Another 8 players this week. On one table we had the first appearance this year of the club's most played game, Power Grid, this being its 48th appearance, we'll have to think of a suitable celebration for when it reaches 50. After I posted the previous session, I did a bit of work with my stats manager to allow the generation of games history tables, such as that for this below (I think most people who've ever been to the club have played this game).
Game: Power Grid | |||
Plays: 48 (1 No Result) | |||
Play Time (Hours): 100.67 | |||
Player Hours: 421.33 | |||
First Played: Jul-04 | |||
Last Played: Feb-10 | |||
| Plays | Wins | Ties |
33 | 9 | 0 | |
Dave D | 43 | 15 | 0 |
Gordon | 21 | 10 | 0 |
Mike | 17 | 5 | 0 |
Keith | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Pete B | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Julian | 5 | 0 | 0 |
Toby | 6 | 1 | 0 |
Chris | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Steve G | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Matt | 12 | 1 | 0 |
Mark S | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Duncan | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Richard B | 5 | 1 | 0 |
Luke | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Richard C | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Pete Bl | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Simon | 8 | 0 | 0 |
Richard M | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Kamil | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Jason | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Steve C | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Paul | 4 | 2 | 0 |
Jonathan | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Steve Pe | 4 | 1 | 0 |
Dave C | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Ben | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Alec | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Ben C | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Andy | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Ben T | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Donald | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Dave F | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Daniel | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Nigel | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Colin | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Andrew | 1 | 0 | 0 |
This particular game was the first played using the Spain/Portugal board and the areas eliminated were the green area north of Portugal and the red in the south, down by Gibraltar. I think in retrospect, this wasn't the ideal layout, having Portugal in west, separated by a narrow corridor (2 cities wide) from the rest of the map. Mike placed himself in Portugal at the start and was able to expand into the corridor, effectively blocking expansion in that direction while leaving him several city sites.
The game went on longer than I would normally expect for a 4 player game of Power Grid and some of that was probably due to having 2 new players, but even so I was expecting the game to end 2 turns before it actually did and was somewhat surprised that someone did not have the cash to end it. Another possible factor in the long game is the change that forces the wind plants 18, 22 & 27 onto the top of the deck at the beginning of step 2, by the time this stage is reached I would normally be looking to buy plants powering more cities than the 3 (for the 27) maximum of these, so the effect would seem to be to lengthen the expected midgame stall. I'll be interested to try this board again with a more open layout, but at first try it does not seem as interesting as China and Korea from the year before.
Posn. | Player | Score |
1 | Mike | 18 |
2 | Colin | 17++ |
3 | Dave D | 17+ |
4 | Andrew | 17 |
Over on the other table was Hermagor, another game making its first appearance after being out for several years. I really know nothing about it, except that it seems to be some kind of trading and transportation game set in a fantasy land, although I stand to be corrected on that
Posn. | Player | Score |
1 | Steve H | 109 |
2 | Andy | 103 |
3 | Dave F | 92 |
4 | Donald | 86 |
Following that there was TransEuropa, we tried TransAmerica many years ago (pre Sep-03) and I was left absolutely cold by it. TransEuropa is essentially the same but in Europe, although I understand this game included the Vexation expansion (also usable with the first game), which looks like it could improve things a lot.
Posn. | Player | Score |
1 | Andy | 10 |
2 | Donald | 5 |
3= | Dave F | 0 |
3= | Steve H | 0 |
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