Apples to Apples (9th)
Andromeda (23rd)
Bausack (23rd)
Bedlam (23rd)
Change (16th)
Die Erben von Hoax (9th)
Drahtseilakt (16th)
Earthquake (23rd)
Escape from Elba (16th)
King of the Elves (9th)
Nicht die Bohne (2nd)
Yukon Company (2nd)
A much healthier attendance this week - six. Chris pointed out that this obviously meant that the low turnout last week wasn't because he was there. Then again, perhaps they didn't expect him to turn up for two weeks on the trot.
The main action of the evening was Yukon Company, another of the new games from Essen - this one from Dirk Henn. It is a business game with the theme of providing supplies to gold prospectors during the gold rush. The action is card driven, with one set of cards serving four actions during a round, each one showing a number from one to four, a letter from A to D, the name of one of the four 'creeks' in which goods will be sold and from one to four coloured squares representing goods to be bought or sold. After everyone has had a chance to buy extra cards if they haven't enough useful ones, everyone plays a card in turn showing which goods they are going to buy at the 'home base' that turn. Secondly, everyone plays another card simultaneously to show which creek the canoe should head for this turn. Next, everyone plays two more cards, again simultaneously: the first of these determines which of your goods at the home base are to be loaded aboard the canoe for transport to the named creek; and the other counts as votes towards one of four possible events to happen that turn - from extra profits to the canoe sinking and losing all stock. At this point each player who has managed to transport goods to the creek can sell them at the going rate at that site. The buying price at home and the selling price at each creek are shown on the board by coloured cardboard markers moving up and down small tracks - the rest of the board is decorative. At the end of each turn some of the prices will vary depending on a price adjustment card that will have been visible all turn.
The game is not produced by one of the big companies and has a rather D.I.Y. feel about it. It is very fiddly manipulating the price markers in their columns and a number of times they were knocked accidentally and we had to guess where they came from. Most of us felt that these price tracks were unnecessarily small and plain - it would have been so much easier to use if there were larger tracks, numbered and coloured appropriate to the goods in question, and using little pawns instead of small cardboard squares to indicate the current price - or even the wooden cubes that seem to come in most games these days. This would also have improved the aesthetic qualities without adding much to the cost, as would some more friendly pictures on the board and particularly on the cards (which contained a few confusing typos). Mick felt there should be a wallchart with the game to show the prices of goods, but you have to take that with a pinch of salt when you find that he also thought the game should come with coloured party hats for the players to indicate which colour they were playing... It'll be Christmas soon and he'll be able to get some from crackers.
As for the actual gameplay, I'll have to play again before I come to firm conclusion, and the opinions of the others varied from a clear thumbs up from Mick to a clear thumbs down from Chris. It is certainly very dry, as many business games are, and the use of the same cards for the four different actions causes the most confusion - it is very difficult to plan your card play when cards that are good in more than one way can only be used in one of them, and the difficulty of picturing it is added to by the spartan design of the cards. Most of us groaned out loud at least once or twice during the game as we realised that our cunning plan required using the same card for two different things. Probably likely to appeal to 18XXers and those who like dry business games then, rather than those who normally play light family games. Result: MH, SG, SO, GL, CD, TC
Having used up most of the evening on that, we finished off with two thirds of a game of Nicht die Bohne, always popular but hardly ever allowed enough time for. Result: GL, SG, TC, SO, CD, MH.
Another week with six. It's a shame that the Christmas period is coming up as that will undoubtedly decimate attendance again as players avoid coming in an attempt to escape having to buy Christmas presents for each other (games aren't cheap, you know). Oh well.
We started by trying out another of Garry's acquisitions from Essen - Die Erben von Hoax. This card game is a new version of an old English game which some of the players knew, but for the rest of us it was the first exposure in any form. There are about eight 'characters' in the game, all of who have certain special abilities and each player is dealt a card showing one of these characters. This is your true identity and is kept secret. During play, players claim to be certain characters and use their special abilities to gain hold of the three counter types available. This can get quite involved and the following sequence is not unusual for one player's turn (with each sentence apart from the first and last coming from a different player)
"I'm the Farmer and I take two grain".
"I'm the Baron and I declare that illegal"
"I'm the Judge and I fine you two grain".
"I'm the Monk and I will forgive you for one grain".
(first player again) "Well, I'm the Magician and I'm immune".If you think that's confusing, you need to add in the fact that anyone can 'doubt' the claim of anyone else. This causes a vote on the doubt and, if it is supported by half of the others, the player who made the claim either has to admit lying and not claim to be that character again in this round or can reveal their card showing the claim was true and scoring three points for the round. To add to that confusion, other players can demand a clue to your identity if they collect the right tokens. This requires you to show them a card showing a character other than the one you are - but you can;'t show that player the same card if they ask again later.
We played out one trial round and it soon became very confusing: with players claiming to be various characters all around and getting handfuls of token; trying to remember which character has which special abilities; who has indicated they're not which character; and which cards you have shown to which other players. Chris soon cottoned on to the fact that you can accuse another player of being a particular character and, if you're wrong, you are out for the round. He soon took advantage of this knowledge. At the end of the trial round, we decided not to continue with a game - at least until we had translated versions of the 'reminder' cards.
