Archive
Games Sessions - April 2002
28th April
2002
Games
Played: Die Macher, Tigris & Euphrat
Die Macher
Players: Nige, Mark K, Ben, Garry
An extra session this week, as Nige particularly wanted to try Die Macher,
which wouldn't fit timewise into our normal Friday slot. So we were
invited round to Nige's for a Sunday of gaming and Nige and Mary's
hospitality - which was excellent. None of us had played Die Macher before
but I knew of its reputation as an excellent but complex 4-6 hour game.
The game attempts to simulate the German electoral system and takes place
over 7 regional elections followed by the federal election in Bonn. In
these elections, players are trying to accumulate votes by holding
campaign meetings, influencing the media, holding party conferences and
swaying public opinion over the big issues, so that it ties in with your
policies. Whoever does this best wins the federal election, and the votes
won are credited towards the final federal election, as well as the winner
being able to influence the national issues. Once the 7th regional
election has been held, the federal election is resolved depending on the
number of votes won during the 7 rounds, how closely your policies match
up with the national opinion and how much media influence you have
accumulated.
Ben got off to a good start winning the first region by a big margin.
Although this was Bremen and not worth much towards the national picture
it did allow him to get an early media marker in place and the initial
choice of the big national issues. The second region was very close
between the other 3 of us and allowed us to catch up with Ben in the
national vote. I took the 3rd region, having decided early on to
concentrate my efforts on a couple of the middle value regions. This,
however, set me up as a target and, after an excellent Sunday lunch
(thanks again Mary), Ben again made a charge in Hamburg. My other area was
Schleswig-Holsten, which pushed me further into the lead after round 5.
However, I was well and truly ganged up
on in round 6 with Nige taking the election victory and getting very close
to me in the national poll. The 7th region was another valuable one (as
had been the 6th) and Ben was forced into a coalition with Nige, sewing
that region up for the two of them. By this time the national poll had
swung back in Ben's favour and with a strong match between his policies
and the electorate's national view, plus a good portion of the media on
his side, he cruised to victory.
At about 4.5 hours playing time, the game is quite long, but everyone is
fully involved throughout and the time goes pretty quickly. I liked it
and, having got the learning game under my belt, I feel I could play
better next time.But, I guess, the same is true of the others as well.
Result: Ben (Grune) 35%of vote, Nige (CDU) 29%, Garry (FDP) 25%, Mark K (SPD)
11%
Ratings: Ben 8, Nige 8, Garry 7, Mark K 7
Tigris & Euphrat
Players: Nige, Mark K, Ben, Garry
After the mammoth Die Macher game, we decided to follow it up with Nige's
favourite game: Tigris & Euphrat. I've not played this for about 3
years and was pretty rusty, taking a while to recall how important the
conflicts are. It's not that difficult a game, but it does require
concentration on what you are doing and the threats posed by the other
players. Mark and Nige were scrapping it out on one side of the board
while Ben and I were peacefully co-existing on the other side, at least
initially. Once the monuments started turning up, the conflicts became
more fierce. Nige ended the game taking the last few tiles, guessing that
he had got the most points. And so it proved to be, with Ben just falling
one cube short of Nige's score. All in all, an excellent day's gaming with
good company, delicious food, and a couple of worthwhile games. And Nige
won one, at last!
Result: Nige 8, Ben 7, Mark K 6, Garry 5
Ratings: Nige 10, Ben 8, Mark K 8, Garry 7
26th April
2002
Games
Played: Puerto Rico
Puerto
Rico
Players: Nige, Mark G, Mark K, Ben, Garry
With five of us tonight, it seemed an excellent opportunity to try this
new game from Andreas Seyfarth, the man who brought us Manhattan a few
years ago. He has been pretty quiet since then but has certainly made up
for lost time with this game. The aim of the game is to score victory
points through shpping goods for export and owning valuable buildings on
the island. On a player's turn they choose a character for the round and
each character allows certain actions to be performed. Although each
player gets to perform the same action, the player choosing the character
gets an additional or alternative privelige. The actions revolve around
acquiring plantations that in turn will produce certain goods when you
also have the relevant production building for that good. Once produced,
the goods are stored until they are either sold locally for extra cash or
shipped abroad for VPs. Cash is pretty tight in the game and is crucial to
buying the various buildings you need to progress your strategy and there
are a fair number of different
strategies to be employed.
