September 2, 2010

BGC Merdeka Meetup Report 31/8/2010 – 18TN, Scepter of Zavandor and Small World

Posted by Boardgamecafe.net under 18xx, Meetup, Meetup SJ | Tags: , , , , , , |
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Boardgamecafe.net Merdeka Meetup Report @ Old Taste Cafe, SS15 31/8/2010
by jack208
 
Gamers: Lester Lim (lester), Alvin Kee (alvin), West Teo (west), YM Chang (ym), Evonne, Kareem (kareem), Nicholas Lim (niclim), Jackson Chin (jackson), Marcus Lau (friedricetheman), Sheena, Henry (rhyen), Ainul (aanemesis), Wai Yan (waiyan) and CK Au (jack208)
 
Games: 18TN, Scepter of Zavandor and Small World
 
Location: Old Taste Cafe, SS15
Date/Time: 31 August 2010 (Tue) 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM
 
 
MERDEKA!
An impromptu SMS asking if there’ll be an 18xx sessions on Merdeka Day prompted this last-minute call for a meetup at Cassian Kitchen, our popular new café in Subang.
 
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not checking with Cassian whether his café will be opened for business. Turns out they are closed every Tuesday. Duh! A quick Plan B and we finally ended up at Old Taste Cafe, just down the same road as Cassian Kitchen. Just as well, since we’ve 15 gamers attending this rather last minute meetup!
 
18TN TENNESSEE & KENTUCKY
Given the theme for the day is 18xx gaming, the first game to get to the table surely has to be an 18xx game. J It’s been awhile since even I did any 18xx gaming so it was really good to be able to see those familiar terrain map, railway tiles, share certificates, etc on a gaming table.
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
Jack208 teaching some 18xx newbies on the basics of being rail baron!

A group of five quickly gathered at the main table, wanting to find out more about this much-talked avout 18xx series. The best way to learn the 18xx series is to be taught the rules for a beginner 18xx game, and in this respect the 18TN game (covering Tennessee & Kentucky) fits the bill perfectly.
 
The game map is quite small, there are 6 companies and it can take up to 5 players. It also plays fairly quickly with normal session even among all beginners not taking more than 3 hours (as it has an end-game timer with the $300 EPS trigger).
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
Aanemesis taking over my position after he’d done the rule teaching on
Scepter of Zacvandor
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN

In 18TN, L&N always start (since it is the only company that’ll run even with 20% floated. In this session, L&N was initially floated by Alvin but he miscalculated the amount of money needed to be able to retain control of it and lost the President cert when I bought the 4th share. J
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
The 2nd company floated by West. Here he quickly sold his private co to GM&O to allow one extra free tile lay

West started the 2nd company GM&O with assistance from the others. One key point to note in a 5-player 18TN game is that no one can start a new company on their own in SR1 (with the exception of L&N), which I think is a very nice way to introduce them to the concept of “you help me, I screw you later” which is prevalent in 18xx… LOL
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
The railway network grew “slowly” in this session becoz of a mistaught rule from me. I forgot that each company gets to lay two (not one) yellow tiles in Operating Rounds (ORs). Hehe…  My bad.
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
Aanemesis quickly getting L&N to its 2nd train. In 18TN the train rush is “muted” at the beginning by restricting each comp to buy only one train of each type. It’s a good way to ease newcomers to the “train rush” event later.
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
The 3rd comp SR was started by YM
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN

