Easton Uprising

Katy writes from the frontline:

For my (Katy) inaugural blog posting I took home scribbles on the back of a receipt after a rather epic evening of fifteen games at Anja and Steve’s (thank you for your excellent hostings). None of the usual bloggers were available and no one else seemed keen, so I thought I’d give it a go, apologies for the lack of the usual humour, wit, concise reporting and gaming insight.

We were nine in total, and as soon as myself, Joe and Ben arrived, a rather stirring (mainly Adam, who almost woke Luther) rendition of Happy Birthday was projected towards Joe, who will be 21 (again) on Thursday. The choir, initiated by Anja, also included Steve, Adam, Ian, Matt and Martin, the Easton (ish) masses.

We started with the usual negotiation of what game to play with whom and the rest is history:

Isle of Skye
Rather embarrassingly I’d forgotten most of the rules for Isle of Skye, which is actually now my game. Thanks for Matt and Ian for their patience with explaining the rules and the various uncertainties we faced. It seems like a quick game though and rather close throughout and at the end. Bothies and lighthouses were win win but scarce and fought over for most of the game.

Katy 51
Matt 49
Ian 44

Eggs of Ostrich
It was my turn to explain the rules of Eggs of Ostrich to both Ian and Matt as I was the only one to have played, thankfully it’s quite simple and from the results you can see that we were all playing rather nicely in the second game, once all the rules had been ironed out. This was obviously not going to last and we clearly became a bit more cut-throat towards the end; Martin would have been proud.

Katy 14
Ian 10
Matt 1

Ian 9
Matt 8
Katy 8

Matt 11
Katy 6
Ian 2

Aggregated
Katy 27
Ian 21
Matt 20

Push it
Ian 7
Katy 4
Matt 2

At this point myself, Ian and Matt had played five games, push it being a filler whilst kingdoms were finished being built in the lounging area.

Kingdom Builder
I’m unable to comment on this game, apart from the fact that they seemed to be getting on well, as I can’t remember hearing any loud profanities, which was surprising as both Martin and Adam were playing… together!

Adam 61
Steve 60
Martin 54
Anja 44

At this point in the evening we did some switching around, although looking at it, we only actually made one change; Martin left the lounging area, complete with comedy poising cat over the back of the sofa, and Ian lounged in his place and the following games were played

Web of Power
The key to web of power, which was rather nice and simple, looked impressive, had nice wooden pieces and played fairly quickly, was the Advisors. Advisors are tokens that you place on shields/cities in one of many countries depending on your cards (you have three each, playing up to all three to place up to two pieces). There are also Cloisters that can be placed on roads across and between cities. Cloisters score twice, on the first and second time through the deck of cards, but Advisors score only on the last, but when they score they score big and gave me the win. Whilst Martin and Matt seemed to be slogging it out in the same two or three countries, I seemed to have several to myself; skill rather than the luck of the cards? Who knows.

Katy 72
Martin 54
Matt 40

Whilst the above seven games had been taking place the, until now, in blog terms, allusive Ben and Joe had been playing Arkham Horror, the card game.

Arkham Horror, the card game
They started to chat about this on the way over and I thought I’d transported into a parallel universe… when I remembered, they don’t actually exist (or do they)! I understood not a word of what they said and looking over at the game I also had no clue what dark magic they were up to. At the end of their epic journey they reported having won, it’s a cooperative, and defeating a Ghoul Priest, whoever s/he may be. This, apparently is the only game that Joe allows himself to buy any of, although he did say he was in a game shop foundling games and muttering under his breath twice in the last week!

Ben and Joe Win
Ghoul Priest No Win

Eggs of Ostrich (again)
Martin managed to persuade both myself and Matt to play Eggs of Ostrich again, I did not fare as well against Martin’s ruthlessness, although I expect I was equally almost as ruthless, which is how we handed two out of the three matches to Matt, playing the same hands and fighting amongst ourselves. We played three games, which seems traditional and there was some debate about how these should be reported on the leader board, the question on everyone’s lips was, do we continue as before, each game is a game or do we aggregate our scores over three? I’ll leave it up to the master of the leader board, Andrew to decided.

