27th March 2009 Session Report: The One Where I Broke 200 In 3-Player Le Harve

Marcus came over for games tonight and I requested he bring his copy of Le Harve. Having played the game twice, I really enjoy it for its open play and it appeals to me somewhat more than Agricola. It also helps that with each game, I gain a slighter better idea of what I can do better in my next game.

I felt good about tonight's game despite accumulating up to 8 loans. I acquired a load of goods which enabled me to ship a total of 3 times for about 30 francs each. Acquired a couple of frequented buildings such as the Wharf, Shipping line, Colliery and Abattoir which allowed me to minimize my visits to my opponents' buildings. Purchased a 36 VP luxury liner in the final round. Scored 216 which my best effort to date though still falling short of Marcus's 227. Reflecting on my play, there were 3 areas which I possibly could do better in:

1. Used francs to pay off indivisible food requirements in the last few rounds of the game. While that seemed a good move at that time, the surplus of a few meats at the end suggested I could have saved a few francs.

2. One of the wharves came out prematurely and after building a wooden ship, I continued to leave it blocked to prevent Van and Marcus from acquiring a source of early food production. This seemed like a good move at that point but it did mean I relinquish the opportunity to use buildings for quite a few turns, opting for sub-optimal plays till the next wharf was built.

3. Had to sell a few building in the game. Some were intentional to garner cash mid-way in the game, but one or two were forced due to having to evacuate opponents in my buildings. Selling the Shipping Line in the last round cost me 5 francs but my hand was forced in order to make my 3rd shipment.

The game ended in 2 hours which was a huge improvement over our last two games which took over 3 hours. I was really surprised at how quickly we played but I concurred with Marcus that it helped that we had an idea what we wanted to do and thus suffered from less AP (analysis paralysis). If all games were this short, just a tad longer than Agricola for a 3-player game, it is truly a contender for one of my preferred games. My only concern going forward is whether the greater usage of certain buildings as compared to others game after game will reduce replayability after some time.

We still had some time for another game and Van opted for Galaxy Trucker which was supposed less of a brain-burner. Marcus played the game once last year but still needed a refresher. He did admirably in his 2nd try though making a few connection errors. I struggled too after a long hiatus and found myself exceedingly rusty. Van built 3 excellent ships and took the win deservedly with 100+ points. Marcus and I scored 70 and 75 respectively.

17th Feb 2009 Session Report: The One With An Old Friend Joining In

We had an ex-colleague, Kok Leong over for dinner tonight and after the meal, I took the opportunity to introduce to him some of our newly acquired games. He was one of our most regular gaming partners in the past but it had been awhile since we gamed together.

Unsurprisingly, first up was Glory to Rome - the game which has quickly established itself as one of our favourite games. Kok Leong picked up the rules relatively quickly though he commented at the end he wasn't really sure what he was doing. Admittedly, it does take a game or two to familiarize oneself with the various building powers and establish a strategy based on certain combinations. Nonetheless, he acquitted himself well with a score of 24. Van and I had 20 and 31 respectively.

For most part of the game, I was aiming for the Forum strategy, with the card in tow and the Merchant and Patron roles in my clientele early. However, Van had the clear lead in terms of building progress and racked up impressive influence points. I had to diversify my approach by stashing VPs gained from selling valuable materials (stone & marble) in the vault. This coupled with a completed Statue (+3VP) proved to be adequate in earning me the victory. Ironically, the Forum strategy was progressing well with the Gate completed (activates powers of incomplete marble buildings) but finally stalled at my inability to acquire the Legionary and Labourer roles in my clientele.

Van next suggested Stone Age. I was keen to introduce that game to Kok Leong too but recognizing a shorter game may be more appropriate in light of the time, I counter-proposed with Galaxy Trucker. I figured since Kok Leong had been exposed to a variety of games, he might be keen to try something with a little more unique mechanics. He validated that decision when he gave a favourable verdict at the end.

We only played two boards, including the customary introductory round. Interestingly, I neglected to open a bag of tiles which accounted for about a third of the ship parts. As a result, even Van and I had difficulty in building the usual flawless ships due to the shortage of pieces. Naturally our ships took more of a beating than expected during the space journeys but I enjoyed the increased tension. Van surprisingly struggled with her second journey and had a portion of her ship blasted off by cannon fire. I snatched the win by fending off most of the threats in space, while Kok Leong and Van took up the rear in terms of cosmic credits.

11 Jan 2009 Session Report: The One Which We Played Settlers!

Mun joined us this afternoon for games. Hopefully, we will be able to get a regular session on Sunday going.

For some reason, we have been playing the same games for the past few sessions and today was no different. However, we managed to squeeze a game of Settlers in between Glory to Rome, Agricola, Stone Age and Galaxy Trucker.

