Session Report – 14 April 2010

10 people this week with a 4 by 4 split.

On one table we had World Without End again, although this time it was Dave F's new copy, the cards not even yet being out of shrink wrap. It's a great game, but I think we are perhaps in danger of playing this to death this year, it having appeared 6 times in 14 weeks. This was an introduction to the game for Paul and Donald and was very close for the first 3 places, with Donald back in fourth and I get the impression he wasn't greatly enjoying himself.

Going into the final scoring I was some way back but was able to sneak ahead with 10 points in resources and money behind my screen, while Paul could have won if he had been able to get the Tower completed and claim the bonus for most loyalty.

World Without End 100 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave D	53.5
2	Dave F	52
3	Paul	51
4	Donald	34

To finish the evening we had a quick round of 6 nimmt which I totally screwed up by playing my high cards early and being left with too low ones at the end meaning I tended to end up playing under several times.

6 nimmt 15 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave F	0
2	Paul	1
3	Donald	20
4	Dave D	28

Over on another table, Mike had dug out New England, this being the first play here since 2006 and I have to say that doesn't seem a day too long. That said there seemed to be much merriment going (although that could have people's cries of pain, self inflicted to keep awake).

New England 100 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve Pe	36
2	Mike	30
3	Ben C	28
4	Dave C	23

Also played here was Vom Kap Bis Kairo, a game not seen for a longer time (2004).

Vom Kap bis Kairo 45 mins.
Posn.	Player
1	Mike
2=	Ben C
2=	Steve Pe
2=	Dave C

On the other table Andy was providing Steve with his Wargame fix with Conflict of Heroes, Andy was the Soviets, Steve the Germans. Andy's comments:

"CoH uses a system of introductory firefights - allowing you to gain experience of the system - introducing more rules as you progress.

We played Firefight 1; a small scale infantry scrap using the updated Storms of Steel rules which improves the flow of the game.

With the limited ruleset for this Firefight luck can play a very large part and did so here with a great number of very jammy rolls for the Soviets.

After this we started Firefight 2 which introduces Hidden units and Group Actions allowing the movement of large groups of troops and powerful firegroup attacks. However after the death of a dithering Soviet Rifles squad counterbalanced by some brutally effective Soviet MMG fire at stacked Germans in open ground we ran out of time by the end of Turn 1."

Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! Russia 1941-1942 100 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Andy	9
2	Steve H	3

Session Report – 7 April 2010

We started off with 5 this week and set up to play Battlestar Galactica, which has seen reduced play this year, I think possibly because of the larger numbers which have led (as I mentioned last week) to the possibility of getting other games to the table. In the case of this one, the sweet spot for the game falls around 5 or 6 mark and this number is currently not such a common combination.

With 5 players, we agreed to play without a cylon leader, which I don't think really works with that number owing to the possibility of ending up with what is essentially a 4-1 situation in favour of the humans. Then Donald (who we hadn't been expecting) turned up and we faced the choice of what to do with 6. In retrospect I think we should have incorporated a Cylon leader, but instead I inserted the sympathetic cylon option which replaces the base game sympathiser option. We included the New Caprica end game, which I would always want to (except with new players) since I believe it goes some way towards fixing the base game's only weakness (as I see it), which is its ending.

The character choice was Colin-Helo, Mike-Laura Roslin, Andrew-Kat, Donald-Cain, myself-Starbuck and Steve-Gaius Baltar. The game was one of those with relatively little going on in space and in the early part of the game all went fairly well for humanity with the possible exception of some morale loss and the tendency for Baltar(Steve) to use the FTL location resulting in some unnecessary population loss, despite my best advice. In retrospect Baltar should have gone out of the airlock without further ado which would have exposed him for the frakkin' toaster he was.

At the sleeper phase Cain was revealed as the Sympathetic cylon and drew the agenda "Prove their Worth" calling for a human victory and the loss/damage of at least 5 Vipers/Raptors, which was by that stage a very unlikely possibility due to the lack of space action, I seem to recall that a couple of Vipers had been damaged early on, but repaired quickly. This was the first use of this mechanic we've had and I'm not sure I'd want to use it again as if you're trying to achieve an agenda I think you should know it from the beginning of the game, so in future I'd definitely prefer a cylon leader with 6 players.

