Allen and Yeeling have to leave, but then Ang and his cousin reached to join us in a game of 7 Wonders!
Another new release, this time from Asmodee Games.
This is Kareem’s copy, so thanks to him for bringing the game and teaching it to us.
Every player starts with a wonder of the world which produces a resource and have some VPs and/or special abilities when it is built.
There are multiple paths to get VPs to win: economic, military, technology, guilds, so on and so forth.
The game uses a drafting mechanic to cycle the deck through the player’s hands for them to build up their wonders and play area. Which I thought was pretty clever as the single pass through the entire deck controls the game pace to 30 minutes.
The limited interaction between the players and their immediate neighbors only is also an inspired design decision.
Overall I thought that 7 Wonders is a sort of Race for the Galaxy clone with its icons and build up, but streamlined to something simpler and direct.
We played 2 rounds of this game and I still like the balancing mechanic where certain buildings allow another building to build for free rather than using the normal resources. It sort of guides you down an optimised build order but with an option to diversify with a cost.
Our table played Lords of Vegas, a new game from Mayfair Games.
The players are myself, Kareem, Aanemesis, Allen and Yeeling.
What you pay for in this game - lots of dice!
In this game you play as a Vegas Casino Owner.
There are many ways to build up your casino.
There are 5 chains of casino with different payout potentials depending on the cards still left in the deck.
A casino can have only one boss, denoted by the owner of the dice with the highest value. However, there is an action to reorganise the casino by rerolling all the dices in the casino. And so there are many many MANY attempts to reorganise the casinos in order to become the boss.
Overall a fun game that has strategy and a healthy dose of luck.
Aanemesis (blue) won this game by a large margin.
Despite the luck factor, Aanemesis rode on his dice numerical superiority and crush all other pretenders to become the one and only Lord of Vegas! From the last photo, it can be seen that Aanemesis controlled 3 large casinos, myself 2, Allen and Kareem controlled one each.
Comments from the players:
Kareem “Vegas Baby!”
Heng “Vegas Bay-bie!”
Allen “Vegas Rollin’!”
Aanemesis “Dice is good!… er I mean no comment…”
It was a game that Afif cannot forget. And maybe it’s the game that will hook him forever. Afif experienced the Hotsun(TM) maneuver at the hands of 18xx sharks Henry, Ainul and Heng.
(Heng: here’s your money Afif, don’t lose it to sharks…)
Usually Jeff is very good at this, taking pics of the tracks and the company ownership but since on the day itself he was called to invigilate another 18xx session (18TN - shall we see their report too?), we shall have to make do with some random pictures.
(Afif: ainul, heng says take care of your money, don’t lose it to sharks…
Ainul: but i’m a shark…)
The game started innocently enough with the prized B&O president cert falling into Ainul’s hands. Acting on my advice, Afif went for C&O while Henry tried his luck with NYH. As I got myself two expansive private companies, I went into investor mode and end up partnering with Ainul in B&O.
I advised Ainul into pushing B&O fast and hard early on to generate some handsome dividends through multiple trains and routes. This of course forced the others to catch up and soon the 2 trains were gone…
(Afif: oh crap, something’s not quite right here…)
Henry branched out to a 2nd company first to start NYC to get some synergy going between it and NYH. I myself started PRR with lots of cash as a result of a mutually beneficial arrangement with B&O. This mutually beneficial arrangement would continue with PRR and B&O scratching each others back and at critical juncture, blocked C&O as well as the NYC-NYH synergy from entering the lucrative south-eastern routes.
(Afif: this is my company, C&O…)
Later, I would start yet another company - Erie, while Ainul started up B&M. All this while, Afif starts getting antsy of the massive profits generated by other companies and decided to start another… no… to dump his own shares to buy shares of other companies!
The rest of us were looking at him like he was crazy but he kept saying that he still didn’t get the point. This was of course the cue for one of us to perform the Hotsun(TM) maneuver and Henry volunteered.
