21st December 2019

It's the last Saturday night before Christmas and we're at Matakishi's for some board games. 

This is a game about accumulating stocks in railway companies, running railway companies and paying out dividends.
Yep, this is 'Irish Gauge' and not 1830.

Irish Gauge is a game that simultaneously is the same as and also completely different to 1830.
That is, it shares the same themes as 1830, but is a quite different game.

​What's in a game?
​Irish Gauge components.

• Board: The board is a map that depicts a chunk of Ireland and is covered in hexes (All respectable railway games have hex covered maps.). The map shows cities and towns, as well as difficult terrain. Finally the map shows a 3x8 grid for dividends and info for calculating dividend payouts and managing shares and share order.
• Cubes: 30 Coloured wooden, 10 cubes in each of 3 colours (Little wooden cubes are always welcome in a eurogame.). Cubes serve 2 functions. Firstly they are used to show what goods a city produces and secondly, they are used to dictate the market demand when a player calls for a dividend.
• Bag: The cubes go into the bag.
• Shares: There are 5 companies in Irish Gauge and each company has 2-4 shares. Each share has a 'initial value'. Shares are placed into 5 company stacks, with the lowest value share on the top and the highest on the bottom.
• Train meeples: There are 19 train meeples for each company. 

That's more or less all the components. They are all made to a good standard. There is minimal artwork in the game, but it has a clean and functional look.

How's it play?
​We begin with setup, which is pretty simple.

• Lay out the board and place the 5 stacks of share cards in their allotted places.
• Put 4 cubes of each colour (12 in total.) in the bag and blindly draw out 8 and place them on each of the cities. When this is done add the remaining cubes to the bag.
• Each of the 5 starting companies has a starting city, place 1 train meeple on its respective starting city.
• Give each player 20 currency.

And we're ready to go.

Initial auction
Before normal play commences, there is a 'initial auction' This is where players get to bid on and auction one share from each of the 5 companies.

• Determine a starting player. This player opens bidding on the first share up for auction. They must bid at least the initial value shown on the card or pass. The player can choose to pass.
• Play proceeds to the left. Following players must bid a higher value or pass (Or chooses to pass.). Any player who passes is out of the bidding on that card.
• Bidding continues until all players bar one have passed. That player wins the auction.
• Whoever wins the auction opens bidding on the next card up for auction.
• If every player passes on a share, then the starting player gets the share for free!
• Auctioning continues until all shares have been auctioned.

Now normal play can start. The first player is determined by whoever bought a certain share.
In their turn, the active player can perform 1 of 4 actions, these are: Place track, place a special interest, auction a share and call for a dividend.
Place track:
This is probably the most common action in the game

• The active player can only build a railway line for a company that they have at least 1 share in.
• The active player will have 3 points with which to build a railway line for one company.
• The railway line must connect either to the company's starting city, or some other part of the railway line.
• It costs 1 point to build in a empty hex or empty town/city.
• It costs 1.5 points to build in a hex or town/city that already has another railway line going through it.
• It costs 2 points to build in an empty difficult terrain hex. Only 1 railway line can go through a difficult terrain hex.

Place a special interest:

• This allows the active player to turn a town into a city.
• The active player looks in the bag and take out a cube if their choice.
• The active player places the cube in a town of their choice - provided that town is connected to the railway line of a company in which they have at least 1 share.

Auction a share:

• The active player chooses any share to auction and must bid at least the minimum value on the share.
• Play proceeds to the left. Following players must bid a higher value or pass (Or chooses to pass.). Any player who passes is out of the bidding on that card.
• Bidding continues until all players bar one have passed. That player wins the auction.

Call for a dividend:

• When the active player calls for a dividend, the blindly draw 3 cubes from the bag. The 3 cubes go into the 3x8 grid (Along the 3 axis obviously.) These 3 cubes will indicate which cities on the board a playing out.
• If one of each colour is drawn, then all cities pay out. If only 1 or 2 colours are then only those colours pay out. Doubles (Or triples!) count for nothing.
• Then in share order, calculate how much money each company makes. Each city connected to a company's railway line generates 4, each town generates 2. This is the dividend the company pays out.
• The dividend is paid out to the shareholders. If there is only one shareholder, they get all the money. Otherwise it is divided up according to the number of shares owned by players and paid out per share.

