Spaceships, Dungeons and Railroads

I was a little late at The Style & Winch this week mainly due to the Star Wars creations affixed to the outside of the pub, I could not help but delay for a few minutes to snap some piccy’s.

The first game was already on the table as I walked through the door at the club, Welcome to the Dungeon, this is a “push your luck” game that invites all the players to enter a dungeon and combat its inhabitants.

Hero and all his bits

Only one hero will actually enter and the players jockey for the privilege to enter as that hero and win great rewards or stitch up one of the other players to enter and suffer at the tooth, claw and sword of its denizens.

The easy monsters of the Dungeon

The game starts with the chosen hero and his accoutrements laid out for all to see, these items will aid the hero in some way on his journey. On a turn a player has a choice of either to pass or draw the top monster card and look at it but hidden to the other players, they then have the choice of placing the monster in the dungeon or to nullify it by removing it along with any one of the hero’s items on display.

Some of the Stronger Monsters hiding in the Dungeon

In this way the hero either becomes weaker or the dungeon becomes more difficult, either way there comes a point where all but one of the players pass. At this point the hero/player plays through the deck of monsters in the dungeon using what items are left to defeat them. If the hero lives to the end they get a success card, if they perish they turn their crib card over. 2 defeats and the player is out, 2 successes and he wins the game.

Table 1 then played Flash Point: Fire Rescue an excellent co-operative game where players extinguish a fire in a burning building, the system works superbly mirroring how a fire spreads in reality.

Some of the characters from Flash Point Fire Rescue

Fireman grabbing a lift in an ambulance as the fire rages inside the building

In the base game players should win all the time, this game was played at the next level, however early control of the fire by the players made it a cinch, so much so that one of the players even had time to pop in and out of the building a couple of times to change characters a couple of times.

Table 2 played Russian Railroads of which I gave an overview a few weeks ago. This time it was a 4 player version and I found that everyone else was adopting one of the main strategies and for me it looked like the Moscow-Vladivostok was my best option. The player concentrating on Industry took an early lead over the first 2 rounds, a lead that promised to be quite strong. Another player was aiming for the bonus +20 token on the Moscow-Kiev rail, these two strategies meant that the train options were quickly snapped up leaving me to do rail building, however I was battling the third player for these and oft-times I was the second to choose.

My personal board layout at the end of Russian Railroads

The mid-game was dominated by the Industry builder and the Moscow-Kiev player, however having obtained their initial objectives trains were once again available but rails were becoming more awkward to obtain and my chances of completing the Moscow-Vladivostok line were dwindling fast. The final stages of the game saw some fine jockeying for position where I lost control of the Engineers (something I see as a game winner) but gained ground on the Industry track. All-in-all it was a close game, with points being fought for to the very end, most enjoyable. 

In the meantime table 1 had moved on to Race for the Galaxy, this is the card game of the dice game played last week (Roll for the Galaxy), it is a civilization building game where each turn players select one of seven roles, everyone gets to do that role and the chooser gets a small bonus (not dissimilar to Puerto Rico).

A players layout towards the end of Race for the Galaxy

I last played this about 7 years ago but it did not work for me, I found there was a lot to read on the cards and knowledge of what was in the deck and how the cards best interacted meant as a newbie to the game I had no chance. However I am in a minority as it is ranked 20 on BGG Strategy game list.

A few had to leave so for the last hour four of us sat and played a few lighter games. First was Mascarade, we found that last week we had got a couple of rules wrong. With the alterations I enjoyed the game a lot more, there was the same amount of chaos as last time and my memory still let me down but the deduction process worked a lot better.

The thief character from Mascarade who steals a coin from his two neighbours

We played a couple of games of this then finished off with a few rounds of Welcome to the Dungeon.

The quiz picture was of one of the cards out of Animal Olympics an excellent little card game of logic and luck. This week I have chosen a game from the slightly heavier side of my collection, typical playing time about 45 minutes per player.

The game being played above is a solo scenario

A Falcon, A Judge and A Grape.

