Games Day at Dave's: Robo Rally, Samurai, El Grande

December 2nd

I've settled into a couple of regular, monthly gaming events since I came down to NC, and Dave's is one of them. I really look forward to gaming with this group. It's a nice size (7-10), and everyone is generally friendly and interested in strategy games. I'd like to get in the habit of visiting a local gaming store, but All Fun N Games just seems a little too far away on a Thursday night, and I haven't been too tempted to return to Sci Fi Genre Mondays. Even though my Monday night soccer practice has ended, I guess coaching wrestling has lessened my ability to game on weeknights. I had really hoped that, by now, I'd have settled into a regular schedule of gaming.

Games are important to me. I really enjoy the mental activity, as well as the socialization. However, somehow, the hobby still maintains an aura of triviality when I'm trying to prioritize activities. It would certainly be different if Kristin played. With her rigorous grading responsibilities, we really have to take advantage of the time she's able to relax a little. If she gamed, well, that would move gaming up the scale considerably. Since she doesn't, It really limits my availability. Of course, work gets in the way too! With this in mind, I'd really like to get into a weekly groove that both of us could expect. The way things have gone here, with me travelling to people's game nights, which are usually monthly, I presume it would look like this: One week at Rick's, one week at Dave's, one week at AFnG, and one week at Larry's. Possibly, an event of my own, either at home or at Broad Street Cafe, would replace one of the last two. I'd like to run a monthly invitational day for a lot of the classic/longer play games that I own, that don't see the table much. I'm sure I've expressed that before...

On to the day at Dave's:

Robo Rally

I was late to arrive. I'm still getting used to the area, and some construction forced me into an alternate route. With my mind on other things, I took some wrong-turns executing my new plan, and ended up quite late. Thankfully, I got there just as Rick was entering the final part of his explanation of the Robo Rally rules, and I'm pretty familiar with the game. It's funny, to me - this game, that I consider a classic, had only been played by 3/7 (I think) of our group of gamers. I guess it's just a testament to the number and variety of great board games on the market.

I sarted off with the "revive without damage" add-on, which I joked would be worthless to me, as I wouldn't die. Chris had the valuable "crab-walk" add-on, and Shanthi had the cool big gun, the recoil of which can give you extra "back-up" moves. We played four flags on two boards. It ended up being a little crowded with seven. In particular, the second flag proved a sticking point, surrounded by a pit, with multiple nearby conveyers, pushers, and flamers. I was in good position to hit the flag first to third, but then Keith pushed me off the conveyor and messed up my program. I also got shot up pretty bad, and decided to power down carrying four damage. Unfortunately, my program got messed up again, and I ended up powered down IN a flamer, which hit me for four on my down turn. I crawled out and PD'd again, this time to worse results - pushed into a pit! So, my add-on came in handy after all.

After revival, I got bashed around and shot up and killed again, as I tried to approach the flag from the wrong direction. On the third try I finally got the second flag, while the leaders were hitting the third. I decided to race it out instead of going after the leaders. I might have done the latter, except that we had several new players and the game was really running a bit long for my taste, and I wanted it to end. I made my way toward flag three, as several others were shot-up badly and/or killed. Keith, the first to hit flag two, was in a bad way, on his last life, stalled in PD and getting shot up en route to flag 3. Chris had managed to stay clear of the action, and made it out of flag 3 in style. Leaving us in a cloud of exhaust and fragmented laser crossfire, he got good cards and raced to flag 4 essentially uncontested and claimed a deserved win in a well-played (by him) game.

Nobody was ready for another seven-player marathon, so we split into groups of three and four. The four group consisted of people who wanted to play Lowenhertz. I wouldn't have minded playing again, but since they already had three who were very interested, and Chris needed to teach, I sat out. Lori and Rick and I went through the available games, and decided on Samurai.

Samurai

I've played this game several times, to mixed results (regarding my personal success, not enjoyment). Lori had played before, but Rick hadn't, so we went over the rules quickly and got going. We used random tile draw, which I prefer, especially with new players. I drew a few things early that I'd prefer to draw late, including my tile switch, my ronin, my recycling tile, and my 2 strength navy. This resulted in me jumping out to an early lead, with six trophies compared to two each for my opponents. However, using the tiles for bigger moves in the North had resulted in me not developing presence in the South. At that point, almost any move I would make in a developed area would result in an easy capture for either of my opponents. On the other hand, the game was far enough along that any placement on the third island, which contained only religion and politics, might be wasted as the game would probably end on agriculture. I went with placing my samurai on the island, alone, where they never captured me a piece. Lori and Rick caught up and passed me, and, when the game ended, although I had more pieces than Rick, I didn't have a single majority and finished in third, with Lori winning on a strong rice majority and the largest number of pieces tiebreaker. Good, fun, medium-weight thinking, and still one of my favorites. Lesson learnedv - be certain to get spread out, and save those free tiles for really big moves!

El Grande

There were a bunch of games on the table from before, and when someone suggested El Grande, I certainly didn't hesitate to agree. I haven't played this in a while, and have been wanting to run it. I've never played with three, so this was new to me. I was suspicious it might not work, wondering that there might be too much space on the board.

I shouldn't have worried. The game played out very well, everyone vying for influence on as many fronts as possible. I got myself spread out early, content to get a caballero in every available province. Lori and Rick were pipelining caballeros to the table, upping their presence on the board. I was slower, opting to take an intrigue card on the second turn, to set up scoring opportunities. I moved some of Lori's men out of her home territory, and put mine in, then, as I was going last, I guaranteed myself first chance at the King in the next (last before scoring) round. That let me move the King away before anyone could move in, locking the territory (as well as my home territory) for me, and dealing a pretty big blow to Lori, from which I never recovered. I think I messed up a little doing this. It biased Lori against me for the rest of the game, and my execution of the maneuver kept me from doing the same thing to Rick later - I moved Lori's pieces into Rick's home space, trying to start an escalation battle between them (it was the most valuable start space - 7 to Lori's 6 and my 5). This ended up backfiring as I couldn't take the space by moving Rick's caballeros out and mine in - Lori would still have a lot. Also, it made it one of the most populated spaces when that scoring card came around.

In the second round, I played essentially the same, using an intrigue card to set up scoring opportunities, and then working to grab the King on the last turn. Unfortunately, Rick played his 13 for first, but he didn't take the king, preferring, I think, as scoring opportunity. This let me make some decent scores with relatively small presence, again. At this point, I had pulled a pretty sizeable lead of 16 points or so over Rick, and maybe an additional 8-10 over Lori.

The superior numbers they had on the board started to pay off in the third round, as I was unable for contest for several of the bonus scoring cards that came up, including the 6/7, which gave them both points, as well as the most caballeros in region(s), which gave them both a pile. Rick caught up with, and passed me, on the second bonus score. Fortunately, in the final scoring round, my positioning and constant pre-scoring possession of the King paid off again, and I managed to overtake Rick ftw.

I really enjoyed both of these games, and had a fun afternoon. It was great to be able to play long games, for several hours, with no worries about getting up for work the next day. I would have stayed, and played a couple more games, but it seemed like a good night to head home early and get some dinner out with Kristin. After some nice chatting about games and life, I did just that, and had a great, relaxing evening to cap off a full day.

GG, GL,
JW

Saturday at Ravindra's: Antiquity, Das Zepter Von Zavendor

November 18th

I'm going to start out by thanking Chris, who is one of few people who has really responded to my efforts here. It really is nice to get some actual feedback. Maybe someday, there will actually be some game-related discussion here... Recently, I was very excited, noting that there were five responses (a new record!) to one of my posts (the one about online gaming). Unfortunately, only one post (Chris's) was genuine, with three others being solicitations for some sort of money making scheme, and one being a greeting from an individual who shares my name. Sigh. Back to gaming...

Occasionally, discussion on one of the game-related mailing lists I subscribe to actually culminates in some game-playing. So far, both times have been trips out to Ravindra's place, which is always a treat. Ravindra has an excellent collection that never ceases to provide quite a conundrum - what to play? Several recent acquisitions were offered to the table, and, since all present were strategy gamers who don't mind a long play, we grabbed the chance to engage in a game of that variety, and chose Antiquity.

Antiquity

This is another offering from the designers of Roads & Boats, put out by the same Dutch company, Splotter Spiele. This is a sort of mini-civ building game, involving constructing cities, gathering and managing resources, and damage control. It's a "big" game, with a modular, changeable board, and tons of chits. It looks, honestly, like a bit of a monster. And it is.

In Antiquity, you start with one city. You use your workers to go out and get resources: food/fish, stone/wood, luxury goods, that sort of thing. In turn, you use these items to build new stuff: more resource gathering, inns to expand your control area, new cities. New cities give you more space to build more stuff. The whole time, you produce pollution, ruining the land in your control area. At some point, you need to start working toward victory. You build a chapel, dedicated to one of four saints, each of which gives a different special power, and dictates a different victory condition. When you satisfy that condition, you win.

Most of this game seems to be played solitaire. You start off pretty isolated, and it seems it should take a while to really run into someone. We spent most of the early game just worrying about staying alive, playing almost cooperatively. We shared information about what buildings we thought we should build, ways of dealing with polution and famine, and wondered if we shouldn't have all went out exploring right away (immediately increasing the famine level).

We kept referencing the rules, and generally had things figured out, and kept playing. I didn't really feel like victory was really in sight for anyone, and it didn't seem that all the victory conditions were even really viable. Maybe I just need to play more. I certainly learned one important lesson: DON'T RUN OUT OF WOOD. The game suggestions mention this. And I even read them, aloud. Yet, I did it. I just flat out forgot. This basically stranded me, barely holding on, until Greg took pity on me, built a market, and traded me some wood. Ravindra had to go out for a while, so we decided to just solitaire through the last few turns. Brian was the only one who looked like he could realistically win in a few turns, especially with Ravindra out of the picture. I just wanted to see if I could find a way to stabilize my position and move forward. Brian just called it quits. Well, to make the story end more quickly, Greg found his way to victory, and I figured out how the alchemist worked, and the game, well, ended.

