I arrived with Phuah at 9pm to find ceternal already brought out his copy of Race for the Galaxy (RftG) and teaching it to lostboyz, aanemesis and rhyen.
Had a quick dinner and then proceeded to open another table of RftG with my set. Taught jack208, Phuah and jeffgoh and they all love the game!
A RftG game in session.
I’ve posted elsewhere my description of the game, which i reposted bellow:
So how does the game play? It plays like San Juan/Puerto Rico, in that there is a role selection mechanic. However, in RftG, the role selection is simultaneous. The term role selection is also a misnomer too. It’s more like action-selection. Allow me to explain.
There are 7 types of actions to be chosen. These 7 actions corresponds to one of 5 phases in RftG. The phases and possible actions are:
Phase Actions
1. Explore - Deep Exploring (draw 7 cards, keep 1) or Wide Exploring (draw 3 keep 2)
2. Develop - Build new developments
3. Settle - Settle peaceful planet or subjugate hostile planet
4. Trade/Consume - Trade goods for cards and/or consume goods for VPs
5. Produce - Produce trade goods.
Depending on what the players chooses, only those phases will occur. And unlike San Juan, some actions, like Explore and Trade/Consume, have two special bonuses for the action-chooser.
The game ends when all victory points are exhausted, or when a player has built his/her 12th card.
This can happen quite fast as there are only 12 victory points per person in the game. If all players pursue a produce/consume strategy, the game can end fast.
Another way for the game to end and this happens in both our games, a player can set himself up to play two cards a turn - a build development card and a settle world card. (a develop/settle strategy) This can also quickly end the game with 12 cards built.
The key interaction in the game is that you have to guess and out-think your opponents on what actions they are going to choose. ideally you would like to do a few actions a turn and you like to get away by having your opponents choose those actions for you. You also have to be careful not to choose action that will benefit other players.
Other than that, the game itself can be quite… solitaire-like. you managing your own hand, settling, producing, consuming. Actions are simultaneous, so it feels like everyone is doing their own thing at times.
The good thing about this game is that there are lots more strategies to pursue than in San Juan. There are two card draw options in the Exploration action which lets you choose to go deep or go wide.
There are also two types of world to conquer, which require different strategies.
There are also 4 different type of trade goods for 4 different types of consume strategy.
There are also about 9 - 16 types of end game big VPs developments to pursue.
Except for a few duplicates, most of the cards are singletons. This makes for a different game everytime. The strategies will be subtly different depending on the cards you get.
This unfortunately also makes it difficult for beginners as the multitude of cards can overwhelm and makes card discarding a slow and involving affair. You have to read all the cards and then choose between them.
The symbols on the cards are simple but takes some getting used to. But for a newbie, it’s downright intimidating.
But for gamers who presevere, you’ll find RftG a meaty filler. a 30-60 min satisfying meals before the next game.
an 8/10 for me
Jeffgoh (right) snickering with his good military cards, whereas jack208 (left) contemplates his hand of alien technologies
Lostboyz (left) giving some pointers to Phuah (right) for his first game.
After that, we moved on to Darjeeling, with rhyen joining our table after getting confused by the RftG game at ceternal’s table. Phuah won this handily as nobody stop his timely flooding of the market with his tea as everyone else was struggling to scrounge together a shipment.
here’s a pic of the game at ending to make up for the lack of a pic for the last session.
Jack208 and jeffgoh wondered what went wrong in Darjeeling as they head on to the other table to join ceternal, aanemesis and lostboyz in an ‘easier’ game of 18AL. Highlights of the game was heard to be lostboyz’s almost triple hotsun in 18AL’s brutal economic system.
(from left) ceternal, jack208, jeffgoh, aanemesis (back towards camera) lostboyz playing 18AL.
Over at this table, a competitive game of Mystery of the Abbey was held between four Sherlock Holmes wannabes. There’s Phuah Holmes, Patomas Holmes (fresh from an indoctrination of RftG at the other table), Rhyen Holmes and myself.
Mystery of the Abbey is a cluedo like game with lots of special rules/powers thrown in. The game is played on a map of a monastery where the players will visit rooms to trigger certain actions. The Parlor Room acts like a traditional Cluedo room in that you may ask another player to show an innocent murder suspect that matches a certain description.
The Scriptorium, Library and Crypt each grants the players special powers to aid in their quest to uncover the murderer. The confessions and cell rooms will yield some random information about innocent suspects from the other players.
