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Hypermind BoardGame Night - April 2007
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Welcome to boardgaming in Burlington, NC! Since my original blog-style Geeklist ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/19363) is getting a little large and unwieldy, I'm taking a suggestion from one of our regular gamers (chiplee) to start a new Geeklist every month to chronicle our gaming adventures and provide a forum for communication both inside and outside our group. Also new starting this month is a new feature to our Game Nights which I respectfully took from Mark Johnson, the host of Boardgames To Go, who on one his very early podcasts ( http://boardgamestogo.com/2005_04_01_boardgamestogo_archive....) mentioned how the Santa Clarita Boardgamers choose a "Game of the Month". After listening to that podcast, I realized that in our Tuesday night sessions, we tend to chaotically play lots of new and different games with little opportunity to really get familiar with any particular game, let alone develop any strategy for it. I therefore brought a few games that I thought would be good candidates to the first week's Game Night, hoping that the rest of the group would take to it. So, with out further ado, on to the games!
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Posted Thu Apr 5, 2007 3:45 am
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This is the original Geeklist for our BoardGame Night. Check it out to catch up on the players and how we got started!
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Our first Game of the Month! is Tigris & Euphrates. The nominations also included Citadels and Shogun.
As I see it, T&E is an excellent choice first because it is a "classic" game, which is well-rated and well-respected by pretty much everybody in the hobby. Also, there is such a depth of play involved in the game which you can't really appreciate with just one play "every so often". The different choices and strategies are something that you really need to experiment with to really understand, and I hope that being Game of the Month! will help us all discover that.
By the way, Game of the Month! does not mean that it is our favorite game for that month or anything, but rather that we will make an effort to play it at least once each week and hopefully discuss it here and in person to help us all develop a better understanding and appreciation for the game. I hope to have a good mix of both classic and new games as the months go on, but that will ultimately be decided by the group as a whole.
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April 3, 2007
I arrived early this week, and even before we had selected it officially as the Game of the Month!, "Magic" Chris and I wanted to take another shot at Tigris & Euphrates. We grabbed James, taught him the game, and got started.
Chris and I were less confrontational (to start with, at least) than we were the last time we played, instead spending a little more time establishing our power base. I built two monuments early (blue/green and red/black) and started getting a constant stream of victory points. James was a little lost, but hopefully he'll be ready for another game soon. Anyway, eventually Chris and I met in the middle of the board, struggling to claim treasures and having a few key conflicts. After doing well early, I found myself at a severe lack of green VP's, so I worked hard to connect myself to the two green monuments. Pretty soon, all the monuments were out and most of the board was covered in one humongous kingdom.
In the end, I managed to rack up a few extra green points by cutting off his trader from the big kingdom via a catastrophe tile and playing my own trader into the kingdom with two green monuments. I edged him out by two or three points for the win.
Meanwhile, Mark, Denise, Alton, and Britt (from our Twilight Imperium Saturday specials) had come in and settled down for a game of Bang!. I'm not sure exactly how many games they played, but the one I caught the end of had them passing dynamite around and ended with Sheriff Britt finishing off Mark in a big time showdown.
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4.
Board Game: Shogun
[Average Rating:7.86 Overall Rank:21]
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April 3, 2007 (continued)
Next, we had the conversation about the Game of the Month! and talked about what to play next. Britt really wanted to try out Shogun, so we decided to give it a shot. Starting the game were Britt, "Magic" Chris, Mark, Chip, and myself. Alton hung around to watch the game and help out the new players.
Now, the first time I played Shogun, I was a little too aggressive with the attacking, wore myself too thin, and got smacked around in the late game. So this time I resolved to play it a little more conservatively. I had a moderate presence in the green, purple, and orange regions, and I tried to focus on fortifying my position and erectng buildings. As the game progressed, however, I still found myself overcommitting and leaving several provinces underdefended.
After the first year, I was in the lead but it was a close race all around. Mark had to go so Alton took over for the yellow horde. I continued to build buildings and everybody seemed to really have the feel of the game. Then, in the last turn, I had two provinces in the orange region decimated, losing 5 buildings and my majority in at least one or two kinds of buildings. Alton was strong and had built lots of buildings, sprinting to a 5 point victory over the next Daimyo to become the Shogun. Meanwhile, I finished second to last...
Britt and Chip both also expressed a concern that Alton had voiced after his first game with Shogun, that it seems to end too soon and too suddenly. Once again, I agree that the two-year cutoff is a little arbitrary, and maybe we'll be able to try a 4 or 5 year game sometime in the future to see if it makes a difference.
During our marathon game, we had five more gamers come in for BoardGame Night. First, there was a group of Elon University students who came in and played a couple of games amongst themselves. They started with a game or two of Taluva, which is one of my favorite new games.
Then they pulled out Betrayal at House on the Hill, which is a game I just haven't played enough lately.
Their names were (left to right) Brandon, Allison, Jonathan, and Kristin (note - another "Chris" for our Dudes Named Chris... except that she's not a dude). I hate that I was involved in such a distracting game, because I wanted to talk with them a little more. They seemed to enjoy themselves, and said that they would join us again, so hopefully I'll get that chance in the near future.
