Session Catch Up – August 2008

After a few weeks of silence, this will be a bit of a catch up on what's been going on. I haven't written before, because after the Britannia game, the games we have played since (although for the most part being perfectly enjoyable at the time) have not really inspired me to write about them, so this will probably be somewhat brief considering the number of games we have got through in that time.
OK to start at the beginning
6 August
This was Matt's last visit to the club before moving down south and I am sure that we are all sorry to see him go, while wishing him all the best of luck in the future.
We played Agricola, which we first played the previous week and I had also played at the weekend with Dave C. On first play I thought the game was interesting but was unsure, but the game seemed better after the Saturday game and I have to say I enjoyed this one. I think I would now describe it as one I would happily play again, but definitely not up there with quite a few others (those I rate 9+ on the geek). I think the best way to talk about this is to mention the play of the cards, which are what is going to give the variation between plays, I suspect the game without the cards would quickly become very boring. All the cards in this game were from the E deck.
In this case, Steve Perkins played an early occupation (the Reeve I think) awarding bonus points to the player with most occupations, but hadn't banked on Matt who had the tutor giving a point for each following occupation he played. The result was Matt scoring a lot of bonus points giving him the win despite having no animal and only 1 (albeit very large pasture. He did however have a nice big stone house. Steve Perkins & I weren't too far behind. Steve H put together a few cards based on the fishing space and was rarely in trouble when the harvest came, but he seemed to fall down on several other aspects. As for the other 2 games I've played the begging cards were not needed.

Agricola 150 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Matt	1	45
Dave D	2	40
Steve Pe	3	37
Steve H	4	28

On the other table Dave ran the Castles and Crusades RPG as described here.
13 August
We played a couple of new games this evening, with Gordon and Steve Pagett over. The first was Patrician, which Gordon brought back from Essen last year and passed on to me unplayed a week or two before. In the game the players are master builders building towers for the prestige of patricians of Middle Ages Italy.
You play cards to place floors on towers in 8 towns (7 with less than 5 players) and also pick up the face up card adjacent to each town, so when you play the cards you not only have to consider the floor(s) you are building, but also what cards you are going to get to build future floors as well as to accumulate the sets of patrician head which also give you good points at the end of the game in addition to those you score for having the majority of the floors in the 2 towers per town.
I definitely did not get the hang of this game, with my only points coming from a set of patricians which I was dealt at the start. It seems OK and I must try it again but nothing special and I was somewhat disappointed when comparing with the great Web of Power by the same designer Michael Schacht.

Patrician 45 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Steve P	1	49
Mike	2	33
Steve H	3	30
Gordon	4	26
Dave D	5	6

The next game was Iliade, which I know Mike has been bringing along for some time. I made some rather over the top comments at the end of the game, which I really should withdraw and content myself with saying that if I never play this again it will be too soon.
The game is by Dominique Ehrhard, who also designed Condotierre, which we played last October (see here for my thoughts on that) and they have similarities in that they both consist of a series of battles consisting of playing cards in turn and you do not get to refill your hand after each battle, although in this one at least you do at least get to draw 3.
There are 2 types of battles, the names of which I don't now recall and in the first case there were victory points to be won for the first 3 positions and a negative for coming last. In the second type there is just one winner and no negatives and we spent a good deal of time discussing the rules for it which seemed very unclear.
I followed a strategy of making sure I didn't come last in any of the first types and sitting out of the second type to replenish my hand, this got me to the end in with a chance of winning at the end and it was this end game that finally decided me that this is a bad rather than merely iffy game, since it came down to a classic king make situation, with Steve P having the power to choose between Steve H or me as the winner, he chose not to intervene which gave me the game. It was also the end game which decided me against Condottiere.

