Session Report for March 18, 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek

 

Mike Chapel’s Adam Spielt order finally came in, and he arrived carrying an impressive pile of new games. I was very happy to get to try two of them, both soon to be released in English editions by Uberplay.

Oh, Pharao

First off, I have to complain that the spelling of the title, even if it is the correct way to spell it in German, drove me nuts. For this reason alone, I will make sure to get the Uberplay edition. And yes, I do want a copy as I really enjoyed this game.

This is another pyramid building game, this time using cards. The cards are numbered and are the building blocks for pyramids that a player builds on the table in front of him. The pyramids must be built according to certain rules. Blocks (cards) on each level must be of the same number and levels must be numbered sequentially with the lowest being on the bottom. Levels must also contain at least one block less than the level below them. Pyramids will be scored during the game by adding the face value of each level (one block) and multiplying by the number of levels. Then the pyramid is discarded.

On a player’s turn he may do the following actions in order:

1. Score pyramids in front of him (optional)

2. Draw a card from either the draw pile or choose one of three face-up cards

3. He then may do the following in any order:

Build a new pyramid or add on to an existing one

Trade cards with other players

Play action cards

4. Lastly, he draws back up to a hand of seven cards. He can optionally discard one card first.

The neatest action card is a Thief. This card allows you to try to steal a card from another player’s pyramid. You roll a dice to attempt this and if you roll equal to or greater than the number of levels on the pyramid, you get to choose a card to steal and add to your hand. An evil thing to do is to choose a card on the bottom of the pyramid, removing the support of the cards above it, which must be removed and returned to the player’s hand. This reminded me of The Bucket King. It forces you to make some decisions about when to score your pyramids. The longer you leave them out and add to them, the more points they will score, but players will target them with Thief cards to knock them down to a smaller size. On the other hand, the larger the pyramid, the harder it is for a Thief to be successful.

The other action cards are the Tax Collector, which allows you to randomly draw a card from the hand of each player, and Pharaoh cards, which counter the Thief and Tax Collector cards. Additionally, there are wild cards in the deck, which can be played as blocks of any number.

The other component of the game is the track. Each time a pyramid is scored, a marker is moved one space along a time track. When the marker gets to the last space, the end game phase starts. In addition, there are a few spaces on the track that trigger certain conditions. At first, players are only allowed to build one pyramid at a time. After a certain spot is reached along the track, they may build up to two. Another spot requires that all pyramids must now be a minimum of three levels to score.

Our game was fairly short and a lot of fun. It’s a light game and perfect for a filler. Mike was able to score an impressive 120-point pyramid.

Results: Mike 250, Doug 215, Susan 204, Jeff 98.

Mike double checks the rules for Oh, Pharao! while Doug, Susan and Jeff await the ruling.

The Oh, Pharao! board and cards. Yes, there is an error which we caught in time.

Hansa

Next up was another upcoming release by one of my favorite designers, Michael Schacht. This is more of a gamer’s game, and it took me a while before I saw how the mechanisms related to each other and flowed.

The game is set in the 14th century in the Baltic Sea region. The idea is to collect goods and sell them at markets for victory points. The board is a map depicting the region, with various cities and fixed sea routes between those cities for the merchant ship. All players will be using this single ship and on their turn they can pay to sail the ship and perform one action in each city they visit. They may go as far and do as much as they want, as long as they can pay. It costs one coin to move the ship to a city, always following the routes, with a few cities having a choice of routes from which to choose.

Players get three coins from the bank at the start of their turn. At each city they visit, players can choose to do one of the following actions (or none at all):

1. Buy a goods marker. These come in several colors and have 1-3 barrels on them. Each city starts the game with one or two of these markers (randomly placed). Before the start of his turn, a player may opt to replenish the board with goods markers. These are in five facedown stacks. Doing so costs one coin. Buying a goods marker from a city costs one coin. The coin is paid to the player who has a majority of markets in that city or paid to the bank if nobody has a majority. Of course, if you have the majority, the marker is free.

2. Establish markets. These are represented by discs in each player’s color and are in limited supply. To establish markets the player must turn in one goods marker. He then places as many markets in that city as there are barrels depicted on that goods marker.

3. Sell goods. A player may only do this at a city in which he has at least one market and goods must be sold in sets of at least two of the same color. He takes back one of his markets and this allows him to sell as many sets as he can. He turns the goods markers facedown in front of him. These will be victory points at the end of the game. There is one painful thing about this action for the other players. When goods are sold, all other players must discard a marker of that color if they have a face-up one. So, it is important to carefully watch what other people have and can do on their next turn so that you don’t lose goods before you have a chance to use or sell them.

