It was myself, Sam (the host), Joe, Hannah and Adam in attendance. Joe was a little late, so the four of us decided on flavour of the month Lords Of Waterdeep. Except, this time, with the Mandatory Quest cards removed from the pack as we felt they were a little arbitrary, mean-spirited and passive-aggressive for our tastes.
With that rule change agreed and Joe safely arrived, we got stuck into the game. Hannah ignored the building hall and concentrated on quests and stuff. I did the opposite, thanks to the lord's quest I'd been given at the start: a fat 6VPs for every building I owned. Sam and Joe went for quests a-plenty. I'm not sure what Adam was doing. He was in last for a lot of the game, which made me nervous. I was expecting a sudden flurry of victory points.
As it was, that never happened. Through most of the game we were all closely packed together. But then I built some sort of shrine thing which netted me 25 victory points. From then on, I looked good for first place. Behind me, though, was a maelstrom of Analysis Paralysis as players took increasing amounts of time as everyone weighed up potential gain versus potential loss versus potential gain for opponent versus potential loss for opponent. At a little after nine we were halfway through the game and talking optimistically about maybe another game afterwards.
As the game drew to a close, it was after half past ten and the endless analysis had worn us down. The final scores were added up, complete with sudden pangs of regret as we all realised what a better strategy might have been to edge us up by few precious points. Well, all except me. I won by miles.
Andrew 136
Joe 116
Sam 114
Adam 112
Hannah 100
Meanwhile, on the Form Table Steve remains aloof from all our struggling. Also, spare a thought for Joe. If it weren't for that sixth pace finish, he'd probably be first by now.
| Points | ||||||
| Steve | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| Andrew | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 11 |
| Joe | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Adam | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| Hannah | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 14 |
| Sam | 2 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 18 |
| Anja | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 18 |
| Quentin | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Jonny | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Paul | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Sally | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 23 |
I have Sam and Adam to thank for my second place really. Sam pointed out my last move, which could only be scuppered by Adam, who chose not to do so.
ReplyDeleteBuilding buildings along with the building building lord building, I mean card, is clearly a powerful strategy. Let's ban it!
I like it a lot, though with five players it does bog down towards the end, the AP increasing with each round. It's shaped like a . . . what was it? Something incongruous.
Thanks Sam for hosting, and well done Andrew on administering a sound drubbing to us all.
Yep, well done Andrew.
ReplyDeleteAs you said Joe, you would have spotted that move, given a moment. Lords... is definitely a bit of a marathon with five players, although it never felt draggy to me. Maybe best with three or four (or two, as Andrew and I discovered last week).
I elected to build buildings as often as I could after my opening quest gave me 4 points to do so; but on the rare occasions I found the buildings free I had other things to do (or no money). I also figured that my commerce quests were worth 6pts each: 2pts every time I completed one, courtesy of my Infiltrating the Something Or Other (second) quest, and 4pts at the end of the game courtesy of my Lord card. But then again they took longer to complete than a building would of... so, er, in light of that unrequested and rambling summary, I'd say it's a good game that can't be neatly wrapped up with obvious choices on its surface.
Currently it's in second place of my all-time faves:
1 Tinner's Trail
2 Lords of Waterdeep
3 Stone Age
4 Alhambra
5 Seven Wonders
6 Collosseum
7 Ascending Empires
8 Wallenstein
9 Navegador
10 Taj Mahal
(With nods of appreciation: El Grande, Manila, Downfall of Pompeii, Galaxy Truckers, Lords of Vegas, etc etc etc)
With Andrew running away with it like that maybe we do need those Mandatory Quest cards after all. Although I imagine I'd end up getting them all because lagging in last place is obviously some kind of ploy...
ReplyDeleteSo are we saying this is a tactical game more than a strategy one?
I'm never sure what the difference is...
ReplyDeleteI prefer it without the mandatory quests. At least, I didn't get that sinking feeling whenever someone went to the harbour. It's a friendlier game.
ReplyDeleteIs no-one going to take me up on my implied-list-comparison offer?
ReplyDelete1. Colosseum
ReplyDelete2. Lords of Waterdeep
3. Lords of Vegas
4. High Frontier
5. Seven Wonders.
6. Tsuro
7. Mord im Arosa
8. Incan Gold
9. Tinners' Trail
10. Stone Age
11. Mammut
My top tens go up to eleven.
