November 4, 2008

Game 1:
Time: 66 minutes
Score: Jen 21, Chris N 19, Britt 11, Chip 9
Ratings: Jen 8, Chris N 8, Britt 7, Chip 7

Game 2:
Time: 66 minutes
Score: James 18, Alton 16, Chris I 11, Tim 4
Ratings: James 9, Alton 8, Chris I 7.5, Tim 10

November 18, 2008

Game 1
Time: 70 minutes
Score: James (Rakos, God of Protectors) 14, Chris I (Bifrons, God of Death) 13, Jen (Lok, God of Luck) 13, Alton (Sertek, God of Conquest) 12, Tim (Sharur, God of War) 12
Ratings: James 9, Chris I 8.5, Jen 8, Alton 8, Tim 10
Extinct Races: Necromancers, Goblins, Halflings, Sorcerers, Ogres, Amazons, Fairies, Gnomes


Game 2
Time: 52 minutes
Score: Chris N (Triz, God of Time) 18, Mark (Lok, God of Luck) 17, Beth (Bifrons, God of Death) 16, Chip (Sertek, God of Conquest) 13
Ratings: Chris N 7.5, Mark 8, Beth 7, Chip 6.5


In my game (#2), Mark made a very early move to give his Chaos race a +1 defensive bonus. He tends to like this "out in the open" kind of strategy, and it worked pretty well for him. Despite continual attacks on the Chaos and Voracious (which he also obviously controlled) territories, he still finished in second place (largely due to the +1 defense and early use of fortifications). I laid pretty low for most of the game, until through random attacks both my size 4 and 3 races had been reduced considerably. I made good use of both an action card and my destiny card for the Centaurs, which allowed me to pick up two extra points in trading regular territories for city spaces. Those two points turned out to be the difference in the game.

Overall, Age of Gods continues to fade a bit for me. I do think that it plays better with 4 than with 5, however, because it's a little easier to keep your races secret and the game plays a bit faster. I still like the game, but I can sense that it's playing itself out somewhat.

Fortunately, there's only one more week to go. But I sort of expected it to not hold up to repeated attention.

Our game was interesting. Whenever James is the God of Fortifications it's really blatant which races he has, and Tim as the God of War was able to take advantage by using his natural +1 to attack to over come James's instant +1 defense most of the time. It wasn't enough this time, however, as James was also the beneficiary of my randomly giving the Lizardmen a big lead prior to Round 3, and he basically rode them to victory.

Chris, could you post my list of extinct races from our game? I like keeping track of that for some reason.

The game's not as bad as having to suffer through another session or two of Power Grid or anything that disheartening, but I'll be looking forward to a new GotM! as well.

We should probably put some thought about what game that should be over on the guild, by the way.

November 25, 2008

Time: 87 minutes
Score: Chris N (Sertek, God of Conquest) 17, Ian (Sharur, God of War) 17, Alton (Bejofa, God of Trickery) 14, Jim (Krauil, God of Technology) 14, Thomas (Lok, God of Luck) 9
Ratings: Chris N 7, Ian 10, Alton 8, Jim 8, Thomas 9.5

This game was characterized by two things: lots of blatant support for races and lots of random spazmosity by Ian. After Alton and Jim had already pretty much declared themselves to be in control of the High Elves and Chaos races, respectively, and started a little war between them, I made a big move to expand the Centaurs and give them 2 technology improvements. Later on, I also called a holy war from my Orcs against Thomas' Barbarians, but was stopped cold when he built a Dwarven Fortress on the only region bordering my Orcs. The continuing war between Jim and Alton pretty much ruined their chances of winning, and silly, random Ian was able to fly under the radar and nearly max out his Dark Elves. In the end, Ian and I were able to win one of our wagers to tie for the win.

November 4, 2008

Game 1:
Time: 21 minutes
Score: Chris I 52, James 41
Ratings: Chris I 10, James 10

Game 2:
Time: 12 minutes
Score: Chris I 35, James 19, Alton 18
Ratings: Chris I 10, James 10, Alton 10

The first game was my Damaged ALIEN Factory versus James's Ancient Race; with Trade League in my starting hand I maneuvered myself to playing that ASAP, then combined one of the Novelty "draw one" production worlds and Diversified Economy to set up a powerful trade/produce engine that I used to run away with the game. I wound up claiming just about all of the Goal in the process, including the "first to 3 ALIEN", "a world of each color", "first 6-point development", "highest military strength" and "most production worlds"... maybe more.

Game two saw three original homeworlds: Alton with Old Earth, James with Earth's Lost Colony, and myself with Epsilon Erandi. I quickly used Expidition Forces to allow me to conquer another original homeworld, New Sparta, and soon developed the frightening Improved Logistics to start being silly. They just couldn't contain me after that and I once again maneuvered my way to most of the Goals, including a bonus three points for tying James for "most novelty and/or rare elements worlds".

