1.
With 8 players in attendance we split into 2
tables and played some longer games. On Table 1 Freya’s new game of “THUNDERSTONE ADVANCE” made an
appearance again, for the third week running. Your correspondent has still not
played it so cannot comment in depth. Suffice to say that it was keenly
contested and the final order was Jon, Freya, Roger, Kevin and Alister.
2.
With the non-appearance of Lucy Mike put
away his copy of HAWAII and Table 2 saw 3 players playing the new game “VINHOS” under Tony’s direction. This
game is about Portugal’s wine-producing areas and players have their own player
board on which they place items they have acquired from the main board. These
include such things as Vineyards, Wineries, Enologists (Wine Experts) and
Cellars. By building up these areas the players can eventually produce wines of
different colour, vintage and strength. They can choose to use these in several
different ways, providing they can use the appropriate Action Square ( more
later). They can a) sell these into various establishments to improve their
bank balance; b) export them to gain immediate VP’s plus a chance to gain more
VP’s at the game end; c) use them to establish and develop a relationship with
one of the 3 managers in the game with a long term view of gaining VP’s at the
game end; use one of them to go to the
Wine Fair to gain VP’s and other possibilities available there. So many ways to
score points or position yourself for subsequent moves. One thing to point out
is that there is a difference in the ‘Cash in the Bank’ and the ‘Cash on hand’.
Players can only use ‘Cash in hand’ to move to the Action squares, acquire new
tiles or hire enologists so this has to be allowed for. To generate more cash
they have to take the action ‘Visit the bank’ and withdraw some cash and reduce
their bank balance. The size of the Bank balance at game ends provides yet
another way to score VPs so the amount you withdraw via this action has to be
weighed up. The game consists of 6 phases and the taxman moves along these 6
action squares in a defined sequence. Each phase is made up of 2 distinct
turns, followed by a maintenance phase where you have to pay for staff, then a
Production phase, and then in certain turns a Wine Fair takes place. Players
pay 1money in cash to move to each square they pass over, pay the costs
associated with the action square they have landed on, perform some ancillary
action if the tile so dictates, and optionally invoke the use of some of their
Wine Experts in their employ. This is straightforward once you understand the
graphics on the board and the ramifications and after the first round game play
speeded up considerably. Paul established an early lead by exporting wines in 2
turns. Mike concentrated on building up the production facilities in 2
Vineyards, whilst Tony exhibited at the Wine Fair to gain points and more Wine
experts. The cash element was very tight so not all plans came to fruition. The
Weather played its part as well, sometime producing crops of lower quality than
that required. Tony started to catch up Paul by good use of the Wine market but
Paul reacted by exporting even more wine. Mike took the lead by exporting some
high-quality wines, only for Paul to respond yet again with more exports. With
only 6 rounds in the whole game it’s difficult to achieve all your goals, but
it does mean that it plays quicker than you think and there’s very little
downtime. We finished in just under 3 hours, not bad for a game that required a
lot of explanation at the start and a fiddly set up. Paul’s significant export
activity yielded him 24 points at game end so the final scores were Paul 76,
Mike 62, Tony 34. The game is produced by the company “What’s Your Game?” who
published the excellent “VASCO DA GAMA” a couple of years ago and Mike could
see the similarities in the design and presntation. In both games you have a
certain number of action dobbers to use, a certain number of action spaces to
choose from, the money to do all you want is not easy to acquire, and you are
trying to build an ‘engine’ that gives rewards of VPs both short-term and
Long-term. The components are of high quality and the game is highly recommended
to other members. The three of us want to play again next week and invite
another member to join us.
3. With
Freya’s departure Table 1 reduced to 4 players so they played “SURVIVE“, a club favourite about
getting your men off the island and into safety before being gobbled up by
whales, Sea serpents and the like.. Your correspondent had to leave at this
time with the game still in progress. Opinion from the players was that victory
would go to either Alister or Jon so I have recorded a joint win for the time
being….what a cliffhanger dear readers, can you wait for next week’s instalment
to find out who triumphed??...........
Thunderstone
Advance – Jon Bradford;
Vinhos – Paul
Bulpin;
Survive– Alister
Gitten/Jon Bradford.
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