The Mine Shaft Gap has moved house!

It's true.
After more than 8 months (has it been that long?), we wanted a new home that was our very own, owner-occupied rather than rented (albeit for free) from Blogger. A place where we could knock down walls and add new rooms, paint it in gaudy colours, and put nails in the walls.
The new location is http://themineshaftgap.com/blog - if you have bookmarks you should update them now.
The new house was built with WordPress, a free and complete construction kit with an enormous user community, so a wealth of extra features and support is available.

Although we are living in our new house already, some of the renovations are not yet finished. For those visitors that I know personally, I'll soon send you all your own front door key, so you can come in and leave your own stuff here too if you want to. Of course, you will still need your key to get in - if I left the house unlocked I'd get the unscrupulous turning up and leaving rubbish lying around (comment spam).
Also, although I own the address, the "land" underneath my house is provided free of charge by the real estate vendor who sold me the address. In return for the free hosting I have to cop thumping ugly billboards over the front gate. Once I'm more settled in I'll cough up the cash for a more permanent block of land, either with this vendor or another, and the ugly advertising will come down.

Also, I'll keep this old place for storage as long as Blogger lets me. I'm not moving any of the pictures earlier than today's date - hopefully they will all still be visible on the walls of the new place, thanks to linked wall display panels.

So please come and visit. If I know you well don't bother registering at the new place yet, because when I send you your new key it will give you more freedom than the average visitor that just turns up.
See you soon.

Game Session, Jun 25, 2006

Venue: Paul's place.
Present: Brad, Brian, Alex, Pat, Paul.
Played: Villa Paletti, Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirls (SPANC), Das Zepter von Zavandor.

Thanks again to Brad for the pics this week.


Villa Paletti: Something to keep almost-4-year-old Sean diverted with Brad playing while we waited for the others.
It's always fun watching the innocence and fearlessness of a child as they reach for the rods that are among those most likely to bring down the whole tower; even more so when they succeed and make the challenge just that little lit harder for the next player!
In this particular game we managed to reach the entire 6 levels before the inevitable crash.



Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirls (SPANC): Before we started this there was some discussion on having a go at Pat's new epic economic expansion game, Indonesia.
But we decided to leave this for another night given Pat's assessment that with 5p it would be after midnight by the time we finished, so we got underway instead with SPANC.
If ever there was game idea designed around a title then is it. The concept is simple enough: Your characters have attributes in 4 categories (SP, A, N, and C) that can be enhanced (or detracted from) by acquiring various "toys", likes pieces of amour, weapons, extra actions and the like. In what appears to be a counter-sexism feature, the most valuable ''toys" are pool boys who, apart from serving cocktails and conducting various pool-cleaning services, provide a +1 benefit on all attributes.
Players step up their best Catgirl for a given "caper" in an effort to win loot and more toys, and then simply roll 2d6 against a given attribute to determine success. The winner is the player with the most loot after so many rounds.
Despite some care in the initial selection of attributes, this seemed to come down to dice rolls, with very little game interest other than the pictures on the cards. Before we had finished Pat remarked that we could have been through the rules for Indonesia by now, much to my chagrin. ''I'm having fun in my own special way," he said, "... and you can quote me on that."
Total time: ~50 mins.

Results: Pat 6. Alex: 4. Brad, Brian, Paul: 2.



Das Zepter von Zavandor: Goa could only accomodate 4p, so we went instead for this economic expansion and management game, themed around magic items. There is a perception here of many paths to victory, but I'm not yet convinced that is not just an illusion! Accumulate victory points through magic items, gemstones, and completing the various skill tracks, but the big points come at the end when the more powerful cards and the special sentinels come out.
Each player is off to a head-start in one of the special skills areas, and general wisdom seems to be to upgrade this as an early priority and start using its advantages as soon as possible. As the game progresses and each player's purchasing choices get more interesting, the game becomes susceptible to analysis paralysis as you try to optimise your decisions and account for every last unit of magic dust (currency). With the occasional discount thrown in, this aspect strangely enough reminds me of Age of Renaissance, although these games obviously have nothing more in common. As Brad and Alex remarked, this aspect of game financial management would be helped by having a spreadsheet or other computerised tool!
However, despite the cash optimisation challenge faced each turn, it didn't feel to me that the game was getting bogged down at all. But it would certainly go faster with fewer and more experienced players, and I was surprised when Brad announced just as we were finishing up that it was already after midnight. From about the halfway point Alex was looking like the most likely winner, and by the end the only surprise in the placings and scores was the enormous margin that Al had achieved!
Total time: A whopping 217 minutes.
We should have done Indonesia after all...

