Game Session, May 14, 2006

Venue: Paul's place.
Present: Pat, Brian, Alex, Richard, Brad, Paul, Paula.
Played: Carcassonne, Geschenkt, Settlers of Catan, Caesar and Cleopatra, Nexus Ops, Ursuppe, Zendo.

Thanks to Brad for the high quality pics!


Carcassonne: In possible preparation for the Australian Games Expo, I suggested Paula should play someone (other than me) in Carcassonne. Pat and Brad were the first to turn up, so a three-way battle ensued, while Alex and I played Füssball with Sean and Aidan. It was all over in about 20 mins.

Results: Pat: 109. Paula: 73. Brad: 65.



Geschenkt: A very quick card game that I didn't even see because I had to take care of some domestic duties.
Brad won.





Settlers of Catan: Brian was keen to play this because he never had before. Pat, Richard and I joined in while Brad and Alex played Caesar and Cleopatra. Let it be known that at no time in the game (apart from at the start until the first 7 was rolled) was the robber placed on a hex that didn't have an effect on me! In other words, although l was not always the target of the card theft, it was always placed on land where I had a settlement, and at no time could I roll a 7 myself!
But I'm not bitter.
50 mins playing time and another 20 for rules explan.

Results: Pat: 10. Richard: 9. Brian: 6. Paul: 4.



Caesar and Cleopatra: Alex and Brad in this 2p game. Time: 50 mins +/- 5.

Results: Alex :14. Brad: 13.





Nexus Ops: A new(ish) title from Avalon Hill (WotC) in which players form competing factions of strange aliens to fight for and hold lucrative territory. The currency- producing land is important to help you buy more monsters and spatially position your forces for attack. The centre spot on the geomorphic board also provides special advantage cards, and Pat managed to monopolise this position for almost the entire game. Victory is gained through points, which are accrued by completing a number of 'special mission' cards - at the end of each turn you draw a new card, and if on a subsequent turn you achieve the condition listed, you get to reveal the VPs, which are usually 1 or 2 points per card. Winning battles also gives you a victory point.
The playing pieces in this are great - all translucent plastic little creatures, with nice detail. Although I didn't examine them too closely I think the quality was quite high; I usually notice when pieces have visible 'flashing', ie., leakage of plastic from the edges of the production mold.
I really enjoyed this game, despite losing by a significant margin. No doubt my tactical game play was not as good as either of my opponents, but in general I found the draw of the VP mission cards highly luck-dependent; many were just not reasonably achievable. On a turn-for-turn basis I was as equally successful as my opponents in battles I initiated, so I did feel a bit ripped off by the cards! I wonder if a way to address this might be to allow each player to draw two cards at the end of their turn and choose the one they like the best, returning the other to the bottom of the deck?
Just coming back to tactics, one impressive play was made by Alex, in which after expanding his front line troops to meet mine on one side and Pat's on the other, he withdrew them to solidify his strength closer to home. A few turns later, despite some minor combat losses to both me and Pat, he punched out to take three pieces of territory from Pat and make a nasty dent in his forces in a single turn. It very nearly won him the game, and perhaps would have if it had gone another round; instead Pat was able to fight on a few more battles in a single turn and convert enough mission cards to get himself over the line decisely.
This can accommodate up to 4 players, but worked very well with 3. I'd be keen to give this another whirl sometime soon! Total time taken: 90 mins exactly, incl. rules explan.

Results: Pat: 12. Al: 9. Paul: 6 (I think).



Ursuppe: Feeding, defecating and spawning amoebae. Richard helped to victory by the Longevity gene. Time: 90 mins.

Results: Richard: 42. Brian: 34. Brad: 33.


Zendo: This is the game that I have a love-hate relationship with. On the one hand, I like the watching other players' thought patterns emerge as they try to determine the rule from the examples. I like the challenge of trying to pick out patterns with each turn, and the satisfaction of getting Mondo guesses right.
But compared to everyone else playing this, I really suck at it.
And for that, I hate this game.
Yet more house rules were added in an attempt to improve scoring and to keep the game moving. Some of these rules were added as we went along, but that's OK - we can do that! In addition to the rule that all guesses after the first round must be 'Mondo', was the new rule that if all guessing players (for a 6p game) choose the same coloured guessing stone in a Mondo, then the Master is 'insulted', says nothing about the pattern (which is destroyed and returned to the stock), and gains a point for the trouble! Another to be implemented for next playing, is that once a player has more than x green stones from successful Mondo guesses (x probably = 5 or 6), then they must spend a stone to guess the rule in their turn.
Back to me. The fact that I do so poorly at this is particularly frustrating because whenever we've played that other well-known inductive reasoning game, Eleusis (eg., most recently in February this year), I've done OK at it.
But I'll move on and won't beat myself up over this. I'll leave the self-abuse instead to Pat, who had a good rule, but screwed up with his own black stone exemplar, not realising until his round was over and I pointed out his mistake.
Sorry to mention this, Pat. It's OK to let it go now; after all, you still came equal 1st...
Playing time: ~ 105 minutes.

Results: Pat, Richard, Al: all on 22 points. Paul: 20. Brian: 16. Brad: 13 (but he had to bail a few rounds before we finished. Despite Brian's bad luck in the last Master turn, I don't think Brad would have beaten him had he seen it out until the end, unless he guessed Al's rule.)