the one chain ended the game only 3 hotels long!
The Imperial shares I retained throughout the game give me at least a couple more bonuses, and at final scoring I have 12 shares in the 41+ Festival for a score of £47,000. Colin has £37,000, Fee £35,000 and Bekki and Tony somewhere in the 20s.
After that everyone is kinda zoinked, so we don’t end with our usual wind-down filler. Bekki says she doesn’t ever want to play Acquire again – it’s really not her kind of thing, and with the downtime the game can just drag. I don’t really like it that much either.
So two long-ish five player games, two wins. That’s what I call a good evening. Pub quiz next Sunday.
Tony had; Acquire, Ticket to Ride, Puerto Rico
I had: Elfenland, Traumfabrik, Puerto Rico, Citadels, David & Goliath, No Thanks!, Zirkus Flohati
We start by playing Beowulf (my idea). This was only our second game (Colin’s first – and he did a good job of picking it up quickly). This game I decide to Risk much less than everyone else, particularly early on, and not to compete in Auctions where I feel I am outmatched.
These strategies pay off. At the first bidding episode, where neither the rewards nor penalties are too extreme I drop without playing a card whilst everyone else bids at least four cards (though some may have been from risks). That might be okay for the person who wins, but seems bad for those who expend four cards and don’t really get much.
I also decide I can’t compete on the first serious major episode, cause I don’t have enough of the right cards. So I drop out, accepting that I’ll take the wound, without playing any cards.
I win the Gold auction for 5pts, and then get a nice bonus at the next major auction. Bekki and I are the last two players left in, but she outlasts me with some lucky risking. When she gets two matching symbols on a risk, meaning I would have to do the same, I decide it’s not worth trying. So Bekki gets first pick… and doesn’t take the 5pts! So I get 5pts for coming second.
I also win the gold auction to remove the Wound I received early on, and the All Iron Shield (and still had enough Gold for first place at Recover Treasures!) With the All Iron Shield I put up a good fight at the Dragon Battle, but again it turns into a showdown between Bekki and I (everyone else had to start risking early). I can’t afford to scratch because I have no wounds and two scratches, so she takes first.
But I am able to retain enough cards to win Death of Beowulf. I finish with 27 points, just ahead of Colin on 25 and Tony on 22. Fee and Bekki were in the teens.
After Beowulf we have enough time for another long game, so we play Acquire which Fee and Tony like, but I am lukewarm about. Anyway, I get an incredibly good start – I’m able to found chains on my first three turns.
Once all the chains have been founded there are four chains on the left hand side of the board, one in the centre, one top right and one centre right. I am strongly invested in the two on the right (I founded them both). These both start to grow, and then Festival takes over the other, giving Fiona and I a big payout. I retain my Imperial shares (so I’ll have the majority when it gets refounded) and reinvest my bonus in the central chain Continental, which gets fairly large, before it is also taken is taken over by Festival.
Given the initial chain layout, it surprising how few mergers there are on the left hand side of the board. The top left chain Luxor is eventually taken over by Festival (I founded Luxor as well, another payout for me), as Festival reaches right across the top of the board, but of the other three, two are still in play at the end of the game – American got fairly large, whilst the one chain ended the game only 3 hotels long!
The Imperial shares I retained throughout the game give me at least a couple more bonuses, and at final scoring I have 12 shares in the 41+ Festival for a score of £47,000. Colin has £37,000, Fee £35,000 and Bekki and Tony somewhere in the 20s.
After that everyone is kinda zoinked, so we don’t end with our usual wind-down filler. Bekki says she doesn’t ever want to play Acquire again – it’s really not her kind of thing, and with the downtime the game can just drag. I don’t really like it that much either.
So two long-ish five player games, two wins. That’s what I call a good evening. Pub quiz next Sunday.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Sunday 21/01/07: Beowulf, Ticket to Ride, San Juan
I gave Fiona Beowulf for Christmas, and we finally got to play it this weekend. The rules explanation went fairly quickly (once everybody was paying attention), and we were into the game fairly quickly. The game went smoothly for a first game, no major hiccups, though Tony did occasionally slow things down by trying to work everything out.
The quickest way to work out the strategy in any game is just to play, and then play some more. I recently spent 4 1/2 hours playing Caylus with three slow players, only to discover that the strategy I had adopted didn't work, and to come last, just behind somebody who played badly, and a long way off the leaders. To be honest that experience has really put me off wanting to play Caylus again (though I remain hopeful for Caylus Magna Carta).
Our game of Beowulf wasn't that excessively long, about 90 minutes, probably 15-20 too many. I concentrated much more on gold than everybody else, winning several gold auctions, and having most gold at the final event. But I made a mistake in not winning the All Iron Shield, underestimating the competition at the Dragon Battle, and ended up taking the double wound tile. As I was on two wounds already, that took me way out of contention, the final scores being something like Tony 28, Bekki and Fee both low 20s, and I think I scored exactly zero.
Beowulf is one of those games were the scores don't always tell the entire story, usually due to some criticality in the scoring system. In the case of Beowulf one possibility is what occured to me: the two wounds I had coming into the Dragon Battle won't cost me any points, but if I take the double wound tile then I get -20! So I either get a respectable score in the 20s, or a nothing score that puts me last.
I'm pretty certain I had the worse luck in the risking (at one point one of the girls flipped over two matching double symbol cards to give +4 to their bid!), but to be honest that didn't bother me too much. Firstly I feel the luck is acceptable for a light-ish 60 minute game. And secondly I feel that one of the reasons Beowulf gets bad rap for the luck is because it's out in the open. I find that games like Amun-Re and Goa can have huge swings in drawing the right power cards, at the right time, but because the draws are hidden nobody knows when somebody gets lucky.
After Beowulf we play Ticket to Ride. I got Tony the 1910 expansion for Christmas, and it's really invigorated the game. The improved tickets and the 15 point most routes bonus really help remove the complete dominance of the long E-W routes.
Having said that my three opening tickets are LA - New Orleans, Las Vegas - New York and Portland - Houston (I might have mixed these up, but you get the idea). Three East cost to West Coast tickets! So I keep all three and set to work connecting LA-Vegas-Portland, and Houston-New Orleans-New York, and then trying to get across the country.
I had planned to take the southcoast between LA and Houston (thanks to TTR I think of it as a coast despite the existence of Mexico) but these routes get taken, so I have to go through the centre of the country from Vegas. This game actually demonstrated how easy it is to make you routes in four player TTR even when it gets congested. At one point Fee, Tony and I were both trying to navigate through the cities just north of Houston and Dallas, and in the late game Fee, Bekki and I were all going down the East Coast. In both cases thanks to the many alternative and double routes everybody got were they needed to go, despite the congestion.
Still, if I'd not made my cross-country connection I'd have failed all of my tickets for -50 points and my second score of almost zero for the evening!
The quickest way to work out the strategy in any game is just to play, and then play some more. I recently spent 4 1/2 hours playing Caylus with three slow players, only to discover that the strategy I had adopted didn't work, and to come last, just behind somebody who played badly, and a long way off the leaders. To be honest that experience has really put me off wanting to play Caylus again (though I remain hopeful for Caylus Magna Carta).
Our game of Beowulf wasn't that excessively long, about 90 minutes, probably 15-20 too many. I concentrated much more on gold than everybody else, winning several gold auctions, and having most gold at the final event. But I made a mistake in not winning the All Iron Shield, underestimating the competition at the Dragon Battle, and ended up taking the double wound tile. As I was on two wounds already, that took me way out of contention, the final scores being something like Tony 28, Bekki and Fee both low 20s, and I think I scored exactly zero.
Beowulf is one of those games were the scores don't always tell the entire story, usually due to some criticality in the scoring system. In the case of Beowulf one possibility is what occured to me: the two wounds I had coming into the Dragon Battle won't cost me any points, but if I take the double wound tile then I get -20! So I either get a respectable score in the 20s, or a nothing score that puts me last.
I'm pretty certain I had the worse luck in the risking (at one point one of the girls flipped over two matching double symbol cards to give +4 to their bid!), but to be honest that didn't bother me too much. Firstly I feel the luck is acceptable for a light-ish 60 minute game. And secondly I feel that one of the reasons Beowulf gets bad rap for the luck is because it's out in the open. I find that games like Amun-Re and Goa can have huge swings in drawing the right power cards, at the right time, but because the draws are hidden nobody knows when somebody gets lucky.
After Beowulf we play Ticket to Ride. I got Tony the 1910 expansion for Christmas, and it's really invigorated the game. The improved tickets and the 15 point most routes bonus really help remove the complete dominance of the long E-W routes.
Having said that my three opening tickets are LA - New Orleans, Las Vegas - New York and Portland - Houston (I might have mixed these up, but you get the idea). Three East cost to West Coast tickets! So I keep all three and set to work connecting LA-Vegas-Portland, and Houston-New Orleans-New York, and then trying to get across the country.
I had planned to take the southcoast between LA and Houston (thanks to TTR I think of it as a coast despite the existence of Mexico) but these routes get taken, so I have to go through the centre of the country from Vegas. This game actually demonstrated how easy it is to make you routes in four player TTR even when it gets congested. At one point Fee, Tony and I were both trying to navigate through the cities just north of Houston and Dallas, and in the late game Fee, Bekki and I were all going down the East Coast. In both cases thanks to the many alternative and double routes everybody got were they needed to go, despite the congestion.
Still, if I'd not made my cross-country connection I'd have failed all of my tickets for -50 points and my second score of almost zero for the evening!
Instead I complete my three tickets for fifty bonus points and second place. Tony has completed four tickets, which included a couple of long ones to win by some way. Bekki and Fee also had four tickets to also earn the 15 points, but their tickets were of much lower value.
We finshed with a four player game of San Juan. I used to find this very average four player, but it's growing on me. You have to value points over income much more than in three or two player. In particular I'd always be very loathe to ditch a monument, even very early. I build a first turn Prefecture, then Gold Mine and Silver, and that basically all the income you need. After that I build a couple of monuments and a City Hall and still have Triumphal Arch in hand. So the game is basically mine: Tony has raced out with Poor House, but doesn't have many points or a Crane, and Fee and Bekki have merely average positions. I get a late Palace off my Gold Mine to make the scores look really lopsided, but I didn't need it. The 9 point palace just stopped me building a 6 point Victory Column.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Erratic Explosion Domain
Extended deck
When I went to Gencon during autumn 2005 it was in the middle of an extended PTQ season. As I prefer playing MTG to VS I built a couple of decks to play over the 4 days. One was a slightly unusual Madness build (Thought Courier over Aquameba, Rushing River for bounce, and a couple of unusual tech cards), the other was a Domain deck.
Not owning any Fetchlands or Dual lands my Domain deck had a budget feel [aside: this was exagerated when I got a warning for marked sleeves during the PTQ. So anybody watching the top table would have seen that on turn three all I had in play was three different unsleeved basic lands - what a Noob!]
I owned the Deeds and Restraints and all that kind of stuff, but had to scrape around, borrowing several of my win conditions, and decided on both using Living Wish, and running an Erratic Explosion / Draco kill. (The following deck was untested and based on my underpowered collection: both the maindeck numbers and the sideboard cards could be improved)
9 Forests
5 Island
2 Swamps
1 Mountain
1 Plains (18 land)
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Etched Oracle
1 Bringer of the Black Dawn
1 Draco (9 creatures)
4 Collective Restraint
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Holistic Wisdom (8 enchantments)
4 Lay of the Land
3 Rampant Growth
3 Living Wish
1 Erratic Explosion
1 Tribal Flames
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Allied Strategies
1 Wandering Stream (15 sorceries)
3 Evasive Action
3 Wordly Counsel
2 Insidious Dreams
2 Putrefy (8 instants)
SB: 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Blinkmoth Well
1 Silklash Spider
1 Meloku, The Clouded Mirror
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Loxodon Heirarch
1 Meddling Mage
2 Destructive Flow
2 Lobotomy
1 Putrefy
1 Wandering Stream
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ground Seal
This deck won me an eight man GPT, and got me a top 8 of a PTQ. And it was a lot of fun running one of those rogue decks that you hear players talking about between rounds. My third round PTQ opponent, as we chatted whilst shuffling for game one, mentioned that somebody was chucking was chucking Draco at people. I didn't tell him it was me. :)
When I went to Gencon during autumn 2005 it was in the middle of an extended PTQ season. As I prefer playing MTG to VS I built a couple of decks to play over the 4 days. One was a slightly unusual Madness build (Thought Courier over Aquameba, Rushing River for bounce, and a couple of unusual tech cards), the other was a Domain deck.