Players can only carry over three coins and three goods markers to their next turn. No hoarding allowed! Play continues until the last stack of goods markers is needed to replenish the board. Then the current round is finished and players count their victory points. Each facedown goods marker is one point plus a point for each barrel depicted. Face-up markers count as one victory point only. In addition, a player gets 2 victory points for each city in which he has a market and 4 points for each city in which he has the only market. The player with the most points wins.

Money is very tight. You often do not have enough to sail the ship to the desired city and you will have to consider where you leave the ship relevant to what the next player can do with it. You also may find the ship has been left in an area that has been depleted of goods markers and you’ll have to pay to replenish the board to get any. The only way to make money beyond your normal income of three coins is to have a majority of markets in cities with desirable goods. However, you must pay for your markets with a goods marker that may have already cost you a coin to buy. You’ll also be losing markets as you sell goods, perhaps losing the majorities as well. On one hand, you’ll want to save goods markers to sell for victory points, but on the other hand, you need markets to sell them. So, you’ll have to give up some markers to build markets, while collecting others for selling, all the while hoping and planning for routes that allow you do it all. Confused yet? So was I. Lots of planning and angst here as you are constantly reevaluating your situation based on where the ship was left at the start of your turn and what goods others have picked up.

Despite my initial confusion, I eventually figured out how the various components of the game meshed together. The game seems to develop a certain tactical rhythm to it, with a little long-term strategy thrown in. A couple of the cities are much harder to get to due the way the sea route is configured and it took me a while to figure this out, getting very frustrated in the process. All of us were very impressed with the game and Doug likened it to Logistico, proclaiming that Hansa was the superior of the two. I didn’t quite see the similarities between the two games, other than the pick-up and delivery aspect, and I think both are very good.

Results: Susan 44, Doug 36, Ed/Mike 31

Mike moves the trade ship to his next port of call in Hansa. Ed and Doug watch on.

Hansa close up.

Other games played: Pompeji, Trendy, Oasis

The beautiful city of Pompeji, but is that a volcano I hear rumbling in the distance?

Another new game as Jeff, Jon, Rick, Robert and Rhonda play Oasis.

For more pictures from this gaming session and others, see our Gaming Picture Gallery.

Ragnar Brothers Tease

by Susan Rozmiarek
Once again, there is a tantalizing tidbit about the Ragnar Brothers' upcoming (when?) game in one of their sporadic session reports.

Buried in the report is this small morsel of information:

"Dawn broke early on Saturday for those of us sharing a room with Richard but a hearty bacon sandwich plus coffees saw us ready for the fray. Simultaneous games of the Ragnars soon to arrive on your shelves production took place to popular acclaim before lunch. Can't reveal too much but it is a return to a larger historical arena and we think people will enjoy it. We are having components produced as this is written so it won't be long before more can be said on the matter".

I wish they'd hurry up and tell us more!

Nick Danger's Game Shelf

by Susan Rozmiarek
Check out the new gaming website by Nick Danger.

There's not much there now, but it looks pretty slick and promising. What is there for downloading is one of Nick's game designs, Car Tricks. This is a really neat little game that made the first cut of the Hippodice game design contest.

Also check out the Dice Boot page. We have two of these indispensible beauties, one for each end of the table when we play Formula Dé. We call them the "Crystal Towers of Power."

Session Report for March 11, 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek
Rick and Robert surprised us tonight by showing up at 6:30 on the nose. This should have started the evening off with quite a crowd, but for various reasons, none of the Grimm clan were able to attend and so we were left with the ever-awkward number of six.

 

Mit List und Tücke

Ed suggested this odd (aren’t they all) trick-taking game. There seems to be an endless supply of trick-taking games with odd twists. This is yet another one and a very good one at that. The deck contains four suits (colors) of cards numbered 1-21. The object of the game is to score the most points by collecting cards in two of the colors while avoiding the other colors, which greatly decrease your score. There are several oddities in the play. For one, players do not have to follow suit. The second is that the winner AND the loser of the trick share the cards. The winner is the person who plays the highest card in the suit led. In a six-player game, he picks three of the cards in the trick. The loser is the person who played the lowest card in a non-led suit and he must take the remaining three cards. Then the loser leads the next trick. Very odd, but once you get the hang of it, each hand becomes very calculating as you try to force players to take cards they don’t want, while figuring out how to win some of the cards you need. It actually was a little too calculating, as a few hands took us so long we decided to call the game and move on to something else. It’s a good game though, with plenty to think about.