November 11, 2008

Game 1
Time: 12 minutes
Scores: Alton 41, Chris I 34

Game 2
Time: 12 minutes
Scores: Alton 19, Chris I 45

Man, now I wish I remember what I did in that one. o_O

Game 3
Time: 13 minutes
Scores: Chris I 38, James 50

Game 4
Time: 23 minutes
Scores: Chris I 29, James 34, Alton 21, Mark 34 (win on TBs)

Game 5
Time: 22 minutes
Scores: Chris I 26, James 36, Alton 49, Mark 33

Ratings: 10s all around

Shockingly, there were no RftG games played this week. The opportunity was there, but other options (like Cave Troll) were pursued instead.

The 11/4 session was played between Denise and her youngest son, Ayden. Not sure how much of a grip Ayden actually has on the game, but I guess it's a step up from Candy Land.

November 4, 2008

Time: 60 minutes
Score: Denise 107, Ayden 66
Ratings: None listed

November 11, 2008

I know a game was played between James and Tommy with Tommy winning, but other than that I have noting.

November 4, 2008

Time: 53 minutes
Score: Alton 39, Chip 36, Chris N 34
Ratings: Alton 8, Chip 8, Chris N 7.5

Like I mentioned over on gamerchris.com, I had some mixed feelings about this game. I went for a gem-heavy strategy, where I collected as many as I could and was trying to focus on getting the rumor markers to maximize their value. Unfortunately, Alton got to place a "-1" rumor on one of the gem spaces before I could add a second positive one, which essentially cost me the game. Of course, the fact that I was unable to get into a massive oasis that Alton and Chip shared also cost me at least a few points that may or may not have propelled me to a win as well.

Im Reich der Wüstensöhne seems to be a more solid game overall than Entdecker: Exploring New Horizons, but exploring the desert doesn't feel as cool or thematic to me as does exploring uncharted ocean. Plus, the game felt a little too Carcassonne-like to me as well (which is not a good thing in my estimation). I'd play it again, but I don't feel any real desire to go out and buy it or anything.

November 4, 2008

Time: 10 minutes each
Score: James (won 1 game), Jen (won 1 game), Chris I (big loser), Hayley (another big loser)
Ratings: James 7, Jen 9, Chris I 7, Hayley 9

Not much to say on this one. It is what it is.

November 4, 2008

Time: 67 minutes
Score: Chris N 61, Chip 52, James 51, Chris I 41, Alton 41
Ratings: Chris N 7, Chip 8.5, James 7.5, Chris I 8, Alton 8.5

James, Alton, Chip, and I first played this to end our night two weeks ago. I wound up winning that one by a scant few points, IIRC, but this time wasn't even close. Most of my starting stations were on the Asteroid, which was all but ignored throughout the entire game, and I think I only wound up with one or two economic centers. I just couldn't get sets in the colors I needed. Frustrating, but still fun.

This game took me a little by surprise. There's a heck of a lot of randomness, both in card drawing and in using the "cosmic ashtray", but overall I really liked it. I think that I won because I started to focus more on getting bases while everyone else was still pushing to increase their technologies and ships. Completely dominating the orange planet didn't hurt too much either.

The coolest thing about the game was the "forced trade" mechanic. I've never seen anything exactly like that before, and I really liked the thought and tactical planning that such a simple little element brought to the game.

I can't speak for the other guys, but I wasn't so much pushing for technologies as I was getting shafted out of any usable color combinations. :P

November 4, 2008

Time: 33 minutes
Score: James 26, Jen 19, Hayley 15, Chris I 15
Ratings: James 8, Jen 8.5, Hayley 6, Chris I 8

Man... things just went badly for me in this one. I was hardy ever able to brew a potion, while James always seemed to hit the right roles at the right time.

Hayley's score is approximated, as she put her vials back into the supply before they were counted; we knew she had at least six, so that's what we went with.

I intend to fill out our Hypermind score sheets for each of our now many played games.

For the time being, many of our game recaps can be found as session reports on BGG and at our blog:
Bloodlust Football League

Enjoy!

November 11, 2008

Time: 33 minutes
Scores: Tommy is the last Bodger standing after James, Chris I, and Ian are eliminated (in that order)
Ratings: Chris I 7, Ian 9.5, James 7, Tommy 9

November 11, 2008

Time: 26 minutes
Scores: Chris I 30, Eliot 11, Ian 21, James 23, Tommy 20
Ratings: 7.5, (NR), 9, 7, 8

Ian got off to a huge start while my broom was accidentally put in reverse thanks to my forgetting that symbols of both colors are eliminated. James, Eliot, and I were at the back of the pack almost constantly while Ian was monopolizing the lead; Tommy was usually right behind him. Late in the game, however, Ian slowed up and James and I put some perfect orange formulas together to make up ground, and used our Black Magic cards to sneak past him. I crossed the finish line first for the bonus and had three stunt cards in my hand for the convincing win.