Not owning any Fetchlands or Dual lands my Domain deck had a budget feel [aside: this was exagerated when I got a warning for marked sleeves during the PTQ. So anybody watching the top table would have seen that on turn three all I had in play was three different unsleeved basic lands - what a Noob!]
I owned the Deeds and Restraints and all that kind of stuff, but had to scrape around, borrowing several of my win conditions, and decided on both using Living Wish, and running an Erratic Explosion / Draco kill. (The following deck was untested and based on my underpowered collection: both the maindeck numbers and the sideboard cards could be improved)
9 Forests
5 Island
2 Swamps
1 Mountain
1 Plains (18 land)
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Etched Oracle
1 Bringer of the Black Dawn
1 Draco (9 creatures)
4 Collective Restraint
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Holistic Wisdom (8 enchantments)
4 Lay of the Land
3 Rampant Growth
3 Living Wish
1 Erratic Explosion
1 Tribal Flames
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Allied Strategies
1 Wandering Stream (15 sorceries)
3 Evasive Action
3 Wordly Counsel
2 Insidious Dreams
2 Putrefy (8 instants)
SB: 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Blinkmoth Well
1 Silklash Spider
1 Meloku, The Clouded Mirror
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Loxodon Heirarch
1 Meddling Mage
2 Destructive Flow
2 Lobotomy
1 Putrefy
1 Wandering Stream
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ground Seal
This deck won me an eight man GPT, and got me a top 8 of a PTQ. And it was a lot of fun running one of those rogue decks that you hear players talking about between rounds. My third round PTQ opponent, as we chatted whilst shuffling for game one, mentioned that somebody was chucking was chucking Draco at people. I didn't tell him it was me. :)
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
G/R Anti-Affinity
Mirrodin/Kamigawa standard deck
In the last few years the only local tournaments I've attended have been pre-releases for the release of a new block and county championships. As I'm not exactly keeping up with recent releases building standard decks for the county champs hasn't always been easy.
This deck, mainly comprised of commons and uncommons was able to take me to a Top 8. The plan was to beat Affinity decks, and I defeated three in the swiss rounds. If only I'd kept playing the Affinity decks (there were four in the top 8, and the final was an Affinity mirror match) I could have been County Champ!
4 Hearth Kami
4 Tel-Jilad Chosen
4 Viridian Shaman
4 Orcish Artillery
4 Vulshok Sorceror
1 Glissa Sunseeker
1 Arc-Slogger
1 Molder Slug
1 Kumano
4 Shock
4 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Volcanic Hammer
1 Pulse of the Forge
11 Mountains
7 Forests
2 Shivan Oasis
3 City of Brass
In the last few years the only local tournaments I've attended have been pre-releases for the release of a new block and county championships. As I'm not exactly keeping up with recent releases building standard decks for the county champs hasn't always been easy.
This deck, mainly comprised of commons and uncommons was able to take me to a Top 8. The plan was to beat Affinity decks, and I defeated three in the swiss rounds. If only I'd kept playing the Affinity decks (there were four in the top 8, and the final was an Affinity mirror match) I could have been County Champ!
4 Hearth Kami
4 Tel-Jilad Chosen
4 Viridian Shaman
4 Orcish Artillery
4 Vulshok Sorceror
1 Glissa Sunseeker
1 Arc-Slogger
1 Molder Slug
1 Kumano
4 Shock
4 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Volcanic Hammer
1 Pulse of the Forge
11 Mountains
7 Forests
2 Shivan Oasis
3 City of Brass
Sunday, November 19, 2006
U/G/R Threshold
Invasion/Odyssey standard
This was a deck that I played in a tournament for fun. It's not the worlds best deck, but it does have Millikin in it :)
4 Werebear
4 Millikin
3 Call of the Herd
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Centaur Chieftain
4 Beast Attack
4 Lay of The Land
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Fire / Ice
4 Aether Burst
4 Fact or Fiction
10 Forest
2 Islands
2 Mountains
3 City of Brass
This was a deck that I played in a tournament for fun. It's not the worlds best deck, but it does have Millikin in it :)
4 Werebear
4 Millikin
3 Call of the Herd
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Centaur Chieftain
4 Beast Attack
4 Lay of The Land
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Fire / Ice
4 Aether Burst
4 Fact or Fiction
10 Forest
2 Islands
2 Mountains
3 City of Brass
U/B Upheval / Zombie Infestation
Invasion/Odyssey standard deck
The release of Odyssey was an odd time for Type 2 (standard). The American States championships would normally showcase all of the top new decks, but that year there was a Standard Masters event at the next Pro Tour, so all of the top pro teams were keeping back their best decks.
One of the decks that did break out from States was the combination of Zombie Infestation and Upheval. This is the version I played to a couple of tournaments. It was stupid good against control decks - by running Counterspell, Memory Lapse and Disrupt, you always won counter wars, and I managed to find room for main deck Mana Shorts!
4 Opt
3 Sleight of Hand
2 Disrupt
4 Counterspell
4 Memory Lapse
4 Fire / Ice
4 Repulse
2 Exclude
2 Mana Short
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Upheval
3 Zombie Infestation
3 Underground River
4 Shivan Reef
2 Shadowblood Ridge
10 Islands
2 Ancient Spring
At the San Diego Masters all the pros showed us we should have been playing Psychatog in our U/B decks, not Zombie Infestation, oops!
It was during the Odyssey block that my Magic playing really slowed down. By the time I decided to play Infestation / Upheval at a Odyssey Block constructed Pro Tour qualifier at Gencon I hadn't played for six months. Despite no playtesting I was in contention for the Top 8 until the penultimate round, when I dropped at 4-2-1, my final loss comming from a game loss rules infraction in game 3 against Bob Maher in a dead drawn position (we'd almost gone to time). I don't know if I'd have been in with a shot of making the top 8 at 4-1-2.
The release of Odyssey was an odd time for Type 2 (standard). The American States championships would normally showcase all of the top new decks, but that year there was a Standard Masters event at the next Pro Tour, so all of the top pro teams were keeping back their best decks.
One of the decks that did break out from States was the combination of Zombie Infestation and Upheval. This is the version I played to a couple of tournaments. It was stupid good against control decks - by running Counterspell, Memory Lapse and Disrupt, you always won counter wars, and I managed to find room for main deck Mana Shorts!
4 Opt
3 Sleight of Hand
2 Disrupt
4 Counterspell
4 Memory Lapse
4 Fire / Ice
4 Repulse
2 Exclude
2 Mana Short
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Upheval
3 Zombie Infestation
3 Underground River
4 Shivan Reef
2 Shadowblood Ridge
10 Islands
2 Ancient Spring
At the San Diego Masters all the pros showed us we should have been playing Psychatog in our U/B decks, not Zombie Infestation, oops!
It was during the Odyssey block that my Magic playing really slowed down. By the time I decided to play Infestation / Upheval at a Odyssey Block constructed Pro Tour qualifier at Gencon I hadn't played for six months. Despite no playtesting I was in contention for the Top 8 until the penultimate round, when I dropped at 4-2-1, my final loss comming from a game loss rules infraction in game 3 against Bob Maher in a dead drawn position (we'd almost gone to time). I don't know if I'd have been in with a shot of making the top 8 at 4-1-2.
U/G Control
Invasion/Odyssey standard
The months just after a block rotation have always been my most succesful periods. I wasn't the best player locally (that was Tony Adams), but I wasn't far off, and I was probably the best deck-builder, so before all the 'best decks' were found and readily available on the web I could win with my own decks.
U/G control was born of a realisation that Beast Attack was incredibly strong in a draw-go control build. This deck has loads of card advantadge (Fact of Fiction, Mystic Snake, Beast Attack), ways to fight against Call of the Herd (Repulse, Syncopate, Disrupt), and a very strong late game from Holistic Wisdom and Bearscape. It won a couple of tournaments.
4 Mystic Snake
4 Opt
3 Disrupt
4 Counterspell
4 Fire / Ice
2 Syncopate
4 Repulse
3 Exclude
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Beast Attack
1 Holistic Wisdom
1 Bearscape
1 Tsabo's Web
4 Yavamaya Coast
10 Islands
4 Forests
2 Mossfire Valley
3 Karplusian Forest
The months just after a block rotation have always been my most succesful periods. I wasn't the best player locally (that was Tony Adams), but I wasn't far off, and I was probably the best deck-builder, so before all the 'best decks' were found and readily available on the web I could win with my own decks.
U/G control was born of a realisation that Beast Attack was incredibly strong in a draw-go control build. This deck has loads of card advantadge (Fact of Fiction, Mystic Snake, Beast Attack), ways to fight against Call of the Herd (Repulse, Syncopate, Disrupt), and a very strong late game from Holistic Wisdom and Bearscape. It won a couple of tournaments.
4 Mystic Snake
4 Opt
3 Disrupt
4 Counterspell
4 Fire / Ice
2 Syncopate
4 Repulse
3 Exclude
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Beast Attack
1 Holistic Wisdom
1 Bearscape
1 Tsabo's Web
4 Yavamaya Coast
10 Islands
4 Forests
2 Mossfire Valley
3 Karplusian Forest
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Mono-B Suicide Black
Masques/Invasion deck
This deck evolved from the Big Black deck, over many months. It took a lot of tinkering to make a mono-black deck that worked in the environment at the time - able to fight againt both Fires and Rebels, but this deck had it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend Nationals Qualifiers with this deck (I was Best Man at a wedding that weekend), I would have fancied my chances.
4 Foul Imp
2 Nakaya Shade
4 Plague Spitter
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Phyrexian Scuta
4 Engineered Plague
4 Snuff Out
4 Tangle Wire
3 Despoil
4 Dark Ritual
4 Peat Bog
4 Rishadan Port
1 Dust Bowl
14 Swamps
This deck evolved from the Big Black deck, over many months. It took a lot of tinkering to make a mono-black deck that worked in the environment at the time - able to fight againt both Fires and Rebels, but this deck had it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend Nationals Qualifiers with this deck (I was Best Man at a wedding that weekend), I would have fancied my chances.
4 Foul Imp
2 Nakaya Shade
4 Plague Spitter
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Phyrexian Scuta
4 Engineered Plague
4 Snuff Out
4 Tangle Wire
3 Despoil
4 Dark Ritual
4 Peat Bog
4 Rishadan Port
1 Dust Bowl
14 Swamps
Mono-B "Big Black"
Urza's/Masques standard deck
Another more casual deck that went 4-0 (8-0 games) in a small tournament I ran. This was inspired by a Dave Price Masques block deck.
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Complex Automaton
4 Thrashing Wumpus
2 Masticore
2 Cateran Enforcer
4 Rain of Tears
4 Befoul
4 Snuff Out
4 Vendetta
4 Dark Ritual
12 Swamps
4 Peat Bog
4 Crystal Vein
4 Rishadan Port
Another more casual deck that went 4-0 (8-0 games) in a small tournament I ran. This was inspired by a Dave Price Masques block deck.
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Complex Automaton
4 Thrashing Wumpus
2 Masticore
2 Cateran Enforcer
4 Rain of Tears
4 Befoul
4 Snuff Out
4 Vendetta
4 Dark Ritual
12 Swamps
4 Peat Bog
4 Crystal Vein
4 Rishadan Port
Mono-R 20/21/20 RDW
Masques/Invasion standard deck
This isn't such a serious deck - I threw it together inspired by various Dave Price / Dan Paskins red decks. When I needed a deck to play in a small tournament (unsanctioned or three judge, I can't remember) that I was running I decided to play this. My best deck at the time was Counter-Rebels, but there's no way I'm playing that in a tournament I'm running - it's one of the slowest decks ever.
