Stats Review 2011

It’s the end of the year and time for a blog post, which is something that’s been uncommon in 2011, maybe I’ll do better next year.

This is the 2011 review of games played at the club; corresponding articles for 2008 - 2010 are linked from the years. As last year I include a comparison with the previous year. I expect to update the stats pages over the next week or so.  For a rundown beyond the top 5, there is a geeklist of all the games played here. Note this won’t appear on the geek front page of the Geek.

Games Played

We played a total of 187 games this year which is an increase from 176 in 2010, spread over 73 different ones compared with 98, when play was a lot more spread. The number of games new to our tables was 30 including the number 3 game.

The total player time for the year was 776 player hours an decrease of 15% on last year’s figure of 910.

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

1. Power Grid (9 plays, 77.8 player hours)

Power Grid continues to be the most played game, this year being a clear winner with better than twice the player time of its nearest rival. There was no new board this year and most of the play was seen on the Benelux/Central Europe board with various combinations of power plants from both full decks and a few promo plants.

2. Caylus Magna Carta (6 plays, 35.5 player hours)

When it first appeared in 2005 and then the following year, Caylus was played a lot at the club, being 2006’s most played game and still holding a position of 5 in the all time list despite having not been played at all since 2006. Caylus Magna Carta seems to have supplanted it and this year has seen the most play of that game having been played a few times each in most years from 2007 (exception 2008)

3. King of Tokyo (18 plays, 31.1 player hours)

The big new game of the year having only first appeared in June. A nice little dice game that has become the club’s preferred filler game. This was the most played game in terms of number of plays.

4. London (5 plays, 31.0 player hours)

Martin Wallace’s game from Essen last year has seen steady play throughout the year, interesting all 5 games featuring myself, Steve H and Donald.

5. Battlestar Galactica (2 plays, 27.5 player hours)

We played this in January using the newly published Exodus expansion, which didn’t go down that well. On the basis of that I shall think very carefully about buying any future expansion. The other play was in November stripped back down to the base game with 2 new players.

As noted further up, the most played game in terms of games played was King of Tokyo.

What happened to last year’s top 5?

As last year the 2 survivors from the previous year are Power Grid and Battlestar Galactica, the other 3 games having fallen way down. Last year’s number 2 was World Without End (also top in terms of games played), which saw 5 plays this year and appears at number 6 on the list.

Number 4 last year was Louis XIV, which has only been played once this year and stands at 42. Number 5 was Homesteaders, which also had 1 play and is at 35.

Games that have stood the test of time

There are still 2 games, played every year since 2003 with both Vinci and Industrial Waste being played again this year although with only 1 play each.

3 other games had been played every year since 2004, of these both Power Grid and San Juan have been played again, although Kremlin did not make it to the table this year.

I now have records for 9 years (only partially for 2003) and the following have been played in at least 7 of the 9 Years.

Games played in 9 of 9 years

Vinci
Industrial Waste

Games played in 8 of 9 years

Power Grid
Amun-Re
San Juan
Acquire

Games played in 7 of 9 years

Ra
Kremlin
Guillotine
Citadels

Now let’s see what 2012 brings.

7th September, 2011

So tonight we had an embarrassment of riches with ten - yes, count 'em: 10 - people in attendance. It's been a while since I remember quite so many - in fact, it may go back to when Gordon used to come and bring Daniel and co to play one of Dave C's RPGs.

Anyhoo, after much to-ing and fro-ing about who would and would not be playing Andy's Quarriors - no-one, as it turned out - we split into a four for Caylus: Magna Carta; and a six for Power Grid.

Dave F, Anna, Mike and I settled in to one of my favourite games in Caylus: Magna Carta. Mike and Dave F both started strongly whilst Anna, on her first play, was learning the mechanisms as she went. I started in sleep-deprived dad mode, but woke up around half way through when Mike built the Cathedral for three stone and two gold, giving him 14VP.

I've had success before by picking up favours as fast as I could in an attempt to end the game quickly (in fact, the last game I played with Dave F and Steve H came in at under 45 mins because of this) but as I was last player for the first turn, that option wasn't really open if I wanted to stay in the game. Dave was actually first to use the lawyer, but missed out on first prestige build. He then built the statue for 6 and was quickly followed by Anna, who built the hotel for 6. This left me last in the prestige race because I'd been buying as many favours as I could early on; so, having taken my turn at the lawyer, I built the monument for 10, then waited as the others played for further prestige buildings, noting that no-one seemed that fussed about wood late in the game and I managed to get the town hall out. I'm not sure, but I think Dave and Mike were each concentrating on the other's game and forgot to watch me. The others built their second prestige buildings too; but I'm sure it was the early stocking of favours which gave me the win.

