I arrived at Hypermind at 5:30ish, after picking up some games and my wife's camera from home. The retail section of the new location is coming along nicely, but I was horrified to see that most of my hard work last week in clearing space for gaming tables was undone over the weekend thanks to needing to clear off Wade's truck! Alton was sitting back there chatting. While we waited to see if more people would show up, I satisfied some curiosity and tried a solitaire run of Kingsburg. Since there are no actual rules for such madness, I decided to delcare all "highest" or "lowest" as ties and to not use the two-player "interference" rule (where you roll unused dice to pre-claim some advisors), just to see what kind of score I could get; in retrospect, that may have been a little over-powering, as I earned 10 free VP (2 each year, at the beginning of summer and winning the battle at year's end with the "highest" total) and one free resource every start of spring, but hey -- I was bored. I think I wound up with a total in the mid-40s.

The Settlers of Catan


While that was going on, a group of new patrons came into the store and Denise persuaded a few of them to try a game of Cartagena (along with Ian).

I'm not sure how it went, but we agreed to wait on them to finish so we could show them our Game of the Month! (and perennial gateway game), The Settlers of Catan. We had Alton's edition set up and ready to go, and soon we were explaining things and got underway. After some initial confusion, most of them picked up the basics quickly (although "trade only on your turn" took quite some time, and keeping score seemed to escape them). The game went on long, even with the Special Build Phase, and Alton and I could tell that it was beginning to wear on their attention spans; we did what we could to keep order and control, but it wasn't easy with four new players. Fortunately, I was able to put the game away not long after thanks to some key Development cards, ultimately cruising to 11 points on the back of my Largest Army. The game was very well-received by the newcomers, and now that their first game is under their collective belts I am actually curious to see how they do in subsequent plays.

Race for the Galaxy

Chip arrived in the middle of Settlers, adding in some strategic advice as needed and helping to keep things moving. Once we put the GotM! to rest for the week (or perhaps not...), the three of us started up a Race for the Galaxy while the newcomers attempted a game of Liar's Dice that I believe was aborted due to either confusion and/or time issues. Our Race, however, went to completion and was neck-and-neck(-and-neck). Alton spent a lot of time Exploring, but was leeching off Chip and me playing a lot of Develop and Settles, as he had a full tableau by the game's end; now that I look at it again, he seemed to be setting up for some devastating Diversified Economy action, but I can't be certain.



I stalled early after drawing a bunch of mid-cost worlds and developments, but after a Trade to restock I was able to really turn things around with a Consumer Markets-powered Production phase that gained me seven(!) cards and threatened to do some real damage. Fortunately for the others, they were both already at 11 and the game ended before I was able to hit a Consume x2, although not before I was able to put down the Free Trade Association to make up some massive points (that dev alone was worth 10VP!).



But it would be Chip emerging victorious on this day, riding Replicant Robots to some high-scoring discount ALIEN worlds (plus Terraformed World) and trading in his New Military Tactics to help conquer the Malevolent Lifeforms -- one of several sources of gene goods that kept his hand full via Trades (especially with his Research Labs).



Alton feels that he's still a couple of experiments away from becoming truly adept at this game, while Chip has finally become comfortable enough to improve his rating; I, on the other hand, will probably continue to love this game until my cards are worn out! This game was a good example as to why, with the three of us were separated only by a span of 8VP at game's end and remaining close pretty much the entire time. The facts that there aren't a lot of bits and the game typically lasts under 45 minutes are also huge plusses for me.

Yspahan

We finished off the night with a game of Yspahan, as Alton was curious to give that a shot after seeing it compared to Kingsburg in last week's recap. I used both the "build without camels" and "build without gold" cards to claim key buildings early on and took an early lead, but Chip took advantage of a poor second week on my part to surge ahead. I attempted a last-day gamble, paying for three additional dice that I hoped would move me into the Vase neighborhood for massive points (a single five would have earned me 10 points, I think, thanks to my Crane and +2 Neighborhood Bonus), but rolled ZERO ONES on twelve dice and couldn't catch up in time.

Tune in Thursday for a special "Ides of March" edition of the Hypermind Boardgamers!

The Settlers of Catan: The Fishermen of Catan

It was one of our less-populated Board Game Nights, but we had our solid core of four (Alton, Chip, Mark, and myself) assembled by six and decided to put our Game of the Month! to bed early. We opted to go with gold mines and fishing, as that went fairly well during our "Ides of March" Thursday session. While we were setting up, Ian talked his mom into letting him stick around, so we quickly re-set for the 5-6 player expansion and we were off.



Not a very exciting game, as we were all fairly even for most of the duration. About halfway through the game we realized that we hadn't been utilizing the "Special Build Phase" and decided to just keep going that way, which only hurt those of us with full hands a few times -- mostly me! Alton nearly completed a cross-Catan Expressway to lock up Longest Road (although I came close to usurping that claim with a cul-de-sac in one of my two isolated port communities) while Mark emphasized massive resource production to pull into the lead. In the end, however, it was Chip who started hitting the big numbers and, combined with the muscle of his Largest Army, ultimately claimed victory.

Time -- 49 minutes
Scores -- Alton 7, Chip 11, Chris 7, Mark 8, Ian 5
Ratings -- Alton 10, Chip 9, Chris 7.5, Mark 9

As I mentioned in the comments for last week and Catan: Cities & Knights, I'm not terribly enthused by the Catan series. I don't really mind playing them or anything, but I will try to find anything else to play first. I think the random resource production is what knocks the game down a few pegs for me, as dice are the most fickle of RNGs. The Fishermen variant is slightly more palatable, as it offsets some of the disadvantage of choosing (or being forced) to build on the coast and there are a variety of useful effects available. I'd also be willing to give the game a shot using the Event Deck rather than the dice; I guess I just trust cards more when it comes to strategy (dice are for role-playing!).