It was a little quieter at the club tonight with only five attendees. However we were the only ones present to see some engine testing going on with the Millenium Falcon.

This wonderful model with working  banks of LED’s will be hanging over the entrance to the Style and Winch public house (the clubs home) during the Bank Holiday.

If you are in Maidstone you must give it a quick visit.

The first game on the table was Mascarade. In this game everyone is dealt a random character from a fixed set (so everyone knows which characters are in play) then each turn you have one action and there are three to choose from. Swap your card with another player, you take the character card of another player place it under the table with your own and shuffle deciding which card to give back to the other player.

The King grabs 3 coins on his turn

The second action is to look at your own character card. The third option is to claim to be one of the characters in play and undertake its action usually collecting a small amount of cash. With the third action the other players can challenge you, if you are found out to have lied you do not do the action, instead you pay a penalty, as does all false allegations as only the real character can make a true claim. When cards are revealed the next player must take the swap action.

The Judge and winning card in our game reaping 6 coins from the courthouse.

The aim of the game is to collect 12 coins. It is a very nice game of misdirection and mayhem, a healthy short term memory will help enormously, as will an ability to make deductions based on limited knowledge.

The next game was Viticulture, the second release from Stonemaier Games – the first being Euphoria. It is a worker placement and resource management game with the aim being to get 20 victory points. Each round of the game is split into two, a Summer phase and a Winter phase with two small admin phases of Spring and Autumn. The start of each round is taken with choosing turn order, the later in the round you are willing to go the greater the reward you get. Each player starts with 3 workers which they can place on the board in one of the 2 zones which is in play, actions consist of collecting cash, collecting grape vines (for planting), planting grape vines, building a special building, playing special action cards or selling grapes for cash.

The Cockerels on the left indicating player order

If you are the first player to take an action you get a small bonus. If you have any workers left after the Summer Phase, they can be used on the winter side of the board, these actions are gain a worker, harvest grapes, turn grapes into wine, play a special action card, collect a wine order or complete a wine order.

The main board at games end with green winning and my blue token tailing badly

It is the completing of wine orders that gives you the much needed victory points in the game but it is not a quick process, first you need to obtain grape vines, then plant the vines, then harvest the grapes, then change the grapes into wine, obtain an order then finally complete the order. The game follows logical steps, the various buildings you can build assist in various ways and picking up bonus cards can really help boost your actions; the whole game is well rounded and requires a certain amount of pre-planning.

The orange players home-board, the glass beads indicate grapes harvested on the left and bottles of wine on the right

As to tactics all I can suggest is do not take chances I gambled my first few turns on getting bonus cards only to find that they were useless in the early stages of the game, in the meantime others had planted vines and grapes growing, gaining extra workers is only useful if you need the actions otherwise the money is better spent on buildings and cash is very tight so wise usage is necessary. Overall an excellent game, highly recommended      with my only reservation being the luck which the cards bring to the game a good rate of turnover however should mitigate this.

Last weeks quiz was guessed by Beresford at the club (well done) it was Small World. The next one is another easy one if only because it is the cutest picture I have come across in all my years of gaming.

The cutest card in the boardgaming world

Cake Eating, Dice Rolling and Power Supplying

This week was the 1st anniversary of the Medway Area Boardgamers so congratulations to us and BQ our founder. Here are some stats that I posted on the face book page :-

The anniversary cake - guess the 10 games.

In total we have played 236 games involving 141 different titles from 108 different authors. Reiner Knizia leads the authors table having his games played 17 times through 11 different titles. In relation to boardgamegeek ratings the mean average rating of games played is 6.88, the highest rated was “Terra Mystica” at 8.26 whilst the lowest was “Schnarch Schnarch” at 4.33. Biblios, Sushi Go! And Midnight Party were the 3 most popular games. It is worth noting that only 5.6% of the titles had a Pirate theme. We opened with the cutting of the cake, 10 games are represented all of which have been played at the club (list at end of report), our founder also provided a scrummy selection of cup cakes.

