Archive
Games Sessions - May 2002
31st May 2002
Games
Played: Mystery Rummy: Jack The Ripper, Dragonland
Mystery
Rummy: Jack The Ripper
Players: Ben, Nige,
Mark K
On holiday this week, but Mark K
recorded the results:
Result: Nige 109, Ben 87, Mark K 38
Ratings: Nige 7, Ben 8, Mark K 8
Dragonland
Players: Ben, Nige,
Mark K
Results have not been given as there was a
fundamental misunderstanding of rules between us which affected results
Ratings: Ben 8, Nige 6,
Mark K 7
24th May 2002
Games
Played: The Grand Alchemist
The Grand
Alchemist
Players: Ben, Mark G, Nige,
Mark K, John W
On holiday this week, but Mark K
recorded the results:
Result: Mark G 5, Ben=Nige=Mark K
4, John W 1
Ratings: Mark G 6, Ben 6, Nige 5,
Mark K 5, John W 6
17th May 2002
Games
Played: Lumberjack, Taj Mahal
Lumberjack
Players: Ben, Mark G, Nige,
Mark K, Garry
Another game from the successful
Alan Moon / Aaron Weissblum partnership, although this one at first glance
was deceptive. It looks like a wooden dexterity game like the Zoch games ,
but that isn't the case and we were all surprised at the amount of thought
neede for each move. We played an unofficial variant because I managed to
build the log pile with seven pieces on each level instead of six - Maths
clearly isn't my strong point. However, I don't believe it affected play
too much, especially as I managed to steal another win, and I wouldn't
like the others to claim it was an invalid victory. The scores were
extremely close and it went down to the very last move of the game to
determine the winner. Good stuff and I'm keen to try some of the other
(official) variants included in the rules.
Result: Garry 64, Ben 62, Mark G
61, Mark K 59, Nige 47
Ratings: Garry 6, Ben 7, Mark G 6,
Mark K 6, Nige 7
Taj Mahal
Players: Ben, Mark G, Nige,
Mark K, Garry
We followed up with another great
Reiner Knizia title, Taj Mahal. I've not played this for a while and I
again followed my losing strategy of not paying attention to what cards
other players were picking up and so ending up picking fights I couldn't
win. However, Ben and Mark K pressed each other all the way, with Ben just
pipping Mark by a single point.
Result: Ben 41, Mark K 40, Nige
28, Garry 19, Mark G 11
Ratings: Ben 8, Mark K 8, Nige 9,
Garry 7, Mark G 6
10th May 2002
Games
Played: The Merchants of Amsterdam, Alles Im Eimer
The
Merchants of Amsterdam
Players: John W, Mark G, Nige,
Mark K, Garry
Five of us tonight and Nige was
keen to play Merchants of Amsterdam. This is a game based around dutch
auctions. Players are trying to acquire the greatest influence in three
areas: Amsterdam, the New World and the trading of goods. At certain
points during the game, these three areas generate cash for the players,
the greater the influence, the greater the cash. Influence is acquired
either by using the power of the Mayor of Amsterdam, which each player
takes turns using, or by winning the subsequent dutch auction. A clock
counts down the auction price from 200 guilders and a player stops the
clock at the point he wants to purchase the action. The
game is played over a fixed number of turns, but the scoring rounds are
random within that overall time frame. The player who has accumulated the
most money by the end of the game is the winner.
This is another good Reiner Knizia
auction game and it is difficult to be sure who is winning. Gaining
influence costs money in the auctions and if you overbid relative to your
opponents then you struggle to recoup your money in the scoring rounds.
However, you have to win enough auctions to get a decent payback in the
scoring rounds. None of our auctions fell below the 120 guilders level,
and I nearly opted not to bid on any of the auctions judging that the
others were overbidding. However, I succumbed on a couple of occasions to
secure my position in Amsterdam and ensure I didn't lose my bonuses later
on in the game when markers are removed from the board. Nige seemed to
want to ensure he had the best position in trading goods and this together
with a couple of other scoring positions enabled him to accumulate the
most cash at game-end.
Result: Nige 1370, Mark G 1220,
John W 1190, Mark K 1160, Garry 1080
Ratings: Nige 8, Mark G 8, John W
8, Mark K 7, Garry 7
Alles Im
Eimer
Players: John W, Mark G, Nige,
Mark K, Garry
I was then keen to try out this
new game from Stefan Dorra, even though the artwork and theme suggested
this to be purely a children's game. It's not and I was quite taken with
it as a short, light game with plenty of opportunity to try and shaft your
opponents. In fact, that is what it is all about. Players have a pyramid
of buckets which they are trying to keep as intact as possible, while
their opponents are trying to destroy the pyramid, through playing cards
you cannot defend against. The buckets come in five colours and if a
player is forced to remove a bucket of a colour lower down on the pyramid,
it can cause other buckets to fall as well. In the five player game, once
two players have had all their buckets removed, the player with the most
buckets remaining wins.