I gained the upper hand in Glory to Rome again and took the game with 21 points to Van's 15 and Mun's 10. I'm increasingly convinced that the key to the game is efficient hand management. I make it a point to avoid 'thinking' (drawing of cards) unless the 'think' action reaps me at least 2-3 cards.

Van complained that the game ended too abruptly with me claiming the last 2 in-town sites to end the game. I took a quick lead in building completions and decided to end it while I was ahead. While I agree that it is rather easy to end the game by a building spree, that isn't much different from the use of the Catacombs (which ends the game immediately). I guess part of challenge of the game is ensuring that you are consistently in or near the lead so that you can benefit by initiating the endgame or discourage your opponents from taking the risk to do so prematurely.

We proceeded to Agricola at my request though I'm sure the other 2 were keen to play it too. I decided to use the Interactive deck this time round since we concurred that the 'Wet Nurse' occupation in the K deck seemed somewhat overpowered. We drafted in the same means as before and we were off to our farms! The game ended with Van and I tied with 31 points while Mun had 23.

Cards in the I deck were comparatively underpowered to the ones in the K deck. Van and I were struggling to feed our family members for most part of the game. Mun managed to obtain a generous supply of food but failed to extend/renovate her house and grow her family which proved costly. 

Mun and Van indicated a preference for the K deck, which is understandable because part of the thrill of Agricola is seeing a well-built up farm. With the weaker cards, it always felt there were many things to do yet too few actions to complete them. Nonetheless, the I deck while weaker came across more balanced than the E deck, which had a couple of comparatively stronger cards the last time we tried it. Perhaps we will attempt the drafting variant with the deck in future.

Van requested for the evergreen Settlers of Catan next and it was nice to take it out for a game since it hadn't seen many plays since we purchased the 4th edition. I guess we have also leveled up in terms of the weight of games we play but nonetheless it was nice to revisit the game which kindled our interest in euros every once in awhile. Van won the game with a victory card draw for her final point. I made the mistake of not robbing her of the longest road when I had the chance and instead opted to build an extra settlement instead.

The game played quickly as we typically play the tournament variant on BSW where we start the placement with a settlement/road, followed by a city/road and finally and extra road. This is my preferred variant as the build-up with the basic two settlements drags the game out and the lack of resources at the start feels rather tedious.

Mun finally got her win during our play of Stone Age taking it convincingly with a score of 178 while Van and I took up the rear with 153 and 147 respectively. Despite obtaining all 8 different green civilization cards, I was caught unawares by the civ card deck running out and ended up without an opportunity to trade in my 7 remaining gold for a corresponding building. It seemed that we drew down on the civ deck particularly quickly today leading to the quick game.

The last game of the night was Galaxy Trucker. As it was late, we only managed two ships - boards 2 and 3. Mun was substantially slower than both Van and I during ship building which was allegedly due to brain exhaustion (*wink*). She had to abandon the second journey due to the loss of all her crew. I pipped Van by a mere 8 points thanks to me taking advantage of the numerous slaver and abandon crew events in accumulating cosmic credits.

29th Dec Session Report

Weilong and Mun joined Van and myself for games today which would probably be our last session before the reopening of the school term.

We started off with Stone Age which was relatively a new game for all of us. It was the second play for Weilong, Van and myself, and the first for Mun. I was somewhat lukewarm after my first play and hoped a second play would help me assess if the game was worth keeping.

I managed a respectable 2nd with a score of 140+ by nabbing all 8 green bonus cards despite trailing most of the way. Impressively, Mun took the win despite it being her first play with 157 points through some well-diversified scoring. In particular, she took 4 buildings of flexible scoring which secured the bulk of her points.

We then tried Galaxy Trucker since it was the final game from my recent games order that Weilong and Mun haven't tried. They were keen to try it especially after hearing about its 'jigsaw' mechanism.

I started well and took the lead with well-built ships the first 2 rounds. I also realized that being able to complete the ships first were highly advantageous. I managed to benefit from most of the journey cards and had the first turn of the timer during the next ship building phase.

For the 3rd and final round, I suggested to Van that we use the 3A boards since we were more experienced that Weilong and Mun and had relatively handsome leads over them. Boy, was that a mistake. The odd ship shape of the 3A board proved a real headache when searching for pieces. This struggle was accentuated with 4 players since there was greater competition for ship parts. In addition, I noted the long sides of the ship design and made a mental note to acquire side-pointing guns to reduce the ship's vulnerability.

Unfortunately, the pieces were hard to come by with Van snatching them up quickly and I failed to set up my ship as intended. This would prove to be disastrous as my ship quickly unravelled during the journey. We encountered a card with multiple side large meteoroid hits which smashed through the centre of my ship and ripped it half with the destruction of the pilot pod. I had to abandon the journey too as I unwisely released all but 2 of my crew during a previous abandon ship encounter which reaped my 10 cosmic credits.

