New Reviews

by Susan Rozmiarek
I've written and posted a few new reviews:

Anno 1503, a game of resource management, exploration, and building designed by Klaus Teuber

Familienbande, a very light, fun card game by Leo Colovini about filling out the family tree

Dicefest Sunday

by Susan Rozmiarek
We spent part of a relaxing Sunday playing a few games. I wish we could spend every Sunday this way, but chores and responsibilities often cut into our weekend leisure time. There was an interesting article in today's paper about how Sundays are becoming just another day, no different than the others, in modern people's lives. While I wouldn't want to return to the restrictions and Blue Laws of old, I do yearn for it to be a day to renew the spirit and relax at home with no chores and no errands allowed. But, I'm getting off the subject. On to the games!

Memoir '44

At last, we got to play this game. We've had it for WEEKS now and we finally threw out our flimsy excuses and made the time to take it for a spin.

As recommended in the rules, we chose the first scenario, Pegasus Bridge, for our first playing. Evil Ed took the Axis side and I took up the side of the Allies. As predicted, the greater numbers of Allied forces were able to steamroll over the better defended, but scarcer Axis forces. I had great cards most of the time, while Ed suffered somewhat from the card draw. The dice favored him, however, and he was able to tie me with two medals before I took a bridge and the Axis unit on it, for the win.

Being Battle Cry lovers, this was almost guaranteed to be a sure hit with us, and it was. This was a simple scenario with only infantry and a few obstacles. I'm looking forward to the complications of more type of units. I really like the medals that give the scenarios special goals. Definite improvements over Battle Cry are the rules for retreating, which are much more forgiving and fair.

We hope to switch sides and play the scenario again tomorrow night so Ed can crush me back.

Clash of the Gladiators

I was hoping my son Kevin would want to play Memoir after watching his dad and me play, but he chose this favorite instead. I should clarify that by referring to this as HIS favorite because it certainly isn't mine. Oh, I like it okay enough to play it, but only just. The decisions at the start when making up the gladiator teams are interesting, but the following dicefest feels rather boring to me. Fortunately, the game is short. But still, the preceding Memoir '44 is a much higher quality diefest IMHO.

This was the first time we've played the game with two players and it worked okay, but it wasn't nearly as exciting as it is with more. For one thing, you don't get to come back from the dead as an animal, because as soon as someone is eliminated, the game is over. I was able to pick off Kevin's last team with my last team, after some vicious wild animals weakened his. He still won by a margin of three points, much to his delight.

Session Report for July 8, 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek
There were not many new games played this week or ones that need a lot of comments. So, this report will be brief. Previous reports cover these games in more detail.

 

Anno 1503

Another playing of Mayfair's upcoming release of the Kosmos game, this time with four players. I think I failed to teach it well this time, as I was distracted. Rick and Rhonda had a lot of questions throughout the game and it seemed to drag on longer than it should. Nonetheless, I still found it enjoyable. Mark took the win just when I was so very close to fulfilling two of the victory conditions to win, myself. Darn it.

Mark, Rhonda, Susan and Rick go exploring in Anno 1503.

The Anno 1503 exploration board at the end of the game.

Iglu Iglu

This still seems to go over well with everyone to whom I have taught it. It has a good mix of luck and tactics. There is definitely the danger of it bogging down due to analysis paralysis at times, but with the right players this will not be a problem. I found myself, on my last turn, able to end the game and move one Inuit by kayak. I had several options and each one gave me points and took away points from somebody else. The only way for me to truly make the optimal move would have been calculating everyone's points first. This would have taken forever and would not have been enjoyable for anyone, especially me. So, I did my best with a quick assessment and my gut feeling. As it turns out I won, but it was a close game.

I am still just teaching the base rules, but next time I want to play with the "gamer variant" of igloos blocking other players' movement. The scoring seems fine the way it is. Squaring the value of an island for a lone occupant seems too big of a reward, but you just have to adjust your play and take it into account.

Mark, Rhonda, Susan and Rick melt the ice of Iglu Iglu.	Ah Mark, don't you know you can't escape the camera?
The Iglu Iglu board, early in the game.	A close up of the Iglu Iglu board.

Winds of Plunder

Another playing of the demo copy of Winds of Plunder before sending the copy back to the developer. Sign up for a copy via the GMT P500 list, this game deserves to be published!

Jeff Sims, Bobby Warren and Ed play the demo copy of Winds of Plunder.

Maharaja

I still haven't gotten to play this one yet! Reported by Ed:
Another playing of this new Rio Grande release. We almost got all the rules right this time. We misplayed one concerning paying for movement, but it went over well again. Oh well, must play it again to make sure we get it right. One hint, get some cash early.