Brian had to go, but Ravindra returned, and the three of us were up for another one. We didn't want to play anything too heavy (Antiquity is a bit of a thinker), or too long (it was getting late). Ravindra pulled down Das Zepter Von Zavandor, which he claimed would "definitely probably finish in around two hours" (which did much to encourage Greg and I...).

The Scepter of Zavandor is a game about accumulating fairy dust and magic gems, to buy more magic gems, to get more magic artifacts, to get more gems, and advance your knowledge of certain things, which gets you more gems, all of which gets you some victory points. At a certain point, you use your fairy dust to buy yourself some sentinels, which give you more victory points, and when enough of them have been purchased, the game ends. There's a lot of game here, and a fair amount of theme. Resource management, auction for artifacts/sentinels, and a sort of tech tree. THis game realy didn't grab me, though. We had a pretty good time playing, and took turns running in the lead. There's a payment penalty for being in first, less for second, so later players get to "draft" off the leader, and judge the best time to surge forward. Ravindra did this, made a ton of money from monopolizing diamonds, and then went #1 with a bullet, repeatedly, consecutively, buying big sentinels.

Scepter is, for me, perhaps prone to a runaway leader problem, despite the handicapping mechanism. If someone makes a lot more money, you really can't stop them from getting what they want, which directly prohibits you from getting it. I'd heard good things about this game, but after this play I haven't found anything to encourage me to seek it out again any time soon.

GG, GL
JW

Game Night at Rick and Marnee's: Robo Rally, Antike, For Sale

November 17th

People were a little slow to arrive at this edition of the monthly gamefest at Rick's. We stood around a while and talked games, while another few people sat in the basement and discussed, I think, nitting. After about half an hour, we finally got enough people to get Robo Rally going, and we hit the factory floor.

Robo Rally

We had six for this: Rick, myself, and four new players. We explained the game and got to racing. We were playing the first edition, using expansion boards. I don't know if I've discussed this game before or not. It's a Richard Garfield (MtG) classic, which involves drawing cards which have movement options on them, and using them to program a robot who's racing through a factory with elements that will effect movement - conveyor belts, pushers, crushers, spinners, pits, etc.. It generally involves a lot of humorous interaction, as people mess up their own or others' programs. The game got off to a good start, with almost everyone taking advantage of board elements to enhance their movement. Many of us capitalized on a long oil slick. About two thirds of the way to the first flag, things got interesting, with some miss-moves and collisions resulting in pushes. Rick made it to the flag very efficiantly, while I got stuck moving back and forth facing another player, shooting each other at each phase. This was, as RR usually is, lots of fun. However, at this point in the game, Ravindra and Chris were starting up Antike, which I really wanted to try, so I bailed out. I usually won't (almost never) abandon a game. However, RR is a game you can get out of without really affecting other players' enjoyment/position, so I didn't feel too bad about it. I don't know who won, but I know they had so much fun they played another round, with more players.

Antike

There is a newish Rio Grande reprint of this German game, for which Ravindra owns the original. I don't know the designer off the top of my head. This is a sort of civ building game, with a very small tech tree. It uses an interesting rondel (sp?) for action selection - you get one power/action type per turn, and you can choose any with in three spaces of you, or you can pay to move further around the circle (something I should have done, at least once, but didn't). You can harvest different raw materials, build different things (temples/units), or move/attack. You score points from accomplishing a variety of different goals over the turns, and play until someone hits nine points.

There was a lot of solitaire play in this, as each player is pretty isolated. It really seemed to me that you spend most of the game just doing what's best for you. There is a race element, for different victory points/tech powers that drives some consideration of opponents, but there's not too much negotiation/direct conflict. Ravindra jumped out to an early lead, and pretty much stayed there. I made a huge mistake in the last round, when I could have paid to take a victory point that would have moved me out of my tie for last, and kept him from winning that turn. However, I knew I was going to score something else, and didn't see his impending victory. The pacing of this game is important - it's hard to score, and especially hard to score multiple points in a turn, so you really have to keep up. Ravindra was first, Scott was two behind in second, and Chris and I were a point behind him, in third/fourth. This was pretty fun, and came in at about two hours. I'd play again, although it won't be near the top of my list.

For Sale

Chris and Ravindra and I sat around chatting about games for a while, waffling on playing another game. Chris was ready to go all night, but Ravindra and I were feeling the call our respective beds. We decided on a quick filler, while Chris waited for the second RR game to finish.

For sale is a game of investing in real estate properties. Each round, a number of houses equal to the number of players are put up for big. Each has a unique value, which will determine, to some extent, how much it's worth at the end. There is an auction phase, in which the first to pass takes the lowest, the high bidder gets the highest, and the second to pass pays half his bid, rounded up, and takes the second highest card. After all the houses have been auctioned, there are several rounds in which checks are turned up. Each player makes a hidden bid of one of his properties. Highest value property gets the high check, second high value gets second high check, and so forth. After all the checks have been handed out, you count them up, add them to remaining starting cash, and the person with the most money wins. Chris had $81, and Ravindra and I tied at $86. Ravindra won the tie breaker of having the most starting cash left. A fun little filler. This is a type of game I think my collection is a little weak on, so I might try to pick it up.

With that, I made my way out the door, a little jealous of Chris, Rick, and some others who were setting up Power Grid.

GG, GL
JW

Game Night at Dave's: Maharaja (PBiI), Winner's Circle

November 7th

Again, I'm lagging behind. It seems that my first impulse on sitting down at the computer is to open WoW. No, it hasn't worn itself out yet, although I can see my interest waning a little bit.

So, back to boardgaming... The all-too-infrequent game night at David's place rolled around on the calendar, and I was happy to work my way down to the South side of town for some pawn pushing.

This is usually an event for strategy games, so I brought some relatively new acquisitions I'm hoping to get on the table: Union Pacific and Volldampf. I brought one other game, but I can't remember what it was. In the end, we decided on Dan's copy of Maharaja. I'm always happy to play another Kramer/Kiesling game.


Maharaja

Maharaja is an area influence game, in which you build/earn in different cities each turn, scoring points in the city currently being visited by the Maharaja. Which city he will visit can be manipulated a little, but, in general, he follows a specific path.

I focused on building central palaces (worth the most points for the $) in as many cities as possible, and tried to develop those cities for scoring. If I did anything important, it was changing the order of the Maharaja a little earlier than people expected, which disrupted other peoples' ability to get money, and left me with a fat pile of cash in the mid-game. After this, though, it was a question of me using my money to play catch-up, and getting myself into a position where I could win. I had all these clever moves in my head... but then there just wasn't time for them. Most of your moves in this game have to be geared toward getting those palaces on the table, and you can't affor too many moves that just mess with other people or set up your position, so you have to make them count. In the end, it was a close finish between myself, Dan, and Keith (who triggered the game end, if I remember correctly), and I pulled out the W. Fun.

Winner's Circle

After this, we had just a little time, so David pulled out Winner's Circle, which was also new to me. This is a Reiner Knizia game of betting on horse racing. We played one race, which was enough to grasp the basics of the game. Each race, you place secret bets on three horses, one of which is a null bet. Multiple people can bet on the same horse. There's an element of bluffing, using your null bet to get people to believe you'll help them move a horse. Also, there's the realistic cooperation - multiple people on one horse they want to move together to guarantee a share of the spoils. Each turn, you roll a die, and choose a horse to move. Different horses move different distances for each type of die roll. Top three finishers place and pay off. I don't remember anything outstanding as far as strategy in this game, just that I ended up third, in the middle of the pack. One thing that really struck me about this game is that it could easily fit right into the comfort area of traditional American family games. It's nice and light, with an engaging theme, and features the obligatory dice rolling. However, it does involve decision making, planning, and negotiation (to a certain extent), making it enjoyable on a somewhat deeper level.

GG, GL
JW

Online Gaming

The weather is getting colder. My friend Paul contacted me the other day, and in conversation he noted that in the winter he often has strong desire to bunker up and spend hours playing computer rpgs. I'm not sure if it's seasonal or not, but I know I go through cycles of computer gaming desire/repulsion. Recently, I felt the urge again.

Spielbyweb.com

I've been using sbw for a while, but I've been in a real frenzy lately. A lot of my games have just ended, so if anyone's up for some gaming, let me know. I really like being able to just take a quick move whenever my turn comes up on e-mail. It's so convenient.

So far, I'm really enjoying Reef Encounter and Hacienda. The turns play pretty quickly, and the game moves along at a good pace. I'm not as happy with Santiago and Amun-Re, in which there are a great number of stopping points that hold up the game progress, and make it extra-frustrating when you have a slow player. I haven't tried Tikal yet.

The game of Hacienda I just finished reinforced the idea that going for as many market connections as possible is good. I started with a corner water opening, and then moved to the middle, connecting to all but one market ftw. In the game I have still going on, players are being more confrontational, with one player spending his opening moves completely isolating one of the side markets. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

The Amun-Re game that also just ended saw a three way tie for 2nd, as Thies pulled a huge second round ftw, and I made the second most second round points, to go from the basement into the second place tie. I think I failed to make enough money in the first round, and got unlucky card draws, with something like 10 free farmers and 9 master builders(you can only play one per turn, for 6 turns) over the course of the game. I do like the way this game makes you think about the future, and I'd like to own a copy irl.

World of Warcraft

Lots of my friends have been deeply involved in mmorpgs over the years. I've mostly resisted, although I've tried my hand at Ultima Online and Runescape. Recently, WoW went on sale and, when Sean picked it up, I decided I'd give it a go at the same time.

I've spent the expected (way too many) hours on the game since purchasing it a week or so ago. I'm pretty happy with it, though. I think they've done a fine job of designing game content that can be satisfactorily played as an individual or with a group. One caveat, though, is that few of the quests really involve critical decision making, and are fairly repetitive. I doubt the game will hold my interest for more than four months, although I guess that's a pretty long time...

