Spies, Prussians and Lanterns

This weeks quiz picture with a geek rating of only 3.85 is at the low end of the gaming spectrum however I would not dismiss this game out of hand, okay it is not for adults but it does have a lot going for it despite a lot of gamers criticisms which seem to forget the games target audience.

Last weeks game was Belfort by TMG, a territory control game which has some interesting mechanisms, the only downside is that it does have a long playing time but as there is usually something going on that you are involved in you do not notice the time pass.

The club had 3 tables on the go this week, table 1 started with Spyfall, the box contains numerous small decks of cards which each consist of one spy card and the rest showing the same random location, a deck is taken without looking at its location and 1 card dealt to each player. Only when a player first looks at the card will they know what the location is – all except the player who has been dealt the spy card – all they know is that they are the spy.

Each player in turn then asks a question of one other player a process which continues until the timer sounds, through this routine the spy is trying to discover where they are whilst the others are trying to guess who the spy is. There is a lot of fun in this game as players very warily ask one another searching questions in a non-obvious way.

Table 2 played Friedrich which is essentially a war-game based around events in and around Prussia of 1756. It is for 3-4 players and is all against Prussia each player with their own objectives (flags on the map). Please note I am not a war-gamer so if you enjoy wargames you will enjoy Friedrich, my comments are from a non-wargamers point of view.

Friedrich board with Prussia (the main player) in the middle

On their turn a player receives cards for their country from a deck (valued 1-13 in one of 4 suits) the amount of cards they get is dictated by the country they are playing, they then may decide whether to recruit some units adding them to their armies and then they get to move their Generals and supply stations on the map board after which they can engage any enemy General they are adjacent to.

A French General sitting on border of Hannover territory but will soon be heading for Prussia

Combat is simply the difference in the two players armies, then in turn the one with the lower value can play a card (or cards) until they have the higher value, then the other player can respond, this continues until someone gives in and loses. The loser loses a number of armies equal to the difference and gets retreated the same number of spaces by the winner. The interesting thing about combat is that a player can only play cards of the suit for the area they are in (as dictated by a grid overlay on the map board), so by watching what other battles are being fought you can deduce how weak an opponent is in a particular suit and therefore picking your battlegrounds can be crucial.

France pushes Hannover off the board - but they soon come back

The game ends as soon as someone has captured the areas flagged for them or if Prussia outlasts the other players. So how did it play? For me (playing France) it was a dull game, my choices were limited – not through bad choices, bad planning or bad play but by game design. My turns lasted no more than 30 seconds whereas other players turns were lasting between 2-5 minutes and at best I was actively engaged in the game about 1 minute in 10 – that is a heck of a lot of downtime. On the positive side it is an excellent re-enactment game accurately depicting the historical period, the combat system is interesting (though I have reservations here) and map movement tactical. It is well deserving of its high geek rating (brilliant game balance) and is positioned 39 on the War Games list out of over 7600 games.

Table 1 then moved on to Nations: The Dice Game, this is a nice dice rolling game with tight options.

Nations Dice Game Player board during era 2 of 4 eras.

It maintains a nice level of tension throughout and although derived from the highly successful Nations boardgame it plays in a quarter of the time.

Table 1 had finished their game and split into 2 groups, those that remained played The Little Prince: Make Me a Planet a tile collection game. Each turn a number of tiles are turned over equal to the number of players, then each player as nominated by the start player takes a tile, the last player becomes the next start player.

You are trying to build a planet with the tiles and you get rewards based on the persons inhabiting your planet and the number of objects that you have there that they like.

Those who went to table 3 started off with Madame Ching. Although I have still not played this one I am quite keen to give this one a go. Players on a turn play a card in front of themselves, the card played must be higher than those already played and while they are able to do this they move their boat across the board.

Madame Ching showing the remaining treasure tokens

When they can no longer travel they take a treasure from a square of a lower value than where they end up. Cards played can give extra bonuses from power cards to points boosts.

