Session Report for Saturday, 5/19/2007

8 gamers 11 games

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High Society

(Robert, August, Marshall) (August, Robert, Kevin, Karen)

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For Sale

(Robert, August, Marshall) (Robert, August, Marshall, Joanne) (August, Robert, Kevin, Karen)

All told For Sale proved very popular this week with three games played total. I've played For Sale once about four years ago, and I remember not liking it a whole lot. But, since then, the game has been reprinted, and I think they made a small but crucial rule change. My memory is that in the old version you only had to match the bid of the preceding player to stay in the auction, but in this version you have to surpass it. I think this rule change is an improvement as it makes it more like a standard auction, and it adds some tension and tough decisions to the auction.

With this rule I enjoyed the game much more. It's a quick fun filler that should be good for opening and closing may sessions to come. It's quite comparable to High Societ, which also saw some good play this week.

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Power Grid

(Chris, Joanne, Gina, Marshall)

This was quite an unusual and exciting game of Power Grid. We played on the American map with the two western-most sections closed off. Playing the game on the east coast, where the connections, are cheaper, had the effect of pumping a lot of cash into the game. The cheap connections plus a late game stall in the power plant market where we all sat around for three turns collecting huge payoffs, had the effect of making us all rich. At one point I had 410 Electro, which is certainly the most I've ever had.

The only fuel that became scarce was coal. Chris was burning 3, I was burning 5, and Gina was burning 2 per turn for a total of 10. During Step 2 only 6 coal are replaced and that gets even worse in Step 3 when it's 4 coal.

Gina built to 16 cities with a plant capacity of 14, which was more than anyone else, and she could have easily won the game early in Step 2. Except that all those cities put her first in turn order which meant that she bought fuel last. The high demand for coal had finally drained the supply, and in order to keep Gina from winning I bought 10 units of coal and Chris bought the final 3 leaving Gina unable to fire her coal plant.

This situation continued, to Gina's chagrin I'm sure, for 3 or 4 turns as the power plant market stalled with only inefficient plants up for sale. Gina remained high in the turn order and Chris and I continued to buy the coal out from under her.

Finally Step 3 was triggered which opened up the power plant market and unleashed a torrent of pent up demand.

The first plant to go up for auction was the #30 (3 trash for 6 cities) and fierce bidding war between myself, Gina, and Joanne ensued. I bowed out somewhere between 200 and 250 but Joanne and Gina just kept right on bidding. Finally, Joanne bid 325 and won the plant. I've NEVER seen a plant go for that much before. I'm not sure what Joanne's plan was (she must have thought the game would go another turn) because that bid left her unable to buy any fuel or cities.

I was able to get the #32 plant (3 oil for 7 cities) in that round for about 130, which would normally be a lot but felt like a bargain in this game. That brought my plant capacity up to 17 and left me more than enough money to connect to 17 cities and win the game.

All in all it was a very wild rollercoaster game of Power Grid. Joanne and Gina did very well for their first game with Gina nearly winning it early.

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Railroad Tycoon

(August, Robert, Kevin, Karen)

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Blokus

(Chris, Marshall, Joanne, Gina)

Joanne and Gina are Rumis fiends so it seemed natural to introduce them to Blokus next. We had quite a good game and I think they really liked it. Joanne got blocked out kinda early and Chris, Gina, and I sparred for the remaining space. It came down to the end and both Chris and Gina were stuck with a couple of pieces left over but I was able to play all of mine, including playing the single tile piece last.

It takes a couple of games to get the hang of this one because you have to block diagonals instead of sides, and for some reason our brains just aren't wired to see it that way at first. Once you understand blocking, though, the game can really take on a lot of depth.

Hey! That's My Fish

(Chris, Marshall, Joanne, Gina)

I continue to enjoy this game and am going to have to get it for myself eventually. I think the most important strategy in the game is to keep your penguins from becoming stuck. You should try to carve out as much of the iceberg for yourself as possible, even to the point where it doesn't much matter what the number of fish on a tile are, as long as moving to that tile keeps your mobility alive. I was able to sequester a huge area with one of my penguins and that was enough for the win even though I only captured one 3-fish tile.

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Tutankhamen

(Chris, Marshall, Joanne, Gina)

This game, on the other hand, I just can't get the hang of. It's a fun little filler but I don't seem to understand the strategy at all. Gina was able to win this game at the last minute pulling off a surprise victory as both Chris and Joanne were poised to win also.

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Hive

(Marshall, Chris)

This was Chris's first game of Hive but he picked it up really fast. As in most two player abstracts whoever goes first has a slight advantage. Chris went first but I was able to seize the initiative and threaten his queen, but about that time he seemed to figure out the game and got the momentum back and trapped my queen for the win. This is another game that appears straightforward on the surfact, but has considerable depth once you master some of the tactics.

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-- MarshallPhilips - 20 May 2007
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