Session Report for Saturday 2/16/2008

10 gamers 10 games

---

Coloretto

(Scott, Jason, Robert, Marshall, Bart)

We started the session off by welcoming Jason to the group with one of our staple fillers. This is a great game to bring out with just about anybody, non-games especially seem to go for it in my experience. And now it's even better because it naturally leads to the much more "gamerly" game Zooloretto.

---

Beowulf

(Clint, Marshall, Bart, Nick)

Beowulf is one of those games where it helps to have a play under your belt to understand what's going on. In my estimation this game improves a little bit each play as you're better able to plan ahead, and understand when it's advantageous to take risks. One thing I learned this game is that you don't want to get backed into a corner. I took 2 wounds early on and this severely limited my options later in the game (because taking three wounds is essentially a death sentence). You also don't want to run out off (or even run low on) cards at any point. Doing so can really hurt you.

I think, almost as important as knowing when to risk, is in knowing when to not even contest an event at all. Sometimes the worst outcome isn't that bad, and in this case it doesn't make sense to spend a bunch of cards fighting for a better position, or to risk taking a scratch.

In this game Bart did the best job positioning himself for the critical final two events, and Nick did the best job avoiding any wounds so they ended up tied. A quick check of the rule book found that there is no tie-breaker, they should each share the victory. Nick felt that "fewest wounds" should be the tie-breaker, however.

---

Notre Dame

(Scott, Jason, August, Robert, Chris)

Notre Dame is an interesting game that mixes several mechanics in a bit lighter way to create a game that I find very entertaining. The game has a touch of influence/majority markers like El Grande, some character card mechanics like Citadels, and card/hand management. In the game you mainly are working in your own section of the city to gain as many 'prestige' points as possible, but everyone can attempt to gain the most influence at Notre Dame located at the center of the board. There are character cards laid out each round that allow you to do different things and get different bonuses. The action cards used in the game are drawn three at a time and then you keep one and pass the rest to the other players. I really enjoy this mechanic in the game, it allows player interaction and adds some difficult decisions, as well as a little luck, to the game. I think there may be multiple strategies to win the game, but I really haven't played it enough yet to say that for sure. In this game Robert sat back and built up his influence to gain large amount of points in the later rounds of the game. Chris and I went for several points at the early part of the game and did not focus near enough in growing our sections of the city and we paid for it in the later rounds of the game.

I really enjoy this game and look forward to more plays in the future.

-- ScottK - 19 Feb 2008

---

No Thanks

(Clint, Marshall, Bart, Nick) x2

---

Thebes

(Chris, Scott, Robert, Marshall)

I've been trying to get in on a game of Thebes for awhile now, but I kept missing out. Finally, I broke down and ordered it, but my copy hasn't arrived yet so I was happy to give Scott's copy a try. And Thebes turned out to be everything I expected it to be.

To be sure, the game has a lot of luck. One of the main ways to score is to draw artifacts out of a bag, but about half of the artifacts are worthless, and the worthless ones go back into the back while the valuable ones are kept. This makes finding valuable artifacts harder and harder (and more sensitive to luck) as the game goes on. But you know what? That's pretty thematic. I imagine archeology can have long dry spells punctuated by incredible finds, and the game captures that feeling.

Another brilliant mechanic in the game is the turn order mechanism. Basically you spend time doing certain things (digging, researching, etc...) which is tracked on the "time track". If you spend 6 weeks digging you move ahead 6 spaces. The turn always goes to the person in last (i.e. the person who has spent the least amount of time doing stuff). So it's possible to get 2 or even 3 turns in a row, at least until you've spend enough time to pass someone else on the track. I love this mechanism. And it's already been borrowed by another game. In the Year of the Dragon has the exact same mechanism and it works equally well there (I've got this game on order and will be bringing it to a session soon.)

In this game Chris spend his time most efficiently and came away with the win.

---

Pillars of the Earth

(Jason, Nick, Bart)

---

Illuminati

(August, Clint, Rob)

---

Fiji

(Chris, Marshall, Robert, Scott)

Fiji is a new game by Friedemann Friese (the designer of Power Grid). It's basically a series of blind bids with gems of four different colors. You are attempting to get rid of gems of certain colors while acquiring gems of other colors in order to earn victory points (which are measured with shrunken heads). The bids are judged against four "criteria" (which change randomly throughout the game) in order to determine who won the reward (which also change randomly). It's a pretty quick and chaotic game. A little more than a filler, but not really a deep thinker. Perfect for closing out a game session which is exactly what we used if for this time. It reminds me a lot of a simpler version of Fist of Dragonstones

---

Duell

(Clint, August)

---

-- MarshallPhilips - 18 Feb 2008
to top