I think it's time for a quick catch-up. I've been spending far too much time thinking about my online game of Battlestar Galactica on BGG (see here & here), so details here will be sketchy, but here goes.
25 March
We had 6 players and Ben wanted to play Munchkin, so we split 4 & 2. On our table we played Vinci, as I was keen to play again before the appearance of Small World, which I was expecting imminently. Not my finest hour as the scores show, things were going well enough until just past the halfway mark, when I chose to take the Specialist Livestock breeders, which had sat in the "I" position of the list for some time and accumulated some bonus VP. The problem was that they did not have enough units and although they did well enough initially, once forced into decline my scoring fell to near zero and I fell way back, the VP accumulated on the combination, being nowhere near enough to balance things out.
Posn.
|
Player
|
Score
|
1
|
Steve H
|
130
|
2=
|
Mike
|
121
|
2=
|
Andy
|
121
|
4
|
Dave D
|
100
|
Over on the other table Dave & Ben played Munchkin
Posn.
|
Player
|
Score
|
1
|
Dave C
|
10
|
2
|
Ben C
|
8
|
Posn.
|
Player
|
Score
|
1
|
Dave C
|
93
|
2
|
Ben C
|
85
|
Posn.
|
Player
|
Score
|
1
|
Ben C
|
102
|
2
|
Dave C
|
75
|
Posn.
|
Player
|
Score
|
1
|
Dave C
|
16
|
2
|
Andy
|
15
|
3
|
Ben C
|
8
|
Wreck! 15 mins.
| ||
Posn.
|
Player
|
Score
|
1
|
Andy
|
10
|
2
|
Dave C
|
31
|
3
|
Ben C
|
32
|
Happy 50th birthday to me and everyone insisted I take first turn in each game, although this did not turn out to be an advantage.
Again we had 6 players and spent the early part of the evening down in the bar, while we waited for the committee room to become free. We played a couple of fillers, first being Tsuro.
Posn.
|
Player
|
1
|
Mike
|
2=
|
Ben C
|
2=
|
Andy
|
4
|
Steve H
|
5=
|
Dave D
|
5=
|
Dave C
|
It is a fun and quick little filler and my only win of the evening.
Wreck! 15 mins.
| ||
Posn.
|
Player
|
Score
|
1
|
Dave D
|
0
|
2
|
Andy
|
2
|
3
|
Steve H
|
18
|
4
|
Ben C
|
26
|
5
|
Dave C
|
40
|
6
|
Mike
|
56
|
The game is for 2 to 5 players, rather than 3 to 6. An unusual feature is a different board for each player number, which balances the game better than the token number adjustment in Vinci, the lower maximum player number is not a problem for me as I don't think Vinci played that well with 6 anyway. (1-0 to Small World).
Whereas Vinci has a completely random selection of special powers, in Small World they are split between a Race and a special ability and each combination will have one of each, so you might get a combination such as Berserk Skeletons. Many of the Race abilities and special powers replicate or are similar to powers in Vinci. This seems to have the effect of giving more balanced combinations. (2-0 to Small World).
In Small World each race has its own set of counters, rather than using a coloured disc to represent all a players units. When a race goes into decline, its counters are flipped over, rather than using special markers. This has the advantage of doing away with the decline markers, but I found it is often difficult to find all a player's units on the bard, compared to the obviousness of the coloured discs. (2-1 to Small World).
Small World has hidden scoring, compared to the open use of a scoring track in Vinci, it has been suggested that this will reduce a Kingmaking problem that some people (not me) see in the Vinci end game. If the problem exists I don't see that this solves it as the game is short enough for anyone with reasonable memory to have a fairly good idea about who the leaders are. In addition I have seen another problem in one game due to the use of small cardboard counters with identical backs to represent VPs. It is too easy, if the counters should get into the wrong slot in the tray to give out the wrong counters. This is probably a mistake that won't be made twice, but is not a good thing (2-2).
Vinci has totally deterministic combat, which I regard as a good thing, but Small World introduces a die which you can use to attempt one final conquest, if you have at least 1 unit and are no more than 3 units short. 3 of the 6 sides are blank, meaning you always have at least 50% chance of failure, so I don't think that the die really affects the game much if used for final conflicts. Unfortunately there is also a special power (Berserk) that allows the use of the die every turn and I think that is a bit much. (2-3 Vinci).
The point penalties for passing over combinations in Vinci are halved to 1 point in Small World, which seems to be a good thing as it makes is a conceivable option to take the combination in 6th place (although I haven't seen it yet). In Vinci, I don't think this could seriously be considered. (3-3)
So on these points I sit on the fence about which is the better game, there are other things to consider such as the much better quality of production. This does not sway me one way or the other, although it has to be said I actually prefer the look of my old 1st edition Vinci board. Some may be swayed, one way or the other, by the fantasy theme; again it makes no difference to me.
This was a close game with Steve winning on the tie break (something else that Vinci doesn't have). I shall have Small World in my normal selection, rather than Vinci for a bit in the hope of getting more play of the new game, but looking forward I would still like to play both games.
Posn.
|
Player
|
Score
|
1
|
Steve H
|
109+
|
2
|
Ben C
|
109
|
3
|
Dave D
|
105
|
Posn.
|
Player
|
Score
|
1
|
Andy
|
99
|
2
|
Dave C
|
95
|
3
|
Mike
|
73
|
Posn.
|
Player
|
Score
|
1
|
Mike
|
30
|
2
|
Dave C
|
27
|
3
|
Steve H
|
27
|
4
|
Andy
|
25
|
5
|
Ben C
|
22
|
6
|
Dave D
|
19
|
Re Citadels: It was Steve's brutal and vicious attack as the Warlord, knocking down my Temple on the final turn, that cost me the game as I would have scored an extra 4 pts (1 pt for the Temple and 3 pts for all the colours.
ReplyDeletePS: I only assassinated you because you stole all my money the turn before. Not that I bear a grudge or anything...
But what about the other 2 times?. Although I think that was Ben.
ReplyDeleteIt was pointed out to me last night that the BSG game links at the top, weren't links. I've now corrected this.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately there is also a special power (Berserk) that allows the use of the die every turn and I think that is a bit much. (2-3 Vinci).
ReplyDeleteUnless you forget to use it:(