BKJCon, April 11th 2009 Session Report

Bob, Kath and Jeff posted about 2 weeks ago that they were going to host a social event with some gaming thrown in for good measure. It was a planned ‘all day’ affair, with food, drinks, and good times. Everyone pitched in a little with something to share and the three of them provided the brats and a lot of other food. If you had the time to come and share in the camaraderie and good times and choose not to, I’m going to quote a movie you probably know and say, “You have chosen……..poorly.”

When I arrived I think Justin was already there, and we and Bob and Kath were just chatting about a myriad of things. I honestly can’t remember all the different conversations, but I do know that we were talking about Watchmen a little and the Hulk for quite a time. I’d also say that through the course of the day there were several that I shouldn’t repeat in a family friendly forum such as this. Jeff was out picking up a couple things, and he arrived next. Jacquelene was getting ready at the same time. Nick arrived later, and Liz was later still, having to wait for some sort of tree maintenance. Mike was there, Micre, David, Blair (for a time), Joel, Rob, Dave, and I can’t remember who else, if anyone.

Like a super genius I tried to get Starcraft started first. I have gotten in several plays of this with the expansion, and I know that David and Micre liked the base game quite a bit, so I thought we’d get that started. Jacquelene, Nick and Rob hadn’t played before, so I explained the game and the changes with the expansion and then we set out the first turn. Then the food was ready. I can’t say thank you or stress enough how great it was of Bob, Kath and Jeff to provide everything they did for everyone. It was much appreciated.

Following some time out in the sun (with intermittent breaks to go inside and warm up), and some more great conversations, we got back to the game. Nick was first, playing Tassadar, followed by Micre (Arcturus Mengsk), me (Jim Raynor), David (The Overmind), Rob (Aldaris) and Jacquelene (Queen of Blades). We set up the galaxy and I was lucky enough to have no one directly next to me, and have an access point to a lot of victory points. Nick started out by building his forces on one planet and expanding to the next one, but not building a base at all. Micre really established a solid foundation on his starting planet but did not branch out. I went for a victory point grab as fast as I could, and managed to expand onto a planet which contained a strategic area as well. David built up, but had Rob both right behind him in turn order and right next to him on the board, typically a bad combination in this game. The placement of the order markers really is what makes the game as great as it is, although the theme has a lot to do with it for most people (not me, since I’ve never played the game). This means that the person who places after you has a significant influence on what you can do. If that person is the one who is also attacking you it takes a significant amount of preparation to be able to deflect that. David had chosen his leadership card that allowed him to collect extra victory points as long as one the token associated with it was in play. He was preparing for the inevitable invasion from Rob. Rob had chosen his alternate victory condition which allowed him to win at 15 points while the rest of us had to get to 20. Jacquelene chose the card that let her start with 2 bases and 2 transports, giving her a pretty good setup. Luckily for us her starting planets required her to have flying units to collect the victory points.

There was no actual combat for two turns, by the end of which I had 9 points, David had 7, Jacquelene had 5, and everyone else had 2 or less. I had to go first and played the mobilize order on my planet and waited for the onslaught, which did come. Micre and Nick both came for me, Nick getting me off the planet he had expanded to, but not off the victory point space in the air, so I was able to collect that one. Rob took out David’s space with the extra victory point token (the overmind token). Micre came for me next, then fired off a preemptive strike and took out a battlecruiser with his goliath. If only I had built the defensive module I would have been able to save it, but his preemptive strike did leave the victory point space ripe, and I took it back. This meant that Jacquelene and I each got 4 points, and I had Nick bearing down on me.
Next turn was even worse in terms of board position, as we had hit stage 2 in the interim and several people were playing their leaders, including Nick’s Carrier leader and Rob’s Dragoon leader who can use high templar cards, and Jacquelene’s infested terran leader. Micre chose his card that gave 2 extra victory point chips, David chose the extra action chip, and I chose the one that gave me free workers or transports, and doubled my research and supply modules.

The next turn Nick was about to destroy my base and take those 2 points, so I built the limited air defense module. This meant he wasn’t able to attack my base that turn and couldn’t take the points away, without building an offensive module. I was prepared for that as well, as I built a ghost and researched lockdown, which would have prevented his unit from attacking mine anyhow, but it was moot, since he didn’t build the module. This was probably due to it being his first time playing. Jacquelene and Micre went to battle this time, and David took back a space from Rob, earning him another point. At the end of this turn I was able to secure another 4 points, as did Jacquelene. Micre earned 3, and David did too. Rob was really trying to hold on until stage 3 for his special condition to trigger. A quick survey of the board and the event deck revealed that it would be almost impossible for someone to prevent me from getting the 2 points I’d need to claim victory next turn, and the deck wasn’t going to run out so we decided to pick it up and take a break, maybe play something else.

Some reflections on Starcraft, with the expansion
1. Don’t teach new players with a 6 player game. There isn’t enough stuff to do to keep 6 people interested for the time they’re investing, and a lot of what happens on the board doesn’t affect you enough to hold your attention.
2. Honestly, I’m not sure that 6 players is the best number. I’m thinking I like 4 best, because you really can move around and get to where you need pretty fast. It also means that you need to pay pretty close attention, as you know that your opponents that can do the same to you, so you stay more engaged than you might with a lot of downtime.
3. The game is based around victory points, so those have to become a priority quickly. You need to move for them faster than you’d like to, because if you don’t you’ll be in a big hole, and you might not be able to get out.
4. The leadership cards are awesome, and the expansion cards are a lot of fun.

I think everyone was a little tired of the game by the end, but we were able to chill out and rejoin the party, something that was a nice focus as well, since the interaction was a big part of it.

A quick Dominion game broke out while I was on the phone, so Bob, Nick, Jacquelene and I decided to play Race for the Galaxy. Bob had played once before, while Nick and Jacquelene were new. I explained the rules and we were off. Bob started with the planet that allowed him to discard a card to produce an alien good, Jacquelene had doomed world, I had separatist colony, and Nick had epsilon eridani. My initial hand had a lot of alien cards and the alien 6 point development, so I knew where my strategy would lie. Most of the cards I had were military, and I also had the new military tactics card. I managed to play that while everyone else chose explore, then a lot of us chose settle and then consume trade. I got up a pretty good engine going, and I actually went the entire game without playing a world with a consume power. That helped me, as I was able to save all my alien cards for trading rather than having to consume them for points or cards. I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out. We took our time through the game and I think everyone had a good time, but the crowd was gathering, as the plan next was for a big game of Descent. I wasn’t planning on getting into that one, but Bob was, so he told everyone to set it up while we finished. I managed to take this one as the only player with more than one games experience.

Bob, Joel, Mike and Rob played Descent, with Joel as the overlord. While that was going on, Justin, Jacquelene, Jeff and I took some time taking a break and deciding what to play next. We pretty much listed off every game we had there and settled on Power Grid. Justin was cool with it, and the last time Jeff played he won (at a Wednesday at my place). Jacquelene and I played in a 6 player game to end Con of the North, so I knew she liked it too. We chose Korea with the new plant deck, leaving out the pink and yellow regions. I ended up getting to place first and completely spaced on the purple region, instead focusing on the brown. Justin and Jeff went purple, while Jacquelene set herself up in the brown/green chokepoint. We played a few turns until Justin triggered stage 2. Naturally, that worked out perfect for me, as everyone had built to six except for him, but I had the lowest numbered plants. Going first on the next turn allowed me to get into Seoul and get the cheap cities with connections of 0. Jeff got to go next, then Jacquelene. Justin had to suffer for this of course and didn’t fare well for it. At the end of that turn, I had 13 cities, with the next closest being 10. Granted, I could only power 11, but the board position was worth it. Two turns later stage 3 started, and the game ended the next turn. I built to 17 with the second build and we packed it up. I like the Korea map, but I’m not all that convinced that the split resource market is a big deal unless either you’re trying to get uranium (in which case you can only get it from the south) or multiple players are buying a LOT of resources, meaning that someone might get shut out of what they need. I don’t think it’s generally a good idea to hoard resources in PG, so I don’t see it happen that often. Maybe I’m wrong there.

