22nd November 2022 Tuesday is here again and that means we're with the Woking Gaming Club at The Sovereigns for a evening of gaming. Space... is it the final frontier? I mean it's pretty large with enough room for separate civilisations to expand without impinging on each other's territory. Except in Cosmic Encounter, it's not! Players take on the roles of one of numerous alien civilisations with the purpose of invading other player's planets in this game of bidding and bluffing. What's in a game?
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The component quality is all good, the tiles and tokens are made of suitably sturdy board while cards are average. The spaceships are plastic with a nice bit of detail and being able to stack them keeps the game area relatively clutter free. In terms of art direction, the tiles are colourful and mostly space-themed with the planet tiles looking like well, planets. The hyperspace and warp tiles are appropriately cosmic looking. Artwork is used sparingly on cards with space (SIC) given over to text instead. For the most part, illustrations are reserved for the alien sheets and used to represent the various different alien races. This artwork is fairly good with a lot of diverse and interesting sci-fi artwork. Cosmic Encounter has little in the way of iconography, numbers are used on encounter cards but otherwise text is used to convey information. Nothing here is tricky to understand How's it play? Setup
On to play In Cosmic Encounter players will be trying to create colonies on other players' home systems in the form of land their spaceships on those planets while also preventing their own system from being colonised. The game employs a traditional turn order with the active player resolving their turn before the game progresses to the player on their left. Each turn consists of 6 phases.
Endgame The first player to reach 5 on the score tracker wins! Because of alliances and such, it is possible for more than one player to reach the 5 score at once. if this is the case, all those players share the victory. Overall
Mechanically, Cosmic Encounter is straightforward, at its core it's essentially a single blind bid auctioning game albeit one where players bid within the constraints of their limited hand of encounter cards in order to win encounters On a basic level, a player only has to win 5 bids to win the game. There is of course more to it than that. It's vital that players will have to exploit the stronger cards in their hand and mitigate the risk from weaker cards. High value cards are obviously useful because they can win encounters but weak cards can also have a use. A low value card can be used as a bluff or ruse to flush out an opponent's higher value card, potentially altering what a later outcome might be. Or, if a player think's they're going to lose, why not throw the lowest value card into the mix? Negotiate cards can also prove useful when a player knows they are going to lose and can be used to not only fill their hand but deplete the cards of an opponent. Managing the luck of the draw is vital for victory. The alien sheets can throw some real curveballs into the game and how players behave. Some of the sheets provide some really radical changes to strategies. For example; in one game I played as the 'Spiff' who have the ability can crash land a spaceship on a planet if they are a part of an attack that loses badly. It suddenly introduced a whole new dynamic into attacks which involved the Spiff (And I involved the Spiff with as many attacks as I could!) because defending players were now faced with the conundrum of having to worry about winning too big which might mean playing a lower value card instead and the risk of doing that meant that they might just flat out lose if I played a high value card! Choices, choices! With 50 different alien sheets available in the base game (With more in expansions.) it means there will be a lot of variation in games and a lot of unique interactions from game-to-game. The rules for the destiny deck can also throw a curveball into the game. I feel one of the primary purposes of the destiny deck is prevent a 'pick on a player' tactic and in this regard it does it well. It also means that game has constant shifting alliances, 2 players have been allies in a previous turn but the destiny deck could quickly have one targeting the other in the next run. This brings me to the next thing that's really strong in Cosmic Encounter; which is player interactivity. Players will be bidding and bluffing against each other, forming temporary alliances, looking to exploit their abilities and take advantage of their unique ability and circumstances as they might arise. I also think that the quality of the experience the game provides will in part rely on the people playing it. If players buy into the somewhat boisterous, confrontational and luck-based gameplay, then it'll be a positive, enjoyable experience. I will add that this game has a lot direct confrontation between players and a hefty dose of 'take that' that goes on as well. If you find this sort of thing unappealing, it's probably a safe bet to say that you won't like this game and to be fair, sometimes I'm not in the mood for this kind of game. Otherwise, it's hard to find fault with Cosmic Encounter, the rules are quick to learn and presents players which meaningful decisions to make whenever they attack or have to defend - which is reasonably often, they'll also be faced with whether to join alliances or not and deal with the outcome of those decisions. Cosmic Encounters is a lot of fun to play and worth trying.
