Vegas, Baby!

Tonight, the four core GNN regulars arrived at Sam’s with Joe bringing along Lords of Vegas as the evening’s special treat as Joe desperately tries to get everyone to play his freshly-bought board games to convince himself he hasn't wasted his money. Before we began, he ruefully admitted that he wouldn’t buy any more games until Christmas. But he did have lots of board games on his new iPhone. At least if he puts them there, they won’t take up valuable shelf-space in the house.

Lords of Vegas is all about gaining control of areas which will then hopefully score points and earn money. It’s all about gambling, since a random selection of areas never get played at all, allowing neighbouring players to take them over for a fee. Of course, this then leaves them worrying that this area may be revealed later in the game, meaning they lose the property they spent so much money on building. It’s all about risk and reward, and playing the odds.

Since it was everyone’s first game, I threw caution to the wind and I bought up vacant lots whenever possible, hoping that the casino would pay out. And, to my delight, it often did. Joe, who’d played this game before, was behind in the early part of the game but finished strongly. Gamblin’ Sam had mixed luck with the dice while Cautious Adam had some luck, but never reaped the full rewards since he often shared any financial risk with the bank. Less in losses, but less in wins too.

It’s a very gamble-y game, with choices made according to what you think the most likely card will be next. I enjoyed it, and there’s a certain excitement when somebody decides to reorganise a casino, meaning everyone’s dice get rolled and a new boss is chosen. I think we underplayed the trading section, but I don't think the game suffered too much.

Andrew 36, wins tiebreaker on money
Joe 36
Sam 26, wins tiebreaker on money
Adam 26

After such opulent gaming, with properties being developed for millions of dollars, why not continue the high-rolling atmosphere with For Sale! In this card game we bid for properties in the same care-free manner as other people feed bread to ducks. I felt confident in this game, too, after a round of betting between Joe, Sam, and Adam over the highest valued property left them all relatively cash-poor.

In the second half of the game, where we play out Property cards like trumps in order to earn money, we kept expecting Joe to play his lowly 1 card, but he didn’t. It was a bluffer’s paradise, with people tempted to play low cards, thinking that surely THIS time Joe would play his 1 card. But he didn’t... Until the last round of the game, where it didn’t help him much. After a recount, Adam was declared winner of For Sale.

Adam 68
Andrew 62
Sam 53
Joe 49

So after two games based around the crazy high life of property development, we stumbled back into the damp November air, still giddy with talk of tens of millions of dollars. For everyone except me, it was a middling performance, but my first and second pushes me up the new leaderboard. Now all we have to do is convince Quentin to turn up again. And then somehow make him lose.

The Form Table...

						Points
Quentin	1	1	1	2	1	6
Andrew	2	1	1	3	3	10
Adam	1	4	3	3	2	13
Sam	3	3	2	2	3	13
Joe	4	2	3	2	2	13
Jonny	3	2	4	5	5	19
Dan	3	1	5	5	5	19
Steve	3	2	5	5	5	20
Andy	2	4	5	5	5	21
Sally	2	5	5	5	5	22

A few acres of tiles

With Ashton (recovering from a chest infection) and Ava (Normal bedtime) happily tucked up in bed and dinner out the way by 18.50, an inviting 4 hours of gaming was available. Paul suggested that this week we might try to play as many quick games as possible after last sessions time eating monster A Few Acres Of Snow. Seizing my opportunity I quickly plopped Citadels, a new game to us, on the table. Although there would be a rule learning session and the obligatory "Open Hand" I thought we would probably get a game in under the hour benchmark stated on the box.

The rules didn't seem overly complex but the powers that the characters held required constant referral. For two Citadels newbies the interaction between the characters and what was a "Good" move remained elusive until near the end. Realising that I had built a whole bunch city cards and was near to closing out the game I began to choose my characters a lot more carefully. It would seem that some cards like the Bishop, Warlord and Assassin become a lot more sought after as the game progresses. It's then that you see how neatly balanced this game really is. I managed to negotiate my way through to an eighth city card and that was that. I really liked it but I could see Paul was left a little cold by it and so we hurriedly moved on to our next game....

