After-gaming report

[dagibbs]

'Cause, by now, everyone expects me to write one, and they don't even exchange LJ ids, cause I'm just going to put it in my report.

In attendance for gaming were me, ironphoenix, donnav, ragnhildr, beable, and a bit later, ansfrid. Showing up later were Stef, John, and ironphoenix's S -- with a drive by hello from Jenny (my sister) and her partner Aaron.

We opened with a 3-player game of China for donnav, ragnhildr and me -- but after the first two plays, beable showed up... so I re-explained the rules, we got the first couple plays done... and ironphoenix showed up... so we re-explained the rules and started. beable won, with me in 2nd -- but it was a close finish for everyone.

We had just explained our 2nd game, Ra, when ansfrid showed up. He decided to spectate, so we didn't have to pull out another game. [edit] The top 3 were close this time -- ironphoenix in first, me 2nd and ragnhildr close for 3rd. [/edit]

beable had to leave shortly, so requested a short game. I pulled out Jungle Speed. :) To nobody's surprise, I took first. ironphoenix had 2nd.

beable left, and ansfrid joined us finally for our next game, Antike. I took a clear first, and ragnhildr was sitting in 2nd place. (I also discovered that I've been playing the 7-seas part of Antike wrong, and that the correct way is open to interpretation.) [edit] Game designer answered on BGG -- the simultaneous occupation interpretation is correct. [/edit]


Near the end of Antike, the 3 remaining people appeared, and the game actually finished shortly after 6pm -- well-timed for the start of the potluck portion of the evening.

After dinner, a discussion of games talked about luck vs skill and random elements, and I asserted that it was quite possible to construct a game with random elements, and yet no luck. After a minute, I realized I in fact owned 2 games that in fact had that property -- in particular Set and Ricochet Robots. We pulled out Ricochet Robots for our last game of the evening, and ironphoenix won (with 5) to a tie for 2nd place (4 each) between ragnhildr and me.

(Note: China is on loan from M in Michigan. He has it cause of eviljohn and Tanga.)

Comments

[cortejo.livejournal.com]

Is Ricochet Robots like Robo Rally?

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Mostly not. There are similar aspects -- dumb robots moving on a grid type map, but rather than being a programming game with a series of turns, it is more a set of independent problems with everyone simultaneously trying to solve the exact same problem.

More information on Ricochet Robots at: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/51

[ragnhildr.livejournal.com]

I tied for second at RicochetRobots! *happy dance*

I believe beable won the game of China.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Yes, beable won China -- already had that. Was wondering about Ra.

[eviljohn.livejournal.com]

It's funny, I bought 3 copies of China, and sold them off to gamer friends including M. Then when I got home realized that I didn't save one for my self. Doh!

Oh well, it's a good game, but not amazing. I'll just have to play M's copy once in a while.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

That would be a Doh!

Well, play M's copy once I bring it back to Michigan, at least.

And, yeah, I'd agree with good but not amazing.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

I think I took the Ra game, thanks to a strong start and happy "solitaire" at the end of the third epoch (even with 2 disasters!).

China: 3 years or so ago, Web of Power (on which China is based) hit the table quite a lot, but not so much recently. I have to show you Clans sometime, if you don't already know it.

[gabriel-le.livejournal.com]

we might have seen it at CanGames - a four player game with some wooden bits, and you don't know who has what colour until it's revealed at the end of the game, and you're trying to rack up points by placing different coloured dudes according to some rules, and it depends what "season" you're in (desert or vegetation or whatever)...and I might be completely off.

Did any of that make sense?

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Yes, that made sense.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's the one. It seems to me a better take on some of the core ideas than WoP/China. Plus, it's shorter.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Hm... I wouldn't have called it similar in core ideas -- in fact it felt very different to me.

And while it may be shorter -- China didn't feel like a "long" game, in fact it felt fairly quick to me, even with the 3 tries at getting started.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

China is a bit shorter than WoP, but WoP wasn't a long game either. I just find Clans better game value per unit time.

The similarity for me is in the balance between dominating and sharing provinces or villages, and how that affects the allocation of resources (turns and units).

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Bridges of Shangri-La has a similar dominating/sharing balance.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

*thinks about it*

Yeah, that is a good way to look at it. I was playing it more from a territorial point of view, in wanting not to be shut out of growth opportunities, but these views aren't contradictory.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

What she said -- I think we did play clans at Cangames at an open gaming place where a club (or clubs) had a bunch of games and were hosting it.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remembered the strong start -- but ragnhildr had a nice set of monuments at the end, so I wasn't sure.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

I think both she and I scored 15 on monuments at the end. I had 44 points total.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

P.S.

Your interpretation of the Navigator rule in Antike is correct. I asked on BGG, and the designer answered.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks; good to know! It makes getting a navigator a significant investment, and two navigators, an achievement (since one only has 17 boats available)!

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does make 2 Navigators quite impressive.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

I've done it as the Carthaginians. Once. The navy was epic. I think the card for 14 seas should be separate, and titled "Helen".