I've played mostly on my own, but have enjoyed grouping with old friends from NH (Sean), and CA (Chris). I've grouped with people I didn't know when it was clear we were finishing up the same quest. I'm interested to see how enjoyable it will be to form groups with people I don't know. I'll probably wait until I understand the game a little better - I don't want to really frustrate anyone. While I'm mostly interested in the game as a way to keep in touch with old friends, in a recent conversation with my friend Bob (I'll take this moment to publicly congratulate Bob on being voted into the Magic: the Gathering Hall of Fame), he stated that he was mainly interested in playing with people he was not previously acquainted with. Bob is also pretty serious about pursuing the most competitive way to do things, so he probably gets the most out of it this way.

So, if you play WoW, and you're interested in gaming together, drop me a note and I'll let you know which server I'm playing on, and I'm sure you can get a character to my level pretty quickly, as I only recently started. I'm at the point where I'm trying to get friendly people together for Ragefire Chasm.

GG, GL
JW

Games at David's: Tikal, Saboteur, Black Vienna

October 24th

First, I apologize (for anyone who actually reads this regularly) for this post being out of order, as well as for having gotten so far behind. I'll be pretty much caught up, though, at the end of today.

It's always nice to drive down to David's place for some friendly gaming. Tonight's gaming was to focus on Santiago, one of my favorites. However, we had eight people. Santiago really shines with five, so David and the people who really wanted to try it played that, while Larry, Dan, and myself played Tikal, another game that I'm happy to play pretty much any time, and works fairly well with three.

Tikal

Larry got a big start, moving just far enough into an area that Dan and I hadn't committed workers to, and building up a temple. Larry, sitting to my left, also kept drawing the treasure tiles, meaning I wasn't getting too many of them. Dan and I were stuck fighting over some smaller stuff waiting for the board to develop. When the first scoring round hit, Larry was well in the lead, with me bringing up the rear. The middle of the board started to fill out. Unfortunately, I didn't draw any tiles that would allow a big move, such as a big temple, or a blank tile to get access to one at the right time. I did make modest gains, though, as Dan and I were more successful spreading into the middle of the table than Larry. Things continued in this way. I got on the wrong side of the board, although I was pretty much by myself with a couple temples, as I had not placed a camp until after Dan and Larry had placed both of theirs. On the right side of the board, Larry had put the last treasures and a good sized temple where he and Dan would fight over them. Dan was stronger, though, and took the lion's share of the points. This gave him the lead, with me pulling into second, and Larry ending up in third. It was a fairly tight finish, though, to a dynamic game. A good play of Tikal, which made me feel that it's important, in a three player game, to get pieces on the table and spread out, in the early game, with an eye on espansion potential in the midgame, while working to create personal scoring areas for the later game. It's dangerous to let this turn into a fight between two players, who are ignoring a third.

Larry had brought one of his favorites, Saboteur, which we decided to try next. We joined the remaining players from the other table for this.

Saboteur

This is a light group cooperation/hidden traitor card game. The players have the role of dwarves, who are trying to mine for gold. However, 2-3 of the dwarves are working toward their own agendas, and are trying to keep the other dwarves from reaching the gold. There are three face down cards, 2 coals, and one gold, that are six card lengths away from the start. Players can play tunnel cards onto the table, or sabotage another dwarf's equipment, or play cave in cards on the tunnels that have been built. There's a really interesting conversational dynamic in the mid game, as players try to figure out who's on their side. Some of our players took some delight in making this harder for people. In the first game, I was a saboteur, and we won. In the second game, I was part of the regular group, and lost.

Black Vienna

This is a deduction card game with note-taking, similar in some ways to Sleuth. It's out of print, but apparently there's a version available as a free download. David had used this online resource to make his own set.

In this game, there is a deck of cards with each letter of the alphabet, plus an o with an umlaut (sp?). All the cards are dealt out secretly, except three, and each player notes what they get. The object is to be the first to correctly guess the three that have been removed. Of course, if you guess and are wrong, you can't win.

There are three cards face up, which each have three letters. On your turn, you can give a card to someone, and they have to say how many of those letters they have. They put a suitable number of markers on the card, and it stays in front of them. Later, players have the option to move cards that have no markers on them to other players.

My note taking skills were not good, and at least once I recorded responses under the wrong player (David's responses in Dan's column). This meant that I spent a fair amount of the midgame trying to check my notes while the game was progressing around me. Apparently, my system for note-taking was fairly poor, as I was quite far from figuring it out when Dan won the game. This was fun, though, and I'm sure I'll get more chances to play this, and it's cousin Sleuth, at David's.

With that, it was time to end the night and get some sleep before work.

GG, GL
JW

Eurorails with Chris

October 30th

Chris and I hadn't gamed for a while, so, Sunday, while playing Dune, we discussed getting together to play some games on my day off (a teacher workday for DPS). I ran some errands in the morning, and Chris came over in the later afternoon. We had a few hours, and could play something a little heavier. I received Eurorails through ebay a while back, and Chris was very familiar with playing it 2-player, so we decided to give it a go.

This is one of Mayfair's crayon-rail games. A pickup and deliver game, on a map of Europe, that involves making connections by drawing in crayon on the board as you build track. You build based on contracts that you get, which require you to bring goods of one type to specific places. The individual goods are only produced in certain areas, so you build, based on your contracts, to do more building. Later in the game, you try to build to harder to get goods, in order to satisfy higher value contracts. The game ends when someone has connected to seven cities and has 250 million in money.

I expected Chris to win, and he did. I didn't do too poorly, though, and would have met the victory conditions in two turns. The big turning point in the game, I think, was when I had a set of not very desirable contracts, which I flushed (wasting a whole turn) only to replace them with even less valuable cards. The only way I could see making these cards valuable was going up into Scandinavia, which seemed like a poor proposition. I didn't want to waste another turn, so I kept them, and built up North. This slowed my expansion West into more desirable territory. It did pay off for over 100 million in big contracts on my second to last turn, and provided me with all the resources needed to finish the game. I just didn't have enough time. I guess that's the whole point, though. There was a little bit of a feeling that the game was playing me, though, as, often, it seemed I just had obvious choices to make with the contracts/building. At least they were choices, though.

This was pretty fun, a nice way to spend my day off, and I'm happy I own it. I'm sure I'll get to play some more, and knowing the crayon rails system will certainly be helpful.

GG, GL
JW

Dune, with five players

October 29th

I was fortunate enough to get an invite over to David's for a game of Dune. This is something I've wanted to try for a long time, as the comments on BGG are intriguing. I'm not a big fan of the story - I never finished the book (only one attempt to read - when I was about 12), but now I'd like to at least see the movie again.

Dune is an old Avalon Hill classic, out of print since the early eighties, aside from a reprint in French, by Descartes, which I believe is also now out of print and somewhat hard to find. The old AH copies that come up on eby generally go for 40-80 dollars. I've managed to pick up a very slightly incomplete set for $35. This is a quite complicated game, and I don't think I'll explain much of it here. Doing a search for one of the Dune fan sites would give you the best background, if interested.

Today's game was Dan (who brought and explained the game), David (the host), Chris, Lori, and myself. We were one player short, so we left out the Bene Gesserit (sp?). I was the Guild. Basically, the players are trying to control four of the strongholds to win the game. The Fremen have an alternative victory condition, and, if nobody else wins by the end of the 16th turn, the Guild does. Each group has special powers and advantages, and the game has a unique combat system based on commiting and expending forces and leaders of various strengths, using a cool combat wheel.

A worm card, which signals an opportunity to form binding alliances, came up quite early. Since I was the only new player, and only needed to keep others from winning, I sat out of the alliances, hoping the other players would fight between themselves and basically ignore me. This worked, for the most part, although it didn't make for a very exciting game for me. The alliances were Dan (fremen) with Lori (emperor), and David (Harkonnen) with Chris (Paul Muad Dib). I made a few poor decisions in the early game, and then basically sat out and watched for a while. Near the end of the game, I started commiting troups to the board. In the last couple turns, I tried to tie up battles in key spaces to keep people from winning. In the end, neither alliance was able to break through, so I got the game.

This is a long game, and took us almost six hours. I really enjoyed it though, as it presents a lot of different opportunities for decision making, and is thick with theme. I look forward to playing again, with six players, and trying different factions. I think we could certainly make it faster by enforcing the time limit on bidding, and just getting people to play a little quicker. As it was, it was a fine way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

GG, GL
JW

Halloween Party at the Prasad's: Ligretto, Liar's Dice, Hart an der Grenze, Nacht der Magier
Saturday, October 28th

Halloween was coming around and we were lucky enough to be invited to a party out at the Prasad castle. I'm thankful we've been able to make friends quickly enough to have social opportunities like this.

The costume theme was medieval. Unfortunately, the various costume elements I utilized during my six summers as a character at the Bristol Rennaissance Faire are languishing in a cardboard box someplace in a barn in Western Illinois. Since Kristin and I have been so busy, and, well, neither of us is handy enough with sewing to come up with anything suitably "medieval," we ran out to the party store on Saturday morning. Thankfully, we were early enough to beat the majority of the crowd. I grabbed the fairly appropriate and simple medieval monk costume, complete with ridiculous monk-hair wig. Kristin didn't really like any of the costumes, and settled for a simple nun get-up, that looked like it could be re-used as a part to other costumes.

Late in the afternoon, we jumped in the car and made the drive out into the countryside. This is a beautiful drive, at a wonderful time of year, and put us in a pretty good mood.

Upon our arrival, there was a game of Ursuppe going on, and several people sitting around. There were a bunch of cards sitting on the table where we were sitting, and, in turns, Brian and Ravindra variously explained the game, Ligretto, to us, as well as to Greg and Michelle.