The next game table 3 played was Lanterns: The Harvest Festival a tile tessellation game, I like this one a lot as it ticks a plenty of boxes for me, matching patterns, planning in other players turns and resource management.

Lanterns part way through the game, match tile sides to collect resources

It is a pattern recognition game and no matter what you do you are always helping the other players so it also has a slight “do-good” feel about it.

I had been knocked out of Friedrich so I joined table 3 for their next game – Sushi Go!, I got hit badly in round 2 by collecting Sashimi only to then find the player feeding me cards was taking all the Sashimi first, fortunately I came back in the last round by dominating the puddings – I am a sucker for Ice Cream.

With most games ending there was a quick shuffle round and I joined a game of Zombie Dice on Table 1, this went the way most games go for me, but I do love the pimping of this game through the addition of skull beads.

Skulls as victory point chits for Zombie Dice

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Bees, Camels and a Panda

I am not a fan or area control games but this weeks quiz is one such game that I do enjoy playing and rate quite highly.

Last weeks quiz was one of my most favourite games Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization and holds the rank of 4th best Board game and Strategy game on the geek although I would rate it higher than Caverna.

Table 1 started the evening with Elysium, one of this years Kennerspiel nominees. I was on table 2 so did not get to play it and although not my sort of game I want to give this one a go sometime as it is being favourably reviewed everywhere and I feel it is important to step outside your comfort zone every now and again, you can be pleasantly surprised.

Table 2 started with a 7 player game of Camel Up, with some players being new to the game it was a slow start and with seven of us there was an element of luck. It was a good game but my usual incisive deductive abilities were very much absent on this occasion and I was one of the tail-enders with only 7 cash to my name at the end of the game, I would have been more successful if I had just taken the roll-a-dice option each turn.

We then split into two groups with Table 2 playing Takenoko. I like this game and although it is not the most exciting game in the world it has a good feel to it and plods along at a nice sedate pace with plenty of choices and options and not too much down-time.

My scoreboard at the beginning of the last round

If I thought my position in Camel Up was poor Takenoko put me to shame, going into the last round of the game I only had one scoring card on display scoring me 3 points – I had done appallingly badly.

Table 3 played Waggle Dance, this is a dice driven game where you use the dice as worker bees to do tasks around your own hives with the ultimate aim of changing flower pollen to honey, overall a nicely balanced game although the power cards (one of the options for your workers) does add a huge chunk of luck which is partially mitigated by both the shortness of the game and the variances in the usefulness of the cards.

A players hive with 2 bees making honey with purple pollen

The rules suggests a short, medium or long game, my advice is that the game plays at its best as the short version.

Table 1 had moved on to Nations: The Dice Game, this game has taken time to come to the UK, I have played it once when it was fresh from Essen and hit on a strategy that saw me win most resoundingly, I have since been waiting for my own copy to test my strategy further.

The game consists of rolling dice to purchase tiles from a display which provide further dice, Colonies, Wonders or Advisors. The dice are also used to feed your population and conduct wars, all with a view to collecting Victory Points.

Table 2 then played Bohn Hansa aka Bean Trader, this game was one of the games available in The Works earlier this year but has quite a low geek rating. The idea of the game is to travel around a province from City to City to trade beans for cash, the winner is the player who accumulates the most amount of cash. Players have a hand of cards which they play in a set order to undertake movement around the board, also in the hand are City cards which are required for the sale of beans but only whilst in the named city.

One of the Cities in Bohn Hansa showing several black beans and a green bean available

There is an element of card management but most of your decisions are driven by the city cards you draw and the only skill appears to be pushing for a trade with another player to get a small advantage. Our game worked quite well and it was interesting that the game end scores were quite close with first place and last place both tied (205 & 189).

Mid game situation in the other game of Takenoko - You will notice more points cards than I had

Table 3 decided to play Takenoko after table 2 had finished with it, their game was a bit more evenly matched than our game.

