Recent Sessions

The home of the Shrewsbury Boardgames Club

27th January 2012 ... Leader 1
This week, we were treated to a theatrical farce starring Mr & Mrs Walmsley, Julia's mobile phone and a locked door. Figure it out for yourselves. After the entertainment ended, we started with Leader 1, a game Mark W has been wanting to try for ages. Guy surprised us all by NOT breaking away on the first turn. In fact he stayed in the peloton until the top of the main climb. Mark W decided he needed to push his riders to the limit and in succession, they both cracked making things very difficult for him from then on, but very amusing for the rest of us. I managed to lose the victory conditions and we agreed that first rider over the line would win. Although I found a note on awarding team points based on finishing order just as Guy crossed the line (which would have given me the victory rather than him), my subsequent hunt for clarification on the Geek found that the team scoring was a variant, the original rules don't actually specify who wins anywhere within them, but first over the line is actually the right victory condition. Well played Guy. Meanwhile one of Mark W's riders was swallowed by the peloton before reaching the line and no-one was ever sure whether he might not still be crawling his way through the French countryside.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Guy			1
Garry			2
Pete	6		3
Andrew	6		4
Mark W	5		5
27th January 2012 ... Burgen von Burgund, Die
The other table went for Stefan Feld's Castles of Burgundy and it looked quite close between Nige and Mark K but Nige managed to edge a valuable win for a much more respectable win percentage at the end of January than this time last year.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Nige		210	1
Mark K	8	200	2
Julia		177	3
Mark G	8	175	4
27th January 2012 ... Lost Temple
We finished off with a game of Lost Temple, which I enjoyed more this time with five players than with eight. It was quite a strange game with the Shaman quite often turning up as one of the discarded characters at the start of the round. However, it got very close at the end with any one of three people in contention to reach the temple first. However, Pete was the one who managed it to take a fine win.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Pete			1
Andrew	5		2
Mark W			2
Guy			2
Garry			2
20th January 2012 ... Airlines: Europe
Ten of us this week so we split into two groups. My group of five played the latest incarnation of Alan Moon's Airlines series - Airlines: Europe and it played very smoothly. Andrew benefitted from not having any opposition in the white airline and managed to hang on despite a strong comeback from Mark K and Nige. A very close result.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Andrew	8	67	1
Mark K		66	2
Nige		66	2
Mark W		64	4
Garry	8	57	5
20th January 2012 ... Mission: Red Planet
The other table of five started off with Mission: Red Planet, another nice game from a few years ago by Bruno Faidutti. Pete and Julia had not played before whereas veteran Steve used his experience to grab the victory by a comfortable margin.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Steve		45	1
Guy		33	2
Julia	6	31	3
Mark G		31	3
Pete	7	23	5
20th January 2012 ... City, The
Our table turned next to Tom Lehmann's The City, a very stripped down variation on the San Juan / Race for the Galaxy idea of building up a tableau of point-scoring cards, while using other cards to pay for the cards you want to lay. This is a very quick race to gain 50+ points and if you get left behind, you stand little chance of catching up unless you've built a monster point-scoring tableau by the end. This ended up being a two horse race between Nige and me, with me just pipping him for the win with our last card lay. Probably 20 minutes playing time tops.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Garry	7	62	1
Nige	5	60	2
Mark K	6	38	3
Andrew	5	33	4
Mark G	4	18	5
20th January 2012 ... Cargo Noir
After settling the red planet, the other group opted for some black market dealing in Cargo Noir. This took a lot longer to finish than anyone expected - Mark W even fell asleep waiting for the game to finish (luckily he wasn't one of the players). Guy decided to just keep piling his pieces into Macao and this proved the most effective strategy as he ended up winning by a country mile.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Guy		150	1
Julia	8	115	2
Steve		110	3
Pete	7	100	4
Mark G		95	5
20th January 2012 ... Transamerica
Our final game was the excellent Transamerica. I was able to get close to completing my city connections in the first two rounds and, with some assistance from the others building routes just where I wanted them, finished the third round very quickly while the others were still multiple links away from a complete connection. A second win of the night led to the typical calls from Nige of "picking short fillers just to grab hall of fame points". I'm saying nothing.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Garry		11	1