Aanemesis being the most experienced 18xx players in this session, quickly got himself a 2nd company.
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
This is probably close to the 5-train rush moment… when everyone became “kan cheong” (excited/nervous) and started standing up… LOL
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
Kareem getting antsy over his options, and stood up to get a higher helicopter-view of the map.
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
The railway network built rather slowly (due to my mistaught rule on yellow tiles) but even then, the network looked so pretty and organized in the picture above! I suppose “incompetent engineers” don’t work at Tennessee no more. :P
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
This is West Teo (left) first game of 18xx while Alvin (right) has done a few other 18xx games such as 1856. Good to get the Taylorians into this 18xx game system.
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
This is the moment in time just before the last 5-train is bought and the availability of the 6-train which will trigger the train-rush. Aanemesis has two companies each having trains that will be retired when the 6-trains are purchased.
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
I was informed the Illinois Central was “cleaned out” of whatever cash it has and then dumped to kareem, seemingly with 2 “useful” trains but both of which will be retired by the 6-trains. tsk tsk tsk oh such unscrupulous person! I can’t even imagine myself doing that in an 18xx game *wink*
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
YM’s SR doing well all this time with two 3-trains but both facing the sunset with the imminent arrival of the 6-train.
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
The GM&O – is this ran by West? – has a permanent 5-train and some cash so looks like it’s in not-too-bad shape. J
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
From the stock market, it appeared most of the companies were withholding dividends and their share prices were very far below-par and GM&O plunging into the yellow/green zone.
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
This is the 6th – and the last – company available to float/start which will then buy up the first 6-train and trigger the train rush. It’s inevitable… just embrace it. J
 
BGC Meetup - 18TN
 
IC’s share value is right at the bottom of the barrel (oh dear)… this probably wiped out all the investment made by its shareholders. I noticed even L&N’s share price has plunged… that’s likely due to heavy selling (probably by unhappy shareholders haha).
 
I was not in this session so I can only comment on snapshots of the event. I think aanemesis will put up a better report on this 18TN session.
 
For those of you who wished to know more about the 18TN game, here’s the link to a past sessrep written by me that provided a very detail write-up of the 18TN game itself
 
THE SCEPTER OF ZAVANDOR
While 18TN was going on at one table, another group of five gathered at the 2nd table and was taught by aanemeis a rarely seen – but very good – game, The Scepter of Zavandor.
 
BGC Meetup - Scepter of Zavandor
 
This was a game that rhyen complained he didn’t finish when he last played it at Mage Cafe, and he’s determined to finish it this time! :P
 
BGC Meetup - Scepter of Zavandor
Jack208 (right) looking like blur-sotong after getting a 2-min crash course in this game!

Scepter of Zavandor – while I said it’s a very good game – has a small issue of understanding how everything needs to come together in order for you to know how (or rather what type of gemstones) to build your income engine with.
 
BGC Meetup - Scepter of Zavandor
Jackson (left) looking like he understood the game very well. :P

The game is your usual Euro fare of building income engine and then switching halfway to a VP engine. The game has a “long playtime” mainly due to it’s intricately woven income engine framework…. you need to get a few pieces together before you can get a good income engine purring purrfectly.
 
BGC Meetup - Scepter of Zavandor

Above is my Zavandor board where I’m using Sapphire (blue) as the typical income source; that’s before I can get my “knowledge” ramped up high enough to be able to produce rubies (the most expensive of all gemstones)
 
BGC Meetup - Scepter of Zavandor
 
This is how the Books of Knowledge (or in other words, Technology Tree) look like. Part of the game challenge is trying to figure out which knowledge path is most suited for your character – yes each player do get a unique character with slightly different strength & weakness.
 
BGC Meetup - Scepter of Zavandor
Rhyen (top left) complaining that people “whine” a lot in this game…

.. And at the end of it all, we still did not get to complete this session of Scepter of Zavandor! So looks like rhyen’s unfulfilled desire for gemstoning will have to wait till the next session. :)
 
SMALL WORLD

Marcus also started a session of Small World with Sheena and her friend. I didn’t take any picture of that table but I und aanemesis took some pics of that game. Will upload that and update into this report later.

Till next week, enjoy your boardgaming!
 
For more photos of this gaming session, visit our Facebook Album.
For more boardgaming reports, visit our Boardgamecafe.net Blog.
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To buy the games played in this meetup, visit our Web Store.
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August 29, 2010

BGC OTK Meetup Report 27/8/10 – King of Siam, Automobile, Dungeon Lords, Cyclades, Innovation, Caylus

Posted by Boardgamecafe.net under Hiew, Meetup, Meetup Cheras | Tags: , , , , , , |
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Boardgamecafe.net Meetup Report @ Old Town Kopitiam Cheras 27/8/2010
by jack208
 
Gamers: Lester Lim (lester), Alvin Kee (alvin), Wei Yi (weiyi), Teddy Pang (teddy), Lee Ching (leeching), Ang XJ (angxj), Hiew (hecose), Kareem (kareem), Sam (sam), Heng (ayheng), Wai Yan (waiyan) and CK Au (jack208)
 
Games: King of Siam, Automobile, Dungeon Lords, Igloo Pop, Innovation, Cyclades and Caylus.
 
