We converged at a picturesque cottage in the village of Foxham, and having met the farmer and his wife, their dog, three cats, and helped them bring a van-load of fresh meat into their kitchen, we sat down to commence a marathon of gaming, starting with a 7 hour session on Friday night.
Poison was first. This was new to both Chris and Paul but it's an easy one to explain so after doing my best impersonation of Reiner Knizia in a cape we were away. Everyone opened with a low-scoring round but Paul, the variant king, then began experimenting with strategy and this went horribly wrong in his second round. Chris scored a second zero in a row as I picked up a couple of points, and Paul's improved third round score - and my terrible one - wasn't enough to recover from third position. Chris came first to set the tone for a successful evening for him - but we all agreed that 3 players is exactly the wrong number to play Poison with, as unless someone plays aggressively it's very easy to slip into a pattern of everyone picking up their own colour.
Chris 6
Sam 14
Paul 17
Our gaming loins girded, we moved swiftly on. Paul and Chris had been playing Ticket to Ride so that became game number two. Contrasting styles here as Paul and Chris started building immediately and I started hoarding, looking to build a strong playing hand for later in the game. A slight misunderstanding over the rules too as Chris and Paul play the (correct) rule of only being allowed to build ONCE along the dual-track routes in a three-player game. I'd misunderstood this and thought we were playing the rule that the same player can't build both routes to block people off. It didn't change my strategy much though and everyone agreed that each player could break this rule once and once only.
My card-collecting routine (the Hillmann-method) paid off well come the final score, hoarding obviously gives you a lot of flexibility so when I was blocked I had alternative options, and I completed all my routes to end the game. Despite Paul completing extra routes I made first place, with Chris just sneaking second:
Sam 137
Chris 102
Paul 100
After a bit of tea, next up was 7 Wonders. This seems to be Paul's bête noir from a comprehension perspective, I think I explained it a lot better than last time but he still professed to utter bafflement and could not repeat the second place of his debut a few weeks ago. Instead Chris finished first in what was actually quite a tight game, to surge back into the lead overall:
Chris 42
Sam 39
Paul 37
Three reasonably fluffy games aside, we moved on to the meat of the evening: Stone Age. This was - again - new to Chris and Paul, but it's such an intuitive game it didn't take too much explanation before we were off and running. The newbies both enjoyed this - Chris especially so - but early on Chris seemed to be stumped as to what his tactic was. And despite my stressing of the importance of cards for a long time it was only me picking them up as the others went through a lot of hut-building. Despite that though, Chris staged a very decent first score in the end as his hut-multipliers popped up in the closing stages and he nabbed them. I was under the impression I was miles ahead - possibly because Chris kept saying I was, in a belated and disconcerting bit of NLP - next time I'll not be so blasé!
Sam 265
Chris 236
Paul 145
Time for one more game before we packed off to bed, but as it was gone eleven we went for the relatively brief 7 Wonders again. I ignored armies for a change and concentrated on sciences, but I made a fatal error in thinking my wonder allowed me to build a discarded card at the end of each age. No, Morrison! Only at the end of the second age, you fool! So my perceived brilliant move of burning a card for money in a plan to pick it up later (when I could afford to build it) came to naught. 9 points down the drain, and Chris pipped me for first.
Chris 55
Our gaming loins girded, we moved swiftly on. Paul and Chris had been playing Ticket to Ride so that became game number two. Contrasting styles here as Paul and Chris started building immediately and I started hoarding, looking to build a strong playing hand for later in the game. A slight misunderstanding over the rules too as Chris and Paul play the (correct) rule of only being allowed to build ONCE along the dual-track routes in a three-player game. I'd misunderstood this and thought we were playing the rule that the same player can't build both routes to block people off. It didn't change my strategy much though and everyone agreed that each player could break this rule once and once only.
