Reading practice

This Wednesday saw me pitching up to a pub on the outskirts of Reading with a bag of games searching for the accurately named Reading Boardgame Social. Almost immediately though the door I was met by a couple playing Monopoly over, or rather around, dinner. Pausing long enough for us to awkwardly stare at each other I promptly turned on my heel hoping that it wasn't them. Thankfully the next enclave presented a gang of chaps shifting cardboard around on a table. After introducing myself and instantly getting titled Chris 278 owing to a sticker one of my kids had slapped on me before leaving, I was invited to join a game of Libertalia.

Libertalia is pirate themed card management game played over 3 rounds (Days). Everybody receives the same 6 cards from a deck of 29 different types of piratey roles. After each day the cards you still have in your hand are carried over to join the next 6 drawn, all others are discarded. The days are split into night and day sections and the cards that you hold have a mixture of abilities that are activated at a certain time. The key to this game is that all cards have a number on them 1 - 29 and are played in sequence. The object is to collect as much booty and doubloons as possible. At the end of each day your money is converted into points and you start again.

Got anything a little less piratey?

I wasn't doing well. It pays to be a little bit swashbuckling to gain the big money and I was fannying around not making much progress. Unfortunately, after I had got a grip on the mechanics, I got whalloped with a double whammy. Matt, next to me, laid a card which meant he could move all of his curses onto me at -3 points each. On my deck I had a card that meant I lost a further 3 points per curse. I was sunk.

Paul - 67
Shane - 68
Matt - 66
Chris - 39

Next up was another new game to the group Heroes Wanted. This game which was awash with components, had an element of co-op about it but it was very much every hero for themselves. It's a game that doesn't take itself to seriously and there is a lot of humour generated by the genre embedded in the game. The optional Quirks card is a definite nod toward party games where each superhero exhibits a predisposition toward some element in the game. Mine was that every time someone used their superpower, I was to clap and congratulate them or else lose points. It didn't say that I had to do it enthusiastically though which suited me because I'd decided to be quite a sarcastic hero. It wasn't as bad as it sounds but toward the end people were getting a little jaded.

Mistress Caveman is not confused

The crux of the game is to try and stop a super villain from doing some nefarious deed whilst beating up all his henchmen and minions. (In this game it was Mistress Caveman who was naughtily littering, loitering and Jaywalking. The fiend!). My character (Selected from 2 decks of cards), Leather Thunder, had a useful superpower which allowed me to take extra points way from the villain and add it to my achievements. This meant that Robo Bullet (Matt), Mysterious Elephant (Shane), Naked Machine (Paul) and Heavy Metal Hawk (Gregg) couldn't match the 14 points I received plus add ons for my work at duffing up the super villain.

Chris - 40
Greg - 34
Paul - 30
Shane - 30
Matt -22

The initial amusement and excitement was somewhat quelled by the fairly long waits between turns and there was a feeling that maybe the game wasn't best suited for 5 players.

Last up was Incan Gold, which I had brought with me, but some of the others hadn't played before. As expected it was an instant hit with the chaps really getting into the tension and baiting of others trying to bluff whether they were staying in or not.

Shane - 48
Paul - 30
Chris - 30
Matt - 29

It was great to meet up with a new bunch and experience some different games and get out of the house for a change! I will be making return visits in the future....

Red Means Stop

Three of us made it to Easton to join Adam and Hannah. Andrew and Matt dropped out late, Ian was away, but I (Sam) was a late addition and, having been collected by Joe, arrived at the re-stocked guinea pig hotel to find Adam and Martin in combat over a game of Hive, which to my mind doesn't get played enough (though to be fair it is a two-player).

I had just finished explaining the rules to Age of War when they finished (I didn't pick up who won) and joined us, making it the first 5-player of the evening.

It's a simple Knizia game; rethemed from an earlier title based on Risk (which was called Risk Express). Several cards are laid in the centre of the table - these are castles, and in order to capture them you roll a set of seven dice. If you can fill one of the "battle lines" in a chosen castle, you do so. If you can't, you have to sacrifice a die before rolling again. Fill all the battle lines, and you claim the castle for your own.

As well as claiming castles from the centre you can also grab them off the other players (although this is harder) and - as the castles come in certain colours, representing tribes - if you gain all the castles of a certain colour, you can flip the cards over, giving you a twofold benefit: firstly they can't be stolen from you, and secondly you gain a points bonus.