Next the 4 of us started BSG. I had given Jacquelene a lot of crap before about her first play and how she gave away being a cylon with her look. I really had to eat my words on this one, as she apparently got dealt a cylon card first this time too (playing Gaius helped, as she gets an extra card), so I guess I couldn’t read her as well as I thought. Or maybe it was because it was after midnight and several beers, or maybe because I thought Justin gave himself away, or maybe I’m just not as good at reading people as I think I am (probably a little bit of all of those). We played through the first stage of the game pretty well, and it honestly felt like the humans were doing well except for fuel, which was getting a little short.

Here is where I miscalculated. I actually had the choice to jump us 3 instead of 2, at the cost of extra fuel which would have put us in the red on fuel. That would have meant the sympathizer would have sided with the humans. Since I was a human already, I should have just done that, and left the one cylon (which I thought was Jeff at that point) alone against us. Of course, I actually wanted to be a cylon, so instead I took the one that left the fuel in blue, which meant the sympathizer would side with the cylons, hoping that I’d get that card. Jeff got it and I was convinced that he would have to spend his first turn giving someone else his other cylon card. When he didn’t, of course that meant that someone else had gotten it. Since I knew it wasn’t me, it was at this point that I knew we were in trouble. Jacquelene made some comments and let a ‘good’ slip out when something bad happened, so we determined it was her. Of course, on my turn I had to decide to jump the ship or try to throw her in the Brig. I decided that the jump was more important and moved us ahead, and then she revealed herself.

At this point, it was Justin (Apollo) and I (Helo) against Jacquelene the cylon and Jeff the sympathizer (Chief Tyrol). The board looked like we were going to be toast, but we managed to use about 6 executive orders in a row to at least manage to repel the centurions and get that total down. Jeff was raining crises down on us every turn and then the FTL spot got damaged. We had no one who could even draw blue cards to try to repair it, and finally, as the curtain closed, our morale just dropped and everyone gave up hope, two spaces from the auto jump point and in position to have tried the FTL if it hadn’t been damaged.

This was as close as I’ve ever seen the humans get to winning, as we already had 8 distance and were 2 away from the auto jump home. We had 2 of our resources at 2, one at 1 and 1 at 0 when we lost. There were 2 centurions on board still, and the FTL and viper control location were damaged. I am not a fan of the show (although I probably would be if I had ever watched an episode), but the game was a lot of fun to play as the humans. The first game I played I was a cylon and had a lot of fun with that, particularly since we were able to tag team the humans rapidly and blow up galactica. This is the most fun I’ve had being the humans, and I think Justin and I availed ourselves well, although we lost, because it was closer than I’ve ever seen. I also liked how stressful every turn became; wondering if this was going to be the turn we bought it. I think now that I have more of an appreciation for the humans and will probably play the game to try to help the humans get the sympathizer if I’m already a human instead of hoping to become a cylon, or maybe I’ll already be the cylon……..

When we cleaned up the Descent game was still going strong, although Bob had just picked up an item with pierce 10 that allowed him to kill something that had apparently been harassing them for the last 6 hours (at least, it seemed that way). I said my good byes and got home right around 4am, perfectly normal time for the end of another great day of gaming. Bob, Jeff and Kath were quite gracious hosts, and I’m glad I got one more chance to hang out with a lot of people that are worth investing time in. The best part of RGC is the relationships you’re able to forge with people who have a common interest, and that is what I’ll take away from today long after the scores are forgotten. The experiences are what you remember, and the people you share them with. Either way, I’m glad I came. “I chose……wisely.”

Friday, April 3rd 2009 Session Report @ IBM

The game of the month at IBM is Dominion. A proverbial favorite among many, and why not as it is an excellent game.

At the table were Brian (Vree), a certified veteran of the game, two new players who just heard of the game, and myself with only a single game under my belt (but with many hours of reading the rules).

The cards were played but I will only mention two of note, the Thief and the Witch, as they played the biggest roles (in my opinion) in the game.

The game started slow as the game was "taught" at the same time "played". The concept of Dominion and the rules are not hard to grasp, however, and soon everyone was up to speed.

The Witch came into play rather quickly, cursing those who were unlucky enough to be next in line. It didn't take long for other Witches to be drafted and soon everyone had curses on them. Needless to say, the Curse pile emptied quickly.

And here is where it gets interesting. Both Brian and I were counting points. In hindsight, I miscounted which led both Brian and I down very difference courses for the End Game.

Next up was the Thief that became popular. I used it mostly to simply kill the buying power of the other two new players as Brian quickly took note that the Thief was at large in multiple decks and started to buy Coin giving cards. Needless to say, the Thief was primarily just used to stab and grab, more times just to stab. In fact, it was always either the Militia or the Thief that primarily harried the players. To a point where when either card was played, a general groan was emitted from the lips of all who fell under the card's shadow.

Now recall, I stated that only two cards played a big role for me in this game. Those were, again, the Witch and the Thief.

The value of the Witch is that she slows down the decks, buying those who need it time. Time I needed to get myself in a position of stealthy buying power, while at the same time, encourage others to start buying non-point cards.

Through a clever ruse of playing "dumb" and distraction, I was able to get most of the players to buy up Copper, Moneylenders, and other + Action cards. All of which are fun to play, but none of the other players had the decks to do much with it. Combine that with my Thief who just whittled their decks down to actions instead of buying power, and I essentially was able to block them.

In truth, none of it would have been possible if it weren't for my real enemy at the table, Brian. He played his hand very well, dropping Coins for Coin giving cards, and bulked up on +Action and +Buy cards. This, I could not stop, but it did limit the ability of the other two players. Which, again, gave me time.

What was really keeping the game going was the unspoken race for points that both Brian and I were trying to count and outmatch the other with. We both had Curse cards in our hands, and we both believed we knew what the other was worth. If my calculations were right, I believed myself only slightly behind, but enough to warrant some concern.

This is where Brian, in my opinion, gave me an "in". His hand was revved up for multiple +Actions and +Buys, but his buying power was always limited by the cards he drew that "provided" Coins. This gave me what I needed to know. I knew, more or less, exactly what he could and could not buy at any one particular time, as he was able to play his entire hand during his turn. And with the Thief out, Brian was leaning in favor of Coin giving cards, versus Coins themselves. A smart move, considering that the Thief was available just about every other play.

Then the End Game kicked in. Two decks down and only a short stack left in a possible third. Here is where I (1) got lucky and (2) pulled ahead, psychologically speaking. I had enough high Coins to make a good buy if they played out. I was lucky that other cards before me gave me a bigger hand as I had all of my high Coin cards in hand when it came to my turn. I purchased the +6 Victory Points card and I could see Brian's face flinch. Ah-ha! He was counting, too! And from the look on his face and the loose math in my head, I just pulled ahead. Well, that told me what I needed to know. I quickly moved the discussion at the table to end the game, telling the new players how to do so.

Finally, the third deck drained, and the game ended. We all counted our cards, I taking special care to count them no less than three times. In the end, I had enough to outdo Brian, but just barely.

