What game is hitting your table?

[Bix Conners]

Four of us decided to play some games this past Friday. We started with:

In the Year of the Dragon
I had played this once before and was considering selling it but wanted another play. I am keeping it. Something about Stephan Feld designs. They kind of rock!

World Without End
You always feel like yo are getting beat up by the game itself with this title; some games worse than others. The cards that came up were so unforgiving that it was hard to worry what the other players were doing. Resources were always scarce and much in demand. Fun game. It is climbing the charts for me.

Poseidon's Kingdom
The Lamont Brothers, (Fragor Games), really make some interesting designs. This is a game that is hard to get your head around the first game. In many ways because they take a very different approach with their game mechanics. This was my fourth play of the game and I think I have a solid grasp on how to play and adjust my strategy. I enjoy playing this once in awhile. It has great bits and a novel design. Not my favourite game in the collection, but definitely a keeper.


On Saturday night I met with another group for a six player game of

Eclipse
I really like the design in this game. So much so I bought a copy for myself. I can't help but feel that initial exploration tile draws can really hamper your play / strategy. I will withhold judgement until I get in a few more plays though. In the six player game, I had a really hard time getting my resource engine going and I was physically cut off from the other races. Fun game with lots to explore. I would like to play again soon.


On Sunday night, Kathy and I played 3 games of

Kingdom Builder
I had played this once before and thought of it is a very light Euro design. I have since come to recognize it for a very clever abstract design. I enjoyed the three games, but I think Kathy will pass on future plays as she does not enjoy abstracts that much.

[Kage]

Saturday night we played

Battlestar Galactica
We ended up playing twice.  Andrew Quach came over late and we played the 2nd game with 6 players and ALL expansion rules.  Despite the humans loosing and barley getting half-way this was probably the most entertaining game of BSG I have ever played.  And that is saying something since this is probably my favourite board game.

We had one new guys playing it and he thought it might be smart to try and ditch one of his crappy cards.  It was an honest mistake but this just sent everyone off the handle with accusations of being a cylon.  And this new player was human at the time.

This led to a string of executions, including me shooting the new player (who was Helena Cain and the admiral anyway) all because he Air locked me last game.  But we don't hold grudges game to game.  So, in retaliation picked Baltar and looked at my Loyalty Cards.  One happened to be a final 5 and executed myself if someone looked at it.

My wife says she loves just sitting back and watching.  Everyone was so paranoid.  All because of 1 simple card toss into a skill check.

See what happens when there are no metagame players.       

[Colin Dearborn]

Got in on Year of the Dragon, World Without End and Posidens Kingdom with Matt.


In the Year of the Dragon and World Without End.
If you like games that occasionally kick you in the teeth and destroy your plans then these are both worth trying out. There is more replayability in World with only using 6 of 11 of the random events, but i will play either one almost anytime.

Posidens Kingdom is fun, but there is a runaway leader problem.

Have also gotten in a couple games of Can't Stop with Amanda over the weekend. Both games came ended with her winning 3-2, her slow and steady approach seems to be trumping my gambleing style. The design is so simple, but the pushing your luck part just makes this so much fun.

[R Newell]

My wife has become a Mage Knight junkie.  She literally wants to play it every night, at least once.  So it's hit the table about 5 or 6 times in the past week.  I've finally started counting scores at the end of the game.  Twice now it's seemed like she should have won but I'd end up squeaking out a narrow victory by having a few less wounds or a few more spells or higher level units... none of which have much to do with the scenario victory conditions.  She's beginning to resent the end-game scoring since she does a better job than I do at achieving the main scenario goals.

We also played a learning game of Runewars, her as the elves and me as the undead.  She reached the requisite 6 dragon runes in the final year (round), despite my occasional rules mistake that tended to hurt her more than me.  (She spent 3 rounds trying to take a hex from neutral units that, if we'd been resolving battles correctly, she'd have taken her first turn.  Oops.)  Unfortunately, no end-game scoring in this one to allow me to steal her win.  I didn't get much of a feel for her elves, but I thought my undead were pretty thematic (necromancers can raise skeleton troops during battle; vampires can can destroy routed opponents to create more vampire troops).

I was also in on Friday games at Matt's.  I enjoyed all three games, but preferred Poseidon's Kingdom: cute and unique, though strangely unintuitive for what is basically a family game.  Both In the Year of the Dragon and World Without End are a bit too much about players trying to make the best of the diminishing options being offered by the game instead of players interacting with each other for my tastes.  I enjoy playing games like that on occasion, but they're not the ones I gravitate to.

[ChadBoudreau]

X-Wing: Star Wars Miniatures Game

My son wanted to play so I put together a scenario.

Imperials (5 Tie Fighters and 1 Tie Advanced) are escorting three transports of goods vital to the Imperial cause. The Rebels (Dutch Vander, Luke Skywalker, an X-Wing Rookie, an X-Wing Red Squadron Pilot, and a Y-Wing Grey Squadron Pilot) come out of hyperspace and surprise the Imperials.

The three transports have 6 hull points, no shields, and an agility of 1 (but do not get a defence bonus when attacked from range 3). The transports act as obstacles.

The Rebels need to destroy the three transports to win. The Imperials need to protect the transports. If the transports cross the play-mat (moving a 2 straight template each turn), the Imperials win.

As the Rebels approached, I kept my fighters close to the freighters. My son had his ships in two separate squads. One, led by Luke, came straight on down the one side of the play-mat. The other squad started to cut toward the middle. My Imperials were flying in a defensive formation close to the transports but by the third round I had gotten my ships ahead of the transports. The one squad came straight at Luke and his wingman. My other Imperials angled ever so slightly and let the second squad cut across their front.

