I only got 4 games in this week, and only 1 was new, but it was a big one!
:redtrain::greentrain::bluetrain::blacktrain::purpletrain:What Got Played?:purpletrain::blacktrain::bluetrain::greentrain::redtrain:
:d10-1: Jambo
Once again, Kelly managed to beat me in Jambo! I actually got a secondary market card pretty early on in this game, but was having trouble getting ware cards, so I just held on to it. Eventually, I played it for $6 (ouch) and was able to use it to gain some ground. I'm still learning to balance bad luck drawing cards with other actions in the game, so it can occasionally be frustrating. Despite my lack of wares early and mid-game, however, The game ended up with me only down by $4. I was unfortunately unable to make any money on my last turn, but then again, I probably shouldn't have discarded some of my utility cards from earlier in the game :) As always, I look forward to more Jambo, possibly throwing the expansions in for the next game.
:d10-2: Castles of Burgundy
Next up was a four played game of Castles of Burgundy with 2 new players! It was decided to go with random boards, so I was playing on the board with the large size-6 city in it. Unfortunately, before I even got my first turn, another player had snagged the yellow tile that allows you to have duplicate buildings in a city. Rats! I tried to focus on getting my big city filled a little bit each round instead of focusing 100% on fields and small regions early on. Fortunately, a whole lot of sheep came out mid-game and I was able to snag enough to fill my medium field! At the end of the fourth round, i just needed a bank to complete my metropolis, and as luck would have it, there was a bank! Unfortunately, I had all three of my depots filled with sheep, so I spent a couple extra workers in order to place sheep and then snag the bank. The completed metropolis catapulted me ahead on the scoreboard, but since I didn't have very many yellow tiles, the game definitely wasn't a runaway. I think that's the first time I've really done well with that board...
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:d10-3: San Marco
Another game of San Marco! I feel like I've got this one down pretty well. I wasn't able to get any additional bridges this game, but it didn't seem to matter. By constantly striving for second place and avoiding fights with stubborn players, I managed to win in the end.
I mentioned before that a downside to this game was that inexperienced players choosing piles could really give an unfair advantage to other players. While this is still true, it can be mitigated by additional plays. Lucky (or unlucky) card draws, however, cannot. There were several instances where a pair of players had a major advantage (in a four player game). While one pair would draw ok cards, the other pair would have 3 Doge cards to split up. In other cases, one pair would have very few penalty points to split up, and the other would be loaded with 3's. This can make a huge difference in a four person game, where going out first can mean a lot of lost headway. The game round may continue with three players for another turn or two, and then keep going with a two player round after that! So does this luck make it a bad game? Does it discredit my win? San Marco is still a fairly elegant game with a great concept. It's a bit more luck driven than I first thought, but I still think it's a great game. If you want a 100% strategy game though, you may want to look elsewhere.
:d10-4: Le Havre
Le Havre was the first new game of the week! We had a four player game with three new players. Le Havre is a highly rated game by Uwe Rosenberg in which you purchase or build various buildings to use in a resource production engine. There are seven turns in a round, with each player getting a turn to themselves. So in a four player game, one player will get one turn, and the rest will get two turns. Each player can collect standard resources (fish, grain, cows, iron, clay, wood) or money from depots that slowly fill up two different resources (or one and a coin) each turn. Buildings can be used to multiply resources or upgrade them by flipping them over so that they're worth more, or useful as food (grain -> bread, cows -> meat). You use resources to build new buildings, sell for money, and feed a number of people determined by the round card (dock workers? townies? people who work in your buildings? who knows). Eventually, players will be able to build boats that bring in guaranteed amounts of food each turn and can be used to ship goods for money later on in the game. At the end of the game, buildings are worth a certain amount of money, and the richest player wins.
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I ended up taking a loan early on so that I could buy one of the starting "build a building" buildings. While the loan was less punishing than At The Gates of Loyang, I ended up paying a fair bit of interest until I could pay it off. It wasn't actually that useful to own, since there were two free-to-place buildings out there, so I definitely wouldn't do that again unless I had enough spare cash that I wanted to lock in some VPs for later.
My next task was to start a little fishing engine to get enough food to feed the mysterious hungry people. I obtained a fishery and a smokehouse, which allowed me to catch and smoke fish for very little energy and generate a tiny bit of money and get enough food to last a couple turns. This engine, unfortunately, was unfortunately not sustainable, as the required food would keep increasing, and I wouldn't be able to accomplish anything else since I was spending an entire round fishing and then smoking. With my smoked fish giving me more than enough food for the early rounds, I decided to just grab some grain and cows so that they could multiply through harvests unattended.