In addition, there is also a chamber for the players to declare their accusations and/or information about the murderer.
The winner of the game is the player who made the correct accusation and/or provide the most correct information on the murderer’s characteristics.
In first game, the players were too cooperative, resulting in a quick elimination of suspects and a dash to the chamber to make the first accusation.
The second game saw a bit more information restriction as the players used their vow of silence to deny vital information.
However the game has more subtle strategies than that and in both games, questions asked were either too inane to be of use or too direct such that it helps everyone else at the table. There’s is also the possibility of making false accusations early to confuse other players and send them down false paths.
This is certainly an interesting game and one which is far from being ‘broken’ as someone had suggested.
Phuah Holmes asked too much direct questions which results in the whole table sharing too much information about the murderer.
Patomas Holmes on the other hand asked too specific questions which is too slow in withering down the suspect list.
Rhyen Holmes tried to solicit the help of the powerful Library but both times failed to help him win despite giving him a big edge.
A final RftG game before settling into a long chit chat session before going home.
The winner in this gaming session? The RftG game. everyone who played it seem to like it and instead of playing it as a 30 minute filler, everyone plays multiple times of it!
I had written a review on Agricola sometime back on BoardGameCafe.net but have not got to repost it here. After the recent game with Tom Vasel from TheDiceTower.com, I now feel compelled to post… enjoy:
Gaming with the illustrious Tom Vasel, fellow Malaysian boardgamers Dave, Chua and Edwin with Ryan looking on
Basically macedwin has covered the basics of the game and the descriptions can be found easily elsewhere which are much more comprehensive than what i can do, so i’ll just concentrate on my response and a description of our game:
First off, this game rocks! being a farmer is not easy and it’s fun just to see how much VPs you can squeeze out while attempting to feed your family. Everything counts for points in this game, what you have or do not have will impact positively and negatively on your score.
There is a certain flow to the game as the time for feeding of your family members gets shorter and shorter. so you scramble to get better improvements and learn more occupations to do things more efficiently. even when you are doing better than before, the game still puts you on the rope by up-ing the speed towards the end.
The game manages to feel tense throughout and you always obsess with trying to get just enough food to survive while trying to improve your lot in life when you have spare time/hands. Feeding your family is not enough, it is like what wolfx say during the game, you gotta raise your social stature as well, show your neighbours you have a better lot in life, like renovating your house to a brand new spanking stone-laid, or get that new oven hotness ![Smile [:)]](http://null/community/emoticons/emotion-1.gif)
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The vaunted variety in occupation and improvement cards are not really game breaking, but they provide just enough of a difference to see people specialising in different ways. of course, it becomes much of a puzzle trying to figure out which cards to get because you can’t get them all (and you still have to do other things, like fencing up pastures) and realise that certain cards interact well with each other.
The two ways to get food: meat (sheep, boars and cattle) versus greens (grain and vegetables) also play off well with each other. Although meat does seem easier to feed your family, the greens can’t be ignored as well. Both resources multiply differently in your farm, in that two animals will get you a baby while sowing a grain will net you two extras. However the way to first grow them (fence up pastures and plough fields) are so radically different that you can’t really tell which is better at times. Plus, actions are limited and if you can’t plough a field because someone has already taken it, you have to keep at least a small pasture somewhere.
Right enough about my responses, how about the session? In this game, I won due to my diversified interest. Yes, yes, i win again, boring, but the scores at the end are quite close which means that specialising to a certain extent should win the game as well.
In this game, I diversified into all meats and greens, had a good field and pasture and work up a good score. The key idea is that I minimise my negative scores as the difference between having a resource or not can mean the difference between a +1 or -1 score. i basically did not attempt to learn new trades or get new toys to play with, I just bring out as many family members as possible to ‘work them fields’
Li Li on the other hand went into pastures. She had so many sheeps and boars and cattles at the end that they scored massive for her. The pastures are also good in reducing the negative scores for fallow fields. She came in 2nd.
Jian Fei went with learning new crafts and gettting new members of his family. By the end of the game, his family members were cabinet makers, pottery makers and basket weavers, sustaining themselves by selling wares and generating a huge VP at the end by stocking up on the materials of his trade: wood/clay.
Shaun the bummer had an interesting occupation which allows him to ignore negative points from resources, so interestingly enough, the whole game he was bumming all the time by fishing in the pond, getting enough food to scrape by and upgrading his house to an impressive stone structure. He could have got more points at the end from the stone house but unfortunately was one turn short so he can’t brag about his solid stonework (hehe). Shaun was fourth.