(Afif: and i’m dumping half my shares…
Ainul, Heng, Henry: what the heck?!?!)
Still clueless, Henry went through the motions of doing train shuffling and at the beginning of the next turn, dumped a trainless company to Afif. And that of course, was how Afif got hotsun-ed(TM) and left a half-bankrupt railroad mogul, doomed to shuffle his sole Diesel train between two empty shell of a company, watching his share price going into a death spiral.
But then we decided to call it a game rather than to go through all that. So, Afif, next time, be wary of holding more than one share of a rival’s company in your hands! Especially if he has two companies to do hanky panky stuff with!
(Afif: guys, i’m feeling the hotsun(TM), my shares’ on a spiral downwards…
Ainul, Heng, Henry: serves you right for dumping your shares!)
original post and comments here: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=137647009623835
As hinted earlier, I found some free time to set up the Axis and Allies Anniversary Edition 1941 scenario for a bit of analyzing and comparison to the Global 1940 edition.
First thing that went through my mind was ‘gawd, there’s less pieces to setup!’. I really missed the extra game pieces and board spaces that makes 1940 the more complete, detailed game. UK pacific army suddenly went back to its pathetic size with no minor factories around to reinforce it.
UK europe however went back to its beefy ways and try as I could, just couldn’t find an opening to start operation sealion (invasion of Britain). The split force of Italian and Germans in North Africa also signaled a weaker Italy and slower conquest of Africa. The Algeria front was wide open to a US attack. Russian troops look to be equal to the German warmachine and as in the 1940 edition, it is still a long hard fight on the eastern front.
The opening IPCs of the various nations. UK is WAY in front and the Axis as a whole are on the losing side of the economic war. Much of the game’s development will hinge on Japan’s conquest of British Far East’s IPC holdings.
The national objectives that I printed out from Boardgamegeek. The Axis have their work cut out for them to meet their objectives. US start with most of their objectives and are quite tough to dislodge.
A simulation of the possible opening by a Germany player. Since UK is impregnable and their fleet is almighty, the Germans threw all available men and machine against the Russian juggernaut. Progress is made against 3 provinces, ensuring a national objective is achieve and also to threaten Karelia and Caucasus for the next objective. German troops was also evacuated from North Africa and joined in the attack in southern Russia.
All subs went and sink some shipping off Denmark but it is projected that they won’t last a turn.
France cannot be left undefended and some troops were diverted there from Germany. A same turn D-day can be expected from the British player. Sometimes I think that the control of the seas can be quite advantageous despite the lack of IPCs gain. Valuable pieces can be directed against the Russian bear if France can be left lightly defended as a result of sea mastery.
As it is, the German player do not have any economic advantage over the Russian player and any diversion of resources to the UK front will jeopardize the success of Operation Barbarossa.
It is a simple matter for Russia to consolidate her forces and reinforce Karelia and Caucasus. There is no need to attack as she had only infantries. However without cannon fodder, the German war machine is similiarly stymied and any further attacks only brings damage to its valuable tanks.
Far East is also a simple matter of consolidating forces and intimidating Japanese forces into a stalemate.
My last simulation was on the Japanese side and it took awhile to execute. Here was the key to the Axis strategy as Japan need to bring UK down as much as possible and to prop up its IPCs to prepare for the US onslaught.
I forgo the Russian front and hit China minimally, concentrating instead on the rich national objectives of Philipines, Borneo, Sumatera and Kwangtung. An invasion into Burma was done with force so that India could be threatened the next turn. Without a factory to reinforce it, India can be fell easily unlike in the 1940 edition. With the final board placings however, I feel that the Russian border was a weak point and a suboptimal move. Perhaps a push into China can be delayed to discourage Russian forays into Asia, and for the South East Asian campaign to progress successfully first.
