Four days out of the week, Burlington (NC) gaming store Hypermind is usually filled with card-players or dedicated Clix fans. They arrange themselves in groups of at least four (or at least eight for the Magic players... stupid DCI sanctioning rules), have their little tournaments, and generally make a lot of noise. I know, because I am one of them (although not so much with the Clix).
But Tuesdays are different.
On Tuesday nights, a unique group emerges from their homes, converging on the sleepy little FLGS with but one intent. Their hunger never subsides, and no two meetings are ever the same.
They have waged conflicts between the
Tigris & Euphrates Rivers. They have been crowned the most prestigious
Princes of Florence. Temples to their glory have been erected on the volcanic island of
Taluva, surrounded by mighty
Citadels. They have invoked the name of Egyptian sun-god (and apparently part-time auctioneer)
Ra, ridden the rails of America, Europe, and Germany with their
Ticket to Ride, and have even suffered
Betrayal at the House on the Hill. With their help, the city of
Arkadia stands tall once more. They have constructed cathedrals at
the Pillars of the Earth, reluctantly spun a
Power Grid across numerous countries, and even assisted the sheep-loving
Settlers of Catan.
(They have also played
Zooloretto, a game with a name so ridiculous I wasn't able to work it into a normal sentence.)
They are...
The
Hypermind Boardgamers. And I am also one of them.
This is the latest chapter of the
on-going Glog of their encounters with colored wooden cubes, malicious and deceitful dice, traitorous knights, and cards too small to actually be shuffled by human hands.
Join us now, as the Hypermind Boardgamers continue their quest for Victory Points on the sunny Caribbean isle of
Cuba...
Posted On: 2008-04-02 15:12:17
Time: 90 minutes
Final scores*: Alton 81 (+4 pesos), Chip 69, Chris 81 (+21 pesos), Mark 78, William 70
Individual Rankings: Alton 8.5, Chip 7.5, Chris 8, Mark 8.5, William 8
After Alton spent all weekend with the rule book, we finally got to play this game correctly, with the two starting resources. What a difference actually being able to get a decent building in the first round makes! There was some confusion after the 1st round as to whether or not someone can retain the Start Player honor, but in the end we decided that "highest 4th action" trumped the inherent meaning behind the "pick a new start player" rule based on the fact that there was no mention of what to do if the old start player happened to play the highest 4th action.
Almost immediately, Mark established a rum-running operation and rode that throughout the game. Chip, seated next to Mark, didn't want to fight him over it and opted for Cigars. Alton stuck with his Hotels plan from our last play session, while newcomer (to the game, not game night) William just did what he could here and there, including picking up a Sawmill. But the game was really dominated by my political stranglehold; the Corruption Act showed up in the first round and I invested about 8 pesos to make sure it happened. From there I picked up the Town Hall and made sure to hold back my Mayor to control the Edicts for pretty much the entire game; it didn't occur to anyone to pick up the Church until well after the damage had been done. This allowed me to manipulate the Subsidies to my favor and adjust the taxes/duties as I saw fit. I let the Corruption Act expire in the 5th round (replacing it with the Drought Act to curtail the production of my competitors), but won the final vote anyway when no one wanted to compete with my 2 free votes and fistful of pesos (I used 3 for votes), riding the "3 pesos -> 1 VP" subsidy to 7 or 8 VP for several rounds.
It was close towards the end, however, as Mark's rum factory was paying off to the tune of a ton of VP every round, and I was unable to really capitalize on the shipping since I had to hold back my Mayor every Action Phase; Alton and Chip really hit the docks hard when they could, although Chip fell behind somewhere and never really recovered. It's entirely possible that if someone had stepped up to take the final vote (if they could -- the taxes were pretty brutal for a while there, thanks to the "one peso per building" tax that I was essentially forced to enact one round) that someone else would have emerged victorious, but in the end Alton and I tied at 81 points with my hoard of pesos easily claiming tiebreaker.
*We didn't count the starting warehouse in the final tally, if we were supposed to.
For instance: Subsidies (edict IIIs) apparently have a cap of 7VP per round. Also, the Tradeswoman can only take a free piece of the lowest-priced product when you use her alternate ability.
I don't think either of these had a huge impact on our game, but since it was so close one or two VP might have made all the difference.
Time: 104 minutes
Final Scores: Alton 83, Chip 78, Chris 69, Jim 69, Mark 79
Ratings: Alton 8, Chip 7.5, Chris 7.5, Jim 7.5, Mark 8
Week Two of our Cuban Game of the Month! saw Jim joining us instead of William, but other than that there really wasn't too much to discuss. Alton quickly built the Hotel, Inn, and one of the Banks to continue riding his strategy from the previous sessions, Jim eventually opted for Water, Mark rolled Cigars, while Chip and I investigated rum-running -- him selling it for pesos, and me just using it for VP either via the Parlor or Shipping.