Location: Old Town Kopitiam Cheras Google Map
Date/Time: 27 August 2010 (Fri) 8.00 PM – 7.00 AM
 
 
BGC OVERVIEW
 
It has been awhile since I wrote a meetup sessrep so thought I might as well chipped in for this session. Many thanks to both ayheng and aanemesis who have been doing great jobs with sessreps for OTK and Cassian/Pitstop respectively.
 
We first started OTK Meetups in 12 Jan 2007 and in about 5 mths, we’ll be celebrating our 4th Year of Meetup @ OTK!! Check out the pics from our 1st OTK Meetup here to see who were the OTKers who were there on that day! J
 
BGC Meetup - Bang!
The Boardgame Sharks… when they were still young noobs then
 
The emergence of Cassian and also Pitstop as alternative meetup venues for Boardgamecafe.net is one of the few key events for us this year. We’ll be putting a lot more emphasize into helping these two locations grow and we appreciate and thank you for all the support you’ve given to us!
 
This year is a pivotal year for Boardgamecafe.net as we have moved into a distribution position within the local boardgaming industry, the main purpose is to allow us to keep ourselves well-stocked with a good variety of games in order for us to continue growing the local boardgaming community.
 
We operate from a mindset of Abundance (and not of Scarcity) and we believe by becoming a distributor, we are not necessarily competing or grabbing market share from the incumbent, but we are doing our part in growing and building a larger overall market that’ll be able to sustain all parties. Well, I suppose we’ve been doing our part in growing the local boardgaming market even before we became a distributor.
 
We have also incorporated ourselves into a private limited company, and we now trade as “Boardgamecafe Sdn Bhd”. We’ve been busy forming some alliances; some of which we hope to announce in due course. J
 
There’s lot of programmes and ideas we’ve in our minds… sometimes we get too excited over these ideas… and need to be constantly reminded while it’s good to have great plans…. the key lies in the execution of those plans.
 
Now, let’s get back to things that are more important… ie. BOARD GAMING!!
 
KING OF SIAM
 
With today being a public holiday for Selangor, some of the OTK gamers who work in Selangor found it easy to commit themselves to today’s session. As such, we get to see Hiew (hiew’s boardgame blog) dropping by with his precious Automobile, a game that’s only been seen at OTK Cheras courtesy of Hiew, and Teddy / Lee Ching coming with their Dungeon Lords game.
 
However Automobile was not the first game to get to the table as we were still waiting for the rest so Heng took out his fave King of Siam.
 

BGC Meetup - King of Siam
Heng’s funky start-up approach for King of Siam… think it’s like a pre-game yoga exercise 

Lester – who’s here really for some dungeoning training – joined Hiew & Heng in the political struggle for Siam.
 
BGC Meetup - King of Siam
Ayheng pointing to the map of Kedah
 
The rest of the gamers soon arrived…
 
IBGC Meetup - King of Siam
 
As this is Hiew’s first game of King of Siam, I presume he’ll do a more detail write-up at his blog site (link here).
 
AUTOMOBILE
 
Automobile was the game that Heng has been missing out for the past few times it came to OTK. He finally got it right this time!! J Alvin & Wei Yi joined him for this session, while Lester opted to go for dungeon training.
 
BGC Meetup - Automobile
Hiew going thru the rules of Automobile
 
Teddy & Lee Ching arrived soon after with their Dungeon Lords game, so I did not get to join this session of Automobile, therefore I do not know the progress of this 4p game.
 
BGC Meetup - Automobile
An overview of the Automobile board… wonder if Mayfair’s version will look as good as this
 
Heng later told me he liked Automobile as well. No surprises there as I rate Automobile as one of Wallace’s best designs – on par there with his Brass and Age of Steam. All the game mechanics gel nicely and fits into the theme (hi, wolfx – this game got THEME) that is easier to relate to.
 
