Ausgebremst (15th)
Big City (15th)
Canyon (22nd)
Durch Die Wüste (29th)
Elfengold (29th)
Exxtra (8th)
Filthy Rich (8th)
$Greed (1st)
Hols Der Geier (8th)
Honeybears (1st & 8th)
Judge Dredd (1st)
Liars' Dice (1st & 29th)
Mamma Mia (29th)
Mole in the Hole (1st)
Money (15th)
PowerPlay / Phantoms of the Ice (22nd)
Ra (22nd)
Show Manager (8th)
Take it Easy (1st)
Top Race (8th)
Verräter (22nd)
Wrott 'n' Swindlers (1st)
Zirkus Flohcati (22nd)
April Fools Day and the day before Good Friday. Most people were out indulging in such jolly japes as nailing their best friend's hamster to the motorway 'for a laugh' or, alternatively, cramming their family into a caravan and heading off down the motorway towards the beckoning beaches and trying not to run over too many hamsters. Despite all that potential fun, we had a bumper turnout of nine adults and four children! Wahey! It was busier than a much-loved rodent's funeral.
As I arrived, there was a game of Perudo (Liar's Dice) already underway. Now I never did manage to get the result of that game because the ever pressing influx of people forced to begin another game without delay, and by the time I got a chance to ask, no-one seemed to remember the result. I guess I should be grateful they remembered what day of the week it was - I certainly couldn't by the end of the evening.
Anyway, what a surprise, Steve G had brought in the only other copy I have seen of one of my favourite games from Games Workshop's heyday - Judge Dredd. I think the number of times I had played it in the past helped me get off to a good early lead that remained pretty solid until the end - despite having so many 'miss a turn', etc type cards played on me during the later stages that I was getting a bit bored. I don't know if I've ever played it before with six - certainly not with such a competitive six - and events occasionally got so noisy and/or heated that Paul suggested we have a nice quiet game of Pit afterwards. As always, I enjoyed this game, but I think there was a general feeling that it went on a bit too long. Chris, playing for the first time, wasn't too happy with the number of times he prepared to make an arrest only to have someone move him or the crime somewhere else, take away one of his important cards or force him to do something else - but I think when you get used to it, that's what makes the game fun. Result: TC, SG, MH, CD, SO, BH.
Chris had to go at this point, and the rest of us (in that group) rounded off with two games of Perudo (Liar's Dice), including probably the first time I have ever won at this game! Hooray! Hamsters all round! If you want a description of the game, look under 11th March. Result 1: TC, MH+BH, SO, SG. Result 2: SG, BH, TC, SO, MH.
During all this I tried my best to keep a record of what everyone else was playing and how they did. The list that follows is correct to the best of my knowledge - except that I believe Geoff was involved in the game of Wrott 'n' Swindlers but no-one mentioned him in the results.
Wrott 'n' Swindlers : PO, SC, DN, CL, GL, NC.
Mole in the Hole : CL, SC+GL+DN.
Take it Easy: 1: PO, GC, NC; 2: NC, PO+GC.
Honeybears: GL, SC, CL, DN.
$Greed : CL, GL, SC, DNAnyway, the children are still off school next week, so it should be another hectic week...
Despite what looked as though it was going to be a low turnout, we ended up with seven adults and four children - almost as many as last week. Laura and Jonathan had also recently had birthdays and reminded me to update their ages in the list above. My birthday was due on Saturday (10th) but I'm keeping the age under my hat... - ...of course any presents or greetings are always welcome!
The first five of us to arrive got started on a game of Honeybears, Reiner Knizia's excellent game of bear racing. The typically Knizia dilemma in this game is that the cards you use to move the four bears forwards during the race are also the cards that you want to keep until the end when they count as points. So, if you don't use enough to move a particular bear forwards, your remaining cards for that bear are worth low or even negative points, but if you use enough cards to make that bear high scoring, you don't have enough of that bear's cards left to score many points with. I obviously seemed to be unable to get the general concepts at all this time, as I came off badly in race after race. Steve, on the other hand, seems to have a way with bears - or a spare set of cards. Result: SG, GC, NC, GL, TC.
Meanwhile, enough other people had turned up to be having a game of Show Manager. I've never played this, so I'll just give you the result. Result: CD, SO, LN, LH, JO, PH.
While they were finishing this off, our group continued with a couple of hands of Hols der Geier. This is one of those games where every player starts with an identical set of numbered cards and use these in showdowns with other players. In this case it is to win (or not win) another card with a positive (or negative) point value. If you play the same card as someone else it doesn't count and your card is wasted for no points. And, once you have played a card you don't get it back, so you always want to keep one or two good cards for snapping up good scores. A simple, fun game. Result: GC, GL+TC, NC, SG.
As they still hadn't finished Show Manager, we continued with Exxtra. This is one of those games that has to be taken lightly because of the high luck factor, but it is enjoyable enough for short stints and makes a nice change. Result: GL, TC, NC, GC, SG.