We then went on to play King of Tokyo for my first ever win... in fact, the first time I've actually survived until the end. I won by virtue of some lucky points-scoring dice rolls plus the card that allows you to combo rolls of 1-2-3 for points, but also use the dice in other combinations. A good night for me, then!!! Probably the last for some time as this kind of fortune never lasts.

Over on the other table, it was 6-player Power Grid. Unfortunately, I didn't get any low-down on this, so maybe Dave D can fill me in? I don't even know which map was used.

Session Report - 1st September 2011

In the absence of other stuff, here's my summary of some games I played this week, and some others I didn't.

First up, I didn't play Paris Connection, which was played by Dave F, Andy, Claire, Steve Pe and Mike; however, I have played it before and think it's a cracking, fast-paced economic game with tons of depth for its length. Six railway companies start from Paris(?) and build lines out to other towns and cities on a hex map of France. So far, so Chicago Express (apart from the France bit); but PC is a much simpler game. On a player's turn they may take one action only: lay up to 5 sections of track for any company; take a share; or trade a held share for two identical shares of a different company. Laying track to new destinations increases the share value of a company, and the aim is to hold the highest combined share value at the game's end.

Yes, really, that's it; and that is its genius. The game is further simplified by the facts that there is no cash money: shares double as track and comprise the game's only currency. The more track one lays (provided it connects to a town or city), the higher the share value climbs whilst the scarcity of shares (and, as a consequence, track) increases.

Anyone can play this game, and it's over in 45 mins, but in that time each player has had to make some tough decisions: do I sell my share in red, which looks spent, to buy two blue as the price climbs? or do I lay track in green to a random spot in the woods just to deplete resources because I don't hold any green shares? Simple, involving and very, very good. I liked it so much, I bought the game... but anyone who knows me knows that's not saying much.

Andy, Steve H, Dave D and I played Roborally. I don't have a heck of a lot to say about it other than I was narrowly beaten by Dave when I got a handful of turn cards when in his laser sights and he shot me to bits. We played Dave's Wizards of the Coast version which, component-wise, beats my Avalon Hill version hands down. I do prefer some of the later AH rules (for example, timer for other players once the first has programmed his registers) and the player boards with damage accrued. The only naff rule in WotC is the "virtual" robots, but it's not terrible, just not very consistent in my opinion.

Roborally is both simple and complex; both logical and chaotic. I love it to bits. We should play more.

Steve romped away with Ra: the Dice Game by virtue of his propensity to flood. He won by some margin.

On the other table, after Paris Connection, they played 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. I've yet to try Leaders, and am curious to see how it plays, but there are so many games that are just plain better than 7 Wonders that I haven't quite got around to it yet. It's not that 7 Wonders is a bad game - I just find it a bit ordinary. It ploughs a furrow of mediocrity that's all too common. Pick a card, pass; pick a card pass. Its tendency is toward being a game about managing the player following in a similar fashion to Puerto Rico - at least, that's the mechanism I'm most reminded of.

Scores anyone...?

Session Report - 23 February 2011

6 this week and a 3 way split.Games were London, Ra: The Dice Game, 20th Century and Puzzle Strike.

Session Report - 16 February 2011

8 this week with Steve and Paul down from Telford and we were also joined by Miguel from Spain, who is working in the area for a short time. We split 3/5, games played being World Withoout End, Peleponnes, Heckmeck and Animal Olympics.

Session Report - 9 February 2011

We were down to 6 this week with a split of 4 & 2, allowing Steve H and Andy E to partake of a couple of rounds of Command & Colours – Ancients, while the rest of us played London, followed by Ra – The Dice game.

Session Report - 2 February 2011

9 this week and the split was 3/3/3. Games played were St. Petersburg, San Juan, Ra (2 games on 2 tables), Jamaica, Louis XIV and Heck Meck (note I have assumed this is the game identified as Pickomino on BGG, maybe someone could confirm or deny this for me).

Session Report 26 January 2011

9 this week, seeing the return of Donald S. We split 5/4.