I decided to solve my future-food dilemma by building ships. Unfortunately I didn't have a wharf, so I had to pay food in addition to wood or iron in order to build ships (steel was expensive, so I never even tried for that). While the initial payoffs were small, I managed to get three ships and basically never had to worry about food again.
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Later on in the game, I had a scrapyard that let me get end-game VPs for having resources left over, and I started to ship cows for money with my ships. At the end of the game, I ended up in second place with 141.
Let's start with the Uwe comparisons. I absolutely love Agricola: All Creatures and At The Gates of Loyang. Caverna is pretty awesome too, although feeding people can get a bit annoying there. My biggest problem with Caverna was that with a lot of players, the sheer number of available cave rooms was overwhelming. Next up in my Uwe plays list is Ora & Labora, besides the turn order, which for whatever reason frustrated me endlessly, I found ORa & Labora overwhelming. LE Havre, on the other hand, seemed a lot more straightforward as to what engines could do what. You need wood, brick, and metal to build buildings, you need energy to cook food and ship goods, and you need food to feed your people. That is, of course, an over -simplification, but after stumbling through the first couple rounds, you knew what resources you needed and how to get them (although getting them was not always convenient). The turn order was very clearly marked by the awesome looking cargo ships, so that was very rarely confusing. We must have messed up the turn order at one point through, since I went 4th (out of 4) and didn't go last (7*20/4 is an even 35 turns per player). It was sometimes difficult to keep track of what everybody's buildings did, but it wasn't overwhelming to the point where my eyes glazed over like they did in Ora & Labora. Then again, I was only looking at the top three visible building cards, and not at all of the splayed beneath them. Despite the frustrations of a first time game and the large number of building's around, Le Havre was surprisingly streamlined and elegant. Turns were a simple one or two actions, it was obvious what the resource types did, where they could be upgraded, and what benefits that would have. Sometimes it was fun to not take your planned move, and instead sweep a giant pile of resources off of the board, and other times, the player before you took the resources that you badly needed! These were definitely fun moments of the game, in addition to struggling together to feed mysterious people. Overall though, Le Havre is a slightly intimidating very strategic game with extremely little luck (there are special buildings that are hidden until they come out). It may not be my cup of tea, but if you're into tense economic games, I highly recommend it!
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It's officially August, so here's how my collection changed over the last month. Unfortunately, the percentages don't look wildly improved, which can be chalked up to the entrance of birthday games and Flash Point expansions. Wave two of the Kickstarter influx is likely to hit next month, so hopefully I'll be able to make enough progress that there will be a noticeable decrease in the unplayed games and unplayed expansion categories.
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:d10-1: Jambo
Once again, Kelly managed to beat me in Jambo! I actually got a secondary market card pretty early on in this game, but was having trouble getting ware cards, so I just held on to it. Eventually, I played it for $6 (ouch) and was able to use it to gain some ground. I'm still learning to balance bad luck drawing cards with other actions in the game, so it can occasionally be frustrating. Despite my lack of wares early and mid-game, however, The game ended up with me only down by $4. I was unfortunately unable to make any money on my last turn, but then again, I probably shouldn't have discarded some of my utility cards from earlier in the game :) As always, I look forward to more Jambo, possibly throwing the expansions in for the next game.
:d10-2: Castles of Burgundy
Next up was a four played game of Castles of Burgundy with 2 new players! It was decided to go with random boards, so I was playing on the board with the large size-6 city in it. Unfortunately, before I even got my first turn, another player had snagged the yellow tile that allows you to have duplicate buildings in a city. Rats! I tried to focus on getting my big city filled a little bit each round instead of focusing 100% on fields and small regions early on. Fortunately, a whole lot of sheep came out mid-game and I was able to snag enough to fill my medium field! At the end of the fourth round, i just needed a bank to complete my metropolis, and as luck would have it, there was a bank! Unfortunately, I had all three of my depots filled with sheep, so I spent a couple extra workers in order to place sheep and then snag the bank. The completed metropolis catapulted me ahead on the scoreboard, but since I didn't have very many yellow tiles, the game definitely wasn't a runaway. I think that's the first time I've really done well with that board...
:d10-3: San Marco
Another game of San Marco! I feel like I've got this one down pretty well. I wasn't able to get any additional bridges this game, but it didn't seem to matter. By constantly striving for second place and avoiding fights with stubborn players, I managed to win in the end.
I mentioned before that a downside to this game was that inexperienced players choosing piles could really give an unfair advantage to other players. While this is still true, it can be mitigated by additional plays. Lucky (or unlucky) card draws, however, cannot. There were several instances where a pair of players had a major advantage (in a four player game). While one pair would draw ok cards, the other pair would have 3 Doge cards to split up. In other cases, one pair would have very few penalty points to split up, and the other would be loaded with 3's. This can make a huge difference in a four person game, where going out first can mean a lot of lost headway. The game round may continue with three players for another turn or two, and then keep going with a two player round after that! So does this luck make it a bad game? Does it discredit my win? San Marco is still a fairly elegant game with a great concept. It's a bit more luck driven than I first thought, but I still think it's a great game. If you want a 100% strategy game though, you may want to look elsewhere.
