Session Summary – 8 October 2008

With 5 this week, we all gathered in one group and all played Power Grid. Having tried China last week, this time it was Korea.
This is another board where the differences to the base game are significant, this time due to the split market for raw materials. When buying you must choose whether to buy from the North or the South and all your fuel bought on the turn must come from the same market, this can make things awkward when you have a several types of plant, because you may find that the fuel for one type is cheap in the north, while fuel for the other type is cheap in the south. There is an added complication, when you have a nuclear plant, because Uranium is only available in the South. There are no other differences in game play, but this one is significant enough.
For the game used Deck 2 and eliminated the area in the South East. I bought the number 1 plant with the idea that I could get first call on the resources and that left me with having to build first of course and I was presented with the 4 zero connection cost sites in Seoul. I bought 2 of these, expecting to take a hit on turn order for the next round, but was surprised, when everybody else also bought at least 2 cities and ended up first again. I am still wondering if I would have been better off buying 3 or even all 4 of those Seoul sites on the first turn, meaning that I wouldn't need to worry about building again for a turn or 2. Everyone else also clustered around Seoul except for Ben who started in the North East, where the connection costs were high.
The game now proceeded in a normal sort of way; Steve triggered Step 2 without much delay. Mike did much complaining that the right plants were never available when he wanted them, but he was actually sandbagging and ended up doing very well, I think buying the least plants. I picked up a lot several plants at face value and people thought I was doing well, but on at least a couple of occasions I would have been better off not buying, firstly buying the 19(1 uranium > 3) thinking the price was fuel was heading down only for Dave to pick up the number 8 the following turn making a battle for the stuff.
The second occasion was on what turn out (Unexpectedly for everyone except Mike, I think) to be the last turn. I was left with the 44 (6 cities for free) plant and picked it up thinking I was in a good position going into another turn. Mike of course ended the game and Steve, Dave & I could only build to 13 cities, I lost out to both in the tiebreak for 2^nd place, but if I hadn't bought the plant I could have built an extra city and powered it. Ben was also caught out at the end, having chosen not to build that turn and so ended up on 10, I don't know what his position would have been otherwise.

Power Grid 120 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Mike	1	15
Steve H	2	13++
Dave C	3	13+
Dave D	4	13
Ben	5	10

Session Summary – 1 October 2008

We had 8 people this week.
Paul, Steve Hilton, Steve Perkins and I played Power Grid, this being our first game with the new expansion, which I picked up in the afternoon. We played using the China side of the board and eliminated the purple area to the west together with the pink North Eastern region.
This was more of a new Power Grid experience than any of the previous expansions as I expected that it would be (and expect Korea will also when we get round to trying that one) with the sequential appearance of the power plants making a big difference to the way the game was played. In the normal way of play we have tended to try and minimise the number of plants bought throughout the game, which has resulted in quite a few of the lower value plants going unbought because better ones drop into the market. In this game pretty well all the plants were bought to keep up with the rate of city growth, even if a plant failed to sell on its first being available, it would be picked up the following round and I don't recall that we were ever in the position of discarding low value plants in phase 5. Whether this pattern will be repeated with further plays as we get used to it I don't know, I suspect not but the fact that someone must miss out on a plant each turn is also a factor here.
Another interesting feature was the increased competition in the Auctions, with quite a few plants being bought for a lot over face value, I recall that #50 went for 71 and I think #30 went for 66 at a time in the game when trash was cheap. It was also interesting to note the battle for plant #6 that I had with Paul in the first round; this plant is certainly a much better prospect on this board, with both Coal and Oil having a starting price of 5 (that said, it needs to be as someone must buy it).
The board play did not seem to be too different from normal (other than the change in geography), with Steve P (despite only having 1 capacity) taking the zero linked cities of Tangshan and Tianjin, Paul took Beijing and I took 2 cities (I think Shijiazhuang and Jinan. Steve H had the 8 plant to power 2 cities, but because Steve P had driven up the coal price, he could not afford to build 2 cities (and buy fuel) so he elected not to buy fuel or build and waited until turn 2 to place, starting in the east with Shanghai and Nanjing. This is a strategy I've thought of in the past, but I don't recall ever seeing it done, I suspect that on this board it will be more common as the high fuel prices make it uneconomic to run the initial 2 capacity plants at less than full capacity. (Note, looking back now, I'm not quite sure Steve had his maths right as I'm sure he got the plant at face value, which should have left 25 available for city buying and there were places on the board where it was possible to get 2 for this).
From this point on the game proceeded a bit slower than I would expect a normal game to go, Step 2 started the turn before step 3 and there were enough turns after that so we actually ran out of the plants in the market. Steve H came unstuck the turn before the end, he had been running very economically with a combination of nuclear (cheap fuel) plants and wind plants, but he was lagging in capacity and bought the 36 plant powering 7 for 3 coal, unfortunately there were already 3 other coal plants running and Steve P chose to stock his up for 2 turns, totally depleting the coal supply before Steve H could buy. In the final turn there were 4 coal available and Steve P was to buy first, Steve H chose to scrap the 36 (buying the 37 (4 wind)) on the assumption that Steve P would buy enough coal to prevent the 36 operation despite not needing it himself and that powering 14 cities was better than powering 10. Paul ended up the winner on 18 cities, having managed his plants very well, with Steve P and I on 17 (he won the tie break 14 to 7) with Steve H on 14 with plenty of money but no point spending it.
So that was our first visit to China, the game came in a fraction under 2 hours after rules explanation which seemed quicker that I thought it might be. I'm sure that we made a lot of mistakes and this board certainly needs more play. The one thing I wonder about is the "what if" situation where Steve H chose to stick with the 36 at the end, because if Steve P had decided to buy the coal he would have been 15 poorer and could not have built 17 cities dropping him behind me. If he hadn't bought the coal that would have left Steve H with 17 capacity and I suspect with enough money to build 17 and beat both of us in the tie break. Paul would still have won however.
Next Stop Korea.