Matt 12
Martin 4
Katy 4

Martin 11
Katy 10
Matt 6

Matt 8
Katy 7
Martin 4

Aggregated
Matt 24
Katy 21
Martin 19

Actually… in both cases, maybe it should be aggregated :D

Battle Line
Whilst we were engrossed in Web of Power, or was it Eggs of Ostrich, Joe and Ben played Battle Line, there was a line and I presume a battle, using cards in various ways and maybe some other mechanisms to win. Joe felt that Ben was playing some rookie errors early on, but he managed to smash Joe in this game of war… what is it good for…

Ben Wins
Joes Does not win

Fuji Flush
We managed to finish two games at more or less the same time and so myself, Martin and Matt joined forces with Ben and Joe to play this ever more innuendo based game. This time, as well as dick points, for putting a card down one higher than any opponent and stopping them pushing it through, there was also the swinging dick, which is where you wipe out everyone else’s cards in one go. We briefly discussed scoring this alongside the standard scoring. I envisage counters that are handed out during the game, one standard counter for a dick point and some sort of shiny gem for each swinging dick. Next time please. The first game was notable for Joe handing the win to Martin, so he could come third!

Martin Win
Matt 2
Joe 3
Katy 4
Ben 5

Ben Win
Martin 1
Joe 1
Matt 2
Katy 2

St Petersburg
St Petersburg, in the latter stages played to the sounds of much swearing and foul language (sorry about that), apart from that I know little, apart from the results, that needed to be texted in, by Adam, at 23:13, the scores were worryingly similar to Kingdom Builder

Adam 65
Steve 54
Ian 46
Anja 43

When thinking about writing the blog last night I thought I’d summarise by awarding everyone at least one prize, such as most plays of Eggs of Ostrich (myself and Matt, six each) and most profanities (Joe). Alas, I was too ambitious in my thinking and this has gone on long enough. Thanks for having me, a good night was had by all, until next time.

And here's this week's division, in glorious technicolor.

Adam and Hannah create an expansion

(thanks to Andrew for the title!)

The Easton four got together this Thursday for a gossip about new players and family growth. When the conversation flagged we decided to play St Petersburg, the fun and inspirational story of Tsar Peter the Great.

The backbone of the game is the honest toil of the working class, who you need to own a lot of if you want to get anywhere. Then there are the buildings that their toil allows you to purchase. Anja got two high-value buildings very early on to get points going very quickly while Hannah and I nabbed observatories that allowed us to pick up a card from the pile of our choice each turn - early on it was extra proles to help our money-making, later we both picked up Aristocrats.

Steve played a balanced game, but delivered a hammer blow to me by picking up the only aristocrat available on the last turn even though it benefited him naught. But those ten lost points didn't quite ruin my game and I snuck ahead of Anja at the very last with my nine out of ten Aristos:

Adam 79
Anja 75
Hannah 66
Steve 63

The non-observatory-pickers-up claimed the win was mostly due to how powerful they are (observatories, not Anja and Steve) so perhaps next time we should leave them out? The prize for the magnificent victory was more baby paraphernalia than even Tsar Peter would ever need... (thanks Anja and Steve!)

Hey Andrew - what does that do to the table?

...

I'll tell you... but I'll do it in a bigger font.

So in the end, our season didn't quite have the final day showdown like they did in Women's football, since James didn't play a three-player game on Friday. Adam's win consolidates his first place in Points Ratio and puts him in second. I'm king of the hill in terms of points.

Other little nuggets of numbers: Sam scored the biggest win, statistically speaking, with his 67, 41, 38, 37, 36 victory in Metro. However, he also has the biggest defeat, in Railways of the World that ended 81, 72, 68, 66, 58. A true all-rounder!

See you all in a couple of days for the opening ceremony of the new season!  Woo hoo!

It was Tuesday. It was Easton.

… Two ingredients for our weekly games night. Or perhaps the opening lines of one of the less popular books in the Shades of Grey series. Adam was a late arrival, having only woken up an hour earlier, since he'd spent the weekend at some festival. We (myself, Sam, Joe, and the hosts: Steve and Anja) had already decided what game he wanted to play, and had set up a three-player game of Arkadia with me, Steve and an empty chair with his name on it.