Jeff Sims, Bobby, Jon and Ed give Maharaja a go.

The Maharaja board, mid game.

Other Games

More new Rio Grande releases got played including Saint Petersburg and Goa. The top two scores in the Saint Petersburg game were in the 130's, the highest I've heard. Maybe because it was a three player game?

The Goa game was very close with the final scores coming in at 42, 41 and 39, but I think there was some controversy about them.

Adam, Jeff Ford and Jon play Saint Petersburg.

Francesca, Peter, Jeff Ford and Adam build their spice businesses in Goa.

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

Session Report for July 1, 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek
Tonight we welcomed back Bobby Warren from Arizona, in town visiting friends. We must not have frightened him too badly when he paid us a visit last year. He’s not nearly as bad looking or as unsociable as he makes himself out to be. Heck, he even let Ed take his picture and he hardly whined at all. He’s going to have to work much harder if he wants to maintain his online reputation.

It was downright painful deciding which game to play tonight, as a lot of new and shiny stuff hit the table at the same time.

Anno 1503

I got to play this last year at Gulf Games and enjoyed it quite a bit. I haven’t heard much about it since. I guess people are waiting for the English version from Mayfair to hit the shelves, which is soon I think. I’ve heard the game aptly described as “Settlers of Puerto Entdecker.” The “Settlers” similarity comes from the fact that you are rolling a die each turn to acquire a particular resource. Various combinations of resources are then used to build things. The “Entdecker” part is from exploration part of the game that involves moving a ship and exploring islands. The “Puerto” part comes from an added pinch of the game Puerto Rico in the form of specialized buildings that you will be choosing to build during the game.

While these mechanisms hint at other games, Anno 1503 has its own feel to it. It’s essentially a race to fulfill three out of five victory conditions. There are different paths you can choose to take and you have to be able to adapt your strategy to how the game unfolds. It’s pretty solitaire-ish, but that’s no deterrent for me, as I enjoy a healthy mix of different types of games. What is nice is the fact that there is little downtime, as you benefit from the resource rolls of others and there can be a random event that affects you on any player’s turn.

Doug and Bobby were able to grab the Fire Brigade and the Smith buildings before I had a chance, leaving me unprotected from fires and pirates. So, I chose to go the exploration route with my strategy, building the Shipyard to give my ships double actions. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that I needed to build up and keep some cash reserves to protect myself from the pirates and fire as I was struck by them a lot. This caused me to lose any ground I gained. Doug had great luck with the die rolls, as the number that let him choose his resource kept getting rolled. He ended up winning easily, with Bobby fulfilling one of the victory conditions and me struggling at the bottom with none.

Bobby Warren makes his Anno 1503 move.

A close up of the Anno 1503 exploration board.

Familienbande

I got to teach this new favorite filler of mine to Bobby and Doug. See my previous report for a very short description of the game. This time around there was very little bluffing as it quickly became apparent who was trying to score what trait. Bobby and Doug caught on very quickly and the scores ended up being very close. No tiebreaker is mentioned in the rules so Doug and I had to share the victory.

Results: Doug 53, Susan 53, Bobby 52

Bobby, Doug and Susan control the family blood lines in Familienbande

Bridges of Shangri-La

We’ve had this game for a while and I’ve played it at least twice. Ed, however, hadn’t gotten a chance to play it yet and I knew it would be a game he’d really like – no luck, good spatial skills required and lots of planning ahead. Unlike Familienbande, here is the type of dry and abstract game I’d expect from Leo Colovini. The art is just terrible, with a somber, drab board clashing with the bright pastel chits you play onto it. The game though, is quite good, if you like a calculating, mean, brain burning sort of game.

After I refreshed myself with the rules and explained them, we were soon shuffling our students from village to village, giving weaker masters the boot. As I expected, Ed picked up on the tricks pretty quickly. Helen got picked on early and I thought she was out of the running. On the other hand, I thought I was doing pretty well. Then we calculated the final scores and popped my bubble. Sigh. I just really lack the spatial skills to do really well at a game like this. I just can’t “see” the whole board. It’s hard to explain. I do enjoy the challenge, however. I am glad this playing worked well with three players. Sometimes in a confrontational game like this, two players will get into a heated competition while the third quietly runs away with the game, unmolested on another part of the board. We kept our aggression fairly balanced.

Results: Ed 31, Helen 25, Susan 23

Helen, Susan and Ed try to see who can become the most wise while playing The Bridges of Shangri-La.

The Bridges of Shangri-La end game.

