Deepa-Raya 2006
Ξ November 21st, 2006 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Boardgames |
In tradition of the past Hari Raya Haji, this Deepa-Raya we got together for not one, not two, but three boardgame sessions!
Battlestations! Battlestations! Green Fleet reporting!
Green army ready! Let’s get it on!
(Both pictures above courtesy of Alvin, displaying an abnormal interest in green things :P)
21st October
The first day of Deeparaya sees four intrepid boardgamers sit down for a game of Twilight Imperium 3rd Ed, or as I would like to call it, a game of INTERGALACTIC SPACE MEGA BATTLE!!!
Here we are setting up the game. As it was quite awhile since we last played, I took the oppurtunity to re-read the rules the night before. This turned out to be a life saver as Ivan forgot to read the rules and I was able to help clear up some snags and speed up the game… at the very least, speed up the setup time :P.
Race selection is chosen randomly and the players are thus:
Heng: Sardakk N’orr - an aggressive race with overall combat prowess
Hooi Teng: Universities of Jol Nar - a peaceful race rich with technologies
Ivan: The Barony of Letnev - a rich race with large fleets and ability to upgrade combat status by spending money
Alvin: The Naalu Collective - a mind reader race that is always one step ahead of their opponents
The game setup saw some imbalance as the Sardakk (blue) and the Universities (purple) were able to monopoly the rich planets to their side of the board and left the Barony (red) and Naalus (green) with slim pickings. The players also promptly forgot the rules and lined up a supernova, an asteroid field and a nebula side by side between the Sardakk and the Barony.
The Sardakk and the Universities quickly expanded outwards, while the Naalu chugged out slowly. The Barony was forced to make an early grab for Mecatol Rex, the centre of the universe. This made the Barony quickly the public enemy no#1.
However, the planned attack on the Barony never came and the Barony quickly made use of their superior fleet size to invade the Sardakk! Even a nebula and supernova turn out to be no deterrent to long standing enmity between the Barony and Sardakk.
Just as the Barony planned to sneak into the Sardakk homeworld and the Universities massing their armies to the critical size for an assault on Mecatol Rex, the Naalu declared that they have won the game! Turns out the Naalu have been quietly fulfilling Imperial objectives and proved themselves to be an objective race for the imperial throne.
As we began putting away the game, grumblings can be heard from the Universities as they rue their failed chance at unleashing their mighty fleet… Next time, Hooi Teng, attack earlier!
As a side note, four player TI3 is probably the best setup so far. With players choosing 2 strategy cards a turn, all the strategy cards are fully utilised and the game advances at a decent clip. We managed to finish our game in 4 hours!
For the next game, we sit down for a light filler of Citadels. Ivan did the honors of introducing this game. Jun Hao arrived just in time to start a five players game.
As expected, the room is full of devious characters and the sounds of uncontrollable laughter can be heard often. Even when choosing the role cards, a person can even snigger to himself repeatedly. Really unnerving and uncomfortable playing with a bunch of self-sniggering crooks. Needless to say, everyone got whacked pretty hard from the Assassin and Thief. Really devious game!
23rd October
The third day of Deeparaya sees the gamers back for a game of Settlers of Catan (Travel Edition). Alvin, Ivan and myself sat down for a game of settlement building in the mythical island of Catan. It’s the first time for Ivan and myself playing the game, so it’s quite interesting. Alvin, however, was quite sick of the game. Jun Hao joined us as we were finishing up the game and tadaa! I brought out my newly bought Caylus for playing.
It was a runaway victory for Jun Hao, who managed to bring out a prestige building for massive points. I, on the other hand, was sabotaged heavily until I can’t make an optimal move. Alvin expressed his interest in the game and he did played it again in another meetup at Comics Corner DJ.
We finish the session again with Citadels. This game is becoming quite the filler for us, a great way to wind down sessions with light fast card play.
25th October
The fifth day of Deeparaya sees the much awaited Klang gaming session at Villa Long. (Actually Long’s house, but it was a boardgame villa for a day :P) This is a rather social meetup as I introduced my friends Ivan and Alvin to fellow gamers Long, Jeff and Wai Yan. As we arrived, they were playing Coloretto with Long’s son.
After their game finished, I requested Jeff to teach us Bang! I got it awhile back but still did not know how to play it.
His explanation was really good and I kow-tow to his method of laying all the cards out first and did a blitz explanation, even highlighting things a beginner should look out for. A master of the art.
Long, our host seen here with his son.
Alvin, Ivan and myself… it does not pay to sit next to Ivan in a game! I got off-ed by Ivan the sheriff as his first action just because he can! (and he did guess correctly that i’m the outlaw… darn)
Next up, is Antike, Jeff’s favourite game and again, he did the teaching honors. 
I got to a better start this time and diversified my strategy into technology instead of armies like the first time round. This time, an unchecked Wai Yan spread out well and got lots of territories due to weak neighbours more interested in other conflicts. Despite a late onslaught into her provinces, she still managed to get her last victory point for her civilisation for the win, dooming the rest of the civilisations to obscurity.
mid-Antike-game. It’s well into the night and coffee mugs are out. Stories of galactic battlecruisers start to invade our game of Antike!
Next up, Viktory II from Morrison Games. 
This is a home production by a regular guy who is passionate about gaming. The game itself is an interesting war-type game which encourages you to attack continuously. Long took over the rules explanation for this game. Since we started by agreeing to play till the first capital falls, our game finished early. This is due to Jeff, who managed to sneak an amphibious assault on my capital when the bulk of my forces were distracted elsewhere. It’ll be interesting to see how the full game plays out the next time round.
The games keep coming, next up is the game That’s Life!
Long continues with his explanation duties and did a good job of it. The game is an interesting abstract game which somehow tries to teach us that there are negative and positive points in life… Ok, UPS and DOWNS in life, and when you get a magical clover, your downs becomes your ups… Ok, ok, there’s no theme to this game, but it is a good light filler where you get to roll a dice and make a light decision of moving one of your three pawns. The decision can get excrutiating at times but the game still gets along at a very good pace. After the last two war-themed boardgames, this was a welcoming distraction and overwhelmingly gets a thumbs up around the table. Alvin even got his own copy the week after.
Doing his duty again, Long introduced to us Hey That’s My Fish! (Hmmm… somehow rather most of our games got an !exclamation! mark after their titles this evening!)
Setting up… This game has the distinction of being slow to setup but fast to play. The rules are simple but the moves are brain burning. A game full of contradictions.
Players play as penguins moving from ice floes to ice floes picking up their fishes. The player with most fishes win! Damn simple rule but it still takes awhile for the brain to process the board before making an optimised move.
cute penguin on fish tiles.
The gaming session ended at the break of dawn. I took the oppurtunity to give a brief overview of Twilight Imperium III to Jeff, Wai Yan and Long. As everyone’s engine started to wind down, Jeff and Wai Yan departed for their BKT fix while the rest of us went home for our precious ZZZzzzZZzzz.
It was a fun session, thanks to Long for hosting and Jeff and Wai Yan for coming down from yonder Cheras to join us. Hope more of my friends can join in and meet new friends the next time!
For an alternative narative on the above activities, I invite you to check out Alvin’s excellent report @ http://niched.blogspot.com/2006/10/deeparaya-in-klang.html
