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.

Thursday 14 January 2010

Session Report – 13 January 2010

4 comments

There was no meeting last on 6 January due to the weather conditions. I did take the bus down on the off chance that someone else would turn up, but (not much to my surprise) no one did. When I looked at the Weather last night, things seemed to be, if anything, worse than the week before, so this time I stayed at home. I was a bit surprised to learn later that 3 hardy souls had been in attendance.

The game played was Louis XIV, game I remember there being a bit of a buzz about when it first came out, although I have to say what I read did not enthuse me enough to do much investigating at that time. Mike has now picked up a copy and it sound as though a good time was had with it. Mikes notes are as follows.

First released in 2005, I've no idea how this slipped under our radar until now, but it really got 2010 off to a good start.  At its heart is an area control game, where the areas are diagonally touching (like a small draughts board) tile portraits of court characters, each of which can give players various benefits, into which you place and move your meeples.  There are three different types of scoring however when everybody has finished their placements : some characters only give a benefit to the player with the majority of meeples, some characters give the benefit free to the majority player but the losers can pay for the benefit, and some give everyone the benefit as long as they place enough meeples.  The winner in the first two scoring types thus gets a clear advantage - but a nasty after-effect.  They lose their meeples to a central stock, from which they'll have to retrieve them (which wastes valuable time), but the losers get theirs back immediately.  The character tiles can get flipped over after scoring, to give a completely different way of gaining the benefit in the next turn, and this makes the placement tactics tricky every round.  Winning benefits can give you shields (worth 1VP), benefits for future rounds, or mission chits, pairs of which are needed to fulfil missions, which not only score 5VP but give the owner advantages which can usually be used in every subsequent round (there are always 4 rounds).  Sounds a bit complicated, there's a bit of extra chrome, but the learning curve finished after the first turn and soon we were discovering what a cleverly designed, meaty game this is.  It's also, if the first game is any indication, a game where losing players can catch up - I must have been 12 points behind at the end of 3rd round, after winning rather too many scorings outright in the 1st round leaving myself short of meeples for rounds 2 and 3, but because the other two then concentrated on fighting each other I scored impressively in the final round and nearly caught them.  I want to play it soon with 4, but I think it's probably better with 3 to give players more feeling of control during the meeple movement, when I'm guessing subsequent plays will clock 80-90 minutes.

Louis XIV 120 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Dave F

50

2

Steve H

48

3

Mike

47

The weather seems to be scheduled to improve over the next few days, so hopefully we'll have a better turn out then, although I get the impression from forecasts that we may not have seen the last of it yet. But then what do weather forecasters know?

Monday 11 January 2010

Stats review 2009

3 comments

This time last year I posted an article, reviewing the games played stats for 2008, 12 months later it seems like time to do the same for 2009, so here it is. This year I will compare with the corresponding figures from the last article and we'll see how things have changed. I have also got all the tables prepared to post on the stats site, but I seem to be having a bit of difficulty uploading to that at the moment, so they are not online yet.

Games Played

We played a total of 150 games during the year including 62 different ones. 34 games were played only. 30 games were played for the first time this year.

The number of games played is up from 142 in 2007 and the total player time at 740 player hours is up from 656 (an increase of 12.8%), as last year all school holiday role playing games are excluded.

The most played games (in terms of player time were as follows:

1. Battlestar Galactica (11 plays, 147.7 player hours)

I turned up at the first meeting of the year and Dave C had this. As we had 6 we gave it a go and I was quite surprised at how well it was taken to. The first game went unfinished but I think all the others were completed. More recent plays have been with the Pegasus expansion.

2. Power Grid (7 plays, 60.0 player hours)

Last year's number 1 still seeing a good amount of play and I suspect there would have been a lot more if not for the emergence of BSG. This is the first year that the number of games of this played in a year has dropped, down from 11 last year. We currently have 1 board that we haven't played (Spain/Portugal) so that is one we must give a try soon.

3. Dominion (19 plays, 42.6 player hours)

This just made it into 2008, with just the 1 play in December. Interestingly it hasn't seen any play since July, possibly because I haven't been carrying my copy about regularly. I see the game more as a filler and more recently other games have come along to fill that niche that take up less room in my bag, although I'm sure this one will see more play in 2010.

4. Race for the Galaxy (7 plays, 32.6 player hours)

I'm a bit surprised to see this one so high up, but I think that's possibly because we probably take more time over it than many groups do, also we have tended to play it with high numbers of players which drives up the player –time.

5. Small World (6 plays, 32.2 player hours)

This initially saw a flurry of plays being a fantasy update of old club favourite Vinci, but I have to say that I do prefer the former. The hidden scoring and fixed turn length together with loss of the cohesion rules detract from the game for me. Additionally the use of individual counters for each race (typical Days of Wonder style over substance) can make it difficult to differentiate who's units are who's (particularly when in decline).

The most played game in terms of games played was Dominion.

What happened to last year's top 5?

The only game of 2008's top 5 still remaining there is, of course Power Grid. The number 2 game was Pillars of the Earth and that dropped to number 7. Number 3-Agricola saw just 1 play and stood at number 46, while number 4-Brass saw no play. The fifth game was Tinners' Trail which garnered 2 plays to take position 22.

