25/01/16: T.I.M.E Stories: The Marcy Case
[o]On Monday, my TIME Stories group met up for our third run on the Marcy Case. The first run seen us waste most of our time trying different codes for the bunker door; and the second run seen us grab a bunch of subjects, one of which must have been Marcy, and fail as we tried to go up river, running out of time. We knew from our first two runs that the prisoner found at the start of the level had some relevance to the Lab and the Forest locations, as there were two spaces that required us to have the prisoner with us. We first grabbed the prisoner from the streets and opted to take him to the lab; turned out that he was a zombie and started to attack us, turned out that this was a complete waste of time. Then we got a few supplies and went to find out what exactly was at the end of the river; turned out nothing, unless we had a certain token that we were yet to find. We really didn’t achieve much on this run, but did learn a bit more about what not to do in our fourth run. Still love this game though.[/o]
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25/01/16: Guilds of London
Next up, a prototype for Guilds of London, designed by Tony Boydell. I’m a big fan of another of Tony’s game's, Snowdonia; Guilds of London has a lot of the same element for me. There is a strong emphasis on timing, and making clever combinations of actions. The game has a euro style, but still plenty of interaction, and chances to screw other players over. Essentially, players will hire liverymen in the central guild hall, and will manipulate their positions around the various guilds, hoping of gaining majorities in a guild to trigger it’s effect, or hoping to get second place for a different bonus. The game will start with a certain number of guilds, and will then will increase by six more randomly chosen guilds on every third turn. Players take their actions using cards with several different functions; one of any card can be used to hire a liveryman, can be used to move a liveryman to a guild of a matching type, or can be used for the effect printed on the card, at times at the cost of using other cards in your hand. Players will get opportunities to take mayoral reward cards, granting them end game scoring opportunities. The game has a feature that I really like in regards to player order; which is played from the highest to the lowest scoring player. Being last to play is the strongest, as you have the opportunity to respond to the actions of other players; but being in that position means that you have the least amount of points, and need to catch up to the other players.
The game really is very fun; players will get the chance to trigger sequences of moves, but will at times get dicked by another player replacing their liverymen with black neutral cubes. Anthony has dubbed these ‘fuck you’ cubes. Getting used to some of the symbols in the game does take a little while with new players, but they start to make sense after a few turns. Andy kept finding clever ways to keep his hand full of cards using different combinations; Anthony and I focussed heavily on end game scoring cards, and Shonna became a little bit too obsessed with neutral cubes, holding six at one point. Ant and I scored well at the end, but not near enough to catch Andy up. Everyone seemed to love the game. This will be getting a full release this year; if you liked Snowdonia, I’m sure that you’ll love Guilds of London.
1st - Andy 68
2nd - Anthony 59
3rd - Allen 58
4th - Shonna 27
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25/01/16: Hexago Continuo
I got home after playing the previous two games at Andy and Shonna’s place; then Amie and I whipped out a few two player games. After getting smashed at Hexago Continuo last week, I thought that I would give it another shot; to try and redeem my pride a little. It was a really tight game, I was even ahead for a little while, but Amie pulled off some great moves late game to leapfrog me and win by a measly ten points. I was devastated, again.
Amie 338 - 328 Allen
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25/01/16: Qwixx
Amie chose the next game for the evening, Qwixx. She loves this little game; I'm starting to get a bit burnt out on it. Maybe it's time to invest in some of those crazy score pads that I've seen people use on the geek. I actually scored well in tonight's game, unfortunately for me Amie scored more.
Amie 88 - 77 Allen
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27/01/16: Penny PressFirst Play: Game
Wednesday evening now, and I attended my local board game meet up at the Bull’s Head in Warrington. I joined Craig for a few of his games this week, starting with Penny Press. This is a fairly light worker placement game about journalism in New York at the end of the 19th century. New stories come and go, players can place their journalists on the stories, with a hope to publish them before the other players get a chance to. Each turn, players can move their workers around the board, assigning them to the various news stories, or they can go to print. When a player goes to print, they take all of the news stories that they either have a majority in, or that they are tied with the other players, and attempt to build a front page in order to score the most points possible. Demand for different news stories will rise and fall throughout the game, and players will score points at game end for printing the majorities in the various news subjects.
The game looked superb; the components, the theme, the colours. Penny Press has an excellent table presence. Unfortunately the game itself felt very chaotic and unbalanced, and really didn’t end up being particularly fun to play. I don’t know if it was the fact that we were playing with the full compliment of five players, but I felt like I had very little control of the board; the points that are awarded fluctuate so much between turns, that it negates much of the need to plan ahead. It’s a shame, I went into this with high expectations.