Results: Susan 64, Robert 51, Mark 45, Mike 33, Ed 9

Susan, Mark (hiding), Rick, Mike, Robert and Ed opening with Mit List und Tücke.

Pirate's Cove

We then broke into two groups of three, determined not to be limited to games that play with larger numbers of players. Robert expressed an interest in Pirate's Cove, so I offered to teach it to him and Rick, while the others went off to play Magna Grecia. The only problem was, I realized upon opening the box, was that I had never actually played Pirate’s Cove. I had played a couple of games of its German predecessor, Piratenbucht, but there had been numerous small changes to the game. So, it took awhile for me to explain the game while trying to refer to new rules in an unfamiliar rulebook. We had numerous questions throughout the game for which I couldn’t immediately find answers for, but I think we played most of them correctly.

Pirate’s Cove has two mechanisms that make some gamers cringe: simultaneous action selection and dice rolling. These gamers would say the game is only a luckfest, but I must disagree. This is a game of bluffing, light and with a good dose of luck, but also with a couple of strategies to pursue. The winner is the pirate who earns the most fame and this can be achieved by collecting and burying treasure and gold, or by defeating other pirates in battle. Players will be sailing to particular islands with these differing strategies in mind, as each islands offers a particular upgrade to one’s ship and different goodies that change from round to round. Battles are decided with dice, but players can mitigate the luck by upgrading the applicable portions of their ship and/or trying to collect action cards that influence the battles. Or, a player can try to avoid battles altogether by outguessing his opponents and choosing to sail to islands they are less likely to also choose.

I chose this latter strategy and upgraded my hull to allow me to carry more treasure. Then I suppressed my greed and sailed to less attractive islands, collecting treasure and burying it on Treasure Island. I was able to avoid battles for much of the game while Rick and Robert had several skirmishes. Robert built up his ship and tried to take on one of the Legendary Pirates. Unfortunately, the dice were not kind and he had to limp back to Pirate’s Cove for repairs. Rick and I made a desperate attempt to defeat another Legendary Pirate at Treasure Island on the last turn, so that we could empty our treasure-laden holds for some last minute fame, but alas, we were defeated. Those pirates are tough. I guess that’s why they are legendary!

Results: Robert 32, Susan 30, Rick 27

This new edition is top-notch. The bits and artwork are simply fabulous. The Tavern cards are better organized into categories and the horizontal upgrade tracks on the players’ ships make much more sense. Having the different Legendary Pirates with differing abilities adds more spice to the theme and gameplay, as do the Parrot cards. I guess the only change that I don’t like is the Fame cards. These were Tall Tales in Piratenbucht and were much more humorous and fun to play at the end of the game.

Rick, Susan and Robert play pirates during Pirate's Cove

The very colorful Pirate's Cove board.

Other games played: Magna Grecia, Attika, Call My Bluff

Mike, Mark and Ed build trade routes and markets while developing Magna Grecia.

Ed, Mark, and Mike accuse each other of being liars in Call My Bluff.

For more pictures from this gaming session and others, see our Gaming Picture Gallery.

Session Report for March 4, 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek

Tongiaki

Despite the griping about how chaotic this game is, it’s still getting requested so I guess that says something in favor of the game. I was able to claim a nice, 4-point island mid-game, effectively blocking further development in one area of the board and driving it in another. Unfortunately, the game ended just before I was able to really invade this new area. I still feel like the decisions are fairly easy and there is too little control, especially with more players. It does play fairly quickly though, and does have some novel mechanisms, so it works okay as a filler for me.

Results: Doug 29, Mark 26, Ed 21, Mike 18, Susan 14

Tongiaki mid game.

Bang! with High Noon

This game is a favorite of our group and the expansion only makes the game better. I’d love to see some of the ideas from Bang! taken and re-themed into a new game. Maybe a game about spies? Vampire/vampire hunters? The hidden roles and different goals really appeal to me. Rick wanted to play this one tonight because in his first and only game previously, he was killed before he even got a turn!

I groaned when I turned over the role of sheriff. It’s a real chore dealing with those bloodthirsty outlaws and it’s hard to win. Fortunately though, I had a very strong character, Calamity Jane. Her special ability is being able to use Bang! and Missed cards interchangeably. She also has four bullets with an additional one for being a sheriff bringing the total to five. Lots of health points and a large hand size – very nice and it actually gave me hope that I’d live to see good prevail.