Treefrog only printed 1,500 copies of these and it thus quickly went OOP (out-of-print). Mayfair and Lookout are reprinting this, expected Oct 2010. Meantime we are all still waiting….
 
DUNGEON LORDS
 
There have been a few requests lately for Dungeon training, and since one of our resident gamer – ayheng - is a WDMI-certified Dungeon Master Trainer who has successfully graduated a few Dungeon Lords @ OTK, last Fri saw a few wanna-be Dungeon Masters arriving at OTK.
 
WDMI = World Dungeon Master International. :)
 
BGC Meetup - Dungeon Lords
The four Dungeon Master trainees at OTK
 
However with ayheng busy building automobiles now instead of dungeons, it was left to Dungeon Master Trainer-wannabe jack208 to do the teaching. :O
 
BGC Meetup - Dungeon Lords
Dungeon Master training in-progress… do not disturb else frightful monsters may be unleashed accidentally

Seems like dungeon keeping is a profession well-liked by the ladies? ;)
 
BGC Meetup - Dungeon Lords

And contrary to what you may think… the LEAST EVIL of the dungeon masters was not a lady!!
 
BGC Meetup - Dungeon Lords
The Evil-o-meter showing which Dungeon Master is the most and least evil

Dungeon Master looks very colorful – and that may deceive you into thinking it’s a relaxing game. It’s not.. Underneath it’s cutesy look, it is a very tense but good resource management and planning game.
 
BGC Meetup - Dungeon Lords

Quick quiz – whom do you think is the more EVIL Dungeon Master (see picture below)?
 
BGC Meetup - Dungeon Lords
 
And in a nice twist to the ending..  Lee Ching (the most EVIL dungeon master all this while) suddenly ramped up some PR campaigns to improve her public image. The Paladin – falling into her guile – bought the PR stories, left her dungeon and moved to her husband Teddy’s dungeon.
 
Teddy was caught completely by surprised as he did not expect the Paladin to come-a-visting and therefore did not prepare his dungeon properly to “welcome” his gracefulness. Hehe.
    BGC Meetup - Dungeon Lords
 
I’m sure all the Dungeon Master trainees enjoyed the training… and given they’ve all graduated now, I hope we’ll see more stories of adventurers getting whacked by these OTK-trained Dungeon Masters!
 
INNOVATION
 
The Automobile session took longer than I expected. Kareem, Sam & Ang joined us while both the Autombile and Dungeon Lords sessions were on. After Automobile, I understand Kareem taught that group Innovation, a Civilisation-theme card game that was first played at OTK two weeks back, and then again at Cassian a week ago.
 
BGC Meetup - Innovation
 
I played it again a 2nd time at Cassian SJ a week ago, and I find it’s much better the 2nd time round probably as once you got used to its mechanics and the various powers related to the card eg Agriculture, you can form some strategy to it.
 
BGC Meetup - Innovation
 
I lost both games though.. Hahaha.. So much for forming strategies.
 
CYCLADES
 
As Innovation and Dungeon Lords finished, it was past 12 midnite and the end of R1 (round one). Some gamers had to call it an evening but as regular readers know, Fri Meetups at OTK do not end at 1 am. :P
 
We stil have five gamers remaining – Heng, Kareem, Sam, Ang and myself. We do have a few games that are good with five – Caylus, Imperial 2030, Carson City, etc – but what better game to play when you’ve five players than the current hottie CYCLADES!
 
BGC Meetup - Cyclades
 
Kareem and Heng have done Cyclades, albeit a wimpy 3-player session last week. Ang – one of the Sg Long Weiqi Boardgamers Group - made a surprise visit to OTK this evening and he’s in for treat with 5p Cyclades.
 
BGC Meetup - Cyclades
Ang (brown tee) in his first game of Cyclades
 
CYCLADES is a game of territorial conflict where five great cities – Sparta, Athens, Corinth, Thebes and Argos – compete with each other for control of the islands around Greece. Cyclades has very easy-to-learn rules yet present decision angst almost in every round as you bid on the action of the Gods to help you in your quest to control Greece.
 