Ligretto

This is a simple card game. There are several (I think four) colors, with numbers 1-9. You have four face up cards, and a table deck of ten from which replacements for them will be drawn. The rest of your share of the cards (all of them are delt out) is in your hand. The object is to work through the ten cards in the table deck. You do this by playing cards, in order from one on up, on top of each other in sequential order, out on the table. The first to empty their deck has a score of 0 plus the number of cards they've played. Everyone else has negative points for each card remaining in their deck.

We played two rounds, getting various rules wrong, and not really keeping score. This was a hectic, intense game, not really my cup of tea for a relaxed game evening, but a fun exercise for a party mindset. We all enjoyed it.

Liar's Dice


We were joined by two more people, who's names I've forgotten (sorry). There was some sort of contest going on, playing LD for chocolate coins. We didn't stay until the end of the evening, so I don't know if anything ever came of it. The first game was a learning game, and I won, without losing any dice (my first real victory at this game). The second game I also won. We played a third round, which Kristin won (her first group game victory, of any kind, in NC). I sat out the fourth round, which had a thrilling conclusion with admirable bluffing by Michelle.

After this, we were read a scary story by Sarah, and ate dinner, which was a splendid affair involving sausage, chicken, tasty potatoes, and green beens. There was a brief media interlude to watch the "Hush" episode of Buffy, and then we had a play-dough sculpting contest. After that, there was more gaming.

Hart an der Grenze

Mary wanted to get a game of Hart an der Grenze going, so Kristin and I jumped in on that, along with the couple from Liar's Dice who's names my brain is inadequate to remember. I had a huge first round, with tons of contraband, putting me well in the lead and putting a big target on my back. I still had a good round the second round, guessing and bribing fairly well, and getting some good stuff through. However, the final round was terrible for me. I was dealt nothing big, and was searched about every time, with nobody accepting bribes. I only took a few points through. Mary won, and Kristin also passed me handily, especially with Mary managing to hide three big idols under her case.

Nacht Der Magier

Mary wanted us to get a chance to play another one of her new acquisitions before we left. NDM is a neat game that is played in the dark. The board is raised off the table and has several dark disks on it, which are surrounding several cylindrical pieces, which each have a glow in the dark symbol on the top, which in turn are surrounding a hole in the board, which is covered. Players each have a pushing piece, and are trying to get one of the cylinders with their symbol on it into the hole. Your turn consists of edging your pushing piece onto the board, stopping when you hear something fall off the edge of the board and hit the table. This is a very quick, fun little game that is perfect for Halloween parties. I'm glad we got a chance to play it. I don't remember who won, except that it wasn't Kristin or I.

After this, it was time to head home, as it was getting fairly late. I'm sure the gaming went on well into the night, though.

GG, GL
JW

Sunday afternoon with the Prasads: Ghost Party, Canal Mania, Hart en der Grenze

October 22nd

Saturday night at Rick’s, Ravindra had reiterated his desire to play Canal Mania, which I had brought along, but didn’t see the table. We discussed possibly playing games the next day, and decided to go home and talk it over with the wives. Sunday, Mary called to see if we were up for some gaming. Kristin was in super prep mode, as she has a talk coming up at the University on Friday. So, I made the trek out into the country by myself.

Mary and I sat down and talked about games for a while, until Ravindra made his way upstairs. She wanted to get Ghost Party on the table, I think as preparation for the game seeing some play over Halloween weekend, so that’s what we started with.

Ghost Party

AKA Midnight Party, by Wolfgang Kramer. Yet another game that’s new to me. The players have a group of party goers, who are promenading around the house during a party. A ghost lurks in the wine cellar. Each turn, you roll a die, and then choose to move one of your party people. If you roll a ghost (the die is 1 ,2 ,4 ,5, ghost, ghost) then the ghost moves three spaces forward. Once the ghost gets to the top of the stairs (three ghost rolls, I think), then people can jump into rooms to hide. Only one person can get into a room, and if the ghost catches up with you, you go onto the steps to the cellar, scoring negative points, in decreasing amounts as more people get caught. The goal is to have the least negative points.

I figured it would take two rounds to get the rolls for the ghost to make the top of the stairs, so I grouped the majority of my pieces where they would have a good chance to get into one of the two rooms that were worth positive (3) points. However, the ghost moved up faster, and I had failed to realize the full impact of only getting to move one party person, as well as the impact of actually rolling a ghost yourself, when you get to move nobody. Consequently, this round was a bit of a debacle for me, putting me way in the rear. We played, I think, a couple more rounds, and Mary was able to edge Ravindra and come out on top. I was stuck in the cellar, although I think my play improved marginally. This was a pretty fun game, with a pleasant board and decent bits. I’d play again, on a lighter sort of evening. Maybe at a Halloween party…

Canal Mania

As has been mentioned, Ravindra has been wanting to play this. Also, as I’ve certainly said a couple times, I’ve been eager to get a play in with three players. This turned out to be the lucky rainy Sunday for the both of us.

Ravindra got first move, and grabbed the best contract, which is, I think, Birmingham-Worcester. Thankfully, Mary grabbed Worcester-Gloucester before he could, preventing the accelerated early expansion/goods movement opportunity. I went with Manchester. Ravindra and I had potential four length cube movement pretty early, but then we got stuck. Ravindra stayed in the lead for some time, with me in second, and Mary in a close third. Mary got the first five cube move, and developed a pair of nice routes going from the West all the way over to London, and started to build serious momentum. All along, the scores stayed pretty close, although Ravindra looked like he was going to have the most contracts. This certainly played a little quicker with three, and I think it balanced well, with two people to work against the leader, without the board getting too crowded. Up until the last turn and a half or so, I really thought I was going to finish last, as I felt Mary had some good cubes to move, and I didn’t think I’d have much to move in goods reduction. In the end, I was able to complete two contracts on the last turn, to tie Ravindra for most completed, and then win the tiebreaker, putting me into first, with Ravindra in second and Mary following. The goods reduction went much faster than the four player games I’ve played. There were far fewer cubes left on the board in this one. It was a close game, and pretty fun, although Mary was pretty disgruntled, stating that she felt the ten points was too much for most contracts, and had too much weight on determining the outcome of the game. I don’t personally think its too much. I wouldn’t lower it more than eight. I think the mechanism helps out people who get small/cheap contracts, which are probably worth less points than the bigger ones, and also adds some drama to the end of the game. Actually, one thing I really like about this game is how much really can change in the last turn or so, making the winner fairly hard to predict. I don’t really like playing games where I can just know, absolutely, that I can’t win, at some point fairly far from the end. It makes it a little hard to sit and come up with alternate paths to satisfaction.

Hart and der Grenze

We figured we had time for one more before I had to head home to cook dinner. Mary pulled out “the suitcase game,” another new one for me. This is a game about smuggling stuff across a border. Each player has a little metal suitcase, and will have five cards to start every round. From these cards, they can put 1-5 in the suitcase. All of them, that is, except for the player who is sheriff that round, who has a different role. Players declare to the sheriff, in order, what they put in their cases. It can only be one type of item. The sheriff then chooses one player to have their bag searched. At this point, the player and sheriff can negotiate bribes to keep the case from being exposed. If the bribe isn’t accepted, or not offered, the case is opened. If it contains what was declared, the bank pays the player an amount indicated on the cards. If it doesn’t, the player discards the undeclared merchandise, and pays the bank a fee, higher for the more valuable, contraband items.

I benefited early from getting searched when I had declared honestly. I also was paid off by drawing sets of multiples, including having a whole hand of jugs at one point. Also, I got some good bribes in, making six off of Ravindra and seven from Mary. I actually thought I had a pretty big lead, but Mary sold quite a lot of goods in the second and third rounds. In the end, I won over Mary by one little dollar. Whoopee!

This was a nice, close game. Lighthearted, yet with some odds to calculate or estimate or hunchidate, or whatever. Really nice bits, and fun interaction, which means a lot to me in the field of gaming. This is one I’d really like to own. I can see it being a hit with some of Kristin’s friends, as well as with my family. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for it. Actually – I already looked. They have it at Bouldergames.com. Maybe time to update my Christmas list…

With that, it was past time to head home for dinner, so I bade my goodbyes to Chez Prasad, and hit the gravel. One stop at Whole Foods later, and I was cooking up some chops for the little lady. Next up, a welcome visit to Dave P.’s in Durham on Tuesday.

GG, GL
JW

Game Night at Rick & Marnee’s: Vinci, Fairy Tale

October 21st

I thought Kristin and I were going out for dinner with Abe and Laura on Saturday, but it turned out she had agreed to go for Dim Sum. This meant that I had to, unfortunately, miss my soccer game for the week but, fortunately, could make it to the redux of R&M’s GN (due to a scheduling mixup, they ended up having events Friday and Saturday).

When I got there, it looked like attendance was a little lite, and I thought I might be getting home early. This would have suited me, as I’ve been pretty wrapped up in World of Warcraft lately. I knew my eyes really didn’t need to be glued to a computer monitor any more that day, though, so I sat down to wait and see if more people would show.

The small group of people already there were engaged in a session of Die Mauer. I hadn’t played this, so it was sort of fun to watch. It’s a bluffing/guessing game. Each person has several sections of wall, worth 1-15 points. Some can’t be built next to each other. Each turn, everyone tries to figure out which piece the master builder (rotates each turn) is has secretly chosen to build. After everyone has secretly selected a piece, they are revealed. If you chose the same piece as the master builder, you get to build it, and they don’t. If nobody chooses the same piece as the mb, then the mb gets to build. First person out ends the round, and the rest of the players finish in order of least negative points. It seems evident it’s made to be played over several rounds, with cumulative score. Rick won the first round, but finished far in the rear for the second, making him last overall. Ah, fate.

A couple more people had arrived, and we split up into two groups. One group played Guillotine, while our group played Vinci. Myself, Andrea, and Gina hadn’t played before, while Rick, Ken, and Ravindra had.

