The Mine Shaft Gap

Venue: Brian’s place.
Present: Brian, Andrew, Richard, Jeff, Pat, Paul.
Played: Leaping Lemmings, Kingdom Builder, Sequence, Wrath of Ashardalon, Automobile, Celtica, Showbiz.

Picture gallery below.

Leaping Lemmings: Race your family of (apparently genetically-engineered) lemmings across a field, patrolled by eagles, to score points by leaping off the cliff face. Charming, tactical and mean.
9 mins rules and setup; 55 mins game time.
Results: Paul (green): 15 (+ tie break of fewer dead lemmings); Richard (red): 15. Pat (blue): 12.

Kingdom Builder: Played on the other table. Gosh, looks nice. Please put me down for a play at next opportunity…
40 mins incl rules, setup and game time.
Results: Andrew (blue): 54. Brian (orange): 53. Jeff (black): 52.

Sequence: Like Connect 4. Except you have to get five in a row. And you use playing cards. More from the old-school family-type collection.
18 mins. Andrew wins against Jeff and Brian.

Wrath of Ashardalon: D&D on a board with groovy plastic monsters chasing you through tunnels, etc.
110 mins incl rules and setup.
Andrew, Pat and Jeff played.
Results: Death. Apparently.

Automobile: The game to let you unleash your corporate greed and business risk-taking brain. Building cars is cool. Selling them is better.
18 mins rules and setup; 75 mins game time.
Results: Paul (green): 5610. Richard (purple): 5140. Brian (red): 4540.

Celtica: A second outing in as many weeks, but this time with a full complement of 5 players, just to make things more chaotic. This time we played by the correct rules that collected extra cards need to be played at some time in the same round, not necessarily on the next turn (which is what we played last week, the confusion apparently due to a mis-translation in the English rules set). My review/conclusion isn’t changed since last week’s playing: Nice-looking board, but random game play. Could be majorly over-rated.
8 mins rules and setup; 28 mins game time.
Results: Pat: 1 + 0.7. Jeff: 1 + 0.2. Richard: 0.8 + 0.6. Paul: 0.8 + 0.1. Brian: 0.7 + 0.2. (”Decimal points” aren’t actual decimal points. Refers to the number of amulet pieces collected towards each whole amulet (”1″).)

Showbiz: From Brian’s collection, and maybe a free (or very cheap) pick-up from a market stall or fete or something. Invest in (gamble on) various available showbiz acts and score points each round according to the match of “booked acts” (ie, turned cards) with your own portfolio. Seems ok in principle, but more potential with the concept than success with the actual execution here. The cards artwork is kind of cool, provided you don’t get too close…
16 mins rules and setup; 40 mins game time.
Results: Pat: 76. Paul: 64. Jeff: 61. Richard: 51. Brian: 21.

Gallery:

Venue: Paul’s place.
Present: Alex, Pat, Paul.
Played: Celtica, The Legend of Drizzt, Stargate SG1.

Picture gallery below.

Celtica: A fresh pickup by Pat from a math trade. Build amulets by landing druid monk pieces on the right spaces. Move monks by playing the right card sets. Avoid the ruins.
Somehow I failed pretty damn significantly on mastering the last bit.
19 mins rules and setup; 45 mins game time.
Results: Pat: 2 amulets and 5 pieces. Alex: 1 and 8 pieces. Paul: 1 and 1 piece.

The Legend of Drizzt: Heroes wander around a dungeon/cave complex fighting spontaneously-appearing monsters and trying avoid getting killed. I very nearly failed to master that last bit.
Cool plastic figures, nice card artwork.
We played Adventure 4: Legacy of the Drow. Our troupe actually did succeed in the end to defeat Yvonnel Baenre, Matron Mother of the Drow, amongst it all with a looming Spider Swarm, Hunting Drake, Goblin Cutter and -gasp- a Feral Troll.
In fact, our heroes were brought down in that last round of combat. But in the last gasps, we managed to trap Yvonnel in a narrow passageway and inflict the final blows.
15 mins rules and setup; 116 mins game time.
Players:
Paul: Athrogate, Dwarf Battlerager
Pat: Catti-Brie, Human Archer
Alex: Regis, Halfling Rogue.

Stargate SG1: Never been played before since acquiring this for real cheap from a school fete.
Game basically works ok; plays a bit like Risk, but in many ways way more random. Board is awkward for placing pieces. Special cards suck a bit, and rules are not well-written. Fails to capture any of the Stargate theme.
We decided to time-limit this from the outset since it was already late, and expectations were set low.
31 mins rules and setup; 86 mins game time, but ‘called’.
I’m going to argue that I was ahead on board position/unit counts, but really, if played all the way out (who’d want to?) any of us might have won.