On one table we played London, this being the first time Donald & Dave had played the game. It was all very close for the first 3 places with Steve going for a big money strategy which mostly disappeared by the end buying a few big VP buildings. I picked up some nice non flippable buildings early, but this came back to bite me later when I built out my city, not wanting to cover up the earlier cards and so ended up taking a poverty hit at the end, this was compounded by Steve ending the game 1 turn too early for me forcing me to play cards without the chance of running my city to avoid taking a bigger poverty hit. Dave F took no loans early on but later took 1 and then I forced another one on him by use of Lloyds of London, this virtually killed his game. Donald won largely by virtue of having much the most valuable boroughs even, I think, taking a hit for an unpaid loan.

London 120 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Donald	48
2	Steve H	46
3	Dave D	45
4	Dave F	32

Next there was time for a quick game of San Juan, although Donald left at this point. I found a Guild Hall in my opening hand and went for an all-out production strategy; unfortunately I was undone by being unable to build a couple of times and lost out to Dave's City Hall.

San Juan 25 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave F	33
2	Dave D	30
3	Steve H	18

Over on the other table the game was 20^th Century, which seems to be proving quite popular, although I was very disappointed when I played at Midcon. The theme is one that interested me, being fairly modern and technological. Unfortunately the mechanics don't seem to fit with the theme. First we have the buying of tiles to expand your region, now it seems to me that if you want to expand you would build the towns you want and then construct the transport links to fit in with your existing infrastructure, but in this case you have to bid on preselected arrangements with preconstructed railway links, which you then have to try and incorporate, added to this you will end up with ghost towns where nobody lives, why build a town if you can't populate it.

Then we come to acquiring technology which is bought with science points, this is reasonable except in some cases, like locomotives which allow you to move workers from one town to an adjacent one, but this is the 20^th century by which time we have researched railways and can buy (with money) locomotives that can move vast numbers of people all over a country, another odd thing is we have apparently connected all these towns with railways lines but do not know how to build trains at the beginning. Similarly we have bridges which when researched allow you to build a single one, again by this time the research had been done and money should be spent on building them (and probably has been as there must surely be bridges on the preconstructed layouts bought previously).

Then we have spending research to prevent ecological catastrophes. Why is this auction based? If it is going to cost me X science to be successful why must I suddenly spend more just because someone else has committed to spending X+1, it would seem more reasonable if each level of catastrophe had a fixed cost for prevention that could be spent by any or all players allowing each to get the benefit.

I know that these mechanisms are there because the game works that way and obviously games are going to be abstractions to a lesser or greater extent, but in this sort of case the mechanics don't seem to have much relation to the reality. If the game weren't so dry, it wouldn't be so much of a problem but as it is this just destroys any interest I might have had.

This particular game seem to have had a fairly wide spread of scores, I think it was Andy's first game so well done for winning, I know I didn't do very well in my only game, but then I had already lost most interest sometime before the end.

20th Century 150 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Andy	113
2	Mike	109
3	Andrew S	85
4	Claire	78
5	Donald S	68

Just to also note that I have now amended the sidebar to show the most played games in 2011, rather than 2010.

January 2011, Meetings 4, Games 15, Average Attendance 8.75

Session Report – 19 January 2011

10 this week and the split was 5/5.

On one table we played Power Grid, the first game of the year, this using the Russia board. In our first try with this board, we had eliminated the eastern area; while this time we discarded the area in the south West.

I ended up buying the 3 oil plant which seemed good by virtue of the cheap starting oil price on this board in addition to the going first when buying resources. Of course that also means going first in city placement, which I don't find so advantageous. I started in Kazan with Paul to my west, Steve Perkins& Donald to the North West. Steve H started in the east amongst the group of cheap connections around Kemerovo. In the second round I was fortunate to pick up the 33 wind plant powering 4 cities, which left me in a good position.

A number of the high value plants found their way into the market early on and on the following turn Steve H picked up plant 36 (3 coal->7), unfortunately he spent too much to buy any fuel and was left to power 1 city that turn using the 13 wind plant. Steve did not really recover after this as his lack of cash severely limited his early expansion.

This game moved on quickly and it became clear that Paul was my main rival. Paul actually finished the game when I did not expect it, although I would have ended it on the same turn. Paul could only power 14 cities and was working on the hope (expectation) that I had less money than I did. As it happened, when it came to my build (I was going last) I still had available the 20 spots in the southern cities around Ufa which Paul had built in early on. None of the other players had been able to fully occupy these cities with their cheap connections, so I was also able to build to 15 (and power them) to win.

