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10.02.19
Our first non-RPG games night of the year last night. Mark and Michaela were both away doing something more interesting so we played Port Royal (which Karl won) and Machi Koro (which I won). Felix still refuses to pay attention to the minutiae of the rules despite an enthusiastic start so he didn't place in either game. Fun was had by all never-the-less. 
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23.02.19
We played a four player game of Sons of Anarchy which Karl won. I did abysmally which is unusual for me with this game. This is one of my favourite worker placement games with a lot of flavour from the show and tough decisions to make at every stage. Recommended if you can find it anywhere. 
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02.03.19
Last night Michaela was working and Karl was sick so Giro, Mark, Felix and I settled down to a couple of games of Port Royal and a quick finisher of Sleeping Queens. Mark won nothing!
Sylvester joined us for naps in the corner.
Last night Michaela was working and Karl was sick so Giro, Mark, Felix and I settled down to a couple of games of Port Royal and a quick finisher of Sleeping Queens. Mark won nothing!
Sylvester joined us for naps in the corner.
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10.03.19
After polishing off the second level of the dungeon we're play testing we had a five-player game of Port Royal yesterday which Giro won by a whisker.
After polishing off the second level of the dungeon we're play testing we had a five-player game of Port Royal yesterday which Giro won by a whisker.
31.03.19
A very short RPG session last night resulted in time to play Machi Koro. Mark upset the Universal laws of probability by winning :)
A very short RPG session last night resulted in time to play Machi Koro. Mark upset the Universal laws of probability by winning :)
07.04.19
Last night we played Trains, the deckbuilding game of railway building set in Japan. Giro won but the points spread was relatively small so I guess we all did well.
Or maybe we all did badly, none of us managed to buy the 11 point card that the game suggests you include in your early games.
Deck building, trains and Japan, triple win!
Last night we played Trains, the deckbuilding game of railway building set in Japan. Giro won but the points spread was relatively small so I guess we all did well.
Or maybe we all did badly, none of us managed to buy the 11 point card that the game suggests you include in your early games.
Deck building, trains and Japan, triple win!
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02.06.2019
After an unfortunate abortive trip to UK Games Expo we returned home and Karl and I had a couple of games with our new Keyforge decks before Michaela joined us for a three-player session of Tsuro which Karl had picked up at the show. I was still under the weather and lost at everything. Felix joined us as he continued to recuperate from his trip to the dentist. |
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16.06.2019
Last night there were only three of us since Michaela's in Japan and Mark's off doing secret government work so we played Space Explorers. Space Explorers is a game I helped Kickstart a little while ago which attempts to recreate the early days of the space race as players use limited resources to recruit a team of specialists in order to complete a selection of space flight projects. As usual, we played with Felix participating fully in the proceedings. I won by a single point in a game that saw us all very close right to the end. I was happy to claim the launch of Sputnik 1 for my team early on, a milestone of human achievement! Giro came second with 27 points and Karl was third. 
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23.06.2019
Last night there were three of us again so we played two games of Machi Koro.
Mark won both with his tax office and an unnatural ability to roll eights.
By the end of the second game, Felix had left in disgust although Sylvester hung around sleeping on a chair.
Last night there were three of us again so we played two games of Machi Koro.
Mark won both with his tax office and an unnatural ability to roll eights.
By the end of the second game, Felix had left in disgust although Sylvester hung around sleeping on a chair.
30.06.2019
Last night Michaela was working so we were back to card games instead of role-playing. We had two rounds of Port Royal, neither of which I won.
Felix had wandered off for a couple of days (he's back now) so Sylvester helped out as best he could.
Last night Michaela was working so we were back to card games instead of role-playing. We had two rounds of Port Royal, neither of which I won.
Felix had wandered off for a couple of days (he's back now) so Sylvester helped out as best he could.
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14.07.2019
Last night Karl, Giro and I played Tiny Towns and Machi Koro, two games about town building that approach their subject in different ways. Tiny Towns has lovely components and involves placing coloured cubes in different patterns to build structures. Once the pattern is complete the cubes are replaced with a meeple representing the actual building. The trick is leaving enough space on your grid to be able to place cubes as your building total grows. The problem is that someone else is deciding what colour cube you're placing each turn so planning is a hit and miss affair. I wasn't a fan. I think the components deserve a better game to go with them. After this, we resorted to Machi Koro which Giro narrowly won. We all had fun with this as usual. |
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21.07.2019
Yesterday we tried out a brand new game called villagers. It's a game about collecting inhabitants for your burgeoning village and using their skills to generate money. At the end of the game, the person with the most money wins. I bought the game so tradition dictates that I wasn't going to win and this was borne out spectacularly. Karl won, just edging out Giro for the win. Giro was hampered by an invasion of cats in his village however and had to play most of the game from memory since his cards were buried beneath fur. |
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11.08.2019
We played Wacky Races today. It's a very quick and simple racing game that recreates the fell of the cartoon very well. I bought it mainly for the miniatures so it was a nice bonus that it plays well too. |
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Since Wacky Races was so quick and Karl had to leave after playing (and winning) it we decided to have a three-player game of Villagers to finish off the evening. This game was much better than our first try a couple of weeks ago and we all scored considerably better than before. I won with 265 points but the spread between first and third was only 40 or so points so it was a close game.