This deck went 4-0, not losing a game. The transformational LD sideboard (4 Stone Rain, 4 Pillage, 4 Tangle Wire) was pretty effective.
4 Kris Mage
4 Raging Goblin
4 Goblin Raider
2 Firebrand Ranger
2 Rage Weaver
4 Orcish Artillery
4 Shock
4 Seal of Fire
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Scorching Lava
4 Rhystic Lightning
1 Urza's Rage
16 Mountain
3 Rishadan Port
1 Kelden Necropolis
This isn't such a serious deck - I threw it together inspired by various Dave Price / Dan Paskins red decks. When I needed a deck to play in a small tournament (unsanctioned or three judge, I can't remember) that I was running I decided to play this. My best deck at the time was Counter-Rebels, but there's no way I'm playing that in a tournament I'm running - it's one of the slowest decks ever.
This deck went 4-0, not losing a game. The transformational LD sideboard (4 Stone Rain, 4 Pillage, 4 Tangle Wire) was pretty effective.
4 Kris Mage
4 Raging Goblin
4 Goblin Raider
2 Firebrand Ranger
2 Rage Weaver
4 Orcish Artillery
4 Shock
4 Seal of Fire
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Scorching Lava
4 Rhystic Lightning
1 Urza's Rage
16 Mountain
3 Rishadan Port
1 Kelden Necropolis
Mono-W "Grizzly" Rebels
Urza's/Masques standard deck
I didn't come up for the idea for this deck - it broke out from one of the early european nationals that summer, but it quickly became one of my favourite decks - it's ideal for my preferred aggro/utility style of play.
4 Mother of Runes
4 Ramosian Sergeant
3 Steadfast Guards
2 Fresh Volunteers
4 Longbow Archers
1 Ramosian Lieutenant
1 Defiant Falcon
2 Lin Sivvi
1 Thermal Glider
4 Crusade
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Parralax Wave
3 Reverent Mantra
2 Arrmageddon
19 Plains
4 Rishadan Port
The high rare count reflects the fact that this was the most serious period of my magic career (I also had a set of Tangle Wires), but Rebels makes a pretty good budget deck. Replace Lin Sivvi with Defiant Vanguard or Nightwind Glider, and replace Crusade and Reverent Mantra with some mix of Ramosian Rally, Cho-Manno's Blessing and Brilliant Halo. Defender en-Vec replaces Parallax Wave (funniest use of Defender en-Vec: preventing damage to your opponents Academy Rector). There's obviously no direct replacement for Armageddon though, and you have to do without Ports, but it's still an okay deck.
I didn't come up for the idea for this deck - it broke out from one of the early european nationals that summer, but it quickly became one of my favourite decks - it's ideal for my preferred aggro/utility style of play.
4 Mother of Runes
4 Ramosian Sergeant
3 Steadfast Guards
2 Fresh Volunteers
4 Longbow Archers
1 Ramosian Lieutenant
1 Defiant Falcon
2 Lin Sivvi
1 Thermal Glider
4 Crusade
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Parralax Wave
3 Reverent Mantra
2 Arrmageddon
19 Plains
4 Rishadan Port
The high rare count reflects the fact that this was the most serious period of my magic career (I also had a set of Tangle Wires), but Rebels makes a pretty good budget deck. Replace Lin Sivvi with Defiant Vanguard or Nightwind Glider, and replace Crusade and Reverent Mantra with some mix of Ramosian Rally, Cho-Manno's Blessing and Brilliant Halo. Defender en-Vec replaces Parallax Wave (funniest use of Defender en-Vec: preventing damage to your opponents Academy Rector). There's obviously no direct replacement for Armageddon though, and you have to do without Ports, but it's still an okay deck.
Mono-G Aggro Enchantress
Urza/Masques standard deck
The release of Mercadian Masques saw the printing of Ancestral Mask, a creature enchantment that gave the enchanted creature +2/+2 for each other enchantment you controlled. With Yavamaya Enchantress and Rancor, this was the basis of a pretty good budget aggro deck that I played for a while.
I've always called this 'aggro enchantress' to seperate it from traditional enchantress decks, which were based around drawing loads of cards and 'going off'. This deck was always about attacking the opponent until they were dead. During the first couple of tournaments I didn't even play Argothian Enchantress!
But by the time of the Nationals Qualifier in Poole I had traded for them. This is the deck that went 4-1-1 beating Squirrel-Opposition, Ponza, Replenish and Accelerated Blue to qualify me for Nationals.
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Elvish Lyrist
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 River Boa
4 Yavamaya Enchantress
2 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Masticore
4 Wild Growth
4 Rancor
4 Treetop Bracer4
4 Ancestral Mask
1 Wordly Tutor
2 Creeping Mold
15 Forest
3 Treetop Village
The release of Mercadian Masques saw the printing of Ancestral Mask, a creature enchantment that gave the enchanted creature +2/+2 for each other enchantment you controlled. With Yavamaya Enchantress and Rancor, this was the basis of a pretty good budget aggro deck that I played for a while.
I've always called this 'aggro enchantress' to seperate it from traditional enchantress decks, which were based around drawing loads of cards and 'going off'. This deck was always about attacking the opponent until they were dead. During the first couple of tournaments I didn't even play Argothian Enchantress!
But by the time of the Nationals Qualifier in Poole I had traded for them. This is the deck that went 4-1-1 beating Squirrel-Opposition, Ponza, Replenish and Accelerated Blue to qualify me for Nationals.
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Elvish Lyrist
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 River Boa
4 Yavamaya Enchantress
2 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Masticore
4 Wild Growth
4 Rancor
4 Treetop Bracer4
4 Ancestral Mask
1 Wordly Tutor
2 Creeping Mold
15 Forest
3 Treetop Village
G/R Sliver Beatdown
Tempest/Urza standard deck
This was the first deck I designed myself and played in tournaments after I left university. It's an agrro deck with plenty of utility (for example playing Mogg Fanatic and Elvish Lyrist over Jackal Pup) - basically the kind of deck that I've always preferred.
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Elvish Lyrist
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Spined Sliver
4 River Boa
3 Mogg Flunkies
3 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Shock
3 Giant Growth
3 Rancor
4 Incinerate
2 Sonic Burst
4 Karplusian Forest
8 Mountains
9 Forests
This was the first deck I designed myself and played in tournaments after I left university. It's an agrro deck with plenty of utility (for example playing Mogg Fanatic and Elvish Lyrist over Jackal Pup) - basically the kind of deck that I've always preferred.
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Elvish Lyrist
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Spined Sliver
4 River Boa
3 Mogg Flunkies
3 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Shock
3 Giant Growth
3 Rancor
4 Incinerate
2 Sonic Burst
4 Karplusian Forest
8 Mountains
9 Forests
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Sunday 20/08/06: San Juan, Domaine, Dalmuti
Everybody seemed mighty relieved at the prospect of actually getting some games in on a Sunday evening. Or maybe shocked :)
Marleena, Fee and me started with a quick game of San Juan before Tony arrived. Marleena picked up the rules pretty quickly – it’s the strategies that take time to master. I got a decent Guild Hall bonus, and was able to win fairly comfortably.
When Tony arrives we start a four player game, so Marlena can play again. This game is a bit silly. Marleena built a Gold Mine towards the end of the previous game, but it didn’t work on the remaining three Prospectors. In this game I build one on the second turn, and it works on the first three Prospectors!! This gives me a huge advantage, and I go on to draw into a Smithy & Guild Hall combo as well. Fiona has a decent violet position as well at the game end, with a set of monuments, but it looks to me like I’ve won, particularly as I closed the game out quite quickly (including a zero cost Indigo build as governor when nobody else could build). The scores were close, 34 to 31.
Tony has one of those games where he doesn’t do anything particularly wrong, but he just couldn’t find anything that would give him sufficient points – Marlena and I had the Guild Halls, Fee had one of the City Halls and I held the other in hand for most of the second half of the game. He didn’t do well on monuments either. Combine this with the fact he began in the fourth seat, and he got to see why I don’t rate four-player as highly as two or three player.
After San Juan we play Domaine. Domaine is a game we played a few times earlier in the year, and we haven’t played it since. It seems like if I don’t bring it Fee asks why I didn’t bring “that knights and castles game” and when I do bring it we don’t play.
We are seated as follows: Tony, Marleena, Fiona, me. We follow the rule in the rulebook which says oldest player begins (though this is stupid as it means Tony always begins – need to remember to do something different next time), and Tony, Marleena and Fee are all able to place their castles by mines in three of the corners of the board. The fourth corner doesn’t have a mine, so I go for a mine adjacent to Marleena’s, with the idea being that I can enclose my castle using some of the walls she plays.
The second round of Castle placing sees Tony and Fee try to claim more mines, whilst Marleena makes the first move to claiming the City with a very central castle, whilst I place mine just off to one side of the city (in what would turn out to a very good position – not sure if this was luck or good judgement).
After the final round of castle placing, I begin the game [we had a discussion afterwards about whether the opening order is properly balanced – it seems to favour the player in Tony’s seat who gets to place castles first and play second].
As always the game begins with everybody making small Domaines containing mines, and expanding to gain adjacent mines. Tony rapidly gets an advantage in income, Fee is also doing well, whilst Marleena and I both spend some time playing Knights in adjacent Domaines.
This side of the board rapidly becomes very crowded. Marleena has the Domaine in one corner, with mine adjacent. Tony is in the opposite corner and Fee is between him and me. Marleena and I have both been playing Knights – she wants to expand into my Domaine, whilst I want to defend my early mine. I am able to claim a second mine (mainly because I get to it before Fee does), before losing my first to Marleena. Meanwhile Tony is expanding into Fee’s Domaine. After I get hit by a traitor card it’s obvious to me that my Domaine isn’t sustainable in the long term, and I start working on plan B.
The alternative plan is this: I have a Castle on side of the board nearest me, and it is the only Castle on that side. All of the Castle on the nearby edges have already formed Domaines. Therefore there is a possibility of making this into a very large Domaine.
This is a plan I have been working towards ever since forming my first Domaine on the congested side of the board. This began expanding towards the centre of the board, both claiming useful squares and placing boundary stones that will help to enclose my other Castle. I even put a couple of boundary stones in the middle of the board early on, in what appeared at the time to everybody else to be a random move. When my expanding Domaine meets up with these Walls, and a few turns later I complete a large Domaine worth about 10-15 points it doesn’t seem so random any more.
As nobody else has completed a Domaine so near the centre of the board, I am then able to expand into the Capital City. This sees me near the winning margin for a couple of turns, but it’s clear this isn’t sustainable – everybody has more knights than me.
Tony has spent the entire game with the best income, and also has some strong Domaines. Marleena has had good income, and managed to achieve a monopoly. I had very weak income most of the game, until I scored that large Domaine, which also gave me good points. Fee has had a bad position most of the game, she never had great income, got squashed between Marleena’s and Tony’s strong Domaines, and spent most of the game unable to really do anything. This can happen in four player games, where each player only has three Castles.
I lose some of my large gains to Fee, but an alliance card prevents Marlena from taking the City off me. I make a mistake on the final turn, selling an Alliance card for money, when I could have protected a couple of Forests from Tony. The money was irrelevant, as Tony and Marleena both have way more than me, although it made no difference to the final outcome.
Tony’get the bonus points for being the richest at game and wins the game, Marleena bonus for also being the richest isn’t enough for her to catch me, so she finishes third. Fee finishes in last place.
Domaine definitely works better with three than four (this is the opposite to T&E in my opinion). I haven’t yet tried it with two.