Vinci

Vinci is a tactical area scoring game. Each player gets an empire, which consists of two tokens that give that empire a number of troops for the turn, as well as, sometimes, special abilities for combat, movement, or scoring. Using the tiles you have, you come on from the edge of the board and try to set up the best scoring possibilities you can. After you feel you’ve taken that empire as far as you can, you skip a turn and get a new one. Players continue doing this until someone hits 100 points, and the game ends at the end of the round. This is simple, diceless movement and combat, on a nice little map of Europe.

It looked to me like I had a choice between taking an empire with lots of troops, or taking one with scoring opportunities. I chose the former, which was probably a mistake. It left me a little bit in the hole on vps to start with, but also meant I’d end up with the biggest early empire, making me a sort of target. I moved into an area that was good for me to take and score lots of territory. Unfortunatley, this area would prove to be a popular one, and my empire didn’t last too long. Rick jumped out into the lead, with back to back to back turns of special scoring from mines, and nobody really messing with him. I fell into last place, apparently unable to catch on to how to place my empires so that they would stick around. The game got about halfway done, and people started to pick on the leaders, who were basically Rick, Ravindra, and Andrea. In the final third of the game, I expanded into an area (Spain and Western Europe) that stuck around a while. I also got a good scoring tile, and made some points over the last three or four turns. With people really picking on the leaders, I got out into the lead and triggered the game end. Andrea was able to catch up with me on the last round, though, and we ended in a tie, followed by Ravindra, Rick, and Ken. This was a pretty fun game, with lots of decisions. With the number of people we were playing with, there was a lot of opportunity for the game state to change by the time your turn came back around. I really never felt that there was too much chaos, though. I’d definitely play again.

After this, Andrea and Gina left. Rick, Ravindra, Ken, and myself sat around and talked about Vinci and other games for a while. Then, Ravindra pulled out some quick games he’d brought along, and we decided on Fairy Tale.

Fairy Tale

This is a light fantasy card game with a drafting element. You play four rounds, and then score. At the beginning of each round, each player draws five cards, and then cards are drafted and passed in a manner very similar to a Magic: the Gathering booster draft. After the draft, there are three turns in which each player secretly selects and simultaneously reveals a card. Each card has a scoring value, and some attributes, and some cards flip other cards to make them inactive in terms of scoring. Many cards also have special, interactive scoring abilities.

Not too much to say about this. You really mostly have to watch what your opponents are doing, and pay attention to the cards you are passing in the draft, to try to minimize their scoring opportunities. I ended up getting a few big cards, and the other cards that satisfied their scoring conditions. On the last turn of the last round, I got to play a card that basically wrecked everyone else out of 3-14 points. Pretty good. I won by a decent amount.

After that, it was late and time to go home. I only got to play two games this time, but it was a really good time. It’s always nice to learn some new games.

GG, GL
JW

Southern High School Gaming Club, Ticket to Ride

Thursday, October 12th

Mr. Kandah, the German teacher, runs the Southern High gaming club every Thursday afternoon. I've stopped by a couple of times to watch the kids play and chat with Mr. K. On Thursday, I got there early enough that I was able to join in on a game.

While Mr. K. and Jeremy were setting up Memoir '44, and Brandon was getting a game of Terra going, Eric was setting up Ticket to Ride, and needed some players. I sat down, and the table quickly filled up, although one player left again quite quickly, as he had band practice.

Ticket to Ride

I was playing with Eric, Derek, and David. All but Derek had played before, although it seemed that they had several of the rules wrong. First, they hadn't been subtracting incomplete tickets from scores in the endgame. Also, they'd been under the assumption that you had to reveal completed tickets, and complete all the tickets you currently had, before drawing new tickets. I don't know where these ideas came from, but I ended up sort of re-teaching the game to them as we went along.

I had one of the strongest tickets - the 20 point LA to Miami, in my opening hand, and also kept the ten point Miami to Toronto, getting rid of a ticket in the Northwest that I didn't think I'd probably have enough cars to complete. The young men I was playing with actually played quite well, making good decisions about drawing cards. They did place a little to high of a value on locomotives, I think, and tended to draw off the top maybe a little too often. That said, they were out and taking routes very quickly. They were rushing to two and three car routes, though, and not scoring a lot. I was the last to claim a route, and jumped from worst to first by claiming the six black route, just edging Eric, who was at 14.

We had a little discussion about the varying values of the connections, and planning your ticket completion to include longer routes, as well as keeping an eye on continuity for the purpose of gaining longest route. As I continued to claim the long routes across the bottom, I think the boys started to appreciate these ideas, as I started to run way out in front.

I ended up triggering the game end, taking a four space route, the only cars not connected to my other routes, and going to zero cars. The other players finished up, and we scored. Everyone had done a good job, and completed all of their tickets. I think David actually had about 39 points in tickets, but it wasn't enough to catch up with me, especially with longest route. I think I ended up with 138 or so, with David in second, a ways behind me. Eric had third, and Derek ended in fourth, although he did quite well for his first game.

We cleaned up the game, and it was about time to quit, as Mr. Kandah had to leave early. He did have to wait for the Memoir game to get over, though, so I started to teach San Juan to him and Eric. We just got through the explanation when the M44 game ended, much quicker than we had thought it would. Hopefully, we'll get a game in at a future meeting.

There aren't a lot of after-school activities at Southern, aside from athletics (and there aren't even many sports teams, really - only football and volleyball right now). Mr. Kandah is to be commended for volunteering his time. The group of students is well organized, and seems to grow each Thursday, as more kids become aware of the group. It's nice to be able to do something fun with the kids outside of class.

GG, GL
JW

Games at Ravindra’s: Sheer Panic, Byzantium, Ricochet Robot, Liar’s Dice

Saturday, October 7th

I had the pleasure of playing a few games with Ravindra (RP) at TBGT, mainly through knowing Justin G.. We generally had a good time, and I discerned that Ravindra and I had some game interests in common. I was happy to get another chance to game with him when he sent out an invitation to the Durham Gamers group to meet up at his place.

Initially, I thought I’d be late due to my Rainbow League soccer game. However, the game was cancelled, due to rain, and I was able to join RP and Greg at Sitar India Palace for the dilectible buffet. After stuffing myself on spicy dishes of rice, vegetables, and chicken, I grabbed some espresso and headed off to rural Hillsborough.

This is the most “out in the country” I’ve been since coming to NC. RP’s place is a little secluded, and it reminded me of the first time I visited Bonnie Anderson’s cabin in Wisconsin, years ago, for a Halloween party. Of course, this wasn’t quite as strange, as Bonnie had near human-sized cocoons hanging from trees in the woods surrounding her house… (a former art project of Tom Charney’s). Nor did I enter the house to find a gaggle of costumed folk, although there were Halloween decorations. Suffice it to say, it’s a nice house, and Ravindra has the largest private collection of games I’ve had the pleasure to encounter.

It was just the three of us, but Brian called to let Ravindra know that he’d be over in 45 minutes or so. We grabbed a “quickie” to carry us into that time. Greg and I hadn’t played Sheer Panic before, so Ravindra went over the rules, which actually took a while, as he had to look some stuff up. We finally got it down, and set to getting those ewes on the move.

Sheer Panic

SP is a game about moving sheep around. You have a limited number of actions you can take during the game, to move your own sheep, and others, to get into good scoring positions, the nature of which change across the different phases. You each have two sheep, and, with three players, there are two “neutral” sheep. There’s also a black sheep, and some extra pieces that represent the different scoring phases and the front of the herd, which can be important. In the first phase, you try to get your sheep close together. In the second phase, you try to get them close to the front. In the third phase, you work for proximity to the black sheep. In the fourth and final phase, the sheep are scored from the rear, and during two times scoring is triggered, the first row of sheep is removed for sheering.

I don’t have too much to say about this game. It seemed that the moves were moderately obvious, with the biggest choice being to take what might be a stronger move for the future versus getting a free “ram slam” available on the scoring/turn track. The moves are small, but can have a big effect on the board position. This means, though, that by your turn, things can have changed greatly. We stayed pretty close through the whole game, never separated by more than a couple points. In the final turn, Ravindra lost a sheep early, and looked pretty much like playing kingmaker. Thankfully, he chose a move that benefited me more than Greg, and I ended up winning a close shave (I really couldn’t help that, could I?).

Brian had arrived, and had to wait a while for us to finish. After getting the pieces bundled back into the box, it was time to choose the main course of the evening. There were a lot of possibilities. I had brought Canal Mania, but I was really more interested in playing it with four, and it didn’t seem that Brian had liked it that much. Unfortunately, it seemed that one of us had a little problem with each of the first several games that were put forth. I gave a blanket “yes” to whatever might be put forth. Finally, Brian and Greg agreed on Byzantium, and we settled down at the table.

Byzantium

This is a Martin Wallace game from Warfrog. It involves the struggle between the remnants of the Byzantine Empire and emerging Muslim forces in, I think, the seventh century. Each player represents a powerful family that has influence in both the Arab and Byzantine worlds. You have a military army for each side, which can attack and conquer cities, or defend your own cities. There are three turns, each involving the players taking turns choosing from several available actions, until everyone passes, at which time you get income based on the number, size, and type of cities you control. Some actions, like moving and attacking with an army, anyone can take as many times as they can afford. Other actions, like fortifying a city, or utilizing a fleet, are limited, and can only be taken, depending on the action, 1-3 times per turn (total). You score victory points during the game for taking cities with military force, and at the end for the cities you control. There are separate victory tracks for each of the two factions. You want to be a little careful about balancing your influence – if, at the end of the game, one of your sets of victory points is more than twice as big as the other, you only count that one for your total. Otherwise, you add the two together.