This game was an excellent example of table talk, simple math, and observation. Brian and I had played chicken for a long while and it was a blast. What makes a game is the people, not the mechanics. I have always said this and still believe it today. This session report only serves to strengthen my argument and resolve on this point.

I thank all those who played, but especially Brian, as he has always been an excellent opponent who keeps me on my toes.

Until our next match, Brian, beware the Thief and other players acting dumb. They might be Cylons. :)

Friday, July 17th Game Night Session Report

Three is the minimum number of players for a lot of games, but not all games work well with 3. The 5 games we played Friday night, all of which were new to Ken and me, seemed to work very well with Michael, Ken, and I.

We started out with an appetizer in Sorry! Sliders. This is quick-playing manual dexterity game where you try to send pawns sliding toward the center scoring circles, or bump your opponents' pawns out of scoring position. A fun, light game that should be enjoyable with kids, but obviously not much of a brain-burner. Michael beat me on the tie-breaker on this one, with Ken coming in third.

Next, we started the main course of the evening with two more substantial games in Nottingham and The Bridges of Shangri-La. I can't remember which one we played first.

Nottingham is almost a Rummy variant where you're trying to collect sets of treasures and play them to win points. It was new to all of us and the meat of the game is deciding whether to keep the card you drew on your turn, or use its special action to take a card from your opponent in one of several different ways (randomly, peek & choose, reveal & choose, offer trade, or ambush on a later turn). The ambush mechanic is innovative and fun to spring, but I think the game was a little flat and while I'd be willing to play again, I'm guessing that most of the game would be explored after a few plays. It's from the designer of Agricola, Bohnanza, and LeHavre, so given that track record, I could be missing something. Michael ran away with this one by completing several goals, Ken followed him and I was wayyyyyy back in third.

Bridges of Shangri-La was the only randomless game we played that night, and was probably the biggest brain-burner. Players place and move tiles on a board that represents several villages. The tiles are either masters or students of different schools, and moving them from village to village or placing them on empty villages establishes them as either students or new masters. The player with the most masters on the board wins. I won this one by... well, i don't know. It was new to all of us and I think Michael forgot a key rule at one point that allowed me to spring a migration on him that closed off a big village he was planning to invade. That alone was probably a 6 point swing, and even more than that when you consider the multiple turns he spent setting up the migration. Ken kept a lot of his tiles clustered in one part of the board and appeared to be winning, but I think he got opportunity-choked at the end (which snuck up on him while he was preparing a migration). This one was fairly close but I can't remember the scores. I would love to play this game again.

For dessert we had Nexus Ops and Colossal Arena. I can't remember which one we played first.

Nexus Ops is a light war game about controlling a piece of an alien world that's centered around a Monolith. Players build and deploy different units, mine resources, get secret mission cards, and get one-shot special bonus cards that help with combat. Combat is based on dice and rolling hits, like Axis&Allies, but units follow a set order of firing and taking casualties, which changes things significantly. Points are gained by winning battles and completing missions, and the first player to 12 points wins. It's a great fit -- a light war game and a fairly short playing time, lots of dice rolling and some strategy. I really enjoyed it. Michael got the 12 points first, I think Ken had 9 and I was stuck at 5.

Colossal Arena is one of Knizia's earliest designs and has players bidding on which monsters they think will survive to the end of a great mythical cage-match. 8 monsters (of the 12 available) are selected at the start of the game, and after the strength of each has been determined (by players playing cards on them and activating their special abilities, each of which is different), the round ends and the weakest monster is killed. Play continues until only 3 monsters are left. Players place up to 5 bets the whole game, with bets played in earlier rounds having the biggest payoff at the end. This is a fun tense decision-making game that actually ended in a three-way tie, each of us with 9 points. Michael won the tie-breaker on this one. I would gladly play it again.

We wrapped up around 12:30 and I can honestly say out of the 5 games we played I would easily play any of them again.

Gamer's Reunion 2009 Recap!

2009 Gamer's Reunion has, sadly, come and gone. After countless hours of planning, preparation, and stress, the convention went off without a hitch!

This entry will share some any stories and images of the event. Feel free to add your own comments and add URLs to where others can view any photos you might have taken!

• Bond-IgorBond's Gamer's Reunion 2009 Photos
• GuruDave's Gamer's Reunion 2009 Photos
• Trigger's Gamer's Reunion 2009 Photos
• Jormi_Boced's Gamer's Reunion 2009 Photos
• Schwade's Gamer's Reunion 2009 Photos

Jormi_Boced's Gamer's Reunion 2009 Photos

Saturday, April 25th 2009 Session Report - RGC Voting Members Appreciation Event

One of the greatest things about RGC is the people. Yes, I know it sounds rather contrived, but when you get down to it, what makes a game session memorable are the people you play it with. With RGC, you are always welcome to sit at a friendly table and play with like-minded individuals who want to have as much fun as you do. Better yet, you know who they are! Just one of the many perks of being a part of RGC.

RGC throws member appreciate events from time to time to say a special "thank you" to those who not only participate in RGC events, but take a special interest in RGC's well being. Membership, as they say, has its privileges. In this case, free pizza.

For the short time I was able to attend the event, I was able to play two games. The first, Pandemic, is an old favorite of mine and I still love it dearly. The second is a new play for me, Galaxy Trucker. I have mixed feelings on this one.

Let's get to it, shall we?

Pandemic is one of those games where you feel totally in control and can have the proverbial rug yanked out from underneath you at a moment's notice. And while many will state that this type of game mechanic is nothing more than a headache, it is actually one of the best parts of the game.

In Pandemic, you play a certain "role" in which you and the others at the table are battling diseases around the world. Every player must work together (this is a team-play game) to combat the pandemic spread before the human race is overcome. There are several game mechanics in place wherein the board is attempting to kick you in the teeth, but the because the players have the ability to table talk and cooperatively play, the game is very well balanced.

Four of us sat down at the table, two of us being new players. Not to worry, Pandemic is an easy game to learn and in no time the two new players where at it like old pros. We traded research cards and were having a grand old time kicking the diseases in their collective butts. Several times an outbreak looked likely, but we were able to contain it, or at the least, minimize the damage. Overall, though, the disease started to get a bit out of control. Instead of simply neutralizing the entire disease, thus wiping it off the board entirely, we concentrated on the cures. This turned out to be our downfall, however, as we had enough outbreaks in the end to make the final outbreak (one we simply could not avoid) be the death of us. A shame, really, as we were only 2 turns away from winning. In the end, the board beat us to it.

In Galaxy Trucker, you play as a freelance pilot who is tasked to move goods in Space. Easy enough, until you are also tasked with (1) building your own ship and then (2) flying it through unknown and very unpredictable said Space. In truth, the "unknown" portion is really something you can find out about if you take the time to view the cards. Something I did not do and will do in the next game.

Long story short (and I want it short as the entire tale is one of trials, tribulations, and woe), I had no idea what I was doing. To put it another way, I concentrated way too much on way too little, which lead me to be the whipping boy of the game and a source of constant amusement to those at the table. Never in the history of all Space truckers has one emerged as incompetent and unlucky as me. And while that is an achievement in itself, it is nothing to brag about.

Still, I liked Galaxy Trucker. The mechanics are dynamic and interesting, and the game itself does give you the ability to maneuver. It's no Gem Quest.

My thanks to those who I played with. Again, it is the people that makes the games for me and everyone was fantastic. And a special thanks to RGC!

Schwade's Gamer's Reunion 2009 Photos

Wednesday, April 1st 2009 Session Report (No, It’s Not a Joke!)

For this one I thought I’d incorporate the posts of the other 2 players that summed up their feelings, at least in part. I provide my perspective at the end.

