Atlantic Star and Tzolk'in

I haven't been quite punctual in blogging about our regular Tuesday night game nights...so I'll combine the last two in one post.  I learned two new interesting games in the last two weeks (plus snuck in a game of Power Grid, to boot). 

Atlantic Star

The Love Boat?

Two Tuesday's ago Mike R, Tom, Traci, Carson and myself made it out to the game parlor.  We were joined by a 6th player, a gentleman on business travel who was looking for a game.  The First thing we broke out was a game Tom & Traci had brought, called Atlantic Star.   The theme of the game is that you are organizing cruises in 4 major bodies of water - the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Pacific.  Each cruise has a certain color assigned to it, and each has number of "stops" (3,4,5, and 6 respectively).  You complete a cruise by collecting a number of cards equal to the number of stops required. 

The ship cards

However, it's a bit more complicated than that - of course.  The cards, which show images of various ships, contain letter-number combos in various colors (corresponding to the 4 different cruises).  You have to collect cards that have letters in sequential order, in order to play them to complete a cruise.  So, for example, you have to collect cards that have a yellow A, B and C in order to complete the Baltic Cruise.  Now, the numbers connected to the letters indicate the overall "value" of your cruise...so you want to get letters that have higher numbers associated with them.  The trick is, you can't have more card in your hand than 2 over the cruise you're trying to complete - so, for example, to complete the Baltic Cruise (3 cards), you can't have more than 5 cards in your hand when you play the cards to complete it. 

The "value" of your cruise does not correspond to victory points, though.  When you complete a cruise, you write the value of your cruise on a little marker, and then put it on one of 5 scoring columns on the score board.  The different columns have different scoring ladders.  If you are the first to complete that particular cruise, you can choose which column to use...if not, you have to put your marker in the column that has already been chosen for that cruise.  The markers of the different players are arranged on the column in order of cruise value.  So, if you complete that Baltic Cruise at a higher value than other players, you will go ahead of them on that column, potentially bumping them down.

Setting Sail at the Game Parlor

So, how do you get new cards?  You buy them.  You start the game with $18000.  There will be 4 face up cards, in slots costing $0, $1000, $2000, and $3000.  On your turn, you can pay to get the card of your choice.  As each slot is taken, the remaining cards slide down.  You can also pay $2000 to wipe the board and put 4 new cards out.  You do not "earn" more money during the game...but you can borrow from cruises that you have already completed...which will lessen their value, potentially causing them to move down on their scoring column.

This is an interesting card/set collection game.  I can't say I loved it, but I would definitely play it again (it helped that I won).  The most interesting mechanic, in my mind, is the scoring table, and choosing which column to put various completed cruises in, and how much to borrow later - do you risk letting someone else sneak in above you? 

Just a quick note that we also played Power Grid that night.  Tom and Traci had never played before, so we played the base game, with the German map.  Power Grid is always fun, and in this case Mike R. pulled ahead early and went on for the win.  We let him start in a good position, and he went unchallenged for much of the game, while others of us battled it out for one corner of the map.  We had higher power plants come up early, and I bought them early, thinking to secure my capacity, and then concentrate on houses.  But, it was one of those games where game end was triggered...and the number of houses powered was actually less...so I wasted a lot of money on unneeded capacity.

This past Tuesday, I was the only one from our "regular" group to be able to go to Game Parlor Tuesday night.  I've gotten to know some of the other regulars there, so I figured I'd show up and see if I could get into a game.  I wasn't disappointed, as I joined Malcolm, Carl and Jeff for a game of Tzolk'in - which I had seen played a lot in recent months, and was intrigued by.

A crystal skull? Wasn't there an Indiana Jones movie...nevermind...

The game is subtitled "The Mayan Calendar"...but no worries, you're not playing to end the world.  One look at the board, and it's easy to see why I was intrigued.  The board is dominated by 6 gears in the middle, 5 outer gears driven by a larger central gear.  There is no easy way to explain this game without actually playing it, so I'm not really going to try.  Suffice to say, it's a worker placement type game, where you place your workers on the gears.  Each smaller gear has a track around it, and when you decide to remove your worker, you will get the benefit of the space he has stopped on.  This includes getting resources, extra workers, building buildings and temples, etc...

Just another cog in the gears....