Chris 30
Paul 16

Which was Stone Age! Oh no everybody groans..... Well I won so there, and I did so without my new tactic of throwing Paul's workers under the washing machine panning out as I had planned.

Chris 243
Paul 200

The time was 21:45, the night was still young! So we unboxed Carcassonne the Discovery. Paul hadn't played it in at least 10 years but hadn't lost any of his skill as a tile laying magician. In fact if anybody needs their bathroom doing then Paul's your man. Although you will have to be happy with a perfectly tessellated satellite picture of a fictional medieval country as thats all he does apparently. We were neck and neck all the way through but this was all balanced by whether one of Paul's early mountain dwelling meeples would be lucky enough to find the piece of land which had two corners mountain opposite two corners grassland. Twice I picked the ideal tile and quickly placed far far away. Fortunately for Paul his meeple got the map turned the right way and found the perfect tile, scoring 18 points (A lot in this game) and taking any chance of a comeback away.

Paul 117
Chris 103

We had managed to get all three in by 22:45 and not have to break any traffic laws getting Paul to his train on time. Hoorah.

Name Played Won
Chris 18 12
James 7 3
Paul 11 3

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A Gentleman's Guide on How To Score

You know, much as we all love the leaderboard and we think the Q-system of scoring is a great idea, I can’t help but notice that the gap between first and sixth is 84 points. That’s quite a gap to bridge. And even between me and Joe, there’s 31 points.

I was wondering about another leaderboard that doesn’t have these huge gaps, nor does it rely on the Points Ratio to even things up. Basically, it’s just a form table of the five most recent games each player has played with 1 point for first, 2 for second etc, This means that a poor showing one evening doesn’t effect you all season and you can work it off over time.

For those who haven’t played five games, the gaps are filled in with 5th positions, just to get them on the board, and also to tease them with the tantalizing offer of a sudden leap in places should they do well.

At first glance, I like this, just because it keeps everyone close together. Any thoughts?

The Form Table...

						Points
Quentin	1	1	1	2	1	6
Adam	3	3	2	1	1	10
Sam	2	2	3	2	1	10
Joe	3	2	2	3	2	12
Andrew	1	3	3	3	3	13
Jonny	3	2	4	5	5	19
Dan	3	1	5	5	5	19
Steve	3	2	5	5	5	20
Andy	2	4	5	5	5	21
Sally	2	5	5	5	5	22

Have it, Caesar!

Tuesday night games saw 5 of us clustered around the table - Adam, Andrew, Joe, Quentin and myself (Sam), cracking our knuckles in anticipation as Joe walked in with a bag of new games - one of which, Lords of Vegas, did not play five, so we broke open the other, Ave Caesar. In this game players race chariots around the dusty tracks of ancient Rome, pausing only to throw a Denari in Caesar's lap - or, if you prefer, you can ignore Caesar for tactic's sake and sacrifice your laurels (or victory points) instead. If one had a big lead that might be a viable option, but as it was we were too in thrall of the Emperor (or fear of losing) and stuck to our task. The chariots are propelled by card play so there's an element of card management and an element of blocking competitors off where the track narrows or veers around corners.

The game suggests 4 races but as it was fairly lightweight we did 2 instead and found it an enjoyable filler, for some reason encouraging a lot of smutty humour. Quentin began another successful night by coming in first again, with Joe and Adam tied for second and Andrew and I placed third:

Quentin 8

Joe/Adam 7

Sam/Andrew 5

With the night reasonably young there was time for a semi-serious game, but we found it so tricky deciding in the end a Decider was chosen at random, and that turned out to be me. I plumped for Ra, hoping we'd have time for Poison afterwards. There had been talk of Torres but if it makes Adam feel any better I realised later that it only plays 2-4.