Settlers of Catan

For our final game with the last remaining stragglers, we chose one that we could just sit down and play with nary a rules explanation – plain old Settlers of Catan without any fussy expansions or variants. Personally, I like the fussy variants, but I’m always willing to play it plain.

Before playing, we had to get a few arguments out of the way about the proper way to randomly place land tiles and numbers. Once Doug and Helen straightened out the Very Random Mike, who was apparently totally wrong, we were ready to begin. I was fairly happy with my initial placements and was able to make steady progress. This was despite the fact the Helen kept me in a constant state of confusion by calling the ore, “rock, ” and the brick, “clay.” I was able to get settlements and a city on some nice brick producers, a brick port, and the longest road lead by about 5 lengths. Jealous by my success, the other settlers tipped off the robbers to my wealth and I now faced constant pestering by these bandits. Alas, my progress was slowed but I still managed to barely keep the lead.

So there I was on the home stretch with the finish line up ahead, about to get my ninth victory point on my next turn and possibly my tenth when smack! From nowhere Mike pummels me from behind and leaves me eating his dust. He went on a building frenzy and built several roads, snatching my two-point Roadbuilder title right out from under my nose. I think he managed a victory point from something else that turn but in my stunned disbelief at my turn of fortune, I didn’t notice what it was. The game ended and I went from first to last in one fell swoop. I think I still have Mike’s footprint embedded in my back.

Results: Mike 10, Helen 8, Doug 7, Susan 6

Susan, Doug, Mike and Helen pull out the venerable Settlers of Catan.

Other games played: Maharaja (I REALLY wanted to play this one), Samurai, Einfach Genial, Sunken City (arggh! That one, too!), St. Petersburg, Trendy, Wings of War (looked like fun)

Einfach Genial gets yet another play.	Mike gives Sunken City a thumbs up.
Mike, Mark, Adam and Ed build Indian palaces in Maharaja.	Bobby and Mark don their best British accents while dogfighting the Germans (Jon and Ed) in Wings of War.

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

Formula Dé - July Race

by Ed Rozmiarek
We have raced on a few interesting dates this year including April 4 (04/04/04) and June 6 (D-Day). So it makes sense that the July race would be on July 4, Independence Day. And what could be more fitting than to race on an US track, Monterey, California to be exact.

We were back up to seven drivers today. Although the results state that Roxana was in today's race, she actually was not able to attend. She did however convince Doug to drive for her.

Highlights from this month's race included:

• The Monterey track turned out to be very brutal. Lot of straights just too long to make it easy to it in fourth gear and too easy to overshoot in fifth. Also, five of the seven drivers ended up crashing or with only one body or engine point left.
• Susan did not win the pole position for the fifth straight race, with that honor going to Robert today. Susan in turn, used that fact (and the lack of the pole sitter curse) to win her first race of the season and first race in almost two years.
• Ed, after overshooting the last corner by four and missing the pits, makes it half way through the second lap before spinning out. He limps into the pits with no tires, no brakes, one gas, engine and body. Having survived that lap, Ed promptly bumps into Mark just after coming out of the pits and crashes. (Taking out 12 spectators.)

Mark maintains his hold on first place in the points standings, but his lead is now down to 8 points over Roxana. There is a real battle for second place with only four points seperating second and fourth. With only three races left, the rest of the field probably has little realistic hope of the points championship. However Jon, the 2003 champ, has an outside chance of moving up to second with a win or two.

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

Check back with us again next month as we move up the west coast to Portland, Oregon.

Session Report for June 23, 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek
The good turnout continues, but tonight there wasn’t much mixing & mingling. The two tables going never seemed to end their games at the same time and nobody was willing to wait on the other.

 

With Ed arriving home late any minute, I didn’t want to start a long game. So, I pulled out a few recent purchases that looked to be light fillers.

Familienbande

While making a recent Adam Spielt order, I spied this title in the “neu im shop” section. I could find virtually no information on it at the time, not even an English translation of the rules. I decided to take a chance on it because it was by a designer I like, Leo Colovini, and it was cheap. Fortunately, by the time it arrived, a translation had been posted to BoardGameGeek. Happily, it was a good gamble as it turned out to be a pleasant little filler.

This is a card game that involves filling out five generations of a family tree. Players are secretly trying to score a particular family trait of the people depicted on the cards. While having a heavy dose of luck, it also has some tricky hand management tactics. Cards left in your hand are penalized heavily at the end of the game, so you have to balance collecting cards in an attempt to get ones that help you, versus getting rid of cards by playing them and possibly helping other players. Also, you must try to ensure that your trait gets passed on to subsequent generations for higher scoring .

