|
Gathering 2007
|
|
|
I think this is the first of many GL reports on this year's event. I'll try to update the list as the event goes on.
|
|
|
|
|
Posted On: 2007-04-01 08:16:46
Edited On: 2007-04-10 23:24:54
|
|
1 , 2 , 3 Next »
|
|
|
This is year #2 for us - yay! This GL is my report from last year's event. When offered the chance to preregister on site, we'd jumped at it: this was days (and days!) of gaming fun! I chose the McMulti pic because it was one of the many new (to me) games I got to play here last year, that I enjoyed quite a bit. Others included the now-published Friesse dungeon crawl and the soon-to-be-published Race for the Galaxy.
This year we took an extra day off to be sure to enjoy the entire event (missed the last night previously). We arrived Thursday (29 Mar) night but had forgotten to arrange for the free hotel shuttle! Rather than wait 45+ minutes for it, Mary (diceychic) found us an empty and waiting non hotel shuttle. About 20 minutes, $25, and a friendly conversation (with the driver - nice guy) later we found ourselves at The Hotel. It's generally not a bad hotel, although it's certainly not  either!
We checked in without problems, then went down to the gaming area: only a few souls about. We wandered a bit, unpacked our games (first to unpack, I think) then headed up to the room. We stopped at the desk first, though: M was expecting a game shipment (demo copy of Colosseum). The game was here! Or rather, somewhere in the hotel. We waited for about an hour before deciding to give up and get it in the morning! During that hour, we found that the previous occupants of the room had ripped out the phone cables from the wall -- we had to call the front desk with our cellphones! So, off to bed some time past midnight. |
|
|
|
0 Comments
|
Posted On: 2007-03-31 09:48:56
Comment
|
|
|
|
|
30 March ... Day #1!!
We woke up early and headed down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast -- same stuff as last year, and pretty darn good! Then, we picked up our game and headed down to PLAY!
We met some others there (AvaJ, JenniferS, MikeF - "Hey!") and taught ourselves the game. The brief summary: wow, this is fun! But it's not at all what I'd expect from Days of Wonder: the production is, of course, great (cute Romaneeples); but it is a deeper game than most of the others - it feels like Princes of Florence light. It shares many mechanisms with PoF (works = events, similar but different auction, improvement tiles similar to Jester variants) but also has some Settlers-like stuff (trading, dice rolling, largest-army-type thing). Definitely worth trying!
Game Details
The board shows a track with marked starting spaces for the emperor, 2 consul and 3 senator tokens. Each player's colosseum will encircle 2 spaces, and are separated from each other ~equally in predefined locations. In the center there are 5 sets of 3 spaces, filled with Event Asset tiles. Each player gets 2 random events numbered 1-5 and 6-10, 6 random assets, and 30 gold. The rest of the events (events ~ works) are set nearby. Higher numbers have greater requirements for being shown (bigger colosseum size, more event assets); each event has a different mix of assets.
The game is played in 5 turns. Each turn has several phases.
1. Invest: buy stuff (e.g., expand arena [need bigger arenas for bigger shows]; buy season tickets = +5 to show value [~jester], new event program [~PoF personality], or loge = extra die to roll later)
2. Auction. PoF style with a twist. Starting player puts up a lot (group of 3 events) to auction. Last to pass wins. If auction initiator wins, refill all empty market spaces and next player initiates; if not, initiate again. Everyone who has NOT won a lot is eligible to bid. Each player gets a chance to initiate a bid, win a lot, or pass. Minimum bid = 8 gold.
3. Trade. Settlers-style trading of any Event Tokens between active player and others. For most asset types, the player with most (minimum 3) gets the "star performer" token = +4 bonus to show value using that asset type.
4. Produce Event. In turn, players do BOTH:
a. roll d6 (2d6 if you have loge); for each die, move a nobleman clockwise on the score track. If it lands on a resting space, get a medal from the bank. Medals can be returned to bank at various times: 6 gold any time; move a nobleman 1-3 spaces forward OR backward (b); +3 modifier to show value (b); turn 2 in during step 1 to take a second investment action.
b. announce the event they're showing. Calculate value (~PoF prestige points). Basic value (#spectators) is shown on the program; value decreases for each missing asset. You may repeat a show from a previous turn. Apply all bonuses (star performers, season tickets, emperor medals turned in, noblemen in colosseum, other completed shows, etc.): if higher than player's previous highest value show, move indicator forward on score track. Player earns that much gold.
5. Charity. The player with the best show gets the podium (+3 modifier to all shows). The player with the worst show then gets to take 1 Regular (non-special) asset token from player in the lead.