Grrr

We all liked it I think, even Hannah, who fate shat on from a great height as she continuously fell short of the necessary dice icons needed (there's cavalry, bowmen and so on) and having finally captured a castle, had it nicked from under her nose. In the end it was a close run thing between myself, Adam, Joe and Martin. To win I'd have to steal a card from someone, but also hope nobody would steal a castle from me and the last castle in the central pool would still be available on my next turn. Coupled with the fact there were concerns over how long the game might last, I decided to grab the final castle to claim second place:

Adam 9
Sam 8 (2nd on most castles)
Martin 8 (3rd on most castles)
Joe 8
Hannah 0

After a debate over whether to play Railways of the World or not, we finally settled on Ra, the game that even my electronic devices have no auto-correct for.

Martin, unaware of the Ra-ing he was about to receive

This game needs no introduction, and we began like a bunch of old folks settling into a comfy chair. Although Adam and Hannah had to share a chair, as they played as a team. I bailed early on the first round, picking up a decent bunch of monument tiles and covering the bases elsewhere. It was a tactic I tried to continue throughout, despite picking up crappy bidding tiles, and it just might've worked if it hadn't been for that pesky Martin picking up a shitload of Pharaohs in round two.

Martin's Pharaohs stretched on into the night

That loss of 5 points was enough for monument king Joe to sail past me:

Joe 43
Sam 38
Martin 35
Adam and Hannah 34

easy

There was little debate over the next game. Joe pooh-poohed playing Port Royal, as he has played it so much recently, and I pooh-poohed it too as I think it's kind of pooh-poohy. Instead we played Red, the game of completely confusing rule-changing. Like Age of War, I believe we all liked it. Unlike Age of War, sitting at the end of the table where me and Hannah were made it very hard to tell the difference between indigo and purple. "Just like real life" as Hannah philosophically noted.
"The colour's written on the cards!" Martin pointed out, in-between thrashing us all (except Joe, who in the early running looked like the likely winner).

Martin 37
Joe 25
Sam 0
Adam and Hannah 0

By now we were all, as we collectively confessed, 'pooped' - but as Martin and I had cups of tea to finish, we broke out the classic No Thanks. Joe and I both took calculated risks in putting together runs, and they both paid off. Martin ran out of coins. Hannah, perhaps sensing leaderboard implosion, let Adam go this one alone:

Joe 18
Sam 24
Martin 64
Adam 67

Arthur is there in spirit for the family portrait

A very enjoyable evening that couldn't even be spoiled by me knocking my cheap Spanish wine over. Fortunately I'd just enough left to spray the table and chair, but leave the carpet and guinea pigs completely unsullied. Now that's a games night.

						Points
Ian	3	1	2	2	1	9
Joe	1	2	1	4	2	10
Andrew	2	2	3	1	2	10
Martin	3	1	3	3	1	11
Chris	1	2	1	3	5	12
Sam	2	3	2	2	3	12
Adam	4	3	4	1	1	13
Hannah	3	4	5	2	2	16
Matt	2	3	5	3	4	17
Paul	2	2	5	5	5	19
Steve	1	5	5	5	5	21

Mystic Rhythms

So Wednesday rolled round again and with it a chance to play Terra Mystica as a three player. Not wanting to eat into the playing time by going over the rules I unboxed the game and went through the copious rules with Paul hoping that his eyes wouldn't glaze over too quickly. To his credit he lasted to the end of my detailed run through.

Despite this, the evening was understandably punctuated by rule book clarifications, if only to back up my answers. The 30 minutes per person playing time stretched to a 2 and a half hour game as a consequence. The factions selected were Mermaids for James, Nomads for Paul and Witches for me, again, each taken without any real idea as to how to play them. Inevitable as we are in that initial phase of a game where strategy is being discovered through play. Context of moves and impact of accruing scores are only realised at the end when you are staring at the board wondering where it all went wrong.

In direct opposition to the games intended design each of us placed our initial dwellings well away from our opponents. This allowed for some easy growth in various directions but did mean that gathering power (One of the games currencies) was a little restricted. James again had a nice handle on preparing his moves to coincide with collecting the round bonuses whilst I concentrated on the cult track and Paul on building dwellings everywhere.