Race for the Galaxy

While Ian was occupied with something else, the conveniently-numbered four of us reflexively went for our unofficial "Game of the Year" so far. As always, the game was tight and competition fierce. Alton, based on his homeworld of New Sparta, was a little slow in developing his military but came on strong towards the end and even settled (that's right, settled) the Deserted ALIEN Library although he was never able to trade that bad boy off (or indeed do much of anything in the way of consumption, which definitely hurt him on this occasion). I lost focus early on, shifting from a Contact Specialist strategy into a hybrid of it and Rare Earth which cost me precious tempo in the long run, including a key Consume phase where I needed to go x2 to stay competitive but had to Trade to refill my hand, opting for the latter; I would be the one to place my 12th card to end the game, which probably saved me from being crushed even further. Chip and Mark were both on a Consumption-oriented path, each of them hitting a x2 VP at least twice, with Mark sneaking away with the win thanks to gaining 10VP off one phase via his Diversified Economy and other shenanigans.

(As tends to be the case with RftG, the game moved so quickly that by the time it occurred to me to take a picture we had already packed everything up.)

Time -- 28 minutes
Scores -- Alton 27, Chip 31, Chris 24, Mark 36
Ratings -- Alton 9.5, Chip 8, Chris 10, Mark 9.5

Ave Caesar

Looking for something different (and with Ian back in the mix), Alton suggested that we go with Chip's Ave Caesar, which I had missed on its previous outing. Our first five-chariot race featured Mark playing obstructer in the early goings of the first lap, only to wind up stalled out for three turns straight thanks to some later maneuvering of his opponents!



It was in this game that we learned that the Shepherd family apparently comes from a long line of Roman Charioteers, as young Ian took command of the first two races with a pair of victories. I was in a distant second, with the rest of the pack more or less even in totals.

Time -- 35 minutes (2 races)
Combined Scores -- Alton 4 (4th, 4th), Chip 5 (2nd, 5th), Chris 7 (3rd, 2nd), Mark 4 (5th, 3rd), Ian 12 (1st, 1st)

Magic: The Gathering player Eric Navarro joined us for two more races, and although he finished 6th and 5th in them he may have given the group a new catch-phrase with his deadpan delivery of "That's unfortunate," in response to his opponents' woes. I took top honors in the first of our six-horse events at the Circus Maximus, with Ian finishing far enough back (dead last!) that my second-place finish (after dominating most of the latter laps) in our final race ensured my combined win despite his fourth-round victory. That's right: the sixth-grader won three out of four races that night!



Time -- 40 minutes (2 races)
Combined Scores -- Alton 4 (3rd, 5th), Chip 4 (4th, 4th), Chris 10 (1st, 2nd), Mark 7 (2nd, 3rd), Ian 6 (6th, 1st), Eric 1 (5th, 6th)
Overall Ratings -- Alton 7.5, Chip 7.5, Chris 7.5, Mark 7.5

For me, Ave Ceasar is a solid title, but doesn't really provide enough variety to be anything more than an occasional play. The fact that all of our ratings (of those who recorded one) were 7.5 supports this theory. While we did run the full four races recommended, we at least had them broken up into two separate events. I think that made it a bit more palatable; four races in a row with the same players seems like it would be trying towards the end of the third and miserable midway through the fourth.

Kingsburg

To finish out the night, we noticed that there were five of us (we thought Ian was going home, as it was already 9pm) and the store's copy of Kingsburg was conveniently lying around. While we were setting up, however, Ian informed us that he wasn't going anywhere; fortunately, Eric decided to just watch this one so we were soon good to go, as Ian already knew how to play so we didn't have to explain anything.

The story of this game was essentially Mark building up to the Embassy early on and riding that to a crazy number of VP. Alton did what he could by accelerating through the Religious buildings and sitting on a pile of gold in his Cathedral at the end of the game, but it wasn't to be. The rest of us were there, but pretty much non-factors.



Time -- 77 minutes
Scores -- Alton 42, Chip 37, Chris 35, Mark 45, Ian 31
Ratings -- Alton 8, Chip 8.5, Chris 8, Mark 8, Ian 8

Kingsburg continues to prove itself a solid game with well-received mechanics that few of us can justify actually purchasing. It's unfortunate, really.

Before we left, there was the matter of what to pick as our first game for the second year of our Game of the Month! program. That's right, twelve months ago we got things rolling with Tigris & Euphrates and have now come around for another April. With our leading contenders being Puerto Rico and Cuba, we opted to go with the larger Caribbean island based on simple availability: Mark has a copy of Cuba, while the only copies of PR available to the group are "the other" Ian's (MIA for some time now), Chris Norwood's (unavailable for most of April), and Jim's (unreliable attendance).

As a side note, I noticed that Cuba's price tag has the same numbers on it as Kingsburg's. If I weren't rabidly waiting for the release of Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm, I'd be taking another serious look at KB. (Then again, there's also Primordial Soup... and the store has a copy of KB).

Anyway, with Chris N doing the New Dad Thing for most of April, I'm going to take over the Glog duties for next month; it's just easier that way. I think I'm going to try a slightly different format, too. See you then!