Eurogames Retreat 2007 Report
Ξ December 4th, 2007 | → 2 Comments | ∇ Holiday, Boardgames |
Date: 1-2 December 2007
Venue: Le Sihat Hall, Selesa Hillhomes
View from Selesa Hillhomes - cool air green hills.
You might be wondering why the hall is called “Le Sihat”, well it seems that Selesa Hillhomes is home to a regular health wellness program. In fact, on the morning that we arrived, we saw a group of people practicing a sort of massaging technique in an open field using wooden sticks. Supposedly it helps with the body’s lymphatic movements. Well, in our case, we massaged our ‘brain’ throughout the entire weekend with wooden bits, and what a massage it was!
Another view from back of Le Sihat Hall - bottom just out of view is the open field.
Contrary to speculation, the attendees of Eurogames Retreat 2007 aren’t all young working adults with lots of disposable income and no commitments. In fact, the age range was like 1 to 40 years old. The cast of characters includes: -
Madhu, Sheila and Daryl - a chess-playing family of husband, wife and son,
Elaine, Elfram and ‘baby’ - another family (but stayed for first day gaming only),
S’ng - Singaporean gamer who was there by default because he bugged Edwin to join last year,
Airin (pronounced as I-rene) - Indonesian Chinese working in Singapore,
Vivian - Singaporean hotelier working in Malaysia, also Madhu’s friend,
Ken - nicknamed wolfx, also bachelor searching for ASH (available single hot) girls,
Edwin, Shaun, Jian Fei and Galouh - Edwin’s entourage,
Li Li and Heng - significant other and myself.
Participants listening attentively to Edwin’s opening speech - table no.2 on left: Sheila and Heng; table no.3 on right: Daryl, Vivian, Li Li and Shaun; table no.1 in front: Airin and Jian Fei.
View from back of Le Sihat Hall - Not seen on previous picture: Madhu on table no.1, Galouh and S’ng on table no.2 (backs to camera)
All told, there were 15 of us at one time (16 if you count the baby :P) and 13 of us when Elaine and Elfram left. Edwin sat out for most of the games (poor guy!) to arbitrate on the proceedings. The result is that there were 3 tables’ of game going on at all times with 4-5 players each.
Organiser Edwin bringing out the first bunch of games.
Gaming started with light fillers. Instead of everyone doing Pickomino like last year, starters for this year were more varied:
Table1: Can’t Stop
Table 2: Uptown
Table 3: Die Dolmengotter
Uptown was really a simple game to play and I had no trouble smashing my way to victory. It’s an abstract tile laying game with the objective of connecting as many of your own tiles as possible. To this end, the middle of the board is an important point to hold. There is also the secondary strategy of building a great line as quick as possible to block off your opponents’ route. In terms of complexity it is on par with Blokus but the scores would be much closer due to the mostly open nature of the game.
Table no.2 doing Uptown - from left: S’ng, Galouh, Sheila and Heng.
Closeup of Uptown.
Can’t Stop is a simple dice game which some how ran long because all the players got bad dice rolls.
Closeup of Can’t Stop.
Die Dolmengotter on the other hand is a classic eurogame with minimalist graphics and intriguing gameplay. It’s a game about druids but as Ken commented, you can’t really see the theme from the plain boards and bits. However, that still didn’t stop Li Li from enjoying the game and commenting ‘can we get this game?’ after playing it.
Table no.3 doing Die Dolmengotter - from left: Daryl, Vivian, Li Li and Shaun.
Closeup of Die Dolmengotter.
Next up is a short tea break and then a step up in game complexity:
Table 1: Darjeeling
Table 2: Chang Cheng
Table 3: Stonehenge
These three games are 2007 Essen releases and I’m at table 1 playing Darjeeling. There were some rules taught wrong (which seems to be the recurring theme throughout the retreat due to the large number of new games played for the 1st/2nd time). But that didn’t stop us from enjoying the game. The game’s premise is that the players are tea companies competing to produce and ship teas. Sounds like a typical produce and ship game, right? Well, the difference is in the game’s all fresh and new mechanics. The tea ‘plantation’ which the players compete on are actually made up of square tiles which when collected, can be formed ‘carcassonne’-like into tea crates to be shipped. Very novel.
The other innovation of the game is in the concept of shipping. In Darjeeling, the tea crates shipped are not scored and discarded immediately. Instead, the tea crates shipped will generate victory points continuously until newer teas are shipped, causing the old teas to become ‘out of fad’. The timing of the tea shipping can become critical as players try to position their tea as the ‘last word’ in the latest tea fad.
Table no.1 doing Darjeeling - Elaine and ‘baby’ at top joining from game#2 onwards.
Super cool Darjeeling components - the victory point track, shipping boats and demand slide/barometer at top - the tea pickers in the ‘tea fields’ of ‘carcassonne-like tea crates’ at bottom.
Did not look at Chang Cheng and Stonehenge as the Darjeeling game was the last game to end.
Closeup of Stonehenge.