Start player rotates each phase. At end of 5 phases (skip step 5 in last turn), the player with the best show wins!
7/10 |
|
|
|
0 Comments
|
Posted On: 2007-03-31 21:59:33
Edited on: 2007-04-11 11:17:31
Comment
|
|
|
|
|
JS kindly drove us to Chipotle Grill for lunch (there's not much within walking distance, and what's there is just OK). CG is a Mexican restaurant chain serving freshly made food that you custom order (burritos, tacos, fajitas with various meats and sauces): good sized portions, and very tasty! We stuffed ourselves silly, then headed back to the gaming area.
Bryan (the designer aka SwedeLad) and his wife had been demoing this game. Mary, Ava and I decided to try it; Bryan taught and the 4 of us played. It's an interesting game -- a good design, although not necessarily one I'd play very often. Will have to try it one more time.
It's a resource management game where you're trying to generate enough money to bid for the Emperor's favor and pay the fees to hire laborers, buy building material, build blocks, etc. Victory points are awarded by area influence, with areas defined by the 3 wall areas and level of blocks (within each area, scoring occurs when a level is complete; there's also scoring when the entire level, across all 3 areas, is complete.
Each round starts with a blind bid (money) for the emperor's favor: the winner goes first (then clockwise), and also receives a favor chip and an emperor's block (functions as a neutral color building block that you may place this turn, for example to finish a level). Play is driven by role cards -- each player has one (identical) set; they will play 3 of them, one at a time, each round. The cards allow you to hire peasants, buy material, and build 1 or 2 blocks; each action has a variable cost depending on how many you buy. Other roles give you money, allow you to gain convicts, destroy a block, take all convicts in your province, move your taskmaster token to a different area, etc. There are some special actions, too: e.g., the favor chips allow you to take the role card just played back into your hand, and play again. Most points are awarded for building blocks and completing levels. The tricky part of building is that it consumes not only building blocks, but also workers (half of all peasants used, and ALL convicts used)! So you are balancing goals of generating money, using money to do things, build, maintain a labor force, maintain area majority, etc. At the end of the game there is final scoring, with points awarded for majority of blocks built, most money, etc.
There's a lot going on in the game, with tough decisions throughout. It seemed to play a bit slowly, although perhaps only because 3 of us were new to it. I will hopefully play it again here -- needs another look.
7/10 |
|
|
|
0 Comments
|
Posted On: 2007-03-31 22:39:10
Edited on: 2007-04-10 20:15:26
Comment
|
|
|
|
|
Wandering around again, I saw some folks from Syracuse (ScottN, KenD, IanM) at the Colosseum table. None had played it, and I wanted to try it again - so I did! This game was different: the emperor and other tokens hardly moved at all! Ian did great even without expanding to a size 4 colosseum. Scott won, helped in large part by a very fortunate auction draw (3 musicians and the star performer for $8! And exactly what he needed for his size-4 production!). I was 3rd, a good ways behind.
This was a bit less fun for me than my first game! That could, of course, be because I didn't do nearly as well this time! But I wonder if the game is better with 5? At least, it's different -- the emperor/consul/senator tokens didn't move nearly as much (fewer people rolling, fewer loges) so some people may benefit more easily from them? Will need to see ... still an excellent game, though. |
|
|
|
0 Comments
|
Posted On: 2007-03-31 22:46:38
Comment
|
|
|
|
|
Almost ready for bed! But we decided to play a "quick" game of this.
We had to go through the rules several times (one of us was VERY tired) but we finally got going. It was less quick than it should have been, though, because M decided to go help the next group learning how to play Colosseum (Ralph and I took the time to read through EVERY special power in the game!)!
As usual, I lost miserably 7-5-4 (good game, Ralph!). See http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/158458 for my comments on the game.
7/10 |
|
|
|
0 Comments
|
Posted On: 2007-03-31 22:50:54
Edited on: 2007-04-10 20:16:40
Comment
|
|
|
|
|
31 March ... Day #2
We'd been up late, and M hadn't slept much at all. By the time we left the room today, it was already time for lunch! We decided on something quick, and just ate at the hotel restaurant (not very good buffet of hotdog and burger, with dry but tasty cheesecake). Then down for gaming.
Mary again taught a group Colosseum. I wandered around and found TedA teaching Brian and Rebecca Wizard, and joined them (they'd played Oh Hell, but not Wizard). It's a pretty standard trick-taking game with a few tweaks: wizards = super-trump; jesters = anti-trump; lose points if don't win exactly the right number of tricks; progressively larger hands, from 1-->15 (in a 4er game). Ted played with some rules I'd not played before: 1st card is played indian poker style, and the dealer cannot bid to make the total bids equal to the #tricks (sort of a screw-the-leader situation!). I tend to overbid, and for most of the game was in last or second-to-last because I kept missing my bid: Ted and Brian were out front, and Becca and I were a SIGNIFICANT way back. As our hand sizes increased, though, I got lucky on some hands while Ted fed Brian a few too many tricks: Ted won (with 460!), and I made it all the way to second (290)!
