ConTrail, part 4 of 5: Game results and pictorial summary, day 1

Updated entries from Craig, April 19 2006.
Games played: Trias, Blink, Klunker, Citadels, Army of Darkness, Saboteur, San Juan, St. Petersburg, Humm Bug, Ca$h 'n Gun$, Titan, Age of Steam, Mexica, Puerto Rico, Conquest of the Empire, I Doubt It, Lupus in Tabula, "Categories", Hearts, Darkover, Betrayal at the House on the Hill.

Brad was keen to get a mugshot of everyone to prove they were there. Unfortunately at no stage was his picture taken, leaving some room for doubt about the photographer himself...
Here are Ken, Paul and Alex to start with.













First game: Trias: Alex: 22. Brad: 20. Ken: 18. Paul: 17. 80 minutes. A nice game about dinosaur population expansion and continental drift. I do like this - it should come out more often.



Blink: A little hard to read the handwritten account here. The last sentence reads, first to play all cards (~30 ea) wins. The first sentence says either, Craig had 5 cards left, or Craig had scads left. Either way, the outcome implies that Marcus won. Two minutes long, if I'm reading that right...

Here also are the mugshots of Craig and Marcus (Craig is a little camera-shy).













Here also is the view from the balcony where both Trias and Blink were played. Can you make out the kangaroos? Try zooming in on the middle left.


Klunker: Ken: 34. Alex: 17. Brad: 16. 30 minutes.






Hamburger and chips break for lunch.
And now you can see the kangaroos! (Below.)







Citadels: Craig: 25. Marcus: 22. Paul: 20. Brad: 19. Alex: 16. Ken: 11.
85 minutes. Nice game with this many players - keeps you guessing! In the very first round I was assassinated by Marcus, and I thought it was October 30 all over again! However, that was the last time I was anyone's target in this game, and I finally ended up with a middling score.
That beer cup in the middle distance contains some of Mark S.' lime and chilli home brew...


Richard and Michael soon turned up. Michael came with a nice looking bottle of Johnny Walker (black) as a birthday present. Thank you, Mikey!
Richard came bearing Martin Wallace's Struggle of Empires - Thank you again, Richard!

Unfortunately time didn't allow this one to get played, but it is booked in for playing at the first return of the regular Sunday night sessions that Richard participates in.
Pat and Rick D. then turned up soon after, while we were still playing Citadels. This completed the weekend's compliment of gamers. Pat was promising the revelation of yet another special birthday gift...

Army of Darkness: Marcus wins, with Rick D., Michael, Pat and Marcus along for the ride. 45 minutes.





At the conclusion of AoD, Pat revealed the special gift from him and Craig: Conquest of the Empire! Including an extra rule set for CotE II, by Martin Wallace! Wow!! And an interesting coincidence getting two games by the same designer.
Well, I made a commitment there and then that I would study the rules for this while everyone else gamed on. It had to be played!

Everyone else then moved on to Saboteur: Richard V: 9. Rick D: 6. Craig: 5. Al, Pat, Marcus, Ken, Brad: all on 4. Mikey: 3. 40 minutes.





Updated entry from Craig on San Juan: Pat: 34; Craig and Rick: 31.

Updated entry from Craig on St. Petersburg: Pat: 105; Craig and Rick: 68. Apparently Pat was getting around 20VPs per round for buildings which "made all the difference..."!



Humm Bug: Richard, Michael, Brad, Alex, Marcus and Ken played this on the table next to me while I continued poring over the CotE rules. They placed another token on the board for me, so that I could call out answers too. This was cool, since I came equal second with Richard and Michael, behind the winner, Marcus, without officially being in the game! 40 minutes.



The same guys then moved on to Ca$h 'n Gun$: Loads of silliness, with some deaths this time! Marcus won again, with $120K, then Ken: 110; Mikey: 50; Richard: 40. Al and Brad both pushed their luck too far and "bought it", taking 4 and 3 bullets respectively (so Brad was less dead than Alex, perhaps?).


Age of Steam: Was this with the Korea map? Craig: Yes; this variation sees you shipping cubes to any other city tile where that cube colour already exists (ie., ignore the city tile colour) and ship to a 'like' cube. Lots of expensive mountains and interesting play because you not only worry about the cube you want to ship, but also the one you want to ship to - thus 2 chances of being pussed! Also, the urbanisation tiles bring out extra cubes as usual, but they can play havoc by shortening your routes (eg: a blue cube ends up in the middle of a previously long blue run, thus cutting your income!)
Updated results: Pat: 132. Rick D.: 96. Craig: 93. A walk-over for Pat, I'd say. 90 minutes.








