Boardgame Session @ OTK Cheras 11 April 08
Ξ April 12th, 2008 | → | ∇ Boardgames |
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.