Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2009

[Zarniwoop]

Tonight we started off with a game of PowerBoats which is game of racing power boats. This is really a neat little game with some cool looking dice and boat pieces. You start with one dice to roll for speed and in later turns you can add or remove dice to your pool and/or roll existing dice. Each dice is a 1-3 and the idea is to go around a number of buoy's in order, in the correct direction and cross the finish line. You play over three races totalling your points from each race. If you over cook the speed and collide with land the remaining move points are taken as damage and the ship can only take 4 points of damage be3fore it sinks. This is just fun and is easy to pick up and play with a new group of people.

We then played a game of Tempus Players take it in turn to place land pieces on the board until there are no more pieces or you are not able to place a piece. Players then place 3 markers on the board.
On your turn you can move a piece, create babies, fight, place a city etc In order to make babies you have to have pieces on the plains. In order to be able to move further, have more pieces on each hex etc you need to progress up the technology chart the winner of each round gets to advance quicker than the rest getting the advantages early. This is a really good game where there is a lot to think about and a lot to do tactically to enable you to gain the most VP's at the end. I really enjoyed this game and look forward to playing this again in the future.

[carldjcross]

First up last night was Red November, a coop game all about a group of old style-Soviet goblins (!)  surviving an hour in their rapidly deteriorating sub. Just an hour? How hard can that be?

Pretty hard as it turned out as our team of goblins was crushed (or run out of oxygen or blew the reactor up; I forget which turn track eventually ran out) seconds from victory. So what went wrong?

Just like my first game of Pandemic I was convinced we had the game beat for the first four-fifths of the game and just like Pandemic the home straight of the game was tense, analytical and eventually beat us into the ground within sight of the finish line.

A lot of the strategy depends on managing time. As you spend time to increase your chances of success more “event cards” or as they were christened last night, “Bad Things” are drawn from the deck which mean that more problems (fires, floods and locked doors mainly) spring up and need to be dealt with by spending yet more time.

We ultimately lost I reckon because we failed to protect the reactor, engine room and missile bay until it was too late. Right at the end we needed to put out two fires, crowbar open a door and shut down the reactor. We just plain ran out of time. Oh, that and not enough drinking was done which wasn't helped by the Captain's drink cabinet being underwater for most of the game.

A nice game that came in at about an hour and a half and perhaps would have been shorter with experienced players and one that I'd definitely play again despite the undersized board being a bit fiddly.

After that we obviously felt like a bit of competition so Richard pulled out Powerboats.

Always fun and quick to play and true to form Peter and Richard spent much of their time compete ting for first place. Richard eventually pipped Peter in the last race leaving Paul and myself to see who could make the least amount of stupid mistakes and fluffed rolls. I'm not sure the scoring system in Powerboats is entirely fair given that Paul seemed to consistently place better than me but was took fourth place because I had beaten him in the last race.

[carldjcross]

Although we didn’t know it at the time the first two games we played tonight were connected.

First up tonight was Pandemic. This was the second time I’m played this co-op game and the first time we’ve won even if it was only by the skinniest of skin of our teeth.

I do like Pandemic. I like how the game changes substantially with each role you are assigned (I was the all important medic this time around) but as with any co-op game more experienced players are bound to take over. I’m not sure I want to play too many games where I didn’t notice that I’d taken my turn!

We won even though we had ran out of cards because we could cure all the diseases before we would have needed to take a new one. A really close run thing and thanks to Richard not so much reading the rules as litigating with them.

Then we played a new game by the designer of Pandemic, Roll Through the Ages a civ building Yahtzee variant that plays in under an hour. It’s a little pricey at just under £25 but the all wood components are nice and fit the theme well and you get a stack of player pads that should last for years.

Everyone agreed that it was a fun game with some interesting choices to be made. Peter managed to win mainly by discovering medicine and then infecting everyone else with the plague while Richard’s Kim Jong-Ils style of leadership (he didn’t feed his population for most of the game!) got him second place. Phil came next and I scraped a pathetic minus eight to come in fourth.

We finished up with a game of Race for the Galaxy which was the first time I’d played with the Gathering Storm expansion. Not that it made much difference as I was only just about hanging on to what was actually going on in each round. I still hate the Byzantine iconography of the cards which makes them so hard to read which is a shame because I’m sure that lurking underneath is a game I’d really enjoy.  With that in mind I’m promised a game of San Juan next week.

Richard won this one with Peter, Phil and myself following. In the end I didn’t disgrace myself too much thanks to some coaching from Richard.

[EvilGinger]

There is and once you get your head around the iconography it it plays very well and is fun especially two player. It does help not having Richard around as some times its more fun to blunder around and  find stuff out by oneself than be advised by Richard of the right way to do it. Indeed if you want a go at it any time I would happily drag may set along to a convenient Pub for a game.

Don't get me wrong I like Richard, but some times like many if not all of my friends family and acquaintances I find him irritating because of some of his behaviours. /Rant   



 

[carldjcross]

It does help not having Richard around as some times its more fun to blunder around and  find stuff out by oneself than be advised by Richard of the right way to do it. Indeed if you want a go at it any time I would happily drag may set along to a convenient Pub for a game.

Don't get me wrong, there was still plenty of blundering going on! Thanks for the offer though.

[carldjcross]

As promised last week we started off with a game of San Juan to help me lay my Race for the Galaxy issues to bed. Did I understand it? Was it more fun than Race for me? Yes and Yes. Did I do any better at it. Sadly not.

