Gaming For The Week 28th March - 3rd April 2010

My cell had a connect gathering over the weekend. Most were non-gamers but they had a good time with Jungle Speed and Liar's Dice. Both games play nicely in the 6-8 range. With Jungle Speed, more players ramp up the difficulty since you have more cards to pay attention too but with too many, decks tend to rather thin and the endings of such games feel somewhat premature. I suppose getting the expansion solves this problem to some extent although I'm not sure if I would prefer to put the dough to a different party game altogether. I would say that Jungle Speed needs to be played quickly for maximum excitement. Over-deliberate flipping can slow the game down to a crawl and make it a far less enticing experience.

I organized a usual games session midweek and there was a nice turnout this time round with 6. The early ones started with a game of Dominion:Intrigue which I won with a low score. Once everyone arrived, we split into 2 tables, with a group of us playing Le Havre while the others took on Confucius. I broke my previous high with a 257 score for Le Havre but it was largely due to the fact that Ivan and Ben failed to challenge me for the use of crucial buildings since they were new to the game. Le Havre, like games such as Puerto Rico, is one that rewards repeated plays. Nonetheless, Ivan did well for his first game.

Both tables ended around the same time. Ivan, Ben and Jo proceeded with a game of A Game of Thrones LCG while the rest of us had a run at Nexus Ops. I heard the AGoT LCG game was a close one with Ivan taking the win by a point. They however couldn't play till 15 power tokens and decided to end the game on a pre-decided round. Marcus was first to 12 points in Nexus Ops. Nexus Ops is a nice alternative to Risk especially with its euro-elements. I like the fact that the objective of the game isn't to wipe out your opponents, but picking battles wisely in order to nab victory points. Nonetheless, the game can be prone to downtime and I can't imagine playing a game with 4. Perhaps playing in teams may help somewhat...

On Good Friday, the cell came over and before we began our themed dinner, we manage to squeeze in two games of Monopoly Deal which Van dominated and a game of Ra.

29th May 2009 Session Report: The One Where We Battled For Influence In Ancient China

Marcus came over in the evening and brought a new game to introduce to us. I hadn't heard of Confucius before but in view of my increasingly streamlined collection, I was keen to try something new.

This worker placement game (yup, one more on the bandwagon) involved acquiring VPs from 3 main arenas based on diverse yet familiar mechanics. There was an option for exploration which offered early adopters more VPs than others in addition to a Emperor card which allows special concessions. There was a land occupation option which works somewhat like Blue Moon City where players cooperate to conquer foreign lands and share the points derived. This hardly came into play for our 3 player game as there were other opportunities for scoring and none of us really saw the benefit of helping each other. Lastly, there was an area majority option where we battled for influence in 3 different government ministries. 

There was a host of other minor mechanics which made the game somewhat fiddly. Another mechanic borrowed from Blue Moon City was that commodity cards denoted both a monetary value as well as licenses required for acquiring ships for exploration or soldiers for land occupation. And as you might guess, these 2 values are inversely proportionate (ie. 1 gold-3 licenses, 3 gold - 1 licenses). The most interesting mechanic involved gift-giving to your opponents which made them indebted to you in a variety of ways, particular in the competition for influence in the ministries. 

While an eye-opener, I found the connection between the various aspects and mechanics of the game somewhat forced and it felt almost as if the designer simply borrowed a couple of existing mechanics and bundled them together. To be fair, we played with 3 in a game which doesn't scale well and I can see how the neglected VP options would be more relevant in a game with 4 or 5.

Or maybe it could just be sour grapes, I ended up dead last with 13 VPs which Marcus and Van had 23 and 19 respectively.

We ended the night with a go at Glory to Rome. As it was getting late, Marcus declared he was going for a fast game taking a Craftsman client on his first turn, leaving behind a Merchant client for me. He promptly took a second and went on a building spree. Van while somewhat slower in acquiring building VPs, managed to stash a marble in her vault in addition to a couple of stockpile points from her Wall. I on the other had good buildings which I couldn't get in play in time as Marcus ended the game with a Catacomb. Marcus and Van were tied with 13 VPs and 3 cards in hand, while I took up the rear with a mere 8 VPs.