Denise, James, and the newly arrived Jason also started up another game while we were playing Shogun, playing a game or two of Munchkin Bites!.
All in all, for me it was a game of heavy-hitters, and was very satisfying. Can't wait till next week...
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April 7, 2007
I was out of town, but another epic game of Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition was held this Saturday. I'll let those involved give a report when they get a chance.
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April 10, 2007
Once again, we icked off the glorious night of boardgaming with our Game of the Month!, Tigris & Euphrates. I was kinda hoping to have two games of it going this week, but as it turned out we instead had a few people just watch the game to learn it as we played.
Sitting down to start the game was "Magic" Chris, Gwen, Ian (who was playing for the first time) and myself. Alton just decided to watch Gwen play, and Chip showed up a little late and watched at least the last half of the game. I thought I started out pretty well, building kingdoms both "below" the river and up near the only place where four farms can form a monument. Before long, I created the blue/green monument in that area and had both my trader and farmer in the kingdom. I also claimed two treasures pretty early.
Then I began to fall apart. Both Gwen and Chris worked on me, managing to kick out both of my leaders from the kingdom and claiming "my" monument for themselves. In fact, Gwen started up this steamroller that ended up controlling pretty much every important monument for a significant portion of the game.
Chris and I attacked her pretty hard, using our catastrophe tiles to cut her off from her support and causing both internal and external conflicts all over the place. My only reward was having all four of my leaders kicked off the board at one point in the game.
All three guys attempted to recover, but Gwen's control of the mid-game was just too much to overcome. In the end, she ended up with a crazy score, with like three 12 or 13's being tied for her lowest score. I'm pretty embarrased to say that my highest color was on par with her lowest.
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April 10, 2007 (continued)
When T&E was all finished up, several people wanted to give The Princes of Florence a shot.
The players were "Magic" Chris, Gwen, Alton, Mark, and Chip (and it was the first game for the last three). I explained the game pretty quickly and and they got started. I don't know a lot of details from the game, but Chris ended up pulling out the victory with a heavy-Builder strategy (you guys feel free to add some further session notes here). Here was his final Palazzo layout:
Meanwhile, Ian and Sherry taught Denise and me how to play Puerto Rico. Yes, despite being the gamer that I am, I had never, ever played the #1 game here on BGG. I had read the rules online and even some basic strategy, so I felt prepared and was really excited to get this game under my belt.
I took the Settler as my first action and chose a quarry in the first round. Then in the next few rounds, I bought both the small and large markets as well as plants to go along with my coffee, indigo, and sugar plantations. I had heard to focus on economics in the early game and then switch to VP's in the mid-to-late game. But unfortunately, I apparently missed when the transition happened between these two phases.
Meanwhile, Ian was going all-out with a shipping strategy, sending tons of corn and indigo back to Spain, while Sherry played a little more balanced game both by buying buildings and shipping her corn and coffee as well.
I was hanging close, and despite playing the money hand for a little too long, I figured that if I could buy two of the large VP buildings I might have a shot at winning. I picked up the Residence and was planning to also grab the City Hall, but before I could complete my plans, Ian shipped enough goods to exhaust the VP pile and ended the game. He barely edged out Sherry for the win.
After just this one play, I can already see the great attraction so many people feel for this game. It has shot to the top of my wishlist and I can't wait to play it again.
Unfortunately, the end of the game also spelled the end of this week's BoardGame Night, so I'll have to wait for a while to get my chance.
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April 17, 2007
When Gwen and I arrived at Hypermind, "Magic" Chris already had a game of Tigris & Euphrates going strong.
He, Mark, and yet another Chris (the dude in the middle of the picture) played this time. I was busy setting up another game, but from what I understand there wasn't a lot of interaction/conflict at all and the new guy, yet another Chris, ended up with the win.
Meanwhile, we got together a session of what is probably my favorite game right now, The Princes of Florence. Alton, Gwen, and I taught Denise and Britt how to play, then got down to business. Alton went strong with a Builder strategy from the get-go. Gwen was a little more balanced, and I tried for a "works-based" strategy. I picked up another profession and a recruiter card early, along with the "Three Freedoms" prestige card. Near the late game, I took a little lead and had a grand plan where I could complete two works on the final turn for exactly 17 work value each and win the game soundly.
Then Britt happened. He was in the position directly before me, and on his turn he used his newly-acquired Recruiter card to steal one of my completed professions. Now, for me, this was more than just a little bad, beause without that card I could only produce works with a total value of 16... and the requirement in the last round is, of course, 17. Therefore, I was forced to buy a bonus card in order to complete even one work.
Despite that, after the dust settled and the prestige cards were counted, I found myself in front of my lovely wife by exactly one point. I was elated and began my obnoxious victory dance... until "Magic" Chris wandered over and noted that we had not scored prestige for the best work yet. Gwen had, of course, achieved this feat and leaped over me for a two point win.
I guess she is just destined to beat me every time we play this game.