Table no.3 doing Stonehenge - Elfram at top left joining from game#2 onwards.
We break for lunch before getting together again for the Third Game:
Table 1: Zooloretto
Table 2: Neuroshima Hex
Table 3: Antler Island
Antler Island is the latest game by the Lamont brothers (Fragor Games). Known for their cute themes and cute miniatures, the Lamont brothers’ Antler Island recounts the tale of the mightiest Stag of them all. In this game, the players feed, grow an impressive set of antlers, mate with does and finally lock horns with other stags in an ongoing ‘king of the hill’ battle. The game mechanics are simple enough and the ‘programmed orders’ mechanic provides some interesting and unexpected results. It actually reminds me of a Starcraft:the boardgame session in the programmed orders resolution.
The timing of when a stag battles to be the ‘king of the hill’ is important as the last stag left on the hill at the end will earn a great amount of victory points. In our game, S’ng timed his battles well to stay on top for the greater part of the game. However a late charge by Vivian saw him dethroned and myself snatching the victory as both S’ng and Vivian’s stags were left licking their wounds after a big battle. I was kinda lucky to be able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Overall, this game is an attractive package that plays as well as it looks.
The visually appealing Antler Island - crazy cute stags shagging doe-ples (doe meeples)
Antler Island player board - ‘programmed order’ tokens to the right, antlers made of brown sticks in middle.
The Neuroshima Hex game ended early and the Zooloretto game was already in the second round. Seems like my game went over time again :P. I’ve seen/played both games before so nothing much to report except that I’m considering to get Zooloretto as the game seems well received by everyone.
The chick friendly Zooloretto drawing a crowd - they are in their 2nd game, hence the attention from the other completed tables. Madhu seems to be concentrating hard… this ain’t chess, man!
Closeup of the Zooloretto player board - note the cutesy animals.
We break for tea again and then to the final game of the day:
Table 1: Container
Table 2: Arkadia - Blue Moon City
Table 3: Siena - Hameln
This is where Edwin made a boo-boo and made us read the rules before playing. I tell you it just doesn’t work (cue rantings of a failed Marvel Heroes gaming in one of my last vacation due to last minute rules reading…) Although I’m sure everyone enjoyed tearing open the shrink-wrap and punching out the counters, everyone sat around looking politely interested as the rules reader struggles to read at top speed. At Table 1 - I stuck with explaining Container as I had read the rules online before. But since I am seeing the components for the first time it is still tough going for me. I lost Daryl during the rules explanation but fortunately the adults bear with me as we got the game up to speed. The beginning is very slow and I must say that it is because of the nature of the game.
Basically the players have to wear many different hats as they play different roles in the supply chain. On one hand the players are factory producers producing containers and on the other hand, they are also the port masters, container ship captains and consumers as well (basically every other person in the supply chain). The idea that is difficult to grasp is that in wearing the many different kind of hats, the player is generally not allowed to buy nor sell the containers from himself TO himself at any point. The strategy then is to find ways to get the containers you want to yourself in the most indirect manner.
The other difficult concept about the game is that there is no hard and fast rule on the value of the containers at every point in the supply chain. There is a range in which the prices may vary but the strategy in setting the prices again is not clear. The easiest way in understanding the economics in Containers is that collusion, diplomacy, price fixing, negotiation and cooperation determines the prices. Playing this game, one can actually see the effect of inflation in action as all members of the supply chain tries to jack up the price of the containers for their own selfish benefit. The real world economics reflected in the game is awe-inspiring and scary at the same time. Not one for the faint hearted, a player can actually be shut out entirely if the others refuse to do business with him.
Surprisingly the other players - Vivian, Sheila and Li Li gave this game a thumbs up for requiring real world skills to be put to use in this game. For me, watching inflation and people trying to get more money out of others is actually quite depressingly real world. Woo, I want back my stags and tea shipping.
Meanwhile, on the other table, S’ng had given up on trying to learn Arkadia while Ken lost hope in deciphering Siena. Instead, Blue Moon City and Hameln hit the table and finish well ahead of Containers. Seems like every game I’ve been in finishes last…
Nighttime we took a break from gaming and we chatted during dinner time. One group (myself, Li Li, Ken and Airin) decide to pay Genting a visit, while others decide a full day of gaming is not enough and soldier on with Arkadia and Mission: Red Planet. Yet another group decide that they had too much brain massage the whole day and hit the sack early instead.
Early morning we woke up, had breakfast, chit chatted some more and then break our game fast with:
Table 1: King of Siam
Table 2: Space Dealer
Table 3: Krumble
I’m at table 2, playing Space Dealer with Shaun and Galouh. Since its Shaun’s no#XX game, he creamed us. For the first time, I was involved in a game that actually finished first, but then with sand timers ticking away, there’s no time to hesitate as you try to produce and deliver cubes to distant galaxies for victory points. A fun game, I can see myself playing it as a filler game after being all stressed out with the heavy games.
