The Games We Play

The Games We Play

A repository of reports on the Wednesday night sessions of the club and anything else related to the club or boardgaming in general, which may be of interest to anyone who may be passing by.

Wednesday 5 August 2009

July 2009

1 July
Down in the bar this week, there being the normal first Wednesday of the month committee meeting upstairs. Donald and Steve trying out Martin Wallace's Waterloo. This was not finished.

Waterloo - 150 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
NRSteve H
NRDonald

That left 4 of us and we opted for a number of shorter games, first up Dominion, with 2 games played and me still trying to make a Chapel strategy work with conspicuous lack of success, the first game was close though.

Dominion - 30 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Andy E27
2Dave F21+
2Mike21+
4Dave D21
Dominion - 55 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Mike41
2Andy E35
3Dave F34
4Dave D32

Next up was Fzzt! From Surprised Stare games introduced at the recent Games Expo. We quickly realised that we were making a mistake in the first try and restarted. We terminated the second game early as Mike & I had had enough of it. The game seemed to have a horrible case of runaway leader syndrome, although looking at the online rules later I think we may still have been getting something slightly wrong. I'm not sure how much difference that would have made though.

Fzzzt! - 15 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Andy E29
2Dave F28
3Mike20
4Dave D11


I left at that point and the others played what I think was a single round of Der Ausreisser (Breakaway Rider), which hasn't been played here for quite some time.

Der Ausreisser - 10 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Mike2
2Andy E-3
3Dave F-11

8 July
The evening started with a quick game of Animal Olympics, while waiting to see if anyone else would appear.

Animal Olympics - 10 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Dave F
2Mike
2Dave D
2Steve H

After that Donald arrived and Donald and he and Steve played another game of Waterloo, which again went unfinished. They both seem to like this 2 player game, but I think they have come to realise that it is probably not playable in an evening session.

Waterloo - 150 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
NRSteve H
NRDonald

The rest of us played Industrial Waste, which was a very close game, Mike taking by virtue of getting to the end of the growth track and having a bit more money than me. It was Dave's first game and he was a little held back at the beginning due to a misunderstanding of the fact that accidents happen immediately the card is drawn rather than at the end of the turn, so he did not have a chance to get his waste back into the green.

Industrial Waste - 60 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Mike60
2Dave D55
3Dave F28

Finally we introduced Dave to San Juan, which I gather he was so impressed with he went and got it and has also been playing a PC version a lot. Mike and I were on pretty much the same sort of strategy with City Hall, Palace and Chapel; I won, despite Mike being the one to finish the game by virtue of having more monuments.

San Juan - 40 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Dave D41
2Mike40
3Dave F26

15 July
First up was 7 player Tsuro

Tsuro - 10 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Ben C
1Gordon
3Dave D
4Daniel
4Mike
6Donald
7Steve H

Then we split 4 & 3, with 4 of us going with Race for the Galaxy, first time with Rebel vs. Imperium, although we left out the takeovers.

Race for the Galaxy - 70 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Dave D56
2Steve H36
3Daniel27
4Ben C25

Also we played Dominion, which I won for a change using Throne Room/Council Room.

Dominion - 35 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Dave D44
2Ben C24
2Daniel24
4Steve H20

Over on the other table, they played Chicago Express

Chicago Express - 60 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Donald142
2Gordon123
3Mike119

And also Dominion
Posn.PlayerScore
1Mike39
2Gordon31
3Donald15

22 July
We had 3 tables this week, with Dave taking on the youngsters at Runebound; I don't have results for this one.
4 of us played Metropolys; this has been played once before with 3 of the same players. I ended up second again.

Metropolys - 75 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Andy E37
2Dave D35
3Dave F29
4Mike26

Then it was 2 games of Dominion, the first being very close (3 way tie) and the second, after Andy left, less so, basically being decided on curses. Mike did very well chapelling away most of his while dumping quite a few on Dave and me. I made the mistake of staying out of the Witch game and again proved totally incapable of getting Chapel and curses together in the same hand.

Dominion - 45 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Dave F31
1Dave D31
1Mike31
4Andy E25
Dominion - 30 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Mike48
2Dave F36
3Dave D23

Over on the other table the game was Le Havre and it went on for the entire evening, still going after I left (which was fairly late). Gordon sent the following in an email.
The result for our game of Le Havre was Donald 118, Steve P 110 and me 83. We had to rush the last couple of turns which resulted in me collecting 3 loans and minus 21 points on the last round which I could probably have avoided. I knew from the reports I had read that it would be the kind of game I would enjoy and it lived up to the billing. It is however a big undertaking and I quiet understand Mike's view that we have enough barely understood games without taking this on. It is going to take at least 3 games to feel comfortable with the way the game plays out. I only have room for 1 or 2 games of this weight a year because of the need for multiple plays. I hope to drag some others into the learning experience. I suspect Steve Hilton will like it and young Andy and new Dave. I would not want to play a game with more than 3. We played Donald's copy but I also have the game.

For myself, I played the game at Midcon and didn't enjoy the experience, see here.

29 July
5 this week, plus Munchkin for the youngsters (I don't have any info on that)
To a start with Andy introduced Tulipmania, which has been somewhat delayed, I believe it was supposed to be out at Essen last year. It is an interesting game, but I think will require further play to determine whether there is anything there or whether it is just a case of speculating and hoping for the best. In this game, I thought I was right out of it when I wasn't involved when the first bubble burst and speculated that there might be a bit of Acquire there, where if you miss out on the first merger and can't make another one fairly quickly, you can really lose out. As it turned out I finished third, when I was expecting to be last, being particularly surprised to beat Steve who did very well out of that first burst.

Tulipmania 1637 - 60 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Dave F22175
2Andy E21675
3Dave D16400
4Steve H15750
5Mike9050

After that we had a bit of a quandary due to a lack of 5 player games that would play in half a session. Many thanks to Mike for agreeing to play RftG, when I know he is not a fan of the game. Steve won this one with his military juggernaut and Improved Logistics.

Race for the Galaxy - 75 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Steve H42
2Mike25+
3Andy E25
4Dave D20
5Dave F14

2 comments:

  1. Chicago Express contains a lot of game play in a short period. Not since Web of Power / China have I seen so much game packed into an hour.

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  2. I'd agree there, Chicago Express is a surprisingly deep game and I'm really keen to play again soon. My second game of Metropolys, and despite coming last I think this is one of my favourite recent Eurogames - an uncluttered design, lots of small difficult decisions. Takes a little while to warm up, but gets very tense very quickly.

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