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 7 April 2010

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 25th 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

1 comment:

  1. Homesteaders is essentially an "economic engine" game using worker placement.. There are elements of Settlers, Puerto Rico, Race for the Galaxy, Amun Re - you name it. Place workers, produce goods from your assets, trade goods to gain money and VPs, and to allow you to expand your 'town'.

    As Steve Hilton puts it: "Once again, Donald commits suicide in the first round". I do have a habit, in games I've not played previously, of going in too hard on the first turn. I think my opening bid was three times the final bid in any turn following. I was thus strapped for cash throughout and built my engine to produce a steady stream of VPs. People with broad experience in this type of engine-building game will do much better than those who don't. A good and interesting mix with some clever refinements of existing mechanisms. Production quality is not up to modern standards, though.

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