Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2011

[Zarniwoop]

Wednesday night Board Gaming Returns for the new Year.

.

[Zarniwoop]

5th Jan 2011
Started the new year off with a new game Furstenfeld this is another game from Friedemann Friese (Powergrid, Factory Manager etc). I really like the games this guy produces and this one is no exception, this is an economics game where you are selling products to the local breweries in order to make enough money to complete your palace. In order to help do this you have can build improved fields or additional buildings to aid you along the way. Eventually you start to build you Palace, but in order to do this you have to sacrifice a building or a field. This leads to a shortage of areas earning you money so planning how and when to start your Palace is crucial. There is an easy starting game but there are also advanced rules which mean you have to build the parts of your palace on specific squares. This is a very enjoyable game, is quite easy to learn and quick to play. In fact the first time we played this at Raiders we played a 2nd game straight away.

Please sit down...... I WON this game... Yes I won a game I own, this is a good start for me in 2011 Frog had 5 Palace sections built (23 money) and Caz had 5 Palace sections built (22 Money).

We finished off the evening with a game of an old classic: San Juan. In this game you aim to build 12 buildings, each worth varying amounts of VP's. Each turn you pick a role which allows you a bonus when taking the role's action. In order to build a building you have to pay its value in cards from your hand, some buildings produce goods when that action is taken, others have special functions which aid you during the game, others just have VP values. Once the first person has built the 12th building then everyone scores what they have built, the highest scorer winning the game. Paul:22, Caz:23, Phil:32 and Luke:43

[Zarniwoop]

12 Jan 2011

We had an unxepected but welcome visit from Neil tonight and we started the evenign off with a game of Asara this is a beatiful little game, the components and artwork are of a high quality. The players compete to make the most elegeant towers, with bonuses for Gold adornments (and open windows with an expansion). You score more for having higher towers or more towers. On each turn the players have a hand of cards with coloured builders on, these are placed at one of the many areas on the board to denote what actions you want to take.

Player order here is important as each area is blank to start which gives the player a free choice from his hand but subsequent players need to place a builder of the same colour or two face down cards if they have none. You are then able to take that action, which is buying various tower parts or one of several special actions.

In order to build a tower you need to have enough peices to make a complete tower (Top & Bottom as min) but you can add to existing towers.

This game is not overly complicated to play but is immensley fun and involves a lot of careful planning of moves. I really enjoyed this and look forward to playing this again sometime.  Sal: 58, Caz: 49, Neil: 48, Paul: 41

We finished off with a game of Eketorp a game with Vikings. This is a well made game with lovely components, as expected from Queen Games, players compete to build their Castles the winner is the first to build all 18 bricks or the highest scorer after 10 rounds. Each turn a material card is turned over and the resources placed onto the board, players then secretly place their viking on their boards selecting where on the main board they want them to go. After everyone has decided they reveal their choices simultaneously then place their vikings on their chosen areas. Where there are enough resurces for each viking those resources are allocated out, where there is not enough the vikings fight for the spoils which is done by selecting a numbered card from your hand highest card winds. After completing the fight the loser places his viking in a hopsital square equal to the difference between the two cards, the players then swap cards placing them next to their castle.

When a player runs out of cards they pick up all their exchanged cards from the board. Players can also lay siege to other players castles aiming to remove bricks from their walls. This is an important option to try and slow another players progress.

I liked this game but I have to confess having read the box and looked at the pictures I envisioned a more complicated game then I got, that said it is enjoyable and certainly a very good filler game that is easy to pick up and run with.

Final Scores, Caz: 26, Carl: 33, Paul: 34 and Neil: 38

[Zarniwoop]

19th January
Tonight we started with a game of Fresco which is always fun to play. We had two people who had never played this before and two who had played before. In a typical Wed night state of affairs the new players took first and second place  . Scores were Caz:53, Paul:54, Andy:59 and Richard: 67.

Having managed to lose at Fresco we went on to play Around the World in 80 Days, a game that we have not played in a while. This is a great gateway game that appeals to both gamers and non-gamers alike, it plays up to 6 people and is always a favourite. The players follow the path of Phileas Fogg. Players have to use various modes of transport to move between the cities using cards with number of days on them. Each turn they pick up a new card that also allows then to take an additional action (use a Balloon, take money, move inspector etc). Caz won this, followed by Sal,Claire and no surprise I came last.

Finally we played a game of Fzzzt! Players have a set of cards they use to bid for items on the conveyor belt, these cards also act as victory points for the end game and can also be allocated to production units which if completed will score additional points at the end of the game. This was quite a fun little card game which plays quickly which makes it an ideal little filler game. Sal:24, Caz:30, Andy:37 and Paul: 41

[Zarniwoop]

26 Jan 2011

Tonight we played a game of Settlers of America(Trails to Rails) which is my favourite variant of Catan. It's always a favourite to play and provides a lot of new twists to the classic game, as well as providing balancing rule changes reducing the luck element. Luke won this game but as always it was quite close.

