Archive
Games Sessions - March 2002
29th March
2002
Games
Played: Dschunke, Von Kap Bis Kairo
Dschunke
Players: Mark G, Mark K, Nige,
Garry
With four of us tonight, I was
keen to try this new game from Michael Schacht. As Nige is a big fan of
Web Of Power, the group didn’t take too much persuading. The game is
about trading goods from your junks in competition with others to gain
hard cash, the player with the most cash at the end of the 10 game rounds
being declared the winner. On each turn, players can either load cargo
onto a junk, obtain goods from a junk for trading, or obtain cash from the
cargo they possess on a junk. Once all players have done this, players
attempt to sell goods they have collected at market. The market pays a
fixed price for each type of good and the player who bids to sell most
goods obtains the cash. There are also some special cards that people can
obtain at market, which give benefits during later turns or provide
bonuses at the end of the game subject to the player fulfilling a certain
condition.
This was a nice game with lots of
choices to be made and various routes to victory. The market sale phase
was quite fun in trying to guess what others were attempting to sell and
how much to bid, and there were a number of groans from people who had
just mised out on a sale. Nige proved quite adept at not quite bidding
enough to achieve a sale. The game was pretty close most of the way
through and it turned out to be the end-game bonuses that determined the
winner. Mark K was the only one to successfully get a special card bonus
and the 8 points this yielded was enough to secure the victory.
Result: Mark K 67, Nige 59, Garry
58, Mark G 48
Ratings: Mark K 7, Nige 8, Garry
8, Mark G 7
Von Kap
Bis Kairo
Players: Mark G, Mark K, Nige,
Garry
We then tried this little card
game from Gunter Burkhardt, which has been receiving some good reviews
elsewhere. Players bid to obtain landscape cards across which they try to
steer their trains. First player to cross 8 landscape cards reaches Cairo
and wins. Each round is played in two phases. In the first, each player
bids for one of the available landscape cards, different landscapes
requiring different amounts of railway track to cross. The cards won are
put in front of each train and in the second phase players attempt to
cross the terrain by drawing cards with sufficient track to enable this.
This continues until one player has crossed all of the terrain cards they
have in front of their train, at which point the next round begins.
The crux of the game comes down to
the bidding, trying to get decent terrain cards without wasting your
limited capital. Once you’re poor, you have little option other than to
take what’s left after those outbidding you have had their pick of the
decent cards. I quite liked it as a quick, light bidding game, which is
all it’s meant to be. Nige and Mark K were less keen. The final auction
in our game was critical and although I only needed to cross just one
final terrain, I was too poor to be able to bid enough for the best cards.
Mark G bid highest enabling him to pick a nice Savannah card with 3 tracks
on it. This enabled him to cross his last 3 terrain cards and claim the
win.
Result: Mark G reached Cairo, Mark
K+Nige+Garry didn’t.
Ratings: Mark G 5, Mark K 4, Nige
4, Garry 6
22nd March
2002
Games
Played: Hick Hack Im Gackelwack; Showbiz
Hick Hack
Im Gackelwack
Players: Mark K, John W, Nige, Ben, Mark G, Garry
Six of us tonight, so I decided to introduce the others to this light
bluffing game by Stefan Dorra, which was previously released as Razzia.
Whereas Razzia was about elicit gambling and crooked cops in 1930s
Chicago, this new version is about ducks and foxes in a farmyard. Each
player simultaneously reveals one of their cards (duck or fox) in the hope
of gaining points. The 6 farmyards each have grain which the ducks hope to
eat. The foxes meantime hope to capture and eat the ducks. However, if a
fox arrives at a yard where no duck is present, he leaves hungry (foxes
don't eat grain).
No great strategy to this one, just a matter of trying to outguess what
everyone else will do. Lots of grain in a yard mean that it will be
tempting to play a duck which in turn also means it would be good to play
a fox, but if everyone thinks that way only foxes will be played, which is
bad, so maybe it would be better to go for a yard with less grain, but if
everyone thinks that way........ In our game my greater experience of
farmyard antics allowed me to finish with the fullest tummy. Great game to
play with the kids, by the way.
Result: Garry 31, Mark K 26, Ben 22, Nige 21, Mark G 18, John W 12
Ratings: Garry 6, Mark K 3, Ben 6, Nige 3, Mark G 5, John W 5
Showbiz
Players: Mark K, John W, Nige, Ben, Mark G, Garry
We then turned to an oldish Avalon Hill game which I've never played
before. Players are theatrical agents trying to sign stars of various
genres that they believe will be popular in the coming years. The stars
are selected / bid for at the beginning of the year, in the certain
knowledge of what is popular that year and a possible hint of what will be
popular next, but next year's forecast could change. The better a player
is able to match what is thought popular, the more victory points are
scored.
The game ends after between 10 and 12 years and we ended after year 11. We
all felt the mechanics were quite good, but it was too repetitive and went
on for too long to see regular outings. In this game, Nige seemed to want
to corner the market in acts that were unpopular and at one stage went mad
for ventriloquists. We all had great pleasure in explaining to him who was
the biggest dummy. The rest of us took a more balanced approach and it
ended up being very close between Ben, Mark K and myself at the end.
Modesty prevents me from dwelling too long on who ended up triumphant.
Suffice it to say, however .......