The first 4 rounds skipped by fairly quickly with James keeping his nose in front but as we started to ramp up the workers and power the final two rounds started to drag on as each player tried to squeeze as many moves in as they could. Your options are plenty and as I found out in my final round there is a preferred order to your moves if you can see it. If this game is any indication money seems to be the most sought after resource. By going out first in the last two rounds James was able to select the money option and leave it tight for the rest of us, additionally his clever manipulation of his resources and spotting of scoring opportunities allowed him to gain victory points on both the cult track and the main scoring. Enough to claim a win even after coming 3rd in the largest territory competition.

James - 98
Chris - 94
Paul - 77

Staring at the board afterwards there was a feeling that although it was epic, was it enjoyable? Nobody was indicating that they were looking forward to the next instalment. As an experience, it certainly feels like the game is playing you rather than the other way around. The jury is still out on this one.

Judged Red

Today’s GNN outing was a sparse affair: just the three of us available on a Tuesday. I was hosting, and Ian and Martin were in attendance.

Martin was keen to play Impulse again, and I felt it deserved a second go. Ian was given a walkthrough of the rules and we were sped off into space. As before, I scored quickly, trading in cards to gain points. Alas, this just aroused the interest of Martin’s evil space empire who, in one turn, build six cruisers, most of whom seemed to be facing my way.

Before long, the wave of green doom swept across the board and I was running for my life. I ran towards Ian’s sector with my last remaining ship, only for him to blow me out of the skies the first chance he had. Oh well. I did try to sabotage his ships earlier, I suppose.

I remain unconvinced by Impulse. The problem is that despite the appearance of a lot of options, your opportunities for reacting to another player’s moves are quite limited. I felt like I was being told what to do by the cards in my hand, rather than the other way round.

Martin 20
Ian 3
Andrew OUT!

After this, just like the last time we played Impulse, we followed it up with Red again. This is starting to feel like a kind of sorbet that can take away the taste of the previous meal and leave you refreshed again.

It’s a great little game. Very easy to pick up, but not so easy to understand. The constantly shifting rules make for an endlessly changing game.

If our last game was quick and decisive, this was an epic, as we all clawed our way to the magical 35 point target. In the end, Ian just made it across the line. And you know what? He won with the boring old “Highest card wins” rule. Yawners!

Ian 36
Andrew 34
Martin 28

Finally, to fill the time before Ian’s train home, we broke out Love Letter. This was Martin’s rare (possibly. I didn’t ask) Japanese version. Some of the names of the characters had been changed, but the mechanics were identical. Find the Princess, and avoid being found out first.

Martin 3
Andrew 1
Ian 0

And so we finished at a terribly civilised 10.30ish. Martin sits atop the form table, with Ian in a close second

						Points
Martin	1	3	1	3	1	9
Ian	3	1	2	2	1	9
Andrew	2	2	3	1	2	10
Adam	1	3	3	2	2	11
Chris	1	2	1	3	5	12
Joe	2	2	2	3	3	12
Sam	3	4	4	2	1	14
Matt	2	3	5	3	4	17
Hannah	2	2	5	5	5	19
Paul	2	2	5	5	5	19
Steve	1	5	5	5	5	21

And since it’s the end of the month, let’s take a look at the Division. There's one more month until the end of the season, and everything is still up for grabs!

Terra Mystica - Not terror forming!

After spending the week learning the rules to Terra Mystica, including a three way game against myself, I was pleased that James allowed himself to be talked into trying it out.

I won't bore everyone by explaining all the rules. I'll do it by explaining some of them instead. The game pits different mystical factions against each other in bid to create the biggest settlement and the most influence on the cult track consisting of the elements earth, wind, fire and water. It's played on a regular board covered with hexes and different terrain types. There are 6 randomised rounds in a game which have differing scoring conditions and each round is made up of three phases.

Phase one players choose their bonus tile for the round and collect income, in the form of workers, money and power. You then get to spend those resources in phase two by alternately taking one of 8 different options from terraforming and building (Changing hexes to your factions territory so you can place dwellings on), Upgrading your buildings, Upgrading your terraforming ability, Upgrading your shipping, selecting power options, selecting special actions, using a priest to improve your standing on the cult tracks and ending your go. You can perform as many of these options, in any order as long as you have resources to perform them. Passing order determines turn order for the next round.

Phase three is tidy up time, scoring bonuses and selecting new bonus tiles for the round.