The explanation of the rules took a while, as Ravindra had only played once, and it had been a while. We got everything pretty much worked out, though (although Brian appeared to sleep through part of the rules), and got to playing. I’ve been sitting on this entry a while, and I don’t remember as much about this game as I probably should. One thing I do remember is that I misinterpreted the rules a little. You have to use a cube, of which you have a limited supply each turn, to do most actions. You have some free cubes, and otherwise you have to pay three units of money (which is a lot) to buy a cube to use. The armies have move cubes, which you put on them through one of the actions. You only have to spend one of these to move and attack. I think I spent a couple extra cubes early, before I realized this, tossing an extra cube to add cubes and to move. I wasn’t super sure about exactly what I did, though, so, maybe not… Anyway, I made one good setup choice, taking the big, Southernmost Arab city. I then blew a couple moves, taking cities that were in the area that was susceptible to Bulgar attack – a sort of “mercenary” army that can be hired by either of your factions and, as we discovered, can be a good source of Arab victory points (at least, that’s how it turned out for the other players).

As the game progressed, I was doing all right in Arab victory, and staying around the back on Byzantine victory. However, it became fairly obvious to me about halfway through the second turn that I was in trouble. I was losing a lot of Byzantine income, and my remaining cities were right in the path of two oncoming Arab armies, which was also keeping my Byzantine army penned in. One ironic thing is that Brian, who slept through some of the rules, remembered something that I didn’t – that a Byzantine army, moving to Constantinople, can move to any coastal city on it’s next turn. This would have been important knowledge for me, had I remembered it… As it was, I was forced to bemoan my own stupidity and poor memory, as Brian remembered and used this move at the very end of the game, when my army had long since moved away.

The other players slowly edged ahead of me. Brian had a slim lead, followed by Greg and Ravindra, with me a bit behind. In the third turn, unfortunately, I remained a prime target, while Ravindra also lost some, with very little being done to attack Brian or Greg. At the close of the game, due to a poor choice I’d made earlier, and someone making a last attack on me, I couldn’t pay upkeep for all my troops, and I lost a victory point. Brian won by a considerable margin, followed by Greg, with Ravindra and I trailing behind, with me ending up getting fourth by one point.

This was fairly fun – really, it was a good group of guys to game with. The game had some interesting things going on, like the dual-faction system, and the special action selection. It’s also a decent multi-player wargame. I’d like to play it again, to see what I learned, but I don’t think I’ll be looking toward picking it up. I don’t think I really need another game that can put you in a position where you know you’ve lost but still have to play when the game is only half over. Some secret info/victory bonuses might have been nice.

It was fairly late, and Greg and Brian were ready to go, but agreed to a quick “ten-minute” game. Ravindra removed Randolph’s Ricochet Robot from his reserves, and we readied ourselves for a rumble of rebounding. Again, a game I’d not played before.

Ricochet Robot

I was happy to learn this. The most recent issue of Knucklebones features an article about the designer, Alex Randolph, who was a contemporary of Sid Sackson, and co-worker at 3M. He’s also known for Twixt and Inkognito, among a host of other games. The game is simple, and quick, and can be played by a large number of people. There’s a semi-variable, four-section board, with several target-spaces marked by chits with color and symbol identifiers. There are also four robots of different colors. One player takes a token out of the supply, and the players begin to formulate, for themselves, moves that will allow them to send the robot of that color to the target space of that color and symbol. Whenever your robot hits something-a wall or another robot-you can either stop and move something else, or turn it 90 degrees in either direction and keep moving. Once you’ve worked out a route in your head, you say the number of moves it would take. This is like an opening bid, and the other players have one minute to equal or beat your number. The player who can make it in the fewest moves gets the token. In the case of a tie, the player who has the least tokens gets it. You leave the robots in their current positions and go again… as many times as you like.

This was simple, quick, and fun, and I’d be happy to add it to my collection. I think it would be fine for certain groups of non-gamers as well. In our particular play, Ravindra and Brian tied with five tokens, and Greg had four. I think I had three, but I might have had four also. There’s some laughs in this game – when someone just can’t see a move, and then, after it’s done, someone finds a simple way to solve it. Also, when someone miss-calls a number, or can’t remember all the moves they wanted to program. Good times, but we played a bit longer than ten minutes.

Oddly, though the hour was getting quite late, Greg and Brian were now ready for more. Perhaps it had passed the point at which they could expect anything else out of the night other than sleep, and they’d decided to make the most of it. I don’t know. Liar’s dice came down for what was almost certainly the closer (I actually don’t know if they stopped on this, as I left before the second game was over).

Liar’s Dice

Another first for me, though not a true first. I’d had this game explained to me in college, and I’d played a version of it at TBGT (pirate’s dice). A fairly simple dice game. Each player starts with five dice and a cup. Dice are numbered 2-6, with the one replaced by a star, which is wild. Beginning with the start player, bids are made. A player bids a number of dice showing a certain number that they think are present under all the cups combined. The next player can either call, or raise. If they call, the dice are revealed. If the number of dice exceeds the bid, the caller loses a number of dice equal to the difference. If it’s equal, everyone but the player being called loses one die. If the number doesn’t match the bid, the bidder loses a number of dice equal to the difference. If you lose all your dice, you’re out of the game.

In the first round, I played somewhat conservatively, and was second to last out, losing to Brian. In the second game, I played quite rashly, and was out very quickly. At this point, I decided it would be a good idea to hit the road, as I was getting somewhat tired, and knew I had a somewhat lengthy and unfamiliar ride through the dark ahead of me. Ravindra graciously saw me off, and, as far as I know, the gaming continued into the night.

Outside of TBGT, this was the best night of gaming I’ve had since I got down here. I hope I can get in more Saturday evening sessions like this.

GG, GL
JW

Game Night at Larry and Carlee’s: Torres and Vegas Showdown

Tuesday rolled around, and it was time for another trip to Cary for gaming in the comfortable confines of L & C’s abode. Chris had something come up, so I ended up making the trek down by myself in the jeep. I’m trying to take somewhat lighter games to this event – a trend seems to have begun in which I usually end up sitting with the same folks, playing “heavier” games, and I’d like to branch out a little more. I put Funny Friends and St. Petersburg in the box, and they were joined by Hacienda, which Chris had suggested, and Vegas Showdown, just because there was room. I figured I’d just try to get into other games.

There were about ten people there, including myself, and we split into Torres (David, Keith, and myself), Coloretto, and, I think, Alhambra. One of the nice things about this group is that there seems to be a steady influx of people who are new to Euro/designer games, and many of them are “catching the bug,” so to speak. Tonight was no exception, with a couple in attendance who were getting their first taste of our hobby.

Torres

David had brought this game, and it was sitting on the table, so we decided to give it a go. Keith and I hadn’t played before, and David had played once. Torres is a Wolfgang Kramer Spiel Des Jahres winner. It’s a pretty abstract strategy game about a competition to become the new heir of a kingdom, through showing off building prowess. There are special action cards, knights, and tower levels. You have limited action points per turn. You can either play a tower level, play or move a knight, or draw or play a card. Scoring happens in each of three rounds. You score for your highest knight in a castle, equal to the height of your knight in levels times the base size of the castle in pieces. There’s also bonus scoring each round based on a “King” piece, played by the player who’s in last.

I ended up being last to start with, and placed the King to my advantage. Dave started strong in one corner, while Keith built pretty close to me on one side. I took advantage of what might have been over-building on his part to jump onto the top of the stuff he’d built (as he hadn’t put a piece there). Keith built up another castle, while Dave continued working on his. I jumped onto Keith’s other castle, which Dave had also jumped onto. Then, I jumped onto Dave’s. The way the game was playing out, I brought out lots of knights to block people and get them on the board early. Keith was trying to build, and getting thwarted. Neither of us really got in Dave’s way at the beginning, and he definitely reaped the rewards with a big lead after the first scoring round. Keith and I scored more over the next couple turns, and closed the distance, but never quite made it up. It finished pretty close: Dave 203, me 198, Keith 194. It was a good, fun game, but it was marred a little bit by mistakes made throughout the game, though especially at the beginning. We each made poor moves. I, in particular, was guilty of wasting several action points over the last three rounds of the game, as well as poor strategic choices which precipitated those moves. Overall, we all liked it, and hopefully we’ll play again soon.

Vegas Showdown

We had time for one more, and with other games (Ticket to Ride, Colossal Arena) having started, it looked like it was going to be the three of us again. Among the available games, it seemed Dave and Keith were interested in Vegas Showdown, so I got it out and taught it to Keith. Dave and I had each played once before.

I messed up this game by not removing some of the tiles at the beginning, which you are supposed to do for a three player game. I think I’ve done this both times I played. This leads to lack of competition in the mid-end game, and lets some people pick up some cheap tiles to fill up their boards. I really need to remember this next time, as it would have made quite a difference in the way the game played, I think.

VS is, really, a pretty simple game to play. Once a person figures out the relationships between the tiles, and gets down a basic strategy for developing his player board, it can really move along. There was very little AP in this session, and it moved along at a pleasant pace. I was bidding first on the first turn, and ended up not getting a slot. This proved to be the case for several turns, so it took me a while to get my income up. In fact, the way the bids went, I ended up with first turn restaurant, which cut into my early money quite a bit. In retrospect, I think this is a mistake. Taking a restaurant before a lounge really means you are probably going to have to renovate at some point to move things around, which I’d rather avoid. I’d also rather have more cashflow early. I think I was really swayed by the knowledge that there’s at least one card in the deck that bases income on population.

Dave and Keith got the early slots, and then we all started diversifying a little. One thing I noted about this game during these turns is that it’s not very easy to check the other players. That is, it’s a bit of a task to look around the table and make sure everyone is making good connections, or that all of your connections are staying correct, after renovations. I think this could be solved by making the diamonds a different color, and making a central red line for the paths through the tiles – something that could be very easily visually traced. It’s not like the tiles/player boards are really very esthetically pleasing anyway…

This was a bit of a frustrating game for me. It took me a while to get into things, and then I ended up getting stuck with just one tile slot left on my player board, and was quickly joined in that position by Keith, who was able to outbid me by a couple bucks on the fancy slot that came up. I also regretted my tile placement a couple of times - especially the way my diamond tiles were put down, as I couldn't effectively maximize scoring them without two renovations, which I didn't have time for. I ended up in second for the second time tonight, in another close game. This time, Dave and Keith flip-flopped, with Keith in first and Dave bringing up the rear. Game end scoring made a big difference, here, as I was able to pass Dave, after having lingered in the back most of the time.