Van took the win with 76, with an excellently built 3A ship. Mun again impressed with her score of 51 despite it being her first play while myself and Weilong took up the rear with scores of 48 and 28 respectively. Weilong was unfortunate due to the hefty cannon fire penalties during 2 consecutive cosmic zone encounters which took off the rear of his ship.

Van's 3A ship - note all the cannons pointing sideways

The final game we played before dinner was Glory to Rome. This is fast becoming a personal as well as crowd favourite. The game ended with me, Van, Mun and Weilong scoring 30, 17, 14 and 12 respectively. This was the first time we experienced the game ending through the draw pile being exhausted due to two early temple (+4 hand) builds by Van and I.

I took the win by amassing materials in my stockpile and scoring bonus points with the Wall (1 point for every 2 materials in stockpile at the end of the game) as well as hoarding the most gold in the vault with the help of an early Merchant client.

After dinner we decided to go for a game of Agricola at Van's request. Mun had a fantastic hand of cards and built up her farm easily. My cards had to do with food provision mostly which allowed me to multiply my family members early. I ended with a 5-room stone house, 4 farms, 3 stables, 2 pastures and just 1 unfilled space tying Mun for the win with 42 points.

My farm - scored most my points through family and house expansion

Boxing Day Session Report

While the rest of Singapore were thronging Orchard Road for the post-Christmas sales, I opted for the sane choice of staying within the comforts of my own home. 

Ben came over for games and I started the afternoon by teaching him Battle Line, a short and excellent two-player card game by Reiner Knizia that both Van and I enjoy tremendously. For its length, it has a nice degree of tactical depth but what I particularly like about the game is the constant tension present in managing your hand. 

We played the first game without the tactic cards so that Ben could get a hang of the mechanics. He won by taking three adjacent flags with a good draw at the end. After introducing the tactic cards to him, we played two more games which I won, probably due to a better understanding of how to utilize the tactic cards. 

Some on the geek forum have expressed preference for the vanilla version of the game, but having experienced the fine balancing play of the tactic cards, I would have it no other way. I particular appreciate the rule of being able to play at most one more tactic card than your opponent for it forces you to choose carefully both the right card as well as the right timing to employ it. Blatant use of the tactic cards is thus not possible, and overdrawing from the tactic cards pile means a diminished ability to hold number cards which is key to forming strong 3-card 'formations'.

With Van and Siew Min still busy in the kitchen, I suggested playing Agricola after enjoying it as a two-player with Van the day before. While Ben wasn't a fan of worker-placement games, he was open to trying it with the occupation and minor improvement cards since his only prior experience with the game was the family mode. 

I find the game less tedious with fewer players, especially with less resource replenishing to do between rounds. While I don't enjoy it as much as El Grande or Princes of Florence, it does scale incredibly well. At the moment, I probably enjoy it more with two or three than with four or five. 

I won the game with a better diversification of my farm though Ben did put up a good fight. He would probably have scored better if he didn't forget about the 'Wet Nurse' occupation card which he had in hand which allowed him to add a family member for free each time he added a room to his hut. We played with the K deck which I find much better balanced than the E deck though the 'Wet Nurse' occupation does seem somewhat overpowered.

The two girls finally finished up their baking and joined us for a game of Galaxy Trucker. This was only the second play for Van and I and there were some rules that we still needed to iron out. 

Ben and Siew Min seemed to catch the basic premise of the game after the tutorial round which makes me wonder if the game is truly as unaccessible to first-timers as some posts in the geek forum seem to suggest. Van managed to finish building her ship first each time and ran off with the game with a score of 106. I was a distant second with 64.  

The jury is still out on this one. I spent a long time considering whether to splash out on this game and it was eventually a substantially discounted price on CoolStuffInc.com that made me take the plunge. After trying it, I think it did concur with my prior research on the game. The ship building aspect is novel but the space flight segment seems largely on auto-pilot. Think I will give it a few more tries before determining if it is a keeper.

Siew Min left around dinner time, and the three of us continued with the final game of the night, Glory to Rome after having our fill. 

Glory to Rome has really become a crowd favourite since we started playing it which makes me wonder about its mediocre ranking on the geek. I suspect it is due to some feeling that the building powers are overpowered and while I do agree with that, it seems to me that they do balance each other out. There are sufficient powers available to hamper an opponent pursuing the Forum strategy, where you immediately win the game with each of the six roles present in your clientele. 

I made an effort to play my hands more efficiently today and took a close one from Van. I also paid more attention to the vault and stashed valuable gold earned from selling stone and marble materials in there. An early Shrine (+2 hand) and an eventual Circus Maximus (doubles the actions of clients led or followed) helped substantially as well.