Andrew	7	6	2
Nige		5	3
Mark K		3	4
Mark W	7	2	5
13th January 2012 ... Paris Connection
With nine of us this week, we split into groups of five and four. The larger group started with Paris Connection, a game I'd received for Christmas. It's a game of balancing share trading with track building to boost the value of each company's share price and plays really quickly. Scores tend to be fairly close and in this game there was a spread of only 12 points between first and last, with Guy taking the plaudits.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Guy	6	107	1
Andrew	5	97	2
Pete	5	97	2
Mark W	7	96	4
Julia	7	95	5
13th January 2012 ... Fortuna
The second table of four opted for Fortuna, an Essen release last year from the designers of Pillars of the Earth. The game is both a race to the centre of Rome and a resource manipulation game to better your chances of moving forward and gaining priveliges (which can generate further victory points). The interesting mechanism is in the choice of actions. Players have three actions available to them and, having exercised one of them, they then swap that action with one of their opponents. Once someone reaches the centre of Rome, points are awarded for how close to Rome you are (with anyone stranded outside the gates of Rome being eliminated) together with points from the priveliges you collected. I went for a strategy of getting married and building a palace, together with acquiring two vestal virgins, which gave me the opportunity of moving quickly without spending resources. However, I missed out on a number of priveliges which was what Mark K was concentrating on. Nige was giving me a run for my money in the race to Rome but I set myself up for potentially reaching Rome quite a bit earlier than anyone else. However, the dice failed me and Nige was able to get to Rome first. On the plus side, I could still reach Rome and pick up a privelige card (which would have won me the game) if I could roll a three or more on either of two dice. Result: a pair of two's. Doh! In the end though, Mark K took full benefit from the priveliges he had collected to top Nige's score for the win. We liked the way Fortuna played quite a bit but the fact that the game could turn quite dramatically on a good or poor dice roll detracted a little bit. It didn't bother me as much as Nige - particularly as a clue is in the title: You need good fortune to win Fortuna.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Mark K	7	19	1
Nige	6	17	2
Garry	7	16	3
Mark G	7	14	4
13th January 2012 ... Paris Connection
Having a better idea about of how to play the game, the table of five chose to play Paris Connection a second time (particularly as it is very quick to play). This time Julia had a little trouble with the scoring, as the results sheet shows Andrew winning, then Mark W, with the eventual victor being Andrew all along. Remedial arithmetic classes for Julia, I think! Again, a pretty close result with 22 points separating first from last.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Andrew		140	1
Mark W		131	2
Guy		130	3
Pete		123	4
Julia		118	5
13th January 2012 ... Lemming Mafia
The group of five then played the what-shall-we-play-next game for several rounds before fixing on Lemming Mafia. This was Mark W's choice so it comes as no surprise that he won - although his banker game of Take It Easy last week didn't pan out as he had planned. Julia managed an impressively bad -4 points from her mission cards, whereas Mark W's successful missions were enough to give him victory.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Mark W		11	1
Andrew	6	10	2
Pete	6	8	3
Guy		7	4
Julia	5	1	5
13th January 2012 ... Biblios
My table of four finished off with the excellent Biblios, although this particular session was very unusual as almost all the dice manipulation cards came out right at the beginning of the game. Mark G was aclear leader in green, which he managed to boost to a value of five and none of us could bring it back down again. In the auction phase, Nige paid 13 gold for a red 1-point card, which seemed ambitious but it turned out to be just enough for him to win the red dice and tie with Mark G on five points. However, Mark had some cash left, 4 gold to be precise, whereas Nige had none so Mark G took a very satisfying tie-break win to leave Nige gutted.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Mark G		5	1
Nige		5	2
Mark K		3	3
Garry		3	3
13th January 2012 ... Lemming Mafia
To end the night, there was a second attempt at racing lemmings into the harbour. This time, it was a two-horse race between Guy and Andrew. Both got six points from their bets but Andrew managed seven points from missions to Guy's five. Pete and Mark W didn't even trouble the scorers.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Andrew		13	1
Guy		11	2
Julia		6	3
Pete		0	4
Mark W		0	4
6th January 2012 ... Oregon
Our first session of 2012 was held at Julia's house as I was in Tenerife. Seven turned up so they split into two groups with the first table of four starting out with Oregon. This looks like it was pretty close with Mark W edging the win from Julia.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Mark W	8	66	1