The art is barely humorous in an awful sort of way and I have some major quibbles with the scoring track, but otherwise I really enjoyed this fluffy game. It was surprising to discover a game by Colovini that didn’t feel really dry and abstract as most of his designs usually do. We played it twice as it took a game to work out the rules and to see the ramifications of our plays. There were several lighthearted suggestions of tweaking the rules to make them more “modern,” such as allowing same-sex marriages and out-of-wedlock children. These new variations only came up when someone didn’t like their choices as to what they could play, and were therefore certainly not allowed!

Results: Game #1: Mark 54, Adam 46, Mike 41, Susan 22
Game #2: Mike 59, Susan 50, Adam 49, Mark 38

Familienbande, goofy looking people making more goofy looking people.

Nuggets

Now it was on to another Winning Moves game in a cute little box. Unlike the previous game, however, this box contains no cards and almost no theme. Instead, it is a rather abstract game of bluffing and area control. I had played it two-player once with my son and wasn’t very impressed. There just didn’t seem to be much to the game. This time it was with the four-player partner rules and it played MUCH better.

The rules are extremely simple. The game is played on an 8x5 grid, with cylinders representing gold mines in various spaces on the board. The mines are worth different values indicated by a number on the top of each one. Players have a set of cardboard chits in their color, with number values from 1 to 5.

On a player's turn, he may either place one of his chits face down on an unoccupied space on the board, or place two fences (wooden sticks) between spaces on the board. The only restriction with the fences is that in placing them an area smaller than four spaces cannot be closed off. In this way, regions are formed that may contain one or more mines.

This continues until no more plays can be made and the board is filled up. Then chits are turned over and their values are added. The point value of each mine is awarded to the partners who have the most influence in the area (chit values added together). The winner is the duo with the most points.

The game was quite a tense struggle with lots of jockeying for position between the higher valued mines followed by clever fence building. Unfortunately, some of my bluffing worked too well, fooling my partner Mike as well as our opponents into thinking I’d laid down a high valued tile when I really hadn’t. Oh well. It was fun, tense and played in less than 30 minutes.

Results: Adam/Mark 34, Susan/Mike 17

Fighting for control of gold mines in Nuggets.

I’m the Boss

Ed finally arrived and Mike suggested this new edition of the old game collector’s Holy Grail, Kohle, Kies & Knete. I had played it once before, came in dead last, and simply loathed it. Ed pointed out that in that previous game I had been calling deals too early before I had built up enough cards in my hand to protect myself. So this time around I took his advice and managed to finish in second place.

I still loathed it. There are few games I will veto when they are suggested and this one just made the list. For the most part, I don’t get overly angry or frustrated when things don’t go my way in a game. I can take bad luck, being picked on, and my stupid mistakes in stride and still find a game to be fun. Not so with I’m the Boss. Negotiation games are not generally favorites of mine and this one really rubs me the wrong way. Spending several turns to build up my hand of cards and then losing the majority of them in a deal I get cut out of irritates me enough to completely destroy my enjoyment of the game. I don’t know quite why. A character flaw, my husband would say, as he just adores the game.

I think I fumed quietly enough not to ruin it for everybody else as they all seemed to be having a grand old time wheeling and dealing. Heck, my quiet whining probably helped me by making me seem out of the running. I sure am glad we didn’t pay the ridiculously high price of the older version of this game when it was out of print.

Results: Ed 55, Susan 47, Adam 45, Mark 44, Mike 30

Susan, Mark, Mike, Adam and Ed make deals and back stab each other in I'm the Boss!.

The I'm the Boss! board.

Einfach Genial

With only hardy, diehard gamers left, we brought out a current group hit, Einfach Genial. I had found this game to be pleasant fun when you don’t want to overtax your brain. This time we played with partners and I found it to be even more enjoyable. This is definitely the best way to play with four players. Also, the more our group gets familiar with the game, the more defensive our play is becoming, which makes it more challenging.

The danger in this game is having one or more colors that you desperately need get cut off with no more room to grow. There are usually a few colors that you are lagging behind in towards the end of the game and it’s easy to let this happen, especially when you don’t get the tiles you need. Adam and I were doomed when the purple got cut off. It was a fun game though, and very close until towards the end.

Results: Ed/Jon 34, Adam/Susan 27

Susan, Jon, Adam and Ed finish the night with a team game of Einfach Genial.

Einfach Genial end game.

Other games played: Pig Pile, Call My Bluff, Sequence (This was definitely the fluffy table!)

A 6-player game of Pig Pile

Jeff and Jon use their minds powers to determine the dice under the other players' cups during Call My Bluff.

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