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11th November 2022 It's a Friday and I'm at the office in Woking for some end-of-week gaming fun. You know you can't go wrong when you're playing a board game set in Renaissance Italy. In this case it's Florence and about princes which is about as Renaissance as it gets! All you need are some Medici and Borgia to round it all off! In The Princes of Florence players take on the role of wealthy nobles trying to out do each other by enticing artist and scholars to their estates to create 'works' which in turn gives players bragging rights - which is what is important obviously. What's in a game?
All the components in The Princes of Florence are well made. The tokens and cards are what you'd expect. The tetramino tiles feel nice and sturdy, as do the game and player boards. Amusingly, the pawns are all wearing wide-brimmed hats, got to have some protection from that scorching Mediterranean sun! Broadly speaking there there are 2 art styles utilised in The Princes of Florence. Tiles, tokens and some of the player boards are decorated with full colour illustrations. They are quite stylised and almost simplistic illustrations but they are effective and feel appropriate for the setting. All the game's cards (Particularly the profession cards.) are illustrated with a sepia coloured line art style. It contrasts with the art style but also compliments it and again, is appropriate for the setting. The standout art-wise is the game board where nearly each space on the scoring track has its own unique illustration. It shows that little extra effort put into the presentation that shows care for the game which I appreciate. There's little in the way of iconography, mostly its appears on the player boards in the form of silhouetted tetramino shapes for buildings but even so, they are also labelled. Most information is relayed through text. Speaking of which... The game uses a distinct and flowery font for text. It looks suitable for a renaissance themed game but can be a little harder to read than it could be and also tends to make the player board and cards a little more complex then they actually are. It's a minor quibble and in no way a gamebreaker though. How's it play? Setup
On to play The Princes of Florence is played over 7 rounds. Each round is divided into an auctioning phase and an action phase. Auctions allow players to bid for items which will aid them during action phases. The action phase uses the usual turn structure with the active player taking their turn before play progresses to the player on their left.
Endgame Once the 7th round has been completed, the game goes to scoring. Players now reveal any prestige cards they've acquired and score them, adding whatever they're worth to their score on the game board. Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
In terms of gameplay, there's some nice mechanics going on. There's some interesting balancing that occurs with buildings. By virtue of their sizes, the larger buildings will be harder to fit in the grid and take up more room but they are wanted by more professions. Auctioning in particular is also well balanced. Because a player can only win 1 auction per round, it means someone who has a lot of cash cannot dominate all the proceedings. It means that every player can only ever get 1 object per round and it means that if a player has lost every auction and is the last player left in it, they can get any remaining object, unopposed and for just the cost of the opening bid. During the action phase, synchronicity is important. Getting landscapes, buildings, freedoms and professions that 'riff' off each is very useful. E.g., both the goldsmith and bell maker want a 'workshop, or both the theologian and painter want freedom of travel. Players will be looking to optimise their decisions especially when it comes to creating works which is a major source of income and potentially PPs. Why is this so important? The Princes of Florence only has 7 rounds, which is only 7 auctions and 14 actions! Even the most efficient of players will probably find themselves unable to do everything they want they want to do in the rounds given. This forces them to make difficult decisions which is generally a good thing. The Princes of Florence also has distinct early and late game states. Early on players will be looking to build up their estate, buildings, freedoms etc. In the late game they will likely be looking to create as many works as possible and convert them to PPs. If a player creates 2 works in a round, only the highest value one counts for end of round best work bonus but both will pay out Florins and consequently PPs. I suppose that The Princes of Florence is a sort of 'mid-weight' game and by that I mean a game that isn't too complex but probably has a bit too much going on to be a good introductory or crossover game. With having to win auctions to gain certain objects and cards, buildings to place, works to create and more, as well as having to consider how everything relates to everything else, there's a lot to think about. But for more seasoned players, The Princes of Florence is a solid experience with well structured gameplay elements that all have a clear purpose which in turn presents players with meaningful decisions to make. It also blends the individual aspect of a player building up their own palazzo and estate with the interaction of auctioning and drafting. The Princes of Florence is definitely one to try. 18th October 2022 It's a Tuesday and we're at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club. The Victorian era; a time of expansion, industrial and otherwise. Become a capitalist! Create your business and run your production line. What's in a game?