[Zarniwoop]

2 Feb 2011

Tonight we played Navegador players take on the role of Trade dynasties explorering unknown waters, building colonies and trading goods. The artwork and components on this game are excellent and as a Rondel based game the actions you can take are all there but timing them is the key. This is a great game to play and very enjoyable, sadly I have never managed to win a game of this or even get close but I like it

Paul:81, Sally:88, Caz:91 and Phil:117

[carldjcross]

Wednesday 16th February

Tonight Frog, Neil, Julian and myself finally took the plunge and stepped into the dragon's castle in the Games Workshop edition of Dungeonquest.

Neil bowed out first after being crushed by falling masonry in his third room swiftly followed by me after my warrior tripped and fell into an endless chasm leaving Frog and Julian to battle it out. Frog did manage to raid the dragon's hoard but lost out to Julian's craven cowerdice and failed to make the exit in time. Julian won but "didn't feel good about it" since he'd spent the last couple of turns counting his gold at the dungeon entrance. Frankly it took too long and was far too random, Tomb or the new D&D games do this sort of thing much better these days.

Following that we had a quick game of Braggart. Braggart is a comedy storytelling game where cards are played to create a heroic (or often less than heroic) deed. Neil won this but Frog was mainly playing for comedy value. A good pub game.

We finished up with King of Siam an abstract game of area control. I won despite not really knowing what I was doing until at least half way through the game! Beginners luck maybe?

[Zarniwoop]

9 Feb 2011
We started the evening off playing Loot a fun card game for upto 8 players.Players try can capture merchant ships for points at the end of the game. Merchant ships are captured by players placing pirate cards the player with the most won the ships at the start of his turn wins the ship. Caz:9, Neil:12, Paul:16, Phil:26, Simon:30

We then played Pallet Ranger's copy of Porto Carthago this is a lovely little game with some superb components and artwork. Essentially a worker placement game where players take various actions (with different costs) with the aim to load/offload ships in the port or charter private ships all to make profit that can then be spent to gain favour in the palace which ultimately wins you the game. Nice mechanics and with an excellent run down of the rules from Pallet Ranger (who is very good at describing rules) we picked this up quite quickly and enjoyed it very much. Pallet Ranger: 1st, Paul:2nd, Chris:3rd, Sal:4th and Caz:5th

[Zarniwoop]

16th Feb 2011
Tonight we played Magnum Sal with some lovely components and artwork. Players control a mining team trying o complete the Kings orders for profit. There are different types of Salt worth different amounts, there are several different buildings which can only be visited once per turn. The buildings have various functions such as purchase of tools (which give once per round abilities), removing water cubes, buying and selling cubes at the market, hiring more miners, and going to the palace to complete a contract.

Each round the players get to make 2 actions (only 1 during the first round of each phase) the choices are:

1) Placing or moving a miner
2) Extracting salt
3) Placing a miner as an assistant in a building
4) Visiting a building
5) Pass

The game is played over 3 phases with new contracts and tools placed each time. The tools provide extra actions (but once used are flipped over until the next phase) to aid the players, they also provide an income at the end of the game. The winner of the game is the player with the most money at the end of the 3rd phase. The Phase changed is determined by the number of contracts completed at the Palace, when the 4 or 5th contract is completed (Determing by the number of players) each following player back to the start player gets one more turn then the board is reset.

There is a lot going on here and a really fun game to play, this works very well as a 2-player games as it does a 4 player.

This is normally a 1-2 hour game barring Phil'isms, despite that though it was an enjoyable night and Simon even managed to stay awake despite the elongated play time.

[Zarniwoop]

23rd Feb 2011
Tonight we played a game of Furstenfeld this is a great little game where you balance growing crops to trade with breweries for money with replacing your fields by building parts of you great Palace. The winner is he first to complete their palace.

This was an interesting game where some hoarded cash till the later turns to try and build their Palace in a late flurry, myself I lucked out by having the crane early on enab;ling me to build stuff cheaper. Now I have to report nearly breaking the universe again by actually winning this on the night....

We then played a few games of Callisto this is an exciting and fun little game where players compete to place all their tiles on the board. Each piece you place has to be placed next to another one of your pieces, which are of various different shapes. The game is quite addictive as we ended up playing 4 games of it . The game plays quite quickly with players having to plan their placements quite carefully. Chris won 2 games, with me and Phil winning 1 each.

[Zarniwoop]

2nd March 2011

Tonight had a go at Constantinopolis where players take the role of merchants shipping goods and passengers for profit, whilst selling goods at home, donating to the city, funding public buildings all to gain fame points to become the most renowned merchant in Constantinopolis.

The mechanics of this game are well done and add to the theme and enjoyment of the game, it starts with players vying for various roles in public office, each of which award the player with an extra ability or reward that turn. The players bid for these roles and the money is from all of this is placed back to the bank. The roles picked also determine player order for the rest of the round.

I really enjoyed this and there is a lot of scope for different winning strategies. The final scores were close which is always nice, Philsy 41, Carole 32 and Me 32.

[Zarniwoop]

9th March 2011
Arrived a bit later than normal tonight so missed out on getting a place on the Mansions of Madness Game being run by Philsy, gutted as I also own a copy of this game and would have loved a chance to learn the game.