Eliot and Tommy did well for their first times, although I think the game is slightly out of Eliot's grasp at his current age. He had a blast playing, though.

Novermber 11, 2008

Time: 90 miuntes
Scores: Brad (new player) 172, Alton 365, Mark 358
Ratings: 7, 9, 8.5

Yes, those scores are correct.

November 18, 2008

Time: 75 minutes
Score: Mark 213, Chip 188, James 177, Alton 169
Ratings: Mark 8.5, Chip 9, James 8, Alton 9


I still need to play this! I'm afraid now that I'm behind the learning curve and that I'll never be competitive.

Nah, the game's pretty simple. You should have it down by the end of your first session.

November 18, 2008

Time: 26 minutes
Score: James 60, Chris I 40
Ratings: James 7.5, Chris I 7

November 18, 2008

Time: 44 minutes
Score: Chris N 34, Chris I 33, Jen 30, James 26
Ratings: Chris N 7.5, Chris I 8, Jen 6.5, James 8.5

This was my second game and everybody else's first, and (as I did the first time I played) I forgot to put out all 10 of the kingdom supply piles (I left out the Market cards from the recommended beginner setup). Anyway, the game went very well and was extremely close, with my win coming from the Estate (1 VP) card I picked up in the last round.

I really like how this game runs, but the only real downside is the fiddlyness of shuffling your cards all the time. It's got incredible replayability with all the different kingdom cards available in the box, and I can't wait to try it with some of the other recommended setups. This might make a good Game of the Month! some time in the future unless it happens to get more spontaneous play (a la Race for the Galaxy).

November 25, 2008

Time: 50 minutes
Score: James 32, Graham 30, Mark 21, Brett 20
Ratings: James 9, Graham 9, Mark 9, Brett 8.5

And this will be our Game of the Month! for December!!!

This game was so neat. I loved that the 4 of us (Jonah, Chris N, Chris I, and I) were all new to the game. No one had an advantage over anyone else. This games' historical features is what I liked the most. Then again, as I said while playing, I'm a huge history buff. (The rule book even had little historical facts!) The game went much quicker than I thought it would. Then again, we were using the easiest difficulty level. (I'd like to try it on one of the harder ones next time.) The game got really interesting in the last couple of rounds. Chris I almost ended it, but then we figured out he didn't really have control of one of the factions at the time (Mostly due to me not paying a attention for a moment and missed his play for them. Okay..completly due to it.) Then, in the next round, both Chris I and I got 4 of the goals nessasary to end the game. When it came to points I lost..by a good bit, but 2nd is better than last. (Way to go, Chris!) This is such a good game and I'd like to get a copy myself someday soon.

November 18, 2008

Time: 52 minutes
Score: Chris I - 4 objectives (32 points), Beth - 4 objectives (26 points), Chris N - 2 objectives, Jonah - 1 objective
Ratings: Chris I 8, Beth 9.5, Chris N 8, Jonah 6


Like Beth said, this game was new to all of us. I had read through the rules a couple of times, but that still didn't really give me a good idea of how the game would be played, and explaining it seemed to make it appear far more complicated than it really is.

As Chris alluded to in his description, Tribune: Primus Inter Pares is strangely modular in its victory conditions. We played the basic game, which uses the Carpe Diem victory condition card. Each of these cards lists several different victory conditions (such as a certain number of legions or faction control markers), and players can choose which ones they want to try for with the winner being the one who can accomplish the target number of objectives first (our target was to get 4 of the victory conditions). If two or more players get to the target number of conditions on the same turn, the tie-breaker is a points system that essentially rates the relative difficulty of achieving each objective. So, not only do you have to race to getting a number of objectives, you will also need to consider how your achievements will match up with those of others should you finish on the same turn.

My problem in this session was that I didn't go into it with any sort of strategy about which victory conditions I wanted to claim. I absolutely love games with multiple paths to victory, and Tribune: Primus Inter Pares certainly has that. In fact, in addition to the different Victory Condition cards that are all different, you can also play the game using only the Point-Value system I mentioned earlier. In other words, the game has a lot of replayability and scale-ability, both to the number of players and to the difficulty and time you want from the game.

I was a bit uncertain about the game right after we finished, but this has been one of those games that I've thought about a lot since. I hope to play it again soon!

Oh, by the way, despite the complexity and quasi-confusing nature of the rules, I only missed a couple of small things:

1) At the beginning of the game, you're supposed to discard two of the six cards you're initially dealt (as in Race for the Galaxy)

2) When you place a worker on a Pantheon space, you actually get to secretly look at the card there, so you'll know the color/faction before the evaluation phase. This only affected Chris and I, and I was the only one really hurt by it, so it didn't make a big difference.