As with most euro games, there are multiple ways to score points, and thus paths to victory.  You can buy buildings that are wroth straight up points, buy buildings that score you points for owning other buildings, move up on the temple track, get crystal skulls that will earn you points, yada yada.  The key mechanism, as you might expect, has to do with the big gears.  On your turn you can either place workers, or remove them, but not both.  You have to plan when you place your workers, so as the gears rotate, they will get to the proper spots at the right time.  There is a mechanism to change who is the first player, and when that happens, the new first player has the opportunity to turn the gear 2 spaces (the game lasts one full revolution of the large gear).  This ended up biting me in the 2nd game we played (a 3 player game, as Jeff left after the first game).  I had set myself up in good position for the final 3 turns - or so I thought...as Carl took the first player token, and moved the gear 2 spots, effectively giving us only 2 final turns.  This really screwed up my plans and cost me a bunch of points.  Ah well.  I really enjoyed this game...I thought the gears might be a gimmick, but this is a very deep and strategic euro game.  I would definitely play it again.

Trivial Matters...

Am I the only one that thought it was the "genius" edition?

In a recent IM conversation with my friend Paul Owen, the subject of Trivial Pursuit came up.  I think we had been talking about making loads of money as a game designer (which, far and away, most game designers do NOT), and I said something like "If only I'd had the brilliant idea to come up with a game where you race your friends to answer trivia questions".  If you don't catch the sarcasm there,  most aficionados of today's hobby boardgames would likely consider Trivial Pursuit an inferior game - the game is just roll and move, and answering random questions - you hope to get lucky in that you know the answer to the questions you get.  There's no real strategy, and you can't "learn" the game, other than going out and trying to learn all sorts of trivia.



Interestingly, Paul brought up another trivia game he had owned, called Isaac Asimov's Super Quiz.  On the face of it, while still just a trivia game, IASQ offers a little more in the way of "strategy".  When answering a question from a specific category, you can choose to answer an "easy", "medium", or "hard" question, for 1, 2 or 3 points respectively.  The objective is to be the first to get to 35 points.  So, that sounds good - you can go for easy questions in subjects you are not strong in, and go for the gusto in your favorite categories (I'm unsure if you have to get a minimum score in each of the categories).  So, why then was Trivial Pursuit such a run away success, while IASQ was virtually unheard of (well, I hadn't heard of it, anyway...it was successful enough to spawn two more editions)?

3 point Question:  What are the 3 laws of Robotics?

My first thought was subject matter - I assumed from the name on the title, that the game might be all science fiction, or at least "sciency" type questions.  Wrong...the categories are Geography, History, Movies, Science, Sports & Games, and Words - very similar to Trivial Pursuit's Geography, Entertainment, History, Arts & Literature, Science & Nature, and Sports & Leisure.  However, I still wonder if Isaac Asimov's name on the cover did in fact turn some people off - people who were familiar with Asimov might have assumed, just as I did, that the game was science fiction based.  On the other hand, perhaps Asimov's name did nothing at all for most people - even considering he's once of the most famous science fiction writers...sci-fi is still a niche subject in the grand scheme of things, so John Q. Public may have seen the box and simply said "Isaac who?".  Apparently Asimov had a running newspaper column called "Isaac Asimov's Super Quiz", from which the board game was derived...but I never recall seeing that particular article in any papers I picked up when I was younger, so I'm unsure that was enough to guarantee brand success. 

My next thought fell to game play and/or components.  IASQ appears to be just several boxes of cards in different categories, and a score sheet (I'm unsure if you just get to pick which category you want every time it's your turn, or how that works...).  In TP, you roll a die to see what space you land on - now most hobby boardgamers decry random roll-and-move mechanics these days, but to most of general society, that mechanic is almost mandatory in their definition of a "board game".  And, it does add some chance and randomness to the game ("come on, come on...I really need a 5 here....").  Add in the "roll again" spaces, and you do get a certain amount off tension in the game. 

Mmmm...Pie

But what about components?  As I mentioned, IASQ appears to be just cards, pen&paper.  Trivial Pursuit had, of course, their famous "pie" scoring token, which served as both a score keeper, and your pawn to move around the board.  As I told Paul, there was something innately satisfying about seeing that little empty shell slowly fill up with the different colored pie pieces.  I don't think you can mention Trivial Pursuit without people immediately thinking of the pie pawn.  The circular pie pawn, or a triangular pie piece seems to be depicted in some sort of fashion on the box of nearly every version of Trivial Pursuit - it is the iconic symbol of the game, and it seems to have caught the imagination of the public.