In our game, Mark G got off to a flying start shipping corn for a good
head start in VPs. Nige, on the other hand, started accumulating cash to
enable him to buy the more expensive but powerful buildings. Ben and I
seemed to take a more balanced strategy although I concentrated on
production and shipping whenever I could. Mark K got squeezed from both
sides with the other Mark and me hurting his position badly on a number of
occasions. He did claim, however, that his concentration wasn't at its
best (...for some reason!) I benefitted from one shipping round where I
was the only person able to load goods onto the ship (which is why I chose
the Captain's action) and this proved in the end to be the critical play
as I pipped Nige for the victory with Mark G not too far behind.
Result: Garry 59, Nige 56, Mark G 50, Ben 45, Mark K 34
Ratings: Garry 8, Nige 8, Mark G 8, Ben 9, Mark K 7
19th April
2002
Games
Played: Airlines, 6 Day Race, 6 Nimmt
Airlines
Players: Mark G, Mark K, Ben, Nige,
John W, Garry
This week, we started with an old
favourite, Alan Moon's Airlines. John and Mark G had not played before and
John in particular had problems with the route markings: both on the board
and cards. Early on, GAP and FIS were the shares to have and Nige, in
particular benefitted from being the only player with GAP shares. This
allowed him to sprint into a good lead after the first two Wertungs. Mark
K had been picking up FIS shares and looked to have a stranglehold on
them, but the second Wertung came up just before he was able to declare
them. This allowed me to take the first place payout in FIS for the second
round. Mark didn't leave it too much longer to slap his FIS on the table
and from then on set about trying to eat into Nige's lead. By the end of
the 3rd round, he was only one point behind Nige and it was at this point
that John scored his first points, having not troubled the scorers in the
first two rounds. By the time the last share was taken, we were all
confident that Mark K had gained enough points to win and so it proved to
be, with Nige ending up 4 points behind.
I like Airlines a lot. It is
pretty simple, but you have to watch what shares players are accumulating
and try and judge when the Wertungs are likely to come up.
Result: Mark K 64, Nige 60, Garry
48, Ben 38, Mark G 36, John W 25
Ratings: Mark K 8, Nige 8, Garry
7, Ben 8, Mark G 7, John W 6
6 Day
Race
Players: Mark G, Mark K, Ben, Nige,
John W, Garry
Next, we opted for another old
game, which Nige and Ben had forgotten they'd played before, although Mark
was able to show them the score sheet from their previous game. This is a
pretty simple race game which has at its core the concept of slipstreaming
- which for a cycling game is fairly apt. Players play cards to move
forwards but if they land on the same square as another bike, they are
bumped forward the same number of squares as the card originally played.
If there is more than one bike on the square you bump even further
forward. As the number of points in your hand of cards isn't enough to get
you round the circuit, you can see it is pretty important to keep being
bumped forward. And if you lose touch with the rest of the bikes, it's
curtains.
In our game Nige benefitted from a
huge bump early on, allowing him to take the first stage sprint points
easily. However, he then had no-one to bounce off until we caught up,
which we did do by about half way round. It was at this stage, my critical
problem arose. I was already languishing near the back, but ended up with
no card that allowed me to bounce off anyone, and I watched as the rest
tore off into the distance. Luckily, I did manage to catch them pedalling
fast and using all my high cards, but I was then left with nothing left to
benefit. In the end John picked up the most points, allowing him to claim
the win, while I finished with negative points, not having picked up any
sprint points and languishing at the back of the field at the end. Still,
it was pretty good fun and didn't last too long.
Result: John W 13, Mark G 12, Nige
8, Mark K 4, Ben 3, Garry -3
Ratings: John W 6, Mark G 6, Nige
6, Mark K 6, Ben 6, Garry 6
6 Nimmt
Players: Mark G, Mark K, Ben, Nige,
John W, Garry
We finished off with a couple of
hands of 6 Nimmt, which is a really nice game and causes much amusement
when somebody is forced to pick up a bundle of penalty points. In this
game, John seemed to accumulate points like they were going out of
fashion, while Ben had an excellent second round to seal a win.
