Session Report for Saturday, 7/21/2007

7 gamers, 7 games

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Taluva

(Ty, Marshall, Mike, Nick)

I continue to enjoy Taluva and have put the game on my want list, I'll probably try to pick it up in trade.

In this game Ty got off to a smashing start placing bunches of huts and getting the first temple out. I was severely hampered in my hut placing, in that two of my settlements were cut off and a third was volcanoed meaning I wasn't able to place a temple for a long time.

It's a credit to the game though that I still saw a path to victory. In a game where it looked like it was going to be hard to build to the third level I was able to place the first tower which meant that no matter how poorly I was doing in huts if I could manage to get a couple of temples placed I would win on the tie-breaker.

Ty came very close to placing all of his huts, which is actually dangerous in the game because if you ever can't make a legal move you are out, and it's very difficult to place temples and towers but easy to place huts. So the surest way to eliminate yourself from the game is to run out of huts. In the end, though, Ty had a hut or two left over and was also able to place a tower securing the win for himself.

I thought the game played very well but the endgame is a bit deterministic. With about two turns to go I saw that Ty could not be beat. It's not really a problem though as long as the game plays quickly.

For more thoughts see my review of Taluva on BGG. It's the first review I wrote there.

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Vegas Showdown

(Nick, Mike, Darren)

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Puerto Rico

(Robert, Marshall, Ty)

It's been awhile since I've played PR with three players and I found it... different. It was a much quicker and more straightforward game. Your turns came much faster, but it also seemed like your decisions were more obvious. Once the game got past the opening stages and we were a couple of turns in it was rare that my best move wasn't plain to see.

Robert developed into the shipper of the game. He monopolized the ships often shipping eight goods per Captain phase. I went for a building strategy and had pretty good success with the Trader to finance it. I managed to get an early factory, and I complemented it with a wharf and two large buildings.

Ty struggled to find a strategy probably because of unfamiliarity with the buildings. Next time I'm sure his plan would be much more focused.

My two large buildings were the difference in the game as Robert had a ton of shipping points but no large buildings of his own, so I pulled out the win by a hair.

Puerto Rico has now joined the list of 16 games which have been played at least once in all three years of the group.

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I'm The Boss

(Mike, Ty, Darren, Nick, Marshall, Robert)

Vegas Showdown and Puerto Rico ended about the same time so we all joined together in one game of I'm The Boss. ITB is a negotiation game where players are trying to "make deals" that require the participation of other players to complete. If a deal is completed a certain amount of cash is awarded to the participants. The cash is divided up amongst the participants according to the agreement they negotiated. The player with the most cash wins.

It's a fun game as long as it's played light-heartedly and kept moving. I don't think it can be taken too seriously. There's a lot of chaos in the game as there is a deck of action cards that let players disrupt a deal during the negotiations. It's also gets a bit confusing and overwhelming trying to process the various permutations of who's offering what because everybody is clamoring to get in on the deals. The problem seems to me to be that everybody is essentially offering a resource of identical value so it is difficult to evaluate the various possible deals.

The smooth talking Ty managed to run away with this game. We all seemed to know he was winning and yet he kept talking his way into the deals! Well done.

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Samurai

(August, Marshall, Robert)

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Dead Men's Treasure

(Nick, Ty, Darren) x2

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-- MarshallPhilips - 22 Jul 2007
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