Table 3 moved to Pandemic: Contagion unlike Pandemic and its expansions this is not a co-operative game and sees the players playing different infections moving from city to city trying to accumulate more victory points than their opponents. It has a nice mix of card play and power – ups which makes this an ideal evening finisher with enough tactics and strategy to keep you thinking whilst playing time is short at about 30 minutes.

The last game played was Hanabi – sadly for me it was an early night and I know not how it ended though from our facebook page a gather the game won.

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Jump! Forbidden Island and Libertalia

After missing two weeks of reports (first a wedding and then too much gardening to do the second week) I am back this week with a full report of the evenings events. The number of regular attendees has increased and 3 gaming tables is now a regular occurrence and a particular thank you has to go to our Jaffa Cake Genie.

Table 1 started with a game of Parfum, this new game from Queen games is about rolling the right dice at the right time to get the right tiles to complete pots of perfume, I did not play it myself but I am left with the impression that this is mainly a luck based game (please correct me if I am wrong), nothing special but balanced and playable.

What perturbs me a little about this game is that it was released this month (June) but an expansion is due out next month (July) why was it not made part of the original release? Exploitation?

My table started the evening with a game of Jump!, I introduced it at the club last week and was glad that it got another airing this week. The game is played over three rounds with the aim of gaining the most victory points by parachuting your pieces as near to the edge of the beach as possible, falling in water though attracts negative points.

3 player game of Jump (last week there were 3 of us, this week 4)

Each round players are dealt a hand of cards, the players then place their pawns on the 2 planes on the board. On a turn the players select a card and play it face down, these are revealed one at a time and actioned. The majority of the cards are movement cards for the planes both forward and backwards, other cards allow you to jump from a plane, swap seats, prevent others jumping or even blow others off course when they do jump.

The game is about second guessing your opponents as to when to jump and to not end up in the sea yourself, it is meant as light fun game playing in about 20 minutes and for me is a perfect ice-breaker.

Table 3 started the evening with 7 Wonders and enjoyed it so much that they played it a second time.

One of the players positions in a 4 player game

Seven Wonders is one of those games that although the mechanics are easy to explain you do not quite see how the scoring works until the end which generally draws new players to want to play it a second time and with a game playing in about 30 minute this is readily achieved.

Table 3 moved on to Forbidden Island, this co-operative game requires the players to retrieve artifacts from an island as it slowly sinks beneath the waves. Each player has a different character which they move around the island using their special ability and their actions to prevent sinkage and collect pieces of the artifacts. I understand that a misunderstanding of the rules led to this groups rapid demise.

Our table had moved on to Concordia, similarly to 7 wonders the scoring and how it meshes together is a mystery until the game is over, however with a 90 minute playing time playing 2 games on the trot in a games evening is not an easy achievement. Concordia is basically a card driven resource gathering and area occupation game, played on a map where 12 provinces are marked out each with 2 or 3 cities therein.

Each player starts off with some cash, some resources, 2 dobbers on the board and a small deck of cards. On a players turn they play one of their cards on to their own discard pile and do the action written on it. Actions include resource gathering from a province, exchanging resources with the bank, purchasing more cards to add to your hand from a card row and expanding your influence. Expansion is not easy as movement is limited by the number of dobbers you have on the board and each building you place on the board costs resources and cash, money is tight as you have to pay cash to the bank for every other player that has built in a city before you. So how do you score? Each card in your hand has a God named at the bottom and each God will score for you in different ways, mainly through occupying Cities across the board so the route to victory generally lies in collecting as many cards and spreading yourself across the board as much as possible before the game ends.

Due to the cards and resources you initially end up with after your first few moves the game sometimes appears to be steering you as opposed to the other way round, the other hurdle to overcome is that it may take you three or four moves to build up the resources to expand or buy cards the wait to do this does feel like lost opportunities. Our game started well, I built a couple of big builds that left me no cash to do anything and my next expansion took place well after everybody else’s second expansion, the other players all new to the game were feeling their way round the game mechanisms and rules.