Julia	8	65	2
Guy		60	3
Mark G	6	46	4
6th January 2012 ... Age of Steam
The other table of three opted for Age of Steam and this also looks like a closely fought contest. Nige put his bad start to 2011 behind him and took the win by a slim two points.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Nige	7	84	1
Mark K	8	82	2
Steve	8	66	3
6th January 2012 ... Take It Easy
After Oregon, the table of four still had time for three rounds of Take It Easy. They aggregated the scores and Mark G was clearly the most consistent with an impressive 582 points.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Mark G	7	582	1
Guy		559	2
Julia	8	499	3
Mark W		491	4
23rd December 2011 ... Say Anything
Last session of the year and there were seven of us so party games were the order of the day. We started with one of my favourites, Say Anything, where knowing your fellow players' likes and dislikes (or, at least, how their warped brain might work) is a distinct advantage. So, of course, Andrew the (relative) newcomer romped to victory while Guy and I proved we know nothing about the other club members - their names can even be a challenge at times.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Andrew	6	7	1
Steve	7	6	2
Mark G	6	5	3
Nige	4	4	4
Mark K	6	3	5
Guy	8	1	6
Garry	8	1	6
23rd December 2011 ... Bausack
Next up was a classic dexterity game, Bausack. Keep hold of those beans chaps, you're going to need them. As usual, there were some weird looking structures built with certain pieces having scant regard to the laws of physics. Andrew was fortunate to have Mark G on his right-hand side as Mark was treating it like a war game and refusing to pass on to Andrew pieces that would have forced him to use up his precious beans - rather Mark saw it as an SAS-like challenge to accept virtually every mis-shapen piece and find somewhere to fit it onto his tower. Eventually, Mark G's luck (sorry, skill) ran out and Andrew's puppet (sorry, protector)was no longer able to shield him. But, by that time, he still had loads of flat space on his tower and more beans than anyone else so he cruised to a second win of the night.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Andrew	6		1
Guy	7		2
Nige	6		3
Mark K	6		4
Mark G	5		5
Garry	7		6
Steve	5		7
23rd December 2011 ... Phantoms of the Ice
And so we came to our traditional closing game of the year, Phantoms of the Ice. Mark K was playing a blinder all night, trading for worse players at every occasion. How he managed eventually to rack up two wins, I don't know. Andrew started off quite strongly but fizzled out later on while Nige was working on the principle that if he challenged everyone enough times, he was bound to fluke the odd win eventually. And so it came to pass, with Nige and Guy qualifying for the final. In the best of three showdown, each took a win in the first two matches. Guy was looking to retain his Phantoms crown from last year but it wasn't to be, as Nige edged the decider to become the new Phantoms champion.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Nige		5	1
Guy		5	2
Andrew	5	4	3
Mark G		3	4
Steve		3	4
Garry		3	4
Mark K		2	7
18th December 2011 ... Antiquity
An extra Sunday session at Nige's saw the return of Antiquity for a full game after the aborted attempt a few weeks ago. I'm not sure how long it took them to complete the game but, when the dust settled, Nige emerged as the winner of this one.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Nige	8		1
Steve	8		2
Guy	8		2
Mark K	7		2
18th December 2011 ... Vinhos
The next game played was one of our favourites of the year, Vinhos. Guy and Steve hadn't played before so it was really down to Nige to stop Mark K from walking away with this one. Fat chance!
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Mark K		88	1
Nige		74	2
Steve	7	54	3
Guy	7	36	4
18th December 2011 ... Vegas Showdown
They finished off with a game of Vegas Showdown, which is another game I'd like to play again as its only previous outing was in January 2006. Nige was the only one to have played in that earlier session but chances of him remembering are close to zero. Everyone seemed to enjoy this one and Mark K recorded another win for the day.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Mark K	7	68	1
Guy	9	63	2
Steve	8	59	3
Nige	7	57	4
16th December 2011 ... Kingsburg
With eight of us tonight, two tables was again the order of the day so Guy, Julia, Andrew and Mark G took on one of Mark G's favourites: Kingsburg, a dice-rolling spectacular which Mark normally does pretty well at. However, first-timer Julia made sure it wasn't going to be Mark's banker game as she took the victory. Andrew wasn't sure if the dice-rolling meant there was too much luck in the game but I think there are ways to use low rolls that can still progress your cause. That said, if someone's consistently rolling high numbers, everyone else is bound to struggle (not that that was the case in this game).