BGC Meetup - Cyclades
 
From the gameboard above, you can see each party is just an island away from “someone” else, so you are never really safe. The objective of the game is to build two Metropolises but the initial two islands you controlled only allowed rooms to build 5-6 buildings (you need 8 for two Metropolises) unless you go the Intellectual approach and call on the power of Athena to help you.
 
BGC Meetup - Cyclades
 
The early conflict centered around the island of Corinth (red) where Kareem has temptingly added another prosperity marker to the existing two.. Making that island a very lucrative island to control as it pays three gold coins per round, and money is very important in this game as it’s used to solicit favors from the God and disaster befalls those who are too poor to pay their homage to the Gods.
 
BGC Meetup - Cyclades 
Sparta (black) eyeing it’s rich neighbour Corinth’s (red) island

Ang’s Sparta (black) has been doing very well, quietly building up militarily in the south and slowly advancing thru the middle towards the city of Corinth. I think his Sparta once casted an eye towards my (peaceful) Thebes (yellow) but since my island only has one prosperity marker, he decided to turn his Sparta’s attention towards Kareem’s Corinth.
 
BGC Meetup - Cyclades
Sparta (black) poised to attack Thebes (yellow) with a fleet on standby…

Sparta (black) also had her eyes on a neighbouring – and weakly defended – Thebes (yellow) island. I’d to withheld building any building on that island lest I tempt Sparta. :P
 
BGC Meetup - Cyclades
All seafarers shall tremble when the Kraken is summoned!

As a pre-mediation to the attack, Sparta (black) invoked the power of the Kraken to sink Corinth’s (red) fleet and in one action, isolated Corinth’s forces on the lucrative island.
 
BGC Meetup - Cyclades
Corinth’s (red) massive fleet ready to strike.. But at whom?

Kareem quickly regrouped his force… and built a massive fleet poised to strike.. Potentially at Sam’s Argos (green) but could also be aimed at Ang’s Sparta (black)… until the God decided to play with fate (and Kareem)….
 
BGC Meetup - Cyclades
Chimera (middle) allows the player who controls it to re-play any previously played/discarded creature

… and called the creature Chimera to earth. Chimera allows the person controlling it to replay a discarded/played creature (eg Kraken). With four fleets assembled at a high cost – Kareem paid a lot of coins to gain Poseidon’s favor – the last thing Kareem wanted is to see the Kraken sinking his large fleet!
 
Kareem did prevent the Chimera invoking Kraken but I guessed at a high cost to him as he then has to take a few turns to recover his composure (read: money).
 
In that moment of respite for Kareem (red), Ang’s Sparta (black) strikes! Calling on the power of Ares, Ang mustered a large force of 5 battalions and launched them against Kareem’s three that’s defending the island. The battle should have been swift and bloody on both sides…
 
BGC Meetup - Cyclades 
 
Instead… Ang’s Sparta suffered a horrible one-sided defeat, losing three battaltions to Kareem’s none! I guessed Ang forgot to ask the God of Ares to stay behind after he mustered the armies. :P
 
BGC Meetup - Cyclades
 
Meanwhile Heng’s Athens (blue) and Sam’s Argos (green) have been quietly teaching their younger generation and paying dutiful homage to Athena. As such, their intellectual prowess allowed either of them to be the first of the five powers to erect a Metropolis.
 
I took opportunity of a right timing to grab a cheap homage to Zeus while Heng (forced) needed to challenge Sam for the favor of Athena in building his first Metropolis.
 
The End is Near

BGC Meetup - Cyclades
The gameboard just before end-game… four of us have one Metropolis (Argos, Corinth, Thebes and Athens) and just one away from victory

Heng’s Athens (blue) was probably the one best poised for a victory as he has Athens aimed two of her fleets directly at both my (yellow) islands. A successful attack on either one would have gained him his second Metropolis. My Thebes (yellow) following in the steps of Athens & Argos was halfway towards completing our 2nd Metropolis via intellectual development.
 
The bidding in the last round was rather tense with Ang’s Sparta (black) clearly wanting to invoke Ares again possibly for another attack at Corinth, me obviously wanting to go for Athena but with Athena being the 1st God (which also defines the player order) and there being three very useful Creatures on the table – Harpy, The Fates (which allow you to receive your income again!) and Medusa – it’ll be expensive to call on Athena.
 
