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

Stats Review 2010

This is the 2010 review of games played at the club; corresponding articles for 2008 and 2009 are linked from the years. As last year I include a comparison with the previous year. For the full details of the year's games played I've updated the stats pages and 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.

Games Played

We played a total of 176 games this year which is an increase of 150 in 2009, spread over 98 different ones, which means that the play was spread out a lot more than last year. The number of games new to our tables was 48 including 3 out of the top 5.

The total player time for the year was 910 player hours an increase of 23% on last years figure of 740

The most played games (in terms of player time) were as follows, the totals this year are generally lower than last due to the greater spread of games played:

1. Power Grid (7 plays, 65.8 player hours)

The clubs most played game returns to the top with a slight increase in player time over last year, the game was played twice in the last 3 weeks of the year with the most recent Russia/Japan expansion, which appeared a few weeks later than the corresponding expansion in more recent years. Perhaps if the expansion had been earlier we might have got another game or 2 in.

2. World Without End (11 plays, 61.2 player hours)

This game first appeared as far back as January and was number 1 in player time for much of the year only losing out to Power Grid at the very end. Despite this it was the most played game in terms of number of times played. It is a sequel to Pillars of the Earth, which had received a fair amount of play in the last couple of years, but has made way for this in 2010, despite the fact that the two are very different in play style.

3. Battlestar Galactica (3 plays, 47.0 player hours)

Last year's runaway winner drops to number 3 in 2010, suffering I think from the was the make up of the sessions, which has changed somewhat. Whereas in 2009 there were many sessions of 5 a player which is the ideal number for this game, in 2010 the numbers have more generally been 7+, which is not so ideal for the game when splitting the group.

4. Louis XIV (5 plays, 33.0 player hours)

Mike brought this along in the first week of the year, it is not a new game dating back to 2005, but it was new at Halesowen. I haven't played but it seemed to find a loyal following in the early part of the year with 4 plays by the end of March. It reappeared once late in the year.

5. Homesteaders (3 plays, 27.0 player hours)

Another one I haven't played and I don't expect I ever will because the theme (Western) is one I dislike intensely. It was first played in March and last appeared in September.

As noted further up, the most played game in terms of games played was World Without End.

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.

There are 2 survivors of last year's top 5, Power Grid and Battlestar Galactica, the other 3 games having fallen way down. Last year's number 3 was Dominion, which was also top in terms of games played, this year it was played only once (as far back as February) and fell down to number 67. One of the reasons for this may have been that I stopped putting my copy in my bag (although I know there is at least one other copy knocking around) because the game is physically too heavy to justify lugging around, for what it provides (and that's not including any expansions).

The other 2 games were Small World (2009 - #4, 2010 #17) and Race for the Galaxy (2009 - #5, 2010 - #31), which each got 2 plays during the year.

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 this year, Vinci actually getting 3 games and placing at #6 during the year. The 2 games which missed out last year (Acquire and Amun-Re) both returned to the table this year.

The 3 other games played every year since 2004 all saw further play this year, these being San Juan, Power Grid and Kremlin.

Now let's see what 2011 brings.

December 2010 – Games Played

01-Dec					08-Dec					15-Dec
London 120 mins.					London 120 mins.					Power Grid 120 mins.
Posn.		Player	Score		Posn.	Player			Score	Posn.	Player	Score
1		Steve H	76		1	Steve H			89	1	Dave D	16
2		Dave D	75		2	Dave D			87	2	Steve H	15
3		Mike	43		3	Andrew S			33	3	Dave F	14
Katzenjammer Blues 15 mins.					Inca Empire 150 mins.					4	Mike	13
Posn.		Player	Score		Posn.	Player			Score	5	Andrew S	11
1		Steve H	10		1	Andy			128	Guillotine 15 mins.
2		Mike	5		2	Dave F			117	Posn.	Player	Score
High Frontier 150 mins.					3	Donald			115	1	Dave F	14
Posn.		Player	Score		4	Mike			105	2	Andrew S	10
NR		Dave C	0							3	Dave D	8
NR		Ben C	0							4	Steve H	7
NR		Dave F	0							5	Mike	6
NR		Donald	0							Guillotine 15 mins.
										Posn.	Player	Score
										1	Steve H	20
										2	Dave F	11
										3	Andrew S	10
										4	Dave D	9
										5	Mike	4
22-Dec					29-Dec
7 Wonders 35 mins.					Power Grid 130 mins.
Posn.	Player			Score	Posn.		Player	Score
1	Mike			59	1		Dave D	16
2	Steve H			47	2		Steve Pe	16
3	Jonathan			46	3		Steve H	16
4	Dave F			45	4		Donald	15
5	Andy			39	5		Mike	15
7 Wonders 35 mins.
Posn.	Player			Score
1	Jonathan			50
2	Andy			47
3	Steve H			43
4	Mike			43
5	Dave F			41
Ur 60 mins.
Posn.	Player			Score
NR	Mike			0
NR	Jonathan			0
NR	Andy			0
NR	Steve H			0

 

December 2010, Meetings 5, Games 12, Average Attendance 5.8