And around you go, 6 times, until you can do no more and then the end of the game is triggered and final scoring takes place. There is a bit more to it than this of course but this is the essence of the game which appears to be complicated but really isn't!

So to our inaugural game. We chose the two recommended starting factions, James - Witches, me - Alchemists and set up our boards, gathered starting resources, placed our starting dwellings and dived straight in with no appreciation of any strategy. Only James cottoned on to a very effective strategy early on, being, to score points from the round bonus each turn. I busied myself with developing the cult tracks thinking that the 8 point bonuses for being first in each at the end of the game would make up for it. However, this thinking was a bit fuzzy as second place in the tracks scored 4 points. In a similar vein the scoring for largest settlement was 18 points but then second place was 12. I wasn't scoring heavily enough and James was racing round the track. After the first turn, James had built his stronghold (The biggest piece) and had a bonus each turn of placing a dwelling in one of his territories. As his influence on the board grew so did his ability to gather resources from his factions board.

Our end game board

I did rally later on by taking a few bonuses but James was just far enough ahead to not suffer any reverse at the final scoring.

James - 107
Chris - 87

Our verdict on it was mixed. Certainly we didn't feel that it was particularly suited to two players. Too much space and not enough interaction. Once you got going it was simple enough, without the need to much rule reviews. The symbols on the board and faction boards become quite explanatory fairly quickly. We both felt that as the game was building to a final climax, it sort of petered out as we both realised, slowly, that we were out of actions and the game had actually finished. Also, in our game, it didn't take much mental arithmetic to realise who had won.... Having said that, it's just the sort of game I like. Loads of scoring opportunities, lots of options per turn and a feeling that you are building something! James may reserve judgement until our next three player night.

Men just can’t help acting on...

Impulse! Martin’s new game he picked up while on holiday in the United States.

Adam and Hannah were hosting again, and myself, Sam, Martin came in one car, Matt arrived on his bike while Ian sauntered over from his house just five minutes away.

While Hannah put baby Arthur to bed, the six of us decided on a stirring game of 6nimmt. Adam has The Walking Dead-themed version, and I commented during the game that most of what we were saying could easily work in the setting of a zombie apocalypse. “This is brutal,” “I hope this works,” and “I think I need two people to die if I’m going to survive.”

A terrible second round put Ian on the brink of extinction, and with just thirteen points between the rest of us, it was a tense third round. But Martin cleared it with just one bullet.

Martin 17
Andrew 22
Adam 38
Sam 48
Matt 50
Ian 69

Then we split into two groups. Me, Martin and Matt decided to brave the final frontier with Impulse, while Ian, Adam, Hannah and Sam were debating between Tinners’ Trail and Macao. In the end, TT won the vote because Ian didn’t want to learn any new rules tonight.

Meanwhile, in outer space, Martin walked us through the rules. And there were plenty of them. Cards have actions, colours and strengths on them, and these can be used in a variety of ways. Cards can be activated by moving your spaceship onto them, by going through the communal group of four cards, by actioning one of two cards you have tucked away in your player area, plus a number of cards you’ve managed to stash away as part of a plan. On one move, Matt managed to put all of these together to produce a leviathan of a move that went on for card after card.

But it was Martin who won by picking up points for shooting other ships out of the skies, and suddenly ending Matt’s reign of power as hit reached 20 points and suddenly ended the game. My good showing was solely due to me picking up a load of points after a round or two, and then being attacked by Martin and then not doing much else until the game ended.

Martin 20
Andrew 9
Matt 7

I’m unconvinced. I have a mistrust of games with cards that have rules on them. It seems like a very easy way to build up a complicated game. It certainly wasn’t what you’d call elegant, but it might have its attractions if we played it a few more times.

During this, Tinners’ Trail ended with newcomer Ian picking up a very respectable win against some tough opposition. Hopefully he’ll tell us his secrets in the comments section.

Ian 108 (wins on money tiebreaker)
Hannah 108
Adam 107
Sam 93

Since our games weren’t syncing up properly, they’d already begun on Port Royal by the time we’d finished Impulse, with Ian reminding Sam and Adam of the rules. So Martin introduced us (matt and me) to another new game, also by the same designer as Impulse (although he didn’t mention that until we’d started playing and we’d said how much fun it was).