Wolfx did a boo boo and grew too much vegetables to come in last. The superspecializing backfired as the vegetables only scored points to a certain extent. I’m sure if he know what he knew now, he’ll do much better with his super fields strategy. As it is, still have to give him props for being the fastest player on board, gives me the pressure everytime from sitting left of him.
Macedwin graciously did not play (how can he resist?), as he’s doing translation and explanation duties but i’m sure he’s itching to get it out again. I give this game two thumbs up! Only thing is the comprehensive scoring at the end where anything and everything makes a difference, but who cares? A farming we will go, a farming we will go, hey ho a derry o, a farming we will go. Agricola, anyone?
Updated collection with
1. Darjeeling
2. Race for the Galaxy
3. Ticket to Ride: Switzerland
4. Zooloretto
Owned games list now links directly to my Games Collection Page in BoardGameGeek.com
I arrived at Old Town Kopitiam (OTK) Cheras at 8.30pm to find aanemesis and lostboyz discussing Ikariam over a game of San Juan. Apparently, the game has taken a back seat to an ongoing war occuring online as aanemesis uses lostboyz’ pda to access the internet and order his troops online.
After a short while, aanemesis and lostboyz concluded their online business as well as their game of San Juan. aanemesis soundly thrashed lostboyz due to his formidable experience honed at the online games portal: BSW. aanemesis took his leave after that and we were then joined by phuah and lim.
lostboyz lamented the thrashing by aanemesis and then proceeded to teach phuah and lim the finer points of San Juan. After a quick introduction, the gamers are underway. Scores were pretty close but only lostboyz managed to get the high ‘victory points’ buildings. quite a change of fortune for lostboyz to soundly win this game after the thrashing by aanemesis. But as they say, it is the first game for phuah and lim and hence the victory doesn’t count ;P.
As we were playing San Juan, wolfx and wonglc arrived and proceeded to park themselves at the sides playing their PSP synchronously. What’s with all this high tech entertainment stuff? The end of San Juan then also saw the arrival of patomas and his wife. Now there are 8 people and so lostboyz, patomas and his wife sat out for the next game. I brought out my brand new shiny Darjeeling and proceeded to teach it. lostboyz commented that the game is simple, like Ticket to Ride and i’m inclined to agree. Took me just a short time to teach it and then we’re off. Me, wolfx, phuah, lim and wonglc us all become tea companies, producing and shipping teas of the finest quality to the market. The time element in this game is critical and the most interesting part. It is also subtle and feels kinda chaotic for first timers.
forgot to take picture of Darjeeling game here’ s the box cover instead.
What happens again is that the players compete to pick tea leaves from a pre-set field layout and then ship them out. The game simulates the supply and demand of the teas and rewards the players that are able to take advantage of the situation, i.e. supply teas when tea supply is low and supply the right kind of tea that are in high demand. This is accomplished through through the game’s market-shipping and demand barometer mechanic.
Both are really cool mechanics and here’s how it works. Every turn, players will score for their tea still in the market. However, every time a player chooses to ship tea, their tea becomes the latest thing and it sits in a position where it scores the highest. All the other teas that came before it (the ‘out of fashion’ teas), will all be pushed further down the market chain where the scoring multiplier diminishes rapidly. This is where teas that are in fad the longest scores the highest. So players have to scramble to always put out the latest thing, as well as to keep some stock of the teas they pick to release to the market at a later date to counteract new teas put out by other players, especially if the other teas are released in huge quantity (huge multipliers!).
Players supplying tea that are rare in the market, will also be rewarded. This is done through a ‘demand barometer’ where the order of the latest shipped tea are kept. This is essentially a sliding chute thingy where the demands of red tea (ceylon), green tea, black tea (oolong) and white tea (english) are tracked. It’s difficult to explain how the mechanic works and a working demonstration is the best way to explain it. Besides the chute is just way cool.
back of the box showing the scoring board and tea plantation
The only bad part of the game is in the score keeping as victory points change rapidly. Players gain victory points at the start of the turn for market demand and then deduct them for the tea harvesting phase. The final phase of shipping will also see the player scoring points should he decide to ship. Special thanks to phuah for keeping track of the score points diligently in this game.