One of them took an early lead in expanding and I thought that this strategy was going to win the game as he was down to his last 4 houses whilst the rest of us still had about 10 in hand each, I am sure if he had managed to build those last 4 he would have won the game but he had forgone placing more dobbers onto the board and this lack of mobility hampered him and allowed the rest of us to catch up.As scoring is hidden until the end it was anyone’s game but a couple of last minute builds and card purchases gave me the edge. In retrospect I think I should have explained the points scoring a little better in the beginning but after 20 minutes of rules explanation I think it may have been “information overload” if I had gone into too much depth, but questions about how the cards were scored during the scoring process showed that I may have had an unfair advantage, so apologies to my opponents.

Table 2 had moved on to Augustus, I am afraid I know nothing about this game other than it is by author Paolo Mori who is also the author of the next game.

Table 2 finished the evening with Libertalia again a game I have yet to play but I am intrigued with the mechanics. Essentially a card game everyone starts off with the same hand of cards, on a turn everyone chooses a card which are revealed simultaneously, then in order (low to high) the special action of the card is carried out, then in order (high to low) each players takes treasure (or booty) from the ship Libertalia. Of an initial 9 cards, 6 are played and then scoring takes place, then its reset and played through twice more.

Table 3 finished the evening with Hanabi a co-operative “information” game which I am totally useless at. I believe from the cries of despair as we were leaving and that the system won on this occasion.

The quiz in the last post was duck! duck! Go! Best described as Roborally light, it is a fun game. This week I have gone with one of my favourite games.

In my opinion one of the best games of recent times

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Lanterns, Martians and Wizards

A busy night at the club this week with three tables in play. The first table started off with Madame Ching, in this game players play cards one at a time in front of them to advance a ship on a voyage, after playing a card they draft a new card from those on offer.

I have not played this but it sounded like fun with voyages providing many different rewards as well as points for the end of the game.

Table 2 had started off with Martian Dice a simple die rolling game, however as more people arrived the game was quickly abandoned.

Table 2 rapidly moved on to Roll for the Galaxy another dice rolling game, on a turn players roll dice to make money, explore, build new developments, inhabit new worlds and trade goods for money or victory points. The money is used to buy back used dice and you never have enough of it.

Table 3 started off with a new tile tessellation game called Lanterns: The Harvest Festival. The aim of the game is to collect victory point tokens. On a turn players play a square tile to the central display, the tiles all have coloured lanterns in each quarter and when you play a tile you get a card of the relevant colour for every quarter that you match with another tile.

Afterwards every player gets a card of the colour of the quarter that faces them of the tile that has just been played. Players collect cards to make sets either 4 of 1 colour, 3 pairs of colours or 7 different colour cards, these can be cashed in for victory point tiles, which are of decreasing value as the game goes on.

Game of Lanterns part way through, victory point tokens at bottom right

Special tokens can also be earned during the game and these allow you to change one card for another in the bank, however as the reserve of cards is limited you have to keep an eye on them to ensure flexibility.

Table 3 moved on to a game of Citadels, a game where the aim is to gain the most points, the points are shown on building cards the players build during the game. Each player has a hand of cards depicting different buildings, then each round they draft a character card which shows what role they are for that turn.

Each role gives various benefits and are always actioned in the same order, after a player does their action they may build a card from their hand. Most buildings will have a colour and an in-game benefit as well as giving points at the end of the game, so the sooner you can build the better you will normally do. Table 3 played 2 games of Citadels.

Table 2 moved on to something a little heavier and went for Pergamon, this tile gathering game has some nice mechanisms but does rely a little on luck for gaining cash which is the main driving mechanism for the game.

A couple of exhibits belonging to the red player

It is a really nice game but an unlucky guess can leave you penniless and limited in your actions.

