Weekend Boardgaming - 3rd June 2012

After a long week at work and falling sick, I finally managed to get a weekend boardgaming in. When I fall sick, I really fall sick. Interestingly, I checked my sick leave record and since Jan 2011 up to now, I have only had 1.5 days of MC. Man that's gotta be worth something to someone.. hmm
As we are preparing for the Singles event the coming Friday at the Library, we played mostly space-themed games (all except for 1 :P) to familiarize ourselves with the games we may be introducing to those that are coming.
So space games, I played Martian Dice, Eminent Domain, The Resistance twice, Rocket Jockey, Cosmic Encounter (with both expansions), Mag.Blast and Sunrise City.

Eminent Domain
I had this game before but have since sold my copy. It feels very basic to me (even though there are rumors of expansions) and I would love to see how they make use of the different components that are available but as it is right now, it does not grab my attention enough for me to want to play it again and again and again. I have heard from The Secret Cabal Podcast how the crew raved and played it several times in a row but it just does not work that way for me. It feels blend, very solitaire like and not much interaction. I would like to try it again with the expansion when it releases but its a Meh for me for now.

The Resistance
A Werewolf like game but with a Space theme. This time I was the saboteur twice in a row along with another in the gaming group and I guess we were lucky in a way to have won quite easily. This game will be interesting to observe this friday when the Singles play it. For me as the saboteur, if I get chosen to go for the first mission, I will make sure it succeeds so as to throw off the scent. Subsequently, if they select me, I will play sabotage for the mission if it gets selected. My buddy though argues that if it were him, he will definitely play sabotage right at the beginning because then you will just need 2 more to succeed. I will report more on this when Friday comes.

Rocket Jockey
This is a maths like game where you are trying to earn as many points as you can by transporting goods in as long-winded a manner (i.e. as many planet hops) as you can. The game has a rather simple mechanism but it does make you think a lot during your turn. A little too much for a game of this weight. We did not finish playing and stopped halfway through. For the amount of effort, we would have preferred something more medium or heavy weight. Meh for me too.

Cosmic Encounter
This game was rather interesting to me in that I think the essence of the game was lost to some. Remember that the Destiny card choose whom you have to attack but I had a feeling it got a bit personal. Nevertheless, I was the Cyborg and I definitely played this wrongly. Instead of trying to cycle through the draw deck as fast as I can to keep the better cards, I was just holding onto the 3 and waiting for a good time to use them. Unfortunately for me that was a bad move and did not help my cause. Btw, have you SEEN the ships that Tom Vasel had painted for him?

They look so AWESOME! I wonder how much he paid. SO NICEEEEEEEEEEEE *drool*

Mag.Blast

I had not seen this Fantasy Flight game before and was interested to try it out. The art is cartoony and light hearted but still the ships are all unique (with subtle differences and different names and attributes). Essentially, you are trying to surround your capital ship with other ships and prevent your opponents from destroy you while using those same ships to attack others. I mistakenly attracted too much attention by exclaiming my 2 Star Destroyer-like ships and merrily playing the Imperial March song via my iPad. I was quickly decimated (from my sides) and boom I was out of the game. Subsequently its a long weight before dinner happened and we stopped the game but did not continue afterwards. It feels like Bang in space and well player elimination will cause the players to lose focus on the game while waiting for it to end. So while it could be a light filler, its a Meh for me.