After we finish our game, we went and check out King of Siam at table 1 and during the game end, everyone has the same amount of influence cubes! All four players therefore declare the game a tie! Further examination of the rules by Jian Fei and myself found that the game was actually taught and played wrongly! From the setup to the tiebreaker calculation, there are little nuances missed which would have made the game more interesting. Haiyor, rules teacher caught red-handed teaching rules wrong again.
Anyway, after clarifying the rules, Li Li, myself and Jian Fei sat down for a 3-player game and my oh my is it good! Basically the players try to gain influence in various factions in Thailand during the age of political upheaval and British interest. The royalist, with their power base in Bangkok fights against the Malay faction in Kedah and the Laos faction in Luang Prabang.
The interesting thing is that each player only has 8 action cards with which they influence the power struggles in the 8 provinces of Siam. So for the whole game, a player only takes…. 8 actions! Very fast, very easy, right? Wrong! The proceedings are often intense and the power struggles are often down the wire. The shift in power is continuous and the wrong step can totally hand the victory to someone else.
And so, analysis paralysis sets in, and this game is so finely tuned that the normal end result is a tie! Hehe, so that first game wasn’t too far off in its result. But this is a feature rather than a failing of the game system. The game actually lists all the tiebreaker conditions prominently on the player aids as though it will be constantly referred to even before the game ends! There are tiebreaker conditions for all three of the game’s possible endings and the challenge therefore is to balance one’s influence markers through the proceedings and then deliver the coup-de-grace through the tiebreaker.
The other interesting element in the game is in the taking of the influence cubes. To gain influence over a particular faction, a player must remove the faction’s cube on the board. But doing so weakens the faction on the board! So the tension comes when deciding how to gain influence over a faction yet still ensuring that faction retains its strength on board. The only random element in the game is in the initial setup as the number of royalist, Malays and Laos are not balanced. Anyway a good game, thumbs up from myself.
Did not manage to learn Krumble but judging from the laughters, it’s probably a fun game.
Once again we break for tea and then proceed to the Last game:
Table 1: (Architects of) Arkadia
Table 2: Mission: Red Planet
Table 3: Haste Bock!
By this time, Edwin probably had a good idea of what everyone’s abilities are at and he assigned the players to the order of game complexity. So table 1 saw all the heavy hitters while table 2 have the moderately skilled guys (some might argue that they are just unlucky to have not win any games!) while the family played at table 3. Accordingly, table 1 has the heavy game, table 2 have the medium game and table 3 have the cute game. Being the last game, Arkadia is actually quite a standard game where the game mechanics are familiar and possibly seen elsewhere. The game is very simple and the scoring method is reminiscence of Reef Encounter. The game production quality is amazing though and the hanging of the flag on the player’s tent after scoring is just way cool! I won the last game but the scores are still pretty tight, which is probably a hint at possible subtle strategies that I may have missed in my initial assessment. Still I won’t mind another game just to find out.
Ken quite enjoyed Mission: Red Planet and my impression is that it is a boardgame version of the Citadels game by the same author. Haste Bock! I did not manage to see as our Arkadia game once again is the last game to finish.
After that Edwin gave a final summing up speech and present prizes for winners! For finishing with most wins, Li Li got Gifttrap, Airin got the Starfarers of Catan miniatures for finishing second while Vivian got the limited edition Ticket to Ride Mystery Train expansion. Shaun was disqualified for being Edwin’s son (muahaha) while I myself abstained as Li Li already had a prize.
Edwin doing the closing/summing - note the drawing board of all the players’ standings in the games.
Edwin describing the cool factor of the Starfarers of Catan miniatures.
Li Li and myself caught on camera by Ken.
Airin and her super cool Starfarers of Catan miniatures!
Li Li the overall winner receiving the prize of Gifttrap!
Later we all had lunch at one of the restaurants outside Selesa Hillhomes at Janda Baik. Good food and conversation to be had and it was nice to know all the people there, especially the friendly Singaporeans. They were quite candid about the concept of kiasu-ism amongst Singaporeans but I was surprised to find that waiting in line for the best bargains is considered kiasu. Sounds more like a shopping culture to me.
Highlights of the retreat for me are: Darjeeling and King of Siam.
Boos for the retreat: Unplayed games!: Agricola, Brass, Die Saulen De Erde. Also boos for the rules mis-teaching (yes, I’m a picky rules lawyer :P)
Singaporean gamer S’ng also graciously left his h/p number and offered to fix up visiting Malaysian gamers with Singaporean gaming groups and special interest groups (ASLSK, 18XX, etc.) Ask me for the number.
We had a time, and I wish there were more people coming to share it with us. To inspire people who were on the fence about this trip in order to come for the next trip, please remember to save RM20 a month for one year and remember that old Malay proverb - “Hendak, seratus daya, tak nak, seribu dalih”.
Edit: Added pictures, changed various spelling and grammars.
bubbles: and i was left at home!!! arrggghhh!!! i’ll be back!!!
tune in to our next trip as we try to get confirmation on sightings of brokeback action…