Component quality ranges from good to very good in Furnace. Cards and card tokens are the pretty standard good quality most games now have while all the wooden tokens are solid and good quality. The bidding tokens in particular standout as really chunky, tactile discs. Artwork is good throughout the game with a nicely illustrated buildings and businesses. It makes good use of a varied and colourful palette which helps to differentiate between the company cards which depict a variety of factories or offices and warehouses etc, which despite all being different sort of look a little samey. Portraits used for capitalist cards are equally good quality. The game's iconography looks a little daunting but in practice is straightforward and fairly practical. There are essentially 5 resources depicted and some basic mathematics mostly saying how to turn one resource into another and how may times it can be done. How's it play? Setup
On to play Note: The rules described below use the 'advanced' variant rules, there's a reason for this which will be discussed further down. The goal in Furnace is to acquire the most money by the end of the game. Furnace is played over 4 rounds. In each round players will be bidding for company cards then adding them to their personal production lines. Next they will run their production to produce goods and ultimately generate money which is what wins the game. The game uses a normal turn order during auction, with the first player bidding first before bidding moving to the player on their left. The production phase can be played out simultaneously.
Endgame Once 4 rounds have been completed, the game is over. Players calculate how much money they have accumulated. Monies are tallied, most money wins Overall
Furnace packs a lot of gameplay options into what is in essence quite a small package. The game consists of a deck of cards, some tokens and that's it Even so, each of the main 2 phases provide players with interesting and meaningful decisions. There are 2 mechanics to the auctioning and both are unique and present players with unusual options and interactions with other players. Using bidding discs instead of money in auctions is an interesting proposition. First it means players only have 4 bids they can make and they can't re-bid on the same card if they get outbid. Players will need to determine what's important to them and bid appropriately. Turn order can make a difference here. A player going first who bids their 4-value disc on a card guarantees they will get it. Going later or last in bidding is not necessarily a bad thing to do, it allows a player to see what opponents are going for and bid accordingly. There's definitely a higher level of play at work here from watching what other players look like they need and potentially taking it or denying it to them. Hate bidding I guess? Which brings me to the other auction mechanic; compensation. Firstly, compensation works as sort of balancing mechanism, if a player loses a bid, they may still get something for their losing bid. Secondly, it's a mechanic that can potentially be exploited by players to gain resources quickly. A player make take the risk of making a lower value bid on a card, hoping to be outbid for the compensation, of course this can backfire and they may end up with a card they don't want to play. Talking of playing cards, the next interesting mechanic how cards are played during the production phase. I'll start by saying that whenever we played Furnace it was always using the 'advanced' variant 'production line' rules. By default the game does not use a production line, instead players just activate cards in any order they choose. In my opinion this makes the game less engaging. I can't stress enough that the variant rules are vital to what makes Furnace a good game. Having to think about where to place company cards is compelling and intriguing. Frequently cards will be useful both at the start and end of a production line forcing players to think hard make meaningful decisions in order to optimise their production lines. Additionally, it's genuinely gratifying to run a production line that has been put together efficiently and ends up generating lots of cash. Furnace is a game with a quick play time. In fact I found that the game's 4 rounds came to a conclusion all too soon, still having the urge to continue building my engine and that's a pretty good sign of a game I enjoy. It's also a sign of good design balance; having a 4 round limit forces players to be as ruthlessly efficient as possible with little room for unnecessary moves. 4 round limits are something I've seen in other engine building games too. So in conclusion; Furnace is pretty easy to learn, has a fast playtime but still manages to present players will a variety options both in auctioning and engine building. If these styles of games interest you, then Furnace is definitely a game to try. I found it a engaging and entertaining experience. 5th July 2022 It's a Tuesday and we're at The Sovereigns with the Woking Board Gaming Club for an evening of gaming. The world of Victorian anthropomorphic railroad magnates is a cutthroat one in this game of acquiring train lines and towns. Buy low and sell high to become the... Raccoon Tycoon! What's in a game?
Raccoon Tycoon has excellent production values. Wooden tokens are used for commodities and first player token which is a good move, they always have a quality to them and also look cool. The cards (And paper money) have a sturdy feel to them while the tiles are satisfyingly thick. The game's art direction is also equally high. Anthropomorphic art is used throughout the game and I've found that it's a divisive style which most people do or don't like. Regardless of your view on this, it's undeniable that the quality of the art is high. The standouts are the railroad cards which use a oil painting style to display whimsical characterful animals in Victorian clothes. Curiously, the building tiles use a completely different style, instead displaying line illustrated buildings and subjects with mostly flat and barely shaded colours. It's a striking contrast that should theoretically be jarring but actually fits quite well. Icons used to represent commodities on cards are easily understood. Most other game information is relayed via text which is usually very clear. How's it play? Setup
On to play Players are trying to earn VPs in Raccoon Tycoon, this can be done by collecting sets of railroad cards, acquiring town cards to pair with railroad cards and gaining building tiles which are not only worth VPs but can provide avenues to scoring more VPs. All of this requires money and commodities, players will need to manipulate the commodities market to maximise the profit gained from selling their own commodities while trying limit the profit of other players. Racoon Tycoon follows a traditional turn order with the active player resolving their action before play moves on to the player on their left.