Result: Garry 124, Mark K 120, Ben 119, John W 95, Mark G 87, Nige 80
Ratings: Garry 6, Mark K 5, Ben 8, John W 6, Mark G 6, Nige 3
15th March
2002
Games
Played: Rette Sich Wer Kann; Members Only
Rette
Sich Wer Kann
Players: Mark K, John W, Nige, Ben, Garry
First up this week was the leaky lifeboat game, which Nige had acquired on
Ebay. This is a fun (so why Nige bought it I'll never know) negotiation
game, where each player is trying to help their sailors survive long
enough for them to reach shore in one of the aforementioned leaky vessels.
On each turn, players vote for a boat to spring a leak, which in turn may
lead to another vote on whom to toss overboard in order to keep the boat
afloat. Then players vote for one of the boats to move towards the shore.
Finally players in turn remove one of their sailors from one boat with a
view to moving them to another boat (always providing there's space on the
boat, of course. VPs are awarded for each Captain and crewman rescued at
the end of the game, which occurs when all the boats have either reached
the shore or gone down with all hands.
I shot off to an early lead managing to get two captains and one crewman
to safety on the first two boats. This, however, meant that I became the
prime target and the remainder of my men were, one by one, fed to the
sharks. Ben wasn't too far behind, but he managed to keep hold of his
remaining men and squeezed ahead of John and Mark for the win.
Result: Ben 24, John W=Mark K 22, Garry 20, Nige 19
Ratings: Ben 6, John W 7, Mark K 6, Garry 6, Nige 7
Members
Only
Players: Mark K, John W, Nige, Ben, Garry
This is another quick Reiner Knizia game with a very strange theme.
Players bet on the outcome of certain events such as how many days it will
rain in London this month and how many women will be wearing identical
hats at Royal Ascot this year. Players use cards to influence the outcome
of the event and gain VPs on correct bets depending on how unlikely the
outcome was.
Mark was the betting king, racing into an unassailable lead early on. Try
as we might, the rest of us were unable to catch up and Mark ended the
game placing two bets on opposing outcomes, knowing that either one would
give him the VPs sufficient to end the game and claim victory.
Result: Mark K 34, Garry 25, Ben 18, Nige 7, John W 6
Ratings: Mark K 7, Garry 7, Ben 7, Nige 7, John W 5
8th March
2002
Games
Played: Mexica
Mexica
Players: Mark K, Mark G, Ben, Garry
Four of us again this week so we were able to play another game that's
been in waiting for a few weeks, Mexica. This is the third in the Wolfgang
Kramer / Michael Kiesling series, following Tikal and Java. It is easier
to play than Java and on a par with Tikal and I liked it. The basics of
the game involve dividing up a newly discovered island into districts by
building canals and moving your playing piece around the districts to
found/adopt the district and then build buildings in the district. Victory
points are gained during the two game rounds by adopting districts and at
the end of each round by controlling the most valuable buildings in each
district.
Keeping the most valuable buildings in a district is difficult as other
players are tempted by the VPs on offer to do their best to overtake you.
There are various blocking mechanisms you can employ to try and thwart
your opponents, but the ability to teleport to any free space on the board
make it very difficult to block. I thought that Ben and Mark K were well
ahead and Mark's tactic of hoarding extra move tokens seemed to pay
dividends on plenty of occasions. However, even though these two did come
first and second, the scores were closer than I imagined they would be.
All in all, a good game with plenty to do on your turn and not enough
actions available to do everything you would like to. This will see
repeated plays in the future.
Result: Ben 101, Mark K 96, Garry 88, Mark G 82
Ratings: Ben 8, Mark K 8, Garry 7, Mark G 7
1st March
2002
Games
Played: Industrial Waste
Industrial
Waste
Players: Mark K, Nige, Ben, Garry
For the first time in some while, there were four of us this evening, and
this presented the opportunity at last to try Industrial Waste. This has
been on the "to play" pile since the beginning of the year but
we've always had too many until now. This is a light business game by
newcomer Jurgen Strohm, and involves developing your efficiency as an
industrial producer in terms of raw material input, labour and industrial
waste. Profit from the production of goods plays a secondary role, as cash
generated only counts for half the victory points that innovations do. The
play is pretty simple and relatively fast. and there are a number of
different strategies you can employ to move you towards victory.
In our game, it took around two hours to complete ( which I gather from
other reviews is longer than normal). However, this was due to us drawing
a very high number of accidents. At one stage, an accident occurred on
each of three or four consecutive rounds. One rule we managed to overlook
was that, in order to progress one of your innovation tracks, you need to
pay 5 million euros. This meant that money wasn't quite as tight as it
would otherwise have been, but it was still fairly tough and Nige was
forced to take out a loan, which he found himself unable to pay off. Ben
eventually managed to reach the maximum space on the growth track,
triggering the end of the game and, although it was pretty tight between
Ben and me, Ben just edged ahead for victory.
I thought the game was pretty good and if it had been half an hour
shorter, I would have rated it higher. However, I think everyone enjoyed
it and I am keen to try it again using the correct rules and hopefully
with fewer accidents.
Result: Ben 97, Garry 91, Mark K 55, Nige 46
Ratings: Ben 7, Garry 7, Mark K 8, Nige 5
This page was last updated on 22 November 2004