We concluded with a few hands of The Great Dalmuti. We play with the 11s & 12s removed as there was only four of us. There’s only time for three hands before I have to leave, mainly because we have two Great Revolutions, which delay matters somewhat. Dalmuti is a fun filler, but it seems like I have an unfair advantage, cause I’m card counting, and I don’t think the others are (or not as much as I am – surely everybody remembers basic things like if the Dalmuti has been played). In each of the three hands I retain or improve my position, which is as much as you can ask for in a game of Dalmuti (I was Dalmuti when the second greater revolution occurred).
After this weekend, it's re-enactment events for the next two. Argghhh! I'll be glad when it's winter and we can game every weekend.
Marleena, Fee and me started with a quick game of San Juan before Tony arrived. Marleena picked up the rules pretty quickly – it’s the strategies that take time to master. I got a decent Guild Hall bonus, and was able to win fairly comfortably.
When Tony arrives we start a four player game, so Marlena can play again. This game is a bit silly. Marleena built a Gold Mine towards the end of the previous game, but it didn’t work on the remaining three Prospectors. In this game I build one on the second turn, and it works on the first three Prospectors!! This gives me a huge advantage, and I go on to draw into a Smithy & Guild Hall combo as well. Fiona has a decent violet position as well at the game end, with a set of monuments, but it looks to me like I’ve won, particularly as I closed the game out quite quickly (including a zero cost Indigo build as governor when nobody else could build). The scores were close, 34 to 31.
Tony has one of those games where he doesn’t do anything particularly wrong, but he just couldn’t find anything that would give him sufficient points – Marlena and I had the Guild Halls, Fee had one of the City Halls and I held the other in hand for most of the second half of the game. He didn’t do well on monuments either. Combine this with the fact he began in the fourth seat, and he got to see why I don’t rate four-player as highly as two or three player.
After San Juan we play Domaine. Domaine is a game we played a few times earlier in the year, and we haven’t played it since. It seems like if I don’t bring it Fee asks why I didn’t bring “that knights and castles game” and when I do bring it we don’t play.
We are seated as follows: Tony, Marleena, Fiona, me. We follow the rule in the rulebook which says oldest player begins (though this is stupid as it means Tony always begins – need to remember to do something different next time), and Tony, Marleena and Fee are all able to place their castles by mines in three of the corners of the board. The fourth corner doesn’t have a mine, so I go for a mine adjacent to Marleena’s, with the idea being that I can enclose my castle using some of the walls she plays.
The second round of Castle placing sees Tony and Fee try to claim more mines, whilst Marleena makes the first move to claiming the City with a very central castle, whilst I place mine just off to one side of the city (in what would turn out to a very good position – not sure if this was luck or good judgement).
After the final round of castle placing, I begin the game [we had a discussion afterwards about whether the opening order is properly balanced – it seems to favour the player in Tony’s seat who gets to place castles first and play second].
As always the game begins with everybody making small Domaines containing mines, and expanding to gain adjacent mines. Tony rapidly gets an advantage in income, Fee is also doing well, whilst Marleena and I both spend some time playing Knights in adjacent Domaines.
This side of the board rapidly becomes very crowded. Marleena has the Domaine in one corner, with mine adjacent. Tony is in the opposite corner and Fee is between him and me. Marleena and I have both been playing Knights – she wants to expand into my Domaine, whilst I want to defend my early mine. I am able to claim a second mine (mainly because I get to it before Fee does), before losing my first to Marleena. Meanwhile Tony is expanding into Fee’s Domaine. After I get hit by a traitor card it’s obvious to me that my Domaine isn’t sustainable in the long term, and I start working on plan B.
The alternative plan is this: I have a Castle on side of the board nearest me, and it is the only Castle on that side. All of the Castle on the nearby edges have already formed Domaines. Therefore there is a possibility of making this into a very large Domaine.
This is a plan I have been working towards ever since forming my first Domaine on the congested side of the board. This began expanding towards the centre of the board, both claiming useful squares and placing boundary stones that will help to enclose my other Castle. I even put a couple of boundary stones in the middle of the board early on, in what appeared at the time to everybody else to be a random move. When my expanding Domaine meets up with these Walls, and a few turns later I complete a large Domaine worth about 10-15 points it doesn’t seem so random any more.
As nobody else has completed a Domaine so near the centre of the board, I am then able to expand into the Capital City. This sees me near the winning margin for a couple of turns, but it’s clear this isn’t sustainable – everybody has more knights than me.
Tony has spent the entire game with the best income, and also has some strong Domaines. Marleena has had good income, and managed to achieve a monopoly. I had very weak income most of the game, until I scored that large Domaine, which also gave me good points. Fee has had a bad position most of the game, she never had great income, got squashed between Marleena’s and Tony’s strong Domaines, and spent most of the game unable to really do anything. This can happen in four player games, where each player only has three Castles.
I lose some of my large gains to Fee, but an alliance card prevents Marlena from taking the City off me. I make a mistake on the final turn, selling an Alliance card for money, when I could have protected a couple of Forests from Tony. The money was irrelevant, as Tony and Marleena both have way more than me, although it made no difference to the final outcome.
Tony’get the bonus points for being the richest at game and wins the game, Marleena bonus for also being the richest isn’t enough for her to catch me, so she finishes third. Fee finishes in last place.
Domaine definitely works better with three than four (this is the opposite to T&E in my opinion). I haven’t yet tried it with two.
We concluded with a few hands of The Great Dalmuti. We play with the 11s & 12s removed as there was only four of us. There’s only time for three hands before I have to leave, mainly because we have two Great Revolutions, which delay matters somewhat. Dalmuti is a fun filler, but it seems like I have an unfair advantage, cause I’m card counting, and I don’t think the others are (or not as much as I am – surely everybody remembers basic things like if the Dalmuti has been played). In each of the three hands I retain or improve my position, which is as much as you can ask for in a game of Dalmuti (I was Dalmuti when the second greater revolution occurred).
After this weekend, it's re-enactment events for the next two. Argghhh! I'll be glad when it's winter and we can game every weekend.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
What's been going on?
The quick answer is - not a lot :(
No board games on the last three Sundays due to re-enactment events and a wedding. Hopefully as we move into autumn these interuptions will become less common.
I haven't been able to make the last two weeks of Blood Bowl either, due to commitments on Thursday. The week before that the games started late and I ended up abandoning my game at 11:35pm after turn 7 of the second half. We had to rush the second half just to get that far, and after a TD had been scored I just didn't have the time to play a pointless turn 8 and do the post game stuff. I only went to make (I thought) make up the numbers - as it turned out there was an odd number of players - so to be honest I'd rather not have bothered. The league should be moving back to the normal venue next week, were games can start much earlier again.
It's been such a drought recently that I actually got persuaded to play some Vs a couple of weeks ago. It was okay, but nothing special. Now that Tony has got a set of Enemy of my Enemy (the strongest search card in the game) in many ways the game seems to have moved away from what made it so interesting to me in the first place.
Back when the game started the emphasis seemed to be on combat between the characters - deciding formations and attacks, and how to best utilise your plot twists to get KOs and breakthrough. It many ways it had managed to transfer the gameplay of limited MtG (which is normally much more interesting than constructed MtG) into a constructed format whilst improving it. There were problems with some games being blowout to a player not drawing enough, or the right characters but I could live with that.
In the last few sets the amount of deck searching that is available seems to have reached a ridiculous level, so that now games seem to involve searching your deck for the answer you need to trump the other guys deck. Possibly UDE realise this - one of the preview cards for Heralds of Galactus seems to be a playable extract effect (search your opponents deck and remove a card).
I've played some two-player Puerto Rico on a couple of evenings. Had a couple of games against Matt, the first of which I won easily, then in the second I tried some slightly different tactics, that caused me to fall behind early and I wasn't able to make up the deficit. I enjoyed those games and managed to persuade Fiona to play a couple of games a few days later. I won the first easily as well, and then in the second managed to make a complete hash of the opening turns and fall miles behind again! This time I was able to comeback and win, although Fee missed a move on the closing turn that would have left my large building unmanned. That would have been enough for her to win, but she was tired and didn't spot it.
No board games on the last three Sundays due to re-enactment events and a wedding. Hopefully as we move into autumn these interuptions will become less common.
I haven't been able to make the last two weeks of Blood Bowl either, due to commitments on Thursday. The week before that the games started late and I ended up abandoning my game at 11:35pm after turn 7 of the second half. We had to rush the second half just to get that far, and after a TD had been scored I just didn't have the time to play a pointless turn 8 and do the post game stuff. I only went to make (I thought) make up the numbers - as it turned out there was an odd number of players - so to be honest I'd rather not have bothered. The league should be moving back to the normal venue next week, were games can start much earlier again.
It's been such a drought recently that I actually got persuaded to play some Vs a couple of weeks ago. It was okay, but nothing special. Now that Tony has got a set of Enemy of my Enemy (the strongest search card in the game) in many ways the game seems to have moved away from what made it so interesting to me in the first place.
Back when the game started the emphasis seemed to be on combat between the characters - deciding formations and attacks, and how to best utilise your plot twists to get KOs and breakthrough. It many ways it had managed to transfer the gameplay of limited MtG (which is normally much more interesting than constructed MtG) into a constructed format whilst improving it. There were problems with some games being blowout to a player not drawing enough, or the right characters but I could live with that.
In the last few sets the amount of deck searching that is available seems to have reached a ridiculous level, so that now games seem to involve searching your deck for the answer you need to trump the other guys deck. Possibly UDE realise this - one of the preview cards for Heralds of Galactus seems to be a playable extract effect (search your opponents deck and remove a card).
I've played some two-player Puerto Rico on a couple of evenings. Had a couple of games against Matt, the first of which I won easily, then in the second I tried some slightly different tactics, that caused me to fall behind early and I wasn't able to make up the deficit. I enjoyed those games and managed to persuade Fiona to play a couple of games a few days later. I won the first easily as well, and then in the second managed to make a complete hash of the opening turns and fall miles behind again! This time I was able to comeback and win, although Fee missed a move on the closing turn that would have left my large building unmanned. That would have been enough for her to win, but she was tired and didn't spot it.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Sunday 23/07/06: Alhambra, Hare & Tortoise, San Juan
It seems like ages since I last played some games.
Part of the reason is that it has been ages. The last Sunday evening was two weeks ago, and we had six players that night, and spent most of it playing Apples to Apples. Since then I haven’t managed to fit anything in apart from a couple of games of two player Puerto Rico and a round of Lost Cities.
This week Scott joined the regulars (Fee, me, Tony and Bekki). His favourite game is Alhambra (and the girls seem to love it was well) so we started with that.
I had one of those games were everything went perfectly. I’m pretty certain I’m the best Alhambra player in the group anyway, and I won with a score of 104, almost 30 points ahead of second place. At every scoring round I had a majority in Towers (it really helped that only one Tower appeared before the first scoring round and I was able to grab it), a majority or share-thereof in Gardens, and the longest Wall.
This game was the first time that I actually spent any actions redeveloping my Alhambra. I actually bought a Tower that I couldn’t place to protect my majority, and later when I bought another Tower with no wall, I noticed that instead of simply placing it, I could swap it with my only Manor (I bought it to connect all of my walls), and the turn after place the other Tower, both guaranteeing a Tower majority and extending my wall further.
After Alhambra we played Hare & Tortoise. Only Fee and Tony had played this before, and the rules translation Tony had didn’t seem to be the greatest. Having looked at some slightly better rules translations online we were definitely playing some rules wrong. In particular we were playing that you could move backwards to the next empty Tortoise space. At one point I moved back 16 spaces!!! [The reason for this was that it would let me move onto a lettuce space next turn - the lettuce in front of me was occupied.]
After my huge move backwards, I had a large amounts of carrots, and was planning to finish in a few large bounds, but it wasn’t clear whether Tony, who had been plodding along in first place would beat me there or not. I the end Tony reached there on the same turn as I did, but he was sitting before me and took first place.
We were a long way ahead of the other three. Although Fee says she really enjoys Hare & Tortoise, I think the game is strategic and calculational enough for Tony & I to have a large advantage. And once the field gets spread out a little, there’s less ‘multiplayer chaos’ than I would have expected. [This may be because we were allowing the large jumps backwards]
Scott, who had made some good moves early on, before losing lots of carrots on an ill advised jugging of the hare, finished third, and Fee managed to finish fourth eventually. Both her and Bekki had problems with arriving near the finish with far too many carrots.