Power Grid 90 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave D	15
2	Paul	14
3	Donald	11
4	Steve Pe	11
5	Steve H	10

After this we played 7 Wonders, we could probably have done with a little longer game considering how much time we had to spare, but there seemed to be nothing around for 5 players. 2 games were played, although I left after the first.

7 Wonders 35 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Paul	66
2	Steve Pe	54
3	Steve H	53
4	Dave D	48
5	Donald	46
7 Wonders 30 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve Pe	66
2	Donald	57
3	Steve H	48
4	Paul	38

Over on the other table was Colosseum, last played in February 2009. I don't care for the game, it seeming to be typical of the Days of Wonder paradigm of a lot of flash and little substance. I seem to recall my major problem with the game being the limited number of shows meaning that if someone else pinched what you wanted you were screwed. According to Mike, the game was played with the "Intense Auction" and "Fixed Pairs" variants. I don't know about these or whether they would go anyway toward addressing my issues.

Colosseum 150 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Claire	87
2	Dave F	76
3	Nigel	73
4	Mike	55
5	Andrew S	51

 

Session Report – 12 January 2012

8 again this week with Gordon making another appearance. The split was 5 & 3 with Battlestar Galactica on one table and a couple of games on the other.

I played Battlestar Galactica, the other players being Dave C, Ben, Mike and Steve H, we were probably a bit rusty since all but Dave & Ben who had played over Christmas had not played for at least 6 months. We used the Exodus expansion using the Cylon Fleet option and Conflicted loyalties giving the humans the potential to have personal goals, the Final Five cards were not used, neither was the Ionian Nebula destination. For this game I had taken out all parts of Pegasus with the exception of the Cylon location overlay and revised Investigative Committees. This account is based on my memory and some consultation of the card decks as they were returned to the box, so the exact order of events may have been slightly different.

Characters chosen were:

Cally (Ben)
Tory Foster (Steve H)
Admiral William Adama (me)
CAG Starbuck (Dave C)
President Tom Zarek (Mike).

I drew one of the new Cylon loyalty cards (reduce jump track) at the start.

The game started and immediately I was presented with a choice on a crisis (Unwelcome Faces) either discard my cards and send someone to the brig or lose morale and damage Galactica. Now I'm a cylon and both of these options are pretty good from that point of view, but it seemed to me that the most cylon looking choice would be to go randomly throwing people in the brig so I chose the second option, morale dropped and Command was damaged. The problem arose when it got round to President Zarek who moved into his office and obviously wanted to prove he could run a decisive administration. He activated the office and drew and played a Quorum card, brigging me with an Arrest Order citing his dissatisfaction with my choice on the earlier crisis, I immediately accused him of being a cylon, which I thought he might be. In the meantime Starbuck rose to the rank of Admiral when I went to the brig, I'm sure there being many in the fleet actively praying to the Gods of Kobol at this point.

Things weren't going too badly for humanity as the jump track advanced to auto jump in not too long a time. Admiral Starbuck considered her options and the fleet emerged at a Gas Giant, Admiral Starbuck sacrificing a Viper to regain the fuel lost leaving the fleet a distance 1 and still at 8 fuel. When the turn got round to me again I was able to get a promise of support from Tory and activated the Brig the check passing to free me. Things were starting to go wrong for humanity at this point with a series of crises causing the jump track to stall or even go backwards at one point. At the same time there were several basestar activations causing the Fleet board to accumulate 2 basestars and then when the pursuit track was one short of an attack one of the basestars moved over to the main board (together with a Heavy Raider) and started launching raiders. Meanwhile President Zarek was showing signs of megalomania taking the CAG title using a Presidential Order, although he would later reveal a personal goal explaining his action.

When the fleet next jumped with the loss of 1 population to protect civilian ships, the arrival point was a remote planet moving the distance onto 3 with the loss of another raptor (the batch of raptors carried by Galactica for this trip must have been defective considering the rate at which they were lost). All the cylons went back to the fleet board and the next crisis caused 2 basestars, at least a dozen raiders and a Heavy Raider to jump straight in on the fleet.