Results: Al: 75. Pat: 57. Paul: 50. Brian: 37. Brad: 29.

Norwegian Mine Shaft Gap

Mark recently discovered this story (click the title above) about those hoopy Norwegians using a (figurative) mine shaft to store a collection of seeds to be saved in case of a hypothetical doomsday scenario.
My question is, what seeds are they storing? "...It will ultimately house replicates of every known crop variety...", says an anonymous statement.
Ultimately.
Not immediately.
So you can bet they'll start with skanky Scandinavian plants.
Well, this is a disaster waiting to happen. We all emerge from our mine shafts after 100 years of nuclear winter to prepare the soil for... what? Not that I'm a botanist, but I couldn't think of one plant they grow in Norway. So I Googled, and the best I could come up with was pine trees, heather, and something called "fagerkokke".
Now, I'm sure these are all very nice plants, and probably quite acceptable for the Norsemen to chow down on, but they're nothing I would want to eat. After living in a mine shaft on nothing but tinned baked beans for years, my digestive system just wouldn't be ready for crunchy pine cones, and whatever the fager fagerkokke is.
Where are the mangoes? The bananas? The pumpkins...?

I detect a Norwegian conspiracy. We need to act quickly, to ensure that there is something for the rest of us to eat on the other side of doomsday.
Mr President, we must not allow... a fruit and vegetable gap.

Game Session, Jun 18, 2006

Venue: Richard's place.
Present: Andrew, Brad, Brian, Alex, Paul, Richard.
Played: Frisch Fisch, China, Hell Rail, Tikal, Euphrat & Tigris, San Juan.

Exactly 6p led to 2 games of 3 players for the whole night.

Erratum: A few weeks ago I said that Richard had identified the circus music (referred to whenever we play Zirkus Flohcati) as Entrance of the Gladiators. In fact this was Andrew, and I have since updated the relevant blog entry. Apologies for the previously incorrect attribution.

Thanks again to Brad for the pics this week, which will appear here soon...


Frisch Fisch (Fresh Fish): That factory-to-shop road optimisation game (an inadequate description for a great little game). One hour long, to the minute. Objective is to get as low a score as possible, so Al's result was a convincing win.

Results: Al: -6. Brian: 6. Richard: 21.



China: Andrew picked this up at last weekend's Australian Games Expo. This game is a re-do of Web of Power, on a map of China rather than Europe. There are some other minor differences as well, to do with the playing of emissaries, and a two-sided board, to accomodate 3-4 players on one side, and 4- 5 players on the other.
This played quite nicely in 3 quarters of an hour for 3 of us, and as Andrew pointed out, a bit of a "chess game", particularly in the second half. I found I was so focussed on my own cards and plays that I didn't notice the card deck, and therefore the game, had run out a turn or two sooner than I expected! Boosts from my emissary plays gave me a respectable showing in the scores.
20 mins rules; 26 mins game play.

Results: Brad: 43. Paul: 42. Andrew: 37.



Hell Rail: Card-based train game, with a theme of devils, demons, and sinners.
The players seemed not entirely satisfied with this one. 58 mins.

Results: Richard: 44. Alex: 38. Brian: 25.



