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.

Sunday 1 December 2013

Games Played 27 November 2013

15 this week and I thought a picture of our new space would be appropriate, we were spread over 4 tables this week which would not have been possible previously and as can be seen there is still room for at least a couple of other games.

As to the games played, Tzolk'in was on 2 of the tables, while on another we had Battlestar Galactica, which I timed at 210 minutes, the longest time recorded for a game played on a club night (note that if you look through the stats pages, you may notice a game of Britannia recorded at 300 minutes on 2 January 2008, but this is anomalous and was actually spread over 2 sessions, one of which was took place elsewhere, I probably should have recorded 150 for that one, but I'm not changing it now).

The game of BSG included the Daybreak expansion for the first time (I think all the games played this year have had slightly different configurations) together with Pegasus and the characters from Exodus. The characters chosen were as follows, note that although Tory Foster is noted as President, she was immediately revealed as the Mutineer and lost the office to Doc Cottle before the game proper got underway.

Andy S - Brendan "Hotdog" Costanza
Mike - President Tory Foster
Dave D - Sharon "Athena" Agathon (Cylon Leader)
Mark W - Admiral Helena Cain
Mark R - Sherman "Doc" Cottle

As a Cylon leader I drew 2 motive cards at the start, which replace the Agenda card that was used in the Pegasus version of these characters, both of these revealed Cylon allegiance and were not revealable until the end of the game. One of the cards required that 7 distance was to have been travelled, while the other meant Morale couldn't fall below 3. This seemed to indicate that I would need to make sure that humanity didn't die too quickly and that the line of attack should probably be Fuel and Food, unfortunately this didn't really work out as both remained stubbornly high, with food losses always seemingly balanced by increases while Admiral Cain decided to visit a Tylium Planet which kept the fuel up. So up to sleeper I made a show of supporting humanity including taking out a Viper to protect the civilians, while at the same time dropping a few Treachery cards into skill checks after everyone had had the opportunity to pick them up, I had also picked some others up using my Love ability.

The Sleeper phase came along and I drew another 2 motives, one of which was another Cylon allegiance card, so I was now definitely committed, this one required that population wasn't below 4, again at game end. Also at about this time Suspicious Election results caused Doc Cottle to lose the Presidency, which passed to Tory, restoring the situation that briefly applied just before the start of the game.

Things had gone well for humanity in the early game but now things went all to pieces as Population, Morale and Fuel all plummeted, Fuel being more affected by Crisis results, rather than destinations. Hotdog was (correctly) identified as a Cylon, when something like 6 negative piloting cards ended up in a check (I'd actually added 2 of them) and was sent to the Brig. At this stage I was also under suspicion and ended my infiltration, moving back to the Resurrection ship, Hotdog quickly following. Moving to the final jump, Population and Morale were on 3, while Fuel was 1 (Food still sat at 8). I think that may be the Cylons would have won, if I had been a normal Cylon, rather than a Cylon leader, I needed to maintain Morale at its current level or I would lose either way, Population having already fallen too low, and hope for something to take the final fuel. I actually had to add a positive card into a crisis check to stop morale falling further.

The humans won on an early final jump at -1 leaving the final resource scores at Population - 2, Morale - 3, Food - 8, Fuel - 1. I achieved the requirements on 2 of my motive cards, but this was in vain as the Cylons didn't win.

Reading the rules after the game, I noticed one thing that I had forgotten and therefore we missed. This was that the Mutineer should have drawn a Mutiny card, every time they drew a crisis with a jump icon on their turn. Mike would have ended  up drawing a few extra Mutiny cards, which might (or might not) have affected the final result. Something to bear in mind next time.

27/11/2013
Battlestar Galactica - 210 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Mike0
1Mark W0
1Mark R0
4Dave D0
4Andy S0
Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar - 120 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Jaime49
2Isabel45
3Gordon37
4Stan35
Dominion - 20 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Gordon56
2Jaime36
3Stan18
The Castles of Burgundy - 120 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Steve W205
2Dave F173
3Andy T169
Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar - 120 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Scott105
2James S82
3Phil78
Heckmeck - 15 Mins.
Posn.PlayerScore
1Andy T10
2Dave F6
3Steve W0

Full details for November

In November we passed a number of milestones including total number of games played in a year which now stands at 232, the previous record for a year being 225 in 2005. The number of recorded player hours now stands at 1092.83 passing the 1074.08 set in 2006. In addition the total aggregate attendance reached 478, passing the 469 from 2006.

And there are still 3 session to come this year.

8 comments:

  1. I still remember those evenings when we only had the players for one game at a time. No choice back then. Having 4 games to choose from is fantastic and I actually suspect our numbers will increase further now we have the better facilities.

    I was on the international table this week with the job of explaining Tzolkin in English to be translated into Spanish by Jaime so Isabel could understand. It all went remarkably smoothly considering. As often seems to happen with Tzolkin the beginners did well taking first and second places.

    I did intend to only play Tzolkin now with the expansion (not with the quick action tiles, I’ll leave them for 5 player games) even with new players as I think it adds interest and little in the way of complexity. Tonight I’d have been introducing it to 3 new players, what with that and the language barrier I let it slip and dropped the expansion.

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  2. Yes, having the option to run 4 or 5 game tables is a real bonus, with only Steve H of the regulars missing I dread to think how we would have got on at the old venue with 16 of us!

    Really enjoyed BSG again, not a game I'd want to play more than 3-4 times a year but with a good selection of the expansions added there's always interesting game situations amidst the angst (particularly when you're a Human character). Still not convinced by the Cylon Sympathizer idea even with the new selection method, but I suspect that had Dave D been a Cylon from the beginning we would have struggled mightily to get a Human victory. Andy S was a little unlucky in his sabotage, he picked the right crisis to 'go native' from a damage perspective but one where two Human players couldn't add cards, and when they're the President (me) and the Admiral (Mark R) it's easy to react appropriately.

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    1. Not sure what you mean about Cylon Sympathiser as that is a mechanic we've never used (well may be once or twice) over all the games we've played. Possibly you mean the Cylon Leaders which in their original incarnation were, I felt, flawed but still preferable to using the Sympathiser. The new mechanic is much better in that it gives the player a bit more wiggle room and also allows for the possibility that they possibly don't really know which way to go until half way, putting them on the same playing field as any other player who gets dealt human loyalty at the start, but may find themselves a Cylon half way through.

      They also provide the interesting possibility of a character that wants the Cylons to win but not too quickly and/or not to suffer too much damage in certain areas, giving the others the question of is he really on our side or not? (This was my situation in this game) The other situation exists of a leader who wants the humans to win, but needs them to suffer a certain amount of damage.

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  3. I completely missed the boat with BSG as it came out while I was on a break from the hobby. I am more of a cubes and victory point’s kind of guy so I'm probably not a good fit for the game. However I picked up on the focus and fun it seemed to be generating this time. That's me giving it some respect!

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    1. I think you're right that you wouldn't be a good fit for the game, that's the reason I've never seriously suggested that you play it. We all have our personal tastes and I suspect that you would probably react to the game in a similar way to my reaction to nearly anything involving worker placement.

      By the way, what was happening in the Tzolk'in game when I took the photo, you seem to have your head in your hands?

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  4. I could play Tzolkin for first time and I really liked it! I understood a little of Gordon´s explanations but too new vocabulary. Finally I understand game and I can play :D Thanks Gordon and Stan for your tolerance.

    Next weeks I would like to play Tzolkin again, if It´s posible.

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    1. Glad you liked it. I'll keep bringing Tzolkin so it will be avalable for you. It never seems hard to get a group of us together and willing to play this brilliant game.

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