Ra's not a strong game of mine but rather than hedge my bets and try and scoop up tiles at the end of the round, a strategy that's burnt my fingers before, I opted for grabbing things early to cover the bases and avoid penalties, a system that would have paid off had it not been for the presence of the new Ratio King at the table - yes, Quentin did it again, shrugging off the odd penalty to grab first place. Adam's comprehensive collection of monuments saw him score big but he was also hampered by his Pharoah and Civilisation shortcomings. Joe suffered the Ra equivalent of darts-elbow; having collected the three highest sun tiles for round three he was reticent to spend them.

Quentin 39

Sam 37

Adam/Andrew 17

Joe 16

It was ten o'clock and while Andrew cracked opened the whisky Joe and Quentin decided to retire, making the last game a three-hander. As such, Poison was out, and after a little dalliance with the idea of Trans-America, we settled on 7 Wonders. I like this game for three, with a little foresight and guesswork you can think a move ahead rather than just in the here and now. Andrew had professed to being a little jaded by 7 Wonders recently, but you wouldn't have known it as he wiped the floor with us, going big on Military and Blue Buildings to finish just one point off Adam's record score:

Andrew 62

Sam 46

Adam 44

Nice to get three games into an evening, and just look at Quent's ratio! He did volunteer that ratio should only come into it after ten games (which we agreed to) but it's worryingly impressive all the same.

The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio
Sam	21	94.5	4.5
Adam	19	86	4.53
Andrew	22	78	3.55
Joe	13	47	3.62
Quentin	6	31	5.17
Jonny	3	10.5	3.5
Dan	2	8	4
Steve	2	7.5	3.75
Andy	2	7	3.5
Sally	1	4.5	4.5

Not Another Stone Age Review!

Yes.

Not being one to pass up an opportunity to play Stone Age meant that I found myself, once again, at James' house for what is becoming a bi-weekly session of games (spread over two days!). My previous high score had since been confined to the history books thanks to Sam's recent massive total and James was of a mind to reduce the gap, thus hindering any chance of a repeat performance. In the two player version the fight for resources is not as tight as it is with 3 or 4; therefore simply avoiding your opponents strategy is easier.

Hence, James collection of fields and workers was matched by my axes and huts leaving us to fight over the culture cards. Although my lead - courtesy of a little row of huts - looked quite impressive, James managed chomp away big chunks of that lead by building huts with pure GOLD! Inspired play! In the end it came down to a couple of culture cards that appeared to complete my set and the two fields left unplayed.

Chris 265.
James 199.

Our second game, Ticket to Ride, was probably as close as a game could get. Come the final tot-up I was ten points in the lead, however James had pipped me for the longest route. This brought the scores to 105 each and with four 4 tickets completed it all came down to the longest route. Which James had.

James 105
Chris 105

Bracknell Leaderboard:

(October - November)

Name Played Won

Chris 15 10

James 7 3

Paul 8 2

Which makes me look like a flat track bully....

Cold War Classic

Whilst Sam and Andrew struggled cooperatively for control of Middle Earth (see below), Steve and I, down the road in Montpelier, went head to head with a struggle of a more modern kind.
Before Steve arrived, I had piled up a few choices, including Cuba, which we'd both played for the first time recently, and La Citta (another of The Works £7.99 wonders, one I haven't managed to play yet). I'd also included a couple of two-player games; Martin Wallace's A Few Acres of Snow, and BGG darling Twilight Struggle.
Having assessed the options we agreed that it would be wrong not to play a dedicated two-player game, given the circumstances, and I left it to Steve to make the choice. Acres would be a long rules learn, but a shorter game. Twilight Struggle (slightly) easier to grasp, much longer to play. Steve opted for Twilight Struggle.

The rules are a bit of a bear; it's not hugely complicated, but the direct conflict, zero-sum nature of the game means that you really need to be up to speed before going in. We started in on the rules description at 7.45, and an hour later we were setting up the first turn. I was USSR, Steve the free world.