May the Pie be with you.

Speaking of "versions", Trivial Pursuit appears to be second only to Monopoly in creating specialized versions of the game.  Beyond it's generic "Genus" versions, there is everything from decade specific (the 1980's) to Disney to a "World Cup" edition.  From my vantage point right now, I can see the "Star Wars" version sitting on my shelf.  So, they definitely had a handle on marketing...although if the original game had not been so popular, I'm not sure they would have had the chance to expand so much. 

So, what am I to conclude from this?  I'm not entirely sure.  I definitely think components matter in a game.  Given two games that are very similar, superior components can help turn a good game into a great game.  Was that the case with Trivial Pursuit?  From my conversation with Paul, I had the impresstin that IASQ was out concurrently or even prior to TP.  Not the case - Trivial Pursuit was first, in 1981, IASQ in 1982.  So perhaps TP really did tap into an unmet need first - a casual, easy to learn social game, and IASQ just tried to capitalize on that that.  I welcome any further thoughts on the matter...but right now, I'm craving a piece of apple pie for some reason...

Great Heartland Hauling Co. revisited

In an earlier post I commented on my first play of The Great Heartland Hauling Company, by designer Jason Kotarski, published by Dice Hate Me Games.  In that post, I commented that I had been looking forward to the game, but was a little disappointed in the experience.  Specifically, I was a little unsettled by the mechanic where you HAVE to move at the beginning of your turn, and I felt it was a little out of theme.  I speculated that early prototypes had likely involved being able to pick up/deliver before meeting.

Well, Jason, the designer, replied to me on twitter.  "No prototypes involved being able to pick-up/deliver before moving. Forward motion creates tension."  Furthermore, on the theme, his comment was "Thematically, my thought has always been; truckers are on the go. Gotta keep in the road to make $$$."

Well, I had been thinking more on my early impressions, and I wanted to try it again, so I picked up a copy for myself (and let me just say again - I LOVE the "18wheeleeples").  After it came in, I got a chance to play a 2-player game with my wife, Becky.

Let me say right off the bat, that I 100% agree with Jason's first comment - the forward motion does create more tension.  In fact, I think if you were able to pick up right in the same spot where you had delivered, it would be a much duller game.  So, from a game design aspect, I completely understand the rationale behind the mechanic, and think it was a smart decision.  Theme-wise, I still think I disagree with Jason somewhat.  In order to maximize $$$, you wouldn't make half your trips with an empty spots on your truck.  However, this is really a minor nit to pick.  Hobby boardgaming has exploded in the last decade or so - with a million games with a million themes.  A lot of them are very pasted on, while others excel in tightly knitting the theme to the game.  I think Great Heartland Hauling Co. falls somewhere in the middle for me.  I don't think I quite get fully immersed in "simulating" a trucker out to maximize profits...but the 18wheeleeples and card-created map which resembles the maps I used to love looking at as a kid on long road trips - they do provide quite a bit of atmosphere and thematic elements.

So, in the end, I'm glad I picked a copy for myself.  I can see it being a good "filler game" (and I mean that in a good sense) between meatier games.  I also see this getting more play time with Becky.  I will say, that like Ticket to Ride, I think this game plays better with more players.  It makes the game that much more tense having to worry about 2 or even 3 other players blocking you out of certain spaces.  But it's still a fine 2 player game.  With Becky, we just played the base game, but based on my first play of the game, I'm also still of the opinion that I like including the truck stop "inspansion" cards over just playing the base game. 

10-4 Good Buddy!

(Did I already mention that I'd like to see an expansion that comes with a little black trans-am meeple so you can play as "Bandit"?)

Memorial Day Gaming

Not actually our incident - but similar

Every year since 1983, my family has gone camping over Memorial Day weekend.  With the exception of 1 or 2 weekends, we've always gone to Sherando Lake in the George Washington National Forest.  It is actually organized through my parent's church, and we usually get 120+ people in the group camp site.  We do all kinds of stuff - hiking, swimming, eating smores...and of course, gaming.  This year was a little bit exciting - on the way through the entrance gate, the park rangers warned us to make sure we put away our food at night.  Now...we've never seen anything much more than a racoon in 30 years at this place.  Well...ok, last year one of Brian's sons got bit by a copperhead...but beside that...  Anyway, at about 3:30 in the morning of the first night, I was awoken by the sound of my cooler being flipped over and rummaged through.  Hello bear!  I did what anyone would - made sure my box of games was safe in the truck!  Other than that bit of excitement, the only slight negative to the weekend was that it got chilly at night...actually, it got downright cold.  Which is great for curling up in your sleeping bag, but not so great for getting in some late night gaming.  Still, we managed to get a few in.

