Risk Express

John had a game day because his family was away in Georgia. We started off with Risk Express. Which is a new and light dice game by Knizia. Oddly, this game was not sold in America. I had to ask Marty to get one of his cow-orkers to buy it in England and take it across the pond. Which is sad. There is no reason why this game would not sell as well as Monopoly Express which is already being sold here. Anyways, I like this game. It is quick, light, and thematic.

Amyitis

Next up was Amyitis. John and I explained the game to Ed and Susan. But they missed out on a high-level overview of the mechanics and strategy. And that is because I don’t have one yet. There are a number of routes to score points and they don’t really mesh well. I went for progress along the victory point generation and I mostly ignored trying to finish gardens or concentrate on the temples either. Towards the end of the game, I was getting 10 victory points a turn. And it was enough to get first place.

Attika

We finished up with a quick game of Attika. This is still a decent game. And it probably should be played slightly more often than it is. But, its hard to grab our attention when there are so many games out there to pick from.

Funkenschlag

It has been a while since I have played this game, which I like much better than Power Grid. My only problem was that I was going third. I decide on a spot. And then Gravitt immediately builds right next to me! Argh. In this game, you do not want to fight people in connecting to cities. Both Jon and Doug were left alone with huge empty areas surrounding them. So it was no surprise that they finished first and second. I took a risk and hoped that it would last one more turn. So I bought up enough supplies to guarantee me another round of powering my cities. But it didn’t and I lost the tie breaker for money.

Tichu

This was an interesting game of Tichu. The opposing team was kept to a score of 95 for a number of hands! In the third and fourth hands, we scored 100 points Then we one/twoed them. And then, late in the game, they went back to 95 points!

For Doug’s first Tichu call, I had: 2233455668899Dr. Jon plays the Mahjong and makes an ace wish. I play a four and seriously consider calling Tichu. But each of my three sequential pairs must fly for it to be good. But then Doug played an Ace and called Tichu. So I Dragoned him and then hoped that the pairs were indeed good (which they were).

Bunte Runde

While we waited for the rest of the crew to show up, we played Bunte Runde. Knizia’s lightweight (but still meaty) filler game. In fact some of the players were taking a while to make their moves. Which made it a little less enjoyable than it could have been.

Caylus

Hrm, five people… what shall we play with five people. With many, many games to choose from, we chose Caylus. Which had not seen the table in quite some time. This game was rather unique. (Aren’t they all in their own special way?) The resources were smothered in this game. It started off with stone. And it continued for all of the other one resource tiles. Until they all disappeared. Another factor in this problem was that only one two resource tile was built. This made building pieces in the castle rather scarce.

Aladdin’s Dragons

Next up was another game that we have rarely played. In fact, I have only played it once over six years ago. Its not a bad game if you like blind area majority games.

Tichu

To finish out the night, we played another game of Tichu. My first Tichu was a little risky when I called it. And when Nick over Tichued me, I was worried. But I went out first. My next Tichu was a over Tichu to Nick’s. With two aces, a Dragon, a bomb, and a length 5 straight, it was not a hard choice to make.

Towards the end, the opposing team got desperate. And then the final hand happened. We only need 10 points for the win. So John was very careful. Careful enough not to call Tichu with an Ace bomb and the Dragon.

Key Harvest

First up was a new Essen game, Key Harvest. It took a little while to grasp the strategy and game play and by then it was too late. But the game did seem interesting. And I want to try it again. But who knows if everyone will want to play it again.

Basically, this is a set collecting game. You want to collect two groups of tiles that are close to the same size. You score one point per tile in your biggest group and two points per tile in your second biggest group. In order to acquire the tiles, you want to sell tiles to other people to get money in the five different kinds of currency. You then use that money to buy tiles from other people. Or, you can get the tiles for yourself. But you give up what money you put on it as its cost to other players (which you would have gotten back if they bought it).

There are also workers which “farm” the tiles. They score points at the end of the game. They cannot touch each other and must touch a minimum number of tiles as its victory points. Since it costs you turns to put them down and pick them up, you want to place them such that you get a free rearrangement action when you place a new tile on the spot that they were occupying.

Tichu

To finish out the night, we played some Tichu. Our team was doing quite well. But then the luck went the other way. And the opposing team caught up. In the end, I should have dogged my partner to set Jon’s Tichu call. But I chose not to and we lost.

Mordred

Tonight was another 1st week in a month with The Central Texas Boardgames Meetup Group. We started out with a couple of hands of Escalation!. Next up was a Wallace game that I wanted to try out — a reprint of one of his older games called Mordred. It certainly looked interesting. The rules were simple. They even promised that the game would play quickly. And with one of three possible ending conditions, it looked likely. However. And this is a big however. Our game was the complete opposite of quick. It must have dragged on for hours. Not all of it was the game’s fault. Rules explainers were dragged off. People took breaks to get munchies. And the players were far too conservative. But I will give this game another chance…

Cuba

Jon held game day at his house this time. And all of the games that we played came from John’s “box of fluff.” But these weren’t fluffy. So there’s hope for John after all.