The first turn took 45 mins, and was a fairly tentative affair -  there were no scoring cards - and we were just finding our feet. Turn two was very different, as I held the Middle East scoring, and Steve the Asia scoring; unfortunately for Steve, I had made some in-roads into Asia in turn one, so was able to concentrate on shoring up the Middle East to maximise my score there, and in the end, Asia was a dead heat, though I scored a few points for controlling battleground countries.

Turn two had taken a bit longer, and as we went in to turn three, the early war deck had to be re-shuffled, giving the potential for a repeat scoring of Middle East and/or Asia, along with the inevitable battle for Europe.
The whole of round three was a tug-of-war for Europe, and we were beginning to get a good feel for the game. It's daunting, of course, trying to take in the situation in every region at once. But what you realise through playing is that different regions become the focus of a round if someone holds a scorecard, which makes for a more managable cognitive load.

Steve managed to keep Europe out of my grasp, but hadn't managed to do the same in the Middle East, both of which scored in the final round of turn three. My Middle East victory pulled the VP marker all the way to my 20 VP goal, and the game was up. We were both glad in some ways, because it meant we'd completed a game rather than left it hanging (Steve confided he was going to call it a night at the end of the turn); but I was more glad than Steve.

I could really get into this game, if it got played more often - if time/tiredness were not factors, I think we would have both gone in again with a much more focussed, aggressive stance. It's well-deserving of its classic status; grown-up without being dry, competitive, but with enough luck from the cards to not feel too mean. The theme is perfectly in tune with the gameplay - I like the way the influence builds up in certain hot-spots; the more influence your opponent has, the more you need to have to try and wrest control, leading to mini-skyscrapers of chits in certain places.  All this, and the ever-present threat of nuclear armageddon - what more could you ask of a tuesday evening in november? JB

Lords of the Stone Age

Today’s plan for the same game to be played in two venues at once, with messages flying back and forth was slightly scuppered when it was revealed that Joe had lent out his copy of Ascending Empires. And also there isn’t really enough down-time during a two-player game to muck about with instant messaging or texts.

In the end the two factions went their separate ways. I believe that Joe and Steve went for A Few Acres Of Snow – a two player game that Joe has been itching to get people to play. Since two-player games aren’t leaderboard (at least, not usually), Sam felt in a co-operative mood and we chose Reiner Knizia’s re imagining of The Lord Of The Rings for our opening game.

I’d played it fairly recently, so I refreshed Sam’s memory of the rules, and we got stuck in. For most of the game, it was plain sailing, with Sauron barely twitching until Helm’s Deep, at which point he dragged himself a couple of spaces in our direction. Heading into Mordor, we had plenty of shields and I was confident of a successful campaign against the rabbit-eared monolith.

However, Sauron didn’t gain his reputation for evil for no reason, and in the last round, we went from comfort and confidence to panicky fear after a string of event tiles were turned over. Mordor is very deceptive: it’s events are bad, but they’re quite easy to avoid, and so you aren’t too bothered when the next event is uncovered. But this is a false sense of security. Each event takes you closer to Sauron’s victory, and we soon found ourselves standing one space away from defeat and two spaces away from absolute victory. It all depended on the turn of one tile.

An event tile... Sauron won. And he barely moved all game.

While the game was exciting while it lasted, and we couldn’t believe our luck with dice rolls, the end is a bit of a damp squib. Still, it was nice to team up with a fellow GNN regular and battle a common foe. I mean, one who isn’t Adam, that is.

For our next game we chose Stone Age as a nice two-player. Although I never win at this game any more, I still enjoy it. It feels very Roulette-ish, with the placement of the pieces and the element of luck. And I have to admit I had quite a bit of luck. By my standards, I played a very good game – getting my highest score by far. But Sam is not a man to be taken lightly at this game. Any confidence I had at my score was obliterated at Sam racked up the highest two-player score so far (sorry, Chris. I just couldn’t stop him).

Sam 337
Andrew 249

I'll leave it for Joe to explain his adventures in the snow with Steve in another post.