You think you know a person, and then you find out they put Mord Im Arosa at 7 in their list of eleven favourite games...
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, whereas my list shows a clear preference for middle-range games in terms of time/complexity Andrew's is much more eclectic, right down to how many numbers make up a list of ten. Maybe I need to rethink my priorities, as I feel kind of predictable by comparison. Anyone else out there willing to bare their souls?
I can't quite bring myself to commit to all-time faves - in fact I can't even commit to an order of preference. Here's my current favourite light, medium and heavy games - plus two-player faves.
ReplyDeleteLight
Skull & Roses
Incan Gold
I'm the Boss
6 Nimmt
Mord im Arosa
Medium
Lords of Vegas
Alhambra
Colosseum
Manila
Stone Age
Heavy
Lords of Waterdeep
Brass
Tinners Trail
Navegador
High Frontier
2 player
Manoeuvre
Twilight Struggle
Few Acres of Snow
Commands and Colours: Ancients
Mr Jack
Because i'm shallow, the above is quite separate from the games I'm dying to play, which are:
Rise of Empires 3
Railways of the World
Airlines Europe
Warriors of God
Struggle of Empires
Julius Caesar
I like Mord Im Arosa just because it's so different and because of the "Sloppy Investigation!" bit. And I did contemplate splitting up the light and heavy games into two lists, but instead I went out for a coffee.
ReplyDeleteAh... I forgot Mr Jack...
ReplyDelete... and Brass! Dammit, Joe. Now I have to rethink my entire life's priorities!
ReplyDeleteI think we should really press Joe on a top ten (or eleven). Otherwise he's basically listing games ad infinitum.
ReplyDeleteBut having said that my favourite light games are No Thanks, High Society and Trans-wherever, my fave medium games are listed above and my favourite heavy games are, er, er, Agricola and Caylus.
See there are many perfect games, but they may only be perfect for a particular occasion. If I limit it to GNN main event games (and only 10):
ReplyDeleteAlhambra
Navegador
Tinners trail
Brass
Colosseum
Lords of Vegas
Stone Age
Age of Steam
Agricola
Manila
And all the others I've forgotten...
A very excellent list. We should play Age of Steam again...
ReplyDeleteI take your point that there's no such thing as a perfect game because ultimately there are so many movable parameters as to what is required. I guess on this occasion it has to be ten because I've hassled you into it...
ReplyDeleteIf I have to choose (and Sam insists I do) then in no particular order my current favourites are:
ReplyDeleteTrans-wherever
No Thanks
6Nimmt
Tinners Trail
Puerto Rico
Age of Steam
Wallenstein
Power Grid
Agricola (the complicated version)
Brass
No room for Stone Age, 7 Wonders, Colosseum, Alhambra, Incan Gold, Tsuro, Carcassonne or Galaxy Trucker even though I'm always happy to play them.
High Frontier for both Andrew and Joe? Did I miss the punchline?
Oh, and if they got rid of the blanks in Scrabble that would be in there too...
I wonder if we can get everyone's ten enforced favourites down on here. It would be interesting to see if everybody went with Tinner's Trail if nothing else.
ReplyDeleteScrabble is a fave of mine but I don't include it in GNN for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI'm just trying to convince people that I didn't hate High Frontier. And even Sam said he was keen to give it another try.
ReplyDeleteHmm, am I right in thinking Tinners' Trail is the only game to appear in all four top tens? There should be some sort of award.
Should we play scrabble one Tuesday?
ReplyDeleteWith or without mandatory blanks, that's the question
ReplyDeleteI don't mind as long as I get one...
ReplyDeletere High Frontier, I didn't hate it, in fact I liked a lot of things about it - the theme and the board to name two. I just have the stamina for long games though - when play goes past an hour and a half I start to flake out. And I guess if I'm honest that pattern accelerates if I find myself in last position, trying to achieve space flight to Mars with an electric kite.
ReplyDeleteJoe - I will brin Airlines Europe to Sept con
ReplyDeleteAdam - You can win without having both blanks! (Difficult though)
My top 10 in no particular order
Agricola
7 wonders
Stone Age
Alhambra
El Grande
Roll through the ages
Dixit
Tsuro
Galaxy Truckers
Taj Mahal
Making that list made me realise that maybe I have a top 6 and all the others are much of a muchness.
No Tinner's Trail! The bookies will be reeling.
ReplyDelete