Scott left after H&T, but we didn’t have time for either of the meatier games I had brought (Domaine or Tigris & Euphrates) so we played a hand of San Juan. I had nothing for the first couple of builds, so saved up for Silver, then built a Black Market. I also get a Smithy, so I figure I’m planning for some kind of Production plan, which is fortunate when I find a Guild Hall mid-game.
Coming to the final builds, it is clear the game is between me and Tony. Tony has been going for the violet plan, and has been using both Quarry and Poor House to accelerate his builds (he’s a couple ahead of me, and I’m a couple ahead of Fee and Bekki), and he has a City Hall. I suspect I might need to slip in a cheap catch-up production build to overtake him, but you don’t get much control in four-player. As it turns out Tony, as governor is able to close the game by building a Palace for 25+6=31 points, whilst my Palace leaves my score as 24+6=30. Very close!
It seems likely that after this weekend the next boardgame session may be some time off to various commitments.
Part of the reason is that it has been ages. The last Sunday evening was two weeks ago, and we had six players that night, and spent most of it playing Apples to Apples. Since then I haven’t managed to fit anything in apart from a couple of games of two player Puerto Rico and a round of Lost Cities.
This week Scott joined the regulars (Fee, me, Tony and Bekki). His favourite game is Alhambra (and the girls seem to love it was well) so we started with that.
I had one of those games were everything went perfectly. I’m pretty certain I’m the best Alhambra player in the group anyway, and I won with a score of 104, almost 30 points ahead of second place. At every scoring round I had a majority in Towers (it really helped that only one Tower appeared before the first scoring round and I was able to grab it), a majority or share-thereof in Gardens, and the longest Wall.
This game was the first time that I actually spent any actions redeveloping my Alhambra. I actually bought a Tower that I couldn’t place to protect my majority, and later when I bought another Tower with no wall, I noticed that instead of simply placing it, I could swap it with my only Manor (I bought it to connect all of my walls), and the turn after place the other Tower, both guaranteeing a Tower majority and extending my wall further.
After Alhambra we played Hare & Tortoise. Only Fee and Tony had played this before, and the rules translation Tony had didn’t seem to be the greatest. Having looked at some slightly better rules translations online we were definitely playing some rules wrong. In particular we were playing that you could move backwards to the next empty Tortoise space. At one point I moved back 16 spaces!!! [The reason for this was that it would let me move onto a lettuce space next turn - the lettuce in front of me was occupied.]
After my huge move backwards, I had a large amounts of carrots, and was planning to finish in a few large bounds, but it wasn’t clear whether Tony, who had been plodding along in first place would beat me there or not. I the end Tony reached there on the same turn as I did, but he was sitting before me and took first place.
We were a long way ahead of the other three. Although Fee says she really enjoys Hare & Tortoise, I think the game is strategic and calculational enough for Tony & I to have a large advantage. And once the field gets spread out a little, there’s less ‘multiplayer chaos’ than I would have expected. [This may be because we were allowing the large jumps backwards]
Scott, who had made some good moves early on, before losing lots of carrots on an ill advised jugging of the hare, finished third, and Fee managed to finish fourth eventually. Both her and Bekki had problems with arriving near the finish with far too many carrots.
Scott left after H&T, but we didn’t have time for either of the meatier games I had brought (Domaine or Tigris & Euphrates) so we played a hand of San Juan. I had nothing for the first couple of builds, so saved up for Silver, then built a Black Market. I also get a Smithy, so I figure I’m planning for some kind of Production plan, which is fortunate when I find a Guild Hall mid-game.
Coming to the final builds, it is clear the game is between me and Tony. Tony has been going for the violet plan, and has been using both Quarry and Poor House to accelerate his builds (he’s a couple ahead of me, and I’m a couple ahead of Fee and Bekki), and he has a City Hall. I suspect I might need to slip in a cheap catch-up production build to overtake him, but you don’t get much control in four-player. As it turns out Tony, as governor is able to close the game by building a Palace for 25+6=31 points, whilst my Palace leaves my score as 24+6=30. Very close!
It seems likely that after this weekend the next boardgame session may be some time off to various commitments.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Sunday 02/07/06: One False Step for Mankind, Apples to Apples, Alhambra
A bit of a different Sunday evening this week. I get a text mid-afternoon from Fiona saying Marlena and Becky will be there at six, and can I bring some counters for a game (in hindsight it should have been obvious that this involved playing a Cheapass game).
I arrive just after six, and we spend the next half an hour setting up One False Step for Mankind. It needs so many counters and tokens it’s ridiculous! Scott arrives before we begin, so we end up starting a five player at about quarter to 7, after both he and Fee (who have played before) have read the rules and failed to understand them. I end up speed-reading the rules and run the game more than they do, and I’d never played before. The idea was we were supposed to be starting early so Tony wouldn’t have to wait too long after he arrived about 7:30!
Obviously this doesn’t work (one of the games faults is that it takes too long), so we end up playing for about an hour, and then basically stopping. Fee announces Becky as the winner because she managed to send somebody to the moon! Personally I consider myself a winner at that point, as I’m no longer playing! Not a good game.
With Tony also present we need six player games. That’s a little tricky. We start with a quick round of Apples to Apples, which I win (or Tony won and I came second – can’t remember), and then we play Alhambra. I have Elfenland, which also plays six, but that seems like a game that takes twice as long with six than three players, unlike Alhambra where you’re still selling off exactly the same number of tiles. And everyone likes Alhambra anyway.
I get an okay start and am second or third at the second scoring, but collapse at the final scoring, when my two Towers (which was good for second place at the second scoring) gets overtaken by Marlena and Becky and I don’t manage to connect my wall at all. I finish fifth. Tony gets the majority in Gardens to move through to second place, almost catching Becky who has been leading most of the way. She is in a three way split for Towers with Fee and Marlena and has a good wall.
Alhambra isn’t great with six, but it’s useful to have a game that most people enjoy and can handle that many if needed unexpectedly. Most games wouldn’t (I only had Elfenroads cause it has loads of bits needed for One False Step for Mankind – normally I wouldn’t have any six player games).
Afterwards we just sit around playing Apples to Apples some more, lengthening the game to first to ten. Pete joins us this time, which is good for me, as I seem to have a very good understanding of his warped mind (who else would find Witch Hunts Fabulous, I also got him to pick Electric Chair) and I got four of my seven cards from him! Tony wins though.
I’m not sure how much you can read into the fact that the two most successful players at Apples to Apples were Tony and I, the two most serious gamers. Certainly everyone had fun, and it got very silly at times (some of us had been drinking). An enjoyable change from the norm – it seems unlikely we’ll have six players again any time soon, so it’ll probably be back to more serious gaming next time.
I arrive just after six, and we spend the next half an hour setting up One False Step for Mankind. It needs so many counters and tokens it’s ridiculous! Scott arrives before we begin, so we end up starting a five player at about quarter to 7, after both he and Fee (who have played before) have read the rules and failed to understand them. I end up speed-reading the rules and run the game more than they do, and I’d never played before. The idea was we were supposed to be starting early so Tony wouldn’t have to wait too long after he arrived about 7:30!
Obviously this doesn’t work (one of the games faults is that it takes too long), so we end up playing for about an hour, and then basically stopping. Fee announces Becky as the winner because she managed to send somebody to the moon! Personally I consider myself a winner at that point, as I’m no longer playing! Not a good game.
With Tony also present we need six player games. That’s a little tricky. We start with a quick round of Apples to Apples, which I win (or Tony won and I came second – can’t remember), and then we play Alhambra. I have Elfenland, which also plays six, but that seems like a game that takes twice as long with six than three players, unlike Alhambra where you’re still selling off exactly the same number of tiles. And everyone likes Alhambra anyway.
I get an okay start and am second or third at the second scoring, but collapse at the final scoring, when my two Towers (which was good for second place at the second scoring) gets overtaken by Marlena and Becky and I don’t manage to connect my wall at all. I finish fifth. Tony gets the majority in Gardens to move through to second place, almost catching Becky who has been leading most of the way. She is in a three way split for Towers with Fee and Marlena and has a good wall.
Alhambra isn’t great with six, but it’s useful to have a game that most people enjoy and can handle that many if needed unexpectedly. Most games wouldn’t (I only had Elfenroads cause it has loads of bits needed for One False Step for Mankind – normally I wouldn’t have any six player games).
Afterwards we just sit around playing Apples to Apples some more, lengthening the game to first to ten. Pete joins us this time, which is good for me, as I seem to have a very good understanding of his warped mind (who else would find Witch Hunts Fabulous, I also got him to pick Electric Chair) and I got four of my seven cards from him! Tony wins though.
I’m not sure how much you can read into the fact that the two most successful players at Apples to Apples were Tony and I, the two most serious gamers. Certainly everyone had fun, and it got very silly at times (some of us had been drinking). An enjoyable change from the norm – it seems unlikely we’ll have six players again any time soon, so it’ll probably be back to more serious gaming next time.
Monday, July 03, 2006
Blood Bowl 29/06/06: Dark Elves vs Goblins
The final update to the Blood Bowl playtest vault rules have now been issued (as Living Rulebook 5), and they’ve come at a convenient time. With my recent move to Newport I have more spare time, and opponents within walking distance.
The local league meets every Thursday, and has six players. Last week I started a new Dark Elf team with a bad matchup against the Dave’s Norse (I’m not really in a position to take advantage of his armour of 7, as with all of his players having block or strength 4, my players are the ones falling over). I really suffered with the injury rolls (of three casualties two were dead, and I made one out of eight KO rolls), so my team was somewhat depleted this week, with two journeymen required to make up the numbers.
This week I played against James’s Goblins. I get a dream start – I’m kicking to him and roll a Blitz! Two Blitzers are able to get tackle zones on the player under the ball (James had setup without wide tackle zones, and the ball scattered right behind the centre of the line of scrimmage) and after James fails to catch it, the ball scatters to one of the Blitzers who does.
The next six turns sees me slowly move the ball towards James’s end zone. A couple of times he is able to recover the ball, but he’s never able to protect it sufficiently, and I always have enough Elves around the ball to recover it easily. I would stall and score in the last turn of the half, but there is a Bombardier on the pitch (and James had already had one direct hit with throw team mate), making it impossible to get 100% safety, so I score on turn 6.
We both setup in a similar fashion again. This time the ball scatters wide. James throws some blocks, and seems to move everybody else before dealing with the ball and it costs him. He used all his rerolls in the first three turns, and turnovers without a tackle zone on the ball. I run in and pick it up (I still have one of my two rerolls left), then James provides a repeat performance next turn and I score probably the easiest touchdown I’ve ever scored.
2-0 at halftime, and I’m receiving, and the secret weapon players are gone (under the current rules they only play one drive). The second half kickoff is the first time the ball has been in my half, but it doesn’t stay there very long. I walk the ball into the endzone, the Goblins putting up almost no resistance.
The second half plays much like the first with me scoring another fairly easy touchdown. Only two really memorable events ocurred. Firstly, ones of the Trolls gets KO’d by a rock thrown from the crowd, and secondly, James had one turn left after I score for 4-0, and manages to make all the rolls needed for a one-turn, throw team mate touchdown. Very nice, and he probably deserved it. He did have some bad luck with some rolls I think, but he didn’t help himself by not always getting his priorities straight, so that when the bad luck struck, he left me in a good position.
Blood Bowl should be a weekly occurrence now I expect.
The local league meets every Thursday, and has six players. Last week I started a new Dark Elf team with a bad matchup against the Dave’s Norse (I’m not really in a position to take advantage of his armour of 7, as with all of his players having block or strength 4, my players are the ones falling over). I really suffered with the injury rolls (of three casualties two were dead, and I made one out of eight KO rolls), so my team was somewhat depleted this week, with two journeymen required to make up the numbers.