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01.09.2019
After a busy day at GamesCon yesterday we broke out Kingmaker in the evening for some nostalgic gameplay set in the Wars of the Roses. Mark started with a much better assortment of nobles than the rest of us (I only had a single minor noble to begin with) and it didn't take long for him to get into a commanding position. Even though I crowned Richard of York king early on he was soon hunted down and executed by Mark's forces leaving Margaret as the rightful Queen of England. Shortly afterwards most of the other potential heirs had tragic accidents and after Mark consolidated his position at the first parliament of the game both Giro and I conceded defeat.
We used to play Kingmaker almost weekly in the early 80s when I was beginning to get interested in board games and it was nice to dust off (literally) this great classic game for another outing.
After a busy day at GamesCon yesterday we broke out Kingmaker in the evening for some nostalgic gameplay set in the Wars of the Roses. Mark started with a much better assortment of nobles than the rest of us (I only had a single minor noble to begin with) and it didn't take long for him to get into a commanding position. Even though I crowned Richard of York king early on he was soon hunted down and executed by Mark's forces leaving Margaret as the rightful Queen of England. Shortly afterwards most of the other potential heirs had tragic accidents and after Mark consolidated his position at the first parliament of the game both Giro and I conceded defeat.
We used to play Kingmaker almost weekly in the early 80s when I was beginning to get interested in board games and it was nice to dust off (literally) this great classic game for another outing.
08.09.2019
Last night we played Britannia. We only managed to play to turn 7 due to time constraints and I finished in the lead with the red faction. Good scores from everyone else, it was a close game all the way through. Obviously, the Romans roared ahead to an early lead with their invasion turn but we soon reigned them back in.
Last night we played Britannia. We only managed to play to turn 7 due to time constraints and I finished in the lead with the red faction. Good scores from everyone else, it was a close game all the way through. Obviously, the Romans roared ahead to an early lead with their invasion turn but we soon reigned them back in.
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15.09.2019
Yesterday we played Lords of Xidit which I bought because Amazon had it on sale for £10.00. It has wonderful components including player boards with six turning wheels on which you pre-select your six actions for each turn. It's a much simpler game than it looks, there's no luck as with most Euro games the only thing that can scupper your plans is the actions of the other players or your own stupidity which is par for the course with programmed action games like this. I fell foul of the latter more than the former. The only downside to the game for me (and Michaela) was the scoring which sounded interesting but turned out to be unsatisfying. So much so that Michaela, who won, didn't feel like she'd won. Despite this, it was fun to play. |
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22.09.2019
SPOILERS: MACHI KORO LEGACY
Last night we played Machi Koro Legacy. We completed five of the ten games in the Legacy campaign and I managed not to win any of them. The changes made to the game are interesting; some of the cards have been changed, new cards added, the way improvements work is different and odd things like the turtle and the yokai have been added for story reasons. So far, so good.
My major concern is the traveller die and its stickers. I'm hoping an engraved one will be revealed later when all the mystery boxes have been opened. Also, it's only a four player game and there's five of us so Karl, who arrived, late missed out. Since I'm clearly crap at this version I'm going to let him use my town for the next session when we'll hopefully complete the campaign.
SPOILERS: MACHI KORO LEGACY
Last night we played Machi Koro Legacy. We completed five of the ten games in the Legacy campaign and I managed not to win any of them. The changes made to the game are interesting; some of the cards have been changed, new cards added, the way improvements work is different and odd things like the turtle and the yokai have been added for story reasons. So far, so good.
My major concern is the traveller die and its stickers. I'm hoping an engraved one will be revealed later when all the mystery boxes have been opened. Also, it's only a four player game and there's five of us so Karl, who arrived, late missed out. Since I'm clearly crap at this version I'm going to let him use my town for the next session when we'll hopefully complete the campaign.