Endgame Play continues until one of the following 2 criteria is met.
VPs come from a variety of sources. Sets of railroad cards. Town cards paired with railroad cards. Building tiles earn 1 VP each. Bonuses from building cards may also provide additional VPS. Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Even without the anthropomorphic artwork, Raccoon Tycoon would be something or a quirky game. It packs quite a lot of mechanical systems into a single game albeit to a fairly simple level. A little bit of stock market manipulation, a touch of set collecting, a dash of auctioning and a sprinkling of engine building. It could be a recipe for disaster but in the case of Raccoon Tycoon; the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. A large part of this I feel is due to the building tiles. Their unique bonuses both provide some asymmetrical gameplay elements and can also give players a bit of strategic direction. Raccoon Tycoon is a bit of a balancing act between acquiring cash for railroad cards/building tiles and commodities for town cards. It's hard to work towards both at the same time. Adaptation is important here, as is planning ahead. Players could look to finding ways to raise commodity values to increase profit when selling them later This brings me to commodity manipulation. There isn't too much interaction between players other than auctioning and commodity manipulation, Watching what opponents are doing can prove useful and is something of a higher level of play. I.e., if 2 players are accumulating the same commodity, there's a possibility that one of them will sell it, causing that market to crash. Beating a opponent to the punch so to speak, can cost them lots of cash! Raccoon Tycoon is fairly rules light and I think seasoned gamers won't have any problems grasping all the systems at work here. For less experienced gamers, the curve will be steeper, I don't feel it's a gamebreaker but I imagine it could be off putting. While there's enough gameplay to give players thoughtful and meaningful decisions to make and a fun experience, I also found the game to be a little unengaging and uncompelling, I never felt like I was building railroads or towns and despite the unique art style, it didn't feel like it stood out from the crowd. here's nothing wrong with Raccoon Tycoon but it wouldn't be my first pick for a game, although I'd have no problem playing it if someone else wanted to. 3rd February 2022 Thursday night gaming at Simon's came to a conclusion with the 2nd and final game of the evening; Nidavellir. Google tells me that Nidavellir might mean the wane of the moon and is derived from Norse cosmology. Protect the dwarf kingdom from the ravages of a dragon by taking on the role of a Elvaland councillor and collecting sets of cards... err... gathering the bravest army of dwarves possible by trawling pubs (I kid you not.). Where's Sneezy when you need him eh? More like boozy! What's in a game?
The cards holders and especially the royal treasure are a nice touch too. However, since they can only be easily viewed from one side, it sort of forces the game to have a strange setup where the card holders and treasure rack are along one edge of the playing area instead of in the centre with all the players along the other edges. Nidavellir also makes good use of artwork, most of which appears on the cards, they contain well detailed, good quality illustrations of different dwarfish characters painted in a sort of monochromatic watercolour style along with a dash of a single colour. Usually I'd find this kind of art a bit dull, but here it works and gives the game a distinctive look. Much of the iconography is clear but some of the hero cards have symbols which are quite small and may also need looking up occasionally. How's it play? Setup
On to play Nidavellir is an auctioning game that has players simultaneously perform series of 3 blind bids during each round. Once bids are revealed, actions are resolved in an order determined by the bids.
