Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2015

[Zarniwoop]

Almost forgot we ended the evening with a few quick rounds of Red 7 which is always good fun, even without trying the advanced rules which we have yet to try.

This was good fun as ever and I even managed to win one round of it

Good evening of gaming and good company as always.

[RichardD]

I think that Spyfall will turn out to be the sort of game that *really* needs the right crowd, in the right mindset and in the right numbers. Four certainly isn't it. I am looking forward to trying it with 6-8, as I think that it will make an excellent addition to Resistance for that hind of game.

We played Red 7 after you'd wrapped up - nice little filler. Then finished off with Black Fleet (another win for me; another game where the first player wasn't winning). I like it, a lot.

Kingsburg - I'm not sure how much of it's own game it really is - it's *very* similar to Kingsburg, including three building resources and an enemy to defeat each round. But although the differences to Kingsburg are very small, each of them is an improvement IMO. There are a couple of oddities (the tiles around the board are too large and too thin; the chits telling you what each building's power is ought to have been duplicated so that a player could take the chit when they built the building), but overall I think that they turned Kingsburg up a notch. Only one notch, mind you, and as I'm not a huge fan of Kingsburg and already own that game (courtesy of a Geek trade), I'll not be buying Kingsport Festival. But I'm pretty sure that I will play it again.

[HairyDogWalker]

Not being a huge fan of Kingsburg, I opted out of Kingsport and joined Philsy and Carol for a game of March of the Ants which was sold to us as a quick game. I always worry about games when the owner sells it to you as a quick game. If the best thing that they have to say about the game is that it will be over soon, then what does that say about the quality of the game As it was, I needn't have worried, as it was very enjoyable. You each control rival ant colonies, which are exploring and competing for resources.

Frances came in from work, just as we were finishing March of the Ants, so we made a 4 for Ninjato. I was very keen to play this, as I hadn't played it for a year. I took it along to another group last weekend and whilst I played A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition), someone borrowed Ninjato and played it. It is an action selection game with a bit of a push your luck thing going on and it has large wooden shuriken as your action markers. You play as Samurai, needing to balance training to gain skills, raiding clan houses for treasures, bribing clan members with those treasures and buying end game bonuses. It took a lot longer than it should of done, but was still very enjoyable. Ninjato is a similar difficulty level to Stone Age, but I prefer it.

[Forum Staff]

No Richard, due to injury, so since Paul can't get him to write it I'll kick this weeks off.

From our table:

High Society
As a soft opener. It's an auction game with the kicker that the person who spends the most money automatically loses. Chris and I had an escalating bidding war over the last 2 cards (as we realised they would be the last 2 cards) which, being only moderate points, got neither of us anywhere. Zack just beat Vicky who, although she had more points, also had the least money.


Village
Vicky wiped the floor with Chris, Frances and myself, clocking up a huge lead by selling goods and sending missionaries to convert the natives which proved unassailable even by Chris' trading and my blitz on the village book.


Glass Road
Just Frances, Chris and Myself for this one as Vicky had to catch her train. As usual this trundled on with a satisfyingly close set of final scores (I think I won by half a point!)
 

[Zarniwoop]

For us we started the evening off with Sandcastles an interesting card game about building sandcastles which includes cards you can use to attack other peoples sandcastles to steal bits. There are bonus points available for building certain shapes or incorporating certain objects but if someone else matches or beats you they can take them away.

Fun little filler game but needs several players for the interaction to be interesting.

The next game on the table was Endeavor an excellent game from Z-man that I need to definitely play more often.

Sadly out of print these days but has pride of place in my collection. Pretty easy to pick up and play, despite the longevity since its last play.

[Zarniwoop]

Wednesday 8th July 2015

Started out the evening with a game of Scoville this was only the second game of this since getting hold of a copy. The first game was with 2 players and was very close and enjoyable, it was a little more chaotic for this game with 5 players. Interestingly the scores were still very close with people taking different choices. The actions are "simple" but the choices are meaningful without causing too much downtime.

It certainly feels like a game that takes a play or two to get to grips with the options but is not too daunting on those first plays.

Really enjoyed this game and is quirky and different which is something I like and this will certainly get more plays. Once again Tasty Minstrel Games have tapped that goldmine of games well done.

We finished the evening off with a game of La Strada a really quick but interesting game of route laying between different cities/towns/villages with the scoring for each affected by how many people have linked their routes to there.

This was a first time play for me and I found it really quite fun. I can see that this is one of the games where more players are better to add that tension and interactivity that makes things more interesting.

[RichardD]

I drove to the shop. First time properly behind the wheel of a car for ten weeks, and I've still got a lot of healing to do, but by leaving early I was able to get home in one piece.