My card-collecting routine (the Hillmann-method) paid off well come the final score, hoarding obviously gives you a lot of flexibility so when I was blocked I had alternative options, and I completed all my routes to end the game. Despite Paul completing extra routes I made first place, with Chris just sneaking second:
Sam 137
Chris 102
Paul 100
After a bit of tea, next up was 7 Wonders. This seems to be Paul's bête noir from a comprehension perspective, I think I explained it a lot better than last time but he still professed to utter bafflement and could not repeat the second place of his debut a few weeks ago. Instead Chris finished first in what was actually quite a tight game, to surge back into the lead overall:
Chris 42
Sam 39
Paul 37
Three reasonably fluffy games aside, we moved on to the meat of the evening: Stone Age. This was - again - new to Chris and Paul, but it's such an intuitive game it didn't take too much explanation before we were off and running. The newbies both enjoyed this - Chris especially so - but early on Chris seemed to be stumped as to what his tactic was. And despite my stressing of the importance of cards for a long time it was only me picking them up as the others went through a lot of hut-building. Despite that though, Chris staged a very decent first score in the end as his hut-multipliers popped up in the closing stages and he nabbed them. I was under the impression I was miles ahead - possibly because Chris kept saying I was, in a belated and disconcerting bit of NLP - next time I'll not be so blasé!
Sam 265
Chris 236
Paul 145
Time for one more game before we packed off to bed, but as it was gone eleven we went for the relatively brief 7 Wonders again. I ignored armies for a change and concentrated on sciences, but I made a fatal error in thinking my wonder allowed me to build a discarded card at the end of each age. No, Morrison! Only at the end of the second age, you fool! So my perceived brilliant move of burning a card for money in a plan to pick it up later (when I could afford to build it) came to naught. 9 points down the drain, and Chris pipped me for first.
Chris 55
Sam 51
Paul 30
Sam 150
Chris 149
Paul 90
We broke for lunch, making a swift trip to the shops followed by a fry-up. So far no fruit or vegetables had passed our lips for nearly 24 hours - Chris even suggested 'crisps' as a side dish to his planned meal of hotdogs - so if we ever do this for a week the winner will probably be the one still alive at the end of it. After eating, Web of Power was broken out the box. For those unfamiliar with it, this is a placement game with each player building cloisters across Europe and advisors to link countries together in scoring opportunities. We didn't play the proper rules for half the game, but it was the same for everyone and I nabbed another win as Paul finally broke out of third place:
1. Sam
2. Paul
3. Chris
Sam 74
Chris 61
Paul 24
Perhaps because I was feeling the stress of explaining - badly - several sets of rules, it was the first time I didn't massively enjoy London, feeling it a bit of a grind. Certainly by the time it came to explaining The Adventurers I couldn't read any more rules and had to pass them onto Paul and Chris, the latter having an extremely juvenile giggling fit over the idea of sunbeams coming through a passage. Really, Chris!
Paul 30
The embryonic leaderboard (1st/2nd/3rd=3pts/2pts/1pt) showed Chris currently in first. Could he hang on to that position in the morning?
SATURDAY
Like some middle-aged family man - oh - I woke early and pottered about while those useless layabouts slept through a couple of hours of potential game time. After breakfast we pretended to be normal people and actually went for a walk in the country, taking farm dog Oscar with us. It was a beautiful area, the perfect place to sit indoors all day pretending to be Cornish miners or something.
SATURDAY
Like some middle-aged family man - oh - I woke early and pottered about while those useless layabouts slept through a couple of hours of potential game time. After breakfast we pretended to be normal people and actually went for a walk in the country, taking farm dog Oscar with us. It was a beautiful area, the perfect place to sit indoors all day pretending to be Cornish miners or something.