Still there was another stray Gamer, Simon, who was on need of a game so we found some table space and I introduced him to a game of Infinite City. This is a great tile laying game with very minimal rules but lots of gameplay and strategy to be had. This is pretty quick to play with up to 6 people and very easy to teach. As I own this game I did not have high hopes and I was proved right when Simon beat me 21 vs 18 but at least I can salvage some dignity with it being a close score.

After this to finish the evening off we played a game of Citadels another favourite of the Wed night crowd. Players take a role each turn and try and build up their districts with high scoring buildings. A fairly close game really with the scores breaking down as follows: Me:28, Luke:26, Phil:25, Andy:21 and Simon: 17

[Zarniwoop]

16th march 2011
Started off with a game of Blue Moon City which is really easy to pick up and play. This is another firm favourite of the group and is one of those games which is well balanced providing a tense, close finish. Tonights game was no different with everyone being one more turn or so away from a win. Carl was the first to get to the required 4 sacrifices to the obilisk but everyone else had made it to 3.

To end the evening we played a game of Carcassonne: New World which is an excellent variation on the classic Carcassonne game. These games are always great fun and this was no exception, the scores for this broke down as follows: Paul:89, Simon:84 and Caz:69

[Zarniwoop]

23rd March 2011
Tonight We had a go at a recent purchase, Cargo Noir which is a new release from Days of Wonder. As with all of Days of Wonder games the components are first class, colourful boards, beautiful pieces, excellent cards and a well written rulebook.

Each players represent a family of smugglers the aim is to amass the most Victory points (in the form of cards representing various assets - Dive Bars, Yachts, Night Clubs etc). To purchase the VP cards each player must place their ships in a port and bid for the goods available there, if they are successful they get all the goods. To win a bid you must be the only player left bidding in that port at the start of your turn otherwise you either have to increase your bid or withdraw. In order to purchase cards you trade in your goods, upto 9 of the same or upto 9 different, you earn differing amounts depending on which option.

The amount of cargo you can hold is limited at the start but you can buy VP cards that increase your storage, as well as VP cards that increase your fleet and a final one that allows you to gain coins when you withdraw from a bid.

Finally there is the port of Macao where there is a Casino where your ships earn $2 or the port where for each ship placed you can swap a trade good with any located face up or take one at random from the bag.

This is a quick game to learn, we read the rules on the night, and is quick to play whilst providing for a bit of strategic play. Really fun little game, not deep but a challenge none the less.

The scores for the game ended up very close, another plus point, Simon:70, Paul:60 and Caz:60

We then finished the evening off with a game of Metro a tile laying game where players are trying to join a station with their train using tracks to another station using as many tiles as possbile. The longer the track the higher the score, if the track meanders back over the same tile you score it twice, if you manage to get to the stations in the middle you double your track score.

You can also place tiles to shorten others players tracks, but you do this whilst not helping yourself so careful planning is required. Whilst the tiles are picked up at random there is room for strategy and devious play

Simple to pick up and play and works really well with lots of players.

Scores: Sal:57, Paul:48, Simon:43 and Caz:40

[carldjcross]

Wednesday 30th March

Following on from Paul's last session report tonight it was time for me to try Cargo Noir. This is a straightforward bidding game wrapped up in the all the usual high production values that Days of Wonder are justly famous for.

The board and bits deserve special mention because they are so lovely. You’ll need a reasonably sized table for the modular board (it’s always that big no matter how many play, with fewer players parts of it are simply turned over to an illustration only side) and there is a real tactile joy to moving your little fleet around the map.

In a nutshell (and we’ll get to that later) players are attempting to make buy commodities to make money to buy VPs. So far so normal. There’s no messing about with variable prices in this game, the more you sell of whatever the more you get. If there is a criticism of this game it’s that the theme is a little thin; guns, rum and gold could easily be coffee, sugar and wheat or whatever.

The one aspect of the game I found slightly strange to begin with was that you can’t speculate to accumulate. Money is only used to buy the all important VP cards making the “get free money” action less of a choice of last resort as it is in many games and more an every turn necessity.

You win the commodities in a given territory simply by having more of your fleet on that space at the end of the round forcing the other players to either up the ante or withdraw. Easy. Except obviously everyone else is trying to do exactly the same thing.

As it turned out with only three of us the board never really got that crowded. That’s not to say that the occasional bidding war didn’t break out but it perhaps wasn’t as cutthroat as it might be with more players.
Carole steamed into an early lead by expanding both her warehouse and her fleet in the early turns meaning she could grab more stuff and sell it for higher prices. She also often chose to take a free random commodity which combined with her warehouse worked rather well for her.

In the end and after a last minute dash for VPs from me Carole won, but only by 10 points. Paul came second but only on the second tiebreak since we both scored a respectable 80 points. Once again a good close game.

We finished the evening with a game of Nuts! which was the usual knockabout fun. Seeing the Nuthenge 7 pointer go from person to person and eventually be destroyed is always a good way to end the evening.