This game, Red, is a sort of game of trumps, but the rules for winning hand can change each time someone puts a card down. During a turn, a player can either add a card to his showing hand, or put a card on top of the current “rule card” in the middle of the table OR do both. A pile of cards builds up in the middle and the topmost card’s rule is the won that everyone has to obey. For now. Happily, each card has it's new rule (one for each colour) written on it.

The trick is that you have to play cards such that you are winning at the end of your turn. If you cannot, then you are out. It seems amazing that such a simple game came from the same designer as Impulse (Carl Chudyk), but it’s true.

I enjoyed it a lot. Perhaps because I won. By a lot.

Andrew 32
Matt 7
Martin 0

We finished when we did because Port Royal was over, and it was time we were heading off, despite the relatively early hour (not even eleven). Port Royal ended:

Adam 13
Ian 10
Sam 9

With Sam declaring that, after three attempts, Port Royal would remain in his bad books as far as games were concerned. On the Form Table, I remain top in what is looking like my best season ever! Still a long way to go, though.

						Points
Andrew	1	2	2	1	2	8
Adam	1	3	3	2	2	11
Martin	3	1	1	4	2	11
Chris	1	2	1	3	5	12
Joe	2	2	2	3	3	12
Ian	2	1	6	2	3	14
Sam	3	4	4	2	1	14
Matt	2	3	5	3	4	17
Hannah	2	2	5	5	5	19
Paul	2	2	5	5	5	19
Steve	1	5	5	5	5	21

Delivered poisonally

Traditionally, August has been a fallow month for games at GNN, with families and holidays taking precedence over a swift evening of strategising and snacks (actually, I just checked: not necessarily true). This year is turning out somewhat different, with weekend games a plenty to keep us entertained during the dark days of Joe and Martin being away.

Sam was hosting and, at first, Ian and I were in attendance. Matt was expected in about half and hour, so we chose 7 Wonders to fill the time. Still fairly new to Ian, this game’s lustre shows no sign of fading with us more experience types.

It was an odd game: there was a lack of resources, meaning I couldn’t finish my wonder (The Colossus of Rhodes) so I went for war in a petulant show of anger. Sam dabbled in sciences, Ian went for guilds. But judging by the number of burnt cards and the amount of money still left in our vaults at the end of the game, I suspect none of us really completed their plans to fullest effect. It ended very close.

Ian 45
Andrew 45
Sam 44

As we were packing away, Matt arrived and we chose Poison: an old favourite from the early days of GNN. We chose it because we could end it quickly in the event of Adam arriving, but a mid-game text informed us that he couldn’t make it tonight. In the event, we played the regulation four rounds, and Ian took the win on his first ever game.

Ian 11
Sam 18
Andrew 23
Matt 34

The next game on the table was Tinners’ Trail, as the evening turned into a nostalgia-fest for Sam and me, with another classic being pulled from the cupboard. It was new for Ian and Matt, though, and a somewhat inebriated Sam explained the rules, no doubt having flashbacks to the last time he tried to teach this game under the influence.

Until copper collapsed in the last round, the prices remained high for almost the entire game, which made up for the number of water-logged mines that we prospected (or “hunted” as I kept calling it, as the wine took hold on me too). I had a great round two, earning seventy pounds, which set me up for a comfortable win.

Andrew 106
Sam 87
Ian 80
Matt 74

After this, the feeling of nostalgia continued, with GNN stalwart being brought out: Biblios! Another new game for Matt and Ian, and Sam explained the simple yet cunning rules including, of course, the all-important “Eat shit” rule.

Sam 5
Andrew 4 (wins on browns)
Ian 4
Matt 2

Even though it was eleven o’clock by now, Sam thought there was still time for another quick game, and he suggested Timeline. I got some good cards (Theory of Relativity: 1915), and was out first.

1. Andrew
2= Sam
2= Ian
3. Matt

And with that, we were home, and I woke up this morning deciding that Sam’s giant bottle of wine was as dangerous as it was delightful.

						Points
Andrew	1	2	1	3	1	8
Sam	2	1	2	2	2	9
Ian	2	3	3	1	1	10
Martin	4	2	2	1	2	11
Chris	1	2	1	3	5	12
Joe	2	2	2	3	3	12
Adam	2	2	3	5	2	14
Matt	3	4	4	4	3	18
Paul	2	2	5	5	5	19
Steve	1	5	5	5	5	21
Hannah	2	5	5	5	5	22