10th April 2009 Session Report: Good Friday Gaming

Van and I invited our ex-students over to our place on Good Friday. Amidst the food and programmes, we managed to teach them High Society and Tichu. I managed to join in for a game of both.

High Society

They caught the rules relatively quickly and while I initially doubted this purchase, I'm starting to see it's a good option to introduce to new games - it has simple rules yet plays with some depth. Furthermore, it plays quick for non-gamers. In the game I played, I took the win as I managed to grab a few luxury cards on the cheap towards the endgame. While I reminded the other players on the importance of keeping the smaller denominations for flexibility, many of them were down to their last few cash cards towards the end. I guess it's tough for them to value the cards aright on initial plays which is to be expected with auction games. Nonetheless, they seemed to have good fun with most of them equally clueless as to how much to bid.

Tichu

Van and I each taught group of ex-students Tichu. It helped that they are familiar with Big Two which is quite similar in terms of play mechanics. Tichu seems a myriad of Big Two, Bridge and Hearts. Big Two for the gameplay, Bridge for the partnership play and Hearts for the initial exchange of cards. I won the game which I took over the Van and got soundly whipped in the other after allowing them to make Tichu twice.

26th March 2009 Session Report: The One Where We Played My Top 3 Games

Well that's the good news... The bad news? My losing streak extended - can't remember the last time I failed to win so many consecutive games. Oh well, not winning doesn't detract from any of the fun of gaming...ok, maybe just a tinny bit ;)

Ben and Mun joined us in the afternoon for games. While waiting for Mun (late as usual, hah), we started with a game of Ra as requested by Ben. I didn't mind since I find Ra best with 3 since it accords players with more control. 5 player games can be somewhat more random. I failed to obtain much value with the auctions I won, and sorely trailed in terms of monument collection. I think I ended up with something like 3 and was deservingly trounced by Van and Ben who had 57 and 49 respectively. I ended up with a score of 38 thanks to me winning the Pharaoh bonus all 3 epochs.

Since Mun was likely to arrive at any point, we decided to opt for a quick game of High Society. It was Ben's first go at the game (he emphasized that I should note this in the session report *cough*) and struggled in finding the balance between acquiring points while conserving his cash. He racked up a impressive point total but wasn't a threat as he was down to his last cash card 2/3 way into the game. Van spent more of her cash than me by avoiding the 'bad' cards and ended up with a score of 20, thanks to two 2x multipliers and a 5 point luxury card. I was too conservative with my cash and ended up with both the 1/2 and -5 cards, resulting in a final score of 8.5.

When Mun arrived, we started on Glory to Rome, my current no.1. Mun and Ben did exceedingly well in the game, scoring 33 and 32 respectively. Mun racked up points by stuffing her stockpile early and building the Wall which rewards VPs for material in the stockpile. She also played a few timely Merchant roles when our stockpiles were empty. Ben loaded up on his clientele and used his Basilica to shore up his vault midway through the game. I built the same building but took more time getting it up, resulting in my failure to make up the deficit. I ended with 28 while Van had 19.

I then suggested Princes of Florence, which has quickly risen up my favourite list, just short of overtaking Glory to Rome. I felt I played exceedingly efficient on most counts, producing a total of 5 works throughout the game and winning 3 best works bonuses. My only mistake was my failure to acquire a Prestige card. Instead I took 2 recruitment cards which I could have substituted with purchasing Profession cards. I used 3 Bonus cards on my last turn which was an overkill. The WV points obtained then pale in comparison to the potential Prestige points available from a single Prestige card. I ended with 47 to Van's 51 while Mun and Ben had 45 and 36 respectively.

We ended the day with my former no.1, El Grande. I wonder if it is even no.3 now that Le Harve has entered the fray. I built a sizable lead after the 1st scoring which was a mistake because the rest started ganging up on me by banishing my cabelleros to Portugal (Mental note to self: Avoid taking too many scoring cards early in game). Van overtook me by the 2nd scoring and with my weakened state, I struggled clawing back the deficit and ended up with 108 to her 120. Ben and Mun scored 90 and 83 respectively. 

