Weekend Gaming: 28-29th July 2012

Continuation of my 3 days of epic boardgaming (with different groups), here goes!

1955: The War of Espionage

First play correctly! I won! Woot

2nd play but i lost...

So the last time when I last talked about this, I was complaining how bad the game was and all that. However I have realized that we got the rules wrong. The set that I was playing on has since been sold so I manage to get another copy and had to bring it out to see how it is. I must say that it is significantly more fun to play with. The rule that we had wrong initially was we would win when OUR home country is secured. That led to some first round wins. So to win the game,, either you brought your OPPONENT's home country to your side OR 3 other country tokens to your side (including your own home country). Needless to say, the gameplay has significantly improved and game time has as well. There is a lot more tactical decisions now especially when both sides have secured 2 countries and are gunning for the last 2. 

However if you are very aware of the cards and what has been played, I guess you can pretty much guess what your opponent is doing. I am hoping that perhaps in the future there maybe more gadgets for us to utilize or maybe add in a few more cards for variety. Still not a bad 2 player game that will take you at least 30 minutes to play. Now i would recommend it :)

Troyes

I played this once quite some time ago and I did not really played it well then. Given a chance recently, I decided to get my own copy and manage to bring it out for a 4 player session. It is fun for me with all the dice rolling and trying to figure out the combinations. I must admit I am still not that quick to pick out the various combinations that can net me the most points or create an engine but I had fun. I do wish Castles of Burgendy components are of this quality then I will certainly buy it. Maybe there's a 2nd edition? :) Anyway, this play session helped me better understand the rules and I can play it on Boardgamearena.com now. Not a bad game and I hear there's an expansion coming out soon. Reading about it though, I think its not adding that much things for me to warrant a buy. I would have preferred if they added another player or more character role cards. Lets see how the review goes for it then.

Feudality
We played Feudality again and this time I got to see the big battle in action this time around but in general the main fun of the game is buying the extra tiles, placing them strategically on the board and hoping for a good dice roll. I know it sounds totally random because of the dice roll but that is kinda the fun in this game as we are yelling for HUAT AH (or good roll) when the Senior Player rolls it. Battle wise, this was mostly done by the player that was already winning just to see how a battle will work out. It ended up allowing him to draw in points with another player but he manage to win it due to the tie breaker. Now if the runner up had won, I would have called foul because of underlying relations (Ahem :P). Still I would like to play it again with competitive players that will attack each other just to see if warring will work well OR it will just prolong the game to for agonizing hours.

Village

Village again I know. I just had to give this game a few more goes with my various groups just to see how it will sit with them. It sits real good I am happy to report. Fun to play, easy to teach with many different paths and very engaging throughout the game. There is no direct screwage though you can do so but it wouldn't feel very personal if done as many other more direct interaction games. I manage to win this with a combination of the Village annuals and monks (I am the blue player here). Great fun and a great buy! Go get it if you have not.

Antiquity

The map after about 3 hours of play and we STILL have not finished.

My cities after 3 hours of play.

OK so I FINALLY got this to the table. After getting it in a trade + top up a few months ago, I was dying to get this played so I know how it is and well, see what the hype is about. It was quite hard to get through the rules since its the first time both of us have played this but sometime through the 3rd round or so, we are quite comfortable with the phases in the game and were gunning for the victory conditions. Well at least my opponent could, I was pretty much stuck with my bad beginning choices. This game is all about the choices at the beginning because you place your starting city and then work from there. This game also requires a few plays to get used to what each building does and thus allow you to better plan and maximize their effects. 

Components wise its hell to try to bag everything and put everything into nice little boxes so to allow setup and tear down easier. Still its kinda fiddly with all the different chits and the lousy player board where you place all your house stock and city layout does not make things easier. And there are a LOT of bits to take care of. Every resource you setup on the map you have to underlay with a pollution chit so that you are reminded of the waste you are creating when you take away a resource from the land. Every turn you are reminded that you need to be able to feed your people OR you get tombstones popping out all over your city. Every turn you are reminded of pollution as your city may produce more waste than it can manage and damage the land surrounding it.

The victory conditions and how to attain it is still kinda a blur to me and I suspect a few more plays will correct that. However it is an interesting game and I can see what the attraction is because after you master the game, the sense of achievement you feel should be outstanding. Though i suspect a 4 player game with all new people will take quite a big chunk of time, after a few plays it will get better.... I hope.

So all in all, a great weekend of gaming. I manage to get a few new games in and I am contented :) Now to look forward to New York New York, the Wifey and the games I'll get to play in Gencon 2012! 

WOOOT WOOT WOOOT!