While Liddy romped home almost unopposed but ably assisted by a more experienced player I left the way clear for Paul and Phil to fight it out for second place. Phil pipped Paul to the post with a couple of points lost to a rash Chapel investment and I was left looking at a score under 20.

I would love to play this again, especially Paul's slightly “pimped” version which made role cards so easy to see and use. Especially since I've been practising with the Java version in the meantime!

To end the evening we split into two groups with Paul and Phil going off to play that Galactic Senate simulator thing while we dumbed down with Pirate's Cove.

Edit: Liddy's helper and major domo pirate was Ian.

This is a game with a lot of theme and a lot of luck but still manages to be a fun way to spend an hour and a half. We got lucky with our first “pirate” which turned out to be an undefended treasure ship which sadly Liddy beat me to. After a brief spell of being chased around the board by the Dread Pirate (Robert perhaps?) the Royal Navy turned up to sort us all out only being bested about half way into the game but not before it was used as a shuttlecock to punish some players and cover the tracks of others.

It's easy to feel victimised in a game where a bad dice roll can ruin any plan you may have had but strangely the better and more considered players did seem to come out on top. So that was me last again! After a titanic struggle at Treasure Island on the last turn Liddy's adviser from San Juan came first (sorry, forgot to ask his name!) followed closely by Phillsy. The game was surprisingly close in the end.

[carldjcross]

First up tonight was Caylus: Magna Carta, a game which is much more difficult to describe than play.

As the players work their way towards building a castle (represented by, you guessed it, VP counters) they must play cards in a “road” which they or the other players can then place their workers on to gain resources. There are a couple of nice twists to keep things interesting. 

Just like Le Havre you can own spaces which earn you bonuses when other players use them. The Provost adds an element of “take that” and allows you to effectively block an opponents resource gathering,  for sometimes hefty, sometimes temptingly low price. Just to complicate matters further the turn order for some crucial phases (like moving the Provost and buying VPs) is determined by when you pass your turn. Should you pass first for a chance to buy Vps (which are worth less as the game progresses) or should you risk going for another resource? Lots of decisions and ways to win in this one.

Peter was the first to grab a high scoring building card and that continued to be his strategy for the rest of game, ignoring the run of the mill VPs. Eventually both Phillsy and Richard followed with at least one building each. Not buying one of these was a huge mistake on my part but there seemed to be always something else to spend my scant resources on.

Although Peter won convincingly nobody was very far behind, even me thanks to grabbing a fair few high point VP counters early in the game.

Caylus: Magna Carta is a really nice quickish game (it took about an hour and a half with rules explanations) with some real subtleties that I look forward to exploring in another game.

 After that and back by popular demand was Roll Through the Ages.

This time we managed what felt like a full game with all the monuments being built. There was much less in the way of  disasters this time around (making my defensive purchase of medicine a bit of a waste of time) and some competition to build the bigger, high scoring monuments which was kick started by Philsy's early building program.

Peter must have been sacrificing something on the altar of the dice gods because they were smiling, Clash of the Titans like, on his game tonight. He managed to roll a lot of workers to start with allowing him to build his civilisation quickly which gave him an early lead and although Richard and myself weren't too far behind at that stage we didn't manage to capitalise on it as effectively as Peter did.

When the dust was settled and the histories written Peter had an empire of 7 cities which was enough to hand him a convincing 40 point victory which was a good 20 points clear of his nearest competitor although given a turn more and it would have been closer.

I like this game more each time I play it and it's so easy to teach since everything is on the record sheet. I owe Phil a game of this sometime too.

[EvilGinger]

Phil is often available for a quick game on Friday nights and I could be persuaded to join in as well

[Zarniwoop]

Tonight I played a 2 player game of Carpe Astra and I was pleasently surprised to find this plays extremely well with two players keeping the same atmosphere as a game with more players. I lost, as this is my game and the universe may implode if I start winning my own games, but it was a close run thing.

[Zarniwoop]

Tonight we played a game of Magblast always a classic. Players take control of a command ship control a fleet of ships. Each player takes it in turn to blast away at the competition and the winner is the last person surviving. The artwork and gameplay are superb and you can't beat a game where if you fail to make a silly sound effect for you laser blast you miss your intended target 

Feeling a bit under the weather this was my inly game that night, but the others went on to play a couple of games of Rumis.

[carldjcross]

Phil is often available for a quick game on Friday nights and I could be persuaded to join in as well

I'd love to but think this may be pushing my luck a little bit too far with my wife. Maybe, at some far and probably fictional point in the future...

[carldjcross]

Tonight we played a game of Magblast always a classic.

We guessed. Right about the time we heard the first "fzzzwoppppp buddabuddabudda" or whatever inventive sounds you came up with. 

Get well soon!

[EvilGinger]

Phil is often available for a quick game on Friday nights and I could be persuaded to join in as well

I'd love to but think this may be pushing my luck a little bit too far with my wife. Maybe, at some far and probably fictional point in the future...

Well I did not specify any particular Friday and Phil needs to have something to distract him whilst the magic crowd are in most friday's. I wouldn't want to get any one especially not you in trouble with the management

[carldjcross]

Feeling more dopey than usual last night due to a cold and the stuff I'm taking like a southern lightweight to get rid of it. 

What was the Yatzhee animal thing called? Anyone remember?

[CrazyFrog]

Wildlife Rescue

http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=4348

Or lets hunt the animals