A good game, although the beginning feels pretty random!
7/10 |
|
|
|
0 Comments
|
Posted On: 2007-03-31 23:01:18
Edited on: 2007-04-10 20:17:23
Comment
|
|
|
|
|
Getting ready for dinner, but found 3 who wanted to play this (all new). I started to teach, but didn't really remember much -- David kindly volunteered to teach (thanks!)
A solid tile-laying, area-influence game. Plays in about 45 minutes but there's a lot going on, with some good decisions to make throughout.
Players are gods creating the world, which consists of land and sea areas (islands, continents), populating it with civilizations, gaining followers, building temples, etc; get points based on the importance of each civ. Most points wins.
Start the game with 2 tiles in hand, and Start Tile on the table in play. Turn sequence:
1. Play a tile. Can add it to board, or replace previous tile (except one with a pyramid on it). If the tile you place has a temple on it (keyed to 1 of the 3 icons on the tiles) that is part of a civ, get 1VP per matching icon on the continent that the civ controls. Replacing a tile can cause 2 civs to come into contact (War) or divide a civ's continent, forcing it to move to one of the new areas (Migrate); in either case, you must discard one of your followers. Wars are resolved by the # of sword icons in each civ; ties decided by player. Losing civ is removed from board, and all players lose those colored followers. In Migration, the civ preferentially goes to the continent with more grain-icons (and prefers continents to islands).
2. Either start a new civ (if 1 of the 5 in the game is still off board, AND there's an unoccupied continent) or take a follower (if there's one available in the pool that matches a civ already in play). If you start a new civ, you get a number of followers equal to # grain-icons on the continent.
3. Optional: turn in 1 of your 3 scoring markers to score all your followers. Each follower is equal to 1VP per cup-icon on the continent their civilization controls.
4. Draw a tile to add to your hand. If you draw an Epoch card, Epoch Scoring occurs: all players score for their followers. Each follower is worth as many VP as there are pyramids in that civ's continent. Draw a replacement tile (repeat till you have 2 non-Epoch tiles in hand).
Game ends when all players have used all their (3) scoring tokens, or the 6th, 7th or 8th Epoch tile is scored (for 2, 3 or 4 players).
7/10 |
|
|
|
0 Comments
|
Posted On: 2007-04-01 07:35:30
Edited on: 2007-04-10 20:17:40
Comment
|
|
|
|
|
Larry Whalen, of Face2Face Games, arrived around this time. We roped DanB into driving, and we went back to Chipotle Grill for dinner. This time I had the veggie bowl -- mmm mmm good! (Yes, I know it's not gaming, but this is why our game days are Potluck Game Days!) Dinner was good, although the conversation was way too depressing (we were talking about the war, the person featured in my avatar, etc.). Anyway, after dinner, it was time for prototypes: F2F has several games coming out and they brought them here to let people play them, start talking about them, etc. These are not actually prototypes, since the games are already in their final forms just awaiting release.
Details, approved and encouraged by F2F Games:
Pampas, by Leo Colovini
This game is similar to Masons, but much better IMHO. It takes almost all the randomness away; this can be a brain-burning-type abstract. I generally don't like abstracts so this is not my favorite game. Still, it's a pretty good one.
The board is a random mix of square tiles in a 4x4 grid. Tiles are mostly pampas that can support 3 tokens; some areas are dry and support only 2; there are also inhospitable mountains. Players each get 9 gauchos, 2 cows, 3 sheep, and 4 pigs. The latter are worth 4, 3, and 2 VP. On your turn you either score a region (regions may only be size 3-5) or place tokens. Placing: place a hedge on any un-hedged border between 2 tiles, then place your gaucho on one side of the hedge (anywhere on that side of the board along that row where you don't exceed the space's limit) and an animal on the other (again, anywhere on the row). If you place your gaucho on the edge of the board, you explore: add more tiles to all orthogonally adjacent empty areas. All mountains are immediately surrounded by hedges. Note: you may NEVER place a hedge to create a region |
|
|
|
1 Comment []
|
Posted On: 2007-04-01 07:45:07
Edited on: 2007-04-10 20:18:30
Comment
|
|
|
Posted On: 2007-04-05 23:35:37
Fixed - thanks!