Last friday I went to my ritual fortnightly boardgaming session. This time I was joined by my primary school friend ,Phuah, and his bro.
We arrived at Old Town Kopitiam Cheras (OTK) at 8.30 to find Jeff and Ainul engaging in a serious 2-player game of Caylus. Their game of jousting continued for awhile before Ainul wins it handily. Jeff then declared that he has yet to find a way to counter the apparently powerful building favor track (which Ainul was using), with the money and prestige points favor track.
However I felt that Jeff could have countered the building favor track by activating the lawyer and master builder instead to access the residences and prestige buildings. However things are probably not that simple since I *didn’t* watch the game diligently from start to finish.
Meanwhile, Alvin and Wong had started to arrive. After the Caylus game finished and was kept, we started Antike. With two games under my belt, I went for a more peaceful route in the beginning by building a temple to boost my gold production. The preliminary aim of course, was to go for the tech VPs. Ainul, Jeff and Alvin, being veterans, also went for tech VPs, but elected to get their gold from expansionism. Newbies Phuah and his bro, experimented with the temple building path while barbarian Wong 
tried for an early military strategy.
Now playing Antike requires some experience and experience shows that the first thing to do was to grab on the limited tech VPs before they run out. Next set of VPs should come from a mix of expansionism and temple building before scoring the homerun on the temple sacking VPs. Needless to say Phuah bros and Wong found out too late to be in contention for the game. Their strategy got them only so far before they found themselves stuck. Hopefully they’ve paid their learning dues and do better next time.
Phuah bros’ experiment of building too much temples was quite novel but stuck in the end of not having enough army to defend them. Wong on the other hand expanded too early and had not build up a proper support for his army generation (iron resource) and movement (tech).
From what I see, the early military strategy is quite hard to maintain. So far the numbers seems to be against this strategy. Our game of Antike ended with Jeff grabbing the final VP for the win with myself close behind but delayed by one turn. Ainul and Alvin was in the middle pack while Phuah bros and Wong were in the last.
After that we played Alvin’s copy of Super Munchkin. A fun game, with elements of adventure and role-playing as players attempt to be the first Level-10 Superhero!
The multitude of card text to read initially threw us off a little, despite its reputation as a simple game. Some timing issues with the card play here and questions of card interactions put this game firmly in the category of thematic American-type game, rather than the mechanical driven Euro-game. The theme of superheroes challenging whacky super-villains using even whackier super-powers is well implemented and had us all laughing and having a fun time. Overall the response has been positive.
After this, we adjourned to BoardgameCafe to play Twilight Imperium III (TI3). To indoctrinate Henry in the varieties of TI3, we elected to use the old black bordered strategy cards (Henry played with the white strategy cards before). Every player was dealt two race cards in order to provide them with a choice. Jeff picked the dastardly Barony of Letnev, Henry went with the annoying Brutherhood of Yin, Phuah bros with the dreaded Lixiz, Wong with the multipurpose Winnu and myself the peaceful trading race of the Emirates of Hacan.
This being a gathering of eurogamers, we all diligently picked the Imperial strategy card when it was offered to us, followed by Initiative. Next popular was Tech and the rest is… just not so popular. I guess playing with a bunch of eurogaming-VP-chasing people is a bit different when playing with your own blood thirsty gaming group.
Conflict was pretty limited as players contented with building fleets rather than fighting. The Letnev, Yin and Hacan were the peaceful culprits as they attempt to arrange their pretty spaceships onto the vastness of the board space, contentingly shuffling them around in a maneuver reminisence of the China-Taiwan-US wargames: lots of dust but no shots fired.
Wong on the other hand tried to live up to his billing of a barbarian and his Winnu quickly cemented a pact with the Hacans, in order to turn on his other neighbour: the Lixiz. The Lixiz obligingly engaged in an early arms race, capitalising on his race’s advantage with dreadnoughts to bring up an impressive fleet of death dealing star destroyers.
The Winnu struck early and sent the Lixiz backpedalling. At one point, came knocking on Lixiz’s homeworld. Lixiz was forced to recall their mighty fleet to deal with the costly annoyance.
Hacans, being bored, took over Mecatol Rex even though his objective did not depend on it. Letnevs, emboldened at last by their painstakingly researched and built warsun descended upon Mecatol Rex and took over without batting an eyelid. Yin, goodness knows what they are doing, were having a whale of a time flipping their resource<—>influence using their racial ability and only elected to strike only when victory for the Letnevs were assured.
Overall, a rather conflict-free TI3 game that lasted 6 hours. We left at 7am in the morning… Nuts!
Damn sad, already one week and still no feedback for bubbles’ post. This either means that:
a) the mud was good, or
b) no one cares about bubbles
Bubbles demand feedback! Just tell him that the mud was good…
And while we’re on the subject of feedback, we’re still waiting for the following photos to come back to us for further posting:
a) Kong Eng’s gf Ee Lee’s Kijal pics
b) Jeff Au’s pics of my primary school friend, Phuah, in boardgames meetup.
Look for further updates when I get the pics… whenever the evil bastards see fit to send them to me.
Other updates: been reading Fermat’s Last Theorem, a book by Simon Singh, about Mathematicians. I find his descriptions of mathematicians fits me, in that I’m precise to a dot, I formulate my responses slowly just because I like my answers to be short, straight, succinct and precise.
The book itself, surprisingly, was not dry like a textbook. Instead, it has plenty of drama and quirky characters in it. From Pythagoras (who was persecuted for his maths) to Andrew Wiles (the modern day ‘hero’ of the book), the book describes the history of mathematics through the trials and tribulations of extraordinary people (read: mathematicians) and their quest to prove a centuries-old maths theorem by de Fermat, hence the name of the book.