With 10 people we split into three tables. Table 1 opened with Dominion, this deck building game is very popular and has a large number of expansions. The idea of the game is to collect more victory points than the other players, you start off with 10 cards and draw 5, most of the cards are cash cards and these are used to purchase cards from the table which are either more cash, action cards or victory point cards. The skill in the game lies in two places, firstly correctly deducing which action cards work well together and secondly timing when to go for the victory point cards as although they are the key to winning they have no other effect other than to clog up your hand.

Table 3 went with Ciúb  which has proved quite popular at the club although I have yet to play it.

My table started with Roll for the Galaxy a recent release from Rio Grande Games. Based on the card game Race for the Galaxy it plays quite differently and to my mind is a neater and smoother game (although a nightmare to explain). The basic concept is simple, roll some dice and dependent on their faces assign them to different jobs, do those jobs and get rewards which will hopefully be victory points and/or more dice.

Game end scoring for RED - 20 trade points, 9 points for Worlds and 12 for Developments and 4 bonus points for the 6+ Development.

Now for the complications of which there are a few but they meld together nicely to make a very interesting game. The first is that the dice once used go into your spent pile (citizenry) you can only get them back into your cup with cash and that is not easy to come by, the last thing you want is to get caught in a cash trap whereby you only roll 1 die a turn. The second complication is that for the worker (die) placement you may only choose one primary job, any dice placed in the other 4 action fields only take effect if someone else chooses that job as THEIR primary action, so there is a level of second guessing what your opponents may choose as their primary role, fortunately any unused dice go back in your cup for the next turn.

4 Rockets are chosen as the primary action here. The die rolling and job choices all take place behind screens and are revealed simultaneously. 3 options are secondary and will only occur if another player chooses them as a primary choice.

What you are trying to do with your jobs is build worlds (tiles) and developments (reverse of the tiles) for victory points and additional benefits, you are also trying to trade goods for cash or victory points. The fun comes from setting up a worlds and developments which will work in your favour better than the other players constructions whilst also keeping a good turnover of dice going. This game is well worth playing and I am glad to have added it to my collection.

After our first games there was a little swap round between some of the tables.

As this was a 3 player game only 3 areas are used, the black houses delinate the edge of the playing area.

Table 1 moved onto Power Grid which proved to be a colourful and interesting game.

Table 3 had moved on to Sewer Pirats, this is quite a nice game which I am now keen to get, especially when you hear across the room “I can’t score my teddy bears without a Parrot”.

Our second game was Samurai  by Reiner Knizia, down to 3 players this was quite a tense affair as we jockeyed for position around the various cities and towns.

The island of Honshu and a Buddah and a Rice Field to claim.

The idea is to collect various totems by holding a majority around the cities holding them, however the end scoring relies on having an even balance of totems whilst having a clear majority in one of them, because of this the real winner is always in doubt until the very end.

Table 2 finished with a quick game of Spellcaster  (4 player) described a few weeks ago.

Our table finished with Drunter und Druber , a fairly light hearted game of destroying toilets whilst protecting your buildings, however only you know which buildings are yours. I managed to lose this game spectacularly by having no points at the end, zero, not a thing.

The road is all lined up to destroy the 4 point Clocktower and the toilet will only delay the inevitable.

The games on the cake were :-

Castle Panic, Tsuro, Takenoko, Cacao, Korrigans, Splendor, Sushi Go!, Heck Meck, Midnight Party, Black Fleet and a generic die.

Last weeks picture puzzle was Chaos Marauders from Games Workshop. This week I have gone with something a little easier.

This time a game box with all the important bits chopped off

A Year Of MAB!

On 23rd April 2014, history was made in the centre of Maidstone: the very first meeting of the Medway Area Boardgamers took place.    Since then, barring a few exceptions for holidays and the like, we've met every single week for a year!   Courtesy of the illustrious Kent Gamer, and his redoubtable record-keeping and statistical skills, we know that:

• The first games played at the club were “Heck Meck” and “Kingsburg” on 23rd April 2014.
• In total we have played 236 games involving 141 different titles from 108 different authors.
• Reiner Knizia leads the authors table having his games played 17 times through 11 different titles.
• In relation to boardgamegeek ratings the mean average game rating is currently 6.88, the highest rated game was “Terra Mystica” at 8.26 whilst the lowest was “Schnarch Schnarch” at 4.33.