So that's what we did. After our little perambulation we cracked open Tinners' Trail and explained it to Paul, who was in for another day of learning enough collective rules to start a new, bureaucracy-loving coalition. Chris opened the game with a canny bit of play, encouraging Paul and I to buy mines at cheap prices but leaving himself with lots of room to develop his own, and having done so he was the only player at the end of round one to invest any money - establishing an early, daunting 18 point lead. It was a long way back for Paul and I, but we gave it our best. Incredibly I pipped Chris by a point in the final reckoning, but only after he failed to give himself enough time to gather all his copper and tin in round four, fatally building a port when he should have been mining. A dramatic end, then, saw the final scores as:
Sam 150
Chris 149
Paul 90
We broke for lunch, making a swift trip to the shops followed by a fry-up. So far no fruit or vegetables had passed our lips for nearly 24 hours - Chris even suggested 'crisps' as a side dish to his planned meal of hotdogs - so if we ever do this for a week the winner will probably be the one still alive at the end of it. After eating, Web of Power was broken out the box. For those unfamiliar with it, this is a placement game with each player building cloisters across Europe and advisors to link countries together in scoring opportunities. We didn't play the proper rules for half the game, but it was the same for everyone and I nabbed another win as Paul finally broke out of third place:
1. Sam
2. Paul
3. Chris
After the delicate logarithms of Web of Power we decided to go with something that would melt our brains a bit more and Paul and Chris were keen - or willing, at least - to play London, so we gave it a shot. Not trusting myself to explain this one properly we went through the rule book a bit and it was mostly confusion-free; after a few rounds the newbies were up to speed - but Paul suffered both for unpaid loans and excess poverty, taking some severe penalties as Chris and I contested for first.
Sam 74
Chris 61
Paul 24
Perhaps because I was feeling the stress of explaining - badly - several sets of rules, it was the first time I didn't massively enjoy London, feeling it a bit of a grind. Certainly by the time it came to explaining The Adventurers I couldn't read any more rules and had to pass them onto Paul and Chris, the latter having an extremely juvenile giggling fit over the idea of sunbeams coming through a passage. Really, Chris!
Paul was a picture of maturity and calm next to him, at least until he suddenly decided to hurl a digestive biscuit at the window. He said he was aiming for the dog, but it was clearly a comment on Chris' behaviour.
Anyway, this deceptively simple game isn't alone in making the rulebook like some kind of test of stoicism, but we eventually got there and probably spent marginally more time on the game than we did on the rules - at which point Paul triumphantly claimed his first pole position. We all survived the Raiders-style traps but it was Lord Jefferies of Croydon who'd loaded his pack with the most treasure:
Paul 27
Sam 25
Chris 18
It was now early evening and, possibly gripped for a nostalgia for simpler times, we elected to play bean-growing-game Bohnanza. In this mini-classic you grow beans. That's it, basically. And despite my sluggish start I managed to consolidate my strong leaderboard position with another victory as Chris and Paul tied for second:
Sam 22
Chris/Paul 20
We broke again for food and, as winner, I was allowed to choose three games we could then argue over as to our next battle of wits. I was hoping we might go for Year of the Dragon, but after much enthusiasm from Chris and placid amenity from Paul we went with my second choice, Stone Age.
Anyway, this deceptively simple game isn't alone in making the rulebook like some kind of test of stoicism, but we eventually got there and probably spent marginally more time on the game than we did on the rules - at which point Paul triumphantly claimed his first pole position. We all survived the Raiders-style traps but it was Lord Jefferies of Croydon who'd loaded his pack with the most treasure:
Paul 27
Sam 25
Chris 18
It was now early evening and, possibly gripped for a nostalgia for simpler times, we elected to play bean-growing-game Bohnanza. In this mini-classic you grow beans. That's it, basically. And despite my sluggish start I managed to consolidate my strong leaderboard position with another victory as Chris and Paul tied for second:
Sam 22
Chris/Paul 20
We broke again for food and, as winner, I was allowed to choose three games we could then argue over as to our next battle of wits. I was hoping we might go for Year of the Dragon, but after much enthusiasm from Chris and placid amenity from Paul we went with my second choice, Stone Age.
This time it was a much tighter affair, but I squeezed into first place:
Sam 227
Chris 207
Paul 206
It was fast approaching midnight so we had a little non-leaderboard game of poker then called it a night, with me now perched in first place overall.