Iliade 70 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Dave D	1	13
Steve H	2	9
Steve P	3	8
Mike	4	5
Gordon	5	2

Dave's role playing report (I see he just posted) is here.
20 August
With Dave C away on holiday, Mike played Totopoly and Carcassonne with the younger members; he sent me his comments on the Totopoly game:
"We started with a very competitive auction, where top prices were paid. Walroy Stables, the Vet and the horse (which eventually came 2nd) just abut recouped their cost, but James was unlucky to get very little income from Stevedon Stables. Training was reasonably uneventful, although some top horses landed white spoiler cards, whilst there was some heavy betting and not just for players' nominated favourites.
As for the race itself, Richard's top horse took a useful lead at about halfway and never looked in danger of being beaten, whilst Mike's and Charlotte's top horses fought hard to get the minor placings. The final result, however, depends on cash, and unusually the betting decided the winner, as Mike's heavy backing of the eventual winner just managed to swing the result his way, whilst Charlotte was the other big gainer at the Tote to get a comfortable 3rd."

Totopoly 90 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Mike	1	880
Richard	2	780
Charlotte	3	590
James	4	250
Carcassonne 45 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Charlotte	1	93
Mike	2	70
James	3	62
Richard	4	44

Steve H and I played 2 games of Race for the Galaxy, with Matt (one of the other youngsters).In the first game, I went for Alien stuff with the Alien Tech Institute and Alien Rosetta Stone world, while in the second I went for military using the New Galactic Order. I wouldn't have said either game was high scoring, but the scores in both were similar, with me winning and Matt coming last as is really to be expected playing this for the first time.

Race for the Galaxy 50 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Dave D	1	38
Steve H	2	33
Matt(2)	3	17
Race for the Galaxy 50 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Dave D	1	39
Steve H	2	34
Matt(2)	3	19

27 August
The youngsters played a game of Munchkin together, while Steve's daughter Charlotte joined him, Gordon and I as she apparently does not like that game. I do not have any info as to how that game went.
The first game was old favourite Industrial Waste. I did not do that much production, and concentrated on pushing down my worker technology and growing my factory in the early stages, making a few goods and supplementing my income by selling raw materials. Interestingly though by the end of the game both Gordon and Charlotte had actually reduced their workforces to 1, while mine was on 2 and Steve overtook me in the growth stakes to go to 20, as I stood on 19.
Steve pursued a policy of driving down his pollution technology and producing a lot of good, but lost out on the costs of paying his workers and also buying raw materials, the costs of which seemed a bit higher this game than they sometimes are in our games, so I was able to win by virtue of having more money despite being behind on innovation and growth.

Industrial Waste 60 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Dave D	1	56
Steve H	2	50
Gordon	3	41
Charlotte	4	34

We then played 10 days in the USA, which is a fun little filler and I won for the first time in (I think) 6 games. I left a little early at that point as I had not been feeling very well during the day.

10 Days in the USA 20 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Dave D	1	Won
Steve H	2=
Gordon	2=
Charlotte	2=

That's it for August; maybe I'll stay a bit more up to date in September.