First up was Cuba. This time I went for “the blue strategy.” I was second to start and I was worried that someone else would take my building. So my first action was to build the Dam. Jon apparently was going to go for that one as well (I learned this after the game). Instead, he took the Hotel (2 victory point generator). I wasn’t worried that someone would take the Golf Course (convert water into victory points). So I took the Inn. And, on the next turn, I built the Golf Course. On the third turn, both the Duty Act and the Subsidy Act were the water ones. Clearly, I needed to win that vote. But I made the mistake of not spending all of my money (I decided to keep a couple of bucks). Jon did the team thing and stopped me from winning the vote. This took me out of a first place win. Instead, I ended up second.

I don’t know about the water (or blue) strategy. I did not produce that many goods. And, consequently, I didn’t ship that many (or fulfill the Duty Act) either. The four water resources and one victory point gave me a constant increase of 5 victory points a turn. Which is not bad. But the rum or cigar cafes will allow you to get a maximum of 6 victory points per turn. While the red, white, or blue cube converters only allow a maximum of 4.

Gipsy King

Next up was Gipsy King. Which I missed playing at BGG.con. This is a lighter but still meaty game. And its a perfect one for lunch. I view it as a purely abstract game. In fact, I don’t even know what the “theme” is. I suspect that it may involve Gypsies. But I could be wrong.

This is a block placement game where you are trying to get long chains of your blocks. The longer the better. And, secondarily, you also try and get majority control of lakes with fishes. If you control a lake, you get a number of victory points that equal the amount of fishes in it (small numbers). Ties are good. Everyone shares the points equally. The real big amounts of victory points come from the length of your chain. You score triangle points based on the length.

There are two round in the game. You start surrounding lake number one and continue until the highest lake is surrounded. On the next round, you start at the highest number and move down to one. You can either place one of your blocks on a hex surround the lake in question. Or, you can pass and enter the queue for placement at the next lake. This is sometimes a good thing indeed, as you are trying to connect your chains. And you will skip areas to concentrate on others.

Tichu

We ended the night with a game of Tichu…

…scored on a cute pad of paper!

Race for the Galaxy

I am liking this game more and more. And I should probably get rid of San Juan. Since these games are very similar. But what R.F.T.G. has going for it is the artwork, the science fiction theme, and the slightly more complex gameplay. In this game, I went for a pure military strategy. I started off with Epsilon Eridani. Who are slightly less militaristic cousins of New Sparta. Fortunately, I began the game with the Space Marines. I was able to slowly build up my military strength. And I was lucky to draw the New Galactic Order which gave me an end of game bonus of 10 points. John was going for rare production worlds. Jon was going for developments. Which allowed him to build more cards than us. And he was the one who finally ended it. But it turned out that my military reigned supreme.

Amyitis

Next up was Amyitis which is Ystari’s new game. The rules were slightly confusing. It took us a while to figure out what cards were meant for what pile and what everything else was used for. This game gave me a good sense of possibilities. There seemed to be a number of mechanisms to score points. And there seemed to exist a number of ways to pip people. Jon and I kept fighting during this game. He would get the better of me one time. And then I would best him another time. There are also some surprising mechanisms. Jon was able to pip me in a fight for control at one area by an action on the camel board. I was not expecting that. My plans were to complete the win in that area in the following turn. I retaliated by regaining supremacy in the farmer area by multiple placements of temple followers. It certainly looked like Jon was going to win that battle. But I fought back just in the nick of time.

There are also some painful aspects. Only two people can ever progress in the three areas of research. I was locked out of victory point generation. And it was painful to watch the Jo(h)ns progress during the game. So I concentrated on trying to farm high point value areas. But it was not enough. And just one farm away from winning the game (but it at least got me second).

Ticket to Ride: Switzerland

Thankfully, Jon invited me over to play some games with him on Thanksgiving. We started out with this two player version of the Ticket to Ride game system. The only problem that I had with it was just the general luck of the draw. In my case, every time I tried to tunnel through the mountains, I would turn up three locomotive cards! (For each matching color or locomotive card, you must pay an extra card to lay that track). Gah! How flawed! Needless to say I lost this game as a number of my turns were wasted by not being able to play.

Age of Steam: Austria

Next up was a two player Age of Steam map by the SteamBrothers. In this variant, you had to build complete segments and you could not take out loans. Also, the starting order was fixed with each player essentially alternating as the start player. I took a risk and went for the longer purple delivery chain on the map. Jon made a good first build and had a number of vital first deliveries. But he was unable to expand much after that. I started to catch up and was able to perform some long deliveries. Which rocketed me into the lead.

Mr. Jack

And then there was Mr. Jack — or Jack the Ripper to his corpses. This sounded like an interesting two player deduction game. My job was to keep the identity of Jack hidden so that he could escape unnoticed. Jon’s was to stop that from happening. There are eight potential suspects. Who are revealed when the machinery of the game announces that Jack is in the light or in the dark at the end of each turn. So I tried to keep as many characters in one group as possible. At the beginning, everyone was in the light. But it got harder and harder to keep suspects from being revealed as innocent. I tried to set up Sherlock Holmes to eventually escape the net. But I was not subtle enough. Jon noticed it. And when he was forced to guess, he chose Holmes. I should have only moved William Gull to divert suspicion…

Zombies!!!

