The World Cup Game - Expansion No. 6 Shaun Derrick emailed me to let me know what is happening with the next expansion to his great football (soccer) game. This is what he said:
“Expansion set 6 is in the design process. It will include:
2 boards for the 2010 World Cup
20 New cards that can be added to the current deck. Each card represents [...]
2010 International Gamers Awards - The Nominees Having mentioned that the nominees for the IGA were announced in the latest issue of Counter, it’s a bit remiss of me not to actually publish the details. Well, I was actually waiting for an official announcement from Greg Schloesser to appear online, which has now happened so I can now confirm that the nominees [...]
Tichu, Architekton, Die Sieben Weisen etc. on Ebay Three days left to go on my Ebay sale which includes:
the classic climbing card game, Tichu;
Michael Schacht’s two player tile laying game, Architekton;
Die Sieben Weisen, the small box Alea game about changing alliances in a struggle for power;
Alan Moon and Aaron Weissblum’s card game, Im Schatten des Sonnenkonigs; and
the infamous Time Control - see what [...]
Spielbox #4/2010 The fourth English issue of Spielbox has now arrived. This time, there is a report from UK Games Expo (including slightly cheesy photo of the Ragnars); a report on the Spiel-des-Jahres result; reviews of Glen More, Long Shot, Samarkand, Asteroyds, Titania, Workshop of the World and 11 Nimmt, among others; plus a free expansion for [...]
Antics! - The new game from the Lamont brothers The next release from Fragor Games at Essen 2010 will be Antics! - a game about, well, ants.
Prey and leaves abound nearby - if only those other ants would not take what is rightfully yours. Players attempt to have their ants bring back prey and leaves to their anthill. Only the best ant colony will [...]
Counter #50 The 50th issue of Counter magazine arrived yesterday with a glossy full colour cover to celebrate the fact. I just wanted to congratulate Stuart, Alan and Mike for reaching this milestone and giving me endless entertainment with the great writing that goes into every issue. Thanks also to the various contributors over the years for [...]
Latest Ebay sale ends in under 24 hours The title says it all but, with many of the items still to receive a bid, there are likely to be some bargain prices to be had. Statis Pro Football is one of those without a bid and, for a big game, only played once, a starting price of just £3.00 is extremely low.
The list [...]
New batch of games on Ebay I’ve got another batch of 25 games up for sale on Ebay, with the auctions due to end on Thursday 19th August. These include Piranha Pedro, Statis Pro Football, Linie 1, Abilene and the fun balancing game Auf Der Kippe. The full list is here.
Manorcon XXVIII
The next UK game convention is taking place this weekend. ManorCon XXVIII will be held on 16th to 19th July 2010, at Stamford Hall, University of Leicester.
Manorcon is the largest UK convention and has plenty of organised events. Tournaments will include: Diplomacy, Dominion, 18XX, Acquire, Puerto Rico, St Petersburg, Race for the Galaxy, Midnight Party and Croquet. There [...]
Unplayed games - down from 120 to 47 in 12 months Well, the final month in my “Mission Improbable” to get my unplayed games list down to below 20 saw me get down to a reasonably respectable 47:
2 new games acquired (Forbidden Island and Dragon Parade);
10 games no longer unplayed (Drachenherz, Die Speicherstadt, Samarkand: Routes to Riches, Forbidden Island, Dragon Parade, Bohnkick, Wie Hund und Katz, Carcassonne: Die [...]
Nige and Mark W were both back from holiday this week so we decided to have another try at Endeavor, a game we all rated very highly first time we played it. This time, I wasn't quite so enamoured with it as I felt it took a bit too long. I also made a couple of mistakes early on which really put paid to my chances. The same seemed to be true of Mark K, although we both clawed our way back as the game progressed. Mark K especially did well to score an impressive 44 points on the status track. Nige, however, took an early lead and never really looked back. It did make him a bit of a target and if Mark W had managed to banish slavery, it may have made a bit of a difference. However, the carefully conceived surprise attack was dealt a fatal blow when Mark K pointed it out to everyone and Nige was able to make sure he could retaliate and prevent that event from happening. Still, Mark W did put on a good late burst and ended up as Nige's closest contender but still Nige was not to be denied and secured a comfortable win.