Joe, Anja and Sam went for the hexagons and dice of Castles of Burgundy. Joe admitted as they set up that he'd played it a few times as a solo game "just to get the hang of the rules." Would his experience help?

Anja points an accusing finger at Joe's cluster of castles.
It looks as though Sam has ignored his moats completely - he'd begun to tidy them away

We described the rules of Arkadia to Adam once he'd arrived, and we seemed to do quite well as he used his pennants to score early. But Arkadia is a game where knowing the rules isn't enough, and he later admitted to being a bit baffled by what to do next. Steve, too, found that he was unable to plan any smart moves since either Adam or I would do them before it was his turn again. Arkadia is definitely a game where you wait for your opponent to make a mistake rather than forge any long-term strategies of your own.

In the end, the game was won on the last go, as I was able to place a building that completed itself and another building. This allowed me to change the values of the colours in my advantage, and I snuck in front of Adam right at the death.

Andrew 110
Adam 106
Steve 89

At the start of a very long road to St Petersburg...

Castles of Burgundy carried on, so we began a game of St Petersburg, apparently under the illusion that it was quite short. From the other table we heard Sam talking to himself, and Anja cry out in despair at Joe's last minute dash to into first place. I'm sure more happened than that, but in the meantime, the scores were...

Joe 82
Anja 81
Sam 78

Joe's finished estate. Only 2 pastures and 3 boats away from the full complement.

We were still playing St Petersburg, so they had a game of Biblios...

Sam 8
Joe 5
Anja 4

And as we were finishing off St Petersburg, they played 6nimmt.

Sam 26
Joe 31
Anja 62

Finally, as eleven o'clock threatened to turn into twelve, we finished our game. It had been a while since we all played, and there was a certain amount of rule checking at first, but before long we were back in the swing of things.

Steve started with an aggressive tactic of picking up a library early. Expensive but high-scoring. But this left him permanently behind in terms of cash. As Adam pointed out, the fact that Steve couldn't buy so much meant more choices for me, which explains how I was able to keep up with Adam, despite his two Observatories getting him cards as and when he pleased.

Adam 129
Andrew 125
Steve 83

The form table shows that Steve suffered heavily from the curse of the host: whereby looking after everyone detracts from the cold, calculating mind-set you need for Tuesday nights. He drops down the table faster than that bowl of popcorn fell off the couch when he was playing with his cat. Joe makes a charge into third.

						Points
Sam	1	1	3	1	1	7
Adam	1	2	1	3	1	8
Joe	2	2	1	2	3	10
Andrew	2	1	3	2	3	11
Anja	3	3	2	1	4	13
Hannah	4	3	4	1	2	14
Steve	3	3	2	5	4	17
Dan	1	5	5	5	5	21

Late night in St Petersburg

Perhaps today saw the dawn of a new rule: no new games to be learnt after 9.30. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Tonight started early with Sam, Joe and myself (Andrew) warming up with a quick game of Hey! That’s My Fish! As is only proper for such a cartoonish game, we played it completely straight as if we were up against Karpov or Kasparov. I don’t remember the scores (it was non-leaderboard) but Sam won, followed by myself, then Joe.

Adam arrived and Alhambra was brought out from the games cupboard. After its recent début a couple of weeks ago where I came stony last, I was interested to see if I learnt from my mistakes. I didn’t, since I didn’t didn’t manage my hand or cards as efficiently as the other three, but I did avoid running out of cards completely, so some improvement there. Sam, Adam and Joe, meanwhile, always had a healthy handful yet still managed to complain bitterly about their limited choices. I guess there’s a middle road to be travelled, somewhere between hoarding and thrift.

Joe spent a lot of time fretting about the Arcades, hoping to sneak an improbable win due to everyone else having the same number of Arcades thus giving him more points despite being in second. Adam focussed on high-scoring Chambers and Towers, and got first place in both building types. But Sam took first place overall with a neat display of firsts and seconds across the board, matched with a nice long wall. You know: to keep the riff-raff out.