When Cain was revealed, Helo became Admiral and he held that position when we reached New Caprica. Now it is necessary to know you can trust your Admiral at this point, so as we could not know Helo's loyalty it was necessary to execute him, which Cain instigated revealing that Helo was indeed a cylon, so I became Admiral and with Baltar's also being revealed (I can't quite remember the circumstances of that) I was clearly human.

As it came to my last turn, Galactica had returned and all but one civilian ship had been evacuated from the ground, but population was down to one and 2 cylon turns to come would have meant the certain destruction of the civies in space due to cylon fleet activations. If it hadn't been for the 2 cylons sitting together it may have been possible to get the other ship off the ground and hope for a non raider activation on my crisis. As it was I was forced to order the jump away and hope that the ship on the ground has no population on board, but it did and that was the end for humanity in one of the closest finishes I've seen in a game that often produces close finishes (and the odd walk over).

Battlestar Galactica 160 mins.
Posn.	Player
1=	Steve H
1=	Colin
3=	Mike
3=	Andrew S
3=	Donald
3=	Dave D

Session Report – 31 March 2010

We seem to have moved to a position where we can run multiple tables again this year and that is a good thing. I am a firm believer in the principle that nobody should be forced to play a game that they really don't want to, but this does have the corresponding downside that there are games that some want to play that don't get played. Examples are a couple of the games played this week.

We had 11 people and split 5,3,3. On one table we had Canal Mania (last played in 2008), which is one of my top 10 games; although I am aware that others are not so keen. In this game the play was very close up until the end game, when I was able to move ahead by taking more of the remaining goods to be moved. The game was played using the second edition.

Canal Mania 100 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave D	96
2	Andy	87
3	Colin	70

After that we played Days of Steam for more good delivery, this time on rails. This one is OK as a filler, but not a great game by any means.

Days of Steam 30 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave D	13
2	Andy	10
3	Colin	5

On another table with 5 players was El Grande (last played in 2005). At one point during the game and at one point during the game Steve was heard to make a remark (I'm not sure if it was referring to the whole game or just the point they were at ) calling the game "Parachute Mania" obviously as a side reference to our game on the other table. In any case this perfectly describes everything that I believe is wrong with the game, taking it from a goodish (if unspectacular) area majority game to one that I have no desire to play again, with the Castillio introducing an element of bluff/double bluff which is completely out of character (in my mind) with the rest of the game.

El Grande 150 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve H	93
2	Mike	90
3	Andrew S	87
4	Dave F	84
5	Donald	77

After that this group played Sticheln, I think I've linked it to the right game in BGG, but I notice the given playing time there is 60 minutes as opposed to the 10 here.

El Grande 150 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve H	93
2	Mike	90
3	Andrew S	87
4	Dave F	84
5	Donald	77

On the third table this was brought along by Ed, who apparently came along once before I think in 2008, but I can't seem to find any record under that name. Brass is a favourite of Dave C and he and Ben were happy to play this one, which seemed to end very quickly compared to my normal expectation of it.

Brass 100 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Ed	193
2	Dave C	156
3	Ben C	100

March 2010 – 5 meetings, 22 games played, average attendance 9.4

Session Report – 24 March 2010

8 players split over 2 tables. On the one table we had World Without End, which has now moved to the top of the most played game list for the year, edging out Louis XIV. Another win for Steve H.

World Without End 100 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve H	50
2	Colin	45
3	Dave D	44
4	Andrew S	38

After that Steve left and I brought out Vampire again. This game with 3 players, unlike the previous week's 5 ended when I had sets of each colour on the table as opposed to the deck running out of cards. Conveniently both Colin and Andy were tied for second place in the Orange Vamps and so lost them giving me a narrow win. This is a fun little game as an evening closer.