Table 1 had moved on to Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre is a fun card game where you try to defeat the others in a comic battle to the death.

Table 1 finished off with another card game Red7, a game where you play out a hand of cards to rules that vary dependent on the cards played. I like the idea of this game however it is not a game where you can plan in other players turns, you have to wait until it is your turn before looking in to all the options, that for me makes it unnecessarily slow, so not my favourite – but I am in a minority.

You do not have to be quackers to play this game

Last weeks picture should have been very easy - it was the box lid of 7 Wonders . This week the picture is of a fun game that I will be bringing to the club soon.

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Trees, Casinos and Fireworks

It was a busy night at the club with 3 tables on the go. Table 1 started off with Elysium a game designed in Britain which is a set collecting game. It has received a mixed reaction but is currently enjoying a reasonable position on the geek listing and was enjoyed by those at the club.

Table 1 followed this with a game of Arboretum a card collecting game. On your turn you take two cards from the either the central deck or any of the discard piles (each player has their own discard pile), they then play a card and discard another, thus taking 2 cards and losing 2 cards a turn.

Regal Poinciana will score as there is a traceable run of increasing value cards between the 1 and the 5.

The cards you play are laid out in a personal grid with the idea of creating runs. At the end of the game you score for all runs, a run consists of cards adjacent to one another in increasing numerical value where only the start and end card need to be of the same suit. However a suite is only scored if you hold the highest total of that suit in your hand when the game is ended, normally a single card is sufficient however a final twist is that a 1 cancels out an 8.

The players control the speed of the game, taking from discard piles (always tempting) slows the game down. The game is interesting with some interesting tactics of which cards to hold on to towards the end of the game, the lovely artwork is also worthy of mention.

The first game on Table 2 was AquaSphere a Stefan Feld game, and as with most of his games you are taking actions for small gains whilst also trying to build up your position to obtain bonus points at the end of the game, the best route to victory is in creating extra actions of which there are several methods.

Sometimes his games can appear “bitty” or fiddly and Aquasphere is no exception with lots of options every turn, however there is a hidden logic to it all and it all fits together excellently. It is all a matter of balance which I failed to achieve and in our game.

Table 3 started off with something a little lighter, Lords of Vegas.

I have yet to play this game however the howls of laughter from the table where it was being played made me feel that I am missing something with a huge fun factor, so it is definitely on my list of games I must play.

Table 3 then moved on to Hanabi a co-operative game of deduction where each player sees every-ones hand of cards except their own. Through information given to you by the other players, which must contain a colour or number, about your hand (e.g. you have no green cards) you deduce what you hold in your hand.

The hand holder is not permitted to see this hand

As a group the players try to play their cards in numerical order onto coloured piles. Although a game of logic and deduction the play of the game does depend on the group playing it and a certain amount of latitude.

On Table 3 there was still time left for a quick game of Sushi Go! which has become quite popular and now leads the table of games played at the club.

After Aquasphere Table 2 teamed up with Table 1 to play a game of Buccaneer Bones, this is a simple game with only a few rules, there are tactics but they do tend to be led by the luck of the dice. You have a personal display with ships on numbers 1 to 6, on your turn you roll 4 dice and get one re-roll.

Reds Player Board with ships sailing to the Southern Islands looking for treasure

With 3 of a kind you can move that ship down 2 spaces and with a pair you can move the relevant ship down one space (eg two fours allows you to move the 4 ship down 1 space). If a ship is at the bottom and you roll its number on 3 dice you move it back to the top of your sheet and collect a treasure token the first to three treasure tokens wins.

Whilst ships are at the bottom of the sheet they bring extra in-game bonuses which you lose when they get returned for a treasure token.

The final game on our was Sushi Go!, well we did not want to miss out did we?

Last weeks picture was of a solo game of Roads & Boats a very nice game by Splotter which I can highly recommend. This weeks picture should be easy to deduce despite the poor picture quality.

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Medway Area Boardgamers