Endgame
The game ends when there are no more cubes in the bag, either because of a dividend being called or placing a cube as a special interest on the board.

All players tot up their cash plus the initial value of the shares they own. Highest cash wins.

Overall
Irish Gauge is a railway building game with stocks and shares and companies.
It's actually quite a common theme in board games. But Irish Gauge plays nothing like any of these other games.

It seems like the basic strategy is that players need to build railways, to issue dividends, to buy shares.
Simple, right? Not necessarily.
Whilst players may want to maximise their railway network before calling dividends, to get as much money as possible to have more funds when bidding on shares during an auction.

Waiting a long time to buy shares is a risky move.

Why? There limited opportunities to call for dividends because when the game starts, there will only be 22 cubes in the bag and each dividend uses 3 cubes. So there's maximum of 8 times a dividend can be called - and the last dividend will be with 1 cube! This is of course, provided nobody uses cubes to upgrade towns.

So shares bought later in the game will benefit less because there will be less dividend pay outs. This isn't so bad if you get a shares at the initial value, but that's unlikely to occur. So paying an extra 20 to get a share that only pays out 5 twice is actually a loss of 10!
This means players will want to get shares as quick as possible, but at the same time, it's prudent to wait and see if other players have low funds as this is a great time to trigger an auction, since they may have to pass, giving the active player a share at the initial value.

It's like some sort of horrible balancing act.

There's more as well. If a player thinks they benefit from a dividend more than anyone else, then they might ignore buying shares or improving their network and may just call dividend after dividend and 'run out' the game. However there's a random element to dividends, so they may scupper themselves.

After playing the game a couple of times: It seems to me that how a player places their railway lines is a bit of a 'no-brainer'. But on reflection I don't think this is as much of an issue as I first thought. Perhaps when to call for dividends may seem more vital for the game than anything else - provided the right cubes are pulled from the bag of course.

There's a lot to think about here, which is good.

Finally, Irish Gauge plays as fast as a roadrunner with it's backside on fire.
If you're used to slow and meaty railway games, Irish Gauge may feel quite fresh with it's relatively short play time.

I'm not certain if Irish Gauge will stand up to extended play. But it's worth giving it a couple of plays at least.

16th November 2019

​Saturday night gaming at 'Matakishi's' continues.

The second game of the evening was 'High Society'.

Some people are just obsessed with reputation, luxury, wealth and prestige and will pay anything to elevate it. Well almost anything.
These are the trials and tribulations 'endured' by the aspiring wealthy and privileged, where image is everything.
​
What's in a game?
High Society has broadly speaking 2 types of card.

• Bidding decks: There are 5 of these, one for each player. Each deck consists of 11 cards, with values from 1,000 Francs to 25,000 Francs.
• Status cards: There 16 of these oversized cards. 10 luxury cards that score points(Valued from 1-10.), 3 prestige cards that double a player's final score and finally 3 disgrace cards that lower the player's score in different ways

The version that we played is themed to the 'roaring 20's' in Paris and has gorgeous Art Nouveau illustrations on the status cards.

How's it play?
First give each player a 11 card bidding deck. Then shuffle the status cards to form a deck and determine a starting player.

• Play begins by drawing a card from the status deck and placing it face-up in the centre of the playing area.
• What happens next depends on which type of status card is drawn. If a luxury or prestige card is drawn, then normal bidding begins with the starting player.
• Bidding works in a more or less familiar method: The starting player makes an opening bid by playing one or more cards from their card face-up. Play will then progress to the left, players that follow must raise the bid by playing a card (Or cards.) face-up of a higher value. When it comes to a player increasing their bid, they can only add​ to their bid, they cannot take back a card they already played (They cannot make change). Alternatively, a player may choose to pass, in this case any bidding cards they played are returned to their hand and they are out of the bidding. Play continues until all but one player has passed. The winning player discards all the cards they used in the bidding and collects the status card. Whoever wins the bidding is the starting player for the next status card.
• If a scandal card is drawn, the bidding is slightly different. Members of high society want to avoid scandal. So now players are bidding to avoid taking the card. Bidding works as normal, but the first player to pass collects the scandal card and also collects any bidding cards they played. All other players must discard all cards they used when bidding to avoid the scandal card.

