Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2015

[HairyDogWalker]

I see Homeland there. Who else has bought Homeland? I'm hoping to get another game of that soon.

[Zarniwoop]

Philsy brought along his copy I believe.

[RichardD]

We played Roll for the Galaxy. Twice. Though I was forced to play the co-op Castle Panic first. And I spent most of that game wishing I was playing Roll.

[Zarniwoop]

A bit light on numbers this week, though we did have new people.

Richard broke out his Powergrid: Deluxe which did look rather spiffing. There were 5 players for this one and I hung about waiting for the next bunch of players to arrive.

Philsy and Chris then turned up not long after and we set about with a quick game to start with Fidelitas. This was a neat little card game where you have mission cards that explain conditions you need to meet to score points. Players have character cards, two to start, and on there turn they play a card carry out what it says on the card then pick a new card. If they meet a mission card they score it by showing the card face up in front of them and draw a replacement. The character cards have guilds if they match one of the guild houses in the locations laid out they must be placed on the matching guild otherwise they can be placed anywhere. Really fun little filler game that I would definitely play again.

Next up was Evolution which is another game I liked this time we played with 5 so I got to try the normal play style. I really enjoy this game and every game plays out differently. I didn't come last and managed to get a decent score so that was good for me

Finally the others went on to play Istanbul which is another great game but I had to drop out as I needed to get home.

[RichardD]

I think that the "new people" was just one new people, Francis. She'd not played Power Grid before, but fitted right in, delivering plenty of light-hearted verbal abuse to Martin. Unfortunately, she won - beating me on the tie-breaker - so she's not being invited back.

[Zarniwoop]

Sorry folks been slacking on the write-ups again, I wont attempt to catchup the many previous weeks as I have definitely slept since then and have no chance of remembering it all    

This week we had a pretty decent turn out and we started the evening with a simple little card game, whose name escapes me I'm afraid. After that game was finished Richard was up for trying out his copy of Black Fleet which we missed out on playing at the recent UKGamesExpo. The components of this game are very good, the ship models look great and it comes with metal doubloons which is never a bad thing. A lighter family game but we spent the whole game laughing and joking around the table as this is very much a get the other players type game. The rules seemed to be well written and with enough humour in there that learning direct from them was not a hardship. Everyone seemed to enjoy the game immensely and I for one would certainly be up for more games of this in the future.

We then went a little old school and broke out my copy of First Sparks which was great, I still really like this game and for me I prefer to play this than standard Powergrid. Unfortunately Richard properly schooled me on this game leaving my poor impoverished clan in his wake   
It was a good evening and we got to play some great games, looking forward to next week to see what else we can get to play.
 

[RichardD]

The first game I played was Mottainai.  Got to say, this was the first game I've played where it *didn't* feel rushed.  It's another game by Carl Chudyk where he tries to recapture the essence of Glory to Rome (though Uchronia remains the masterpiece in my opinion), so it has plenty of bizarre terminology and chaos.  I believe that in the published version they are changing the play area named "workplace" into "craft bench" after an acknowledged genius told them that it would make the game more easily understood.  Judging by the near-instant way Adam grasped the tricky difference between "smithing" and "crafting", I'd say that it was an inspired change of wording.

Black Fleet was really good fun; I want to play it again, though, and I didn't realise when I grabbed the black pieces that this would also make me the start player - which ought to be assigned randomly.  Made doubly bad by the fact that some people have perceived a definite first player advantage (so that's why I won), and my failure to point out that - if in doubt - go after Richard, if only to even this up.  Though to be honest, I think people *did* go after me whenever they could.  I *hate* learning direct from the rulebook, and hate being taught direct from the rulebook even more, yet the game was simple enough - and the rulebook well written enough - to do just that.  Really fun game, I want to play it again soon.

Power Grid: The First Sparks is an odd one.  It removes one of the key parts of Power Grid - the action - yet still manages to feel like Power Grid (unlike Power Grid: Factory Manager - which had a turn order manipulation vibe going on but otherwise didn't feel at all like Power Grid).  It also does away with lots of (tedious?) mental arithmetic.  Yet overall, I'd prefer to play "proper" power Grid if the time was available.  And the reason why I schooled you was down to remembering a few important maxims just in time - one of which is don't get too far behind in building (you can't afford to catch up), and that it's easier to win the game despite being at the front of the turn order for most of the game than it is in Power Grid.  The game's just too short to dick around at the back for long.

Three good - excellent, even - games  last night.

[HairyDogWalker]

Unfortunately, I missed Spirit Games this week. However, I did have a good game of Kanban: Automotive Revolution in Leeds, last night, so would quite like another game of it whilst the rules are clear in my head. Does anyone have it?

[RichardD]

Luke does. When offered one of the two Stronghold games from last year I got Panamax instead, but Panamax does nothing for me. I've only played Kanban once, it left me in a perpetual state of confusion and contains at least one element that I don't usually like in games, but I did enjoy that one game and want to play it again. Unfortunately that one game was about 8 weeks ago now, and my memory of the rules is fading fast.