SUNDAY
By the time the morning rolled around our initial zest for gaming two days before was starting to sag slightly, as the perpetual analysis - not to mention the intense pressure of competition - ground us down into faded husks of our former selves, like large ghostly meeples smelling faintly of sausage. The three of us living together in one house, gaming for all eternity, was no longer the beautiful ideal it seemed on Friday night. Nonetheless we remained committed and borderline enthusiastic, so we embarked on a game of Ra. Now I started off reasonably, but halfway through the second round I had three victory point chips to Chris and Paul's ten or so each. I was not confident at that point, but I managed - more by luck than judgement - to wangle first in a dramatic final round that saw us as close as possible:
Sam 33
Chris 32
Paul 31
Everyone quickly agreed to a rematch, but this time it wasn't so close, and Chris found that his very strong bidding hand in round 2 actually hampered him as he couldn't bear spending it on the pitiful offerings I was calling Ra on. As he clung on waiting for a justifiable expenditure to arrive, the round was closed out with him picking up very little, and his stronger third round couldn't rescue him.
Sam 54
Paul 34
Chris 21
On the final straight now, and we had time for one short and one long game. TransAmerica was the former, and it was another buttock-clenching final-round fight, this time Paul emerging victorious:
Paul 12
Sam 16
Chris 20
This was actually one of the best games of the weekend, and if we play it again on a Tuesday I highly recommend adding the 'Vexation' rule; utilising two tracks of your own colour to block off other players from your network. It transforms the game from a diverting filler to a devilish highlight.
And so: what game to end on? We debated Collosseum, Galaxy Truckers, another game of London? But it was a third and final Stone Age, the 15th game in a marathon session to rival StabCon. Very, very tight this time, with all of us focussed on our strategies and not deviating an inch from them. In the end my year or so of Tuesday night practice paid off again, but Paul's hot breath was leaving droplets of mist on my mammoth-fur waistcoat:
Sam 204
Paul 200
Chris 170
So SeptCon finally ended with GNN regular Sam (me, worryingly talking about myself in the third person) taking the glory. Admittedly I knew all the games and the others didn't, but I like to think of that as dedicated research undertaken specifically for this competition. Hopefully next time Andrew will be there - anyone else care to join us???
FINAL LEADERBOARD
Sam 38pts
Chris 28pts
Paul 23pts
Here's a frog Paul found.
Pity I couldn't make it this year, but as John Lennon once said "Life is something that happens to you when you're making other plans (to play games)"
ReplyDeleteAlthough I may be paraphrasing.
Thanks for such a comprehensive review. No Colosseum? Poor show, chaps. But good call on The Adventurers. I wish I'd been there - I may have at least been able to nab some points of Sam.
But, I tell you: huts in Stone Age... definitely a losing tactic.
I'm starting to see the wisdom of those words Andrew. I've gone in for huts heavily each time and in the third game almost to the exclusion of other commodities. Didn't quite work out for me.
ReplyDeleteA great weekend and many close matches even though Paul and I were picking up some new games. Shame about Colosseum, but some things had to give!
Mmm, I have a warm glow of vicarious pleasure from reading that, thanks Sam — mammoth session, mammoth report, games involving mammoths etc.
ReplyDeletePoison is not the game for three, is it — I've already made that mistake with Matilda and Bea.
No Year of the Dragon, shame. But you certainly packed in the cardboard and cubes; very jealous.
We tried TransEuropa with vexation once, my only issue was the increased points swing, meaning fewer games before someone topped out, meaning less chance to recover from a bad go. Did you find that at all? We probably ween't playing optimally.
I think I thought that to mitigate it, losers could halve their remaining track, or could use track that wasn't their own for scoring purposes or something like that . . .
You could score it differently - for instance play a predetermined set of rounds so a terrible start has more chance of being negated.
ReplyDeleteWe found we used the coloured tracks differently as the game progressed - with more forward planning or as a protective measure rather than a sudden aggressive move - though of course the latter is always an option!