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