Interesting little game. Quite ‘conflict’ oriented as you have to ‘keep the leader in check’ so to say. And of course, it’s a Small World, so you have to attack one another when the world starts to get crowded.
This is the Small World board. Lots of tokens on board. Wonder if Chua find the tokens soothingly similar to his wargames…
Chua and Ryan were two of the other players I played against. Ryan as usual clean us up although it was his first game. Chua played like 6 times and was second. I tied with the good Dr.
While Castor took an unholy amount of attacks from the other players with his aggressive start to end… last. Small World is quite a tactical game and a good player will get to stomp beginners from better play. However, it’s a multiplayer conflict game so it is quite possible for a good player to get ganged up like Castor here. Approach this game with some light hearted fun (we played this in about an hour) and the game won’t rub you the wrong way.
The many racial and ability combinations in Small World. Some combinations are deadlier than others, but nothing a good old fashion ganging up can’t solve. The key skill to cultivate in this game is to properly assess the leader, which is difficult since the victory points are secret. Other than that, to improve your game, you’ll have to give this game a whirl to learn the race combinations and their different powers.
Ok, a quick rundown on gaming last Friday.
Me and blownfreaks had little chit chat about the financial crisis as blownfreaks try to explain to me the intricacies of it all. Mean while jack208 arrived and had his dinner.
After that, the three of us started off with 3-P Samurai. This is my second playing of the game. Blownfreaks went nuclear at Tokyo and dropped most of his samurais to grab the three statues. jack208 play conservatively and made several good plays using his boats to influence two cities at strategic gulfs. I myself tried to hold back my special actions for later commitment but end up getting screwed by blownfreaks by leaving myself wide open in the early stages.
New Samurai tip: DO NOT ENTICE OTHER PLAYER TO SCREW YOU BY LEAVING YOURSELF WIDE OPEN!
Jack208 end up winning the game while blownfreaks ended with nothing 
Then we moved on to Galaxy Trucker, using the Rough Road Ahead expansion. Due to a mis-adding of encounter cards from level 3 for a level 1 flight, my ship ended up falling apart in the first turn while jack208’s fell apart in the second turn. After laughing madly, we decided to put away the game as by then rhyen had arrived.
Playing a 4-P game of Le Harve, rhyen tried to implement Ryan’s patented shipping strategy while jack208 and blownfreaks went for buildings. I myself did a combination of both and ended up first. I think the key was that I got most of the ships with the high victory points and I also had the dock that gives bonus points to the ships I have. Also, the marketplace was neutralised by many parties by squatting on the spot whereas Ryan had a free reign of it the last time.
After that I went home to prepare for my hike up Pine Tree Hill the next morning while the others apparently continued on with Brass.