Sam 109
Adam 106
Joe 92
Andrew 89

At 9.30, the night was still young. But we forgot that we were not. St Petersburg was chosen as a nice game to wind down with. It promised a 45 minute game on the box, and we had memories of it being quite a quick game. But tonight, it stretched out to Tolstoy-esque proportions. Sam was given a quick résumé of the rules by Adam, and I listened in for a quick refresher. I also commented on the similarity to the "aristocrat" counter's semblance to a photo of Joe I took on my aging mobile phone of him at dusk looking thoughtfully out to sea. He didn't believe me, so here it is...

Once we started the game I had a massive stroke of good luck. Without really thinking, I chose a gold miner as one of my first cards. Then three more came up in the next round, so I was able to buy them for ever decreasing costs! This set me up quite nicely with a large income early on in the game. So I began to focus on big-scoring buildings.

Meanwhile, everyone else picked up some aristocrat cards to give them a second lot of income, and before long my monetary advantage had gone. Adam invested in two pubs, allowing him to exchange roubles for victory points (those Russians do love their alcohol). Sam seemed confused for much of the game, but still played a balanced game with a good mix of cards. Joe was upset at some of the less narratively coherent gameplay choices. Specifically, why would you want to change Peter the Great into a Carpenter's Workshop?

I’m not sure St Petersburg is at its best at the end of an evening. I forgot some of the rules, and I think we all did, since asking to take a go back and do it again was pretty common. And even I started to get impatient by the end, so I can imagine how Sam felt since he had the early shift with his kids next morning. But at the end was a set of results that you wouldn’t believe if you’d seen it in a movie:

Adam 120
Andrew 111
Joe 111
Sam 111


The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio
Sam	14	64.5	4.61
Adam	12	54.5	4.54
Andrew	14	48.5	3.46
Joe	7	24.5	3.5
Dan	2	8	4
Sally	1	4.5	4.5
Jonny	1	2.5	2.5

Czars and Boxcarz

What better way to follow Stabcon than jumping in to two new games in one night. New, at least, to Andrew and Me. Quentin, Adam and Hannah had all played both before.

First we tried St Petersburg, which Quentin had brought along, having bought it for friends at christmas and borrowed it back for the evening. Definitely a game that will repay further plays - it's not until you've finished that first game that you start to see the order in which purchases should be made. I have a feeling it could become rather mechanical once you've figured it out, and there is certainly very little interaction between players. But nice enough, and one I would happily explore a little more. Especially since it is quick enough to play before or after another game in the same evening. In the end, Quent's experience/cleverness/luck lead him to a substantial win up in the hundreds, with Joe, Andrew and Adam sitting 5 points apart around the 50 point mark.

While we were playing St Petersburg, Hannah arrived with Ticket to Ride Europe. TTR is one of those ubiquitous games I've wanted to play for a long time, but never got round to it. And when Adam suggested it earlier in the day, I was initially unenthusiastic. That's only because I'd been busily genning up on share-dilution strategies for Chicago Express, a game I long to understand better, so had my eye on getting that to the table.

As it turned out, TTR was the perfect thing to start at 10pm on a tuesday night — the rules were easily grasped in 5 minutes, and play was simple and engaging. A much more interactive affair than St Petersburg, lot's of opportunity for screwage, and some nail-biting tension as you watch your coveted route being whipped out from under your nose.

As predicted by Adam, we finished at 11.20 on the dot, and it was a very close-run thing. Ahem. Apart from me, who had made a frankly disastrous decision during the late game, and was unable to complete my long route. Doh! In the end, Adam clinched it with the 10 points for longest continuous route. Hannah and Andrew came joint second, Quent third and me in very last place. Great fun though - the perfect mix of light strategy and tension, and very pretty to boot. If I get it, okay okay when I get it, I'll just have to replace the plastic trains with my Age of Steam wooden lovelies!

Let me know if I've got the leaderboard wrong, still getting my head round the new system.

	Played	Points
Andrew	3	15
Quentin	3	15
Joe	3	14
Adam	2	13
Sam	1	7
Hannah	1	6