Having gathered together another 3 players in Steve, James & Phil, I got Kremlin to the table for the first time since 2010, the game having been played at least once a year going back to 2004 before that. It's a shame that Matt moved away as I know he was a fan of this one.
After the rules explanation the game moved slowly for the first rounds and I thought that we might have trouble finishing but things accelerated after that to the finish in round 8 and we should have been finished in good time even if we had gone on to the maximum length.
At the start of the game I had gambled a few points on starting party chief Nestor Aparatschik, but unfortunately this did not come off as he died in the first health phase (someone else might actually have had more points than me in him as I didn't check the sheets after the game). After that although I got a few politicians into positions of power I didn't get much done, my big influence men started in the people and I was perhaps too cautious in advancing them hoping that others might do the job for me.
James got off to a good start holding the party chief (after Nestor's death) for the first 3 rounds, but unfortunately he could only wave once, as the chief was sick and missed the rolls on 2 out of 3 parade phases.
After James was deposed, the game fell to Phil with 2 successive party chiefs the second of which remained healthy after the first died after 1 wave. The rest of us need to get rid of this party chief, but it was difficult as Phil also controlled the KGB head most of the time making things difficult as we couldn't even attempt a purge and, Phil having the necessary 2 politburo votes made a successful trial impossible. Actually I briefly had control of the KGB, but the very difficult purge attempt failed. So it was a matter of time before Phil won, although I was able to delay him by one round, by sending the chief to the sanatorium in the round 7 parade phase.
Steve seemed to have a similar game to me, having a bit of power at times, but never able to make it pay to gain the position of Party Chief.
It was nice to play this game again as it's one of my favourites and I think I may look at getting the new edition when it become available.
Also in play was Nations, which Scott has written about here, this being the first play for this one at the club. On a another table was Caylus Magna Carta, which moves into the club's 10 most played games. On the final table was another first time game in Belfort together with Smash Up, which has been played before in the form of a near finished prototype that Andy E brought along a few years back. Chris has commented about the latter two on his blog.
Full games details follow:
| 12/03/2014 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Kremlin - 150 Mins. | ||
| Posn. | Player | Score |
| 1 | Phil | 3 |
| 2 | James S | 1 |
| 3 | Dave D | 0 |
| 3 | Steve W | 0 |
| Belfort - 120 Mins. | ||
| Posn. | Player | Score |
| 1 | Chris S | 53 |
| 2 | Ian | 52 |
| 3 | Mark W | 46 |
| 4 | Stan | 38 |
| Smash Up - 70 Mins. | ||
| Posn. | Player | Score |
| 1 | Ian | 15 |
| 2 | Stan | 12 |
| 3 | Mark W | 7 |
| 4 | Chris S | 5 |
| Caylus Magna Carta - 150 Mins. | ||
| Posn. | Player | Score |
| 1 | Lina | 43 |
| 2 | Arturas | 40 |
| 2 | Mike | 40 |
| Nations - 190 Mins. | ||
| Posn. | Player | Score |
| 1 | Andy T | 47 |
| 2 | Steve Pe | 45 |
| 3 | Scott | 42 |
| 4 | Steve H | 38 |
| 5 | Dave F | 37 |
Really enjoyed my first play of Belfort despite coming in last (once again for a Wednesday night game!!!)
ReplyDeleteI loved the way the mechanics worked and how easily it flows, I think the 120mins absolutely flew by, which is a good sign, definitely looking forward to another play and seeing how the expansion adds to the gameplay
All in all a really good game
Must have passed my bad luck onto you Stan as its usually me that comes last, couldn't believe I came first in both games this week!
ReplyDeleteSmash up I wasn't so keen on but think its because I don't know the decks and there was a lot of text to take in and remember. Think if I owned the game and played it often I would enjoy it a lot more
Quite a vicious game of Caylus MC, Lina and Arthur picked it up really quickly and decided that they quite liked the idea of bribing the Provost. I suspect that Lina managing to wreak more damage on us with him than Artur and I managed to hit her with was a major factor in her narrow but deserved win. I had a wretched run of card picks at the start, but brought it back with the first Architect and a Gold Mine and managed to get the game to end exactly when I needed it to avoid slipping back to solo last place again.
ReplyDeleteI love playing Kremlin, it's true. I don't think I have ever won a game in 20 years, but it never dampens my enthusiasm- there's no other game quite like it.
ReplyDeleteAnother big Kremlin fan here too, probably won 3-4 times, but that includes quite a few games in the 90's. Despite the luck factor, underneath the fun and mayhem there can be serious machinations and bluffing. A classic.
ReplyDelete