Of course, I mis-placed my buildings early on and suffered throughout the game because of it. Every time I tried to set up a huge Mayor action, I was cut off before I could capitalize on it and earned much less as a result. Chip was experiencing similar problems, although thanks to the Harbor Act and a little near-kingmaking on my part he was at least able to make a huge leap at the end with a 12-point Mayor action of his own. Mark went about his usual efficient production line, and Jim appeared to be a little overwhelmed at his first play (which is understandable -- there's a lot going on in this game).
While all that was going on, however, Alton was just a VP-scoring machine, and nobody really expected to catch him after a certain point. Alton finished the game by throwing his nest egg of pesos at the vote to ensure that the Building Subsidy would take place, firmly cementing his lead.
After our third consecutive week of Cuba, my rating has slid down to 7.5 (which is the BGG average rating for it). Too many fiddly bits and a (very) surprising lack of variety are just making the game drag down for me; I suspect that always playing 5-player games may be playing a role as well. We have three more weeks of this thanks to a quirk of the calendar... and I'm already getting the feeling that this is going down the exact same road as Power Grid a couple months ago. Hopefully I'm wrong about this, as it would be a shame for the Hypermind Boardgamers GotM program to kill yet another title.
Time: 70 minutes
Final Scores: Alton 71, Chip 69, Chris 60, Mark 66
Game Ratings: Alton 9, Chip 7.5, Chris 7.5, Mark 8.5
Our fourth consecutive session of Cuba (counting the initial session at the end of March) was slightly different from the rest in that we only had four players instead of the full five. While this would appear to reduce the competition for buildings and VP-scoring opportunities, it also somehow seemed to reduce the overall scoring.
Despite being denied access to his usual Hotel/Inn strategy, Alton was able to maintain his "score at least 12 VP per round" strategy that has served him very well. Chip and Mark did their best to catch up, but when the end of the fifth turn looked like this we all sort of knew how things were going to finish...
For my part, I seem to be unable to efficiently plan ahead when it comes to developing any kind of coherent strategy. Without fail I always wind up misplacing a building, constructing the wrong one, and/or creating incredibly favorable scoring opportunities for everyone else. It's really frustrating, but the worst part is that I recognize the failing is in my own gameplay and not necessarily that of the game itself (although there could be contributing factors there). There's just something about Cuba that I can't quite wrap my head around, which is really getting in my way of enjoying it. There's still two more weeks to go, so hopefully I'll achieve some sort of breakthrough and personally justify the whole GotM program.
I also wanted to remind all Hypermind Board-Gamers that on the last Tuesday of April (4-30-08) We will be don our finest Panama Hats, faux Cuban cigars and enjoy the finest of tropical drinks to party like a bunch of Batista high rolling Plantation owners and recreate our own little albeit four months late New Year Eve party circa 1959. Come and let's put a little role in our play and party like it's 1959 as the GotM CUBA ends its regime.
Time: 46 minutes
Final Scores: Alton 87, Chris 74, Mark 86
Game Ratings: Alton 9, Chris 8, Mark 8
Last week we only had four players, this time we were down to the bare minimum, although we did have a newcomer observing our play while we went about our business. I decided to go for Tobacco production, but failed to realize that the Market Act up for vote would -- and did -- wreck me by driving market prices for the leaf through the roof. I never really recovered from that and was behind for pretty much the entire game. Mark jumped Alton's claim on the Hotel/Inn/Bank strategy, using a Large Branch Office to get some extra shipping VP along the way. He wasn't able to manipulate the docks as well as Alton, however, who soared to a staggering 87VP (just barely edging out Mark's 86) this session to continue his dominance of the game in general.
I upped my rating a half-point this week; the game feels better with fewer players, as there isn't as much competition for the restricted buildings, although now that we've run the gamut of possible players I think four might be ideal.
Time: 87 minutes
Final Scores: Alton 79, Chip 74, Chris I 57, Chris N 71, Gwen 72
Game Ratings: Alton 9, Chip 7.75, Chris I 7.5, Chris N 6.5, Gwen 7
Tonight, in celebration of our final week with Cuba as our GotM, we decided to commemorate the game with oranges, (fake) cigars, and maybe even an appropriate piece of clothing or two...
Also making this game interesting was the participation of proud parents Chris and Gwen Norwood, making their first appearance in the group since (just prior to) the birth of their baby girl Samantha -- who was also in attendance! Let me tell you, if there's anything more attractive than a woman who games, it might very well be this:
As for the actual session... man, Cuba is Cuba -- and Alton is Alton, going 4-1 for the month thanks only to a miraculous vote-seizing, peso-hoarding play on my part during our first week. Every other time, I just can't assemble a strategy without something going wrong (usually my building placement) and my score winds up looking like this:
Everyone else is usually in a nice tight pack and are all competitive, but it's just Not My Game. Adios, Cuba -- your time as GotM has ended. We had a good couple of weeks, but in the end I don't think it's going to work out between us.