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April 17, 2007 (continued)
While we were still playing The Princes of Florence, the guys at the other table pulled out Vegas Showdown.
I was pretty tied up in the Princes game, so I don't know much other than that I'm pretty sure Mark won.
Afterwards, I recruited a few people to try out a new prototype game that I had volunteered us to playtest. I've always wanted to get into playtesting (and use the cool "Top Secret" picture for the Unpublished Prototype game entry), so I was very excited!
"Magic" Chris, Chip, Alton, and I played while Denise and a couple of other people watched from time to time. Overall, I was very impressed, and I love the theme a lot. I'm not sure how secretive I need to be about it, so I won't say anything more right now until I hear from the designer, Nigel Buckle. Maybe I can give a little more information soon, though.
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10.
Board Game: Rumis
[Average Rating:7.10 Overall Rank:221]
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April 24, 2007
This week was a little disappointing, as several of our regulars apparently couldn't make it. But we still managed to get in a few different games and had a great time.
"Magic" Chris, Mark, Ian, and I started off with a few games of Rumis. I had never played (nor had Chris or Mark, I believe), but explanations only took a couple of minutes and then we were off. In a strange twist of fate, Ian was completely cut off after only move, which he (the owner of the game) had just warned us all about. We were playing the "pyramid", and I (the red pieces above) managed to claim a lot of the outer (1-level) area, so I actually managed to win. In our second game, I didn't do as well, and I think that Ian won. I then sat out the next game to let Zack give it a try...
That was the coolest structure of the night (IMHO), and I think that Chris won that game. I then joined in for one last game, and it was very close. We were all sure that Ian had the game wrapped up, but Chris managed to use all of his pieces and pull out a very slight victory.
Meanwhile, Ian the Younger (Denise and Nick's oldest son) convinced Gwen and Sherry to play a game of The Settlers of Catan. Sherry took control early and (aided by her young advisor, Anita) ran to victory.
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April 24, 2007 (continued)
After Rumis and Settlers were done, we decided to all play something together, and so RoboRally was pulled out. We set up a two-board track, placed the flags, and got started. Just for some variety, we also began the game with one semi-random upgrade card each, and the starting bots looked like this: "Magic" Chris playing Spin Bot with the Scrambler upgrade, Mark plying Twitch with Extra Memory, Ian playing Twonky with a Mechanical Arm, Sherry playing Squash Bot with the Double-Barreled Laser, Gwen playing Hulk X90 with the Gyroscopic Stabilizer, and me playing Zoom Bot with the Rear-Firing Laser.
Things started slowly as many of just kind of spun in place and dealt a little damage to each other. Chris jumped out early and put some distance between himself and the rest of the field. His Scrambler also played havoc with many robots' programming, which helped him out a little as well.
When some of us caught up to him, however, he got entangled with us (provoking several "Power Down"'s for many of us) while Ian/Twonky slipped up the side and taged the flag. Chris and Ian were then in a two-man race to tag the second flag as our time ran short. Because Ian and Sherry had to get Anita home to bed, we had to call the game at a certain time, and after our predetermined "last turn" Ian and Chris were both exactly five spaces away. So in the "Sudden-Death Overtime", they had one more turn to get as close as possible, and Ian actually managed tag the flag with his Mechanical Arm for the win. We still had a lot of fun, but as RoboRally is prone to do, it had drug out long enough.
That left only Chris, myself, and another young player named Brett to play the last game of Tigris & Euphrates, our inaugural Game of the Month!, during its reign.
For a three-player game, this session was pretty brutal. By the end (which was caused by running out of tiles), only two monuments had been built and at least 5 or 6 treasures were still on the board. Anyway, It was Brett's first time playing, so we had to explain the rules to get started, but he seemed to pick up on the mechanics of the game pretty well.
I tried to go off in one corner and play by myself, but Chris kept getting all in my business. I managed to surround my King with four Temples, and soon built the Black/Blue monument in that kingdom where I had also recently placed my Farmer. A crucial point in the game came when Chris built a small kingdom containing his farmer and two farm tiles, then joined it to my larger kingdom in an external conflict where he initially led 2-1. He committed another tile or two, but I had horded 4 farm tiles in my hand which I used to crush him and establish full control of the main kingdom on the board, as well as the only Monument at the time (I was the Potter dynasty, Chris was the Archer, and Brett was the Lion, BTW).
I also managed to weasel myself into a kingdom that Brett had been working on and build the red/green Monument there with both my Priest and Trader attached. Both Chris and Brett invoked catastrophes upon that poor kingdom without mercy, however, and it eventually became useless.
I never seem to know how I'm really doing in this game, however, so I was very surprised when we revealed our scored and I found that I had won handily. My lowest color was green, in which I had 13 points (the others were somthing like red=18, blue=22, and black=25). Both Brett and Chris had only 4 of their lowest color, and it went to the third color before Chris was officially declared the "big loser" of the game.
All in all, I'd say that the Game of the Month! experiment was a big success, and we have chosen The Princes of Florence as our next Game of the Month! for May.
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Posted Wed Apr 4, 2007 7:08 pm