So, having abandoned a massive sitting and sleeping session for Legendary Encounters: A Predator Deck Building Game (I can do it later in the week), and passing on the "delights" of Splendor and whatever game it was that Peter wanted to have explained to him, I found myself playing Steampunk Rally with Paul, Carol & Philsy.

It's a Kickstarter game, so I was predisposed to hate it. It was someone else's game (Paul had backed it on KS), so I was predisposed to hate it. And we were learning the game from the rulebook, which wasn't always clear on some of the questions, so I was predisposed to hate it.

I loved the game. And not simply because I won by a country mile (Paul maintaining his record by taking last place, BTW). No, I'd decided that I really liked the game by the end of the first turn (when we were all tied), so the end result had nothing to do with my opinion.

It's a cool race game (a tricky genre to pull off), with a steampunk theme (a tricky genre to pull off), where players build their machines by adding cards (a tricky genre to pull off), from cards they have been passed and drafted (a tricky genre to pull off). But the designers nailed it. There was not one single thing I could find fault with. The graphics are clear, functional and really good looking. The components excellent quality. The game rewarded planning AND opportunism. Every card passed could've used or MEANINGFULLY discarded (7 Wonders, take note). There was just enough direct interaction (on top of the draft) to have kept me honest if the others had realised what I was up to.

So now I have to think about getting a copy.

[Zarniwoop]

I backed Steampunk Rally because Carole liked the sound of it as it reminded her of Wacky Races.

It was the best run KS Campaign I have been a part of and the final quality of the Game in all Departments - Theme, Artwork, Components, Gameplay, rules and enjoyment meant I had a lot of fun playing it.

A lot of the questions had answers in the rulebook but I managed to miss them on the quick skims I did to find them. On the whole, as Richard mentioned, the Artwork was superb and the iconography fell into place quite quickly. Once we did the suggested starting rounds and moved onto playing in the prescribed manner it also induced that feeling of a chaotic race which was really good.

The next game should be so much smoother with everyone knowing how things work in the turn. Really interesting twist on the Race game and one I feel will get a lot of play on the Wed night Sessions as well as other gaming nights.

I appreciated the patience of the other players as I learned the rules on the fly, despite having read the rulebook and watched the run-throughs there is no substitute for diving straight in and giving it a go.

[Zarniwoop]

After Richard left we played a game of Artifacts, Inc. which was a really fun and quick card game where players play competing artefact hinting companies.

A mix of cards/dice and some very interesting choice to be made. I fear I missed the opportunity to end the game early enough to help me not lose and unfortunately handed the others two more or so turns that took hurt my chances quite badly.

Great fun evening and thanks again to Phil & Sal for letting us keep them up late to play games at the Shop.

[Forum Staff]

A mix of cards/dice and some very interesting choice to be made. I fear I missed the opportunity to end the game early enough to help me not lose and unfortunately handed the others two more or so turns that took hurt my chances quite badly.

Fortunately though, you didn't cause the end of everything by winning.

For the uninitiated: Paul is renowned for losing games that he owns (and only the games that he owns!). If he ever wins such a game then it is written that the stars will align, the old ones will arise from the depths and the end of the world will be upon us.

I was having a bad time with illness, so missed this Wednesday, but should be able to make this Sunday afternoon.

[HairyDogWalker]

So Richard, does this mean that you don't need a lift to the shop on Sunday, now that you're got your independence back?  If you do want a lift,  be aware that I would need to be home by about 6pm.

Chris.

[RichardD]

I'm not sure whether I'll go on Sunday or not, but for an event like that - where one of us might need to bail early - it's best if I drive myself. But I'd still like lifts on Weds though - I only managed to play unto 930 last night, knowing that I had to be awake for the drive home!

[Zarniwoop]

Ahh well in this case I could have won as it was Philsy's game but I did lose Steampunk Rally so the universe is quite safe

[RichardD]

Sometimes there are games that I just "get", almost straight away.  Steampunk Rally was one of those games.  It's not always a sign that I will actually like the game, but it doesn't hurt.

I think the best thing about Steampunk Rally was the way that it revolved around card drafting, but done right.  Unlike the game with the too-large cards.

[RichardD]

We played it again today, 6-player.  Neil won.  I managed to scrape third after stuffing up again and again (playing one card wrong two or even three times - taking one die when I was entitled to take three; mis-timing my run to the line leaving me one space short, and dropping obstacles on the course on the very turn that I was going to have to drive through all of them)!

Crucially I tried this time to play as many black cards as possible (I ignored them first game, and wondered if they were a little weak).  They're not - I could have won if I'd done it right.  And that was another big plus point in favour of the game - I made mistakes, despite knowing how to play, and made poor dedcisions.  At no stage did I think "well, that was bad luck" - it was bad play by me, and better play by others, which determined the result.