Brian’s take on the night:

Nate, Wade, and I were the only 3 people, and were able to parlay the 4+ hours into 4 games.

Tigris & Euphrates
A great game. It should see more play. Wade was able to edge out a victory over Nate and I with his score of 18 vs. Nate's 6, and my 5. He hopped into Nate's early monument, and built one himself shortly thereafter and then didn't lose a conflict the entire game. This helped him come to a narrow victory.

Dominion
It was a chapel game, and therefore quick. Like all chapel games it typically comes down to who can chapel the fastest to setup the finishing deck sooner. I took a flier on a thief after most of the copper was gone and used it to rip an early gold from Wade. Nate was too passive with his chapel and with those 2 things combined, I took down the victory in probably a 10-12 minute game. Relevant kingdom cards were: Festival, Smithy, Council Room, Chapel, Thief, Woodcutter, and Moat. I don't remember the other ones since I mentally crossed them off my consideration list early. The deck I had when I started going for points was: Festival x3, Smithy x2, Thief, Silver, Gold (from Wade), Chapel, and Estate (I never did manage to chapel it). I started with provinces, bought a council room along the way, stole 3 more silver from Nate and 1 from Wade, and ended the game with 5 provs, 3 duchies, and 1 estate.

Galaxy Trucker
Where Dominion is my strength, this game will forever be my weakness. It a decent game, and different, but it is something I will lose just about every time I play. Wade won this handily with stellar ship building skills, and a great ability to quickly evaluate and remember the crisis cards that are coming. My first ship was only half complete due to my terrible building skills, and then got blown out of the water. My second ship was 75% destroyed when we finished the lap, although I did manage to finish the lap. My third ship actually brought my cumulative dollar total up to the amount Wade got in the first round. I don't remember the final points, but this one was about as close as Tigris & Euphrates.

Agricola
Still getting a lot of play, we pulled out an I-deck 3p version of Agricola. I have to say that the 3p version itself changes the game quite a lot. I failed to adapt well to the extremely limited reed supply and it ended up costing me. I kind of fell into a hard core vegetarian strategy, Wade went hard at house building, renovation, and family growth, Nate went more for his kick-ass occupation cards. None of us did much with animals and we didn't see a single fence built until the final round. Wade ended up winning by 5 points. Despite still having a wooden home, I managed 2nd, and Nate was about 4 points behind me. Wade is a tough nut to crack in this game (ala Power Grid), and played a sound strategy as he adapted well to the changed 3p environment. We all had some good cards, although Wade utilized his the best. He was aided by a card that halved his reed requirement, and that was huge in the 3p game where reeds were very hard to come by. Nate had what I consider to be the best occupation I have seen, an action space that only he can get 2 VPs on (the rest of us can get 3 food). I had an extremely good occupation that let me use the turn 12-14 actions starting on turn 11. Had I been able to setup better for this, it should have won me the game.

Nate’s take on the night:

Thanks for hosting, Wade. I had fun even though I went winless for the night. I averaged 2nd place. Out of 3. Oh, well.

Yeah mostly I blame my own stupidity but what ya gonna do? Be smarter? Ok, yeah. Great plan.

All 4 games were a lot of fun. I think I'll play Galaxy Trucker anytime. Normally I don't like so much randomness in games, but GT is so unabashedly obnoxious you gotta love it. Seeing these carefully but frantically built ships get blown apart due to a bad roll of the dice is akin to the pleasure you'd get from throwing a toilet through a stained-glass window. It's addictive like that.

Like Vree said, Tigris & Euphrates doesn't get played enough. Maybe I'll try it on bsw sometime. For future reference, if one player is drawing 3 colors from monuments every turn since the very early game, just go home.

Dominion, on the other hand, gets played plenty. I am eagerly waiting for the expansion to be released.

Agricola -- 'nuff said.

Wade’s take on the night:

So, Brian and Nate made it over for some gaming this week. I wasn’t sure who else to expect, as Karl had said he couldn’t make it, and Chris was unable to host, which often means he won’t make it either. Joel rarely posts, so I thought he might be there, and Brian had told me probably not in an email earlier in the week. Nate posted he could make it, and apparently I missed a late post from Craig saying he was going to miss. I went in expecting Craig (missed post), Joel (rare poster) and Nate. Instead it was Nate and Brian. That was fine, as the slightly smaller number of players typically means faster games.

Brian arrived first, and Nate was quick behind. After the 3 of us were downstairs, I asked what game people wanted to play and very matter-of-factly Brian said “Tigris and Euphrates” in a voice that I took to mean “this is the game I want to play the most tonight, lets get it to the table.” I like the game and Nate was up for it, so away we went. We all drew tiles, and I think Brian was first to place. I think he played one leader and a tile. Nate took the spots near the edge of the board with a lot of water nearby, which happened to be the farthest from him physically. I was to Nate’s right, and placed 2 leaders, black and green. The game went pretty quickly as we all reviewed the rules a little intermittently but mostly remembered them. There was a quick internal conflict for blue once Nate built a blue/green monument. I supplanted Nate’s blue leader and then successfully defended twice in one turn against Brian’s blue leader, having drawn exactly the right amount of red tiles. Following that, I built a black/green monument in the kingdom that those 2 leaders were touching. These 3 free points per turn spurred me on to victory, although there was one particularly amusing moment where Brian had built up enough, after several turns of preparation, to finally begin an external conflict against Nate and I, but he chose to start with Blue, the one I was facing him on. He had a 3 or 4 tile edge on me to start, then revealed one more tile. I revealed 5, and defeated him. That was a pretty nasty turn of events for him. I also managed to lose a black external conflict to Nate, but then replaced my leader in an internal conflict and took his guy out. Basically the game belonged to me, although a LOT of it was due to a couple lucky pulls of the tiles. The final score was Wade 18, Brian 5, Nate 6. I think the last time we played a 4-player game the winner had a score of 8. I’d imagine that some of that was due to one more player, but it does speak to exactly what the two of them said about gaining free points.

Despite there only being 3 of us we still had an indecisive moment on which game to play next which was solved by someone saying, “we could always play Dominion.” Dominion it was. I knew going in that I was going to get trounced, and that only escalated when I heard how many plays the other guys had on BSW. The first time I played Dominion with Brian I won (at a Chateau night, both our first plays), but since then I haven’t even been close. Nate also has a positive win ratio at the game, so I figured at the least I could learn something. Everyone bought a chapel on turn one or two, with Brian buying silver, Nate a smithy, and I a woodcutter. The turns passed quickly with Brian chapelling away nearly all of his copper and 2 estates, leaving him not much left in the deck but business. He bought a thief card and managed to steal my one gold and one silver from Nate and didn’t look back. A couple festivals and provinces later it was all over, with Brian at 45, Nate somewhere in the 30s, and me at 15. I can say this much for Dominion, I don’t have nearly the clue how to play this game like these 2 do. I’ll be interested to get my BGG expansion cards, and probably will pick up the expansion too once it is released. The game plays well, and it’s so fast that its allows time for people to make up their minds on what to play next. Often that choice will be another game of Dominion, something I consider a mark of a great game. Now I just need to get the euro card sleeves to get this where it needs to be. I’ll get there eventually.

Following these 2, Nate requested Galaxy Trucker. I agreed, and Brian did as well, despite his statement that, “while I’ve played it before, I did terrible”. I believe that Nate had only played once or twice before as well, but he seems to really like the game. I think it’s a lot of fun, and I may even like it better with 3 players than with 4, as there are a few more tiles to go around. That could of course be interpreted as a personal flaw, since more players makes ship building that much more critical. I like to have well built ships not just finish or have to use a lot of suboptimal pieces. In addition, I built the correct ship every time, something I’ve had problems with in the past.