24th March 2009 Session Report: The One Where We Played Nice

Siew Min and her bf De Cruz came over for dinner tonight. I started them off on High Society after dinner, as a warm-up of sorts. We played 2 games and interestingly the random nature of the end game condition led to 2 extremes. The first game ended within the first few auctions with the 4 red bordered cards literally coming up consecutively. Siew Min ended up with the only luxury card but was eliminated due to having the least cash left. De Cruz and I however each had a x2 multiplier yet without any luxury cards. I figure cash left would serve as the tie-breaker but it slipped my mind during the game. The 2nd game went to the final card. I took the -5 card and had to discard one luxury card but still ended up with 40+ points without being left with the least cash. The other 2 used up their small denominations early on which proved highly detrimental as I managed to obtain a couple of luxury cards with minimum bids uncontested.

We continued with Settlers of Catan which was probably the only game Siew Min was open to play since she emerged victorious on her first go. I guess Catan is a good gateway game because the experienced players can always adjust the competitiveness. In this case, Van and I went easy on the 2 of them, trading with them frequently and while we did 'rob' them occasionally, it was only done when they were in the lead. It helped that they traded generously with each other which smoothen the learning curve somewhat. De Cruz ended up the victor (somehow the first timer always gets the win!) with the longest road, and a VP card. Siew Min and I were tied on 9 - she had 2 VP cards while I had control of the largest army. Van wasn't far behind with 8. It seemed the both of them enjoyed the game and De Cruz found it interesting, this being his first go at a eurogame. Hopefully, I'll have an opportunity to introduce them to something like Stone Age in future.

17 March 2009 Session Report: The One Where We Tried High Society

Misplaced the record sheet so this will be a recap based on what I can remember.

Ben and Mun came over for games today. Mun arrived earlier so while waiting for Ben, I whipped out High Society which I obtained recently for a first attempt. It was typical Knizia - interesting mechanics especially with the twist of having the player with the least money being eliminated but came across slightly dry due to its abstract nature. Nonetheless, it seems like a keeper for my purpose of serving as entertainment for guests when I'm not able to join them. The short play-time and simple rules fit the bill nicely. Only question in my mind is whether For Sale would be a better option but that's a moot point till I'm able to get my hands on a copy at a reasonable price (which rules out the reprint :P)

Van took the first game and Mun the second. I couldn't make up for the negative cards I took in the first game while I overspent in the second. The feel of the game reminded me of a simpler form of Modern Art. For some reason while I usually do reasonably well in Ra, I don't seem to have a good sense of how to do well in this alternate form of auction games.

Seeing that it had been awhile since we had four seasoned players, I took the opportunity to bring our my newly acquired copy of Princes of Florence. Still prefer to play with the maximum of 5 but seeing that it was a rare opportunity, I decided 4 wouldn't be too bad either. First play for Ben. I made a couple of bad mistakes and so did Van but we still emerged on top, with me losing to Van by a single point. Could have taken it if I didn't miscalculate my finances, failing to outbid Mun for the last Forest. The extra 3PP from what would have been my fourth forest would have won me the game. After the play, I made a mental note to upgrade my rating of the game from a 9 to a 10. The fact that such varied strategies (banking on multiple prestige cards instead of producing works) were viable added a notch for me. Looking forward to my next play.

There were some calls for Glory to Rome but figured we should instead have a go at another old favourite, El Grande. It was previously my no.1 game but in recent months, it has fallen behind Glory to Rome and Princes of Florence in my book. Still rate it a solid 9 nonetheless. Van took the win by virtue of a strong early move where we allowed her to score close to 20 points by scoring the six and seven regions. I learnt today that defense was just as important as offense in El Grande and sometimes cards need to be taken not for personal benefit but rather to block an opponent from gaining an extreme advantage. The three of us failed to do that today and Van took the win easily. The issue however is that there is general reluctance to sacrifice as the blocker for it often means forsaking a card providing personal benefit to do so.

Mun had to make a move and with the time remaining, I decided to show Ben the mechanics of Red November since he queried about it. I decided to play a 2 player game with each controlling a single gnome. As expected, we both survived in view of the limited event cards we were exposed to. The game is clearly easier with fewer players even with the attempted scalability of starting further down the track with more players.