1st - Ami 60
2nd - Allen 47
3rd - Rob 46
4th - Jan 45
5th - Craig 23
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27/01/16: NiagaraFirst Play: Game
Next up, another game from Craig’s bag, and another game that was new to me. Niagara is fairly old game now, released in 2004. Players compete to ride up and down a river in search of different gems. Players each have a set of seven tiles, numbered one through six, and one to change the weather condition. Players must simultaneously select one of their tiles to play that turn, then one by one, they reveal their tile and take their action. Players can not re-use a tile until they have worked through the full set of seven. At the end of each turn the river moves equal to the lowest number played, modified by the weather that turn, this is represented by clear disks being added on one end of the river pushing the others along, even pushing them off the waterfall at times. The game ends when a player has a certain combination of gems. Niagara reminded me very much of Montgolfiere in the way that it played, and like Montgolfiere, I loved the game. It had excitement, humour but still enough in the way of control and strategy to keep me engaged. a couple of different players got to the point where they had six gems, and needed a seventh to win. It was tight, but I managed to get my sixth gem at the start of a new round to win the game. I’ll definitely want to play this one again.
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27/01/16: At the Gates of LoyangFirst Play: Game
My friend Frazer spotted this on sale at Travelling Man in York for £25, and grabbed me a copy while he was there. This is an Uwe Rosenberg from the original harvest trilogy, though it is lesser known than Agricola and Le Havre. I set the game up at my desk when I got home from board game club, and played through a solo game in order to learn the rules. I cocked up a few times, and the game only started to make sense after a few turns. It has two main focuses; the first is to make the most out of your fields and harvest as many vegetables as possible, the second is to manipulate the various cards in the game in order to generate money. Money can be spent acquiring points on a players point tracker, each new part of the point tracker costs equal to the points that a player is awarded; for example getting to thirteen points will cost thirteen coins. However the first progression in the point tracker each turn will only cost one coin; so it is in a player's best interest to try and progress as far up the tracker to get the biggest discount to gaining points each turn. The game had some interesting concepts, and my first impressions are positive; however the flow of the solo game is very different to that of the full multiplayer game, so I’ll have to wait and see how this plays in a bigger group. First solo game saw me score 14 points, which I’m pretty sure is a poor score in this game.
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28/01/16: Glass Road
On Thursday I was sat in my office trying to get some uni work done, but after a while it started to burn me out, so I whipped Glass Road out for a quick solo game. The mistake that I often find myself making in the solo game is neglecting some of the end game scoring buildings if I don't like the look of them, rather than trying to build a strategy out of what is available. The buildings have no way of cycling in the solo game, so you have to put up with what you get. The first building that I spotted gave four points for having a 2x2 grid of woodland spaces at a fairly low cost, so I grabbed the building and started working on adding woodlands to my board. After I bought that, the next building to be added gave a point for each immediate effect building at game end; I built this followed by five cheap immediate effect buildings, some having very little effect other than points when they entered the game. To finish, I focussed on filling my supply of brick and glass for an extra six points. I ended the game on 26 points, not quite the 30 needed to ‘beat’ the game, but certainly a high score for me. This is still my favourite game to play solo; I think that single player might even be the best way to play Glass Road.
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29/01/16: Safranito
Friday evening, and Bobby joined us for a couple of games as he transitioned from day shifts to night shifts. We started the evening with a fairly new game to my collection. Safranito is a game that I tried at board game club and instantly liked, I knew that I had to get a copy for my collection. Players buy and sell spices in an effort to create blends from a collective pool of cards; the game has an economics element, in which players will try to buy spices low, and manipulate the markets to sell them at a higher cost. The first person to create three blends is the winner. The twist is that players take their actions by lobbing poker chips at a board with raised edges in the hope of landing on the action that they want; which nine times out of ten they won’t. In essence, Safranito is a dexterity game dressed up as a trading game. Bobby and I were absolutely awful, not only missing the actions that we wanted, but also missing the board entirely at times. Amie cruised to an easy win, making three blends before Bobby and I could make two. Love this silly game.
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29/01/16: Loopin' Chewie
Next up, a very quick game of Loopin’ Chewie, which is hard to adjust to when you have played Loopin' Louie so much. This game is built for three players instead of four, so the spaces between players is greater. We played multiple rounds using the tournament variant, and got to a point where everyone needed one more win to win the game; Bobby ended up being the one to win the game. I would probably play this game more, but Star Wars has been soured for me. Episode VII was just as disappointing as Episode I, totally ruined a franchise that was so close to my heart growing up.
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29/01/16: ...and then, we held hands.
Amie dropped out, so Bobby and I whipped out what is fast becoming one of my favourite two player games. Now that I am playing the game with the correct rules, it is much more enjoyable. This game is a two player cooperative abstract in which players must beat the game without discussing their moves with one and other; very unusual, but entertaining and engaging throughout. Bobby and I read each other's moves well in the early game, We nearly slipped up at the end of the game, but both managed to enter the centre space in balance to win the game. It almost felt a little bit too easy, but luckily there are a few advanced variants to try once you have mastered the base game. I highly recommend that you go out and try this wonderful game, I can guarantee that it is unlike anything else that you have played before.
