(pics courtesy of Boardgamecafe.net)
It’s the 1900s, and Imperialism is in full swing. Unbeknownst to the six great Imperial nations of mighty Europe, five great manipulators, puppeteers, shadowy secret society figures have step forth to steer the fates of the nations.
The mysterious jack208, master puppeteer and cameraman, invests in Russia, Austria-Hungary and Italy, reserving some cash and laying low for the opportune moment to strike.
Cunning wolfx, invests in Italy, France and controls Germany.
Wise crabzai, takes control of Italy and Russia to put some pressure on Austria-Hungary.
Mysterious blownfreaks, takes hold of Austria-Hungary and France.
while I, Imperial narrator, invests in Austria-Hungary, France and controls England.
The stage is set and the game begins. First order of the day: the Factory action. Probably a case of group think, but it is best to be conservative.
Next step: Production. Very predictable.
Ok, here’s where things start to get interesting. England skipped the first manuevering to go on a second production.
Although this seems like a good idea and the extra sea power seems effective in battling France and Germany, the fact is that England still can’t take on both countries at one go. Next time I will recommend to do a land factory as the 1st factory action.
jack208 did a hostile takeover and took over Austria-Hungary.
England did the first taxation followed by everybody else.
Austria-Hungary ended up ahead and profiting a very happy pirating jack208.
England goes on another production spree.
Followed by everyone else. It’s an arms race!
Italy took advantage of war between England and France to expand.
blownfreaks takes back Austria-Hungary, can he manage to use Austria-Hungary and France to get Italy under control?
England tries to maintain sea supremacy.
And tax ahead again!
However the taxation is too low, nobody gives England a second look. jack208 instead determines Italy to be the best investment and takes it under his control.
crabzai let go of Italy and consolidates on to Russia.
As blownfreaks was busy defending Austria-Hungary, I stole France from under his nose.
Which resulted in an economic and military cooperation between England and France.
Sadly the cooperation doesn’t give immediate benefits to France. In fact, France has to withold taxation to fend off Italy and Germany!
The final runup to the end. Both England and France are behind due to constant pressure from Germany and Italy.
This is me pondering my last move.
This game I did not do too good due to the fact that England wasn’t well invested for a quick payout. The Factory action also had to be skipped due to lack of funds. England ended dead last while France managed to end first through a last desperate move. However the move still wasn’t enough to win the game.
Austria-Hungary changed hands several times during the game but it was jack208 who made the most out of it from the taxation bonus. I also used Austria-Hungary in a final takeover to delay Italy’s final taxation and let France win. blownfreaks benefitted from this late French surge to power past an Italy-focused jack208.
Germany and Russia went relatively unchecked and helped wolfx and crabzai respectively to finish in a good position.
Which meant I was dead last! Oh well, at least I learned something to hatch better schemes for the next Imperial session.
Phuah (left), Ng (middle), Lim (right, out of picture) and myself started with Bang! and they liked it, with Ng commenting that it’s tension! We did 4 games and then moved on to Wealth of Nations.
Trading was minimal in this game as players spent an eternity in the first turn getting loans and buying up the market. Of course, the severe shortage of goods in the first turn drove up the market prices and the opportunity costs of getting each subsequent loans were driving us up the wall. However since all of us were gambling that the costs would be more than offset by the payback time frame, we all went for broke.
Lim monopolised the Capital and Ore market, a not so auspicious beginning as groans can be heard around the table - how did they ever let it happen? I took Labour and Food, Phuah took Energy while Ng took Food. (Ng is a newbie, so his choices were all really suboptimal, but it is the price to pay for learning this game)
First turn saw various developments by Phuah and Ng into the Ore market, encroaching into Lim’s territory. However the Capital market lays uncontested as Lim ramps up his production in it. I myself diversified into Energy for my own self sustaining strategy.
Mid game saw Lim grabbing the first bank while myself grabbing a second 1 turn too late. Phuah did not manage to complete his bank as he was 2 turns too late! Ng was still floundering around with his depressed commodity prices and still have not formulate a winning strategy.
Game ends predictably with Lim in the lead followed by myself, Phuah then Ng. The last turns were a bit slow as the players wanted to build more industry tiles for 4VPs each. However, this is suboptimal considering that each tiles costs more than $40 - more than 4 VPs!