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06.10.2019
Last night there were only three of us for games night so we cracked open several smaller games to see what they were like. We began with Sushi Roll which is a dice version of the popular Sushi Go card drafting game where you attempt to gain points by collecting sets of different sushi. Changing from cards to dice added a pleasant tactile dimension to the game and having all the dice on display at the same time removed the brain strain of having to remember what cards were in play that makes Sushi Go harder than it should be. I've added Sushi Roll to my list of games to buy. Next, we played Hokkaido, a card game about building a Japanese town (where have we seen this before?). This was a nice little game with a bidding mechanic thrown into the mix to complicate the card choice each round. Your town is constructed by interleaving cards to leave only certain parts visible much like Cat Box which I own. I liked Hokkaido and the components are fantastic but I won't be rushing out to buy it. Both Sushi Roll and Hokkaido were provided by Giro. After Hokkaido, we opened Campy Monsters where you play a mad scientist sending out a legion of different creatures to abduct people for your nefarious experiments. Blind card play and different monster abilities turn a simple game into a genuinely funny clusterfuck as you watch your plans destroyed by the other players, often unwittingly (which makes it even funnier). The components are top-notch and the artwork and themes are excellent. Campy Creatures is one of my new games and I'm pleased I got it. Finally, we played another of my new acquisitions, Iunu, a card game about building a dynasty in ancient Egypt. This deceptively simple game combines difficult decisions and simple gameplay into a real gem of a game with elegant graphics and excellent components. This was a real bargain as I bought it in a sale for £5.00. In conclusion, I'll mention that I came last in every game we played but still enjoyed myself immensely. 
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13.10.2019
Yesterday we finished Machi Koro legacy. It took us three evenings in all to play the 10 games in the legacy campaign.
The games became progressively longer and more complex as time went on. More and more things are added to the game, each of which made player turns longer by involving more calculating. The net effect of this was to increase downtime, slow the play of the game, and complicate the gameplay with no corresponding benefits to either playability or enjoyment.
SPOILERS
I'm going to discuss the specifics of the game so this next part will contain SPOILERS.
Gems. Machi Koro Legacy introduces gems as another form of in-game currency. The gems increase player agency and can be spent to re-roll the dice. This really, really slows down the game as players decide whether it's worth re-rolling a sub optimal roll. This, combined with the visitors (discussed later) involves everyone recalculating their income and future strategy as well. The gems don't add much enjoyment, only complexity.
The visitors. There are three different visitors in the game, each moves around the play area in response to a die roll each turn and exerts different effect on the gameplay. The effects are interesting but unspectacular. If a player chooses to re-roll the visitor die is re-rolled too so their positions and effects are not decided until afterwards. This slows down the game further as no-one can collect visitor influenced income or plan visitor based strategy until the active player has finished deliberating.
More downtime.
The visitors' die itself is a blank die with stickers. It's a shitty component. The stickers are larger than the flat die faces they're to be stuck on to. I was hoping one of the mystery boxes would have a proper engraved visitor die in it, but no such luck.
Money. With no tax office and game mechanics that expect you to amass vast sums to meet victory conditions the economy of Machi Koro Legacy spirals out of control. Unfortunately it doesn't do it evenly and if you're behind the curve you can see you've lost well before the end of the game. It's essentially player elimination.
Most of the money is generated by green cards so the benefits are only for the rolling player, no one else can piggy back. This, combined with the re-rolls from gems and extra goes available from the start of play, means that the game can rapidly become unballanced with no hope of the leader being caught. Whilst this makes for a short game, it doesn't make for an enjoyable one as most of the players are watching the other one essentially playing solo.
Ships. The expedition sub-game lengthens a player's turn exponenionally and adds nothing except handing out more stuff. Handing out more stuff is a hallmark of Machi Koro Legacy. More stuff from visitors, more stuff from sailing, more stuff from extra goes. All this is accumulated so fast and with such little effort, particularly the expedition rewards which are collected mid-calculation and essentially grabbed with no thought, that a player's tableau rapidy expands to the point where keeping track of it is problematical and mistakes are made that need to be remedied later.
The ships are another 'solo' addition where only the active player is involved in the process. More calculations for that player and more downtime for everyone else,
In conclusion:
Vanilla Machi koro succedes because everyone is interested in the active player's dice roll. Everyone stands to win or lose by it. Play procedes quickly. if your roll isn't great it's only a little while before you get another chance and in the meantime you could still make some money. The choices about what to buy and when to buy it are interesting enough to keep players engaged and the game doesn't out stay its welcome.