I haven’t played a Zombie game in a while. This one started off boring. But when the hope for escaping, the helicopter pad, showed up, it turned into a slug fest. And I am not talking about the constant slaughter of the undead this time. Everyone was trying to be the first to make it to the idling helicopter. Unfortunately, I was limited, or should I say hamstrung, by the card which reduced my movement in half. And it looked like I would never get rid of it… even by dying! Fortunately, we decided on a house rule that allowed the movement to be rounded up (so you could always move at least one) and to allow you to remove the card when you died (which is inevitable). Even with those accommodations, it was annoying. I held the card to move 10 squares instead of rolling dice. So I was hoping that Doug would clear out a tunnel and fail to reach the helicopter. And then I would swoop in for the escape. But it was not meant to be. At least every one of us was in contention for escaping…

Thebes

We ended with Thebes. I like this game for it theme. But the randomness of the draw, or shall I say the big dig, was evident in this game. Matt could not find dirt. And I seemed to find nothing but dirt. Also, this was another game where I did not show any artifacts because I did not have the right combination of colors. There really should be a players aid of the possible exhibition cards so that people can plan which countries to specialize in.

BGG.CON is finally over with. This is the biggest convention for this year and, by far, the most eagerly anticipated. And that is because it is held right after Essen. I made quite the long list of Essen released games to try out. Which included:

• Age of Steam (new boards)
• Agricola
• Amyitis
• Army of Frogs
• Brass
• Container
• Cuba
• Darjeeling
• El Capitan
• Felix: The Cat in the Sack
• Galaxy Trucker
• Giganten der Lufte
• Gipsy King
• Hamburgum
• In the Year of the Dragon
• Kaivai Expansion
• King of Siam
• Kingsburg
• League of Six
• Key Harvest
• Race for the Galaxy
• Space Dealer expansion
• Supernova
• Tichu
• Tribune
• Texas Hold’em
• Eating

Continue reading →

Galaxy Trucker

The first of the Essen games arrived at my house. This game sounded like a funner version of Factory Fun. I bought it from Funagain (a.k.a. Rip-Off-Again) because it looked like a limited release that only a few stores would get. I will give Funagain credit for getting hard to find games and what seems to be all of the Essen games. However, they really charge you for that privilege.

This game is about building your own space ship and flying across the galaxy. You have random encounters where you pick up goods, fight off pirates, and dodge meteors. If your ship makes it back, then you get paid a bonus and you can sell off your goods. The rules are well written and include funny tidbits.

There are two phases to this game. You first build your ship and then you run the gauntlet. The ship building phase is rather chaotic. There is a big pile of face-down pieces in the middle. You randomly draw one, reveal it, and decide if you want to attach it to your ship. If not, you put it back face-up and try again. The problem is that everyone is simultaneously and furiously doing this. There is a sand timer that people can advance if they choose. So the people who think that they are in the lead will be motivated to move the timer ahead.

After all the ships and built and they all pass inspection, the flight begins. A set amount of encounter cards will be flipped over one at a time. The event usually happens to the first ship in the race and moves on to the next ship behind the leader. These events are usually bad. It could be a group event where all the ships are looked at together and the person with the least engine strength (or weapon strength or crew) will have to give up something. Or it could be pirates where you have to beat the pirates or suffer consequences. The person who beats the pirates will get a reward and also save the people behind them. Asteroids or blaster shots come in a grouping (kind of like D.D.R. where you get one from the front, one from the left, one from the front, etc). Two dice are rolled to determine the column or row that the path will take it. Small asteroids will destroy exposed piping. Large asteroids can only be stopped by a laser. Small blaster fire can be stopped by shields in that direction and nothing stops large blaster fire. If the leading component is destroyed, well then, it goes away. Along with any connecting pieces.

I was the only one who survived the first round. That gave me a good lead. In the following rounds, I was usually in last place because my engines were weaker than the others. This was bad because I would never be able to land on planets and get trade goods. But I was able to keep my lead through the whole game. One thing that none of us did was to look that the event cards and customize the ship for the events. We were usually too rushed to even consider looking at the cards.

Tichu

We finally convinced Chapel to stay a little later. He claimed that his S.O. was expecting him home at 10pm. And yet the two married men have no such restrictions.

I had two Tichu hands. And each time Gravitt had a bomb but chose not to use it against me. Which was alright with me. My first hand was 1-9,33,00,ph. If my opening straight had been bombed, I would be hurting. I don’t think I would have cared if he had bombed me during my second Tichu hand.

We were doing okay until Jon went with a risk GrandTichu. But I can’t get too mad at him since he was stopped with a King bomb. And then we were under the gun when the final three hands were called. Jon’s second GrandTichu call was a desperation call. Mike and John stopped him easily. Perhaps that was why Chapel was feeling a little over confident in the last hand. Or at least that is what I assumed why he was cackling maniacally…