Vampire 20 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave D	27
2	Andrew S	26
3	Colin	12

Over on the other table Steam got another run out, this was Mike's comment when he sent me the scores (looks like it was a very close game).

I really do want to like this game, after Martin Wallace took the ridiculous loans mechanism out of Age of Steam and even chopped the auction which I wasn't too keen on either to make this, but I just can't warm to it.  There's just a bit too much downtime during the tile selection, and it's just a bit too long and dry still - so as you can imagine, adding the stock market to make Barons of Steam doesn't stir my enthusiasm (or make me think it will fit into an evening session).  I find Chicage Express equally baffling at times, but it takes half the time and just seems considerably more fun.

I have to say that Steam/Age of Steam is one (two?) of those games which I will take or leave, that is I wouldn't turn it down if it was all that there was available, but there are others I'd choose in preference. I don't know much about Steam Barons, but the idea of adding the stock market sounds interesting although I don't know about the play time issue. I keep thinking of digging out Rails of Europe again, which sort of forms part of the other side of the triangle with Steam/AoS. If I really wanted to play a goods delivery game though, my first choice would definitely be Canal Mania.

Steam 150 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Donald	45+
2	Dave F	45
3	Mike	44
4	Andy	38

Session Report – 17 March 2010

9 this week and a 5 & 4 split. Over on one table we had Vinci, the predecessor to Small World and to me a better game. The game has seen a lot of play over the years and is one of those that has seen at least one play every year since we have been keeping records (see this post).

To me Vinci scores over Small World in several ways. Open scoring means that when people nobble the leader they have more chance of picking the right player. The rules on cohesion and adjacency to declined empires mean you have to give more consideration to positional play. Non fixed number of turns mean decisions on declining are more likely to made based on position rather than what turn it is. Generally simpler special powers combine with slightly more complicated base rules, rather than the other way round. All that said, I would have no problem playing Small World if Vinci was not available as an alternative.

In this game I started off with a combination of Fortification/Mining, which by some miracle I was able to keep active for just over half the game, giving me a big lead at the point when I was finally forced into decline. From that point I was able to limp home with my second empire of Mountaineering/Slavery, just hitting the 100 point mark to win the game by 4 from Andy.

Vinci 120 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave D	100
2	Andy	96
3	Mike	86
4	Steve Pe	81
5	Colin	61

This was the 25^th play for Vinci at the club, the record being as follows

Game: Vinci
Plays: 25
Play Time (Hours): 44.67
Player Hours: 169.08
First Played: Oct-03
Last Played: Mar-10
	Plays	Wins	Ties
Gordon	4	1	0
Dave D	24	9	0
Mike	12	2	0
Edward	1	0	0
Pete B	2	2	0
Steve H	14	4	1
Simon H	1	0	0
Dave C	2	0	0
Tony	1	0	1
Karen	1	1	0
Steve P	1	0	0
Richard B	7	2	0
Mark G	1	0	0
Julian	3	0	0
Matt	2	1	0
James	1	0	0
Chris	1	0	0
Duncan	1	0	0
Steve F	1	0	0
Matt	1	0	0
Keith	1	0	0
Steve G	1	0	0
Jason	1	1	0
Steve C	1	0	0
Jonathan	1	0	0
Steve Pe	2	0	0
Paul	1	0	0
Andy	3	1	0
Colin	1	0	0

After that there was time for a quick game. I have been looking through some of my old games and added Vampire to the selection. This is a quick card game by Reiner Knizia, which like many of his games could probably support many other themes without changing anything, but it is an OK filler.

Vampire 30 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve Pe	25
2	Andy	23
3	Dave D	22
4	Mike	21
5	Colin	18

Over on the other table was Homesteaders, which seemed to go down well, although there was much prior discussion as to the productions quality. I don't really know much else about the game other than it has a Western theme, which is enough to turn me away from it due to a purely personal prejudice against this theme (bred into me from an early age).

Homesteaders 150 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Paul	71
2	Dave F	57
3	Steve H	49
4	Donald	46