Machi Koro Legacy foregoes this simplicity. All-in-all I didn't like Machi koro legacy. The early games are fun and exciting, there are new cards to see and new strattegies to employ and the game play is familiar and fast. But very soon it becomes bogged down in over-complexity and fragmented gameplay.
We switched the new plastic coins with the (now quite worn out) card ones from my basic Machi Koro tin and we'll be back playing the original, quick, fun version very soon.
Yesterday we finished Machi Koro legacy. It took us three evenings in all to play the 10 games in the legacy campaign.
The games became progressively longer and more complex as time went on. More and more things are added to the game, each of which made player turns longer by involving more calculating. The net effect of this was to increase downtime, slow the play of the game, and complicate the gameplay with no corresponding benefits to either playability or enjoyment.
SPOILERS
I'm going to discuss the specifics of the game so this next part will contain SPOILERS.
Gems. Machi Koro Legacy introduces gems as another form of in-game currency. The gems increase player agency and can be spent to re-roll the dice. This really, really slows down the game as players decide whether it's worth re-rolling a sub optimal roll. This, combined with the visitors (discussed later) involves everyone recalculating their income and future strategy as well. The gems don't add much enjoyment, only complexity.
The visitors. There are three different visitors in the game, each moves around the play area in response to a die roll each turn and exerts different effect on the gameplay. The effects are interesting but unspectacular. If a player chooses to re-roll the visitor die is re-rolled too so their positions and effects are not decided until afterwards. This slows down the game further as no-one can collect visitor influenced income or plan visitor based strategy until the active player has finished deliberating.
More downtime.
The visitors' die itself is a blank die with stickers. It's a shitty component. The stickers are larger than the flat die faces they're to be stuck on to. I was hoping one of the mystery boxes would have a proper engraved visitor die in it, but no such luck.
Money. With no tax office and game mechanics that expect you to amass vast sums to meet victory conditions the economy of Machi Koro Legacy spirals out of control. Unfortunately it doesn't do it evenly and if you're behind the curve you can see you've lost well before the end of the game. It's essentially player elimination.
Most of the money is generated by green cards so the benefits are only for the rolling player, no one else can piggy back. This, combined with the re-rolls from gems and extra goes available from the start of play, means that the game can rapidly become unballanced with no hope of the leader being caught. Whilst this makes for a short game, it doesn't make for an enjoyable one as most of the players are watching the other one essentially playing solo.
Ships. The expedition sub-game lengthens a player's turn exponenionally and adds nothing except handing out more stuff. Handing out more stuff is a hallmark of Machi Koro Legacy. More stuff from visitors, more stuff from sailing, more stuff from extra goes. All this is accumulated so fast and with such little effort, particularly the expedition rewards which are collected mid-calculation and essentially grabbed with no thought, that a player's tableau rapidy expands to the point where keeping track of it is problematical and mistakes are made that need to be remedied later.
The ships are another 'solo' addition where only the active player is involved in the process. More calculations for that player and more downtime for everyone else,
In conclusion:
Vanilla Machi koro succedes because everyone is interested in the active player's dice roll. Everyone stands to win or lose by it. Play procedes quickly. if your roll isn't great it's only a little while before you get another chance and in the meantime you could still make some money. The choices about what to buy and when to buy it are interesting enough to keep players engaged and the game doesn't out stay its welcome.
Machi Koro Legacy foregoes this simplicity. All-in-all I didn't like Machi koro legacy. The early games are fun and exciting, there are new cards to see and new strattegies to employ and the game play is familiar and fast. But very soon it becomes bogged down in over-complexity and fragmented gameplay.
We switched the new plastic coins with the (now quite worn out) card ones from my basic Machi Koro tin and we'll be back playing the original, quick, fun version very soon.
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20.10.2019
Last night we played 1655 Habemus Papem, a light-hearted card game about electing a new Pope involving extortion, bribery and bidding for the favour of Cardinals. I lost, obviously. It's a decent enough game with lots and lots of historical information in it. It's hampered by the fact that it's a German game (in German) where everything has an Italian name and most of the included historical information is actually irrelevant to the gameplay. For all that, it was enjoyable enough with good quality cards and some little plastic gemstones. Also, I got it for only £5.00 in a sale :) |
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27.10.2019
Last night we played 1830.
This is an old game that I've wanted to own for over 20 years but it's out of print and very expensive to get 2nd hand. I finally got a copy for a reasonable price and it arrived earlier this week. Sadly the arrival coincided with the death of the game's designer, Francis Tresham.
Francis was a great innovator in the boardgames world, inventing not only the incredibly popular family of railway/stock market games that 1830 belongs to but also Civilisation (which pretty much everyone has heard of).