Tikal: Like a hearty, steak-and-potatoes dinner, this one almost always satisfies the need for gaming goodness. It seemed that with 3 players the analysis-paralysis factor was more significant than one might expect with 4p for Tikal, as each player has a fraction more control, and is a fraction less likely to have building tactical plays messed up by other players.
Of course, that might just be an illusion and I might just be talking crap...
Despite a rather dumb turn shortly after the first scoring round, wherein I thought I was scoring again, I generally managed to hold my own on the points track until the last scoring round. Both Andrew and Brad seemed to have a healthy stock of explorers still on hand, while mine were already all on the board, many in sub-optimal, awkward locations. This felt like it reduced my agility to reach more valuable spaces, although this too might have been an illusion! The game end was rather anticlimatic, much like this report.
20 mins rules; 91 mins game time.

Results: Andrew: 115. Paul: 112. Brad: 105.



Euphrat & Tigris: Make sure your weakest collection is a strong one!
Approx 70mins.

Results: Richard: 14. Alex: 10. Brian: 7.



San Juan: This is a fantastic card game, with enough richness in the cards to keep it interesting for many, many plays.
This is one game I should buy my own copy of! Of course, enjoyment helped by having a decisive win...
56 mins incl rules explan.
Note the pic: I asked Brad to get a snapshot of Richard's coffee mug (used by Alex on this particular night). I just spotted something of immediate appeal in this, and I might use it as an associated image for the M. S. G.

Results: Player: Building face values, Chapel bonus, Special building bonuses, total.
Paul: 20, 0, 12, 32.
Andrew: 15, 6, 0, 21.
Brad: 15, 0, 4, 19.

Game Session, Jun 11, 2006

Venue: Paul's place.
Present: Craig, Liming, Alex, Mark, Paul.
Played: Klunker, Puerto Rico, Attila, Mama Mia.

Some of the usual suspects out this week because of the innaugural Australian Games Expo in Albury (see here for source link).
Here also is an account of that event by Pat.
The old Nokia again for the pics this week, as Brad was out of action (although not in Albury).


Klunker: A short 'filler' before the others arrived, which ended up blowing out to 45mins! Craig must play this in his sleep, as well as sprinkle magic luck dust over the card deck (how else could he keep getting dealt sets of 4?).
I'd had enough of this before we were even halfway through! The misery eventually came to an end a good 20 minutes or more after Mark and Alex arrived.

Results: Craig: 34. Liming: 10. Paul: 10 (but wins the tie-break for 2nd by having the most cards).



Puerto Rico: A good baptism for Mark, although Liming had only played the PC version before. I'd be keen to get his view of the main differences between that and playing against real players...
Mark seemed to struggle getting commodities early on, although he did make a few good building purchases. Liming went a strong indigo production strategy and was the most successful "shipper", but perhaps at the expense of getting some of the better buildings early on. Craig also shipped well, but helped with some stronger building purchases.
I too tried to stick with a consistent shipping strategy, getting 'free' slaves through my hacienda. However, I had a good 10 (or more) potential points stomped off my final score when I didn't get to ship in the very last turn, after investing heavily in a wharf! I should have seen it coming I suppose.
Al almost completely ducked shipping altogether, and focussed instead on purple buildings (with $3 quarry discounts) and bonuses, with devastating effect in the final score reckoning!
110 mins incl rules explan.

Results: Player: shipping VPs, buildings, bonuses, total.
Alex: 8, 23, 17, 48.
Craig: 16, 17, 0, 33.
Liming: 20, 11, 0, 31.
Paul: 18, 12, 0, 30.
Mark: 8, 22, 0, 30.



Attila: This is a simple but quite intriguing game of majorities, with winning plays all in the timing. I've heard the criticism of the theming being weak in this (eg; Pat's view that this could be shoe-selling franchises), and perhaps this is fair enough - there is nothing special in the geographic regions which are very carefully drawn on the map board with unnecessary contrivance and detail in the borders. But the theme still works well for me - I'm quite happy with the gradual expansion of competing tribes throughout Europe from the central-north.
Lesson learned: Play your 'move two score spaces' marker early rather later!
Well done to Mark, who slipped right past Craig and me in the last scoring round for a decisive win.
85 mins incl 15 mins rules explan. 30mins, 17, 18, 20 for rounds 1-4 respectively.