Titan: 1: Richard V. 2: Brad. 3: Al. 4: Marcus.
5hrs and 15mins, but there is a dinner break in the middle of that.



Here is a picture of a conflict taking place on one of the battle boards (jungle)...







Conquest of the Empire: The epic rolled out, after rules reading and explaining, and setup. Yes, a big upfront investment in learning, but worth it!

A total of about 4 hours playing time, taking out our dinner break and my initial study of the rules, but leaving in the rules explanation to Michael and Ken and the setup.
Results: Paul: 215. Ken: 170. Mikey: 130. Hooray! A rare victory to the (new!) owner of an epic!






Mexica: Updated report from Craig: Craig 116, Pat 107, Rick 103.
Craig had early lead and survived a big play by Pat who tried to section off the remaining board at game end and then block everyone from gaining access through cunning placement of water... only he forgot the tiny detail which sees any player able to teleport to any space on the board by using 5 action points :-) Craig hung on...




Puerto Rico: Updated report from Craig: Rick 45, Pat 40, Craig 36.
Rick used the coffee, large market, office to great effect. He ramped up the money and built, built, built to end the game by filling all 12 building spaces before Craig and Pat could really make a profit from their wharfs.



I Doubt It: Marcus v. Richard. Marcus wins 4 in a row!
I don't even know what this game is, but obviously it is quite light if 4 games can be completed in 10 mins.


Lupus in Tabula: This was the funny, 'werewolf' end of the night. Total game time: 25 minutes.
Dealt character cards tell you whether you are a werewolf (n=2), a seer (gets an anonymous guess at any player each turn), a medium, or a normal villager.
The werewolves kill a player each night (all eyes closed, except for the moderator and the werewolves), then the villagers decide who they're going to lynch.
The process continues until the werewolves are killed, or they equal in number surviving villagers!
Lots of pics here - see Alex avoiding the lens (early guilt, perhaps?), Paul happy to be here, a very calm Marcus faces a lynching party, a spectacular werewolf mutilation death for Alex (he wasn't guilty after all), and Pat as the moderator.
In the first game, unfortunately Marcus did get lynched first up. Following the death of Alex (see above), Ken faced the noose! Then Paul (me!) woke up dead, and Rick D. copped the blame! Then Craig copped the claws, leaving the true werewolves, Mikey and Brad, the winners, since Richard was the last surviving villager.
In the second game, Richard became the moderator and therefore the first victim of the werewolves by default. For some reason everyone turned on Craig, and he was the first lynched! Then Alex once again died spectacularly at the hands of the werewolves, and Marcus, the true seer in both games, was lynched again!
Brad became a target this time since he so artfully dodged in the previous game, so he found himself mauled on the next day turn. Pat, one of the actual werewolves, was lynched as a result. But there was still one surviving werewolf, and Rick D. was his next victim.
Yes, it was me, and Ken with the casting vote successfully picked me out for the lynching! Mikey was another survivor, and was the only one to see out both games to the end alive!



Since this was the weekend marking the end of daylight saving, we allowed this to kick in at this point, and suddenly 12:45am Sunday suddenly became 11:45pm Saturday.


"Categories": This was made-up by Alex, requiring a nominated category (eg., European nations), and each player writing an example of each on their slip of paper. Points were awarded if you chose a unique item, or if you chose something that a lot of other people also picked. I think actual categories tried were 'popular games', 'cuts of meat', and 'containers'. We also tried a variant in which the starting letters of your selected example were pre-determined, making things a bit tricky.
Unfortunately, this good idea for a game was abandoned after 20 minutes or so, following difficulties with interpretation of answers and consistent scoring.


Hearts: Yes, that simple trick-taking game in which you try to avoid winning any hearts and the Queen of Spades, or you try to win them all. The lower your score, the better.
Results: Mikey wins with 93. Craig: 129. Paul: 135. Rick D.: 164. Brad: 205. Pat: 268.


Darkover: Another game that apparently had to be abandoned, after playing for over 90 minutes, because of not playing correctly by the rules! Richard V., Alex, Ken, Marcus.

Betrayal at the House on the Hill: Pat, Craig, Michael, Brad, Paul and Rick D.

The 'haunt' started early in this game, and in fact Craig became the traitor before he had even taken his first turn! Michael's character eventually died of fright upon seeing a hanging man in some basement room. Craig's traitorous character was eventually killed, and the good team eventually won by destroying the evil, noxious plant!
45 minutes, and the end of this game (1:45am in the 'new' time) marked turn-in time for all players. This is Rick D., studying the floorplan of the House on the Hill (or, maybe he's looking at something else..?)