Endgame Play continues until the Age 2 cards are also depleted, then the game goes to scoring. Each of the 5 classes has it's own way to score VPs, suffice to say; the more cards a player has in a class, the more that set scores. Bonus VPs which can come from various sources should then also be added in. Points are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Nidavellir does a good job of mixing set collecting with auctioning. The set collecting element is about a mixture of getting the cards you want and sometimes collecting a card just to deny it to another player. Sometimes you'll be completing to build sets and sometimes you'll want to take a card no one else does on the cheap. Pretty standard stuff for set collecting and what you'd expect. The auction mechanics offer something a little different. I have to say I'm not the biggest fan of auctioning games, I don't dislike them and I've enjoyed some of them but they're not really my jam. I've often found bidding decisions could be a little stress inducing, which is probably why some people love them so much! Nidavellir cleverly bypasses some of this with it's auction system because players never lose their bids. Instead of trying to out bid someone or bluff a bid up, players will be trying to gauge how others will bid. This requires not only watching what cards others have been collecting and trying to anticipate what they will prioritise in each bid but also paying attention to how they've been upgrading their coins. If another player has a coin that's got a higher value, it will never be possible to simply outbid them and it might not be even worth going against them and could be a good time to play that 0 coin and get an upgrade instead. There may also be other times when players want to bid low such as when all the cards in a tavern are not valuable or if they're not valuable to other players. This means that Nidavellir has 3 avenues of strategy that the player must take into account. Not only do players have to keep an eye on which dwarf cards to try and acquire, they'll want to think about creating rows as well as columns to earn hero cards which cna prove very useful. Players will also need use that 0 coin to upgrade coins - which is essentially a form of arms race that can't be ignored - unless a player thinks they can win by being last in every auction! Nidavellir is a solid game and I can't find anything to fault about it. It isn't particularly complicated but there's definitely enough depth here to keep players engaged and generally give them meaningful decisions to make. If you like auctioning or set collecting games, it's probably worth a look. If you like auctioning and set collecting games, Nidavellir is definitely worth a look. 31st August 2021 We're at The Sovereigns in Woking with the Woking Gaming Club for some Tuesday evening gaming. The first game of the night was Raids. Raids is a game about Vikings going around doing what they do, which is raiding and pillaging. What? You say, that's a cliché and Vikings were also explorers, traders, craftsmen and so on, well this game is called Raids, so raiding and pillaging it is; and all for glory! What's in a game?
Artwork on the game board is nice and colourful and the longship board are also good, the art on the voyage tiles is a little drab, a little more colour would make them pop but it's only a very minor quibble. There isn't too much iconography in the game and mostly it's very clear what it means. All-in-all, excellent, top notch production values for Raids. How's it play? Setup
Raids is played over 4 voyages which each involve journeying around the game board. During these voyages, the players will stop at the randomly placed voyage tiles and deal with those encounters.
Endgame Play continues until all players have completed the 4th voyage, then scores are calculated. Players can earn Glory points from a number of sources. Pennant tiles on a player's Longship earns straight up Glory points. Hammer tiles on a Longship earn points per Viking also on the Longship. Goods tiles that have been traded earn Glory Points. Sets of Rune tiles collected earn points accordingly. Monsters defeated earn points. Finally, cash accumulated during the game earn Glory points on a 1-to-1 basis. All points are tallied, Highest score wins. Overall
Travelling around the map, players will faced with a central choice on deciding how far to move their Longship? Should a player move slowly to encounter more tiles or rush ahead to a tile they really want? This is of course contextual and players will have to identify what they need and prioritise accordingly. They'll also have to keep an eye out for the behaviour of other players and want to gauge their motivations. The rule where players can only collect tiles at the start of their turn slots into this nicely, possibly allowing other players to fight for the tile and keeping the situation tense. A worker placement game that allows workers to drive off other workers! I also like how the Longship board works, merging aesthetics and mechanics. It's a great visual representation of what players are carrying and crew limitations. The game is in essence a mid-to-light worker placement game with a touch of auctioning and resource management mechanics. Raids fits its Viking theme reasonably well as players sail around, trading and plundering while battling mythic beasts and each other. Having said that, I found the game a little unengaging, maybe a little too abstract. I could sail pretty much anywhere I wanted with generally minimal risk, it never felt like epic adventuring. Combat was fairly rare, mostly players didn't complete too much for the same resources but it felt bland, a quick glance at other player's Viking meeples will tell you if you can be beat them or not and at what cost. I'm also a little uncertain of how much replayability Raids has. Even though it has random placement for the encounter tiles, because they're not really interdependent on each other, it felt like it didn't matter the order in which you might encounter them, especially since I could sail as far as I wanted. I don't think Raids is a bad game, if someone wanted to play it, I'd have no problem joining in (But not too often!), but it's not a game I'd pick. 20th July 2021 I'm in Woking at the Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club. The second and final game of the evening was For Sale; time for some property flipping and stressful auctioning action. What's in a game? For Sale is a card game and comes with 2 types of cards.
