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How to win a Kniziathon
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Last weekend, at Gamestorm 9 in Portland OR, I was fortunate enough to win the Kniziathon ( http://www.convivium.org.uk/kgkniziathon.htm). Afterwards, people would ask me how I did it, and my initial reaction was, "I don't know." I played a lot of Knizia games and won a couple of them, but I'd also stunk up the place more than once. And while I met the second place finisher, Tom Powers, in a couple of my games, I never played with third-place Zontziry Johnson (who, incidentally, is also in my game group at home) at all, at least during the Kniziathon itself. So, while there's probably many ways to do well in a Kniziathon, here's a geeklist exploring how I did it, the games I played, and general thoughts about the Kniziathon experience. I'd like to thank Chris Brooks for running the Kniziathon and the selfless, overworked volunteer staff that made Gamestorm a great con. I'd also like to apologize for not giving the names of the great people I played with; I neglected to write them down, an oversight I will correct at future cons. Final Kniziathon score: 136
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Posted On: 2007-04-09 22:49:03
Edited On: 2007-04-10 22:41:24
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I call do-overs!
The way a Kniziathon works is you play a bunch of Knizia games, and total the points you get for each, based on your position and the "weight" of the game. If you play a game more than once, only your best score counts. Thus, it pays more to play many Knizia games rather than the same one over and over - which is good, because why do a Kniziathon if you don't want to cram in as many Knizia games as you can? T&E was the only game I played in more than one session, and I did benefit from the replay: my first game I came in last, and my second game I came in first, both times with three players. But this kind of point grubbing was mostly incidental; I signed up for both sessions just to make sure I got into one, and I would have given up my seat if somebody else needed it. But we had multiple copies of the game, and playing T&E multiple times is a worthy end unto itself - especially since I had only played once before, about 10 years ago - so I probably would have replayed this one even without the Kniziathon.
This is a deep game where I feel like I'm reacting rather than planning; in the second game I was able to grab a bunch of green tiles at the end during an external conflict that got me the last treasure and ended the game. I ended up winning on the second tie-break, with the green tiles the difference. I would like to claim it was brilliant strategy, but the best I can say is that I did recognize what to do when the green tiles came up.
Weight:4
Position: 1 of 3
Kniziathon points: 20
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Posted On: 2007-04-09 18:24:47
Edited on: 2007-04-09 22:07:34
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Winning isn't everything
This is on my lifetime "nickel" list, and I was happy to have a chance to play this again. Unfortunately, the player to my left bigfooted me out of a couple key provinces in the New Dynasty, starting a downward money/point spiral that left me in last place. Some Knizia "expert" I turned out to be.
So, losing a game badly obviously doesn't disqualify you from contention in the Kniziathon, even with a heavyweight game. You never actually lose points, so play a lot and you can cover some stinkfests.
Weight:4
Position: 5 of 5
K-points: 4 |
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Posted On: 2007-04-09 18:32:00
Edited on: 2007-04-10 12:35:19
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The game's the thing
This game was a blast. We had five guys who caught on quickly and we steamed through one game with enough time to play a second. A negotiation game like this requires that everybody be in the right frame of mind, and we all were - lots of good-natured finger-pointing and complaining and negotiating and weaselling in and out of deals, played at warp speed with a bunch of great people. Absolutely the best experience of the con for me.
This game has a K-weight of 3, which I think is too high; the guidelines suggest "3" games should be an hour long, and this group could have finished three games in that time. The speed helped me in another way, too, by allowing me to play a second game, which I won. I would suggest that anybody who wants to compete seriously in a Kniziathon include a few games of this. The K-point to effort ratio is probably as high as any game in Knizia's catalog - and it's pretty fun, too.
Weight:3
Position: 1 of 5
K-points: 18
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1 Comment []
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Posted On: 2007-04-09 18:34:16
Edited on: 2007-04-09 18:35:51
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Winning is something, though
This was maybe my fifth or sixth time playing this fun and lightweight game. I was stunned when I actually won, because I had no 5 story buildings, which is usually the kiss of death (especially if others do). But an early ending just after I reconstructed into two homogenous 4-buildings was enough to put me over the top.
This is another game with a K-weight of 3, which puts it on par with Taj Mahal and Ra. I just can't see that, even if (or especially if) the weightings are supposed to represent time commitment rather than some abstract measure of actual weightiness. There's no way this game should take more than 45 minutes, even with new, slow players (one of which we had).