And that's it for the rules.

Endgame
4 cards in the status are coloured green, they are the 3 prestige cards and one of the scandal cards.
When the 4th green card is drawn, the game ends immediately - there is no bidding on the 4th green.
Next is the game's sting in the tail. The player who has the least amount of money in their hand is eliminated from the endgame!
The remaining players total the value of their luxury cards and modify them by any prestige/scandal cards they have. Highest score wins.

Overall
There's a few clever little things to think about here.

Because a player can only add to their bid, players will be faced with tricky choices. If you really want a card a card, do you bid low hoping other players won't try and out bid you? Or do you start with a high bid hoping to discourage others and use less cards. For example: Using a 4 and 6 is worse than using a 10, even though they have the same value, in the first case you're using up 2 cards instead of 1 - and you can't bid if you don't have cards.
Also; there's nothing more infuriating then when you want to push up a bid by 1 or 2 and you've got nothing less than a 5 in your hand.

The endgame mechanic adds an extra level of unpredictability to the game. A game can last anywhere from 3 to 15 rounds. Players will know when there's a chance that the game will end because they'll see that 3 green cards have been played, but they won't know exactly when the end is coming. All of this can affect how you bid.

Finally, there's the player elimination in the endgame. The sting in the tail that constantly niggles and lingers in the back of every player's mind when they're playing.
It doesn't matter how well a player has done in the bidding if they're eliminated for having the least money. It is painful.

All in all, High Society is a quick to learn game that is quite fast to play and makes an excellent filler game. It's mechanics push players into making meaningful and tricky decisions. Other than constant stress, what's not to like?

How's it play?
As always we begin with set up.

• A bidding deck is given to each player.
• The location deck is created by randomly using 3 location cards. A number of assistant cards will be added in as 2 small stacks between the 3 location cards. all of these are kept in a deck face-down on the game board.
• Finally the victim deck is created and shuffled. Then a number of cards are turned face up.

Then play can begin.
Campy Creatures uses blind bidding. The highest bid gets to go first and pick the victim card of their choice.

• Players keep all of their individual deck in their hand at all times.
• Players can choose any one of their monsters to play. The card is played face down. Once all players have put a card down, all cards are revealed and then resolved.
• Generally, the card with the highest number goes first. However, there are special abilities that can change things. Some special abilities a triggered when cards are revealed, some when a victim is captured.
• Thus the highest score gets 1st pick, 2nd highest score gets 2nd pick and so on until the lowest score has to take the last card.
• A new turn begins and new cards from the victim deck are dealt.
• Any cards used for bidding remain face-up on the table, they cannot be used again in this round.
• When the victim deck is depleted, the round is over. The 1st location card is revealed and will have a specific symbol on it. The player who has acquired cards with the most of the matching symbol will acquire the location card (And whatever bonus it entails.).
• The round is scored, all victims (Except assistants.) are returned to form a new victim deck, the extra assistants from location deck is added to the victim deck.
• The next round begins.

Endgame​
Campy Creatures is played over a total of 3 rounds. After the final round, final scores are tallied, highest score wins.

11th June 2019.

Gaming Tuesday continues at 'The Sovereign'

Next up is 'Hit Z Road'.

Have you ever thought about what you would do during a zombie apocalypse?
If your first thought was. "Well, I'd design a game about being in a zombie apocalypse!". Then this might be the game for you.

Hit Z Road is designed to look like a game made by a child during an apocalypse, made from bits and pieces of other games etc. Some of these are other actual real games.
So Hit Z Road is a game set inside the game you are playing. Omg! There goes the 4th wall!

In Hit Z Road you play a small band of survivors travelling through a zombie infested apocalyptic landscape towards a safe haven.

What's in a game?

In particular the art direction of this game is superb. Many of the components are designed to look like they came from other games (some real games and some fake). The rulebook looks handwritten. There also human and zombie meeples.

There are 3 different types of currency/resource in the game, (Ammo, petrol and adrenaline. These will be explained below.). The game plays homage to Fallout by using bottle caps as the different currencies and they look cool. 

You can't fault the production values here.

How's it play?

Hit Z Road is a relatively simple game.