The discarding thing might have had an effect, but the Pantheon one certainly didn't -- although I probably could have won a turn earlier with it.

Still, that's not bad for our first play.

This had to be one of the funniest games I've ever played at the shop. It all sounds so simple. Just put together 4 walls, 4 towers, and a keep. The hard part...you can only play a tile if it matchs the one next to it somehow AND the other players can blow your little castle to kingdom come! Everyone (Jonah, Chris N, Chris I, and I again) started out pretty strong with atleast a tower and wall each. As the game went on, it became harder and harder to match those little tiles. Poor Chis N went most of the game without drawing a single keep. Chris I desided to be brave at one point and build his "Castle of Gold", however, Chris N sent the whole thing into oblivian with just one attack...Leaving Chris I to start over completly. At one point, Chris I only needed one peice to finish his. The bad part was there was only 2 tiles he could use! He lost a couple walls and had to go back to building, but then I came into the same issue. I got lucky and drew the tile I needed. (First time I've ever won a game on board game night!) Then, after a long and quite funny battle for 2nd, Jonah was able to finish his and then Chirs N. I had ALOT of laughs playing this game, but I learned one thing from it...Never build a castle out of gold bricks.

November 18, 2008

Time: 25 minutes (to get a winner, but we played for another 7 minutes to figure out 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places)
Score: Beth 1st, Jonah 2nd, Chris N 3rd, Chris I 4th
Ratings: Beth 10, Jonah 8, Chris N 7.5, Chris I 9

Beth's winning castle

Like Chris and Beth said, this game is a real gem. We had a blast, even if the game did drag on a bit and I didn't see a single Keep tile until well after we shuffled the tiles again.

What's kind of funny is that we actually missed more rules in this game than we did in Tribune: Primus Inter Pares! In looking back over the rule book, I noticed these errors we made:

1) You win the game either by completing your castle or by completely destroying someone else's castle. You don't have to destory everyone else's castle, just one other person's, so our game should have ended when Jonah's castle was completely destroyed that time (though I can't remember who actually finished it off and should have won). This sets up a bit of a Cutthroat Caverns situation, where you want to make the kill, but have to be careful about setting someone else up for the easy win.

2) The last tile you place in your castle technically only has to match one of the tiles it touches, not both of them. Personally, for a group of adults, I don't know if I like this rule. I sorta like how we played it better, and it is included as one of the optional "advanced" rules.

I'd like to try out the other advanced rules as well, which include the option of drawing the first of your two new tiles each turn from the top of the discard pile, as well as attacking towers as well as walls. Still, in any form, I see this being a favorite filler in our group for a while.

Yeah, that second rule is stupid. But I like the "burn it to the ground" victory condition.

Results pending...

November 25, 2008

Time: 58 minutes
Score: Tommy 27, Chris I 26, Beth 18, Chip 7, Graham 5, James 2
Ratings: Tommy 10, Chris I 8.5, Beth 6, Chip 8, Graham 8, James 8

Apparently this game gets really hard with more players, as there are far more combats (and hence more randomness). Chip and James mentioned on several occasions that last week's session wasn't nearly as harsh.

Dice-rolling aside, the morning/night mechanic in this game is certainly different. I do agree with Beth that the random elements -- especially since combat is mandatory -- takes something away from the game, though. Tommy won the game simply based on taking gold from her as she crossed the finish line; had that combat gone in Beth's favor she probably would have won, as she was two points behind my final total and could easily have taken a large stack of gold from him (a tie would have left me as the winner). The fact that the final standings essentially came down to a single die roll is a recipe for un-fun. Still, I don't think that would be the case every time.

I've not played it, but from the reviews I've listened to and what I've read about it, it's actually more like Arkham Horror or Talisman than Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game. The players are all investigators in an 18th-century town trying to prevent some evil being from causing major destruction and/or other evil stuff. It can be played either competitively (where you race to buff your character and be the first to defeat the big baddie) or cooperatively (where you just work together to beat up the villain). It sounds pretty cool, plus you get to look at pictures like this when you play:

I need to drop by Hypermind today to see if they filled out a report sheet for their game...

Results pending...

   The players, and then them all getting "A Touch of Evil"

November 25, 2008

Time: 53 minutes
Score: Chris I 54, Chris W 38
Ratings: Chris I 9, Chris W 8

Yeah, this is what happens when a veteran player is in a 2-player game against a first-timer. When I started setting up I thought Graham was going to join us, but I never actually asked him until we were ready to go, at which point he opted out.

Wickline did fairly well for his first outing, mis-playing a couple of times here or there due to unfamiliarity (he forgot that once you upgrade it takes different materials to build a new room, for example), but ultimately he never really got in my way. The fact that I was able to lead off with the Seasonal Worker didn't help; man, that guy's ridiculous.