This week I played against James’s Goblins. I get a dream start – I’m kicking to him and roll a Blitz! Two Blitzers are able to get tackle zones on the player under the ball (James had setup without wide tackle zones, and the ball scattered right behind the centre of the line of scrimmage) and after James fails to catch it, the ball scatters to one of the Blitzers who does.
The next six turns sees me slowly move the ball towards James’s end zone. A couple of times he is able to recover the ball, but he’s never able to protect it sufficiently, and I always have enough Elves around the ball to recover it easily. I would stall and score in the last turn of the half, but there is a Bombardier on the pitch (and James had already had one direct hit with throw team mate), making it impossible to get 100% safety, so I score on turn 6.
We both setup in a similar fashion again. This time the ball scatters wide. James throws some blocks, and seems to move everybody else before dealing with the ball and it costs him. He used all his rerolls in the first three turns, and turnovers without a tackle zone on the ball. I run in and pick it up (I still have one of my two rerolls left), then James provides a repeat performance next turn and I score probably the easiest touchdown I’ve ever scored.
2-0 at halftime, and I’m receiving, and the secret weapon players are gone (under the current rules they only play one drive). The second half kickoff is the first time the ball has been in my half, but it doesn’t stay there very long. I walk the ball into the endzone, the Goblins putting up almost no resistance.
The second half plays much like the first with me scoring another fairly easy touchdown. Only two really memorable events ocurred. Firstly, ones of the Trolls gets KO’d by a rock thrown from the crowd, and secondly, James had one turn left after I score for 4-0, and manages to make all the rolls needed for a one-turn, throw team mate touchdown. Very nice, and he probably deserved it. He did have some bad luck with some rolls I think, but he didn’t help himself by not always getting his priorities straight, so that when the bad luck struck, he left me in a good position.
Blood Bowl should be a weekly occurrence now I expect.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Sunday 11/06/06: San Juan, Lord of the Rings: Friends and Foes, Settlers of Catan
Tony and I went round to Fiona's on Sunday evening. It was still quite light, and the table inside was mess, so we decided to play outside.
We start with a couple of hands of San Juan. In the first game Fiona and I are both into trading (she has Silver and Well, I have built Tobacco, Well, Aquaduct and Trading Post), whilst Tony is the odd man out, though he does have the strong Quarry & Carpenter combo. Fee and I then also both build Prefecture, to make Tony’s position look really bad, but he is fortunate enough to find the final one a few turns later.
I have the sort of balanced trading / violet position where I’m happy to find either Guild Hall or City Hall. I find a Guild Hall, so I close out with all production buildings. Tony doesn’t find a City Hall but does hit Triumphal Arch, a couple of monuments and Palace for a two point win over me. Fiona’s position looks awful but she has a final build City Hall to not lose by too much.
The second game is really weird. I get a first turn Poor House, and then proceed to rapidly build a collection of one cost buildings, triggering the poor House each time. I get to my eighth build four (!!!) buildings ahead of both Fiona and Tony. In addition to all my one cost buildings I have a Coffee for trading and a Chapel that is helping to keep me poor, effectively providing free victory points. Tony is amassing an okay (small) collection of violet buildings, but he has a Palace as opposed to a City Hall or Triumphal Arch, and that means I can close with a score of 22 for a 2 point win. I’ve never seen that strategy work in a three player before (and I’ve only seen it a few times in two-player). My draws during the opening turns were ideal – it seemed that every time the Poor House triggered the card I drew was another 1 cost building.
After that Fee wants to play something that will leave time for another game afterwards. Tony suggests Lord of the Rings (with F&F expansion), I foolishly describe it as a “one hour game” and we managed to talk Fee into it. This game of Friends and Foes proceeds much as the last one, we start with Sauron on 15, are never really in any danger of dying to 8 foes, and manage to skip Helm’s Deep and Shelob’s lair without too much trouble. In fact the four foes required to skip Shelob’s Lair are the last four in the deck, so under the rules as originally printed we would have won at that point. Instead we are playing the variant I saw suggested on BGG where we gain the Watchful Peace card when we kill all the foes. (Note that if we had been playing the official Black Gate variant this also would have lead to a trivial win – three of the last four foes re
The final board is only interesting as we manage to bugger up who is to be the ring bearer on the Mordor board, and I end with the ring, despite being the only one anywhere near Sauron, who is still on 14. Still we still have Gandalf’s Healing and the OOO Feature card, so we were never in too much danger, and sure enough we get near the summit, I put on the Ring and use Gandalf to automatically move four spaces, and we reach the summit and win.
Somehow Friends and Foes feels easier than the regular game. I think part of this is due to the fact that with Sam’s new ability and the new Gandalf card ‘Sauron does not advance’ you can effectively cancel three events, rather than just one. Gandalf cards that used to be quite important like ‘double wild’ and ‘draw four cards’ aren’t always needed any more.
Of course the game took much longer than one hour and by the end the light was failing badly (we were playing in the garden), which made it hard to see what was going on, which had a negative impact on the game I think. It’s hard for everyone to be involved when they can’t see what’s going on. Not a great gaming experience.
It’s getting late by then, so the only way we’ll have time for another game is if I stay outside and clear up LotR whilst Fee and Tony go inside, clear some room and setup something else. When I get inside they’re setting up Settlers of Catan.
I’d never played Settlers before, and based on this game I don’t particularly want to again. Trading & negotiation isn’t a mechanic I particularly enjoy, so for me it was just an hour of sitting around, rolling dice, occasionally trading when somebody made an offer that tempted me. My interest diminished even further during the game when it became apparent we weren’t going to finish in time, and I was in last place anyway. Sure enough we didn’t finish. A lame finishing to an overall sub-par evening. And we won’t be able to play for the next few weeks probably (more re-enactment events).
We start with a couple of hands of San Juan. In the first game Fiona and I are both into trading (she has Silver and Well, I have built Tobacco, Well, Aquaduct and Trading Post), whilst Tony is the odd man out, though he does have the strong Quarry & Carpenter combo. Fee and I then also both build Prefecture, to make Tony’s position look really bad, but he is fortunate enough to find the final one a few turns later.
I have the sort of balanced trading / violet position where I’m happy to find either Guild Hall or City Hall. I find a Guild Hall, so I close out with all production buildings. Tony doesn’t find a City Hall but does hit Triumphal Arch, a couple of monuments and Palace for a two point win over me. Fiona’s position looks awful but she has a final build City Hall to not lose by too much.
The second game is really weird. I get a first turn Poor House, and then proceed to rapidly build a collection of one cost buildings, triggering the poor House each time. I get to my eighth build four (!!!) buildings ahead of both Fiona and Tony. In addition to all my one cost buildings I have a Coffee for trading and a Chapel that is helping to keep me poor, effectively providing free victory points. Tony is amassing an okay (small) collection of violet buildings, but he has a Palace as opposed to a City Hall or Triumphal Arch, and that means I can close with a score of 22 for a 2 point win. I’ve never seen that strategy work in a three player before (and I’ve only seen it a few times in two-player). My draws during the opening turns were ideal – it seemed that every time the Poor House triggered the card I drew was another 1 cost building.
After that Fee wants to play something that will leave time for another game afterwards. Tony suggests Lord of the Rings (with F&F expansion), I foolishly describe it as a “one hour game” and we managed to talk Fee into it. This game of Friends and Foes proceeds much as the last one, we start with Sauron on 15, are never really in any danger of dying to 8 foes, and manage to skip Helm’s Deep and Shelob’s lair without too much trouble. In fact the four foes required to skip Shelob’s Lair are the last four in the deck, so under the rules as originally printed we would have won at that point. Instead we are playing the variant I saw suggested on BGG where we gain the Watchful Peace card when we kill all the foes. (Note that if we had been playing the official Black Gate variant this also would have lead to a trivial win – three of the last four foes re
The final board is only interesting as we manage to bugger up who is to be the ring bearer on the Mordor board, and I end with the ring, despite being the only one anywhere near Sauron, who is still on 14. Still we still have Gandalf’s Healing and the OOO Feature card, so we were never in too much danger, and sure enough we get near the summit, I put on the Ring and use Gandalf to automatically move four spaces, and we reach the summit and win.
Somehow Friends and Foes feels easier than the regular game. I think part of this is due to the fact that with Sam’s new ability and the new Gandalf card ‘Sauron does not advance’ you can effectively cancel three events, rather than just one. Gandalf cards that used to be quite important like ‘double wild’ and ‘draw four cards’ aren’t always needed any more.
Of course the game took much longer than one hour and by the end the light was failing badly (we were playing in the garden), which made it hard to see what was going on, which had a negative impact on the game I think. It’s hard for everyone to be involved when they can’t see what’s going on. Not a great gaming experience.
It’s getting late by then, so the only way we’ll have time for another game is if I stay outside and clear up LotR whilst Fee and Tony go inside, clear some room and setup something else. When I get inside they’re setting up Settlers of Catan.
I’d never played Settlers before, and based on this game I don’t particularly want to again. Trading & negotiation isn’t a mechanic I particularly enjoy, so for me it was just an hour of sitting around, rolling dice, occasionally trading when somebody made an offer that tempted me. My interest diminished even further during the game when it became apparent we weren’t going to finish in time, and I was in last place anyway. Sure enough we didn’t finish. A lame finishing to an overall sub-par evening. And we won’t be able to play for the next few weeks probably (more re-enactment events).
Friday, June 09, 2006
Sunday 04/06/06: Flea Circus, Lord of the Rings Friends & Foes, Starbase Jeff
Fiona was away again this weekend, but this time Bekki, Tony and I managed to get ourselves organised, and they come round for games on Sunday evening.
We start with a few hands of Flea Circus to get us in the mood. I win the first, Bekki wins the second when I call the gala show early but with poor cards, and I won the third. Over the three games Bekki actually has the highest score, but the rules don’t mention adding the scores, so I win 2-1 I guess? Either way Tony’s last.
After that we’re ready for something more serious, except Bekki wants to play something not too difficult that we’ve played before, cause she’s not feeling up to anything harder (I think she might have got a bit too much sun during the day). We settle on Lord of the Rings with the Friends and Foes expansion. I get out the Lord of the Rings box and then leave the room to make some more tea.
When I get back a few minutes later I find they’ve got as far as taking off the lid, removing the main board, Sauron and the One Ring. That’s it! So I spend the next five minutes setting up the game, and explaining the Friends and Foes additions. We start with Sauron on 15 (as is recommended when playing with F&F for the first time), Bekki is Frodo, I’m Sam and Tony is Pippin. Merry and Fatty get left behind again.
We failed to complete Bree, mainly because we had trouble avoiding get overrrun with foes after some [][] roles on the dice. We avert a complete disaster though, as I have a surfeit of Hiding Hobbit cards, so we are actually able to pay the 7 Hiding required to avoid @@@ on the final event. (Going straight from the Shire into a game board feel really weird the first times you play F&F – you’re so used to having Rivendell goodies when you face the first board in the regular game).
We just survive Moria, fleeing with the power of the Ring, just before things get too bad. At this point I as Sam, am incredibly corrupt (about 6 or 7) mainly because I keep taking damage to kill foes (I’m Sam after all so it seems best I do it), whilst Tony as Pippin has barely been corrupted at all.
During Isengard our plan is to clear out the Foes so we can skip Helm’s Deep & hopefully Shelob’s Lair. Killing off the foes is easy enough, but requires a bit of thought to make sure you end the board with exactly none in play. You wouldn’t want one to appear on the last turn and be unable to kill it, letting all your hard work go to waste. We avoid any such mishap, and are able to skip Helm’s Deep. This reveals four new foes, which Bekki, as the new Ring-bearer needs to kill off between boards to let us skip Shelob’s Lair as well. With the power of Gandalf’s Firestorm, this is achevied, and we skip Shelob’s Lair.
