SabreCON This was a new event being hosted by
The Leicester Sabres (University of Leicester's Game Society) where
Spirit Games had a stall at which I was demonstrating games.
This was well attended and quite busy, though the signage to get to the event could have been better as there was little or no guidanace from outside of the University.
The venue was very nice with a shop on hand for snacks as well as a coffee bar for that all important caffeine hit during the day
The hall was quite large and roomy but they had the traders upstairs away from the main gaming hall which meant we did not get as much foot traffic as you would have liked. Still we made do and we all had a good day.
More photos can be found on my
Google+ SabreCon 2011 AlbumWe managed to play a few games during the day the first of which was
Kingsburg:
Each player takes the role of a Governor vying for resources to build their provinces, military to help defend their realm and to win favour from the king. The game is played out over five years and the winner is the player with the most VP's at the end of year five.
Each year is split into eight phases: Aid from the King (where the player(s) with the least buildings get help), Spring Production (Where players roll dice and influence the advisor's followed by a building phase), Kings Reward (The player(s) with the most buildings gets a VP), Summer Production (Played same as Spring), Kings Envoy (Person with fewest buildings get aid), Autumn Production (Played same as Spring), Recruit Soldiers (Players pay 2 goods to hire soldiers) finally Winter (where monsters attack, lead player rolls a dice to see how many soldiers the King sends to aid everyone. Those that defeat get a reward, those that fail pay a penalty)
During the production phase the players roll their die and the player with the smallest total goes first in the playing order, the others playing in ascending order. They then use their dice to influence the Kings advisor's in turn until everyone has used all their dice or passed.
Whilst reading the rules through on their own may make the game seem complicated, when read whilst playing through the first year it all falls into place quite well. This is a simple game to learn to play but one of those that will take a few games to learn some of the intricacies as there is a depth to this game not obvious from the simple mechanics.
This has proved to be one of my favourite games and is always fun to play
Sal:46, Phil:44, Caz:43 and me:33
We then played
Montego Bay:
The board is 2-sided which side you play depends on the number of players, this seems to be a new trend in games and is very welcome. Each player controls 2 dock workers and during the game there is an option to hire a 3rd called "Lazy Jack". There is a playing order track and each players docker has a corresponding marker to place there (at random) this then determines the play order. Each player has a hand of cards for each docker with values 1-5, they select one card for each and starting with the first docker on the track they are moved the number of spaces indicated on the card. If another player is on that space they are kicked to the space opposite, if that is filled the players piece is moved back to the next empty square.
In the middle is a series of rooms with barrels in, some are broken, some have coins etc. If after the movement they contain barrels the player places that many barrels on one of the ships in port, if they contain broken barrels they have to be removed from a ship.
Play continues in this manner until all players have emptied there warehouses, if a ship is filled it sails and is scored, at the end of the round the ship is port 1 sails regardless of whether it is empty or part filled and scored. The ships are replaced and the turn track is shifted down one so the last player piece now starts the next round.
Halfway through the game this turn order is randomised again and play then continues until there is only 3 ships during part of the round. I really enjoyed this, yes there is a bit or randomness here but there is also some chance of strategy. On the whole a really enjoyable game that I would certainly play again.
Phil:38, mark:38, Me:37 and Caz:27
Finally we played
Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer:
Players build decks which they use to earn Honour points which is earned by playing certain Hero or construct cards or by defeating monster cards on the gameboard. The cards in the deck also count towards the final honour score and the player with the most at the end of the game wins.
The end game is triggered when a pre-determined amount of honour has been awarded (set by the number of players) players then get one last turn and final scores counted. There is a lot fun to be had here, players build and burn cards to form a deck they think will earn them the honour they need. There is an element of luck here (as the face up cards players can purchase or fight are drawn at random), but there is also skill in deciding what cards to buy and discard to make your deck strong, there is a certain amount of player interaction as cards can have an effect on other players cards.
The thing that makes me like this game more than Dominion, is Dominion once experienced players work out card combos are hard to beat by new players. This game presents a much more even playing field whilst retaining fun and strategy elements.
Finally the artwork on the cards, the quality of the board and components are very high providing a coherent overall theme for the game.
Phil/Sal:69, Reb:60, Caz:56 and Me:43 (apologies if I got the name wrong for our guest player but my notes are a little illegible from the day my bad
)