Round one saw Brian sort of close himself off early while Nate and I had pretty good ships. I was able to use my experience with the game to remember the challenges and take a decent lead at the end. I finished first and had the most cargo, plus the prettiest ship (least exposed connectors).

Round two both Nate and Brian looked at the cards that were on their way and I think that helped them both, though Nate more so than Brian if you just look at results. At least this time Brian was able to finish the race, but because of the lack of cargo available for transport in the race, he got fewer points than in the previous race. Also, about mid-round we noticed a design error in Brian’s ship that I had failed to notice when checking it before hand. It ended up not really hurting him at all, but it put me on alert to check things more closely in the future. Nate had a ridiculous amount of battery power this round, I think it was something like 14 at the start.

Round three was the most fun (as it usually is) because the ship building is tougher and longer. In addition, there are more challenges and obstacles, and the consequences for failing to pass them are more deadly. This is where Nate’s comparison to a stained glass window really applies well. I managed to be the window in this little scenario, losing the contest in the combat zone for fewest engines and subsequently blowing off about 8 pieces of my ship due to getting two laser blasts from the same column up my backside. There was no stopping them wherever they came from, but they were particularly brutal. It made for some entertainment at my expense, which I welcome in this game. Actually, I welcome it just about anytime. I can take it.

The final score was about as you’d expect when one person has experience and the other two don’t. I finished with 88 points, Nate was at 45, and I believe Brian was in the 30s. Interestingly enough, the rulebook has a recommendation for when you have one experienced player and one less experienced player, switch ships once they’re built. I think its funny they suggest this, since Chris beat me pretty good his first go through the game. We didn’t do any trading since it was 3 player, but maybe we should have. I think the guys had a good time nonetheless. This game plays very quickly and I think it was probably just about an hour, maybe less. Sometime soon I’ll be getting the expansion which adds new aliens, new pieces, and more deadly event cards that are harder to work past. It should add to the already incredibly fun destructive element of the game and therefore to the number of laugh out loud funny moments during play.

Once again we were looking at my collection deciding what to play. I suggested Agricola and Brian mentioned it on his list of games he’d play. Nate said he was up for it too, so we sort of settled on it and I was excited, since I haven’t played a 3 player game since the first night with Karl and Ashley. We used the I (interactive) deck as well, which was the deck we used that night if I remember correctly. I think I’m happier using separate decks rather than mixing them all together, because I think they work better that way, and there are a lot more cards that play off others in the deck in that scenario. I still have yet to bust into my Z deck, but I’m not sure I really want to do that, mostly because the cards are allegedly a little unbalanced. We also opted not to use the ‘Through the Seasons’ expansion card. I think that’s good considering that Nate didn’t have too much experience with the cards as it was.

I was the first player, which I don’t particularly like, but I knew that I would at least get to play an occupation. Looking through mine, I noticed 2 that I thought would be useful, the net fisherman, which allowed me to claim fishing if I took reed, and the animal something (handler or farmer maybe) which allowed me to pay one food to take an extra animal of the type I took with my family member. This seemed like a pretty simple food engine to me, get the cooking hearth and start taking boar and cattle to eat for food. That was my plan, but I wanted to hide it a little, since if everyone knew I could do that early they may take the cooking hearths away from me. I also had the water carrier which gave me one food per round after someone built the well. Normally that doesn’t happen until very late in the game, so that seemed pretty useless to me. Boy, was I wrong on this one. The others were pretty bad, trading one stone for 3 food (with no extra stone available except for the ‘take one building resource of your choice action’), collecting vegetables from supply instead of the field when you’re supposed to harvest them, taking an extra cattle whenever you take cattle (not terrible, but you can only really do that a couple times), and another that I really can’t remember.

On the minor improvement side I had a couple that seemed really good, one that seemed pretty bad, and a few that were mostly, ‘meh.’ The ladder was one I instantly recognized as awesome, as it decreased my reed requirement by one for each room or renovation, meaning I’d only need 2 or 3 the entire game. The reed is scarce in a 3 player game, as there is only one space that provides it, so I thought the not needing it as much would be very helpful. I was absolutely right on in this thought. I was able to get the ladder to the table very early and it helped a lot to smooth things out during the game. I managed to play 2 rooms with only 2 reed (the actions I used to get the reed were at least supplemented by getting food at the same time), and renovated without reed at all, since it normally only takes one. In addition, I had a plow that allowed me to plow 2 spaces one time, and I had an animal pen which allowed me to hold each type of animal on it. That was actually very helpful, as I was able to use my animal occupation to take a bunch of animals and build my point total without having pastures built. Of the rest of my cards I had the village well, which requires return of the actual well. That wasn’t going to happen this game. I had a guest card, paying 2 food for an extra action in the next round. I ended up using this for something valuable, and I passed it to Brian very late, so he never used it, which made it ok. Then I had the option for reed trading, turning 2 clay or wood into 1 reed. Not terrible in a game where one or the other of those is in abundance, but it is still pretty bad.

Of the cards from the other players that I saw, Brian had a pretty good engine going with a card that allowed him to plow a field every time he took grain, then one that allowed him to bake every time he did plowed. He was hurt by not growing his family very quickly. His late occupation that allowed him to use the last 4 rounds action cards before anyone else might have been really good, but I’m not as convinced, as a lot of time you’re not really quite ready to use those until they are available anyhow, and it does cost you an action and food to get that ability. Its sort of a tempo thing, but I’m not convinced it’s as great as I thought it was during the game. I did think that it sounded good, and I’d like to play with it before I condemn it. Its one I need to try.

Nate had quite a few cards that were pretty nice. In particular, the occupation of well builder was really good. It allowed him to build the well as a minor improvement with only one stone and one wood. That certainly made my village well useless, as there was no way I could build the well before he did, but it made the water carrier amazing, as I gained about 10 food from that one occupation, one per round from 5 to 14. That was pretty good. Maybe it was a little more than pretty good. He also had a minor improvement called the tavern that created another action space. If one of us took the action, we gained 3 food. If he took the action, he got 2 bonus points. I think he managed 6 or 8 points from this one, but it came at the expense of the rest of his farm, as he neglected several aspects of the scoring and suffered for it. Some of his trouble came from not understanding the nuances of baking bread. Apparently there was a card in his hand that would have prevented him from losing points for empty spaces on his card. This alone would have taken him from third to second. I always mean to look at the cards that other people were holding to see what I would have done with them, but most of the time we’re already cleaning up as I’m totaling the score, so that doesn’t happen. As it was, I finished with 35, Brian had 30, and I believe Nate had 23.

In general, we had a great night playing games, and everyone got to play at least one game that they really liked. I think I need to get in some more Dominion, but that will come. Next time we’ll play more than one game.

No gaming for me next Wednesday, so there won’t be a session report, but I hope there’ll be a bonus one coming shortly anyhow.

Wednesday, April 22nd 2009 Session Report - Timing Is Everything

So tonight I arrived first to Chris’ house, something I never do. Usually I’m the one trying to convince people to play something short first so I can make game 2. Brian and Kevin arrived shortly after I did. We were just sitting down to decide on something to play when Joel arrived. This would be a recurring theme of the night, since Matthew and Craig managed to arrive pretty much at an opportune time for starting the next game. Only Bruce couldn’t make it into a game by virtue of his extremely tight schedule, something we regretted as we left the night.

Chris, Kevin, Joel, Brian and I debated for a moment about what to pull out. We had quite fewer options for 5 than 4, and settled on Tribune. After the debacle that was the green difficulty level where Brian won the game on turn 2, we decided to play red. Honestly we thought that this would have made the game a bit shorter than the yellow, which requires Tribune to end the game. That condition, in a 5 player game, could have made for a long one for sure.