Coming into Mordor, nobody is looking too healthy, but we still have plenty of stuff left – enough shields to call on Gandalf several times, my power to cancel an event, and Bekki still has the OOO feature card in hand. It is apparent though that it would be trivial for us to gain a Military Victory – the four foes revealed when we skipped Shelobs Lair where the last four in the deck. I had mentioned previously that Military Victory was apparently too easy, and we all agreed that we would just ignore the foes for the last board (I couldn’t remember what the Black Gate card did exactly).
As it turns out we in fact have more than enough stuff to make it to Mount Doom, as we get most of the way and then I spot that Bekki can put on the Ring & call on Gandalf to take no damage and make the move four squares, which will bring her to Mount Doom, and the OOO card means she can’t die when trying to lob in the One Ring – so we win!
We end the evening with a couple of hands of Starbase Jeff. Supposedly this is a tile-laying / gambling game. It seems like it has some interesting mechanics, but fails to actually turn them into a game. That seems to be the conclusion of my geekbuddies as well, but a surprising large number of people seem to rate the game as one of the best from Cheapass (depending on your point of view that still may not mean much). Perhaps there is something there. Tony seems to always have it with him, so I’ll guess I’ll get the chance to find out soon enough.
We start with a few hands of Flea Circus to get us in the mood. I win the first, Bekki wins the second when I call the gala show early but with poor cards, and I won the third. Over the three games Bekki actually has the highest score, but the rules don’t mention adding the scores, so I win 2-1 I guess? Either way Tony’s last.
After that we’re ready for something more serious, except Bekki wants to play something not too difficult that we’ve played before, cause she’s not feeling up to anything harder (I think she might have got a bit too much sun during the day). We settle on Lord of the Rings with the Friends and Foes expansion. I get out the Lord of the Rings box and then leave the room to make some more tea.
When I get back a few minutes later I find they’ve got as far as taking off the lid, removing the main board, Sauron and the One Ring. That’s it! So I spend the next five minutes setting up the game, and explaining the Friends and Foes additions. We start with Sauron on 15 (as is recommended when playing with F&F for the first time), Bekki is Frodo, I’m Sam and Tony is Pippin. Merry and Fatty get left behind again.
We failed to complete Bree, mainly because we had trouble avoiding get overrrun with foes after some [][] roles on the dice. We avert a complete disaster though, as I have a surfeit of Hiding Hobbit cards, so we are actually able to pay the 7 Hiding required to avoid @@@ on the final event. (Going straight from the Shire into a game board feel really weird the first times you play F&F – you’re so used to having Rivendell goodies when you face the first board in the regular game).
We just survive Moria, fleeing with the power of the Ring, just before things get too bad. At this point I as Sam, am incredibly corrupt (about 6 or 7) mainly because I keep taking damage to kill foes (I’m Sam after all so it seems best I do it), whilst Tony as Pippin has barely been corrupted at all.
During Isengard our plan is to clear out the Foes so we can skip Helm’s Deep & hopefully Shelob’s Lair. Killing off the foes is easy enough, but requires a bit of thought to make sure you end the board with exactly none in play. You wouldn’t want one to appear on the last turn and be unable to kill it, letting all your hard work go to waste. We avoid any such mishap, and are able to skip Helm’s Deep. This reveals four new foes, which Bekki, as the new Ring-bearer needs to kill off between boards to let us skip Shelob’s Lair as well. With the power of Gandalf’s Firestorm, this is achevied, and we skip Shelob’s Lair.
Coming into Mordor, nobody is looking too healthy, but we still have plenty of stuff left – enough shields to call on Gandalf several times, my power to cancel an event, and Bekki still has the OOO feature card in hand. It is apparent though that it would be trivial for us to gain a Military Victory – the four foes revealed when we skipped Shelobs Lair where the last four in the deck. I had mentioned previously that Military Victory was apparently too easy, and we all agreed that we would just ignore the foes for the last board (I couldn’t remember what the Black Gate card did exactly).
As it turns out we in fact have more than enough stuff to make it to Mount Doom, as we get most of the way and then I spot that Bekki can put on the Ring & call on Gandalf to take no damage and make the move four squares, which will bring her to Mount Doom, and the OOO card means she can’t die when trying to lob in the One Ring – so we win!
We end the evening with a couple of hands of Starbase Jeff. Supposedly this is a tile-laying / gambling game. It seems like it has some interesting mechanics, but fails to actually turn them into a game. That seems to be the conclusion of my geekbuddies as well, but a surprising large number of people seem to rate the game as one of the best from Cheapass (depending on your point of view that still may not mean much). Perhaps there is something there. Tony seems to always have it with him, so I’ll guess I’ll get the chance to find out soon enough.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Update
I've been busy at work, and the home computer stopped working over the bank holiday weekend, so it's been a while since I've managed to write anything.
I managed to play a couple of games of San Juan against Matt during lunch hours at work last week, a couple of fairly easy wins.
I couldn't arrange any major boardgame sessions over the long weekend (Fiona away, two of the Matts doing DIY), so went round to see Matt Saturday evening for Beers & Games (Cider & Games in my case).
We started with a two-player Louis XIV. Two player seems a lot more relaxing than four player, as you can just play directly against your opponent without everyone else messing up your plans. And obviously the downtime is much reduced. I managed to complete one more mission than Matt, but he had way more shields, and took the win.
We then tried Babel, which I picked up in a trade recently. It didn't really grab either of us, we both blew some stuff up, got to the end of the Temple Pile, and that was that. Matt won. I suspect there must be a good game in there somewhere (my geekbuddies rate it highly), but I'm not sure I'll find it. I have too many other games I'd rather play two-player, so Babel has hit the trade list.
We finished with a game of San Juan, I got an awful start, everything I tried to do to get back into the game Matt countered (ie I build a Tower, his next build is Chapel), and couldn't find decent VP buildings. With some really tight play at the close I am able to force Matt to use his Crane to build both the City Hall and Triumphal Arch, to only lose by 13 points! (funniest thing all evening: Matt picks Builder, and build a Prefecture. I also build, and then Prospect. Matt says "well I have a Prefecture, so it's obvious what I do here", and picks Councillor. I keep both cards, Matt says "aren't you discarding one?" and I point to the Prefecture I built when he did! - he was so happy to supposedly have the Prefecture advantage, he didn't look at what I was doing).
After that I've had too much to drink for more games, so we sit around watching Scuzz until it's time for my bus.
Finally, last night, I was supposed to go round to Fiona's for some Carcassone: The Castle, and then "we might go the pub late on" (it's open mic night, and if you go late you miss the really awful singer), but it didn't quite work out that way. She & Pete got dragged to pub for dinner, so I met them there, and we ended up playing drunken Carcassone in the back of the pub at 11. And I won twice, which is unheard of for Carc.
I managed to play a couple of games of San Juan against Matt during lunch hours at work last week, a couple of fairly easy wins.
I couldn't arrange any major boardgame sessions over the long weekend (Fiona away, two of the Matts doing DIY), so went round to see Matt Saturday evening for Beers & Games (Cider & Games in my case).
We started with a two-player Louis XIV. Two player seems a lot more relaxing than four player, as you can just play directly against your opponent without everyone else messing up your plans. And obviously the downtime is much reduced. I managed to complete one more mission than Matt, but he had way more shields, and took the win.
We then tried Babel, which I picked up in a trade recently. It didn't really grab either of us, we both blew some stuff up, got to the end of the Temple Pile, and that was that. Matt won. I suspect there must be a good game in there somewhere (my geekbuddies rate it highly), but I'm not sure I'll find it. I have too many other games I'd rather play two-player, so Babel has hit the trade list.
We finished with a game of San Juan, I got an awful start, everything I tried to do to get back into the game Matt countered (ie I build a Tower, his next build is Chapel), and couldn't find decent VP buildings. With some really tight play at the close I am able to force Matt to use his Crane to build both the City Hall and Triumphal Arch, to only lose by 13 points! (funniest thing all evening: Matt picks Builder, and build a Prefecture. I also build, and then Prospect. Matt says "well I have a Prefecture, so it's obvious what I do here", and picks Councillor. I keep both cards, Matt says "aren't you discarding one?" and I point to the Prefecture I built when he did! - he was so happy to supposedly have the Prefecture advantage, he didn't look at what I was doing).
After that I've had too much to drink for more games, so we sit around watching Scuzz until it's time for my bus.
Finally, last night, I was supposed to go round to Fiona's for some Carcassone: The Castle, and then "we might go the pub late on" (it's open mic night, and if you go late you miss the really awful singer), but it didn't quite work out that way. She & Pete got dragged to pub for dinner, so I met them there, and we ended up playing drunken Carcassone in the back of the pub at 11. And I won twice, which is unheard of for Carc.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Tuesday 23/05/06 Carcassone the Castle, Gin Rummy (& San Juan)
Fiona was eager to play some Carcassone the Castle, but we didn’t manage to fit it in last weekend, so when my plans to go to the cinema fell through, we managed to fit a few games in.
In a huge break with tradition I absolutely ran away with the first game. I got an absurdly lucky sequence of roads to begin with (the crossroads with a well in the centre, followed by three road ends!) and am able to pick up several bonus tiles. Fee looked like making a comeback when she scores 24 with a Tower x2 tile, but I still win comfortably.
Normal service is resumed in game 2. Fee has a pair of Market bonus tiles, and easily wins the Keep bonus for the win.
Game 3 looks close, but I’m relying on a large road network, with a Well (I have an Incomplete Road bonus tile, so I’ll score it even if it doesn’t complete). But just before the end Fee is able to also get a Meeple onto it, and I’m not able to get a second on before the game end. That’s about 20 points gone, and I lose.
After that I teach Fee Gin Rummy. The rules are pretty simple (for anyone who has ever played any game of Rummy before) , even if they gameplay isn’t (you really need to make some effort to remember what the other guys been doing). I blow the first hand by knocking with a score of 10 far too late, and Fee is able to undercut me. She wins the next as well, but I then get three large wins, including a very early Gin that catches her with about 40 points in hand, to take the first game (game is typically 100-up).
The second game goes the other way, I take an early lead, she then catches up, and after a few hand we both have scores in the 70’s. She takes a small win to take her into the 80’s, and in the next hand she gets a very early Gin, to take the game.
We have time to close with a quick game of San Juan before I leave. I get a poor start, don’t see any six-pointers, and Fiona doesn’t make any mistakes to beat me by about 10 points.
In a huge break with tradition I absolutely ran away with the first game. I got an absurdly lucky sequence of roads to begin with (the crossroads with a well in the centre, followed by three road ends!) and am able to pick up several bonus tiles. Fee looked like making a comeback when she scores 24 with a Tower x2 tile, but I still win comfortably.
Normal service is resumed in game 2. Fee has a pair of Market bonus tiles, and easily wins the Keep bonus for the win.
Game 3 looks close, but I’m relying on a large road network, with a Well (I have an Incomplete Road bonus tile, so I’ll score it even if it doesn’t complete). But just before the end Fee is able to also get a Meeple onto it, and I’m not able to get a second on before the game end. That’s about 20 points gone, and I lose.
After that I teach Fee Gin Rummy. The rules are pretty simple (for anyone who has ever played any game of Rummy before) , even if they gameplay isn’t (you really need to make some effort to remember what the other guys been doing). I blow the first hand by knocking with a score of 10 far too late, and Fee is able to undercut me. She wins the next as well, but I then get three large wins, including a very early Gin that catches her with about 40 points in hand, to take the first game (game is typically 100-up).
The second game goes the other way, I take an early lead, she then catches up, and after a few hand we both have scores in the 70’s. She takes a small win to take her into the 80’s, and in the next hand she gets a very early Gin, to take the game.
We have time to close with a quick game of San Juan before I leave. I get a poor start, don’t see any six-pointers, and Fiona doesn’t make any mistakes to beat me by about 10 points.
Introversion
Everyone who knows me would tell you that I’m a quiet, reserved person. There is a reason for this.
My name is Simon, and I am an introvert.
Anybody who wants to know what that really means should read the following article.
