1.
With the return of 3 of our members from the
games convention called Baycon we were up to 11 players so we split into 3
tables. From the 6 games player only 1 had been played in the club before. On
table 1 Mike led a 4-player game of “RAUB
RITTER”, a tile-laying game in which players have a set of 24 identical
tiles depicting Strongholds, Villages, Cities, Plains, Mountains and Lakes,
together with a series of 30 counters in their colour to depict knights. The
tiles are sorted by the letter on the reverse and shuffled to form a deck form
which they will select the top 2 and play one of those to the table adding it
to tiles already placed to form the ‘land’. The overall size of the land in a
4-player game cannot exceed a 10 x 10 grid but whilst this is
being constructed players can place any tile wherever they wish, sometimes to
gain control of areas or as a defensive measure. If a player places one of
their Strongholds they can add a pile of up to 5 knights to this tile and then
expand onto adjacent tiles but in one movement in a straight line. They must
leave at least 1 knight in each tile depicting the plains, 2 in those depicting
forests, and 3 in the mountains. This gives them temporary control of those
tiles but other players can introduce their tile in such a place that enables
them add knights to take over control of the tiles just gained. This pattern
continues, with control of various tiles constantly changing hands until all
the tiles have been placed, at which point the game ends and the top counter of
each tile counts for the players score. Mike took the early lead with Jon also
looking strong. Roger had a lesser presence and Freya was waiting to pounce.
Jon then placed his tiles cleverly to take some of Roger’s tiles. Meanwhile
Freya was starting to make inroads as the board reached its maximum size and
looked certain to win as Mike’s holding diminished and he had no counters left
to place. Roger held the final 3 counters but placed his penultimate tile 1 turn
too early and missed a chance to score points on the very last turn. Final
scores were very close, these being Mike 24, Jon 22; Freya 22; Roger 21.
2.
On table 2 Tony introduced 3 players to the game
of “HOMESTEADERS”, a game of just 10
turns in which players bid money for the tiles on offer at auction. The tiles
depict various buildings which will build their own homestead into the most
valuable at game end, and some offer VP’s or discounts or extra actions. Some
of tiles produce commodities like wood, iron or gold and these can be used
later on to buy or sell at the Trading Post. To buy tiles in later phases they
will need these commodities as an entry condition. Players can always take out
loans of 2 dollars each to pay for their auctions but these cost 5 dollars each
to repay at the end. If they cannot repay them all they will have to give up a
certain number of VP’s, so not always a good idea. As play progresses certain
types of tiles are removed from the display to be replaced by better ones, depicting
the way the Wild West towns built up. A very balanced game in which you cannot
always do what you want. With his knowledge of the game it was no surprise that
Tony won but the other 3 players all enjoyed the experience.
3.
On Table 3 Kevin introduced Jerry and Jeremy
to the popular game “AGRICOLA”,
making its debut in the club. In this game players are dealt a hand of cards
from which they will choose what type of farmer they will be, be it livestock,
crops, or a combination of both. They each have an individual board showing a
large pasture and onto which they place their starting 2 homes and 2 people.
The resources board is populated at the start of each turn with items such
as Wood, Clay, Stone, Cattle, Sheep, Wild Boar, Food, Grain, and Vegetables. In
addition on this board are shown actions that the players can choose, such as
Population Growth, House Building, Home Improvement, Minor and Major
Improvements, Plough Fields, Build Fences. In turn order players will place one
if their people counters on a square of their choice, taking either Resources
on that square. i.e. 3 Wood, or an Action. The actions are then carried out and
a new turn commenced. At certain points a harvest is declared and players
receive the produce from their sown fields, if they have them. Players will
construct extra houses and increase their population to give them more workers.
However these workers have to be fed and the player must have an adequate food
supply to do so. To achieve this a tactic might be to perform the major Improvement
of building a Clay Oven, obtaining some grain and then choosing the ‘Bake
Bread’ action, always providing of course that no other player has already
chosen it !! Those who collect Wood might choose the Build Fences action to
turn their pasture into fields, into which they will later put livestock and
breed with them to feed their people. The cards give many other occupations
which add value to the players turn so they are constantly evaluating what is
the best course of action and this is what gives the game its flavour. At game
end players will score points for the number of various items they have
accumulated, like Vegetables, Grain, Cattle, Sheep, Livestock etc. If they have
none of a particular ‘commodity’ they will lose VPs. They will gain points for
the number of people they have, the number of fields they have constructed or
ploughed but lose points for unused Pasture spaces. All 3 Farms had a different
constitution but in the final reckoning Jeremy turned out to be the most
successful farmer.