Games that have stood the test of time

Last year I noted that there were 4 games which are recorded as played in every year from the start of my records in 2003, but this has now dropped to 3 with Acquire and Amun-Re getting no play in 2009, although I'm sure they will return. Of the survivors Vinci was played once, while Industrial Waste had 3 plays. I also noted a further 3 games that had seen play every year from 2004 (the first full year's records), these were San Juan, Power Grid and Kremlin, each of which has been played again this year.

Now let's see what 2010 brings.


 

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Wedneday 6 Jan Meeting.

1 comments

The first meeting of 2010 is scheduled tomorrow, but things aren't looking to promising at the moment with the amount of snow on the ground.

I've just seen a man from the RAC on the TV giving the usual advice not to go out tomorrow if you don't really need to and I think that might be good advice, particularly if you have some distance to come. Depending on how things are I might get the bus down, but if things are like they are currently, my car will be staying at home.

Sessions – December 2009

2 comments

2 December

5 in attendance and just one game played, this was Endeavor, which seemed to go down well with everyone, except me. To me it seems just another variation of the normal mechanics of picking up pieces of cardboard, trying and failing to evoke the theme of the age of European colonisation.

Endeavor 100 mins.

Posn.

Player

1

Dave F

2=

Donald

2=

Andrew

4

Steve H

5

Dave D

9 December

First up Middle Earth Quest, I played Sauron, while Steve, Ben and Andrew took the part of the heroes, this game went unfinished as I suspected it would do, being the first try with the game having a fair few fairly fiddly(I wouldn't say complex) mechanics. The early turns went well for me with some early plots enabling me to advance my yellow marker, representing my search for the ring, as required by my mission card, however things were getting sticky as we came to a close, with Eometh (Ben) descending on Barad-Dur to deal with the rescue of Gollum, while Thalin (Steve) Steve took a boat from the Grey Havens, reaching Minas Tirith to interfere with my machinations there.

I found a couple of mistakes afterwards of course (no influence in Havens and heroes don't get to remove influence from Shadow strongholds). I think the game should move a lot quicker and should be doable in an evening with repeated play. I do wonder whether 3 players might be the ideal though.

Middle Earth Quest 150 mins.

Posn.

Player

1=

Dave D

1=

Ben C

1=

Steve H

1=

Andrew

On the other table Dave F introduced Roll through the Ages. I got to give this a try the following week and it is a fun little dice game that should serve as a good filler. The obvious comparison is Ra: The Dice game, which I think I prefer, but have no problem with either. I think Roll through the Ages is possibly more predictable in its game length so perhaps would be a better bet if time is short.

Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age 45 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Dave C

12

2

Donald

11+

3

Dave F

11

4

Mike

3

Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age 50 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Dave C

22

2

Donald

19

3

Dave F

14

4

Mike

12

After 2 games of RTTA, Dave C introduced, Fagin's Gang, which I was given an overview of by the designer at the first Games Expo. I wasn't inspired to buy the game at that time. I get the impression that from what others have said that I didn't miss much in this one.

Fagin's Gang 30 mins.

Posn.

Player

1=

Dave C

1=

Donald

1=

Dave F

1=

Mike

16 December

6 people, split into 2 threes, which were rearranged at half time. Gordon, Andy & I first played factory Manager, which of the few games I have so far played from Essen 09, is by far and away my favourite, although I know that Steve does not share my enthusiasm. I cannibalised my earlier comments here and turned them into a review on BGG . Gordon got off to a good start in this one, but I thought I had pulled him back at the end; problem I didn't account for was that he spent next to no money on the final turn.

Factory Manager 75 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Gordon

243

2

Dave D

222

3

Andy

185

On the other table Endeavor got another run out.

Endeavor 75 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Andrew

62

2

Dave F

53

3

Steve H

44

We then rearranged the groups and I got a chance at Roll through the Ages, which I mentioned further up. I actually triggered the end in this game and ended up losing as can be seen. With hindsight I should have built something in the first turn (I had the chance), which would have brought the game to an end earlier, which would have reduced the others scores somewhat.

Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age 30 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Dave F

19

2

Andy

16

3

Dave D

11

On the other table Ra got a run out, a very high scoring game, apparently both Steve and Gordon got 8 out of 8 monuments. Edit: Looks like I forgot to paste in the scores, here they are

Ra 45 mins.
Posn. Player Score
1 Steve H 63
2 Gordon 60
3 Andrew 39

23 December

No meeting due to snow.

30 December

A good attendance to end the year, with Dave running a Golden Heroes RPG session, unfortunately I was feeling a bit unwell, with a cold and when I got into the room with the windows open causing an icy draft (unfortunately the alternative would have been closing the windows and getting far too hot, which would probably have been just as bad) and the noise from the GH game, I decided to call it a night so the others could have a 5 player game, rather than splitting 3 & 3. I felt rather lousy for the next couple of days, but on the road to recovery by Saturday evening.

Games played were (thanks to Steve for the results) Chinatown, an old and well regarded game now republished. I watched the early stages before leaving and I can't say that it looked like a game I'd like, being basically a negotiation game.

Chinatown 90 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Gordon

1000

2

Steve P

900

3

Andrew

830

4

Steve H

790

5

Mike

770

Also played was the Sherlock Holmes card game. Considering the scores and game length, I would guess that quite a few hands were played. According to the records, I see that the last time this game was played was in January 2004, I must admit I thought it was more recent than that.

Sherlock Holmes Card Game 70 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Steve H

107

2

Andrew

131

3

Gordon

213

4

Mike

273

5

Steve P

282


Happy New Year to You All.