Power Grid 120 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Paul	1	18
Steve Pe	2	17+
Dave D	3	17
Steve H	4	14

Over on the other table another 4 player game was in progress, this was In the Year of the Dragon. I haven't played this but I thought it had been played at the club before, I can't find the record however, so unless it got recorded under the wrong name, I am wrong in that. May be someone will fill me in a little on how this game went.
Congratulations to Andy on his first win at the club.

In the Year of the Dragon 120 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Andy	1	75
Steve P	2	73
Gordon	3	71
Mike	4	68

Following these games, both of which finished at about the same time, Steve H had to go, but the rest of us gathered together for a 7 player game of Tsuro, which Gordon went on to win. I think it was Mike who was responsible for taking out Paul and me, together with himself.

Tsuro 15 mins
Player	Posn.
Gordon	1
Steve P	2
Steve Pe	3
Dave D	4=
Mike	4=
Paul	4=
Andy	7

Session Summary – 24 September 2008

Only 5 this week. Initially Mike, Andy & I played a game of Tsuro and then we were joined by Dave & Ben for another game. Dave wasn't sure whether he might be called away early so at this point we split the group and he and Ben played Memoir '44, while the rest of us played On the Underground.
We have not played this for some time, it being a game that I like, but maybe others are not so keen on. It is certainly true that it is better with fewer players such as we had here. This was a close game with the lead changing between the 3 of us on multiple occasions, we all being keen, when there was a choice (and we ourselves weren't included) to award points to he who was furthest back. Both Mike & I were able to score a few points by making loops.
The game ended on my turn and there were no final turns of playing track without moving the passenger as Mike who was next in line was the start player. I was able to give myself a bit of margin and I thought I was also forced to give Andy a point taking him ahead of Mike. It was after pointed out that I had a choice between the 2 of them, so it's a good job I failed to spot this. Mike has a certain amount of justification to claim a moral tie for second place.

On the Underground 90 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Dave D	1	55
Andy	2	51
Mike	3	50

Dave & Ben split their Memoir' 44 games between them. The first game was "Operation Goodwood" with Ben as the Germans, Dave as the British. The second was "St. Mere Eglise" with Dave as the Americans, Ben the Germans. In both cases the results followed history.

Memoir '44 45 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Ben	1	6
Dave C	2	1
Memoir '44 45 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Dave C	1	4
Ben	2	2

After these it was Tsuro again to finish the evening, Dave sat the first game out putting Memoir away. The results of the 4 games in total are below. Mike has a good record at this with 2 firsts and 2 seconds during the evening, the other wins going to Ben and Dave. This is a wonderful filler to play at either end of the evening, although it's a pity that my record with it is not so wonderful.

Tsuro 15 mins
Player	Posn.
Mike	1
Dave D	2
Andy	3
Tsuro 15 mins
Player	Posn.
Ben	1
Mike	2
Dave C	3=
Andy	3=
Dave D	5
Tsuro 15 mins
Player	Posn.
Mike	1
Dave D	2
Ben	3=
Andy	3=
Tsuro 15 mins
Player	Posn.
Dave C	1
Mike	2
Ben	3
Dave D	4=
Andy	4=

Session Summary – 17 September 2008

We were again able to run 2 tables this week. Gordon, Steve H, Andy & I played Agricola.
This was my fourth game of this and it was the closest that I have been involved in. As is becoming fairly usual, I can't remember much in the way of detail of the play, but we used the E deck (I think that next time I play it might be time to try one of the others).
From what little I remember none of us, with the possible exception of Steve really got the food generation working that well, although we would always just about managed to scrape up enough to feed the families when it came to the harvest. Steve had quite a nice combination of Occupations (including the Reeve, which I was able to share the bonus for at the end of the game) and Improvements and I think we all thought he was on for quite a handy win, but he was short on the livestock side which dragged him down to a similar level as the rest of us and that made for the close finish.

Agricola 135 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Steve H	1	40
Andy	2	38
Dave D	3	37
Gordon	4	36

Over on the other table Mike joined Dave and Ben and played Tinners' Trail, which has moved into the Top 5 played games for the year. Like last week's game this was a clear win and I got the impression that Dave did very well on the first round. Because the points available diminish with each round, this was decisive. As I said in the last report, I have not noticed this effect in my games, but I can see how it would come about. It would seem that if at any time (particularly the first round) the price of copper is very high, then it is important that no one player is allowed to get their pick of the best copper producing mines. Another factor affecting this is that the best mines are generally available at the start of the game, compared with those that become available later, which tend not to be so good.

Tinners' Trail 75 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Dave C	1	120
Ben	2	93
Mike	3	92

They also played Gheos; it looks like Mike had a good win here.

Gheos 45 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Mike	1	124
Dave C	2	96
Ben	3	68