Overall the game leaves a good impression with the players especially wonglc as he won the game. This was due to the other companies having no answer to his timely flooding of the market with his tea products. patomas and wife at the concluding of the game unfortunately have to leave us as they have to return home. We’re still glad that they came and spent time with us.
We’re down to six of us and the next game wolfx took teaching duties and brought out his precious Mission Red Planet for us to play. This Bruno Faidutti design has elements of Citadels (his previous design) in having multiple roles for selection. The difference is that every player have the same roles and play them face down simultaneously. The goal of the game is to control the various areas of mars and mine the precious metals there. lim did well in this game as he was able to build a commanding lead through a mass population of a mars quadrant rich in high scoring minerals. i think even if all the other players’ scores were totalled together, our total score and his score weren’t even close! Yep, me, lostboyz, phuah and wonglc were certainly hammered in this one.
wolfx and phuah colluding
phuah watching lim’s every move
wonglc making the mistake of pointing his intentions
lostboyz trying a sleight of hand trick
By this time, rhyen finally dropped by after work and we then proceeded to play his requested game: Formula De. Ahhh yes, another light, relaxing, dice-rolling affair for his long hard day of work. Even wonglc gave his enthusiastic approval to see this F1 racing simulation on the table. Main game attraction: many different dices to roll for the many gears of the racing car.
rhyen got to a flying start followed by myself. wonglc and lim followed next while phuah races pass a stalled wolfx. what the heck?!? wolfx curses as he work hard to get his car back into the pack. rhyen and myself took too many early chances and we both ended up with battered and bruised cars just as we race pass the middle straight. The rest of the cars also started taking chances that paid off as they caught up with the leaders. By now, the leaders are proceeding cautiously while wolfx, lucking on his dice rolls, took corners after corners smoothly.
the midrace showing 3 distinct packs
Coming into the last corner, wolfx burned the remainder of his tires and sped off towards the finishing line. wonglc followed closely in wolfx’s dust and finished a respectable second just a square back. my car limped towards the finishing line as phuah overtook me as well. lim managed to get his car home while rhyen crashed out his car in frustration as it became clear that victory was not in his grasp. So near yet so far. It was not to be 2nd time lucky for rhyen. Congrats to wolfx who managed to overcome his first turn stalling to take the chequered flag!
final game standings. wolfx wins! (first) rhyen burns! (last)
lostboyz then mentioned that it’s late and it’s time for him to go home (midnight!). But as soon as Bang! was brought out, he changed his mind. Yup, this game does work wonders ;P.
We ended up playing two games and in both games, i was the sheriff. In the first game, a weird thing happened as outlaw wonglc was taken out quickly by myself and rhyen. lostboyz the renegade had his own dynamite explode in his face (faulty fuse) while phuah and lim had a confusing gunfight with each other despite being both outlaws. the sheriff and his vices had no trouble then packing up the disorganised outlaws for a comfortable win.
lostboyz the renegade wasted by a dynamite, 2nd turn, no less
The second game start off again with no one shooting at the sheriff and in a fit of boredom, the sheriff took pot shots at everyone. A dynamite this time took out wolfx the vice sheriff while lostboyz was at the receiving end of fellow breathren phuah’s guns. wonglc played his cards well and managed to convince the sheriff to take out poor rhyen the unfortunate vice sheriff thereby allowing the outlaws to close the gap. lim got eliminated soon after and a misunderstanding caused lostboyz to reveal phuah’s role. Much hiss and boos were cast at the fumbling lostboyz but the revelation did nothing for the sheriff team. A powerful wonglc renegade took out phuah without skipping a heartbeat and turn his sights on the sheriff who was then frantically searching for bullets. A bang and a two later, the renegade emerges victorious! Two wins for wonglc this gaming session, must be his happy day.
rhyen and wolnglc, watching everyone else but each other
wolfx and lostboyz, watching elsewhere, shoots each other
phuah and lim shooting each other. what’s a sheriff to do?
lostboyz, posing for his ’self-detonation’, ‘premature revealing’ feat
Gaming session ends at 2pm. Another satisfying evening. Haven’t had this much laughter in a long time, especially in the Bang! game. Ticket to Ride Switzerland did not hit the table (2-3 players only!) while Race of the Galaxy still required rules reading and cards familiarisation before teaching. Maybe Ceternal who has played the game can do it for me next gaming session.