Hansa Teutonica

On Friday night (pre-bear visit), Tom, his wife Kelly, my sister Cathy and I broke out a favorite - Hansa Teutonica.  Cathy had not played before, and it had been a while for Kelly.  We had discovered recently that we had been doing end-game scoring incorrectly.  For the "keys" - you score for the number of offices in you largest chain of cities...not the number of cities.  I went with the strategy of claiming an office early in the city of Gottingen, hoping to get lots of points from people claiming routes there in order to increase their number of actions.  That worked for the most part - I got out to 7 or 8 points before anyone else started scoring.  I also claimed the office in Stade, scoring points when people wanted to increase their privlegium.  I wanted to then create a chain of cities between Lubeck in the east and Groningen in the west, but Cathy and Kelly both started claiming offices in Hamburg.  I decided to try and clear all the spots on my player board (for 4 points each), and get some points from the Coellen table.  Tom, meanwhile was creating a massive chain of cities in the south.  I knew he was getting points here and there, but I wasn't that concerned until he announced that he had connected Arnheim and Stendal, getting the 7 point bonus.  After that he was only a few points behind me.  At the end game, I got some fortuitous placement of "dinner plates" by Kelly that allowed to grab extra actions, and clear my player board.  I ended up in the neighborhood of 80 points, winning the game.

Spartacus

Tom had specifically requested to play Spartacus over the weekend - and we rounded up Brian and my brother Craig on Saturday night to throw some gladiators into the fighting pits.  I suggested we started at 4 influence - the "standard" game.  Considering we didn't get going until close to 10:00, and it was cold, we probably should have started at 7 for the "quick" game.  We had a good game, although considering everyone else in the campground was asleep, and how our voices carried, I'm sure there were some campers wondering what exactly we were doing.  I don't thing anyone exclaimed too loudly about the "Jupiter's Cock" card.  At about 12:30 or so, cold and tired, I requested we just make the next round the last one.  I thought Tom was running away with the game.  Turns out we had lots of intrigue in the last round.  I managed to shoot from about 7 influence to 11, and Tom and Brian got to 11 as well, with Craig at 10.  One more round and we would have had an absolute winner, although several of us had essentially turned in all of our slaves and gladiators to get to 11 already.  Basically, whoever was able to buy the Host card on the following turn would have won.  Good game...but maybe not late at night with the temperature in the mid-30s.

Caylus

At the Game Parlor

This year, at the Prezcon auction store, I picked up Caylus for $15 or so.  I had heard good things about Caylus, in relation to Lords of Waterdeep.  I had heard Waterdeep called a "light" version of Caylus.  Tom and I played a "tutorial game" - or about 1/2 a game on Saturday to get the rules down, and then Craig and Brian joined us Sunday afternoon for a full game.  Wow - this is a great game.  I only see the vaguest resemblence to Waterdeep - in that you can buy building that other people then use - but, while I love Waterdeep, Caylus is definitely a deeper, more strategic game.  The key to the game, I think, is the manipulation of the "provost" - which dictates which buildings will be activated that turn...after people have placed their workers on them.  Manipulation of the provost definitely provides a "screw your neighbor" element - if you're willing to pay for it.  I think we had a number of rookie mistakes in our first game, particularly in how we built buildings - but Tom and Craig seemed to grasp it a bit quicker, and fought to the end, with Tom eeking out a victory.  I was neck and neck with Tom at the beginning, but had a disastrous turn where some of my buildings didn't activate, and never recovered.  As an addendum, this was played again on Tuesday at our regular game night - myself, Tom, Traci and a fellow named Randy.  I was much smarter about which buildings I built when - and used the kings favor track much more effectively, and managed to get a victory.  This is one I want to introduce to the rest of our group soon.

Ticker to Ride - Asia

Sunday night Tom, Cathy and I played a game of TTR on the Asia map.  I had not played the Asia map yet - which includes mountain passes (essentially discarding train pieces for points) and a bonus for most cities connected (slightly different than the usual TTR bonus of "longest train").  I managed to complete 5 routes, and just beat out Tom for the most cities bonus to win the game.  Not much else to say about the game - it's TTR, which is good when you want to pull out something that's easy or a lot of people know - and easy to play on a camp table.  I have not yet played the flip side of the Asia board, which is a team game - I'm eager to try that.