Gallery:

Venue: Richard’s place.
Present: Andrew, Jeff F., Alex, Brian, Richard, Pat, Paul.
Played: Dominion Seaside and Cornucopia, Dominant Species, Forbidden Island, Stratego.

Picture gallery below.

Dominion Seaside and Cornucopia:
Two games played here - the first with both sets (Seaside and Cornucopia), the second with just Cornucopia.
In the first game, Andrew wins against Jeff and Pat with his apparently bizarre wharf-explorer combination. 37 mins.
In the second (Cornucopia) game, results are: Andrew: 38. Pat: 25. Jeff: 14. About 50 mins.

Dominant Species: This was engrossing for more than four hours game play, and completely unpredictable, for me at least, until towards the very end. From early in the game my own growth options as the Birds were being cut off by glacier activity. So I decided to try and anchor a position in the glaciers while trying to rebuild my paltry numbers elsewhere on the board. This ultimately turned out to be successful, although until all but the last turn I believed I was out of contention, trailing for most of the game and occasionally sharing last position with Richard.
There was some confusion over the scoring of the last play - the ice-age token. In the ‘naive’ interpretation of this, we basically just scored face-value points for occupied land spaces, but the correct game rules interpretation is to score dominance using that arithmetic scale.
Apparently the previous week’s playing used the former, ‘naive’ method, and had this been scored correctly apparently Jeff would have out-scored Lindsay.
Anyway, two sets of scores recorded here. The first in brackets is with the ‘naive’, simple score, the second and more correct is using the arithmetic dominance score as intended.
28 mins rules and setup; 262 mins game time.
Results (Player (Animal group, colour): (naive) correct): Paul (Birds, green): (175) 210. Alex (Mammals, yellow): (174) 202. Richard (Reptiles, black): (154) 161. Brian (Insects, red): (132) 132.

Forbidden Island: Pat and Jeff played this co-op game twice.
Won the first. Lost the second.

Stratego: Something here for historical interest only, perhaps. Pat versus Jeff. Pat wins.

Gallery:

Venue: Pat’s place.
Present: Jeff G., Jeff F., Alex, Brad, Jonathan, Richard, Lindsay, Pat, Paul.
Played: Other games not recorded, Exxtra, Death Angel, Coloretto, The Resistance, Thunderstone Dragonspire, Ascending Empires, Dominant Species, Navegador, Dry Gulch Junction, Limits.

Picture gallery below.

Exxtra: (NB: Just discovered that this has recently been re-released as Excape!)
My first game of the day although the other guys had already got a few under their collective belts. This played as a filler until the Death Angel guys finished their game.
2 mins rules refresh; 13 mins game time.
Results: Pat: (blue): wins. Jonathan (red): -3 spaces from the end. Jeff G. (green): -9. Jeff F. (yellow): -14. Paul (black): - a lot (of course - it’s a dice game!).

Death Angel: Results recorded by Richard:
Richard, Brad, Alex: Death becomes us. Gene stealers reported to be putting on weight and ready for breeding. (Whatever that means…)
Added by Brad in an email yesterday:
A point about the game between Richard, Al & myself for when it’s played next
The Void Lock card is the 1st location card every time, after that the location cards are placed in order 1 (A, B or C), 2 (A, B or C), 3 & then 4.
So the Void Lock will be the first location, then a card from 1, then a card from 2, then 3 & the final location will always be from deck 4.
Also, Doors are quite useful as they impact all Genestealers in the formation, not just at the door itself.
Cheers
Brad
(Whatever all that means…)

Coloretto: Another filler - Death Angel still in progress.
3 mins rules and setup; about 20 mins game time.
Results: Paul: 28. Jeff F. and Pat: 23 each. Jeff G.: 21. Jonathan: 17.

The Resistance: Two games squeezed in, both satisfying, but especially game two, with Richard and Brad counter-accusing each other of being spies, despite both being innocent. It was a marvellous thing to encourage, being on the side of evilness!
Game 1: 27 mins, incl rules refresh (and first time for Jonathan): Pat, Jonathan and Jeff the spies, but failing against The Resistance (Richard, Brad, Paul and Alex).
Game 2: 34 mins game time: This time the spies (Pat, Paul, Alex) delightfully successful against The Resistance (Richard, Jeff, Brad, Jonathan).