Weight: 3
Position: 1 of 4
K-points: 15
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Posted On: 2007-04-09 18:37:33
Edited on: 2007-04-09 22:09:25
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Numbers Matter
I was the only one of the five of us who had played before; this is not quite a "nickel" for me yet. With two full tables signed up, it fell to me to explain most of the game as it went along, and I found myself not paying a great deal of attention to actually playing, at least at first. I ended up going for resources (i.e. elephants and octogons), which I think is a much easier strategy to figure out than trying to form city-chains. So I was surprised that none of the others were doing the same thing - at least until later, once they saw how many points I racked in by picking up my sixth tea and fourth rice. In the end, however, one other player had kept control of the +2 card most of the game, managed to grab the +4 Agra token, and ended up acing me out by one point by having an extra white card at the end. One thing about the elephant strategy is that you don't win a lot of cities and thus don't pick up a lot of bonus cards. So you have to rely on the other players to grab those two yellows and steal the +2 card away from the guy who has it, and the only times that happened he stole it right back.
Does this really have a K-weight of only 3? I feel it is one of Knizia's deepest and most strategic games, and certainly stacks up with Amun Re. The Kniziathon guidelines suggest that the 4-weight games are those that last over an hour, and I really think Taj Mahal qualifies on that score. It certainly lasted long enough to make me miss the game of Cities and Knights I had scheduled.
A five player Knizia game also hits some K-point sweet spots - the position points go 6, 5, 3, 2, 1 for first through fifth place, which means coming in second in a five-player game nets you as many points as winning a 4-player game (which go 5, 4, 2, 1). As long as you can avoid third or worst most of the time, these five player games are a great way to rack up the K-points.
Weight: 3
Position: 2 of 5
K-points: 15 |
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1 Comment []
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Posted On: 2007-04-09 18:39:44
Edited on: 2007-04-09 19:02:09
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Pack your schedule
This game fits a nice niche of 45-minute games that take some thought to play but not a lot to learn. Most of the time I see at least one player try to close the others out of their buildings, which I think is usually a mistake; you get more bang for your buck if you spread your contributions around and give the other players a reason to finish buildings for you. The difference in reward between winning a building and merely contributing is not that much, especially later when the neighborhood is built up.
The main reason I played this game at the con was that it fit nicely into my schedule. Pickup games do count towards the Kniziathon, but most of the games I played I signed up for ahead of time, and that was a good way to make sure I packed as many Knizia games in as I could. I like the game, but I don't know if I would have gone out of my way to play without the Kniziathon. On the other hand, because it plays so quick, it probably sees a lot of pickup play, so who knows.
Weight: 3
Position: 1 of 4
K-points: 15
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Posted On: 2007-04-09 18:43:18
Edited on: 2007-04-09 22:13:08
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7.
Ra [Average Rating:7.84 Overall Rank:20]
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Experience counts, but not that much
This was the only Kniziathon game on my lifetime "dime" list. With three experienced players and one newbie, "Ra" was called a lot less often than I was used to, so it was easier to get larger sets. This benefits people with the high numbers (the low number folks should call Ra quite often), but I don't know if that actually made a difference or if I'm just complaining because I never got the really high Sun tiles. I was able to get 7 monuments by the middle of the second round, and actually passed up a chance to get the 8th because I was waiting for a flood. In the end that might have cost me, as my chief rival did complete his 8th in round 3, making it impossible for me to catch up at the end.
On some level, playing games you know well seems like a waste of good convention gaming time. Why bother playing a game you get to play all the time anyway, unless you are grubbing for easy Kniziathon points? But because Ra is an auction game, it depends a lot on group think, and thus it provides a different experience at a con than at home. And while an experienced player probably has an advantage, it's not an overwhelming one.
Weight: 3
Position: 2 of 4
K-points: 12
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Posted On: 2007-04-09 18:46:38
Edited on: 2007-04-09 22:16:24
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Do the math
This is another game I'd previously played just once, and that was almost 15 years ago, with the original German edition. I liked it, but my group (which was my family, back then) didn't, and I never got around to bringing it out again. So I was happy to have a chance to play this again, with (presumably) people who would appreciate it.
I thought the other players were bidding too high for many paintings - once you go above 50% of the likely value, you are making more money for the auctioneer than for yourself, which seemed like a losing strategy.
I finished in fourth place out of five, which shows what I know; in retrospect, it seems obvious that spending 40 to make 60 or whatever is not a bad outcome for you, as long as you get a similar payoff when you auction. A tougher question is when it makes sense to buy your own paintings; it seems clear that usually you want to sell, to get more money and to get another guy working with you. But the eventual winner bought his own painting towards the end, which was a key move since he won by less than 10 bucks out of 500.
Weight: 3
Position: 4 of 5
K-points: 6
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1 Comment []
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Posted On: 2007-04-09 18:49:06
Edited on: 2007-04-09 19:05:17
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Posted On: 2007-04-10 16:32:37