Alternative British History 43-1085AD

Documents, recently discovered during an archaeological dig have caused some consternation among historians as they seemingly cast doubt on the accepted course of British History from the Roman invasion until the year 1085. Many have questioned their accuracy, while others have puzzled over peculiar aspects of the papers, such as the points allocated to the various nations, and colour coding seeming to link what might otherwise be considered totally unconnected groups. Their follows a summary of the contents of these mysterious documents.
The Romans invaded in the year 43, by order of the emperor Claudius. The invasion took place along the south coast from Kent to Devon, dealing with token resistance of the Belgae and Welsh, before heading further north in England to engage the Brigantes in March and across to Dyfed in the south of Wales. The Belgae and Welsh showed know stomach for a fight and submitted at first opportunity. In this first phase of the invasion, no Roman losses were suffered, but a revolt of the Belgae under their warrior queen Boudicca then had to be put down with some minor damage.
The bulk of the Roman conquest took place in the first 15 years, the next 40 mostly taken up with dealing with the rebellious Belgae and some modest progress further north. Bernicia was reached around 150 and taken unopposed, this being the furthest northern advancement, alongside the Pennines, taken by force from the Brigantes. The remaining approximately 300 years of the occupation were spent protecting forts and eliminating the last Belgae. The Romans withdrew around 430, when matters on the continent became pressing, at a time when defence of their holdings was becoming increasingly difficult due to the number of other invading forces. Points-100
The Romano-British took over much of the Roman territory following the withdrawal and initially consolidated in the South with the intent of invading Jutish lands. They had to content themselves with Saxons, who got in between them, they had some success with King Arthur around 500 and migrated north following the death of their legendary leader (of old age). They then gradually dwindled, becoming a lessening force, finally being eliminated by the Welsh around 800. Points- 18.
The Belgae capitulated to the Romans at the first opportunity, but rose up around the year 60 under the leadership of Boudicca laying waste to some Roman forts and eliminating a legion, but their rebellion was short-lived, ending with the death of the Queen. The Belgae died out around 300. Points -28.
The Welsh spent nearly 400 hundred years as Roman subjects; this inhibited their growth and left them vulnerable to Irish raids and after the Roman withdrawal, it took until about the year 700 to re-establish control over their ancestral lands and evict the Irish who had settled in Dyfed. In the 100 years or so prior to this, although raids into England toward York were considered this was not possible due to intervening Romano-British forces and the Angles in occupation of the City. After 700, there was peace at home for over 200 years, with forays into the adjacent English areas of Hwicce and Avalon, where the last Irish colony was wiped out.
Peace came to an end around 940, with the invasion of the South by Dubliners led by Olaf Guthfrithsson. Although the Dubliners were later forced out of Dyfed, a settlement remained in Gwent after 1085. The Welsh had also been forced out of Devon and Cornwall by 1085, falling to Saxons retreating from the Wars raging in England, although they had expanded to take March & Hwicce. Points - 73.
The Brigantes were untouched in the early years of the Roman invasion, but in the late 50s March & Cheshire were overrun, this was a cue to withdraw North abandoning York and Bernicia and capturing Dunedin from the Picts. The Pennines fell around 80, but after that the Brigantes were not bothered by Roman forces and had comparative peace, until the arrival of the Scots invasion led by Fergus Mor Mac Erc around 500, at which time Dunedin and Lothian were lost.
The next nearly 600 years were a time of near continuous War, with Dunedin, Lothian and the Pennines changing hands many times as variously Scots, Angles and Danes came and went. Throughout these turbulent years, the Brigantes were always able to remain in occupation of their Strathclyde and Galloway core until sometime in the 1070's, when a force of Picts, having previously regained control of Dunedin, launched a major attack on Strathclyde resulting in the total elimination of both large armies. The Brigantes survived after 1085 as a small population living in the mountains of Galloway. Points – 62.
The Caledonians occupied their homelands of Orkneys, Hebrides and Caithness for about 750 years and despite occasional forays against the Picts in Mar & Skye, were never able to expand further.
The arrival of Ketil and his Norsemen around 800, led to the loss of Orkneys and Caithness and the Caledonians were finally eliminated in 1070, when an army of Norsemen from Skye captured Hebrides. Points- 38.
The Picts lost Dunedin to the Brigantes in the late 50s, leaving them confined to the mountains with Caledonians a constant threat to the North and Brigantes to the South. Despite trying, they could not reclaim Dunedin and things deteriorated still more, with a Scots invasion leading to the additional loss of Dalriada. Alban also fell by 710, but was recaptured by 800 as the Scots declined.
The improvement of fortunes against the Scots however coincided with the arrival of Norse invaders, who captured Skye around the year 900, reducing pictish influence to their homelands of Alban, Mar & Moray. Toward the end of the period covered by these documents, in around 1050, the Picts finally reoccupied Dunedin and it was the entire army of that region that set out to engage the Brigantes stronghold of Strathclyde, the ensuing battle resulting in the elimination of both armies. The Picts survived beyond 1085, in occupation of Alban Mar and Moray. Points - 64.
The Irish are first recorded as small raiding parties around 200, but the first evidence of an Irish colony is around 300, when they landed and sacked a Roman fort in Wessex. As the Romans were withdrawing, they moved from Wessex to Avalon, also occupying Dyfed and Cheshire.