I was the first player on turn one. In my opening hand were no leaders and 2 pairs. That was a pretty easy decision for me on what to keep. No matter when I play I always look toward tribune as a mandatory objective, mostly because if you don’t get it you end up with less points on a tiebreaker if that happens. I settled into trying to pick up a couple factions on turn one and managed to secure the praetorians first, then the patricians if I could. This did not net me a scroll, something I’d pay for later. Joel took the legates, Brian took the senators, and Kevin took the Vestal Virgins I believe. Chris didn’t get any, but solidified his position on the board. At the end of the turn, Joel took the chariot and covered the legates.

Next turn Joel was first, and I was last. I don’t remember much about this turn except that I managed to take the Patricians. I had plebeian cards in my hand too, but since I didn’t have a scroll at all (and had no way of getting one) I didn’t make the play to take both. Kevin took the Senators and Chris took the Virgins. Joel took the gladiators and collected a ton from the catacombs. Brian took something too, but I’m not exactly sure what it was. Joel won the chariot again and kept the legates covered. This was getting old, since they’re really only one of two ways (without leaders anyhow) to get a scroll, and Kevin had just played about 35 points worth of senators down.

Next turn Brian was first, and he ended up taking over the gladiators I believe. He had picked up several leaders which we allowed him to get. Chris took the Plebians and Kevin took the Patricians from me. Joel still had the legates covered and was buying legions for 6 per turn following Chris’s assassination. Chris also managed to get eternal favor this turn before someone took the Virgins (Kevin?). I don’t think I took anything this turn, but managed to lose the praetorians, having acquired all the necessary legions at least. At the end of the turn Chris blocked the plebians.

The following turn Chris took over the patricians, I took the senators after an assassination, Brian took or held the Gladiators, Chris took the legates too, and Joel I think had the Praetorians at this point. At the end of the round Chris was exactly one laurel short of victory, having acquired tribune through the Patrician/Plebian route. We looked the board closely and determined that even if someone could get to the 4 victory conditions needed, we weren’t going to be able to beat him on tiebreakers, so we cleaned it up with Chris the clear winner.

I’m not sure what is going on with me, but I’m losing a little of my attraction to tribune. Maybe I need to get back to playing with less than 5, as there are only 2 scenarios that hold that many, or maybe we need to play the other one with the obligatory Tribune. I think that one would be a little more interactive, as the blocking that would happen would be quite interesting. If we’re playing five the next time we play, I’ll definitely vote that way. Either that, or try the game out with fewer players, just something to shake it up.

Once that one was done we were trying to decide on what to play next. Becky (Chris’s daughter) was unavailable for her favorite, Power Grid, so we decided to pull out Agricola. We were setting up and opening the K deck to give it a play when Matthew arrived. His arrival meant we needed a 6 player game (despite his protestations that he’d happily watch Agricola, we weren’t having that). We cleaned up the little we’d set up and pulled out Power Grid. It took a minute to settle on Benelux in case more players showed up, and on the original deck of plants. I was first to bid on a plant, lucky me. I chose to bid on #7 since the oil is more accessible than the coal on this map, and I thought I’d have a decent shot at placing first. What I wasn’t counting on was Brian taking the #3 and both placing before me and buying oil first, driving up the cost. I also forgot how much I hate the 3 resource plants. Really, really hate them. I managed to set up as close to Brian as I could, which also happened to be where I saw the overall cheapest connections.

Turn 2 was what I’d consider one of the key turns. I picked up a plant that provided 4 cities for 3 oil (breaking the rule I mentioned earlier). Brian got to pick last based on his low starting plant and got #33, a 4 city wind plant. In a six player game this one is one you can end the game with, since you only need to build to 14. Everyone got a pretty good plant this turn actually, and of course we paid for it later with a delay in quality plants. Chris, Kevin and Joel were kind of in the central area of the map, with Matthew focusing more on the middle west area. I did my best to take what I could from Brian, but his ability to not have to purchase resources was key.

Matthew and Joel triggered step 2 in about 4 turns, and there was the natural huge expansion on the following turn. Matthew was running a bit behind due to his plant order, and Kevin sort of felt the squeeze in the turns before the expansion. Being close to Brian actually made it so I couldn’t really influence where he was able to expand, which was not good since Matthew was really too far away to do too much about it until it was too late, and everyone else was even farther. Brian was about 5 elektro short of triggering the end of the game on one turn, and managed to keep himself in 5th position with only me to try to compete with him. I was no where near the cash he had and rather than play for second place between Chris, Kevin, Joel and myself we cleaned up and declared Brian the winner, mostly because Craig had arrived and we didn’t want to make him wait too much longer either. Bruce actually arrived and had to leave during this game as well, and we were all sorry that he didn’t get to play anything. In fact, I think he even left before Craig arrived, since they didn’t pull out anything 2 player at all.

At the end of the game we were decided to split into 2 camps. Team Lucier wasn’t interested in Galaxy Trucker, something Chris seems to have really taken a shine to. Brian was talking about getting in a play of Pandemic before Friday, but I wasn’t particularly interested in that, mostly because I feel like the game could easily be dominated by one player sort of coming up with the moves and telling everyone else what to do. Mostly I was worried I might do that, even if I didn’t know the moves or the game that well, and I really don’t want to. Brian had also brought along Stone Age, something I’ve only played once and wanted to try again. Everyone was fine with either of those 2 options, and we set out trucking across the galaxy or developing a stone age settlement.

I can’t comment on the Galaxy trucker game except to say that Matthew and Craig were newbies and Chris was the seasoned player. He managed to win from what I heard, though by round 3 the others were really catching on and Craig said he’d like to play again. I’m interested to see what the expansion adds and changes.

Joel, Brian, Kevin and I played Stone Age. I liked the game the one time I played it before and I thought it was fun. I also knew that the other time I watched the game I saw Brian crush everyone else, so I had to watch out for him. The game started off fine, I grew my family while Joel farmed and Brian took a tool. Then we all started in on resources, and Brian picked up a couple quick cards. That was red flag #1, as the cards can get pretty ridiculous pretty quick if you get a lot of them. About 3 turns in it was pretty clear that Brian was running away with the game, and Kevin was having a good bit of difficulty trying to get his starvation strategy to work, so decided to go anti-Brian and helped out me and Joel by prolonging the game to at least give us a chance to catch up. I’d like to think this is some sort of sibling rivalry that manifested itself in the game. We played about 4 turns more than we should have, and Kevin basically took as many blocking and unnecessary actions as he could to give us a chance, and even actively avoided blocking me on one turn. In the end, at a game where the winning score was 225, I won by one point. Without the assist from Kevin, Brian would probably have taken it down by at least 50 points.

It was a great, long night of gaming where a lot of fun was had by all, but at the end at least a few were pretty wiped out. Chris had crashed and we had to wake him up to say goodbye. Wednesday gaming is always a good time, and we hope to get more people out as the weeks go on. I know its getting nicer outside and we may see fewer people due to that, but I hope we continue to get some good gaming in, as I don’t have too many of these sessions left.

Brian's take:

An Excellent night of gaming. We started at 5 players (Me, Chris, Wade, Joel, Kevin), and pulled out Tribune with a "Red" objective that called out 4 victory conditions from the typical set of selections. The game progressed rapidly, with Chris aggressively harvesting cash and maintaining chariot control. He was able to win this with ease, and we didn't even play out the last turn due to the certain victory. A few of us would have got 3 VCs on the last turn, and with a stretch a couple of us may have gotten 4, but there was nothing to compete with his power VCs for the tiebreak (Tribune, Eternal Favor). It was well played by Chris.