Results: Player: Rnd 1 score, rnd2 (progressive), rnd 3, rnd4 (=final).
Mark: 7, 18, 48, 86.
Paul: 9, 28, 47, 71.
Craig: 11, 31, 55, 68.
Liming: 6, 18, 31, 48.
Alex: 8, 21, 29, 47.



Mama Mia: Without trying too hard we managed to talk Alex into staying on for another game, despite his need to get up early for a DBM tournament! This game ended up being 35 minutes (instead of the promised 20), including some entertainment from Mark who recited the "badger song", triggered by appearance of the mushroom cards. None of us knew what he was referring to, so he provided a link: http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/ (and also a timely soccer-inspired version: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/footy/).

Results: Craig: 5. Mark: 4(6). Liming: 4(1). Al: 3. Paul: 2.

Game Session, Jun 4, 2006

Venue: Brian's place.
Present: Brad, Alex, Andrew, Richard, Brian, Paul.
Played: Zirkus Flohcati, Top Race, Barbarossa und die Rätselmeister.

Thanks to Brad for the pics!


Zirkus Flohcati: This is the funny set-making card-game with the risk element in card flipping - turn over the same colour as a card already available and you've blown your turn. A 19-minute filler played until Alex arrived.
Brian snuck through with his declaration of the gala show. Until then, Richard was looking like the more successful player, with his quick melding of low-card sets.
Presentation of the gala show is supposed to accompanied by the circus music: da-da-daddle-addle-ad-da- daa- daa...

There was some discussion of the name of this piece afterwards, with Andrew insisting it was something called "Enter the Gladiators" (or similar). Well, according to at least two sources, he's right: See TorgoX, who describes the piece written by Czech, Julius Fučík, at the end of the 19th century - he also includes a midi file (which I couldn't get to work in Firefox, but did work in Internet Explorer).
A supporting source is good ole' Wikipedia: See the Julius Fučík link, which includes another (shorter) midi file (which does work in Firefox!), and Julius' passport photo, which suggests he might have had a job at one time as a circus ringmaster, hence the association of this piece of music with circuses and clowns.
The Wikipedia source indicates the piece has also been known as "Thunder and Blazes".

Results: Brian: 54. Richard: 48. Andrew: 44. Paul: 41. Brad: 38.



Top Race: Card-playing car racing, almost as funny as Ave Caesar. All the car "strength" cards are dealt at the start of the game, and then you bid for cars, generally favouring those you will have most control over based on your hand of cards. Then you race, tactically playing cards to optimise your own car's position while upsetting those of your opponents. But, you can also earn (or lose) extra money after the race has started, by betting on those cars you think are most likely to win.
The game-changing cards are those that cause a break-down or a catch-up - the player's choice how to use them. There are exactly 3 of these, with each pairing the coloured race cars. If you have one of these then you have some power, even better if they match your car. If you don't then an important tactic is to try and keep your matched car not too far away if yours is ahead, to discourage the playing of the break-down (or to minimise its impact).
Timing: 40 mins for rules and first race, 31 mins for the 2nd race, 23 mins for 3rd race.

Results: Progressive after race 1, 2, 3 (final position):
Richard: 410, 640, 830 (1)
Paul: 450, 670, 690 (2)
Brian: 230, 270, 620 (3)
Brad: 240, 400, 410 (4)
Al: 150, 160, 280 (5)
Andrew: 190, 210, 200 (6)