Containing the Hive, trucking through the Heartland, and Innovating through history

After taking a break for a week (sometimes "real life" gets in the way....sigh) I was back at the Game Parlor this past Tuesday looking for some gaming action.  Actually, nearly all of our "regular" group passed on this week as well...with the exception of Carson, who was running late.  That left me looking to join in some games with other folks at the store.  Unfortunately, it seemed to be a low turnout in general...but just as I was considering leaving, a fellow named Darren with whom we've played in the past came in, and asked if I was looking for a game.

Tower o' beetles!

Since I knew Carson would be arriving at some point, we decided on a quick 2-player game.  Darren introduced me to Hive, a clever little tile laying game.  The idea in Hive is to completely surround your opponent's queen bee - with tiles from either side.  So, you have to be careful not so endanger your own queen with your own tiles.  At the start of the game, each player lays down one tile, and they must touch.  Your queen must be one of the first 4 tiles you place, and you cannot place where it touches an opponents tile.  However, once your queen is placed, your hive becomes active, and your already placed tiles can move - and they can move to touch the opponents tiles.  There are several different bugs, and they all have different movement rules...but the key rule to the game is that the hive can never split, i.e. you cannot perform a move such that a single tile, or group of tiles becomes separated from the main hive.  This leads to useful defensive strategies like hanging an ant off the end of a key tile of your opponent such that they can't move that tile.  Despite the kind of silly theme, this is an interesting and deep game, and very chess-like.

Breaker 1 - 9, anyone got leads on Smokey the Bear?

 Carson arrived after we'd played a few games of Hive, and I spotted something in Darren's collection that I've been wanting to try for some time now - Dice Hate Me Game's The Great Heartland Hauling Company.  In this game, you play the role of a trucker hauling various resources (pigs, cattle, corn, soy) to and fro across the "Heartland", trying to sell the goods and make a profit - game end is triggered when one player reaches a certain dollar amount (i.e. score) - which is dependent on the number of players.  The game "board" is going to be unique every time, as it is created by placing a number of cards around a central "anchor" card.  Each of the cards has a primary resource that you can pick up, and 2 resources which they will buy for an annotated price - some places pay more for certain goods than others.  In the basic game, you essentially just make a grid of these cards, but you can set them in any design you want, really (which can make it more difficult).  You navigate across the map, and manipulate the resources on your truck by means of a 2nd deck of cards, from which you are constantly drawing up to a hand of 5 (Ticket to Ride style, where you can draw from face up cards, or randomly from the top of the deck).

This map configuration was...challenging...

On your turn, you must do 3 things, in this order - move, take an action, and then draw up to a full hand for next turn.  In order to move, you either play fuel cards from your hand (in values of 1, 2 or 3 which allow you to move that many cards), or if you have no fuel cards, you can pay $1 per space you want to move, up to 3 spaces.  You can pass through a card with another player, but you may not stop there.  On your action phase you can do one of three things - pick up goods, deliver goods, or pay money to discard and redraw new cards.  In order to pick up or deliver goods, you must play a card of that good type - one card per good.  And you can not mix goods.  As the game goes on, goods will end up on cards where they are not the prime resource...you can pick those up, at a cost of 2 cards per good.  Now, I want to highlight what I think is the key mechanic in this game.  You MUST move BEFORE picking up or delivering.  What this means, in essence, is that you cannot deliver a good to a spot, and then on your next turn pick up the good that they are "selling" there, to then deliver to another location.  So, you have to plan several turns in advance as you collect cards in your had, and what route you may take.  To be honest, I don't know how I feel about this rule.  It sort of breaks the theme for me...in that in real life, you typically wouldn't offload in one city, and then drive your empty truck over to the next city to load up on goods there.  I suspect that in original playtests of the game, you could pick up where you had dropped off, but I suspect that made the game pretty easy...it's definitely more strategic this way.