We decided to pull out Agricola and as we 3 minutes into the setup, Matthew shows up for a 6th player. So we tore it down, and pulled out Power Grid with the Benelux map. For a refreshing change, we went back to the original deck of power plants, and I have to say that I think this worked well with this map. Setup consisted of your typical spread around the map, and the game played without too many surprises. I jumped into position right away with the #3 plant and used it to take a gamble wait on my 2nd power plant that ended up being the #33 Wind-4 plant in the 2nd round. I think most people underestimate the power of position in this game, particularly in a 6p game. With this wind plant, I could safely build into the lead and not have to worry about paying the position tax on resources that ultimately killed Wade. 2 turns later Wade bid me up to 44 on the #35 Garbage-6 plant knowing that it was a lynch pin plant for me. I would have went to 48 on this easily, and with it, as well as the only player using garbage, I was in a strong position. I built up to 10 cities, and was powering them for a cost of 9 total. Then I just laid back and built up cash reserve for any number of final plants that would have worked for me. I remained at 10 cities and let the board pass me by as I piled up cash. We did not play the final turn as I had the tie break well in hand, with 2nd position to leverage it.

Matthew got screwed mid-game when he needed a new plant, and nothing flipped up that would move down a 4 or 5 city plant. This set him back and entire round almost. Wade ultimately could not pay for his oil addiction and have enough to compete. If I remember right, the other 3 players were throttled by a combination of board position choke, and more resource intensive plants. I was mostly paying attention to Wade and Matthew since we were neighbors.

Craig showed up near the end of the game, which gave more reason to skip the final turn and move on. At this point, 7 of us split into 2 groups. Craig, Chris, and Matthew played Galaxy Trucker, while Wade, Kevin, Joel, and myself took out Stone Age. A Euro-style game with plenty of Ameri-trash dicing, it has a unique niche in game style. The game focuses is worker placement to gather resources to buy points in the form of cards (for end game), or huts for immediate scoring. There are plenty of nuances to the scoring and strategy, and is balanced real well on different focuses. I ramped up hard for tools, wood gathering, and cards. Wade was focused on hut building, Joel was playing a hybrid, and Kevin was trying out a worker starvation strategy. I jumped out to a large lead quickly with more cards than anybody while Kevin's starved workers refused to cooperate. At this point, he threw in with Wade and as the game progressed, the Wade/Kevin team was able to overtake me. Wade managed to farm 8 fields at game end to entirely feed his clan of 8. That was a strong showing. I was trying the desperate player manipulation tactic of claiming that Wade was actually winning, but with the class of players at the table, this was a lost cause. In a game where 230 points or so won it, the delta between Wade and I was only a single point. This is amazing in a game like this where points come fast. Joel had a strong showing, but without the aid of Kevin, was not able to compete with Wade. I do not think any of us played the game particularly optimal, leaving plenty of room for improvement. When we all have piles of left-over unspent resource most turns, its apparent that we were all leaving points on the table.

A great night of gaming.

Wednesday, March 25th 2009 Session Report

So, in an effort to increase the front page content (and my participation), I'm creating a place to put the Wednesday Session reports so anyone who wants can review them.

This weeks session actually started last week for me, as I am working to coordinate how often to host between Chris, I and anyone else who would like to host. We had quite a bit of a break there for a bit, but we're back now and better than ever!!

Karl and I had been talking about games to play, and we both thought the other would have a couple of them. Turns out we had 5 players, as Chris, Joel, Craig and Karl all made it over for some gaming goodness.

This being the case, the game Karl brought, A Castle for all Seasons, was put on hold due to player capacity. Some time we'll get it out. It sounds pretty fun, kind of a role selection/resource management type game.

Looking for 5 player games we decided to give Alhambra a go. This one is often a late night finisher, but we got it going first off. Craig took an early lead thanks to a big wall and one of the higher point colors all to himself. After the second scoring it didn't look like anyone was going to catch him, but then he did something silly and listened to me. I recommended that he just buy any tile he could pay for exactly because each of them sped up the end of the game. He did that, and ended up losing to Chris and I, who tied, by a couple of points with those tiles still sitting on his card. I don't know if remodeling to include them would have made the move any better or not. Obviously it didn't work to his advantage this time, but I'm not sure it wasn't the right move anyhow.
I ended the game on my turn by buying a tile that couldn't be replaced, and when I took my free money I wasn't really paying attention. If I had, I would have noticed that Chris already had more green that I would end up with, so I should have chosen another color. Had I chosen Blue (and only a 4 at that) I would have won that auction, the tile that went with it, and the game. As it was we tied, so it wasn't a big deal, but I should have been paying better attention.

After that, we still had 5 and were looking at my collection to see what we had that would cover that many. There aren't as many as you'd think, and we ended up deciding on Agricola. This dropped us to 4, as Craig doesn't particularly like the farming and also had to work on setting up something on his laptop. Karl, Joel, Chris and I decided to use the K deck and play 4p.
I haven't played 4 player in quite awhile, and it is pretty different than 5. Chris managed to get a 3rd action into play on turn 3 via the Lover application, and had a monster food engine going with the Magician, which let him gain an extra food and grain when he took travelling players with his last action. Normally that space is pretty bad, but that made it good for him and bad for the rest of us, which ended up being big. Meanwhile, I was quietly building a nice little wooden homestead and expanded to 4 rooms on turn 4. Karl was planting wood, and Joel was plowing a lot. We fed our families and moved on to stage 2.
Then things got bad for me. I grew my family, and Karl had also used a minor improvement to grow his outside the hut. Joel was still on 2, and Chris had a 2 room hut with the lovechild. By the time the second harvest came around, I didn't have enough and had to beg for one food. I managed to secure the clay oven that would end up saving my hide in round 6 though. If Karl had chosen that one instead of the stone oven, my goose would have been cooked (or not, rather).
Round 3 through 6 played pretty fast. Chris still looked to be in the lead, although he ate a lot of grain one round and it seemed that would be important at the end. Karl got a lot of pastures and an animal engine going, and Joel was exploiting one of his cards that let him keep an animal in every room in his house. He bred more cattle than the rest of us did sheep I think. Somewhere along here I managed to renovate to stone and purchase the well with the same action. The space that allows reed, stone, and food is amazing in the 4 player game. I don't think we went a turn where it wasn't chosen, and almost never was it left for the last round of actions.
In the end, I got the 5th action on Turn 16 but by the time I got to act there were exactly zero points that I could earn with it. I ended up taking the game by 3 points thanks to the cards I purchased along the way, and despite my begging card. Chris and his monster food engine were next. Joel edged out Karl, and both of them suffered from a lack of a stone house and a smaller number of family members.
I continue to be impressed by the number of different card interactions that change the way you have to go about the game. I know a lot of people advocate for a draft so that each player has access to the 'best' cards, but I think its more fun to work only with what you have. If you lose a game or 2 because of it, then maybe you didn't maximize your strategy, or maybe you really did have bad cards. Then next game you'll get better ones and take it from there.