Another ill conceived strike was against the US Battleship in Hawaii as I realized later that the US player can easily commit all his planes to take down the valuable Carriers and replace his losses easily.
All in all it was a good simulation exercise and although I missed the added complexity and more historically detailed 1940 edition, I can see how this version can be played faster. It felt like the Germans have the tougher task in this particular version and scenario than the Japanese, whereas in the 1940 edition, it felt like the Germans had it easier than the Japanese.
After all this, I have a hankering to go back to play the 1940 edition, although perhaps on the Europe map only first. The possibility of a successful Sealion positively intrigues me!
Just want to record some of my thought processes as the European Axis side (Germany + Italy) in the A&A:G1940 game.
First off - the big blight of blue in the western front where french forces are standing in this game. The usual A&A starts with Germany already in possession of France so this version gives Germany a bit of an exercise before the soviet crunch.
The French are last to go in turn order, so Germany AND Italy can wipe them out before they have time to respond. In addition, the french have about 19 IPCs, so this makes it an even bigger priority to take down Paris for their cash.
The question of course, is how much troops to commit given that:
1) I would not want too many troops dying before the soviet assault
2) I would not want too many troops out of position for the soviet assault
3) I would want to defend myself from possible British sea landings.
There is the question also of who gets southern France and the IPCs there. Germany of course needs every dollar against Russia but Italy is in a more immediate position. In the end I went with the historical route and let Mussolini take Southern France.
I also threw every available men within range to take out Paris, as well as Normandy. I practically emptied belgium and western Germany on the assault. The result in the end was minimal casualties and the conclusion is that I might have overcommitted.
Although UK had only one infantry, I still took care of the possibility of seaborne invasion by sending three of my U-boats against the lone transport and destroyer off UK’s west coast. But the subs were taken out later by UK’s ships.
I also sent a lone sub to try and disrupt convoys on Nova Scotia, but again was taken out easily later on US’s turn.
A likewise opportunist strike by Bismarck and the Admiral Graff Spee on Allied shipping off the coast of Denmark saw both ships being successful only to be sunk to the depths of the ocean later on Allied’s turn. However, it was also a lure to draw both UK’s Battleships to respond, which they did. On the second turn I duly sent the whole of the Luffwaffe to take out both ships. It was a tradeoff that can be argued in its effectiveness as the bulk of the Luffwaffe air supremacy was traded for the Roval Navy’s naval superiority.
Italy had an easy time in Africa. No Germans were needed although Germany had an NO which requires Rommel in Egypt. Italy tamed Crete easily and it even ran out of tokens for Africa. Then again UK forgot(?) that it had a minor factory in South Africa so it could have pumped out troops to halt the Italian advance.
Also, it took both Italian’s dominance in the Africa and Germany’s constant threat of Operation Sealion to bring US back into the European theater. US had been too concentrated in the Pacific in the first few turns.
Italy also should have been given direction to help attack UK or Russia in addition to it’s sortie in Africa. As it is, Italy’s might was wasted in its positioning as a US welcoming party.
Operation Barbarossa started in turn 3, which in hindsight might have been a little later than I liked as Russia was quite a pushover when it had even less troops to contend with. UK was more resilient than I initially thought and Italy had to whittle down UK’s IPCs to make an amphibious invasion even remotely successful. Suffice to say the invasion of UK is incredibly difficult and it had delayed my invasion of Russia as per historical events. Then again the western front troops also needed time to be brought up to the eastern front. If Germany can commit less troops to take down France next time, it can divert a significant amount of troops for a head start in Barbarossa.
The end result in europe: UK had no navy and Germany is preparing to launch amphibious attacks every turn. UK still had money in Canada so it’s IPCs could reinforce a good amount of infantries. The invasion of Russia was off to a great start but Germany’s infantries still had a few turns to catch up with its frontline tanks. Italy had just beaten back a US attack but it would feel further pressure every turn from thence on.
original post here: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=131356670252869
« Previous Page —
Next Page »