In the end, Heng gave up on Athena allowing my Thebes paid homage to Athena and went on to secure our 2nd Metropolis!

BGC Meetup - Cyclades
The Five Gods of Cyclades (from left) – Athena, Zeus, Ares, Poseidon and everyone’s fave Apollo

While Cyclades work for 4- or even 3-player, it shines when played with the full complement of five. One of the reason is that ALL Five Gods are available in every round, and will be called upon. With Ares & Poseidon in play every round, conflicts will escalate.
  
CAYLUS
 
With Cyclades ending close to 4:30 am, Kareem & Sam decided to call it nights. Ang was happy enough to stay around for more boardgaming, so R3 (round 3) it is!!
 
BGC Meetup - Caylus
 
Caylus was chosen and we quickly get Ang up to speed with Jousting OTK-style!! :P
 
BGC Meetup - Caylus
 
The jousting session lasted well into the wee hours of dawn, and by the time we finished it was close to 7 am. Ah well, you dun get to be called an OTK Caylus Knight until you can joust till the early hours of the morning. :)
 
Till next week, enjoy your boardgaming!
 
  

For more photos of this gaming session, visit our Facebook Album.
For more boardgaming reports, visit our Boardgamecafe.net Blog.
To discuss this gaming session, join us in our Facebook Page.
 
To buy the games played in this meetup, visit our Web Store.
We carry over 300+ games and provide prompt delivery to anywhere in Malaysia.
 

August 15, 2010

BGC Cheras Meetup 13/08/10 – Indonesia, Cyclades, Innovation, Roll Through the Ages

Posted by ayheng under Meetup, Meetup Cheras
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The night started with me punching out jack208′s pristine Indonesia set…

…helped by blownfreaks…

…rhyen, why didn’t you help us? (cracking knuckles)…

… let’s go through the rules… rhyen, are you paying attention???

rhyen starts off rice in Bali.

i start off rice in Jawa Barat and jack208 comes in to join the fun with spice in Jawa Tengah.

rhyen, here’s cash for your company.

waiyan: waht the heck these guys are doing, siaping faji and merging?

jack208′s pre-siap faji merger.

post siap faji merger. Tip#1: when shipping becomes painful and the returns are lowered, it’s time to ‘siap faji’.

End game board. Again we did not finish this game and the operation rounds went longer as the game progresses. As we played with the recommended ‘money is secret’ rule, the merger phase also went long. As pointed out by jack208, we played a few rules wrong and it impacted some aspect of the game, mainly in mergers and shipping. This game is better optimised in delivery and there are a few city growth compared to the first game. Mergers promised to be more painful when we play with the correct rules the next time as players all need cash in hand to protect against the vultures.

Next we played 3 player Cyclades.

This is a very pretty game and quite interesting.

I wouldn’t mind playing it again and as pointed out by jack208, in a 5 player game, it will be more interesting!

kaz introduced to us Innovation.

This is a card game where the cards are Inventions which can help you to gain victory points.

There are 10 ‘ages’ with progressively more powerful tech.

All cards are different and have their own icons and ability texts. The first game we had lots of questions due to the game’s liberal use of game terms that are not intuitive, like meld, dogma and splay.

More texts on the Achievement cards for alternate win condition.

‘splaying’, defined as spreading out the invention cards to reveal more icons. The icons help to use the cards abilities more effectively.

Last we did Roll Through the Ages. Thanks again to kaz for teaching this game.

The nice chunky wooden dice for the game. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind owning a set…

The game score and progress tracking sheet. This is a victory point game and depending on the dice rolled, various resources are collected and committed to different projects. What’s a civilisation game if you can’t build monuments?

hadoken! ah, the joys of dice rolling. The game actually has an interesting resource collection mechanic and there are good choices to be made in regards to which resource to collect.

kaz: let’s see, plus one, carry one, subtract two…

 

August 14, 2010

BGC SJ Meetup Report 07/8/10 – Indonesia, Cyclades, Agricola, Glory To Rome, Race for the Galaxy, and Dice Town