The X-Wing Rookie flew straight across the sights of the Tie Advanced and Tie Fighter. My son was excited because it looked like the Rookie would get a shot off at one of the Ties as he passed, but during my move I did a barrel roll that put the Tie Fighter out of the Rooke's arc of fire without compromising my chance to nail the Rookie at range one! (Yeah, yeah, we play for keeps with our kids!) At the beginning of the next round, I executed a nice manoeuvre that brought the two Imperials directly behind the Rebel Rookie. First blood goes to the Imperials. The Rookie is stardust.

The slow-moving Y-Wings were trailing the action and as my Tie Advanced cut one direction I cut my Tie Fighter the other, the idea being one ship would end up behind the Y-Wings. It did not work as planned. The Tie Advanced shot past all Rebel ships and would, in fact, be ineffective for most of the remainder of the game, as I made a couple bad turns and ended up way out of the action.

Meanwhile, down the far-side of the play-mat, Luke and his wingman exchanged fire with the approaching Imperials and then angled toward the Imperial transports. This was a great move by my son because all Imperial ships near the transports were out in front trying to get the Y-Wings. This meant Luke and the other Rebel were swooping in on the transports' unprotected flank. My Tie Fighters on that side of the gaming area (having flown past Luke and friend during the initial head-on salvo) swung round but would have a hard time catching up to Luke before some damage was done to the transports.

Dutch Vander, leading the Y-Wings, got peppered with Imperial fire getting close to the transports. The Ties were coming at him from all sides, but he weathered the blasts and opened up on the transports. Also, an X-Wing got close to the lead transport, successfully avoiding a collision and then flying just above its surface, strafing it with fire. The severely damaged transport was destroyed by a following Y-Wing.

With the Rebels so close to the transports, the Imperials had no choice but to follow. The Imperial pilots proved to be less effective pilots then the Rebels. Several Imperials grazed the transports, taking minor damage. Also, in close quarters I got my ships all bungled up and thus had to abort several moves before completion, meaning I could program no "actions".

My son took some great risks with Luke! The boy from Tattooine had R2-D2 and could replenish a shield whenever he executed a "green" (easy) manoeuvre. But with Imperials closing fast behind him and the transports unprotected on the side, my son kept the speed high and the turns as sharp as possible. There was no chance to replenish shields! When Luke's X-Wing took a couple direct hits I thought for sure he'd lay off and let R2-D2 do his thing. But no! Luke went in hot, and lit up the last remaining transport.

Game over. Rebel victory!

[Bix Conners]

Brilliant write up Chad. 
I want you to write all of my after game reports.

Last night I played two games.

RuneWars
This was a learning game for two of us. We played with a full complement of four players. I ended up winning due to a very lucky quest draw and initial tile placement. The game is dripping in Theme and I like the decisions that you make in the game. There is a fair bit going on. I would like to play it again in the next month or two to get a better grasp of game play. I am really liking games like Eclipse and RuneWars, but I am left with a feeling that the draw of exploration tiles (Eclipse) and quest cards (RuneWars) can really lead to some unbalanced games. Perhaps some of these imbalances would be mitigated in games with experienced players. That is what I would like to explore.

That's Life
The four of us finished the night with a quick game of That's Life. This game is a gem that is easily taught and plays quick. It is generally a hit with gamers and non-gamers alike. I only wish I could find the two expansions for the game.

[R Newell]

RuneWars
I am left with a feeling that the draw of quest cards can really lead to some unbalanced games.

That's Life

Re: Runewars.  There are some options/variants that I believe will mitigate that.

Re: That's Life.  I'm still basking in the glory of my domination.

[Jolo]

2 games, 4 players

Game one was Kings of Air & Steam, a game I kickstarted last year and it arrived last week. KoA&S is a steampunk pick up & deliver game. In it, you have an airship that picks up goods from the factory and delivers them to your train depot for shipping to a town. The game lasts five turns and on each turn you have 4 moves & actions for your airship. The airship uses pre-plotted movement and can be upgraded to haul larger cargo and use better cards for movement. Trains are also used, and can be upgraded to move further.

It is a fun game with no track laying and a little bit of player screwage.

game two was the DC Deck building. It is weakly thematic (Superman beat Ras Al Ghul using Green Arrow's Bow) but where it really shines is that it is simple, light and fast. It has a feel of Dominion, but Ascension players tell me it is closer to that.

[Jolo]

Robert was over for some hard core Greek action, wait, that doesn't sound right.

We played Polis: Fight for the Hegemony, a two player game on the battle between Athens and Sparta for Greece. This is a tough game, especially since Robert and I floundered around trying to figure out a good strategy for it. We played two games, the first I won at the end of the first turn because Robert ran out of Prestige Points, the second Robert won because I conceded at the beginning of the 4th turn when I had no Prestige (but would get two later) and no food.

We decided to finish the night with the DC Deckbuilding Game and Brenda joined in for some three player bad guy bashing. Aquaman rode the Suicide Squad (why are they villains?) to victory over both the Flash (if he is so fast why was Aquaman "The Fastest Man Alive"?) and Cyborg

[R Newell]

Another game of Mage Knight with the wife.  I find my play style has changed a bit now that I'm actually doing the end-game scoring, especially on my last few turns as I scramble to gain positive points and shed negative points (wounds).  I won our game of Full Conquest by defeating the green city by myself and then managing to sprint across three tiles in one turn to cut off the missus and defeat the final enemy in the white city that she'd already been chipping away at the past two turns.  That move was enough to give me a narrow victory, 88-85.