We played a 2nd game of "TGHHC", in which we used some expansion cards - two cards were locations that only bought goods, and didn't provide any - but they bought at premium prices.  The other cards we used were "truck stops", which were essentially cards that you could buy if you landed on them, which would allow you to break the rules of the game if they were in your possession.  For example, I ended up with a card called "sleeper cab", which enabled me to spend $1 to NOT move on a turn.  Unfortunately, I was never able to put that to really good use.  There are some other alternate rules that we didn't play such as road closures.  In short...I don't think I liked this game as much as I wanted to.  The whole thing about not being able to pick up in the same place as you just delivered was a real irritant.  On the other hand, I would like to play some more, using those truck stop cards...I think those push the game up a level.  And I really really liked the little 18-wheeler meeples (18-wheeleeples?) - I might have to pick up a copy just for those!

Moving into Age 3....

 Lastly, we played a 3 player game of Innovation.  In this card game, you are trying to build your civilization on various technical advances through 10 different ages.  There are 10 decks of card that represent the different ages.  You start with a hand of 5 (I think) cards, and on your turn, you can do one of the 3 things - "Meld", which is playing a card from your hand face up in front of you, on top of any cards of the same color, "Draw" - drawing a new cards equal to or possibly exceeding the highest "age" card you've played, or "Dogma", which essentially allows you to use the text of any card you have face up in front of you.  The cards are used for multiple purposes - they are used for their dogma powers, they all have symbols on them, which may allow you use another player's dogma actions, and they are used as points...which are then used to "buy" achievements - first player to 5 achievements wins the game.  The "dogma" actions are what really drive the game, and allow you to alter your various face-up cards, score points, screw with your neighbors (and boy can that happen a lot), etc.  I was really enjoying this game for about the first 3/4...and then it (literally) blew up.  Carson had fallen far behind.  Darren and I had multiple achievements, and he had none so far.  With much apologies, he decided to play the "Fission" card, which wiped out the face-up decks, and the points of every player on the board - and removed those cards from the game.  Darren and I still had our achievements, but with only a handful of Age 1 and 2 cards, and then leaping up to Age 8+, it was a strange climb back into the game.  It quickly became obvious that we weren't going to win by getting to 5 achievements, and the alternate rule is that when the Age 10 deck runs out, the person with the most points win.  But those higher age dogma effects get to be pretty crazy - one of them changed the winning condition to the player with the *least* amount of points.  And the "screw your neighbor" aspect ratchets up with those higher age cards.  In the end, Darren won by running out the Age 10 deck.  So...I don't know how I feel about this game...I want to play it again.  I think that the "fission" card may be a game breaker...but it did allow Carson to get back in the game (he actually tied for the win, but lost on tie breaker).  And I think those higher age cards may be a little too much "screw your neighbor"...but after one play, I'm not sure I can judge that so well.  There are games - like Dominion - that I knew after one play, weren't for me.  That's not the case with Innovation - I'm  a little wary...but I'd like to try it a few more times.

Puerto Rico and "The Adventurers"

Well, we had a whopping 9 people stop in for Tuesday night boardgaming fun at The Game Parlor.  With that many people (which was actually lower than we had expected), we split into two groups.  Carson, Mike R., Mason and Brian D. played Ground Floor (which I have yet to play), and several rounds of the card game Hanabi.  The early birds among us were going to squeeze in a game of Hanabi, but the rest of the folks arrived earlier as well...it looks like an interesting card game in which you know everyone's cards...except your own.  The game is a cooperative endeavor to try and lay down cards of different colors in the correct order.  I'd definitely like to try it at some point.

In any case, our "sub-group" consisted of Mike BW, Tom, Traci, myself, and a fellow named Jeff who had wandered into the Game Parlor, looking for a game.  I decided to introduce this group to that old standby...Puerto Rico.  Mike, Tom & Traci had never played, and it had been a long time for Jeff.  A firm believer in "the burned hand teaches best", I set out to crush these newbies...in a fun, socially acceptable euro-game way of course.

Heading into the end game....

