Wed 21st May 2008

Not many of us in this week just Sal, Phil, Myself and Evilginger. (Plus the roleplayers in the other room.)

We started the evening off with a game of Basari Carole, Myself, Phil and Evilginger played in this one while Sally was wrangling computers and cashing up. This is a really nice, quick little game and is easy to jump into even after a long time since we last played it. You each have 3 actions which you choose between based on where you are and what you think the other players will do. If 2 people pick the same roll the player ahead on points makes an offer to buy the roll, the other player makes a better counter offer or accepts the terms. If 3 or more people pick the same roll then nobody gets to do it. Anyone selecting a unique roll just gets to act on it. The idea is to collect gems of various colours, the player with the most of a particular colour gets victory points based on it's colour (Red highest, blue is lowest). A turn ends when at least one person crosses back over the space they started from or the last gem is removed from a pile. Once the scoring is complete for the gems the winners replace 3 gems from that colour back to the pool, if they tied the tied players return 2 each.

Carole took an early lead in our game and in the final round ended streaks ahead of anyone else!! Phil managed a last minute spurt to make it to 3rd place leaving Evilginger just in last place.

Then we played Tsuro which I had purchased that evening with my gift voucher (thanks Phil). This is a really beautiful looking game, the pieces are well made and the artwork is wonderful. We managed to draft Sally into this one so we had a 5 player game. The basic idea is you piece starts on the outside of a grid of squares and you place tiles in front of your piece which provide a series of paths. You move your piece along the path you choose till you reach the end of the tile, play continues this way and the the aim is to remain on the board and avoid bumping into the other players. If your path takes you back to the edge you are eliminated, if your path takes you into another player you are both eliminated. You have to be careful as other players can use their tiles to move you in unexpected directions, as when you get close to one another if your tile adds to another players path they get moved as well. There are a limited amount of cards and you quickly get to the point where the only new cards to get are when a player is eliminated.

In our first game of this I did cruelly eliminate Evilginger by sending his piece of the side of the board. Not long afterwards and due to a simple choice of which way in which to be eliminated I take myself out of the game. Phil and Sally end up joint winners of this game as they both eliminate themselves in the final turn.

The Second game, armed with knowledge of what not to do we started again. I wisely decided not to start from a corner again and therefore lasted a little bit longer. Evilginger eliminates Sally after we all seem to end up very close together in the middle of the board. I manage another self-elimination and then finally confusion sets in as Phil thinks Sally has won, even though she was eliminated earlier, when he had already won himself!! This led to much amusement round the table.

This game is quick, simple and extremely fun to play and would recommend
it to anyone.

We had a bit of time left this evening so we had a quick game It's Alive. This is just a brilliant, quick little game. Players bid for various body parts to fill their slab to build their monster, they can buy them outright, sell them to the bank for half their value or auction them for cash. The villagers occasionally revolt and they have to be appeased with a body part of equal or higher value or bought off with money. Our game ticked along at a fair pace and we had several revolts before finally Sally shouted "It's Alive" and we totted up the scores.

1st Place - Sally 51pts
2nd Place - Me 37pts
3rd Place - Evilginger 36pts
4th Place - Carole 32pts
5th Place - Phil 26pts

Wed 30th April 2008

This week we twisted Philsy's arm and got in another game of Mwahahaha! so we could get a better grip of the rules. Once again this was a fun game, though we seemed to struggle a bit more this time around. It was a very close game but after some seriously sneaky play from Carole she pipped everyone to the post of World Domination and won the game.

We then played a game of Medievalia which is a very interesting game but does seem to be one of those games where the expected playtime is vastly underestimated. You have a hand of 8 cards and city placed in front of them. Through the game you use the resource on one card, by tapping it, to bring other cards from your hand into play. Often you need a combination in order to do this. The same mechanic is used to construct buildings from one of the piles set up on at the start of the game. Once you have characters placed in front of you you can send those to neighbouring players areas to ransack and destroy their resources. You can protect your areas by placing buildings or people in them. There is a lot going on in this game and I can see it will take a while to get to grips with the various aspects of it. I enjoyed it, but it's not one I would buy, that said I would play it again.

The other table started looking at With Sword and Shield but I think they ended up giving up on the idea and played something else. They then played another game of Race for the Galaxy.