Another fun play, and I’m still quite happy I bought it. I’m even more anxious, now, though, to get it out with more than three players.

It was getting kind of late, and we all had to work in the morning, so we called it a night. I think I need to get away from this weeknight gaming…

GG, GL
JW

Game Night at David’s: Railroad Tycoon

Tuesday, September 26th

David was one of the other Meetup group members that made it to TBGT. At the con, one of the games we both played in was Amun-Re, which David subsequently bought, and was putting on the table. I knew I’d be ready to play again, and rode to the event with Chris, who was hoping to run Railroad Tycoon, knowing that I’d be happy with either game. The gaming out here is pretty spread out, and it’s really nice to have someone to ride with and talk to on all these half-hour treks.

We got to David’s a little early, and had a nice time just chatting about games, Meetup, and life in general. The rest of the evening’s attendees trickled in, eventually putting us at ten participants. People looked at the two games on offer, and Amun-Re filled up quickly, so I found myself sitting down to my second new (to me) Martin Wallace rail game, in as many days. Players for our game were Chris, Ben, myself, Nate, and Jan.

Railroad Tycoon looks really cool, with all the nice bits. As closely as it’s related to Age of Steam, it should certainly be high on my list right now, given the current scarcity of AoS, and my relatively high desire to own it. However, RT has what, to me, is one major drawback: the titanic board. I really find it unwieldy and prohibitive, and I just don’t see wanting to spread it out all that often.

So, since RT hasn’t been in the blog before… It’s a rail game, showing the Eastern half of the USA. It’s very similar to AoS, if you hadn’t gathered that. Players bid for turn order, and, each turn, run through three rounds of actions, in which each player gets to choose one of six actions. Players sell shares, which they have to pay interest on, to make money, which they use to build track. Once they have track built, they can make money from shipping goods, which can make them profitable. One big difference with RT from AoS is that you can take shares at absolutely any time. Another is the presence of a couple different sets of cards, that add an additional element of chance to the game.

Chris ran through the rules, then ran through them again, as Nate showed up late. Somehow, in the process, a couple of the players, who’d never played AoS, were somehow not made aware that shares would be subtracted from their scores at the end of the game. This, of course, made a big difference in game play, as it didn’t come up until I mentioned it about halfway through the game. It also turned out that Chris was playing some of the cards (this was the first time he’d used them) the wrong way, which also had had a huge impact on the game. As much as these discrepancies affected the outcome, it was still a good learning game, and a fun one (at least for me) at that.

I learned a lot about RT in the opening couple turns. The guy to my right won the auction to go first, and took an action card. I built, on a space in the middle/North of the board, where I could deliver three goods between two cities. This was not even the best place to build, as the road to Baltimore was much more profitable. However, I had a Tycoon card that wanted me to build out of Chicago, so I thought I should stay close. Jan didn’t miss the Baltimore connection, though it took her until, I think, the second turn, to realize how great the Baltimore Hotel card would be for her, which was something I didn’t realize until about the same time, when Chris used the first hotel and we figured out what a big impact they could have on the early game. She snatched the hotel, and proceeded to get up to making about $12 in a couple of turns, while only having taken out a couple shares.

Nate and Ben were going wild on shares, and Chris and Ben were barking right at Jan’s heels. I was trying to be pretty conservative with my money, and Nate and I were bringing up the rear the whole game. I had a big plan for my network, which was unfortunately disrupted by Ben when he first built through one of the routes I wanted, and then inserted a new city of a very unfortunate color right on my route. I was suddenly left with a few less cubes to deliver for a few less points than I expected, and I was wishing I’d headed East. Nobody really contested Jan for the North East, or Chris for the South East.

Despite Jan’s huge early lead, and Nate and Ben’s relative lack of a chance, we boldly played on. To cut a long story shorter, some interesting stuff ended, and we triggered the game end. Jan won, Chris followed a ways back in second, I was one space behind him, and then Ben and Nate brought up the rear.

I enjoyed the game, but I need to read the rules. I look forward to playing it again someday, hopefully with more experienced individuals. Right now, I’ll continue to keep my eyes open for Age of Steam.

The other table finished, and started Winner’s Circle. However, it was late, and I couldn’t afford a second extra-late night in a row, so we headed off home, full of game talk.

GG, GL
JW

Game Night at Lee’s: Volldampf, Niagara, Vegas Showdown, Cranium Hoopla
Monday, September 25th

I’ve become more and more focused on gaming, especially board gaming, over the past couple years. These recent weeks, since we’ve moved to North Carolina, have only heightened that focus, as I continue to meet new gamers and explore new games. Despite being pretty short of cash, I’ve somehow managed to acquire some new games recently. I didn’t get out for any gaming activities last week, but, over the weekend, while spending quiet time around the house with Kristin, I managed to teach myself Euro Rails and Volldampf (both from eBay), as well as Vegas Showdown (TRU sale). I’ve also recently acquired Detroit Cleveland Grand Prix and 1870. Both of these came from Amazon, at 50% off with free shipping. I don’t think 1870 will hit the table real soon, but I was happy to add a representative of that series of rail games to my collection.

With all these new games to possibly play, and not having done any gaming in the past week or so, I was pretty anxious for Game Night at Lee’s to roll around. I packed up my box, with Volldampf, Funny Friends, Santiago, and Vegas Showdown, and waited for Chris, who had generously agreed to drive.

Chris was pretty interested in Volldampf, as he’s a fan of Martin Wallace and Age of Steam. We made our way down to RTP, to pick up Lori, Chris’s girlfriend, and chatted about acquiring games on eBay. I only ended up getting Volldampf because I miss-entered my maximum bid, neglecting to put in a decimal, and bid $3,879.00 on it, rather than $38.79. In the end, I ended up paying about $48 for it, I think, which, I guess, is lucky. I got a good game, and wasn’t completely financially wiped out…

We got to Lee’s, and groups started dividing up. Chris wanted to play Volldampf, so it was on the table right away. Unfortunately, only Chris, Lori, and myself ended up playing, while most others played Barbarossa. It seemed this crowd was not heavy on strategy game lovers. Next time, I’ll have to bring something lighter.

Volldampf

Chris and Lori had both played Age of Steam, so the explanation was pretty quick, as the games have some similar mechanics. I had done a full solo of the game, but was glad I’d printed out new rules from the ‘geek and browsed them during the car ride down – there were some corrections, and an important tidbit I’d missed. I was also happy to have found downloadable English-language versions of the event cards. I printed a deck and sleaved them – they were very helpful. I need to make sure I get that guy a gg tip!

In V. you bid for turn order, in a similar fashion to AoS. The winner gets first choice of a set of face-up track cards, as well as first chance to build and ship goods cubes. Event cards are a nice catchup mechanism, given to the player in last place, or to someone who misses a goods cube move. I won the first auction, and took the one set of cards that would provide stuff to ship on turn one. Chris and Lori took the other two, we all built in different areas, and I was the only one who ended up with any income.

They caught up fairly quickly, though. I managed to stay in the lead for a couple turns, but while I was building solo, they were building into each other, and scoring off of each other’s moves. A turning point came when Chris used an event card to block a big, six point goods cube move, which was subsequently moved “out from under” me. This really slowed me down, and allowed Lori to pass me. Things were looking pretty tight, but some lucky cards came up, and I managed to win them. I think Chris and Lori felt that bidding for turn order had been too high early, and basically let me have them. I got a nice long network, and made some big cube shipments over the last couple of turns to catch up, and pass, Lori, which is how it ended.

The game was quite fast. I might say, given the basic similarities to AoS(and our subsequent assumptions), that it went very quickly. On reflection, though, this is a quite different game. It seems to me that the way the board is constructed, and the way the card comes out, this game might be much more about getting involved with other peoples’ networks, and utilizing negotiation skills to make things work for you. In AoS you really want to build a big network for yourself, but, the way the cards come out, that’s much less likely in V., making negotiation and sharing much more of a focus.

The other group was done, and Chris was wanting to get Niagara on the table. He had the expansion, but most of the people who were going to play hadn’t played the basic game, so we stuck with that. It was only my second play, so I was fine with that. We moved over to the couches, while the other table busted out, I think, Things in a Box.

Niagara

I’ve been trying to get away from my green pieces fixation (it was actually causing me to make errors in the games in which I ended up not being green), and ended up playing red for the second time tonight. The table was myself, Lee (the host), Lee’s friend (whose name, I think, was Spencer), Lori, and Chris. I was in the third seat to start.

I opened with a cloud, looking to get it out of my hand while both of my boats were off the river. I also just like to see the water move more. Second turn, I used a one to get my boat off the dock, wanting to save the bigger ones for more impact with two boats. Chris and Lee were picking up gems.

In the next couple turns, Chris grabbed a lot of purple gems, and got in a position to win. I was sitting on three different colored gems. I went for the two other colors, hoping someone could stop him, and open the door for me. Lori managed a steal from Chris, sacrificing one of her boats in the process. I got my gems, and headed back up river. I got in a position to win, but then Lee managed a steal from me. Chris got the last gem he needed, but, apparently, didn’t have the right card left to get to the dock. Nobody was paying attention to Lee, and it was a big surprise to us all when he delivered a gem and said “I win,” showing us four clear gems!

I think Niagara is fine. It seems to get a lot of knocks from people who think it’s too light. While I feel there’s not a lot of control, especially with five players, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. This is a nice, fairly light game, that is fun for non-gamers, looks cool, and provides some opportunities (card counting, planning ahead) for the thinking gamer to stretch out her grey matter.