[RichardD]

Wednesday 17th June

Seeing a few new faces this summer - James, Frances and Amar, to name just three.

Last night was a good score for me - we managed to play four games.

Evolution was won by James, chiefly by persuading Phil to go after Andy in the final round. I wasn't in the running, after making a couple of unforced errors and seeing Andy eat my main critter two turns in a row (in a new "go after the player in 4th or 5th place" tactic; and he wonders why I didn't leap to his defence when James and Phil dogpiled him).

creatures was next I think. With two games already under my belt I proved (to myself at least) that this game *isn't* a default win for the first player. I was the 4th player and kicked ass. Whether it is unbalanced with a level playing field of experience I don't know, but I don't think I care either. It's just a good, fun game.

Mysterium next, using my Polish edition but playing by the Ukranian rules. And as a result, we won. First time I've managed that. OK, we were playing on easy, but it was still pretty nail-biting stuff. Lots of crude humour at the start, though, when my home-made crystal ball player pieces all fell apart. Might need to bolt them together instead of relying on cheap superglue to bond metal to wood ....

Roll for the Galaxy is now my go-to game in pretty much every situation, and it proved a decent closer. Amar picked it up pretty quickly (he's played enough Race), Chris looked to have a good engine going, but you have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat me at Roll.

[Forum Staff]

seeing Andy eat my main critter two turns in a row (in a new "go after the player in 4th or 5th place" tactic; and he wonders why I didn't leap to his defence when James and Phil dogpiled him).

Gross misrepresentation!

You had the fattest, plumpest, tastiest herbivore in the game at that point (6 body) - just one bite out of which fed my entire pack of carnivores, unlike the tough stringy small things otherwise on the menu.

It makes for an interesting balancing mechanic - you need to be big enough to dissuade the carnivores whilst not being so big that you set yourself up as a plump target.

[RichardD]

Yes, but it took both of your Intelligence cards the second tie around. Cards that might have been better put to use snacking on someone you were actually fighting for the lead with?

[Zarniwoop]

Did you not also squeeze in a game of Black Fleet?

Our table managed to play Rialto which is a great little game that I still have not managed to get my head around although I managed to score some points in the end to not end up last

We then played Bucket King always a good laugh and we managed three rounds all of which I lost

[Zarniwoop]

creatures was next I think.  With two games already under my belt I proved (to myself at least) that this game *isn't* a default win for the first player.  I was the 4th player and kicked ass.  Whether it is unbalanced with a level playing field of experience I don't know, but I don't think I care either.  It's just a good, fun game.

Ahh I followed the link which indeed goes to Black Fleet but for some reason you called it "Creatures"    

[Zarniwoop]

After finally getting hold of Kingsport Festival I was duty bound to give it a play on the Wednesday. Now there was a lot of pressure on myself to like the game because of the time taken for this to make it to UK distribution, but I was fairly confident as I had been reading about it for sometime.

The rules are quite light and quick to pick up, though some of the font choices made some of the examples and side bars hard to read. Superficially the rules look quite good, though in gameplay there were a few questions not readily covered in the rules. In the end though our on the fly rules judgements pretty well matched clarifications found in the games BGG forums.

The game itself will feel familiar to anyone who has played Kingsburg but this is definitely its own game. We played the recommended way which is without the Scenarios for the first game and it went along at a pretty sound pace, never feeling like it was dragging. The actions are simple and the choices to be made are meaningful but not agonising.

I really enjoyed my game of this and now I understand how it plays a bit better maybe my choices will be more informed in future games.

There are some questionable design choices though the Elder God cards are way too big, especially seeing as the main board is already quite substantial in size. A smaller size for each card or maybe a sideboard with them on would have been better. The building tiles with their abilities are nice but as Richard suggested having a stack of them, 1 per player, to be taken once you have built it to have in front of you as a reminder would have been a much better idea. I certainly would have been prepared to pay a little more for the game to have had this.

I may well use some of the files from BGG to help in this regard and probably scan the building tiles to create a set of player collectable tiles for future games.

Overall I really enjoyed this and it feels really slick to play.

Next up was Spyfall a conversation style game. Players are dealt a card either depicting a location and a role or telling you are the spy. Players ask each other questions based on their card and respond to questions in the same manner. The spy wants to find the location that everyone else is in, the others are trying to find out who knows the correct location without giving it away to the spy. Rounds are timed and each player gets a chance to stop the clock and make an accusation, which the others can vote on.

Interesting game that I'm glad I tried but this is not my cup of tea or even anywhere near my comfort zone. I gave it my best shot but ultimately, at least for me, I'll not be wanting to play this again. It did produce some merriment and a little bit of discomfort at the table

I can see with the right crowd his would be a hoot to play.