One of things I like about this game is it plays differently each time. As the sheriff, I sat there just waiting for some impulsive outlaw to come after me with both barrels. It always happens. Tonight it didn’t happen. This gang of outlaws was a very cautious bunch who decided to try and sniff out and eliminate my trusty deputies first. So, I sat there hoarding Bang! and Missed cards for protection, while watching everyone else start cautiously taking potshots at each other. Deputy Mike was the first to cast suspicion upon himself, and was quickly eliminated by outlaw Ed. Then the bullets really started flying as people’s true natures started to show. It eventually came down to a showdown between Renegade Rick and me. Things were looking pretty good for Sheriff Jane but those pesky outlaws would not rest in their graves. The Ghost Town card came up in the high Noon deck, bringing everyone back to life for a single turn. The outlaws nearest me came blazing back to life and wounded me badly but left me alive, much to their disappointment. Things were looking hopeful for the still-living Renegade Rick as he waited to finish me off. But before he got the chance, ghostly Deputy Robert foiled his plans and sent Rick to join him in the graveyard, leaving me the last one standing. Hooray! Justice prevails!

Deputy Robert shows the card he about to play in trying to take out Outlaw Ed. Doug (outlaw), Rick (renagade), Susan (sheriff) and Mark (outlaw) await their turn.

Rumis

This is a nice little three-dimensional placement game that is kind of like a cross between Pueblo and Blokus. It’s more balanced and best played by experienced players, though. If you aren’t careful, your pieces are quickly blocked and you are shut out of the game. Mark, Ed, and I have all played before, but it had been awhile and we are still experimenting with our moves. Plus, there are several different boards and the play is different on each one.

The pyramid board was chosen and Ed made the first move. He realized that it wasn’t a wise one and could be easily blocked by Mark or me. Neither one of us did, however. I didn’t want the game to end so quickly as I’m still trying to figure out the placement strategies myself. Newbie Mike wasn’t shown the same mercy that Ed was, and got blocked in fairly soon after that. It then became a hotly contested battle between Ed, Mark and me, with no clear leader until the blocks were counted at the end. This needs repeated play soon while it is fresh in our minds.

Results: Susan/Mark 15, Ed 10, Mike –25

Rumis near the end of the game.

Pig Pile

We could only keep the very tired Mark around for another game if we chose something light. Nobody can accuse Pig Pile as being anything but and we were soon Hogwashing and Ewe-turning. Mark and Mike ended up battling for Top Hog honors while Ed and I competed for runt of the litter. Mike emerged victorious while Ed continued a long losing streak at this game. At least he’s consistent.

Results: Mike 11, Mark 9, Susan 7, Ed 3

Mike, Mark, Susan and Ed end the evening with the highly random Pig Pile.

For more pictures from this gaming session and others, see our Gaming Picture Gallery.

Formula Dé March Race

by Ed Rozmiarek
A bright and lovely, 75 degree March day finds us inside racing on the 10th Anniversary track, are we geeks or what? Again, this was a new track to race on for us, so we didn't know what to expect. The general consensus was that there would be a lot of close racing with the two 3-stop and two 2-stop corners on the track. This did come true. However, we didn't think there would be a lot of fifth or sixth gear action. This did not play out. The track did turn out to have several opportunities for 5th gear and there were even some 6th gear rolls. The track turned out to be more deadly then we thought as we had three cars not finish. Two due to crashes (on the same corner) and one via engine.

As we have seen with other tracks with several multi-stops, the racing was close early on. In fact, we ended the first lap with all of the cars within two turns of each other. Probably the closest early racing we have had in a while. This lasted until midway through the second lap when I was able to hit a couple of sixth gear rolls and pull out ahead. However, good rolls by Mark and Jon kept them in the hunt as I was only able to build a one turn lead. However, the dice were with me this month (for a change) as I was able to make just about every corner and held on to the slim lead and take the checked flag this month.

Highlights from this month's race included:

• The "Don't Let Him Behind the Wheel" award goes to Robert this month as he crashes, not one, but two cars. After pushing his car for a lap and a half to keep up with the leaders, Robert rolled sixth gear down the back straight into the second three stop corner. However, he was out of gas and was unable to double-downshift. He hit the corner in fifth and then '12' on the fourth gear roll pushed him too far past the corner and crashed in a fireball.