Karl had to head out, and since he had let us play Agricola without a fuss, I thought it only fitting that Craig choose the next game. He selected Vikings, which I still hadn't opened from my secret santa. I punched the game as Chris refreshed us on the rules. Nothing feels quite like punching out a new game. During the punch out, Chris informed us that there were some of the tiles that were for an expansion to the base game. Expansion, you say? Hmmm....I didn't know there was one or that it came with one. We didn't use it this time, but I'm confident it will see play.
Vikings has been reviewed on this site so I won't do that here, but its a fun tactical tile and money management game. You get one tile to start with , and then buy a tile and worker each turn. Money is paid every turn, Points are scored every other, and there is a large scoring at the end.
Craig really took us to task here. He quietly ended up building 5 of the fisherman, and being able to place them all. At the end of the final scoring her racked up 20 points on these pieces alone. His strategy paid off, as he ended up with a final score of 59, and the rest of us were clustered somewhere in the 40 range. I honestly don't know who was second, third, or fourth, but we were nowhere close. My board didn't really develop well due to poor planning, but I think we all needed to keep a closer eye on Craig to be able to prevent that from happening again. Next time one of the 3 of us plays, I predict there will not be too many fisherman passed over in the purchase phase.

I told the 3 guys to decide on the next game and they selected Dominion. We played 2 rounds of random card draw. The first round included the familiar village/smithy combo, moneylender, beauraucrat, council room, gardens, cellar, moat, remodel, and feast. We played through this pretty fast (naturally) and the game ended when Joel bought the last province. Chris and I ended up tied with 27 points, but we counted later and there should have been one more province in the deck (apparently my copy is missing one). That would have left Chris one more turn to purchase, and he would have won if that had happened.

Our second game included chapel, moat, village, workshop, laboratory, witch, remodel, beaureaucrat, militia, and one other card I can't remember. This game took much longer as there were no additional buy cards. We bought moats quickly and this kept people from buying the witch too often. The game ended when I bought the last village just to finish it, despite being able to afford a duchy I think. When we tallied the points, I had 20 (chapeling my estates away and getting cursed once, plus a duchy and 3 provinces), while Joel and Craig both had 19 (one curse more than me) and Chris had 18 (he was a province shy). It was a tighter game than I thought when I ended it. I don't coun't point cards, though I suppose that would help me the next time.

Chris decided to call it a night after this, but Joel and Craig stayed for one last game of Race for the Galaxy. I haven't picked up the expansion yet, but I am planning on it. We started out fairly standard. Joel was on new sparta, I was on epsilon eridani, and Craig was on Alpha Centauri. The game seemed to go a few rounds more than I usually see, which was fine by me, since I was just playing 6 cost developments wherever I could. I got really lucky here with a late game draw that slid right in and ended up netting me 9 points. The final tally had me beating Craig by 3. Joel was behind on both of us despite producing for 5 worlds on the second to last round. He just didn't have the consume powers to really pound the points on us.

It was a triumphant return to Wednesday night gaming this week, and I hope to see a lot more people out as we move along. I'm coming down to the wire with my gaming time in Rochester, so I want to make as many of them count as I can.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Session Report

When I got there, Chris, Wade, Don, and Craig were just starting a game of Bohnanza and were kind enough to let me join.

I think all of us were new to this game, with Don and myself having played once before a long time ago, and I played one time before that that was so long ago I just now remembered it.

Not much to say here. People planted beans, people traded beans, people snickered and giggled whenever someone offered someone else a Stink Bean, etc. Chris won with 19, Wade was close behind with 18, Don was in the middle, I narrowly snatched not-last from Craig with 11 to his 10.

Then we ho-hummed around deciding what to play next and I suggested Battlestar Galactica and so it was, with Don, Wade, Craig and myself sitting down for some sci-fi/co-op with trader gaming action.

The reason I suggested BSG is that I'd only played it once before, and that was at a demo at GenCon last year that we didn't even finish. I remember not being overly impressed by it but I'd heard so many good things about that I decided to give it another chance.

I'm still pretty "meh" about it. But maybe this particular session was a fluke.

Craig was the cute female asian pilot chick, Don was the scar-faced admiral amidala dude, Wade was some jock i've never heard of who could reroll a die once every turn, and I was the dude who's played by the dude who had a role in the original series. My special abilities were to make it easier to get out of the brig, to make it easier to change presidents, and to sacrifice a population for any other resource.

For the first half of the game, it was readily apparent that none of us were cylons. Which was a good thing since we turned up 3 cylon attack cards in a row. The board had so many cylon ships we ran out of minis for some of them. As president, I played a quorum card called blah-blah-blah-brute-force that eased the pressure a little, and a few turns of lucky rolls combined with gratuitous usage of reroll type cards soon had us jumping for joy, and away from those toasters. There was a boarding party but Wade took care of them on his turn.

The rest of the first half went fairly smoothly. At one point, we intentionally failed a challenge so that our food resource would drop into the red. We did that so if anyone turned out to be a cylon sympathizer, they would be on our side.

We got to the sleeper agent phase and Don was revealed as a sympathizer which landed him in the Brig along with Craig who had to go there during the sleeper agent phase anyway because he was a woman (or something). When Don went to the brig his admiralship passed to Wade, and Wade's turn was next so he used some magic pixie dust to take presidenthood from me. At this point we knew that if wade was the cylon we were hosed, but as luck would have it, Craig independently came to the conclusion that we all knew he was a cylon and just came out and admitted it before Wade's turn was up. So we (Don & Me) figured we were ok.

The second half of the game went pretty smoothly. Craig did his best to stop us. We got low on food once and my character's once per game power came in handy. The only other really suspenseful moment was toward the end where the board was covered in cylons and again started to look crowded. It was Wade's turn and we had just jumped on Don's turn and pulled another jump icon. Wade's crisis card gave us two more jumps so we were good to go on my turn. That was when I reminded Wade and Don of my character's drawback -- I couldn't activate any space that had another character in it, and there was Don's Amidala all cozied up in that FTL control room sitting there grinning like some brain-damaged elephant. Wade's reaction to my reminder was great, but not something I can repeat in mixed company. I let the suspense build for just a second before I dropped an Executive Order on Don Amidala who promptly jumped us to the magic 8 spot for the human victory over the black & dekkers.

So the "meh" feeling came pretty close to the beginning. Very early on I saw that this game had a problem in that the cylon player could not stay hidden for long. The best moves were almost always obvious, and a player not taking the obvious move would be called out. You could try to influence the game through the skill checks, but a little bad luck and it wouldn't be long before the good players figured out who was poisoning the water hole. I've heard of games where the cylon player effectively stayed hidden and did all kinds of nasty stuff, but that was not this game. I think that for BSG to work, there has to be suspense over who the cylons are. In this playing, that suspense was not there.

Another "huh?" came when I realized that for almost half my turns my best move was to play an Exectuive Order and let someone else take my turn. Which leaves me with a grand total of zip to do. There was one time I decided not to play the XO just because I wanted to do something myself on my turn, but that was just once. I think in the whole game I:

• Played one Quorum card (once).
• Played an action card to draw two blue cards (once).
• Repaired some vipers (once).
• Used my once per game power (once).

And I honestly think that's it. All my other turns were XO's, and I was constantly drawing them. I never used my power to get someone out of the Brig or to change Presidents, and my "downside" only came into effect on the last turn and didn't really affect anything. Doing nothing is something I like to avoid in board games.

Those are my biggest issues with the game, but I have some other minor ones: It didn't seem like the revealed cylon player had very many interesting decisions, I didn't think the ship-to-ship combat was very original, and I thought the overall game was too busy for offering simplistic decisions. At least that's how it looked to me.

For me the best co-ops I've played are Pandemic and Don's Godzilla game. But I need to get a real playing of Knizia's Lord of the Rings game in too, for comparison. Maybe it's the presence of the traitor in BSG, combined with the fact that the best move is so frequently obvious that turns me off.

But I had fun anyway and while BSG won't be suggested by me for some time, I can see myself sitting up to it again sometime (as long as the only other game being played is, say, Red Dragon Inn or something).