A further trickle of Irish imigrants continued until around 710 and it was around then that the Welsh were able to firmly re-establish control of Dyfed. The last Irish colony in Avalon survived until around 800 when it was conquered by the Welsh. Points – 30.
The Scots were first seen around 300, but it was not until about 100 years later that a landing took place, with the conquest of Dalriada from the Picts. In about the year 500, Fergus appeared with more forces and Dunedin and Lothian fell. At the height of Scottish power they also controlled Alban, before a decline due to resurgent Picts and Brigantes, together with the arrival of new invaders in the form of Norsemen and Danes, reduced them to the one area of Dalriada, where they remained in 1085. Points-40.
The Norsemen arrived in around the year 800 led by Ketil Flatnose and set about the conquest of the Caledonians. Orkneys and Caithness fell by 860 and during this time there was also an unopposed raid into Cumbria, which had been left vacant, due to some secret deal, which led the Brigantes to withdraw from that area.
After this progress was hard and only Skye and Hebrides were added to Norse territory. In 1085, the Norsemen occupied Orkneys, Caithness, Hebrides and Skye. Points – 43.
The Dubliners were first seen in around 900, but no incursions into Britain were made until 950 or thereabouts, when, led by Olaf Guthfrithsson, they landed in Cumbria and South Wales. By 1085 they were reduced to the single area of Gwent, driven out of Dyfed by the Welsh and forced to withdraw from Cumbria, which had become untenable due to the actions of Brigantes and Danes, as well as an impending Norwegian invasion. Points – 13.
The Danes first raided in 793, laying waste to Lothian, Bernicia, York and Cheshire, before withdrawing. They returned in 865, led by the brothers Ivar and Halfdan, taking territory on the east coast form Lothian in the North down to Lindsey in the south as well as reaching inland to the Pennines and Mercia, reaching as far west as March.
There now followed a period of consolidation in the face of renewed attacks by the Saxons and Angles, who took Lindsey and then York, which had perhaps been left too lightly defended. In the early 11^th century, further forces arrived from Denmark and Danish rule was established over East Anglia, York and South Mercia, in the process eliminating the last vestiges of the Angle nation. By 1085, following the arrival of further reinforcements under Svein Estrithson, the Danes were the major power in England (Svein having engaged William of Normandy in Essex, forcing him to flee into the Downlands) controlling territory from Bernicia down to Essex. Bernicia and York had briefly been ceded to the Norwegians, but recaptured without difficulty. Points – 82.
The Norwegians landed at York in 1066 and quickly occupied the city together with Bernicia, Cheshire and March. The only resistance was briefly put up by the Danes in North Mercia, before they withdrew to Suffolk.
Following the successful initial invasion, the forces were forced out of York and Bernicia, leaving Harald Hardrada to rule over Lothian, Pennine, Cheshire and North Mercia from his court in Cumbria. Points – 38.
The Saxons first appeared around 300, destroying the Roman Fort in Sussex, with further forces arriving over the next 100 years or so, destroying Roman forts in Kent and Essex, while moving a little inland ahead of the Jute invasion which swept into Kent & Sussex in their wake. Around 442 a large force led by Aelle established a Saxon presence in much of Southern England, but were met by stiff resistance by the Jutes and Romano-British, led by Arthur. The Romano-British threat died out following the death of Arthur, but it was to take something like 350 years before the threat of the Jutes was finally eliminated with the fall of Kent around the year 800.
In the next 150 years or so under the leadership of Alfred and Edgar, control was gained over much of the South, but the continuing threat of the Welsh in the west and surviving Angles, together with the new danger of the Danes in the east, prevented progress further north than South Mercia and Hwicce.
By 1066, the South Coast had been heavily fortified, but a Norman invasion under William cut through the Saxon forces. A somewhat low key battle near the town of Hastings on the coast led to the loss of Sussex, but neither leader was present with William campaigning in Essex, while the Saxon Harold cowered in Devon.
By the end of 1085, the Saxons were a spent force, surviving only in Kent, together with Devon, Cornwall and Avalon in the west. Points- 84.
The Jutes landed following the Saxons in around 400 and occupied the areas of Kent and Sussex, vacated by the Saxons as they moved in land. They came under heavy attack during Aelle's major invasion shortly afterward, but were able to hold Kent and in an audacious move attack and take Wessex from the Saxons.
Wessex was lost again in around 600, but the Jutes held on in Kent for approximately a further 200 years before falling to a Saxon army led by Egbert. Points- 22.
The Angles appeared as one of a host of raiders in the latter part of the Roman occupation, and their efforts resulted in the destruction of a Roman fort. It was in around 600 that a major force led by Ida established control over much of East Anglia and the East coast.
For the next 200 years or so, the Angles were probably the strongest nation in England, but attempts to expand their territory further west and south led to pyrrhic victories at best, with many troops going to their deaths and the Danish raids of 793 resulted in the lost of all Angle holdings in the north confining them to East Anglia.
Following the Danish invasion of 865, the Angles fought back taking York, but they were confined to the areas of York, Lindsey & Norfolk by the start of the second millennium, and these areas fell easily to the renewed Danish invasion under Cnut. Points – 78.
The Normans invaded in 1066 led by William of Normandy, but were met by heavy Saxon forces on the south coast and the invasion petered out in Essex, following the loss of many infantry.
William barely escaped with his life some years later, when an attack on Essex by Svein the Dane, forced him to withdraw to Downlands with his remaining Cavalry unit. He remained there in 1085, the proud ruler of Downlands, Sussex and Wessex. Points- 28.