4.
Table 4 saw 4 players engaged in “GIGANTEN DER LUFTE”, a game which
depicts factories vying to build airships with a view to eventually being able
to help in the constriction of the Hindenberg. Each player has an individual
board with spaces for 6 types of employee, who each give different attributes
in the form of dice. Each player in turn uses the number of dice currently at
their disposal and roll various combinations of white, red and black dice to
try and gain a card on the main board display. If successful they place the
card on their board for later use. If unsuccessful they receive a compensation
chip for later use, which adds 1 to the total of a dice roll. Certain cards
depict VP symbols as well as dice, or some other icon such as “add 1 to a red
dice” or “a black dice is a virtual value of 7”. As the players factories
improve their technology the higher value cards can be rolled for and this
accelerates towards the game end. Once one player has built their own airship
then all
players have the chance to build one of the 4 components of the
Hindenberg which yield bigger rewards but is harder to achieve. Jon, Roger and
Mike all gained employees to improve their factories whilst Freya concentrated
her efforts on gaining cards with VP’s on them. Jon was the first build part of
the Hindenberg but just like the other players his dice throws always seemed to
come up just 1 point short of gaining the card he chose. The game was
eventually ended when someone took the last airship card and we reckoned up the
scores as Mike 8; Jon 8; Roger 9 and Freya a massive 22 points for an easy
victory.!!
5.
Table 2 saw 4 players paying “CARPE ASTRA”, a space game about which
your correspondent knows nothing so the following notes are taken from BGG. 10,000 years in the future,
humanity has claimed the stars. But all is not well. The Emperor is weak, and
without strong guidance, the Empire is crumbling. Powerful guilds within the
empire are squabbling, positioning themselves for their own gain. If the Empire
is to survive, it needs a strong leader - that means you! You must build a
power base throughout the Empire by connecting with important guilds: the
military, traders, priests, engineers, expansionists, and politicians and then
claim the throne. Time is running out, though; others also struggle for the
throne. You must form a network of support with powerful guilds and slander
your opponents. Each connection gains the support of some guilds, and at the
end of the game the player with the most support grasps the Galactic Throne. Paul described the game as being very tight on money
and the end result portrayed a close game with the final scores being Tony 11;
Paul 10; Alister 9; Rob 7 points.
6.
Table 1 saw 3 players engaged in a game of “SURVIVE”, in which players place their
people on an island consisting of tiles portraying beach, forests and mountains. The premise of the game is that the island
will sink piece by piece into the sea, depositing the players pieces, so they
have to try and escape to one of the 4 adjacent islands by getting into boats
and rowing there or jumping into the sea and swimming there. However this is
not straightforward as there are Sea Serpents, Sharks and Whales guarding the
islands and they will attack the players pieces. A typical turn consists of a
player using 3 action points to move their pieces on the island, either from
tile to tile or getting into a boat or jumping into the sea and swimming for
it. When this is done they select a tile at random from the island and expose
it. These are chosen in a strict sequence i.e. beach tiles, then forest tiles,
then mountain tiles. The exposed tiles either contain an action that takes
place immediately, such as Sharks move 2 spaces, or they can be used
at the start of the players next turn. Some times the player can choose a tile
on which other players pieces are placed and they are dumped into the sea, at
the mercy of the attackers !! If attacks take place the pieces are removed from
the game, hence the title of Survive. Kevin suffered multiple losses throughout
but after an early couple of losses Mike was able to get several pieces in a
boat, move a Sea Serpent out of the way and land them on an island. Kevin and
Roger tried to work together to get their pieces remaining on an ever-shrinking
island onto boats and off to safety but Mike drew a tile which sent the Whales
chasing after them to upturn their boat and thwart their plans and this gave
Mike the victory with 22 points to Roger’s 12 and Kevin’s 2.
7.
The
final group of 3 played “DOMAINE”
which was reviewed on 02/02/2012 so see review for that date. In yet another
close finish Jon turned out to be the winner.
Games played and Winners
were:
Raub Ritter –
Mike Oakes;
Homesteaders –
Tony Simons
Agricola –
Jeremy Hurault;
Giganten der
Lufte – Freya Freestone;
Carpe Astra –
Tony Simons;
Survive – Mike
Oakes;
Domaine – Jon
Bradford.