After this game, perhaps I can agree with jack208’s assessment that the game isn’t ‘broken’, but the loans will need to be restructured to reflect the time-sensitive interest payment of real life. This will make the taking of loans more painful and more of a consideration rathen than an afterthought.
Au, jack208, blownfreaks, crabzai and aanemesis doing their farming rounds. Aanemesis came for fresh games but found himself mired in… Agricola again! Interesting to hear that aanemesis schooled the others from his vast playing experience. And I wonder what the others comments about ‘platinum farming’ means…
Later crabzai and blownfreaks took their leave and left Au, jack208 and aanemesis doing Brass. A good game that is really deep. At this time, thelongish Wealth of Nations game is still probably in mid-game!
Later Au also left, leaving the remainders to do Imperial. Another good game and this one is closer than previous games. Suboptimal moves by Ng and agressive attacks by myself pulled the scores closer than what would have been. Phuah was running away with the game with France, but his investment in England, which was ran by Ng, tanked.
Agressive attacks by the Austria-Hungary and Germany unholy alliance kept Italy’s and Russia’s (ran by experienced gamer jack208 and aanemesis) expansion in check. All of these countries finished in the CreditX4 spot, France reached X5 and England floundered at x3.
From aanemesis’ expression, I guess he was stunned by the rules change in the non-investor variant and thus couldn’t bring his BSW experience to bear. However, I’m sure he enjoyed every minute of the ambiguity.
I’ve recently read a nice fictional book which puts the perspective that God the father is unwilling to judge any of His children that led to pain and suffering in this world. Of course this is an oversimplified summary of the book, but this is what I get most out of it. Read it if you want to gain a different perspective on life’s suffering.
First gaming day of 2009 was spent playing Imperial! As Jeff Au did a comprehensive report here
http://boardgamecafe.net/community/blogs/boardgamecafe_net/archive/2009/01/05/BGC_OTK_Cheras_Meetup_090102_Part1.aspx
I’ll be lazy and paste his link :P.
Pic credit to Boardgamecafe.net
Ok, went back to Gunung Datuk for hiking again, this time with wife’s colleagues. There were nine of us. Almost got lost without bro to show the route so here’s a recap on how to reach there:
1. Get off Pedas/Linggi Toll from the North-South Expressway.
2. Turn left after the Toll and follow the directions to Rembau/Tampin. (In detail, this means at the rounabout, take the 3 o’clock turn, then at next traffic light turn right, lastly go straight till the signboard for the Hutan Lipur Gunung Dato’ turns up. In case of getting lost, just keep following the signs to Rembau/Tampin)
3. Go early to reach there at 8am so as to beat the others to a parking spot. (Had a sidang warga gunung that day so had to park slightly away)
4. Register and pay RM3 for climbing.
5. Toilet / shower is free so pack up towel and clean clothes to wash away those hiking sweats.
6. We got to the top in two hours, spent thirty minutes admiring the view and another hour coming down. (I consider our group to be ‘quite’ fit so scale your hiking duration estimate accordingly.)
Curiously, I find this 2nd time hiking Gunung Datuk to be easier than the first time and is quite pleasant. I am thinking about the recent hike up Gunung Apek in Cheras and found that one tougher.
This time hiking Gunung Datuk is windier, there’s a constant wind whistling sound through the forest. The wind at the top is strong enough to blow untucked shirts up, revealling bare chest. You have been warned!
We took lunch at the Seremban city Pasar, eating the famous Beef Noodles. Very tasty, just locate the stall at the first floor of the pasar, which is opposite Maybank on the Main Road.
Photos:
Hiking motion in blur
Backpack full of water
Some cute note about a hiking victim busting leg here
ants trooping across the path
ignoring the camera
we're climbing!
obligatory photo shoot
humungus rocks signalling top of mountain
ladies in red
ladies in red close up
ladies
ladies + thorn
ladies + thorn II
we've reached the top... of the camping grounds
we're here
last leg of climb on ladders
more huge rocks exposed on mountain top
crazy strong wind blowing hair
last leg rock climbing
metal ladders securing by rope to rock
clear view
slightly cloudy and mostly windy day
more ladders to climb
squeezing between rocks
a view of the almost-top from the toppest-most
jungles behind, top rocks exposed
helping hand
ultimate-top view
view of vast expense of land beneath gunung dato/datuk
Next Page »