So the second Autumn B&P has been and gone, but it was a great weekend of gaming with a chance to try some of the Essen 2012 releases.
We started off the day with
Powergrid: First Sparks a lighter version of the original Powergrid with a new theme and differring mechanics.
We got our usual table in the eaves and we soon filled the 6 players for this game. It is a great little game which runs along quite nicely, even with 6 players. It was a good start for the day with plenty of banter around the table as we played, there were a couple of wobbles as some of us (well me at least) pressed our clans out a little too fast to early and had to spend a round or two building back up to get back into the game. In the final scoring of the game it all came down to who had the most food left, which left Melissa winning by 1 food!!
Our little group then had a reshuffle and our section went for a game of
Alien Frontiers an excellent game that is always fun to play, this was a pimped version with the new
upgrade Packwhich adds better colonies pieces, covers for parts of the board based on the number of players, and models for the Field Generator. It also had
Alien Frontiers: Factions expansion which adds pieces for a 5th player as well as introducing new additions to the game. In the end we decided, as we had people who had not played before, to go with just the base game but using all the Alien Technology cards.
This was another great game that always produces a lot of fun, the final outcome of this game was really close, with plenty of gotcha moments as VP's were stolen back and forth from each other. In the end there was a clear winner with everyone else a joint 2nd place.
The next game on the list was
Space Maze this is a crazy game that messes with your head but it is fast/furious and a lot of fun to play.
Players control a UFO full of 3 different coloured aliens all trying to race to be the first to grab an ancient relic and get it back to their UFO to win. Easy..... First of all a number of dice are put into a pool based on the number of players, these are rolled all together and players take it in turns to pick a dice and either use it to move aliens or take actions. Each player will get to take 3 dice (2 will be for actions and one will be a movement dice). Players have a hand of cards that require dice of a certain value to action, the colour of the dice needs to match the colour of the alien activating the card. In order to move the Aliens need to manipulate the tiles in the maze (a 5 x 5 grid) to make the 2 doors (made of primary colours) on adjacent tiles the right colours to match the Alien (Made of secondary colours) this will then allow them to pass through the doors. Players can also move them onto datapads which allows them to pick up more cards. If a player grabs the relic but fails to get it back to their UFO, then the first player to have possession of the Relic 3 times will win.
This was good fun and there was a long tussle for the winner with interference being made on all sides
Sunday was a lot quieter but still had a fair few in attendance, we started the day with a game of
Terra Mystica one of the new games from
Essen 2012
This is a slightly more complicated game than the others we played this weekend, and whilst the explanation was necessarily longer once we got down to playing it all started to make sense after the first round or two. Players are controlling races trying to build cities as well as building up status in various cults, each race has its own unique abilities and bonuses. Each player has their own board which controls all aspects of their game which is quite neat. Each round their is a specific goal which will earn you bonus VP's, each race has to build on certain terrain so the first order of business is to terraform the landscape in order to build your city. I really enjoyed this, it is not a short game but the time passes by without you really noticing as you concentrate on your plans. There is plenty of player interaction, some of which involve actually helping other players to score whilst furthering your own efforts.
It is not an easy game to summarise but in the end there was a clear winner in Richard (who grasped the gameplay really well, which he is good at generally) but for me I came 2nd and given the complexity of the game I was impressed with my efforts and look forward to trying this again with a different race.
Again our group split at this point with some going on to play
Escape: The Curse of the Temple which a frantic 10-min real-time game which looks quite good fun.
Our group broke out
Alien Frontiers again
With just three of us this was a little more cutthroat but nevertheless just as much fun, needless to say I still did not manage to win this.
Finally to round the day off we played
Kingdom Builder this is one of my favourite games of the year and I am always willing to play a game of this.
The three scoring conditions for this game were: 1pt for each settlement next to another player (instant score), 1pt for every two settlements in your largest area (end game score) and finally 1pt for each horizontal you have one or more settlements on (end game).
As always this was a fun game which plays quite quickly, there is always opportunities with the extra actions and carefull placement to keep you in the mix for the win.
As always I really enjoyed the atmosphere of B&P, there was good beer (if a little more expensive this time) and good food available all day.
These have always been good events to see and play new games as well as meet up with old friends or get to make new ones. The atmosphere is always very friendly and people are always willing to explain or demonstrate the games they play.
I hope enough people made it this time around for
Spirit Games to consider doing the Autumn event again next year.
Thanks to everyone that came helping to make the day enjoyable as well as allowing me to wander around taking piccies of their games.
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