After reading the book, I feel really intrigued by the world of academic mathematics. I would think that I’d studied the wrong degree, particularly since I’d always won prizes in maths during primary, secondary and college. Also, in boardgaming, there’s a very famous designer who is a pHd in mathematics, a Dr Knizia, which seems to suggest that maths is a good path to boardgame designing… Then again, after reading that mathematicians have a history of dying young or burned out of ideas young, a more practical degree still seems like a better choice. (chicken out)
To end this post, a photo that I’d missed out previously:
Li li playing 1856!!! Haha, actually I’m playing, but hidden by the camera. As you can see, it’s part of my diabolical plot to make her an ambassador of boardgames, this photo will bring lots of her friends into boardgaming, one colleague at a time, muahahaha! (now where did I put my kevlar vest, I’ve a feeling I need it…)
April gaming went off to a good start when Li Li invited her friend, Lena, over for a chatting session. We eschewed the typical mamak for the Mages Cafe, a boardgame cafe of sorts. A good refreshing experience for both of them, we did Carcassonne 3-player, then Alvin joined us for a few rounds of Blokus. Li Li got the hang of the nasty tactics while Lena didn’t.
Another week pass and it’s introduction of Old Town Kopitiam Cheras Friday Nite gaming to my primary school friend, Phuah. An unfortunate victim of my early days forays into game design, Phuah was nevertheless an avid gamer who was said to be the champion of ‘wei qi’ in my primary school. That night, Phuah was intro-ed to Bang!, Coloretto, Caylus, Havoc and Battleline. An okay session, one in which Phuah commented that he was bewildered by the many games played.
Then of course there’s the Kijal trip with the many games of Bang!, Heck Meck and Coloretto.
1st of May saw Li Li wanting to find out about the games that I play (which she assures won’t be a permanent curiosity). So she join us for a spot of gaming at Boardgamescafe Cheras. We did 6-nimmt (Take-6)
and then she watched as veterans out-maneuver each other in a competitive game of 1856. Lotsa rules, this game, not sure she followed every step.
2nd of May saw me and Li Li filling our time by getting reacquainted with Jon and Sze Sze. Long time no see. Again Li Li suggested Mages Cafe for that novelty thing and a spot of gaming should we run out of things to say. We didn’t run out of things to say but that doesn’t stop us from intro-ing Jon and Sze to gaming! We did Blokus, HEck MEck and Carcassonne. Fun times again as Jon and Sze gets reaquainted with the competitive/nasty side of Aik Yong (Nyuk! Nyuk! nyuk! :P)
This week: hopefully a second intro game for Phuah at Friday Night Boardgaming!
Thanks to popular demand, here’s Bubbles!
Thank you for joining us today for another segment of THE Bubbles Show. As you can see, I’m in my sunnies and beach wear for today’s special segment on Kijal Trip ‘07 (TM).
Now if you will all look to the left, we’ll see some classic Malayan seaside Coconut trees framing a wooden dwelling which locals call ‘kam-pung’.
Now if you’ll all pay attention to this…
…Aacckk!!! who STOLE MY CLOTHES?!?! That’s it, no more Bubbles Show for you!
Hhhmmpphhh!!! Kiss my Pink Furry Butt or I won’t continue!!!
*SMOOCH!*
Okay, who did that? I was just kidding, remember to buy me some MUD later.
So this is our Resort: StRaWbErRy PaRk KiJaL!
Nice place, Apartments on Stilts novelty.
Here’s the view:
Nice leafy trees, eh? Real quiet place.
Here’s the other view:
Now this is the scary part, we live next to a huge abandoned hotel, never completed, don’t know why, must be some ghost or some sort.
Here’s the Beach:
Again nice place, is so private that we are the only ones there! (which is good since no one else can see the big bad bellys these boys have, snort, snort!)
Here are some chairs:
Sure is windy here! Waves can go up to 1m high! Cowabunga!
1st night Dinner is stuffed shell crab:
All seafood and no pork… which makes Bubbles an unhappy pig. Eat Pork!
Next day’s breakfast, classic bread + tuna & maggi mee cup
A pimp and his two gigolos then debated about lunch:
Which was decided to be ‘western food’
Stopped by Kuala Kemaman…
… to see some sea shells sold by the seashore!
Some locals playing chess in the tree shade…
…geese crossing the road!
we stopped by for some Otak-otak
and it’s yummy brother in ketupat form!
greedy pigs!
Aik Yong: …mmm… smm… ssooo nice!
li li: can i have yours?
vincent: hhmm… a present for me? i wonder what’s inside?
vincent: drat! it’s an otak-otak, not a dopod!
evenings was again spent on the beach. there’s some rock outcroppings to the side of the beach
which inspired:
some calender girl…
…photo taking contest!
Then it got weird
the guys joined in for some monkey-see-monkey-do
ivan thought he had it all good…
… until his gf shows him who’s boss!
For 2nd night dinner we had Ikan Bakar
well, that’s just about wraps up this show
the TV wasn’t turn on a lot on this trip
with the nice natural surroundings (MUD!)
indoor Booze, ghost story and relationship sharing sessions
Boardgame sessions of Bang!, Heck Meck, Coloretto… (Hey, I shot the sheriff!)
Fun times! Final day we went to Hai Peng for Coffee…
Spagetti…
and me…
oops, just kidding.
take our final trip across the road of Kemaman town
we made it home later… right after a tasty delicious Thai-style dinner!
Wish you were here!