_________________________

At the beginning of the year, Matt, Mike, Steve & I played a game of Britannia, which went down well and we agreed that we would repeat it sometime. On Saturday we finally did so on what was probably our last opportunity, with Matt moving down south at the end of next week.
We agreed in advance, who would play which colour. Steve had played Yellow in the previous game and was keen to try that again, while I wanted to try Green (I know a lot of people find this faction a bit uninteresting, but it's a long time since I played it, in fact it was the Black faction in those days). Mike had expressed an interest in playing Red, but was happy to switch to Blue, as Matt had played Blue in the previous game and wanted to try something different.
It should be noted that while we have all played before, none of us would claim to be great experts, lacking the time to play often and become accustomed to the use of the different nations. That said, this was a very enjoyable game, the closest that I can recall taking part in although as can be seen from the scores not a tremendously high scoring game. Two of the reasons for the low scores, may be another couple of features of this game that seemed unusual in my experience, firstly that at no time was any nation able to claim the title of Bretwalda or later king, secondly at the end of the game all four of the claimants to the throne were still alive even if they couldn't claim the prize.
The above "history" represents my recollection of the game. It is possibly not 100% accurate in places, but I have tried to ensure that what I have written fits in with the record of points scored at different moments during the game. Below is a progress chart for the game, showing the final scores.