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Julia	8	31	1
Mark G		29	2
Guy		26	3
Andrew	4	19	4
16th December 2011 ... Trajan
My table of four tried the new Stefan Feld game, Trajan, and we all agreed it's another top quality game from probably the most consistently good designer over the last two or three years. There are lots of possible routes to victory and Mark K did well to see that nobody was really using the shipping action and so stored up his cards to do three really lucrative shippings for a good come-from-behinfd victory. Nige admitted afterwards that Mark K had planned ahead really well - which didn't surprise either Mark or me as he'd usually had time waiting for Mark W and Nige to complete their turns that he could map out his next few turns, make a cup of tea AND do his weekly shop at Sainsburys.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Mark K	8	127	1
Nige	9	107	2
Garry	9	104	3
Mark W	8	78	4
16th December 2011 ... San Juan
The Kingsburg players finished in time for them to follow up with a game of San Juan, one of the few games that, since joining us, Andrew has played before. Could this be the chance for him to grab a third victory for the Hall of Fame? Errr... No! Julia spoilt it and claimed a second win of the evening.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Julia	8	40	1
Andrew	8	36	2
Guy		36	2
Mark G		26	4
9th December 2011 ... Attila
This week, I was at my work Christmas party so seven people gathered at Nige's house. The group of three started with the excellent Attila, which Mark G won reasonably comfortably, while Steve barely troubled the scorers.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Mark G		125	1
Mark W	8	108	2
Steve		69	3
9th December 2011 ... Agricola
On the other table, the group of four opted for Agricola. It was Julia's first try at this game and so that made it a bit difficult for her as the others knew how the potential card combinations could help them. Clearly, Guy was working on a higher plain from the rest of them as his occupations seemed to fit together perfectly, while Mark K and Nige's cards.... less so. Or maybe that's Nige's bitterness showing through.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Guy		40	1
Mark K		34	2
Nige		29	3
Julia	5	25	4
9th December 2011 ... Ra
The gang of three had enough time for a second game and opted for a club favourite, Ra. Obviously, Steve had woken up by this time as he cruised to victory while Mark W, who had not played this before, put in a good showing and enjoyed it as he rated it an 8.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Steve	8	54	1
Mark W	8	45	2
Mark G		24	3
2nd December 2011 ... Panic Station
This week, five of us finally got to play the paranoia-filled Panic Station. It's a game where you don't know who to trust until it turns out to be too late and you've been infected. The highlight of the game was watching Nige, who was the only one not to have worked out who was infected, refusing to believe that I was still human and urging already-infected Mark G to go and try to blow up the hive. Eventually, Nige managed to get to a space where he could trade with Mark G and was totally gob-smacked to discover he'd been passed an infection. Good fun but I don't think it is as interesting a game as The Resistance, which was one of my top picks of last year.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Pete	7		1
Mark W	7		1
Mark G	7		1
Nige	6		1
Garry	6		5
2nd December 2011 ... Lords of Vegas
On the second table, Mark K taught Julia, Guy and Andrew Lords of Vegas, a game I'm quite keen to play myself. It looks to have been pretty well received, even if they let Mark win.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Mark K	7	44	1
Andrew	8	36	2
Guy	8	29	3
Julia	8	23	4
2nd December 2011 ... Can't Stop
The dicey table then moved onto a classic, Can't Stop, which Julia and Andrew had not played before. Guy won the first game of this, although Julia and Andrew weren't far behind.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Guy		3	1
Andrew	5	2	2
Julia	9	2	2
Mark K		1	4
2nd December 2011 ... Can't Stop
A second game of Can't Stop took place immediately after the first and Julia had, by this time, got the hang of the game and romped home to victory, even before Guy and Andrew had got off the mark.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Julia		3	1
Mark K		1	2
Andrew		0	3
Guy		0	3
2nd December 2011 ... Queen's Ransom
The table of five finished off with a deduction card game, Queen's Ransom, which is very straightforward but needs people to judge when the right time to make an accusation is, just in case the game ends before you get another turn. Often, therefore, you need to have a guess on one of the pieces of information, which is what happened in our game as Pete, then I then Mark W took a shot at winning but found we were wide of the mark. With just two players left, Nige made a correct accusation and took the win, otherwise Mark G would have won by default.
	Rating	Score	Position	Winner
Nige	6		1
Mark G	6		2
Mark W	6		2
Pete	5		2
Garry	6		2