This week, we started off with a game I've had for about 15 years and never played. This made Mark K very nervous about what was in store but it turned out to be better than we expected. Everyone plays a card to move one of four prototype vehicles along a race-track... but it's NOT a race game as I was forced to keep pointing out. It's a game of trying to position the vehicles in the best spots by the time a scoring takes place. However, we were playing very cagily with lots of oil slicks forcing vehicles to go backwards. Eventually, our final cards were played and scores totted up revealing Guy to have best managed where his vehicles ended up. Not a bad game but not one that's going to see a lot of play. Who's up for a repeat play in another 15 years?
Our second game of the evening was World Without End, which only Steve and I had played before (although my game was only two-player). This is a game about trying to gain victory points through helping with building projects or curing villagers from the plague, while making sure that you are able to feed your workers, pay your taxes and lead a pious enough life. This is tricky enough but every round, you face events that tend to make life even harder. Mark K got hit badly in the first round through not having enough piety and it took him until about three quarters of the game to recover the victory points that he lost at the start. Steve seemed to be the one best able to dodge the bad events in the early rounds but suffered later on. We only had three building projects in the entire game but I did more building than anyone else, whereas others were gaining benefits from housing. And the final scoring couldn't have been closer with me ending up with a spare coin for the vital extra half point to claim the win. Good game but I agree that Guy and Mark were at a bit of a disadvantage not having played before. Maybe they'll get their revenge next time.
This week, Mark K suggested we try Colosseum again, which I've not played since it first came out and what a close finish it ended up being. Mark K put on his opening show three times during the game, partly because the medium event tile he was working towards in round 4 was pinched by Mark G from under his nose. However, he still managed to attract lots of season ticket holders (obviously unable to believe that the same show could be put on yet again). Guy suffered from a lack of VIPs turning up to his events and Mark G seemed prepared to keep putting on medium sized shows, which I thought would have left him right out of it. However, through good use of the rest of his resources, he ended up within three of the winning score. I took a gamble on round 4 by buying my large event tile a round earlier than I had originally planned. However, it made sense as I was able to capture three star performers and two VIPs - who I didn't think would be in my vicinity on the final round. Hence my last turn was more about trying to protect my lead, so I bought the large event I thought Mark K was working towards (even though he wasn't as he was one coin short of being able to put on that show). In hindsight, I should have bought a season ticket instead as my repeat performance ended up scoring exactly the same 84 points I had gathered in the previous round, whereas I thought I would have lost more points through pilfering of my resources and disappearing VIPs. As it was, Mark K's final performance ended up 2 points shy of my total, although had he not been forced to use one of his emperor tokens for cash, the extra spectators would have been enough. Phew! Great game but just a little long for what it is to play regularly.
A mid-week session saw a full game of Age of Renaissance take place and it took them, with a couple of food breaks, 10 hours to play. Wow! Steve clearly was not impressed as he felt the need to write about it on Boardgamegeek, complaining that there was too much luck involved for such a long game. Apparently, he did suffer a fair number of unlucky die rolls but you would normally expect these to even out over the course of the game. Anyway, Guy was clearly the luckiest player as he emerged victorious.
The mid-week session continued, even after 10 hours of Age of Renaissance, with Notre Dame, which everyone bar Tom had played before. No details on how this one played but surprisingly it ended with a two-way tie between Steve and Mark K, which couldn't be broken by the tie-breaking rules. I say it was very careless play by the others to allow this to happen.
Rating
Score
Position
Winner
Mark K
63
1
Steve
63
1
Guy
56
3
Tom
8
52
4
Nige
42
5
Garry's
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