Pretty amazing, I think.   Thanks so much to all who've come along, and here's to the next year of boardgaming fun!

Pirats, The Dark Titan and Circuses

Seven of us were there for the start so we had 2 warm up games going, table 1 went with Love Letter a nice game of deduction.

Our table went with Pickomino also known as Heck Meck a nice dice rolling game where you are trying to collect worms on tiles (victory points).

End scores in a 3 player Heck Meck - sometimes the dice do not roll favourably

It is interesting to note that this was (from my memory) the first game played at the club and it is the clubs first anniversary this coming week.

Table 1’s next game was Sewer Pirats, the game is about collecting treasures, however the crew of the ships collecting the treasure are rats and their treasure is the flotsam of the sewers.

The three boats

On a turn players play cards from their hand to place one of their pieces onto a ship or advance one of their crew on a ship or even take the captaincy of a ship at which point the ship sets sail and collects the flotsam in front sharing the treasures among the crew.

Some of the miniatures

The game played quite nicely and all enjoyed it and it certainly has some cool miniatures.

My table went with one of my favourite resource management games Drum Roll the theme is that each player is running a circus and through putting on shows collects victory points these are earned in-game as well as through game end bonuses.

Some of the performers

Every player has 3 action tokens which they place on various job roles on the central board. Actions are to sell tickets (collect cash), collect equipment (coloured cubes), seek investment (take an investment card), hire a performer or hire personnel.

A sample of additional personnel in Drum oll

It is the performers that the game mechanics are centred around, each one can be of five different types Animal Tamers, Acrobats, Jugglers, Magicians or Bizarre (eg Fire eaters), they all bring different types of bonuses to your circus and earn you victory points, the downside is that they must all be paid when it comes to putting on a show (there are 3 shows in each game), fortunately after you collect the bonuses. Each performer has 3 levels of accomplishment, each level is bought by using the equipment cubes, when a performer reaches level 3 they may be flipped to become a permanent performer.

A sample of the Investment cards

When you flip a performer three things occur, first you collect victory points for that performer, secondly you lose the abilities of that performer, thirdly their costs drop to one and they remain with your circus for game end scoring. Overall I really like the tightness of the game with cash and resources and it is certainly very colourful.

Table 1 had moved on to Castle Panic with The Dark Titan expansion, if you have not played Castle Panic it is a good fun co-operative game whereby the players defend a castle against the advancing fantasy hordes, the mechanism is so popular that there are 2 further spin-offs Munchkin Panic which includes collecting treasure cards and Dead Panic where the players fight off zombies, all 3 are stand-alone games.

The walls still standing at Castle Panic after some lucky tile drawing

Meanwhile Castle Panic ’s second expansion has just gone on sale with Wizards Tower being the first has just released its second expansion The Dark Titan. The new monster is a double sided counter with 8 hits, the biggest monster in the base game was a 3 hit Ogre, so the Dark Titan is fairly powerful.

The Dark Titan in Castle Panic

The game played at Table 1 went very well for the players, the attacking monsters are drawn from a bag at random and in their game the drawing timed perfectly with the combat cards they had in hand which meant when the Dark Titan came onto the board all other foes had already been vanquished allowing them to deal with him fairly easily. I have found that Castle Panic has a nice balance between fun and tension and I recommend that anyone into fun games should give it a try.

Table 2 finished off with Sushi Go! ensnaring a would be leaver to stay for “just one more game”. It was a good evening of gaming and for me it was nice to play Drum Roll as it had been about a year since I last played it.

Last weeks quiz photo was Cloud 9, an excellent brinksmanship game, there are 4 colours used in the game and cards to match, the photo was of three of the cards, green was the missing colour. This weeks quiz photo is from a game over 20 years old, see if you can get it without the aid of a search engine.