There was a migration toward the other table, on which Pit was getting set up. We had more than the max number for stock trading, so another game had to be put forward. I pulled out Vegas Showdown, wanting to get another new acquisition on the table. Chris and Lori were up for it, and happy to stay in the couch area. Somewhat unhappily, nobody seemed interested in leaving the big table to join us for this (or, apparently, any other) game, so we ended up playing just the three of us again.

Vegas Showdown

Red again! V.S. hasn’t been in the blog before, so I’ll give a little description. It’s one of the newer Avalon Hill games, and does a pretty good job of being an American Euro. The players take the roles of a group of mega-wealthy people who have decided to have a competition involving who can have the most popular hotel/casino in Vegas. You participate in an auction for tiles that represent hotel/casino features like slots, lounges, and restaurants, and then place them strategically on your player board, which has limited space. There are a variety of special scoring opportunities. The game ends when a player fills her board, or when a type of tile can’t be replaced. Most “fame” points wins.

The explanation for this was a little longer, as it’s not overly similar to any one particular game that the three of us knew. This one also suffered a little more than Volldampf from “teacher advantage” – In the end, Lori and Chris were a little surprised by the game end (they were focusing on the other game end condition). Also, I think just having had the experience of putting the tiles on the player boards, and seeing them, was a big advantage for me here.

Early bidding saw competition for slots, which I won and probably overpaid for. Early lounges and Restaurants were constructed by Chris and Lori. As the game progressed, some nice tiles came out quickly. Chris picked up fancy restaurants and fancy slots that he couldn’t play, saving them for later. When they did come out, they gave him a big bump. I outbid Lori on a high-roller’s room, which would have given her a huge hike in income, and I didn’t feel I could let her have it cheaply. Unfortunately, it ended up being a bit of a drag for me, as the next table games tiles proved to be pretty far away, due to cards and the luck of the stack.

I grabbed the lion’s share of the “diamond” bonus tiles, and a card giving me points for them came up. I also got a really lucky draw when the space-age sports book came up. I had to pay a ton for it, but it let me get to within one tile of filling up my board, and it gave me a load of points. Chris let me have it, I think, because he knew if he got it, then he would be paying a lot of money for something he couldn’t play, and then I would just take the other sports book, which was up. As it was, I grabbed a slot to kill the game, and won handily. Chris and Lori were pretty close to each other, a ways behind.

This was pretty fun with three. You could almost always get something useful. I think I’d like it a bit more with four or five, as the competition for tiles would make it a lot more tense, and the publicity action would become more important. I would call this a big success for the designer, although I’m not sure if it’s sales will match Hasbro’s expectations.

Lee and Nate were the only ones left at the other table, and they were playing set. Nate wanted to get Cranium Hoopla going, which Lee and Lori were also enthusiastic about. It was way past my bedtime, and I was pretty tired, so I sat out and just watched. They had a pretty fun game, the pinnacle of which was Nate trying to convey “milky way” through charades, with Lee’s running chatter guesses working up to the phrase “…looking in space… milking… milking a cow… milking in space.” You had to be there. Actually, watching the group electronic word games at TBGT, and this, have made me want to dedicate some time to “party”-style games. I’m taking suggestions, if you’ve got any…

GG, GL
JW

Game Night at Rick & Marnee's - Hacienda and Power Grid

The third Friday of every month, Rick and Marnee host a game night at their house. There's lots of room to play, and generally 16-18 gamers. This was my second time attending, and I had a lot of fun again. Lew Pulsipher was there with a couple of prototypes, but I didn't get to play either of them. Instead, I ended up in the basement, chatting with Chris, who wanted to play Hacienda, after having watched part of the game I played in last Sunday. We gathered up a couple of other stragglers, Vicki and Dave, and were later joined by David Phipps.

Hacienda

It was nice to get another chance to teach and play this hard on the heels of my first teaching game, at TBGT. I got to make sure I went over everything that I felt I might have underemphasized on Sunday. This basically included the later-game market connection scoring and the scoring of Haciendas. I got Vicki and Dave taught up, paused to answer questions, we set up the dogbone map, and we got going.

This game saw a lot of action in the middle. Chris and Dave went for connecting to the outside markets, and then moving toward the middle. Vicki and I went for water on opposite sides of the board, and David P. started a nice land chain on one of the corners of the middle section.

As the game developed, we saw the board get cut in half by Chris, Dave, and David. David was successful working out of just one land chain, and created a long herd of cattle that basically blocked others from one of the markets. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to connect to a lot of markets himself. Chris and Dave moved out from the middle, with Dave coming out from a corner, and Chris starting new herds from the edges of the board. Dave did a nice job of cutting off my growing pig herd. Vicki was kind of building in her own area in one of the corners. The first scoring round hit, and I made a big mistake, not buying a hacienda. I had an action that I could use to play another pig, that would make me about eight pesos and a water vp, basically two points. However, the hacienda would have made me five, netting me three over the pig play. I really needed every play after the first scoring round, and never got the hacienda down, consequently costing me 6-8 total vp, which would have put me in the lead at the end of the game.

After the first scoring round, people really had a good idea of how the game worked, and began to race for markets and make moves that cut people off. Things started to get much tighter, and planning for each turn was very interesting. The players also started to build with water in mind, and David in particular was very successful placing water. As the final scoring round was coming up, I had repeatedly had my plans shattered by the players in front of me, but had flexible enough backup ideas to still make things happen. One thing I noticed, though, was that these plans might have been too flexible. I ended the game with several land cards in my hand, meaning that I'd perhaps wasted the two actions I spent buying land, which certainly could have netted me 8-10 vp in the second scoring round. This is the big danger of starting out by the water, I think - you have to work so hard to get connected to multiple markets, while people in the middle have 2-3 markets very quickly.

In the end, Chris emerged victorious, with Dave shortly behind him, and me on Dave's heels. David, with a lack of market connections, was a bit behind in fourth, with Vicki, who had a lot of money left, close behind him in fifth. Vicki also simply forgot about the haciendas, I think, as she could have netted 7-9 vp off of one with one of her last actions, and, I guess, just didn't think of it (like me...).

This was a fun game, and we sat around for a while chatting about it, and other things, lacking the impetus to start another game. Someone, I think Chris, was interested in Power Grid, but Dave didn't want to play. I went upstairs to see the state of the other games, then grabbed PG and brought it downstairs to set up. Just as we were getting into rules explanation, Leo came down from the finished Formula De game and joined us.

Power Grid

I've played PG a few times, but not a lot lately. I guess the last time was with Chris at Sci Fi Genre, which I think I won. This time, though, we had five players, which would make it a tighter game. We chose the U.S. map, as people thought they'd be more familiar with the geography, and left out the Southwest section. I won the number four plant and was seond to build, and ended up in the North East, after Leo went in the mid South-East. Chris went into the Northern mid West and David set up in the middle South, and Vicki took the cheap spots in the South-East. So, Vicki looked like she might get cut off, and Leo looked a little surrounded. I felt like I had just enough room to expand, if things went right.

Things did go right, for a little while. I had a hard decision in the second turn, when the 26 was actually in the market, due to freakishly large plants coming into the future market. This plant was two oil for five cities. I was bidding on it with Chris, when I had to make a decision over whether to keep bidding and not build, or let Chris have the plant and build. Looking at my position, I thought I needed to expand rapidly, so I let him have it. Of course, this meant he didn't have the money to build, and would be in the "worst" position, which looked like it would pay off for him. I built out as rapidly as possible, and led the pack up to five cities, and had plants to power seven and money to build. At this point, Chris had gotten back into the game and made a surge of building. His choices, along with Vicki's and Leo's, hemmed me in at six cities. Vicki, though, was stuck on five, and Leo on four, with Chris and David the only ones who could economically build to seven. Fortunately, David wanted the game to play quickly, and it had been going fairly slowly, so he forced step two the next turn. I had to debate paying 40 to build through a few connections to get to seven. This would have really opened things up for me, but would use up a lot of money that otherwise might take me through the cheap connections down the East coast, to the South. So, I sat on the cash.

I had moved a little down the turn order now, but I really had to worry about Leo building into me. Thankfully, he chose to build into cheaper initial connections to the West. I'm not sure if he didn't sense that he would subsequently have cheaper routes to the South, or if he thought moving that way was a better way to open up his network. Anyway, since he didn't block me, I was able to take the second spot in most of Vicki's cities, going South. I almost messed up and took the last two, when I realized I risked getting hemmed in. So, instead I worked out to the West for a couple more expensive connections, figuring anyone who wanted to go into Florida was going to have a pretty expensive build through me anyway. Chris had made some excellent builds moving West. If you are playing with the Pacific Northwest area, a person who plays in the Northern Midwest will have first access to what turn into relatively reasonable builds in step two, provided nobody is silly enough to start out on the Pacific.

I had, at this point, plants to power eleven cities. I gambled on the power plant auction and passed on a four and five, knowing that I really needed the six to come down. Thankfully, I really got some luck, and a six did make it, and I got it for not too bad a price. This would let me power fifteen. Step three came up at the end of this bidding phase, and it looked like the game was going to open up a bit. Around this time, I realized that if people didn't decide to block me, I was probably going to be able to build to fifteen, triggering the end and winning, as I was the only one able to power fifteen at that point. Thankfully, nobody was thinking about that, and they didn't pay to build through me into the areas I needed. I was just able to build four after buying fuel, and I took that game. I think Vicki was second, Chris third, David fourth, and Leo fifth.

This was a pretty interesting session. Chris's starting position was very powerful, and getting the good five plant so early was a great advantage. I really thought he was going to take the game, but I think his money just got a little too tight. If I would have built into Florida too early, he probably would have had it. Getting blocked in is worrisome, and you have to be really careful about your placement. I think Leo's inexperience hurt here, as he set up in an area that was easily surrounded. Other than that, a pretty standard game of fairly good decisions, made quite interesting by the randomness of the power plants that come up.

GG, GL

JW