The card play is quite neat and
you need to remember what colour cards the other players may be running
short of. In addition, if you can start an attack against a player on the
other side of the table that the intermediate players can add to, your
target will find it all the more difficult to defend against. Originally,
I thought that someone taking a big hit early on would find it difficult
to recover. Although that is true to an extent, the fact that they are
then defending fewer buckets and possibly fewer colours means that they
can generally get back into contention. In our game, Mark G started out
quite well, defending his pyramid quite well. However, he was then forced
to defend one colour quite heavily, leaving him open to attack in that
same colour in a subsequent turn. This meant that he was first out. Nige
suffered early on but defended his last few buckets fairly well, while the
rest of us started losing ours. However, eventually, he lost his final
bucket in a colour I recalled he was short of cards in, and this left me
with enough buckets remainig to claim victory.
Result: Garry 4, Mark K 3, John W
2, Nige 0, Mark G 0
Ratings: Garry 7, Mark K 5, John W
6, Nige 5, Mark G 6
3rd May 2002
Games
Played: Trans America, The Great Brain Robbery, Liar's Dice
Trans
America
Players: Mark G, John W, Ben, Nige,
Mark K, Garry
First up tonight was this European
release by Franz-Benno Delonge, which was previously published as Iron
Road by Winsome Games. In it players are attempting to build a rail
network to connect five cities for which they hold cards. Rails laid must
connect up to the player's starting point but can connect up with other
players' rail networks. As soon as someone has connected up all 5 cities,
the other players lose points depending on how far away they are from
completing their connections. Once one player has lost a certain number of
points, the player at that point to have lost the fewest points wins.
This was lightning fast to play, taking about 30
minutes to complete over about 3 rounds. There is quite a lot of tension
as players get close to completing their network. You obviously try to lay
track that helps yourself without helping others but this is not easy,
particularly as you don't know other players' destinations. Ben managed to
get his network well connected over the 3 rounds, only losing 4 points,
whereas Mark K seemed to have no sense of direction, losing heavy points
on each round.
Result: Ben 9, John W 7, Garry 6, Mark G 5, Nige 3,
Mark K -3
Ratings: Ben 7, John
W 7, Garry 7, Mark G 7, Nige 6, Mark K 7
The Great
Brain Robbery
Players: Mark G, John W, Ben, Nige, Mark K, Garry
Next up was this fun Cheapass
game, which I've played before and quite enjoyed. Players are zombies on a
train trying to progress from the back to the front of the train,
collecting brains along the way and fighting other zombies. Brains
collected can be put in one's head or carried but, as you only have two
hands, only two heads can normally be carried. As the game progresses,
cars at the back of the train become disconnected and zombies have to then
run behind the train trying to catch up. As they are too busy trying to
catch up, they have to drop any brains they are carrying. Eventually
someone will reach the engine and stop the train at which point the zombie
whose brain (in his head) has the highest IQ is the winner.
So as the end approaches, much
fighting ensues over the brainy brains. John W managed to keep carrying
the highest IQ brain for much of the game, planning to put it in his head
right at the end. Unfortunately, the carriage he was in became
disconnected from the rest of the train, forcing him to drop his precious
booty in order to run after the train. Nige managed to get hold of a good
fighting brain and this enabled him to wrest the best brain from the head
of Mark G (I think) and hang onto it long enough to stop the train. Only
two players ended with any IQ in their heads, the rest of us finishing
brainless or with heads filled of cheese. I was, of course, terribly
unlucky.
Result: Nige 220, John W 75,
Ben=Mark G=Mark K=Garry 0
Ratings: Nige 6, John W 6, Ben 6,
Mark G 7, Mark K 4, Garry 6
Liar's
Dice
Players: Mark G, Louise Taylor,
Nige, Mark K, Garry
At that point, John and Ben
departed but they were more than made up for by Louise, who was joining us
for the first time. Hopefully, we didn't scare her away. From our ratings
page, you can see that this is one of my favourite games, not that I am
terribly good at it. Nige continued to prove that he is not a very
competent Liar's Dice player as he surrendered his dice very quickly (as
usual). Louise battled hard but against veterans like the rest of us, she
was unable to resist and she fell next. I soon followed, leaving the two
Marks battling it out for glory. Mark K eventually emerged triumphant,
registering his first victory for some little while.
Result: Mark K, Mark G, Garry,
Louise, Nige
This page was last updated on 22 November 2004