Our playthrough of 1830 was in honour of Francis therefore and turned out to be a very enjoyable game.
We played for over five hours but it didn't feel like it, the game keeps your interest throughout and at the end everyone was surprised by how late it was (even with the 'extra' hour as the clocks changed). Mark won but everyone was very close at the end. I came third.
Last night we played 1830.
This is an old game that I've wanted to own for over 20 years but it's out of print and very expensive to get 2nd hand. I finally got a copy for a reasonable price and it arrived earlier this week. Sadly the arrival coincided with the death of the game's designer, Francis Tresham.
Francis was a great innovator in the boardgames world, inventing not only the incredibly popular family of railway/stock market games that 1830 belongs to but also Civilisation (which pretty much everyone has heard of).
Our playthrough of 1830 was in honour of Francis therefore and turned out to be a very enjoyable game.
We played for over five hours but it didn't feel like it, the game keeps your interest throughout and at the end everyone was surprised by how late it was (even with the 'extra' hour as the clocks changed). Mark won but everyone was very close at the end. I came third.
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03.11.2019
Last night we played Wingspan and I didn't take any photos. Michaela wasn't with us so Mark, Giro, Karl and I settled down to a 4-player game. Despite it being mine and Mark's first game we all ended up within 7 pooints of each other with Giro winning with 69 points. Photos are from Google. 
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10.11.2019
Last night there was only three of us for games night so we played a couple of rounds of Heckmeck which is a dice rolling push your luck game about collecting grilled worms from a barbecue. As with many Reiner Knizia games, its simple mechanics hide a heart of painful decisions. Giro provided this copy but I immediately ordered my own off Amazon (it's only £14.99) both because it's great fun and also because I can use it at work as a teaching tool since it relies heavily on an understanding of probability in order to play it well. 
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17.11.2019
Last night we played Heckmeck again so Michaela could experience the sheer joy and frustration that this game evokes. After that, we tried another Reina Knizia game that had been recommended to me, High Society. This is a bidding card game about attracting the best friends and becoming popular. The twist is that whoever has the least money at the end of the bidding phase is dropped from the scoring phase and so can't win. Spend too much on attracting friends and the rest of your social group drop you for being too poor. The added wrinkle of only having certain denominations you can bid in since your money is a hand of cards makes for a really enjoyable and decision-fraught experience. We played twice and we all spoke perfect franglais for the duration of the game too! We ended the evening with a couple of games of Ringmaster, a little gem I originally bought because the artwork looked nice. Ringmaster is a game of 34 cards where you're trying to assemble the best circus/attraction to win. It's 'pick a card, play a card' but amidst the usual stuff are several cards that completely nuke the game, sweeping the play area clean of any cards in play and resetting everything. It sounds frustrating but it's actually hilarious in practice. 
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01.12.2019
Last Night Michaela, Mark and I tried out Irish Gauge. It proved to be a great little game with interesting mechanics that offer many choices and strategies. In the end, Mark won, beating me by £1.00. Afterwards, we had a quick game of Heckmeck which Mark also won after destroying the laws of chance with yet another evening of impossibly high dice rolls. For a man renowned for his crappy dice rolling, he's certainly changed his spots (see what I did there?). 
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22.12.2019
Last night Giro, Michala and I played Irish Guage. It was a different game than the last time we played, we spent less on buying shares in the rail companies and built much more track before we called for a dividend payout. We also didn't upgrade as many towns so there were more dividend payouts in total. The resulting scores were much higher for everyone and we exhausted the money supplied with the game well before the end.
The final outcome was a win for me by a single pound over Giro.
Last night Giro, Michala and I played Irish Guage. It was a different game than the last time we played, we spent less on buying shares in the rail companies and built much more track before we called for a dividend payout. We also didn't upgrade as many towns so there were more dividend payouts in total. The resulting scores were much higher for everyone and we exhausted the money supplied with the game well before the end.
The final outcome was a win for me by a single pound over Giro.
29.12.2019
Last night Giro, Karl and I our final games night of the decade. We played Irish Guage again because Karl hadn't played it before and he won. Somehow fitting.
As we prepare for a new year, and a new decade, of gaming I'm reminded that our group has been together for 21 years now. That's a lot of games nights and a lot of shared enjoyment.
Last night Giro, Karl and I our final games night of the decade. We played Irish Guage again because Karl hadn't played it before and he won. Somehow fitting.
As we prepare for a new year, and a new decade, of gaming I'm reminded that our group has been together for 21 years now. That's a lot of games nights and a lot of shared enjoyment.
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