Barbarossa und die Rätselmeister: A controversial choice, that by the end was seemingly reviled by Andrew, Al and Brad! Sure, the game mechanics could be better, but the plasticine modelling is an original (although now, not unique) core game element, and is still quite cool. For mine, this game is no worse than Humm Bug, which almost never gets played by the rules as written...
From memory, the first sculpture to be correctly guessed was Andrew's sceptre; in fact, I recognised his royal set almost as soon as it appeared, but just couldn't think of the word orb until it was revealed at the end! Brian's apparent give-way sign and flat sheet had Richard guessing pizza (rectangle-shaped) and pizza oven shovel, and me getting a flash of inspiration that in fact it was a broom and rug, until Brian burst our bubbles by revealing that his pair in fact had no commom theme (balalaika and paper). Nor did Brad's, who at one point had me guessing that he'd made an electric eel and tungsten filament from a light globe (slug and coiled spring).
Alex's religiously significant Virgin Mary-looking thing, and Santa sleigh were the first two to be guessed out (sphinx and ankh).
I doubt I would have ever guessed Richard's racing car theme with helmet and spoiler, since I seemed to get stuck on furniture and plumbing with his sculptures.
My choices seemed to create some controversy too, as I only made representative portions of an elephant (trunk only) and gazelle (head).
Perhaps this is best left for parties, given the creativity required and the controversy created! 102 minutes with 6p.

Results: Paul: 1st (more successful guesses), then Al, Brad, Richard, Andrew and Brian, in that order.

Game Session, May 28, 2006

Venue: Paul's place.
Present: Brad, Pat, Alex, Richard, Brian, Paul.
Played: Gother than Thou, That's Life, Goa, La Citta, Sherlock Holmes.

Thanks to Brad for the pics!


Gother than Thou: I first read "Gother" to sound like "gopher", as opposed to "being more goth-like", an indication of how successful I was likely to be in this short and silly romp. In the rules sheet it describes itself is as a parody on the goth subculture and, like Army of Darkness, each card should be read as it is played. Don't enter too much emotional investment in this one; your fate is largely in the hands other players as they play cards on you like ''Visit from your Mom", which gives you a cash boost, but also drastically lowers your Ankh score (ie., the index of true Goth-ness that you need to win).
Brad gave us a brief segment of This Corrosion, which to Pat sounded like a re-do of Good Vibrations. The latter stuck with us for the rest of the night.
20 minutes for five of us. Brad won.



That's Life: The tile jumping and claiming game, with clover leaves to convert negative tiles into positive ones.
I sat out of this one having dinner. All over in 20 minutes again.

Results: Brad: 19. Richard: 17. Brian: 9. Pat: 6. Alex: 1.



Goa: This is one that I've had my eye on for a long time, so I'm pleased I finally got to play. There seem to be a lot of "moving parts" in the game engine here, which take a bit of getting used to. I found this reminded me a lot of Puerto Rico, although not simply because of the theme of colonial commodity production and shipping. Actually the game mechanics and actions of these two games have nothing in common that I can see. Other than the theme similarity, I think it is the multiple paths to victory element, and the fact that on first playing, one just doesn't know the best course of action or the true value of things. Which means this wants more playing!
So like early playings of Puerto Rico, the feeling after ending the game is similar - there are many paths to victory and there is much to learn and improve upon in one's tactics. Let's do this one again soon!
122 minutes, incl. rules.

Results: Pat: 44. Paul: 34. Brad: 32.



La Citta: Richard, Brian and Alex played this while the other 3 of us played Goa, starting and finishing within 1 minute of us, perfect timing in readiness for the last game of the night.
Apparently Brian spent some considerable game time just on the wrong side of the starvation knife-edge, which obviously affected his final score. 121 minutes incl. rules.

Results: Alex: 32. Richard: 30. Brian: 21.
Alex celebrates his win:










Sherlock Holmes: All six of us came back together for this crazy card game of hunting down villains and depleting one's hand of cards. To compliment your hand, a round starts with "the game is afoot" - I wonder if the designers thought of this?
Alex's generous use of Thick Fog was most amusing, as was Pat's Scottish accent whenever Scotland Yard appeared. He didn't really need to be reminded that Scotland Yard wasn't actually in Scotland...
We ended up playing three rounds, with Richard winning deservedly. Although you are at the mercy of the random card draws and the unpredictable actions of other players, he did consistently make the right plays.
53 minutes with 6 of us.

Results (lower is better): Richard: 3. Pat: 12. Paul: 45. Brian: 76. Alex: 108. Brad: 131.