At this point, the groups changed around a bit and my group made a start at Top Race and Exxtra again, but neither got very far. Top Race was interesting enough to be worth a full game at some stage, but I can't tell too much as we only had one race and most of us were learning the ropes as we went along. Meanwhile, the others were playing Filthy Rich - the game of using CCG albums as advertising hoardings (!). Chris and Laura, who had played it with some success with two, felt that it didn't work as well with five players - although it could be down to the more competitive nature generally evident at the club (compared to 'home matches'). Result: GL, LN, SO, CD, SG.
Well, the next term at school has started so we were back to just adults - six of them. Perhaps I should just say five and a half, though, considering how late Steve was...
Chris had been on another of his 'buying games as soon as they are available' sprees and we started with two of those. Money is another card game from Reiner Knizia and Chris was also keen to point out that he had been involved in the playtesting of this one. Basically, it is a set collecting game but, as always with Reiner, there are various twists. Eight cards are laid out in two sets of four and players use cards from their hands to make a sealed bid. The bids determine the order of play for that round. On your turn, you may exchange the cards you have bid for either one of the two sets of cards in the middle or one of the sets of cards bid by the other players. The cards you have bid then become available for other players on their turns. There are nine cards with a total of 300 points available in each suit and, at the end, for each suit that you hold over 200 in, you count all of those points. However, if you score less than 200, you have to subtract 100 points from that suit (to a minimum of zero). Despite having a bad game through failing to get 200 points in any suit, this is a game I'd like to return to - it has that curiously intriguing property of many Knizia games. Result: SO, CD, GC, GL, TC.
Next up was Big City - a game of adding buildings to a growing city - and what a lot of buildings you get in the box. Each player holds six cards naming 'blocks' (squares) on the board. To place a building, a player must play the cards showing all the blocks to be covered by it. Points are gained for adding various types of buildings. Most types of buildings can only be built after one player has opted to build 'City Hall' - which gives no immediate gain to that player, but allows them to choose where to place it. Some buildings must be placed near others and many can gain bonuses for whatever is near them - like the streetcar route. It becomes clear when you play that the game is designed to reward planning. Yet when we played it, there wasn't a lot of evidence of players actually doing this (other than Steve): instead, we tended to just build whatever gave the highest immediate points score and the streetcar route, for example, wasn't built until it was almost too late to be of any benefit to anyone. I don't know whether this is an inherent flaw in the game or just in the way we played it, but I suspect it is a bit of both. It doesn't make me as keen to play again as Money does. Result: TC, SO, GL, CD, GC.
We ended up with Ausgebremst, which is mostly a version of Ave Caesar for racing cars instead of roman chariots. The changes are that you can tailor your pack of movement cards slightly and are allowed a certain amount of pre-sorting that obviously rewards experience. As such, it's a bit more skilful, but a bit less fun. Like Ave Caesar, the idea is to have, say, four races and aggregate the result, but we only got one race completed as the second one got interrupted when Steve O realised that some of his movement cards were in Chris's pack... Result: GL, GC, TC, SO, SG, CD.
Nine altogether (although two of those were very late). Most notably, we had two new regulars (I hope) turn up for the first time. A big welcome to David Croft and Claudio Guardigli, extending our net as far north as Sheffield, and demonstrating that at least two people read this site... And Claudio's results are even more remarkable for having to understand my rules explanations in his second language. Anyway, we split into two groups - with the late arrivals joining the other group.
My group began with Ra, (see 18th March for a description). I certainly enjoyed the game as much on my second try as on my first, and I've certainly got it on my 'wanted' list'. Perhaps the fact that we had two new players influenced my first place - but then Steve is the most experienced of any of us... Result: TC, DC+CG, SG.
Next we played a couple of hands of Zirkus Flohcati (Flea Circus), an excellent little filler, whilst waiting for the other group to finish, in case anyone wanted to change groups. Result 1: CG, TC, SG, DC. Result 2: TC, CG, SG, DC.
As it turned out, no-one swapped groups and we continued with PowerPlay (Phantoms of the Ice). In this card game, you collect ice-hockey players of varying skill levels and have matches (showdowns) with other players. What tends to happen, though is that someone gets a weak team and then everyone wants to play matches against them. This happened to me the first time I played the game and it was rather disheartening. In this game, it was Claudio who had the bad team that we all picked on - and strangely enough it seemed more fun this time... ;-) . As for Dave, he had a fairly mediocre team except for the fact that it contained two of the players who always injure their opponents (forcing them to be randomly replaced), and he seemed happy enough to keep it that way. Consequently, no-one dared play a match against him unless they were after wholesale team changes! Result: SG, TC, CG, DC.
We had about fifteen minutes left, so we ended with one more game of Zirkus Flohcati, which Claudio won again - demonstrating the kind of domination that Geoff did when we last played. Chris took the opportunity to come over at the end and point out to us that he had playtested this game with Reiner Knizia himself, as he had with Money last week. It was even commented that Chris had gone to school with Reiner and they had been 'best mates' - but I don't believe it myself. Result: CG, SG, TC, DC.