:d10-4: Le Havre
Le Havre was the first new game of the week! We had a four player game with three new players. Le Havre is a highly rated game by Uwe Rosenberg in which you purchase or build various buildings to use in a resource production engine. There are seven turns in a round, with each player getting a turn to themselves. So in a four player game, one player will get one turn, and the rest will get two turns. Each player can collect standard resources (fish, grain, cows, iron, clay, wood) or money from depots that slowly fill up two different resources (or one and a coin) each turn. Buildings can be used to multiply resources or upgrade them by flipping them over so that they're worth more, or useful as food (grain -> bread, cows -> meat). You use resources to build new buildings, sell for money, and feed a number of people determined by the round card (dock workers? townies? people who work in your buildings? who knows). Eventually, players will be able to build boats that bring in guaranteed amounts of food each turn and can be used to ship goods for money later on in the game. At the end of the game, buildings are worth a certain amount of money, and the richest player wins.
I ended up taking a loan early on so that I could buy one of the starting "build a building" buildings. While the loan was less punishing than At The Gates of Loyang, I ended up paying a fair bit of interest until I could pay it off. It wasn't actually that useful to own, since there were two free-to-place buildings out there, so I definitely wouldn't do that again unless I had enough spare cash that I wanted to lock in some VPs for later.
My next task was to start a little fishing engine to get enough food to feed the mysterious hungry people. I obtained a fishery and a smokehouse, which allowed me to catch and smoke fish for very little energy and generate a tiny bit of money and get enough food to last a couple turns. This engine, unfortunately, was unfortunately not sustainable, as the required food would keep increasing, and I wouldn't be able to accomplish anything else since I was spending an entire round fishing and then smoking. With my smoked fish giving me more than enough food for the early rounds, I decided to just grab some grain and cows so that they could multiply through harvests unattended.
I decided to solve my future-food dilemma by building ships. Unfortunately I didn't have a wharf, so I had to pay food in addition to wood or iron in order to build ships (steel was expensive, so I never even tried for that). While the initial payoffs were small, I managed to get three ships and basically never had to worry about food again.
Later on in the game, I had a scrapyard that let me get end-game VPs for having resources left over, and I started to ship cows for money with my ships. At the end of the game, I ended up in second place with 141.
Let's start with the Uwe comparisons. I absolutely love Agricola: All Creatures and At The Gates of Loyang. Caverna is pretty awesome too, although feeding people can get a bit annoying there. My biggest problem with Caverna was that with a lot of players, the sheer number of available cave rooms was overwhelming. Next up in my Uwe plays list is Ora & Labora, besides the turn order, which for whatever reason frustrated me endlessly, I found ORa & Labora overwhelming. LE Havre, on the other hand, seemed a lot more straightforward as to what engines could do what. You need wood, brick, and metal to build buildings, you need energy to cook food and ship goods, and you need food to feed your people. That is, of course, an over -simplification, but after stumbling through the first couple rounds, you knew what resources you needed and how to get them (although getting them was not always convenient). The turn order was very clearly marked by the awesome looking cargo ships, so that was very rarely confusing. We must have messed up the turn order at one point through, since I went 4th (out of 4) and didn't go last (7*20/4 is an even 35 turns per player). It was sometimes difficult to keep track of what everybody's buildings did, but it wasn't overwhelming to the point where my eyes glazed over like they did in Ora & Labora. Then again, I was only looking at the top three visible building cards, and not at all of the splayed beneath them. Despite the frustrations of a first time game and the large number of building's around, Le Havre was surprisingly streamlined and elegant. Turns were a simple one or two actions, it was obvious what the resource types did, where they could be upgraded, and what benefits that would have. Sometimes it was fun to not take your planned move, and instead sweep a giant pile of resources off of the board, and other times, the player before you took the resources that you badly needed! These were definitely fun moments of the game, in addition to struggling together to feed mysterious people. Overall though, Le Havre is a slightly intimidating very strategic game with extremely little luck (there are special buildings that are hidden until they come out). It may not be my cup of tea, but if you're into tense economic games, I highly recommend it!
It's officially August, so here's how my collection changed over the last month. Unfortunately, the percentages don't look wildly improved, which can be chalked up to the entrance of birthday games and Flash Point expansions. Wave two of the Kickstarter influx is likely to hit next month, so hopefully I'll be able to make enough progress that there will be a noticeable decrease in the unplayed games and unplayed expansion categories.