Session Summary – 30 July 2008

This week we had 3 for board games, plus Dave running the role play, reports of which are now posted on his own blog here. That left Gordon, Mike & I.
The game we played was Agricola, which is probably the most discussed game on the geek currently, and now with the English translation available has moved rapidly up the ratings to overtake Power Grid in the number 2 slot and now the English version is also about to hit the states, is confidently expected by many people to take the number 1 spot (note here that I am of the firm opinion that the BGG ratings are a piece of interesting statistical whimsy and no one should be under any delusion that they represent any sort of valid determinant of how good a game is).
Anyway, having got that off my chest, something about the game, the following not being a complete description but just what comes to mind as I type this. You represent a farmer in the late 17^th century, after the plague has burnt itself out after several hundred years, and starting with just the farmer and his wife, you have to develop your land, ploughing fields to grow crops and fencing in land for pasture to raise animals. At the same time you can expand and upgrade your house and gain more family members.
The game uses the now familiar worker placement mechanic, which Caylus is usually credited with introducing. Each player in turn places one of their family members on an action space and immediately takes that action, after which that action is not available until the next round. In this case, because the action is immediately taken there is no way to later prevent it, such as provided by the provost in Caylus. There are a number of actions available at the start of the game, with one extra action added each round in a semi-random manner with a particular set of actions becoming available in each stage of the game, but no fixed appearance time within that stage.
Adding variety to the game are the cards, each player starts with 14 cards (7 occupations and 7 minor improvements), which can be played by taking the appropriate actions and meeting any cost in resources. The cards have such effects as giving extra actions, increasing the effect of some actions, giving victory points at the end or some other advantage.
So that is what you do, grow your family, plant your crops and breed your animals, having regard to the fact that you need to feed your family at every harvest, which occurs 6 times during the game, first after 4 rounds and then with increasing frequency until the end of the game. Finally victory points are scored, and the game encourages the following of a Jack of all trades policy, rather than heavy specialisation. Points are scored for each category of farm development, with a maximum of 4 points for each, but -1 if you have failed to do any development in that category, in addition there are points for the number and types of rooms in your house (1 per clay room, 2 per stone room) and 3 per family member, together with points for fenced stables and for certain cards you have bought or played from your hand. There are further deductions of 1 per undeveloped farm space and 3 per begging card, which you receive for every food you are short when feeding the family, so it is vital to pay good attention to that aspect of the game.
For this game, we took our cue from Gordon and we received our cards from a mixture of the 3 decks E, I & K, in theory the decks increase in complexity with alphabetical order, but I have to say that the K cards I had did not look that complex. After the dire warnings about how tight food was I thought I did pretty well with that getting an engine going that left me with food in hand at the end, despite having grown my family to full size, but I fell down in other areas, with no vegetables at the end and fewer animals than I would have liked, I also had 5 undeveloped spaces. Mike was able to develop his house to stone through a card that allowed him to miss the clay step, but had fewer family members and also fell short in other areas; he also had 5 undeveloped spaces. Gordon had played before of course and did well in most areas, he had 4 vegetables for maximum points and did well in cattle, he also had a bonus card which I can't remember the name of which rewarded him for the clay he had at the end. He only had 2 undeveloped spaces and 4 family members.
Our thoughts. Well Gordon clearly likes it and rated it a 9 on the geek, he hope it makes #1 as it "spreads-the-love" a lot more than Puerto Rico???? As for Mike, it looks like this is another recent new game to add to the list he doesn't like, it is too much like work for him (mind you that's exactly what I said about Tikal a long time ago). Me, I said I thought it was interesting (damnation by faint praise?) and would play again, which I think is exactly what I said about Caylus on first play (I now rate that as 3). I went home and put a rating of 6 on Agricola. What I will say is I think that the theme on this one fits the game play better that any other that immediately comes to mind.

Agricola 140 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Gordon	1	36
Dave D	2	26
Mike	3	22

Note when Gordon added up the scores he gave himself 34, but according to my check it should have been 36, so that's what I recorded.
Now as a sort of postscript, following Saturday's Britannia game (report to follow), I went over to Dave C's house and played Agricola again (apparently he also had his copy with him on Wednesday), with him, Jenny and Ben. In this case we just used the E deck of cards. I have to say that for whatever reason (maybe it was the cards, maybe more familiarity) I enjoyed that game a lot more than the first time, I went home after and raised the rating to 7.