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30/01/16: Caverna: The Cave Farmers
Saturday evening, which is now dubbed as Cow-verna Saturday in my gaming group. There were only two of us this week, due to an outbreak of deadly man-flu; but luckily Caverna handles two players very well, certainly better that Agricola does. This was the first time that I went into the game with a firm plan as to how I was going to play. I built some more caves, used the stone to buy a wood supplier, and used the wood from that to buy a stone supplier the next turn. My aim was to build a full set of dwelling and try to get a sixth dwarf, in order to trigger the Broom Chamber and get the ten point bonus. Somehow I managed to pull it off, due partially to the lack of blocking between players. Matt did his usual trick of arming his dwarfs and trying to level them up high for better rewards; though he struggled to build an effective food engine, and started to struggle in the late game. I managed a high score for myself, and Matt managed his lowest score. Regardless of how we played, I’m really glad that this game plays so well with two people. I have tried to play Agricola a few times with two, and it felt like a bit of a let down.
Allen 89 - 44 Matt
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30/01/16: 7 Wonders: Duel
Next up, a game that Matt and I have played together more than any other, despite it’s recent release. I got really lucky in this game, picking up all three of the yellow cards in age one that grant brown resources for one coin; and picking up both of the grey resource cards. This allowed me to build my wonders and prevent Matt from getting what he needed. He managed to get back into it later on, after building a few yellow cards, and having a way to generate money; but it was too little too late. I had grabbed all three of the guild cards, and scored a ton of points for the money that I had at game end. Controlling the yellow building is really the best strategy that I have used so far in 7 Wonders Duel. That makes the overall score 6-3 to me.
Allen 85 - 43 Matt
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30/01/16: NetzwerkFirst Play: Game
Netzwerk is a game that I picked up a while ago from a geek auction at a low price. The game has an odd look to it that I quite like; minimal and abstract, while still maintaining an industrial euro-game Style. Players take turns in navigating a randomly generated hex board with their pawn piece, picking up resource cubes; then spending their resources making links between the black spaces, representing cities on the board. As players link cities together, houses are placed to represent the number of links connecting each city together. I liked the game, it wasn’t too taxing on the brain, and had plenty of choices for players to make. On the last turn of the game I managed to connect the last city to my grid, scoring points for every city on the table. The game was good, but I suspect that it would be a lot better when played as a four player game.
Allen 71 - 51 Matt
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30/01/16: Trambahn
Next up, another great two player game. Trambahn is quick, simple and very satisfying to play. The game has so many different choices and strategies for players to make, but never seems to seize up to analysis paralysis. I have started playing the game in the same way now, focus on getting at least 12 points in each of the four scoring colours, then start saving up to make some huge four-times-points routes to play in the late game. I got ahead pretty quickly and managed to keep ahead for the entirety of the game; beating Matt by a comfortable margin. I'd highly recommend this for two player game fans.
Allen 187 - 133 Matt
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30/01/16: ...and then, we held hands. (x2)
Matt got a bit sick of losing, so opted for a cooperative game instead. We had been thoroughly beaten by the game recently, but had been playing with an incorrect rule. In the game, players may choose to achieve an objective, or they can leave it for the other player. We were playing it so that you had to get the objective on every turn; no wonder we kept losing. The first game that we played seen me make a massive cock up and lose the game. Matt ended his turn between two green spaces, I ended my turn with no green cards available for him to play. Determined to beat the game, we set it up again for another round; this time paying close attention to the cards in our hand for our partner to use. We beat the game, and with that ended the evening. I had a great night.
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Medici
I spotted this on Kickstarter this week. A new edition of Reiner Knizia's Medici with some great looking new artwork. I have played the game quite a bit in it's app form, but never in the flesh. I thought that it was worth a punt, as the game is fairly inexpensive at around £24 with P&P. Here is the link for anyone who is interested:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1986861668/medici
Matcha
aaaand while I'm backing Medici, I got the opportunity to throw this in for an extra £5. Damn Kickstarter, I fall for this stuff all the time. Tom Vasel speaks very highly of this game anyway, I thought that it was worth a go.
The Pursuit of Happiness
After spending so long away from Kickstarter, I ended up backing two projects on the same day. I already own the base game, which I grabbed from Essen, and which I absolutely love. I backed the $12 stretch goals pledge, which includes a bunch of new cards and a few new mini expansions. Hopefully we should see a few more open up before the end of the campaign. A link for those that are interested.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/241478362/the-pursuit-o...