By random draw, I was the first Governor, which meant I got an indigo plantation.  Now, one of my favorite strategies to play is what my buddy Grant calls the "Corn King" strategy...plant lots of corn, ship it for points, and use a higher end crop (tobacco or coffee to generate money).  I thought I could pull of the same trick with Indigo.  I was wrong.  As the first Governor, I pulled a fairly standard move, and chose to settle, taking a quarry.  From there, it took me a long time to build up my Indigo empire...needing a production building as well as colonists in that building...it's far tougher to get those points rolling in than it is with corn.  I got my coffee going as well, and Jeff was the only other player in the coffee business...but by midgame I had an office, so I wasn't worried about getting shut out of the market.  Then game a couple of disastrous turns.  Jeff played the Captain role...and shipped his coffee...which meant I had to load my coffee on that boat...nothing left to sell in the market!  The Craftsman was played soon after, and I raked in 3 indigo, 2 coffee and a corn.  Next turn, when Captain was played, I had 3 people placing before me, and the boats consisted of corn(which was full), sugar and tobacco.  I couldn't place on any of the boats, and with no warehouse...I lost everything but one coffee.  We also had a turn where folks started taking the big buildings...a bit premature, I thought...and I opted for a wharf.  I never did get a big building.  Finally, the game ended about 3 or 4 turns earlier than a typical game, I think.  We had several rounds where 8, 9 or even 10 colonists got loaded on the ship...and lack of colonists did eventually end the game.  When the fog lifted from the island of Puerto Rico, I was left with 30, Mike, Jeff and Tom had between 32 and 36...and Traci had 51!  Shipping multiple loads of tobacco and corn, as well as 2 big buildings gave her a commanding win.  What was that about crushing the newbies?!?  I did learn a valuable lesson, that if I go for the "Corn King" strategy...it's best to use corn!

Here comes the boulder....

Jeff took his leave, and next up was The Adventurers: The Temple of Chac.  This is not to be confused with The Adventurers: The Pyramid of Horus, which is a "sequel" of sorts, but I think inferior to Chac.  This game is the "Indiana Jones" of board games.  As one of the adventurers, your goal is to escape the temple with the most expensive loot, while trying to avoid being killed by crushing walls, crumbling walkways over lava, a rickety bridge, a raging underground river, and most relentlessly...the ever pursuing boulder.  I was introduced to this game at WBC a few years ago, and love it - it's very light, very silly, and takes 45 minutes or less to play.  In fact, we got in 2 games of it. 

WILL HE MAKE IT?!?!

In our first game, I had the lockpicking ability, and tried saving it to use to pick up the "Idol of Chac", the most valuable treasure in the game.  Since it was everyone else's first game, most played conservatively, avoiding the lava, and just rushing for the exit.  I got sidelined at the rickety bridge getting that treasure (note that I have the 2nd edition, with includes a treasure on the bridge...I think this is a good thing, as it provides more impetus to actually cross the bridge.)  Mike BW managed to actually nab the Idol, and Tom, he and I made it out.  Traci did chance the lava after getting shut out of the wall treasures, and plunged to a fiery death.  As did her backup character, I believe.

Oh...so sad.....

The 2nd game was much more exciting.  Tom, Traci and I spent time among the crushing walls to study the glyphs for safe passage across the lava pit.  Mike made a dash for the wall treasures, and picked the locks on all 4.  The boulder was moving slowly.  I successfully made it across the lava pit, picking up several treasures.  Tom made for the exit, I think nabbing the bridge treasure.  I attempted to go for the idol, which I successfully recovered...however the boulder had picked up steam and was right on my heels.  I came charging around the corner, only to be caught by the boulder and squashed like a bug.  Mike and Traci had gone the river route.  Mike came out of the river with 9(!) treasures...but being loaded down, he was not moving fast.  Traci emerged shortly after him...only to be crushed mercilessly by the boulder.  Mike dropped 3 of his treasures to lighten his load, as he needed to move only 2 spaces to escape.  That meant that among the 5 dice to be rolled for movement, he only needed 2 of them to be 3 or above.  He promptly rolled, and got 1-1-2-2-4.  That meant only one move for him, right to the door itself...where it was promptly sealed by the boulder, using his crushed body as a nice gasket.

That was a fun game...and nice way to end the evening.  There are some rumblings to pull out Eclipse in the near future...which is something I've been wanting to play for some time....

Shadows Over Camelot & The Walking Dead

We got together for our usual Tuesday night adventures, and like last week, we had 6 of us - myself, Brian G, Mike R, Tom, Traci, and Carson made a return appearance after a few weeks away.  Unlike last week, we actually brought some games that accommodated more than 5 players.  After some debate we settled on that granddaddy of co-op games, Shadows Over Camelot.  We also opted to play with the expansion, Merlin's Company.  Published in 2005, while it may not have been the first cooperative game, SoC definitely invigorated the sub-genre of co-ops, and was possibly the first to add in the "traitor" element.  Merlin's Company adds in some cards to be drawn as you attempt to travel between quests, which may be a hindrance or beneficial.