Sunrise City

When I heard someone else from the gaming group bring this, I wanted to play it.  I have heard a lot of hype and given my recent purchases of city building games (see my previous blog posts), I wanted to give it a try. So right at the beginning you will draft 3 roles to play for the 3 rounds (its quite a short game). At the beginning of each round, you will select a role and then starting with the player with the lowest role number, place district tiles onto the board (following certain rules). Right at this point you can start to score on the score track. Once all the tiles are placed, you now begin to place your round tokens to lay claim to a district. Other players may place their tokens above yours to overrule your claim. This continues until all tokens have been placed. Now the round really begins.
Players will place building tiles given to them at the start of the round and score accordingly. The score board is an interesting concept in that if you manage to score or reach the 10th point score and stop, you will get 2 yellow stars. If you exceed, you will just get 1. At the end of the game, the player with the most yellow stars win.
Gameplay wise is ok I guess, reminding me of City Tycoon but not particularly fantastic for me. Component wise its very good but I feel WAY WAY overproduced. I mean the tiles are so thick and so big. The discs are big and everything just feels way too overproduced and even borders on unwieldy at times. I just feel that the game could have saved up on a lot by providing adequate but still high quality components. Art wise the colors are a little too blend for me and some of the building tiles have marks on them as if the other building tiles had pressed on them too hard. So in summary, its a Meh for me and I will not get a copy unfortunately. I had wanted to like it and it does look nice all built up but nahh....

Other Loot
My other loot finally came though and I cannot wait to break out Helvetia, Maharaja, Welcome to Walnut Grove, Steel Driver, Empires of the Void and Curse of the Mummy which I will play in office tomorrow!
Wait for my blog posts! :)

Weekend Gaming: 20th May 2012

I do apologize if my gaming frequency has dropped to once or twice a week but that's due to Diablo3 studying I had to do until end June 2012 (exam then). :P
Nevertheless, this is the gaming I did yesterday.

Chateau Roquefort
We started off with this game and I am quickly finding it my go to for a filler while waiting for the rest to come or just to warm up the group. Awesome little game and if you have not gotten it yet, well, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Highly recommended.

Lords of Waterdeep

Check out all my buildings!

Another warmup game and I wanted to show this to my friend who was visiting from Hong Kong. This time around, I found I had the opportunity to build a lot of buildings (4 in total) but I did not have that Lady card. My friend did though but she did not manage to build a lot in the end. Another player won by a lot (like 50+ points ahead) and I need to check if it is a *gasp* tainted victory as one quest card seems to allow him to change multiple cubes into white. This time also, the game took rather longer than usual so while it is a 8 round game, I think once past the 5th round when you have 1 more worker to place, the game feels lengthier. Hmmm.....

Cosmic Encounter

Can you see the stacks at the far side?

Next up before we broke for dinner, an oldie but a goodie. Cosmic Encounter + expansion (to allow for 6 players). We played with the Yellow races because I felt the group could absorb even though this is their first play through. Lots of wheeling and dealing going on and the Fungus was attaching to all of our destroyed ships making her particularly tricky to manage. In the end though, it was between TicToc and Fungus and I was the kingmaker :( So I decided to go with TicToc since she has not played with us for a few sessions :P I hope I get to play with the Red races in the future!

Le Havre

My 2nd-hand copy of Le Havre with all the nice boxes included!

Finally, it was between Inca Empire and Le Havre and I decided to go with Le Havre as I really wanted to see if my players will like the game. Explanation was simple enough and the game progressed rather smoothly. The initial stages was quite fast since we did not have much buildings and much options. Further down the line we did have to think a little more but nothing that made the game drag on. Still, the game took almost 3 hours for us to finish. Since they are playing this for the first time, some of the buildings were not immediately clear to them how they worked or they were not reminded of the functions. This game certainly rewards those who have played it before and my players are certain interested to give it another go. I wonder if I dare to play with 5 though since the last time I did, it took almost 4 hours. Its a very nice game and I do prefer this to Agricola (because the roles and the cards you are dealt with seems to dictate what you will use or build) and to Ora Et Labora (too much different types of scoring making it difficult to tell who is ahead and to block if necessary but the Rondel is nice). Thumbs up for me!

So in a nutshell, a very good day of gaming. I still need to bring to table a few more games I have not played yet and I do hope for a 2 player session for Twilight Struggle and especially Star Trek Fleet Captains. Also all the other goodies that I have ordered I am eagerly awaiting their arrival and another session with this group :D