I can still remember reading that article for the first time (I found it via a link on Neal Stephenson’s website) and thinking – “wow, that’s me” (but not exactly, I can actually get along fine with some extroverts who I like in a 1-on-1 situation – I create a void that they will quite happily fill, and they’re either too self absorbed to notice that I’m just listening without contributing to the conversation, or are aware that I’m quite happy to just listen).
I hadn’t realised until recently how my behaviour online mimics my behaviour ‘in real life’. In a large social group (such as BGG) I’ll tend to stay on the sidelines just listening. Despite the fact that I’ve been reading BGG daily for two and a half years now I have made approximately 167 posts - an average of a post every five and a half days!
Conversely I’ll eagerly get involved in a discussion about somebody’s blog. From reading their blog it feels like I know them, and I’ve no problem having a discussion on an interesting topic with somebody I ‘know’.
My name is Simon, and I am an introvert.
Anybody who wants to know what that really means should read the following article.
I can still remember reading that article for the first time (I found it via a link on Neal Stephenson’s website) and thinking – “wow, that’s me” (but not exactly, I can actually get along fine with some extroverts who I like in a 1-on-1 situation – I create a void that they will quite happily fill, and they’re either too self absorbed to notice that I’m just listening without contributing to the conversation, or are aware that I’m quite happy to just listen).
I hadn’t realised until recently how my behaviour online mimics my behaviour ‘in real life’. In a large social group (such as BGG) I’ll tend to stay on the sidelines just listening. Despite the fact that I’ve been reading BGG daily for two and a half years now I have made approximately 167 posts - an average of a post every five and a half days!
Conversely I’ll eagerly get involved in a discussion about somebody’s blog. From reading their blog it feels like I know them, and I’ve no problem having a discussion on an interesting topic with somebody I ‘know’.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Sunday 21/05/06: Louis XIV, Ticket to Ride, High Society, San Juan
For the first time in what seems like ages we have a regular Sunday night of games. (me, Tony, Becky and Fiona at Fiona’s) Happy days!!!
We start by trying to learn Louis XIV. I think I do an okay job explaining the rules, considering there so much going on, and we didn’t have any serious rules problems or queries during the games, although people’s heads were exploding during the game trying to take in all the possibilities.
As I would expect with a first play of a game with so much going on (and Tony’s playing slowly as well, including a couple of long thinks followed by moves which are instantly retracted – god, that’s annoying), the game goes on for a long time (over 2 hours), and starts to drag a bit for Becky and Fee towards the end.
Fee comments that she doesn’t mind games that are hard work if they are fun, but it was obvious she was getting bored by the end. I think Tony and I find games like this fun because they are hard work, but that not obviously going to be the case for everyone.
Tony seems to be winning (he completes two difficult missions in the second round, which gives him a couple of strong powers), but as with Goa (also a Rudiger Dorn game) at the end, despite all the gameplay, and Tony’s endless thinking the scores are in fact incredibly close. Everybody has completed six missions, so it comes down to Shields, and Tony just beats Becky and me.
After that we need something lighter, so we decide to play Ticket to Ride (it makes a change from Alhambra). I get an okay set of starting tickets (Portland – Phoenix, Portland – Nashville), until the opening trains all appear in the Southwestern corner, and after claiming Portland – San Francisco I’m blocked out of the direct route into Phoenix. So I have to regroup, and head across the country via Seattle and Helena.
The thing that annoys me about TTR in real-life (as opposed to online) is that the little cards are so fiddly. Optimum play often involves collecting a load of them, which are awkward to hold, the colours aren’t the clearest, and somebody has to go to the trouble of constantly replenishing the display of wagon cards available, and passing cards to those who can’t reach them. Tonight that person was me – it does keep the game flowing, but leads to one mistake when I make my move too quickly, taking cards when I should have claimed Oklahoma City – Little Rock, that would have cost me if Fiona had stolen it (she didn't).
After this possible detour is avoided I’m able to complete my route into Nashville. It’s clear that I should be able to get into Phoenix from Denver without problems, so now I decide to concentrate on collecting set of wagon cards to score some 15point connections. The key moment (as it turns out) comes when I decide not to block Becky. She has Los Angeles – El Paso – Houston, and then claims Miami – New Orleans. (she already has Miami – Charleston. I could have (& should have) blocked Becky by taking Houston – New Orleans, but I mistakenly thought “blocking is rarely effective in four player”. This is incorrect reasoning – at the time Becky and I probably had the best positions, so I should block Becky, as she is in fact my direct opponent. (Note to self: do not underestimate Becky just because she displays too much cleavage and is almost innumerate). [Actually, I think I may have underestimated the importance of this play because Becky’s score at the time was incorrect – we discovered she was someway short at the end, when we recalculate the scores]
I end the game as quick as I can (completing a couple of 15 point routes and connecting from Denver into Phoenix), but it’s not quick enough to catch anyone with incomplete tickets – I’m one turn off stranding Tony with –20 points. By the end Becky has completed one large line of routes along the South and up the Western coast, and the 10 point bonus is just enough for her to beat me by a couple of points. Fiona is last, which disappoints her, but she had awful tickets, one semi decent ticket and a tiny 6 point ticket up the Western coast, that you have to complete by claming tiny connections, worth very few points.
Next time I see her I’ll have to explain the plan involving ignoring such tickets and playing to score 15 point routes and finish the game. I’m sure that would have been a better plan in her position.
After Ticket to Ride, to Becky and Fee’s obvious disappointment there isn’t enough time left to play Alhambra. Instead we play a couple of hands of High Society. The first sees Becky spend far too much early on a couple of Recognitions, leaving her very little to actually buy possessions with (she acquires the 3, but that only gives her a score of 12, which can easily be beaten). She ends the game the poorest (after also paying to avoid the Thief and Gambling Debts) and Tony wins.
The second game also starts with a Recognition, which I win. Becky then blows most of her money winning the 9 and the 8, but at least this gives her a total of 17, which she might be able to defend. This game goes long (the last four tiles are 7,10, -5 and the final Recognition), and is very close between Tony, Fiona and I. I win the 7, putting me in the lead, but then the 10 comes up, and Tony and I don’t think we can outbid Fiona, and the next tile ends the game, with Fiona winning. Becky is the poorest by a long way - $7,000,000 – but although I ended up with $32,000,000 I still couldn’t have outbid Fee for the 10, as I only had $1, $6 & $25 left. A good game – I think Fiona enjoyed it a bit too, although High Society doesn’t seem to be her kind of game. And it’s definitely not Becky’s kind of game – as well as too much adding, she seems to be unable to stop impulse buying!
Tony has to leave, but we decide to end with a quick three player game of San Juan. Nobody gets a dominating position, nor does anybody get totally left behind (which can be a problem in three player if both opponents end up doing the same things, leaving somebody odd man out), and the final scores are very close. Becky has twelve buildings for 32 points (Fee and I only managed eleven builds), I have a City Hall and Guild Hall for 33, and Fee has a City Hall and Palace for 35 points. Fee wins!
Now Fiona is away again for the next couple of weekends. Maybe we’ll be able to arrange something for the bank holiday Monday instead.
We start by trying to learn Louis XIV. I think I do an okay job explaining the rules, considering there so much going on, and we didn’t have any serious rules problems or queries during the games, although people’s heads were exploding during the game trying to take in all the possibilities.
As I would expect with a first play of a game with so much going on (and Tony’s playing slowly as well, including a couple of long thinks followed by moves which are instantly retracted – god, that’s annoying), the game goes on for a long time (over 2 hours), and starts to drag a bit for Becky and Fee towards the end.
Fee comments that she doesn’t mind games that are hard work if they are fun, but it was obvious she was getting bored by the end. I think Tony and I find games like this fun because they are hard work, but that not obviously going to be the case for everyone.
Tony seems to be winning (he completes two difficult missions in the second round, which gives him a couple of strong powers), but as with Goa (also a Rudiger Dorn game) at the end, despite all the gameplay, and Tony’s endless thinking the scores are in fact incredibly close. Everybody has completed six missions, so it comes down to Shields, and Tony just beats Becky and me.
After that we need something lighter, so we decide to play Ticket to Ride (it makes a change from Alhambra). I get an okay set of starting tickets (Portland – Phoenix, Portland – Nashville), until the opening trains all appear in the Southwestern corner, and after claiming Portland – San Francisco I’m blocked out of the direct route into Phoenix. So I have to regroup, and head across the country via Seattle and Helena.
The thing that annoys me about TTR in real-life (as opposed to online) is that the little cards are so fiddly. Optimum play often involves collecting a load of them, which are awkward to hold, the colours aren’t the clearest, and somebody has to go to the trouble of constantly replenishing the display of wagon cards available, and passing cards to those who can’t reach them. Tonight that person was me – it does keep the game flowing, but leads to one mistake when I make my move too quickly, taking cards when I should have claimed Oklahoma City – Little Rock, that would have cost me if Fiona had stolen it (she didn't).
After this possible detour is avoided I’m able to complete my route into Nashville. It’s clear that I should be able to get into Phoenix from Denver without problems, so now I decide to concentrate on collecting set of wagon cards to score some 15point connections. The key moment (as it turns out) comes when I decide not to block Becky. She has Los Angeles – El Paso – Houston, and then claims Miami – New Orleans. (she already has Miami – Charleston. I could have (& should have) blocked Becky by taking Houston – New Orleans, but I mistakenly thought “blocking is rarely effective in four player”. This is incorrect reasoning – at the time Becky and I probably had the best positions, so I should block Becky, as she is in fact my direct opponent. (Note to self: do not underestimate Becky just because she displays too much cleavage and is almost innumerate). [Actually, I think I may have underestimated the importance of this play because Becky’s score at the time was incorrect – we discovered she was someway short at the end, when we recalculate the scores]
I end the game as quick as I can (completing a couple of 15 point routes and connecting from Denver into Phoenix), but it’s not quick enough to catch anyone with incomplete tickets – I’m one turn off stranding Tony with –20 points. By the end Becky has completed one large line of routes along the South and up the Western coast, and the 10 point bonus is just enough for her to beat me by a couple of points. Fiona is last, which disappoints her, but she had awful tickets, one semi decent ticket and a tiny 6 point ticket up the Western coast, that you have to complete by claming tiny connections, worth very few points.
Next time I see her I’ll have to explain the plan involving ignoring such tickets and playing to score 15 point routes and finish the game. I’m sure that would have been a better plan in her position.
After Ticket to Ride, to Becky and Fee’s obvious disappointment there isn’t enough time left to play Alhambra. Instead we play a couple of hands of High Society. The first sees Becky spend far too much early on a couple of Recognitions, leaving her very little to actually buy possessions with (she acquires the 3, but that only gives her a score of 12, which can easily be beaten). She ends the game the poorest (after also paying to avoid the Thief and Gambling Debts) and Tony wins.
The second game also starts with a Recognition, which I win. Becky then blows most of her money winning the 9 and the 8, but at least this gives her a total of 17, which she might be able to defend. This game goes long (the last four tiles are 7,10, -5 and the final Recognition), and is very close between Tony, Fiona and I. I win the 7, putting me in the lead, but then the 10 comes up, and Tony and I don’t think we can outbid Fiona, and the next tile ends the game, with Fiona winning. Becky is the poorest by a long way - $7,000,000 – but although I ended up with $32,000,000 I still couldn’t have outbid Fee for the 10, as I only had $1, $6 & $25 left. A good game – I think Fiona enjoyed it a bit too, although High Society doesn’t seem to be her kind of game. And it’s definitely not Becky’s kind of game – as well as too much adding, she seems to be unable to stop impulse buying!
Tony has to leave, but we decide to end with a quick three player game of San Juan. Nobody gets a dominating position, nor does anybody get totally left behind (which can be a problem in three player if both opponents end up doing the same things, leaving somebody odd man out), and the final scores are very close. Becky has twelve buildings for 32 points (Fee and I only managed eleven builds), I have a City Hall and Guild Hall for 33, and Fee has a City Hall and Palace for 35 points. Fee wins!
Now Fiona is away again for the next couple of weekends. Maybe we’ll be able to arrange something for the bank holiday Monday instead.
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