Phuah and I arrived at Old Town Kopitiam (OTK) Cheras at 9pm sharp to find jack208 eating all alone and forlornly in our favourite corner of the shop. The situation was remedied dramatically in a matter of minutes as keealvin, keealvin’s friend weiyii, patomas and rhyen arrived in quick succession. As keealvin and fren was the only people who don’t know the rules, I tried my hand at teaching them Imperial.
Now this is a rather difficult game to master as the bond purchasing actions are critical to winning. I tried my best at explaining the basics, covering some key timing tactics and let jack208 finish up with the rules for the bonds and setup. After wishing keealvin and fren good luck, jack208 sat back and let the rest of us slog it out for the title of… the Master of Europe.
Yea, yea, lame title, I know, but since I’d always envisioned Imperial to be a game of shadowy conspiracy figures manipulating the various imperial nations of Europe, Master of Europe doesn’t sound too far fetched for a conspiracy figure.
After shuffling the starting positions, the six shadowy conspiracy figures each ended up controlling a country as follows:
ArchDuke keealvin: Austria-Hungary
HisMajesty patomas: United Kingdom
Chancellor rhyen: Germany
PrimeMinister phuah: France
Dictator ayheng: Italy
Comrade weiyii: Russia
with special rumour monger and instigator jack208 doing some… well, rumour mongering and instigating.
Austria-Hungary start out strong with swift advances on the Balkans, sharing the spoils with pal Russia. Italy turned her sights onto the western Mediterranean but was met with strong counters from the French. Encountering no resistance, United Kingdom send out her massive fleets eastward and southward. Germany imported in some mercenaries and took the low land countries right under France’s nose.
keealvin and weiyii checking out which bond to buy.
patomas and rhyen sharing a strategy
commentator jack208 sipping a cup of coffee while phuah frets over his investments
By mid game, Austria-Hungary’s sea domination plans fell to tatters as her diverted attention means that her land bound armies were torned to shreds by the advancing Russians. Most of the Balkans fell to Russia under the guiding hand of patomas, who usurped weiyii’s control. Italy did better than expected as France falls from phuah’s capable hands into the arms of newbie weiyii. Italy had a few sweating moments as France and Austria-Hungary conspired at some point to launch a two prong attack on Italy. However aggressive invasion by United Kingdom and Russia put paid to those plans. Italy was left uncontested! Passive expansion by Germany saw limited growth and failure to check United Kingdom and Russia’s advance. By this time, United Kingdom has also changed hands onto rhyen’s arms and uses it to crush France mercilessly.
The game’s final leg saw Italy cruising to a comfortable finish followed by United Kingdom and Russia due to unchecked advances from Germany. However rhyen wasn’t complaining as he has substantial shares in those countries. Austria-Hungary fought back too late and lost her early game momentum. Germany playing a passive role was relegated to 5th place while hammered France never recovered.
End game Result: ayheng won with a 97million net worth due mostly to his iron grip rule over the winner Italy. patomas came in second with only 2million net worth difference from his investments in all three leading nations. rhyen came in third as his investments in frontrunner Italy wasn’t enough to offset the low yield generated from his weak Germany strategy. weiyii fared poorly as his hammered France did not do anything to rouse itself. Consequently, phuah and keealvin also lost out from their France investments, putting them on the lower end of the rankings. phuah did well in his investments with the frontrunners while keealvin’s steadast loyalty to Austria-Hungary meant that his investments paid off poorly.
A close game between the veteran players. Maybe now we are prepared to take on the BSW champion, sir aanemesis.
As the clock struck twelve, keealvin and weiyii have to bid a cinderella farewell, leaving jack208, rhyen, patomas, phuah and heng to continue with Age of Steam: Italy. This is n interesting map physical wise as it is long and fits perfectly on OTK’s long marble top.
This AOS expansion has some additional rules notably the introduction of black cubes as negative multipliers. In theory the black cubes will make the game brutal as negative points will impact greatly on the bottom line. In practice, the absence of income reduction tames the prospect some what. None of the players were remotely in the red the whole game. Also, the black cubes are in practice a king-making device. The end result is that the (perceived) leaders will get a thrashing from other players and there is nothing the leader can do about it. You can only hope to lie low and wait…
rhyen and jack208 thinking hard
phuah and patomas thinking hard
the board in mid game.
the end game positions. note the players all close to each other on the scoring track due to the king-making aspect of the negative black cubes.
end game after calculating track scores: i won! but i don’t like this game. too much king-making aspect.