Posted by aanemesis under Meetup, Meetup SJ | Tags: , , , , , , , , , |
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Gamers: Marcus Lau (friedricetheman), Long (LoStBoYz a.k.a. long-long Jedi Lord), Alvin (KeeAlvin), Edwin Tee, Heng (ayheng), Nicholas Lim (nicdkid), Kareem Koh (kaz), West Teo, Chan Pei Qie, Ainul (aanemesis), Wong (Wong L.C.), Ken (wolfx), CK Au (jack208) and Henry (rhyen)

Games: Indonesia, Cyclades, Agricola, Glory To Rome, Race for the Galaxy, and Dice Town

Location: Cassian Kitchen, Section 15, SJ Google Map

Date/Time: 07 Aug 2010 (Sat) 2.30 PM – 7.00 PM

Boardgamecafe.net Meetup Report @ Cassian Kitchen, Subang Jaya 07/8/2010

by aanemesis

SUBANG JAYA MEETUP – LARGER THAN EXPECTED CROWD!

When I contacted Cassian and told him we’d like to do a Boardgamecafe.net meetup, he asked how many tables I’ll need. At that point in time, based on number of confirmed attendees, I told him “Oh, just one, maybe 2 if more people show up”. I certainly didn’t expect us to need 3 tables! An added bonus, as you’ve probably heard by now, is the appearance of our long-lost Jedi Lord, Darth LoStBoYz!

INDONESIA

friedricetheman had been telling me about an “18xx game in disguise” called Indonesia, which takes 4 hours to play for 2 players, but much shorter with more players. At this point, we had 8 people, so it was decided that nicdkid, kaz and myself will hear the rules explanation for Indonesia, and see the initial rounds played by friedricetheman, LoStBoYz, KeeAlvin, Edwin Tee and ayheng.

Read here for a more detailed report of this game session by ayheng. Then West Teo and Pei Qie joined me, nicdkid and kaz, and we decided to do a 5-er Agricola! A very rare opportunity as I tend to only get 4-er games these days.

Not 1 table, but 2...

AGRICOLA

Agricola is new to West Teo and Pei Qie, while nicdkid and kaz have played it before. Just to make it interesting, we used all decks mixed up together – that’s right, a 5-er EIK game! (hehe).

5-er EIK deck Agricola! Woohoo!

It’s actually a simple game where you start off with a wooden farm house with 2 rooms, housing your 2 workers – husband and wife farmers. Then you collect resources, fill up your farms with animals, plow fields and sow grains & vegetables, and ensure your family is fed every harvest. Simple.

To help you in the game, there are occupations and improvements which basically give bonuses or discounts when you need to build or pay for something. For example, to expand your family [i.e. get more workers] you must first build an additional room for each worker. There are occupations/improvements that make the rooms cheaper.

By the time the 10 of us were engrossed in Indonesia & Agricola, jack208, Wong L.C. and wolfx have showed up and we needed a third gaming table!

Pic shows Agricola table in foreground, and in the background Indonesia [right] and Cyclades [left]

CYCLADES

jack208 had brought Cyclades, a pretty looking game with miniatures from Greek mythology. Unfortunately I have yet to play this game, so I know very little apart from what I read on BoardGameGeek.

The game has nice miniatures of Greek mythological creatures

For a discussion of some misplayed rules, go to BoardgameCafe.net forum here.

GLORY TO ROME

Once my table completed the 5-er Agricola, West Teo and Pei Qie had to leave. kaz suggested a quick card game called Glory To Rome.

The cards serve 5 functions in the game, or was it 6....

This session is played by kaz, Wong L.C., KeeAlvin and myself.

Card sharks who were enjoying themselves....

I must confess I was a little lost throughout most of this game!

aanemesis (light grey t-shirt) a bit lost during the game, while the rest wait patiently...

RACE FOR THE GALAXY

Meanwhile, ryhen showed up, and while jack208 and the rest were deciding on the next game to play, rhyen and wolfx sat down for a quick 2-er Race ftG. Now this cardgame I can understand, and I even win sometimes!

No, it's not Dice Town but Race ftG

DICE TOWN

Finally rhyen, wolfx, nicdkid and jack208 sat down to play Dice Town – described by one of them as “a poker game with dice”.

wolfx, "watch this ah, I'm feeling lucky"

The 4 "kaki judi" engrossed in their "poker with dice". Note: there is no real money involved ya, it's just a fun, harmless game.