So, what had the other group been doing all this time (apart from calling out criticisms of this web site...)? Well, they had started with a card game that is getting a lot of good press at the moment - Verräter ('Traitor'). I can't tell you a lot about it except that there are two 'sides' and it is possible to change sides by playing the Traitor card. It seemed to go down well, although it was felt that it would be better with four players. Result: MH, CD, GL.
They followed this up with Canyon which is a mixed card/board game. The card game part is basically Nomination Whist (Whist where you have to specify how many tricks you are going to win before the cards are played). Doing well at the card game allows you to move your canoe forward on what is basically an elaborate scoring track that allows you to block other players and is also designed to favour players catching up with the leaders. It also seemed to get a good reaction. Result: GL, MH, SO, CD, GC.
Another missed week for me, with Garry stepping into the breach once more:
A magnificent turnout of 3 after the modest 9 of the previous week was a little bit of a surprise. It made us wonder if we were in the wrong place. We were also a bit restricted for games as I was the only one to bring any and one of those, Breaking Away, doesn't really work with 3.
Anyway, anticipating that 1 or 2 people might be running a bit late, we opted for a short card game, Mamma Mia, to start with. This is the new release from Uwe (Bohnanza) Rosenberg, so I had pretty high expectations and I wasn't disappointed, although we did think it wouldn't be suited to some people (Trev being top of the list).
The idea behind the game is that the players each have a series of customers wanting certain kinds of pizza. These are shown on each player's deck of 8 order cards. One of Mick's customer's might want a pizza with 4 salami and 1 mushroom while one of mine might be after 1 chilli and 6 of any other identical ingredient. Meanwhile Soggy's first customer is after a Pizza Bombastica consisting of any 15 ingredients. There is then a common stock of 5 different type of ingredient from which each player starts with a hand of 6 cards plus the top card from his order deck. On his turn a player must place 1 or more cards of the same ingredient onto the shared stack of ingredients available for use in making the pizzas, and may place an order card on top of the ingredient stack if he thinks there are sufficient of the right type of ingredient to fill the order. The player's hand is filled back up to 7 cards from either the common ingredient stock or his order pile (not both). Play continues in this way until the ingredient stock is exhausted.
Then, the fun starts. The pizza stack is then sorted in the order of the cards played into the different ingredient types until an order card is reached. If sufficient ingredients of the right type have already been revealed or the player can add any missing ingredients from his hand, the order is successfully filled and the relevant ingredients removed from play for the rest of the round. If the order cannot be filled, the order card is returned to the bottom of the owner's order deck. Investigation of the pizza stack continues until all the cards have been revealed, filling orders, or otherwise, as you go. Any ingredients not used form the bottom of the pizza stack for the next round and those ingredients used to fill orders are then shuffled together to form the draw pile for the second round.
The game ends after 3 rounds and the player who has filled the most orders is the winner. As you can see, a good memory is a great help but is no guarantee of success as the ingredients you thought would be there for your precious order could already have been used for an earlier order (particularly if that player thinks that they can stuff you by pinching the right ingredients. The game would certainly play differently with more players, but works pretty well with just three. Result: SO, MH, GL
Having decided 3 was the final number for the evening's festivities, we then got stuck into Elfengold (the White Wind version rather than the Elfenland expansion). I had been wanting to play this again for a while but I have to say it didn't work terribly well with just 3 players. The game is about digging for gold in a mine consisting of numerous chambers. Each round of play starts with a bluffing phase where you place 5 tokens each into certain chambers of your choice. 3 tokens are blank but 2 display rocks which will break the tool of anyone digging in the chamber where the token is situated. Next, each player moves to a chamber of their choice, following which they decide whether or not to dig and if so whether that is with a spade or a pick. Anyone digging in a chamber not containing a rock receives the amount of gold marked on that space if using a spade, or twice the amount if using a pick. Play then proceeds to the next round. Once someone has amassed 50 gold pieces they can declare the game over, and the player with the most gold after certain adjustments is the winner. A simple game which is all really about the bluffing element and the more players there are involved, the more interesting it becomes to my mind. Result: SO, GL, MH
Next up was Durch Die Wüste, the game of Camels, Palm Trees and Water Holes. This is probably my favourite of Reiner Knizia's major releases last year and seems to play so quickly for such an involving game that the end often comes as a big surprise. This was the case this time as well, but probably wasn't helped by us not sorting the camels into separate piles. All of a sudden I looked at what was available and thought "Aagh! There's only 3 green camels left." There is a difficult balance to achieve between the short term points gained by linking oases and discovering water holes, while trying to develop the longest caravans in each colour and surrounding empty space which only pays dividends at the end of the game. You can't totally ignore any of the scoring elements and you need to watch what other players are trying to achieve as well. The 3 player game uses the smaller playing area and works very well, but watch out for the sudden ending. Result: MH, GL, SO
Finally we played several games of Liar's Dice. Soggy won't want to be reminded of quite how poorly he played this, so I ought not to mention it. Ah, too late! Combined Result: GL, MH, SO.