Result: Ben 14, Nige=Garry 17,
Mark K 21, Mark G 39, John W 52
Ratings: Ben 7, Nige 7, Garry 7,
Mark K 8, Mark G 7, John W 5
12th April
2002
Games
Played: Attila, Lowenherz
Attila
Players: Mark G, Mark K, Ben, Nige
I wasn't around this week, so just
the results and ratings from Mark.
Result: Mark K 78, Ben 77, Nige
68, Mark G 54
Ratings: Mark K 8, Ben 8, Nige 8,
Mark G 7
Lowenherz
Players: Mark G, Mark K, Ben, Nige
Result: Ben 58, Nige 34, Mark G
26, Mark K 16
Ratings: Ben 7, Nige 7, Mark G 8,
Mark K 7
5th April
2002
Games
Played: Die Magier Von Pangea, Meridian, Yeti Slalom
Die
Magier Von Pangea
Players: Mark G, Mark K, Garry
A low turnout this week but it
gave us a chance to try out some games that take a lower number of
players. First up was Die Magier Von Pangea by Ralf Burkert, a name new to
me. The game has some interesting mechanics and plays very quickly with
lots to think about, which is a pretty good combination in my book.
Players are magicians trying to obtain enough magic amulets to secure
victory. However, the number varies depending on how many goods you are
also able to acquire. Players take magic actions on their turn which
enable them to do things like move the landscape, introduce new workers or
move neutral workers. Then you are able to move your workers and buy
amulets if you meet an opposing worker, followed by which you are able to
manufacture goods.
There is a fair bit to try and
judge what actions are able to benefit you best, while checking what your
opponents may be able to achieve. Our game was pretty close with Mark G
being able to manufacture goods very easily. However, he couldn't acquire
amulets as easily as Mark K or me, and Mark K was able to seize the
victory with 4 amulets and 10 goods, with me just 4 goods adrift.
Result: Mark K 4A (amulets) + 10G
(goods); Garry 4A + 6G, Mark G 2A + 23G
Ratings: Mark K 6, Garry 6, Mark G
6
Meridian
Players: Mark G, Mark K, Garry
I am quite a fan of Leo Colovini's
games, so was pretty keen to try this one which was released last year in
the same format as Carolus Magnus, a game I rate very highly. In this game
you try to position your pieces to control various islands and thus score
victory points. However, the board is split into 10 vertical sections
(meridians) and you can only play into a section matched by a card that
you hold. Also, you have a limited number of pieces and have to play them
in stacks of one or more, with higher stacks placed above lower stacks in
a meridian. This can limit the islands on which your pieces can be played
and it is quite difficult to get pieces placed where you would ideally
like them to be.
This proved to be quite a brain
buster, although still quite light, and over in about half an hour. I
liked it a lot even though I made a number of simple errors which meant I
was unable to compete on the larger islands. This proved decisive and Mark
K was able to steal another victory.
Result: Mark K 13, Garry 11, Mark
G 9
Ratings: Mark K 7, Garry 7, Mark G
7
Yeti
Slalom
Players: Mark G, Mark K, Garry
With a little bit of time left, we
decided to try this new Rio Grande game, which I had avoided due to a few
adverse comments on the net. In the game, you attempt to steer your
snowboarders down a mountain while avoiding the the yetis, who are trying
to dislodge you. On your turn you can move one of your snowboarders
further down the mountain or attempt to dislodge opponents by playing yeti
cards. If you play a yeti card, a die roll determines whether the
snowboarder is dislodged, and the winner is the person accumulating most
points by getting snowboarders down the mountain or knocking over
opponents' snowboarders.
Unfortunately, the deep strategy
managed to evade me in this 'fun' little game and so I took on Nige's
mantle as he wasn't present this week. I failed to see any real skill in
the game, with it seeming to be completely dependent upon the success or
otherwise of your die rolls. The fact that I didn't seem to get any decent
rolls didn't help matters. Mark K mwas the most skilful snowboarder among
us, securing his third victory of the evening.
Result: Mark K 23, Mark G 15,
Garry 10
Ratings: Mark K 5, Mark G 6, Garry
3
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