  After this, Kevin decided he waited to go play video games so turned his car over to Robert. So what does Robert do? He pushes through the same three stop corner and crashes poor Kevin's car at the same spot.

• Roxana's poor Ladybug car was getting bruised and battered all race. It finally fell victim to the abuse half way through the third lap as its engine finally gave out as she tried to push it in 5th gear.
• Ed not whining once about bad rolls and winning the race with a clean, undamaged car.
• The "fantasy" track was very nice. I hope Eurogames decides to come out with more made-up tracks not based on real tracks as this gives them room to design tracks that play well and have unique features.

See our Formula Dé webpage for the detailed results of today's race or visit the picture gallery for the pictures from the race.

Session Report for February 26, 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek
Tonight we ended up playing games that provided plenty of opportunities to smack each other. Being mean feels pretty darn good sometimes!

 

Bonobo Beach

It was another trip to the beach, this time with a full table of four. I had only played this game with two and thought it suffered from too little competition on the board. Well, with four, there definitely was competition, and plenty of evil tile placements. The game is decent filler, but doesn’t really “wow” me. The most interesting decision is when and where to commit your markers. After that, it boils down to drawing tiles, placing the positive ones where they can help you, and hosing your opponents with the negative ones. Pleasant enough, but for a similar game, I still prefer Auf Heller und Pfennig.

Results: Susan 43, Mike 33, Mark 27, Doug 16

Mike, Doug, Mark and Susan warm up with a trip to Bonobo Beach.

Blokus

Next up was this enjoyable, abstract placement game. As usual, it was a quick race to the middle and then play proceeded much slower. You always have to watch your back in this game because as you’re sneaking into someone else’s territory on the board, there is inevitably someone else sneaking in your back door threatening yours.

Great game, with tough decisions because there are usually several places you want to lay pieces. Towards the end things are more deterministic and it becomes an exercise in efficiency as you try to place your remaining pieces as best you can on the full board. Newbie Mike trounced us by achieving the maximum score, playing all his pieces with the last one being the smallest for the bonus 20 points.

Results: Mike 20, Mark –9, Doug –17, Susan –27

Shea (blue shirt) offers Susan "advice" in Blokus while Doug makes his move and Mike looks on.

Blokus from a weird angle.

Nicht die Bohne

With the arrival of Rick, we decided to play a hand of this wicked trick-taking game while waiting for Ed. This is a game of groupthink that works best if table talk is curtailed. We allow some, such as telling someone to “do the right thing” but without being too specific. Obviously, in the one hand that we played, nobody did the right thing for me.

Results: Mark, 63, Mike 57, Rick 40, Doug 30, Susan15

Next up the evil card game Nicht die Bohne!.

Ave Caesar

We now had the ever-awkward number of six players to deal with, but not to fear, as we had a new offering fresh off the Gulf Games prize table. We’d always balked at the high prices that this long OOP game fetches and had never had the opportunity to try it, either. We were thrilled to now have a copy.

This game is a rather over produced, light racing game, but I’m not complaining. The molded plastic chariots and coins are fantastic and the board is huge which really helps make the theme come alive. And this game is dripping with theme.

Movement of the chariots is card-driven. Players each have a deck of identical cards, depicting numbers from one to six. Players hold a hand of three cards drawn from their deck. On a player’s turn, he must play a card and move his chariot the exact number of spaces as the number on the card. If he can’t, because someone is blocking his path, he misses his turn. The challenge comes from the fact that the total of all a player’s cards is just enough to complete a three lap race with a few spaces to spare IF you choose the shortest route. And why wouldn’t you? Because somebody may be blocking you, forcing you to choose a longer route. Yes, this game is another evil one, all about hosing the other players while carefully managing your own movement. And with a few bottlenecks on the course, it is easy to be mean. There are also some other neat things, like having to pull over and yell, “Ave Caesar!” while tossing him a coin in tribute once during the race. (We enforced this to the letter!). Players get points based on the order of finish and whoever has the most after four races wins. The game went a little long and was peppered with much cursing, but it was a hoot. There’s a lot of luck, but it’s definitely a worthy edition to our collection. I’m hoping to try out some of the many variants in the near future that are included in the rules translation.

Results: Ed 17, Susan 12, Mike 10, Mark/Doug 9, Rick 4

Rick, Mike, Doug and Shea contemplate Ave Caesar.

The 5/6 player board for Ave Caesar. The other side has the 3/4 player board.

For more pictures from this gaming session and others, see our Gaming Picture Gallery.