Instead we started with the new party game, Apples to Apples. This was the first time with this game for most of the players, but that didn't stop them from giving me a good beating - I only won one card. I guess it shows the level at which I'm able to judge the characters of my fellow players. Result: MH, SG+CD, GL+SO, TC.
We finished off with about three fifths of a game of King of the Elves (which is described under 25th November). This time things didn't go my way as they had done last time. In fact Chris announced that he was winning after the first round and had only spent one gold - this so much surprised me that I managed to drop all the cards I was shuffling onto the floor and lost the power of speech. Mick and Soggy had to leave the room to recover. Luckily we didn't have time to continue after the third round and Chris had only slipped to second place by that stage. The game definitely takes somewhat longer with six players than with three, but Chris was still the main player 'doing a Dorrell' - so justifying the name of that action. Actually, some doubt was placed on his early lead when it was noticed that he was trying to pick up four cards and discard three - no wonder he likes taking that action. Result: SG, CD, MH+GL, TC, SO.
A number of players gave their apologies in advance for next week, so I don't suppose we'll have six players then, but most should be back for the 23rd.
Five players this week, certainly more than I was expecting. We kicked off with Drahtseilakt. This game is certainly growing on me - as it undoubtedly is on Mike, considering the number of times he has brought it recently. I also got lucky and avoided any high scores whilst pulling in a few low ones. Result: TC, SO, SG, MH, BH.
Cheapass Games had sent us copies of some of their new games to check out and first up was Escape from Elba, by James Ernest as usual. Result: MH, BH+TC+SO+SG.
Time was pretty short at this stage, but there was just enough time to try out another of the Cheapass offerings - Change. This is just a small pack of banknote cards with rules for three simple games. The games are so short we tried two in twenty minutes. First was Make Your Own Change Night!, which was generally rather unsuccessful and should have been left out of the rules altogether, being about as controllable and as much interest as rolling a die. I was dealt three 10 cards, meaning I had to keep gifting them to the player on my left, Soggy in this case, who consequently picked up stacks of points and won. Result: SO, TC, BH, MH, SG.
Next we tried Boneyard from the same set, and had a much better time, feeling somewhat in control of what was going on. This game makes the low price of the game worth paying. Result: MH, SG, TC+BH, SO.
Eight of us turned up to see if anyone else had got us Christmas presents, including Steve's daughter, Sophie. As you can see, Steve didn't have the foresight or common decency to give his daughter a different initial to himself, causing the first initials clash I have had to deal with. In this case, Sophie will be abbreviated to sG, while Steve remains SG. And if he brings in a son called Simon, he can find a different games club!
I walked in on four of them about to start Bausack, the game of balancing wooden shapes on top of each other. I'm not very keen on such games but joined in nonetheless, just in time to find that the first shape I had received (and was unable to pass on for some reason) was a giant acorn. Subsequent shapes were impossible to place on this and so I used up my tokens (beans) to reject them and pass them on. As soon as they had run out I was presented with another acorn to balance on my first one - an impossible task, so I was out. Oh yes, that's why I don't like the game. Thankfully, it was soon finished - Sophie doing well largely because I was on her right and chose helpful shapes for her. Result: sG, SG, SO, GL, TC.
As if that wasn't bad enough, in a mood of pre-Christmas frolickery, Garry had brought along Bedlam. This is more of a party game than a board game and, as Garry describes it, "is like Pit with a board". Players move their pieces along a track marked with symbols, the distance moved being dependent on how many cards they hold showing the symbol they are currently on. Before each move there is a free-for-all trading phase where players are allowed to trade with any players and as often as they like but only revealing the number of cards traded in each phase. You have to be in the right frame of mind to play games like Pit, and I wasn't really in that frame of mind. But I can see that this game is a reasonable implementation of that and would be really good for breaking the ice at social gatherings. Result: MH, GL, sG, SG, TC, SO, CD, BH.
Speaking of breaking the ice, Chris had brought in stacks of chocolates for us all to enjoy. I had to note at one stage during the next game, though, that he had given me all the sweets beginning with "FU". I don't know if he was trying to tell me something.
Anyway, we split into two groups at this point and I don't have a record of what the other group played. Our group started with Andromeda, despite Soggy's protestations. I've grown quite fond of this game since we last played it at the club - see under 25th November. You are somewhat subject to the card draw and the 'luck of the ashtray', causing your finishing position to vary wildly from game to game. My previous two games had seen me only gain one satellite each time, but my luck had turned for tonight. Result: TC, GL, CD, SO.
We had a little time left and finished with two games of Earthquake, the straightforward card game from Wizards of the Coast. The game is a good weight and length for an end of evening filler (see description under 16th September). Result 1 : TC, SO, CD, GL. Result 2 : GL, SO, TC, CD.
No club next week, so see you in the new year.