I decided to take the opportunity to reveal my true nature on my next turn and headed to the Resurrection ship with cylon ships swarming all around, my reveal power backing the jump track to the start. There followed frantic efforts to protect the civilian fleet and all but one were saved by the efforts of Admiral Starbuck in a Mk VII viper together with nameless other human pilots despite my use of the basestar bridge to cause CAG Starbuck (having regained the title due to Zarek's use of it to activate an unmanned Viper) to place another while at the same time damaging Galactica, however all resources continued to fall towards the red zones. It was becoming apparent at this time that there was other mischief afoot as skill checks were being sabotaged when I hadn't put a card into them, so it was probably not too surprising when Cally walked into the President's office and shot Zarek at his desk, Tory taking over as president while Mike chose Chief Tyrol as a new character, no doubt horrified at Cally's actions. President Foster took immediate action going straight to the Admiral's Quarters and using Political Prowess to send Cally straight to the brig, from where she revealed at the first opportunity.

The sleeper phase was reached when the fleet next jumped, Galactica having just escaped bombardment by about 10 raiders which lacked targets with all civies either escorted away or destroyed, fortunately for the humans they all missed, but the reprieve was short. The fleet arrived at a Tylium planet, triggering the sleeper phase at distance 4, all the Raptor's had been destroyed at this point so the Admiral could not gain any fuel which the fleet desperately needed. Extra loyalty cards were distributed, but at this stage it was academic although President Foster did receive the Selfish personal goal. All resources were in the red and by the time what was to be the final jump cm round fuel was on 1 due in part to the failure of the check for my "Inbound Nukes" super crisis. The game was over at this point when fuel was exhausted on that final jump.

This was one of (if not the) most decisive cylon wins I've seen in our games. The Exodus expansion is regarded as pro cylon, so possibly there is an argument for including Pegasus as well perhaps giving the humans a boost but in this case I think it was mostly a case of a combination of factors that could equally have happened in the base game. 2 cylons in the original distribution together with some bad destination draws (from looking back at the cards, the first 3 discards seem to have been Barren Planet, Ragnar Anchorage and Icy Moon, I might have chosen Barren Planet over Gas Cloud, but considering the problems with fuel that might have ended the game quicker). There were also a good few bad die rolls at inconvenient time, but the cylons had this as well what with none of those raiders hitting Galactica and quite a few Basestar Attacks all rolling 3. The cylon fleet board was seen as a good addition, although not so much the personal goals.

Battlestar Galactica 150 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave D	0
1	Ben C	0
3	Dave C	0
3	Mike	0
3	Steve H	0

Over on the other table the main game was Egizia, which I have never played. Looking on the geek seems to indicate that it is another Worker Placement game, which is not much of a recommendation to me.

Egizia 120 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Gordon	98
2	Dave F	97
3	Donald	86

Finally a game of Dominion which had not been played here since last March, this was using only cards from the base game without expansions.

Dominion 30 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Gordon	43
2	Dave F	38
3	Donald	28

Session Report – 5 January 2011

The first week of the New Year and 8 in attendance including Gordon who has not been seen since some time in 2009, maybe he won't stay away so long this time.

The main games of the evening were 2 that haven't been played for some time.

On our table the main event was Union Pacific, which was last played in 2006. I have brought it along on occasion since but seemingly without interest. In this case Andy had acquired a German copy and I was able to jump on it and say Ooh I'd like to play that so getting it on the table.

Things were going well with this one until after the 3^rd scoring, when I lost my majorities in Yellow (to Claire) and Green (to Andy), even then I think I may have got a draw if I'd had 1 more turn to invest the tying Green share. Unfortunately the game ended on Claire's turn with the last scoring card, which was the last card in the deck.

Union Pacific 110 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Andy	139
2	Steve H	131
3	Dave D	129
4	Claire	106

After that we played 7 Wonders which I think may see a bit of filler play this year, although I don't know quite how many copies there are knocking around (this one was using Dave F's). I really had not much idea what I was doing although I ended up second with 4 tablet science cards (+1 for my Hanging Gardens wonder) as I had worked out that this should earn a fair number of points. Hope to play again soon, although I'm not sure the game would bear much play as the main game of the evening.

7 Wonders 35 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Andy	65
2	Dave D	53
3	Steve H	47
4	Claire	45

Over on the other table there was Antike (also not played since 2006). I only played this once and that was enough to last me a life time as it came across as a deeply uninteresting game and is precursor to what I consider the most contrived and pointless game mechanism that I can think of in the Rondel.

Antike 140 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Gordon	9
2	Dave F	7
3	Andrew S	6
3	Mike	6

After that there was a quick run out for 2 games of Animal Olympics.

Animal Olympics 5 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mike	0
2	Dave F	0
2	Andrew S	0
2	Gordon	0
Animal Olympics 5 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Gordon	0
2	Dave F	0
2	Andrew S	0
2	Mike	0