Artwork on the property cards is pretty good, colourfully depicting 30 different properties ranging from a lowly cardboard box for the 1 card to an orbiting space station for the 30 card. The currency cards all identically depict cheques of various values There's not much else to say here. How's it play? Setup
For Sale is played over 2 phases, in the 1st, players use their money to buy properties and in the 2nd, they use these to get currency cards, essentially flipping the properties for profit. Phase 1: Buying properties.
Phase 2: Flipping those properties.
Endgame Players tally the values of all the currency cards they acquired and any coins that were unspent from phase 1. Highest score wins. Overall
For Sale is a simple game to play, it features two types of auctioning that're easy to understand, however there are a couple of curveballs that that affect the game's dynamic. Firstly in phase 1; which is an open auction, there's the rule that states when a player passes, they only get half their bid back and the lowest valued card. It means the classic play of trying to run up someone else's bid is a risky proposition, you may well end up running yourself up for a very low value card as well. Even the act of initially bidding may cost a player more than they want to spend, it's something player's need to think about. All the property cards drawn have to be acquired by players and it may not seem like it, but sometimes a lower valued card can end up generating more profit. Why? Because the value of a card does not necessarily dictate its worth. This brings me to phase 2; the blind auction. This is where player's sell their properties to get profit, however the profits that players can potentially generate will contextually change from round to round and depends on the currency cards drawn. No matter how much you paid for a property card, when you use it, it will only generate income according to the currently drawn currency cards. This is where players have to start watching what other players will do and know when to push high or low valued property. If a $15,000 currency card had been drawn and you know another player has the 30 point property card, you know they're going to play it - it guarantees them the $15,000 card, so is it a good time for you to use a high value card? On the other hand, the 2nd highest might be worth it, or it might be not. Conversely; in some circumstances, the lowest value cards can have great worth, if all the currency cards drawn are high value, it can be a good time to play lower value cards, remember it's all about profit not value. A 30 point property card that costs $8,000 and nets a $15,000 currency card, generates a profit of $7,000. If 1 point property that cost 0 because somebody passed and took it for free is used to get a $8,000 property, then that's $8,000 profit! This example is extreme and doesn't realistically occur too often, but the principal is sound; if demand is high (Multiple high value currency cards are drawn.), then it's time to push your lowest value properties for maximum profit; capitalism at its finest! Conversely, if there are fewer high value currency cards out there, playing a high value property at the right time will outbid other players and score the maximum profit. All this makes For Sale a very situational, essentially contextually-driven game about managing the game's inherent unpredictability and adapting when it's called for. It becomes about not only knowing when to play which cards, but also watching what properties other players have and trying to predict their strategies, which can profoundly effect yours. I have love/hate relationship with auction games, the unpredictably always worries me and For Sale is more unpredictable than most in my opinion. Even so, it's an enjoyable game and definitely worth a try, if you're a fan of auction games, you should really try it. 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.
How's it play? We begin with setup, which is pretty simple.
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.
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
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.
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.
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? 5th October 2019 Gaming night at Matakishi's is underway. The third game of the night was 'Campy Creatures'. Put yourselves in the shoes of a 'mad scientist'. Misunderstood, never trusted and unloved. But there's a reason why the mad scientist is the way they are and why they kidnap innocent people. It's to stop those other pesky mad scientist from doing it first!! Campy Creatures is a blind bidding game where you bid to capture teenagers and other hapless victims and put them into sets in order to score points. What's in a game? All of the cards in this game are nicely illustrated with art that wouldn't look out of place on posters for the 'creature feature' movies that this game is emulating.
How's it play? As always we begin with set up.
Campy Creatures uses blind bidding. The highest bid gets to go first and pick the victim card of their choice.
Endgame Campy Creatures is played over a total of 3 rounds. After the final round, final scores are tallied, highest score wins. Overall
Campy Creatures is a quick and interesting game to play. This is down to the special abilities on the monster cards. They can really throw a spanner into the works (And player's plans.). Special abilities include cancelling other cards special abilities, acquiring 2 cards instead of 1, forcing someone to discard a card they captured etc. Learning to watch other players is important. Looking at what cards they have collected gives you the chance to anticipate what other cards they will want. This means you have the opportunity to mess with them! It gives the game an extra level of depth, which without the game would be too simple. Even so, with so few special abilities (That are identical for all players.), after prolonged play, the game could become 'samey'. But as a occasional filler game, Campy Creatures is a good game. |
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