Thunderstone: Dragonspire: Apparently like a cross between Dominion and Ascenion.
About 109 mins incl rules and setup.
Played by Jonathan, Alex, Pat, Lindsay. No results info recorded.

Ascending Empires: Richard brought this game of galactic empire expansion and military competition, with the unusual feature of flicking timber spaceship discs to expand across space between planets. Unfortunately my flicking action was appalling. Apparently a dexterity skill I couldn’t master, despite previous successes (although none recent) on the Crokinole table.
Leaving this aside, three of us were playing fairly steadily and uneventfully, until glancing over to notice that Brad had been steadily collecting a bunch of points tokens and gradually working his way up the various progress tables - including the military strength one. Before too long he had himself a battleship that he was using to devastating effect, eventually securing the end game and a deserved win.
21 mins rules and setup; 82 mins game time.
Results: Brad (red): 34. Richard (blue): 26. Paul (yellow): 19. Jeff F. (green): 18.

Dominant Species: I’m looking forward to the opportunity of playing this one myself some time soon.
About 30 mins rules and setup; 205 mins game time.
Results: Lindsay (Insects; green): 169. Jeff F. (Arachnids; red): 167. Alex (Mammals; white): 133. Jonathan (Reptiles; yellow): 129.

Navegador: First-time playing for Richard and me, and maybe Brad too. I really like the look-and-feel and the theme of this game, despite the fact that, given the end scores, I clearly did not play it well at all! In hindsight the most significant problem for me (also for Richard and Brad, but less so) was neglecting the Workers recruiting option! By the time I (and the other two) appreciated the significance of these, it was too late and they were too expensive to try catch-up moves with. Having learnt this lesson I’m eagerly looking forward to another playing of this.
BTW - I love the board art on this - reminisicent of De Vulgari. Although I don’t love the box front art.
33 mins rules and setup; 75 mins game time.
Results: Pat (blue): 95. Richard (red): 70. Brad (black): 69. Paul (green): 48.

Dry Gulch Junction: Chosen primarily as a filler while waiting for the Dominant Species players, this turned out to be an interesting and decent game beyond expectations. For the first half or maybe two-thirds of the game, I really didn’t know how I was supposed to be playing to maximise my score results and spent much of that time confused! But I managed to put myself into the groove with enough plays to avoid humilation at least and enjoy the theme of town-building in the wild west.
22 mins rules and setup; 32 mins game time.
Results: Pat (blue): 57. Paul (green): 52. Richard (red): 48.

Limits: Light night-ending game with positive scoring a rarity.
6 mins rules and setup; 31 mins game time.
Results: Pat and Jeff F: +1 each. Paul: -1. Jonathan: -4. Alex: -6.

Gallery:

Venue: Pat’s place.
Present: Brian, Mark, Alex, Jeff, Pat, Paul.
Played: Scrap, Ad Astra, Evo, Tomb Raiders, Shadow Hunters.

Scrap: This is Alex’s invention: Robots move around a board containing various hazards, shooting each other, attempting to gain and hold control of point-scoring spaces. Upgrade your mechanoids with different customisations of armour, fire power, movement behaviour, etc.
Worked well. Would play again.
Results: Alex: 32. Brian: 24. Paul: 12.

Ad Astra: Space colonisation on the other table.
Results: Jeff: 66. Pat: 50(-ish?). Mark: 30-something.

Evo: Dinosaur populations on the other table.
Results: Pat: 72. Mark: 60. Jeff: 50.

Tomb Raiders: This one is Liam’s invention. Move through an underground maze, building (digging) the tunnels as you go, to reach the distant, inner treausre. Avoid the nasty serpents or, even better, position the nasty serpents so as to bite your opponents. Straightforward fun.
40 mins game time incl. rules and setup.
Results: Alex wins. Brian: Next closest. Paul: Miles away.

Shadow Hunters: This was an easy suggestion given last week, and seemed to play a little smoother given recent experience. So easy that we committed to two separate games.
5 mins rules and setup. 35 mins game time for game 1. 35 mins also game time for game 2.
Results (Game 1): Pat and Brian (Hunters): The win. Mark and Jeff (Neutral): Didn’t win. Alex and Paul (Shadows): Both dead.
Results (Game 2): Alex, Jeff (Hunters): The win. Paul, Mark (Neutral): Didn’t win (and at least one dead, I think). Pat, Brian (Shadows): Didn’t win (and also one dead, I think).