Thus ends another BoardgameCafe meetup session.

Once again, Homesteaders did not manage to make it to the table… sigh. Next time hopefully.

For more photos of this gaming session, visit our Facebook Album.

For more gaming reports, visit our Boardgamecafe.net Blog.

To discuss this gaming session, join us in Facebook. To buy the games played in this meetup, visit our Web Store. We carry over 500+ games and provide prompt delivery to anywhere in West Malaysia.

 

August 10, 2010

BGC PJ Meetup Report 24/7/10 – Claustrophobia, Race for the Galaxy, Colosseum, Agricola

Posted by aanemesis under Meetup, Meetup PJ | Tags: , , , , , , |
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Gamers: Marcus Lau (friedricetheman), Lester, Rob (cunning), Swee Ee, CK Au (jack208), Ainul (aanemesis)

Games: Claustrophobia, Race for the Galaxy, Colosseum and Agricola

Location: Pitstop Section 17, PJ Google Map

Date/Time: 24 July 2010 (Sat) 2.30 PM – 7.00 PM

Boardgamecafe.net Meetup Report @ Pitstop Petaling Jaya 24/7/2010
by aanemesis

BACK IN PETALING JAYA!

Well, it’s been a while since we did the first meetup here, what with the Genting BGC boardgame retreat and other bg activities. So we sent out a rather late shout-out for a bgc meetup here – sorry about the short notice guys. Thanks to those who did turn up to help me get my boardgaming fix (even though didn’t manage to get Homesteaders to the table – next time!) and to those who turned up just to watch – Walter, ayheng, Champion Eternal.

CLAUSTROPHOBIA

First to hit the table was Claustrophobia, introduced and moderated by friedricetheman, played by newbies Lester and myself. I’d describe it as a “dungeon-crawl lite”. The set-up, rules explanation and gameplay took just over an hour total.

friedricetheman giving a quick rules explanation

And for those who like such things, the game comes with dice and miniatures! It also comes with large tiles, which makes it less fiddly and easy to set up and put away.

RACE FOR THE GALAXY

Then we were joined by cunning (Rob), and we had a couple of quick Race for the Galaxy games – with the The Gathering Storm expansion extra cards and goals. Then friedricetheman had to take his leave.

Rob trying to figure out why he has 14 cards on his tableau when the rest had barely started...

COLOSSEUM

For R3 Colosseum hit the table and we were joined by Swee Ee for a 4-er. In this game we play Roman show/event producers, at the Colosseum (of course) hoping to have the best events to attract not just the largest crowd …

Colosseum event

….and the nobility, and to make the most money.

Colosseum nobility - good to have at your events

Game is played over 5 rounds, which include bidding for “assets” i.e. performers, animals, props and even ships! Yes, the Colosseum was known to have staged a sea battle – not just coz wikipedia says so, saw this on a TV documentary.

A pile of assets i.e. tiles on the left

Thanks to cunning for a  quick rules explanation and we were soon gathering gladiators, chariots, orators, lions etc for our events. Lester was making the grandest shows and attracting the largest crowd for most of the game.

Lester the supreme event manager!

However, a fortuitious trade I made with Mr cunning for a show asset and “just 3 coins” proved to be the thing needed to help me scrape a win from what would otherwise be a tie.

The tie breaker - 3 coins!

AGRICOLA

Then Lester had to leave and for R4, jack208 joined in for a 4-er Agricola. Again cunning explained the rules for Swee Ee’s benefit and we were soon building our farms and fretting about feeding the family.

The veteran farmers & the newbie lady farmer

A nice closing to the day’s gaming as Agricola is one of my favourites. By this time Pitstop was filling up with diners and curious onlookers.

Perhaps next time they’ll join in! Till next time guys.

For more photos of this gaming session, visit our Facebook Album.

For more gaming reports, visit our Boardgamecafe.net Blog.

To discuss this gaming session, join us in Facebook. To buy the games played in this meetup, visit our Web Store. We carry over 500+ games and provide prompt delivery to anywhere in West Malaysia.

 

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