Although not half as
lazy as me since I haven’t written up my session reports and am posting this more than 2 weeks late.
Feld of Light...
Rialto (thanks Neil)
A second outing of the
year for one of the new Feld games, and I think this will be considered as the
lightest one. Saying that it was quite some time since Barry and I had played
our first game and our explanations to Gareth were less than fluent it must be
said.
Anyway, it is pretty
simple to learn so after the first of the six rounds he was off. Barry opted to
do some early building as Gareth went for control of the Doge track. I decided
to see if I could cope without many buildings and took an early lead with the
area 1 majority.
As Gareth also picked
his way nicely through the buildings, thus gaining useful additional cards and
actions, it was clear that my strategy was absolutely useless! I tried to get
into buildings but by then I should have been moving into more areas, which is
where Barry was filling his boots, and sometimes very cheaply too.
Unfortunately Gareth got confused in the final round with gondolas and bridges…
pretty tricky to steer a bridge through an Italian canal but there you go!
All in all a good game
and will be possible to play this very quickly once everyone gets to grips with
the few strategy options. Top marks Mr Field!
Final Scores; Barry – 82, Gareth II – 76, Neil – 64.
Kingdom of diss...
Kingdom Builder
(thanks Neil)
After a massive
‘dissing’ following my first play of this some time ago I recently relented and
decided it must be good as SO many folk said it was… and then I found myself
buying a copy as the price was just right. So, keen to give it another play.
Gareth had played twice before so he lead Barry and me through the rules and
off we went.
The three ‘target’
cards were; Farmers – 3 VPs for each of your settlements in the area with the
fewest of your settlements; Hermits – 1 VP for each of your separate settlement
areas; Miners – 1 VP for each settlement next to a mountain. We played with the
areas featuring; barns, paddocks, harbours and towers.
Whilst we all looked
to distribute our settlements over the four boards I was stymied in my attempts
to significantly increase the number of my lowest settlements for the Farmers
card. Barry also had a significant settlement area on one board although
towards the end was able to split this up somewhat. Gareth lead the way with an
impressively even spread of settlements and made good use of the harbour bonus token.
The game played pretty
swiftly, as Barry said that’s because there’s so little player interaction and
you can be ready for your turn almost immediately after playing your last. For
that he felt it was very much a ‘solitaire’ experience and I’d have to agree
with that. On the other hand the variable set ups and different target cards do
at least make each game somewhat different and I certainly enjoyed this more
than my first game. It could well be perfect for the family, play time is good;
they don’t concentrate too well after 1 minute so this is ok compared to a 90
minute feast I prefer! Plus I think they would enjoy setting up there areas,
always a popular mechanic with them.
Final scores; Gareth II – 71, Neil – 60, Barry – 55.
Fields of horses...
Agricola ACBAS (thanks
Jon)
Paul and Jon had
arrived a bit early on this glorious summer evening, so decided to have a go at
some animal husbandry. Paul hadn't played for some time, so needed a rules
refresher, which Jon just about managed - although failed to mention until
halfway through the bit about scoring 1 point for every animal! Fortunately,
Paul was collecting animals at a rate of knots anyway, so hopefully it didn't
make too much difference... This was played with the expansion, which gave 4
extra buildings to choose from. Although their effects can be subtle, they can
give a real shift to a player's strategy. Jon picked up the building that
allowed him to build a fence during every breeding phase as long as he had bred
a horse - so horses it was! Paul got a couple of expansion areas into play
quite early, and ended up building a fine array of fences to contain his
ever-expanding boar empire. Jon had managed to place a feeding trough in a
stable, giving him the room to breed a large flock of sheep, but at the expense
of boar and cows. A late building purchase enabled him to place boars on empty
spaces near the forest, which helped avoid the -3 penalty, as well as helping
to fill his 2 expansion boards. With the final round over, Paul felt that he
hadn't done well, but it was actually a lot closer than he thought, with Jon's
purchase of the half-timbered house for 5 bonus points in the last round
helping to secure the victory. A fantastic 2 player game, which apparently has
another expansion coming out soon... Jon 50;
Paul 42
Barrels of broke...
Montego Bay (thanks Jon)
This was one of those
games that was on the original £7.99 Works sale - and was worth the purchase
price. Simple rules, nice components and enough gameplay to keep it interesting
for the 45 minute game time. Lazy Jack turned out to be even lazier than usual,
being hired only twice during the game. The huts had an interesting layout,
with 3 in a row having the broken barrels next to each other. Paul and James
seemed to be able to avoid these broken barrels the best, with Paul especially
talented at helping his workers to arrive at the profitable huts - placing 7
barrels onto ships on more than one occasion. Paul's barrel-acquisition was
enough to help him to a fine victory, with the other 3 players spaced evenly in
his wake.
Paul 49;
James 40; Woody 32; Jon 24
Sands of ease...
Forbidden Desert
By this time, Dan had
arrived, and Woody had left - and it was time for some co-operative action with
Matt Leacock's new offering. The IBG'ers were currently 3 games played, 3
losses, so it was time to knuckle down for a first victory. The crash site was
at the top of the desert, along with 2 of the 3 potential watering holes. The
adventurers decided to methodically work their way southwards, not worrying too
much about the water situation for the time being. They uncovered all the
tunnels next to each other, which isn’t great for moving around the landscape,
but isn’t too bad for sheltering from the sun together.
Dan drew an equipment
card which gave water, which was a relief to Paul and Jon who were running dangerously
low. The clue tiles came out very nicely for the team, and the launch pad also
appeared in a favourably central position.
At one stage, the sand
was really starting to build up, but a quick hoover with the Dune Blaster
regained some precious time. So much so, that the adventurers soon found
themselves with all 4 parts of the flying machine, and near the launch pad. All
it needed was for James to join them and they had won – except that James
inexplicably wanted to do some more sand-clearing rather than reach the safety
of the Launch Pad! Fortunately, his team dissuaded this rather reckless
behaviour, and they all reconvened at the appropriate location and flew to
safety. A win for the IBG’ers (at the ‘normal’ difficulty level)!
Next time – let’s ramp
up the difficulty…..
Show of cards...
Show Manager (thanks
Jon)
Another outing for
this current favourite of IBG – this time with James and Paul joining Jon and
Dan. James had recently sold this to Dan, after failing to generate any
interest at IBG when he had tried to play it in the past. The fact that it has
now been played 4 or 5 times in as many weeks is probably just a coincidence,
rather than the alternative hypothesis that people are keener to play games
with Dan rather than James….
James picked up some
heavyweight green actors in the first couple of turns, so Jon also decided to
recruit for this particular performance – except Jon’s were from the bargain
basement end of the Equity availability rosta. Wasting no time, he put on a
show in one of the less salubrious venues, limiting James’ possible gains, and
giving himself a show to draw cash from later in the game.
Paul and Jon were
competing for actors late in the game, with Paul’s eyes lighting up every time
Jon flushed the cards. Dan had managed to non-synchronise his plays with the
other players, which gave him some freedom in what he picked up.
The end, as it always
does, raced up, and when the roar of the greasepaint had subsided, Dan had just
succeeded in pipping Jon to the post by a mere 3 points. Well played sir!
After James’
performance, he might be glad that he’s sold the game on now……
Dan 54; Jon 51; Paul 39; James 27
This is fantastic!
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