| Il Principe 60 mins | ||
| Player | Posn. | Points |
| Mike | 1 | 60 |
| Steve H | 2 | 53 |
| Steve Pe | 3 | 49 |
| Matt | 4 | 46 |
| Dave D | 5 | 36 |
I was undecided about this one on first playing. The game is basically a series of auctions with knobs on. This second time I really just lost interest almost from the start and it seemed a very long hour. This probably explains my very poor performance. I think I'll pass on this in future.
After we started playing Dave & Ben appeared and got stuck into a game of
| Scarab Lords 40 mins | |
| Player | Posn. |
| Ben | 1 |
| Dave C | 2 |
I gave this a try with Dave on a recent Saturday and git the impression it was an OK game, though nothing really great. Not one of Reiner Knizia's best by any stretch of the imagination, bit not his worst by any means.
Both the first 2 games, finished at roughly the same time and Matt joined Dave & Ben and was introduced to
| Vikings 60 mins | ||
| Player | Posn. | Points |
| Matt | 1 | 71 |
| Ben | 2 | 64 |
| Dave C | 3 | 38 |
Matt seems to have taken to this, but I'm not sure as to his opinion of the game
The rest of us played
| Industrial Waste 60 mins | ||
| Player | Posn. | Points |
| Steve H | 1 | 33 |
| Steve Pe | 2 | 30 |
| Dave D | 3 | 27 |
| Mike | 4 | 26 |
This was another low scoring game, but this time it was because all players had financial trouble had to take out loans by the end of the game, also there seemed to more than the usual number of accidents. Steve Hilton, formerly the greenest player in the club now seems to have discarded this enlightened stance in favour of employing as few people as possible and not worrying about the mess left behind. This strategy brought him a victory which was really easier than the score suggests, despite suffering the end game accident in the red zone.
That's got the Wednesday sessions caught up for now. Still to come, comments on the Saturday 1870 game and thoughts on Midcon. Oh and there's another session tonight.
Having been impelled into playing Vikings on the crest of a wave of apathy from Dave D and Steve Pe (quote: yeah, it's...um...alright, that), I really enjoyed it. Enough to buy a copy I think.
ReplyDeleteIt has interesting mechanics, nice chrome and most importantly: multiple victory startegies. And you know how I like them.
The game play was odd in thi scase and I don't know if the 3rd player threw Ben and DaveC off their games a bit. Essentially, both siad that ships were really bad and that it was a bad sign that few warriors came out early to defend their islands. They both then went on to bid money for them and experessed surpise when I avoided all ships until about the 5th auction. I'd love to say that my daring plans played off spectacularly, however my strategy of: 'ships are bad, I'd best avoid them then' seemed to work fine.
Viking meeples too. What's not to like?
This one seems to polarise opinions. When I played 4 player, Dave & Ben (Ben particularly as he won handsomely I think) were not put off their game. I got particularly irritated, by not being able to buy the tile on the zero space because there were other pieces of that colour remaining, This was not me being a cheap skate, I would have been willing to pay for it. This happened several times and when I tried to manipulate things so I could get the tile later, the actions of other players intervened, leading to my view that the fewer players the better with this one.
ReplyDeleteI gather Steve and Mike had a try at Midcon and Steve was muttering about not everyone having an equal number of turns going first.
Matt - your comment is interesting as it echoes what Ben said. The game is -very- different with 2 players and it does require a substantial rethink with three. REM: you can get the zero space tile if you have no money AND you can always pay VP in lieu of money. Ben has used this to good effect on several occasions.
ReplyDeleteAfter the 4-player game at Midcon; my opinion is that's it's a different game again and you have to adjust strategy to allow for this. I was first player and came second. REM, you can buid sideways and always try to keep an island open to add a middle/ending. Boatmen can score a lot at the end; as can fishermen