Despair!

We randomly passed out loyalty cards, and also knight cards.  Alas, we were to fight against the dark forces without help from King Arthur himself!  We had a few knights bravely leave to search for the grail, Mike R. went to find Excalibur and I, as Sir Gareth, went to fight the marauding Picts.  Traci cast some suspicion on herself by remaining behind in Camelot for several turns and simply collecting cards.  Carson eventually joined me and helped me defeat the Picts, and after a somewhat long search, Brian claimed Excalibur.  That put a total of 3 white swords on the round table.  With many "despair" cards coming form the deck, the Grail looked to be lost at one point.  However, I had the "heroism" card, which added a white sword to any successful quest...that meant claiming the grail would be worth 4 white swords!  It took some time, but we were able to eventually find the grail!

The Grail has been found, and Merlin is warding off siege engines

Unfortunately, no one challenged Lancelot for his armor, and the Saxons overran our shores, which gave us several black swords.  At one point, we had 7 white swords and 4 black swords on the table.  Getting a 12th sword of any color would end the game.  But we were wary of the traitor, who if he remained unrevealed could flip 2 swords from white to black.  We also had a black card in action that would add an extra black sword to any failed quest.  Traci played a card that allowed the knights of Camelot to win the next tie...including the sword count at the end.  Mike R. was able to get rid of the "extra black sword card", and we were able to win a victory against the Saxons for an 8th and final white sword.  No one was accused during the game of being a traitor...well, no one was formally accused - there were certainly suspicious glances and mutterings about certain actions or non-actions.  But no one was confident enough to accuse a fellow knight of being a traitor...and for good reason - as it turned out, there was no traitor!  Battlestar Galactica tends to get the nod as the superior Coop-with-a-traitor game, but SoC is no slouch, and if you're in the mood for a coop game, this is a great game.




Next up, we pulled out The Walking Dead.  Mike R. is always quick to point out that this is the game based on the comics, not the TV shows (of which there is another game).  Basically, in this game, you are trying to be the first to successfully scout  3 locations on the map, based on location cards that are visible to everyone, and one secret location known only to you.  As you travel around, you leave hordes of zombies in your wake, and draw encounter cards, which can be zombie fights, or other tasks that require you to roll your dice pool.

It gets successively harder to scout each of your 3 locations.  In our game, Tom won in the end, although technically he "cheated", as he scouted the prison twice, and legally you can't scout the same location twice.  But that's OK, I think we were all ready for it to be over.  Now, I'm not a zombie fan(I really wish the whole zombie fad would star to die), so that's one strike against the game for me.  But that's not really what I have against the game.  It's fun in it's own way, but - and this is only my 2nd play - it can tend to drag a little.  By the time people have scouted their 2nd location, I feel like most people are ready to be done.  It didn't help that we had 6 players, which slows things down (although we allowed both Traci and Brian to "regenerate" after they were killed).  The other thing that is a little annoying is that it's impossible to plan for some of the encounter cards.  Sure, you can stock up on ammo and such to prepare for zombie encounters...but you may get a card that simply reads "you are successful at this encounter if you have the lowest amount of food - otherwise you fail".  Well...how can you possibly plan for that?  But, as was stated several times at the table, this game is all about atmosphere and story telling, and not really about strategy and tactics.

The zombies are starting to mass...Atlanta is a (un)death trap!

I did my part to stimulate the economy and help my FLGS by picking up a couple of items.  I did my usual walk around the Game Parlor, not expecting to really find anything, when lo and behold, there on the shelf sat the new 7 Wonders:Wonder Pack.  I had no idea such a thing existed.  So, for $15 I snatched it up.  Apparently the new Wonders are the Great Wall of China, Stonehenge, Abu Simbel, and they have reimplemented the promotional Manekken Pis "Wonder".  I haven't looked at it in great detail, but the free beer has apparently been removed from Manneken Pis.  So, being committed to spending $15, I wanted to find something for at least $5 more to get myself a free ticket for the evening (Game Parlor charges you $2 to play there, which I think takes a little of the "F" out of "FLGS").  I couldn't find anything that I was interested in for that cheap, so for $35 I settled on Roll Through the Ages.  I've not played them, but I've heard good things about RTtA, and it's "big brother", Through the Ages.  So, this one was bought on reputation alone...and yet again I need to find shelf space for more games.  Sigh...I fear I'm going to have to ruthless about culling my collection soon.