Neuroshima Hex

Wow, this is my first time playing this game. Which I bought back in June of last year. How sad. It was interesting, if a bit one-sided. I was attacked by everyone. Yet, no one was attacking anyone else. Which is strange since your final hit points is your score. Not that I mind. I like it when people play sub-optimally. Hopefully, they will continue playing the same way when I am in the lead the next time.

Tichu

Instead of finishing up the night with Tichu, we played Tichu next. I guess that the priority was get in a full game of Tichu. And, if we still have time, then play another game.

Dominion

Next up was Nick’s copy on poker chips. He had printed out a bunch of stickers that someone had made for a version on wooden disks. He was even generous to send the game’s author some money via paypal. This version is intended for people who have difficulty shuffling cards. Because that is what you spend most of the game doing.

Since Nick didn’t have any bags yet for the game, I gave him some lunch bags. This inspired Chapel to put a bag over his head. The unknown gamer strikes again. If only I could have gonged Chapel out of there…

Another year of BGG.con. This time, instead of writing long and detailed posts, I tried micro-blogging the gaming via twitter.com.

The game highlights were:

• After the Flood
• Cities
• Big Boss
• Roll Through the Ages
• Wind River
• Heads of State
• Municipium

The games that I didn’t like were:

• Ghost Stories
• Krakow 1325AD
• Super Nova
• Der Schwarm

I also found three restaurants that I liked: Ali Baba (Mediterranean), Babe’s Chicken Dinner House (in Carrollton), and the Czech Stop. I didn’t like Campisi’s Egyptian restaurant or Big Fish.

Full twitter posts after the cut…

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Steel Driver

First up is a new Essen and Wallace game called Steel Driver. This is an interesting game that is full of trade offs. You bid for control of laying railroad routes. But there are twists to this. The first is that you get paid off in the end for your shares in the different companies that you have owed. However, losing control of them is not a bad thing as long as they pay out well at the end (ala Imperial). Second, while you make money by connecting expensive routes, in the end, you score more money by collecting complete sets. You want your railroads to connect to each of six colors. You shouldn’t really get distracted by connecting the first trans-continental railroad route either. Third, there is a trade off to how much you bid to control and operate a railroad versus how many railroads you can get control in. Unless the few railroads that you did control also did very well in the scoring. Fourth, railroads which build quicker operate sooner during the next round. This can be beneficial in avoiding being cut off. But you score more for building more tracks rather than fewer tracks.

Tichu

With four people, we ended the night with Tichu. On the second to the last hand, Jon got a little nervous of calling a risky Tichu when we were 50 points from the win. I’ve been there before…

Duck Dealer

First up, a new Splotter game called Duck Dealer. I was very lucky to get this. It sold out in Essen rather quickly. This is an interesting game of building up a bunch of action points and then spending them all in a burst of activity. The only negative aspect to this game is that the said burst is awful hard to keep track of in a way that guarantees undoing it quickly and correctly. Other than that one bit, it is a great game that I look forward to playing.

Dominion

Next up is Dominion. A deck building game. At some point in the game, you want to focus on victory points. But they take up space in your hand by acting as dead weight.

Galaxy Trucker

First up on the table was Galaxy Trucker. I like this game. It is thematic. And both parts of the game are fun for me. The tension building your ship while competing with everyone else for the same parts. And the tension of trying to stay alive during the delivery run. The events can be brutal. You just might loose large chunks of your space ship.

Race For The Galaxy

We kept within the Science Fiction theme tonight and played Race For the Galaxy. My cards eventually fit into a clear strategy: build and score developments. I was also able to set up a trading chain which netted me seven or so cards every other turn. But I knew I had to end the game early. I didn’t want the others to catch up to me. Fortunately, I was able to do so and win the game.

Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization

It’s been a while since we have played TTA. Especially a four player game of it. This game is tough to balance. There are just so many variables to juggle. And, for tonight, my problem was science and rocks. My lack of science kept me from putting down a lot of buildings. I had to really pick and choose. And my lack of resources coal/iron/oil kept me from building more high value buildings. Especially my army. I knew it would be scored at the end of the game and I came in last in that race. But no one attacked me during the game which was nice. And I was able to keep in second place. Ahead of Marty, who seemed to pick up steam in the last couple of rounds.

Shadow Hunters

We started the game day off with a filler game. Which was so-so. We probably should have waited for some more information on who is your enemy and who are your allies before attacking. But as we gathered information, we just started wailing on each other. Which is a good thing as it sped the game up.

Stone Age

Next up was a game that I wanted to play. It had dice in it and sounded interesting. You collect resources to trade in for victory points. There are some factors which mitigate dice rolls. First, you can gather tools which will bump up bad dice rolls. Next, the only critical dice roll is where you gather food and you start out with enough to last you for two turns.

I liked this game and would buy it.

Neuland

We played this classic game. But the new version. Which I hate compared to the old. The graphics are worse. The changes to the rules are horrible. Ugh. Give me the old version anytime. Fortunately, we used the old rule set with the new board (we did have to use a special counter to show where your turn ended ten spaces away from your current start position).

In this game, two things were painful for me. Both the mines and the coal mills were far away from my starting position. So I ended up being very inefficient. I also took a huge risk and left my food generation spot unguarded. I did this for two turns. But I was rewarded for this. I was able to get ahead of the pack and acquire the resources to build the final victory spot.

Can’t Stop

There was some serious Grimming going on in this game. So we started up a game of Can’t Stop at the table. That game is easy to pick up and leave. You do not need to remember any strategic information while you are away.

Ricochet Robots

Marty wanted to play this classic Russcon game. I was a little worried though. We had two new gamers at the table and I didn’t think they were up to the spacial challenges that this game requires. But, towards the end, they started to get the hang of the game and even scored a victory point. Without Jeffles or MarkY at the table, this game is much easier to win.

Gipsy King

We ended out the night with this abstract game. I like it and should add it to my shopping list.

Age of Steam Expansion – Texas, Oklahoma & New Mexico

Winsome’s 2008 Essen pack was shipped early to me. In it was an Age of Steam expansion about Texas and cattle. We tried it out. Of course we got a couple of the rules wrong. But that did not make this game broken. In fact, it made it harder. Which, in my opinion is a good thing. This expansion is designed to make it easier for beginners. There is the normal goods on the board. And there also is a bunch of cattle which can be transported as goods. This is way too many goods for a group of seasoned players. So the mistake of not filling up the new goods section turned this game into a more normal version. With an interesting cattle twist.

Suicide Tichu

We finished up with an abbreviated game of Suicide Tichu. This was Marty’s first time and he liked it.

Jon played a solo game of Agricola and told me what cards he drew and what score he got (20 points). This made me want to see how I would do at it. I received 45 points. Which is below the minimum required for the first round (50 points). This got me thinking how I could improve my play. So I set out to see if I could better my score. This time, I scored 52 points. Can someone else do better?

Incredibly detailed minutia follows…

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Lokomotive Werks

Thankfully, Jon and Doug were willing to play another game of Lokomotive Werks. I made the mistake of chasing after the newly created trains instead of upgrading all of my current ones. So, when the time came during the later stage of the game, I saw that I was going to loose multiple trains and only have one left, I decided to resign from the game. Unfortunately, the Grimm brothers had a big fight over who was going to win the game and Doug left.

Agricola

So it was just Jon and myself left. So we played a two player game of Agricola. Which went rather quickly for having a Grimm in the game.