Your band of survivors travel from left to right dealing with the obstacles encountered.

There are basically 3 phases in a round.

Routes

• ​Each turn begins with several different routes being laid out in the playing area. Each route takes the form of 2 cards.
• Each card represents a potential encounter that a band of survivors may come across in the order they are laid.

Auctioning

• Now that the different routes are visible to all players, the auctioning can begin.
• The auctioning process differs to most auctioning games in one very important way. Everyone who participates in the auction has to pay for their finishing bid, even if they are last. This is very important as the order of play is determined by finishing positions in the auction. This also has a profound affect on game play and is explained in further detail below.
• Players bid with their bottle caps. When paying the auction, players can choose which types of repirces they want to use - a bottle caps have the same value for an auction.
• Whoever wins the auction can choose which route they want to take, who comes second then gets to choose their route next and so on until everyone has a route to take.

Travel

• Now that the routes are chosen, each player must deal with the encounters ahead as indicated in the cards.
• Cards are dealt with one at a time, going from left to right.
• Most cards will contain zombies, some cards will give you victory points. Some force you to spend resources or grant additional resources.
• This is where resources become very important.
• A player can spend 2 petrol bottle caps to bypass the encounter - which is discarded.
• Once an encounter begins, the active player collects any available resources. If there are zombies present the player may choose to spend ammo bottle caps to attack the zombies at range. The player gets 2 combat dice for each ammo token spent. Ranged combat is resolved by rolling the combat dice. Any kill results will kill a zombie. Any bite results are ignored - as are adrenaline related results. Thus ranged combat consumes resources, but represents the safer way to deal with zombies.
• If zombies are still standing after ranged combat, (Or there was no ranged combat.) then plays proceeds to melee combat. For melee, the active player rolls a number of combat dice equal to the number of survivors they control. Adrenaline bottle caps can be used to alter combat here. Some of the dice results allow you spend adrenaline to avoid having a survivor bitten, (And thus killed.). Some allow you to spend adrenaline to dispatch additional zombies and so on. This is how you use adrenaline. If there are still zombies or survivors standing after the affects of the dice have been resolved. The active player rolls the combat dice again.
• The encounters on the cards get harder as you progress. You can even encounter harder zombies to fight. These take the form or other dice that have less beneficial odds for the players.

And that's pretty much it for the rules. The game continues until all the encounters have been played and dealt with. Upon which any remaining survivors reach their destination and points are 
Points are earned in a few ways.

• Points on cards beaten are scored.
• The player with the most survivors earns bonus points.
• The player with the most of each of the 3 resources scores points for those resources.

The player with the most points wins. ​

Overall

Hit Z Road is a fairly simply game (Which is not necessarily a bad thing.) that will give players a couple of meaningful choices to make every turn - which is a good thing. A bad choice of route can cost a lot of resources.

But the game's problem is the auctioning mechanic, to reiterate:

During the auctioning phase, players bid to create a turn order in which to choose which route to take.
Everybody who make a bid, must pay for the bid they made. Thus it's not a good idea to to try and 'run up' another player's bid, (because your own bid and cost would almost be as high.).
The problem here is 2-fold.
Firstly, the player with the most resources can always go first. This means that they can always have the choice of the most optimal route which will gain them the the most (Or lose them the least.) resources. The remaining players will be bidding (And spending resources.) over the remaining sub-optimal routes which are less beneficial. Essentially, they'll end bidding over the scraps.
​
Secondly, when most of the players have either spend too many resources or realised they can't bid against the player with the most resources. Then they'll stop bidding. And when no one bids, the turn order does not change. This means that the dominant player doesn't even need to spend any resources to stay first or continue dominating.

The results of this is that all the players bar one will be put on to the back foot and will find it very hard to get off it.

This ruins the game. I know why it was done - they didn't want auctioning reduced to 'Auction winner goes first, play proceeds to the left'. But still, it ruins the game.

I've looked online and found I'm not the only person who thinks so. I've seen that this is called a 'Runaway Leader' problem.

This is the harshest I've been about a game in this blog. I've played games I didn't like or care for. But I consider this to be a bad game, no two ways about it.

In the end I look at the game's excellent production values and can't help but think. 'Maybe the designers got their priorities mixed up.'.