The Mine Shaft Gap

Venue: Neil and Alison’s place.
Present: Brad, Alex, Jeff, Andrew, Richard, Brian, Neil M., Neil F., Alison, Max, Euhan, Pat, Tommy, Phil C., Phil R., Paul, and others too!
Played: Glik, Pickomino (Heckmeck), Cutthroat Caverns, Ticket to Ride - Nordic Countries, Zooloretto, Agricola, Robin des Bois (I think), and heaps of other stuff I didn’t see.

I arrived at 6pm to see a bunch of gamers in action, some of whom had already been going for hours. By the time everyone else was in, Neil & Alison’s place was more like a crowded mini-con than casual games night, which actually made for a great atmosphere. I haven’t captured everyone’s names above because I know I missed a few - apologies to those I’ve missed.
And I know I’ve only captured a fraction of the game sessions played. With my commitments to Cutthroat Caverns and Agricola, there was no way I was going to keep up. For those who played other stuff, please add as a comment or send me an email.

Glik: A neat little abstract game from either Poland or Czech Republic (there seemed to be some dispute on this point between Pat and Neil). The game worked quite well in a Robo Rally kind of way, but suffered from an almost complete lack of visual appeal.
5 mins rules and setup; 32 mins game time.
Results: Neil F: 7. Pat: 6. Neil M: 5. Paul: 4.

Pickomino (Heckmeck): The last game before bedtime for Max saw a willing crowd of 5 others get into this. Simple, with reminiscences of Die Heisse Schlacht and other risk-assessment games, but also with the twist of tile thieving from opponents. It is the latter aspect that sticks in my mind for some inexplicable reason…
5 mins rules and setup; 22 mins game time.
Results: Neil F: 6. Euhan: 4., Max & Phil C: 3. Neil M: 2. Paul: 0.

Cutthroat Caverns: A card-based monster bash with a curious, cooperative-but-not-really aspect to the play. Players have to work together, but it is only the one that delivers the final killing blow that gets the points. Maybe I came last because I tried to play in the true spirit of cooperation while everyone else was busy back-stabbing… :-^)
The pic, BTW, features my cards, buy Brad’s character card. No wonder he won.
Brought along by Tommy, this was crazy and chaotic, at least with this six players.
Total time: 100 mins (incl. rules and setup).
Results: Brad: 13. Neil M: 12. Euhan: 11. Tommy: 10. Brian: 2. Paul: 0.

Ticket to Ride - Nordic Countries: No data on this session except that it was played by Alex and Pat.
And it looked nice.

Zooloretto: I think this was played on the same table as the above. Players included Richard and Tommy, and maybe Andrew, and I don’t know who else.
No other info - not even a pic for this one.
Update: See addendum below from Andrew.

Agricola: This was the big one for me tonight, with Euhan’s set - the special edition Z-Man release with the animeeples.
I really enjoyed this session, although struggled with many of the decisions - my apologies to my fellow players! Of all the tempting choices each turn, the best one was almost never obvious. No doubt volumes have already been written by better commentators than me about how and why this makes Agricola such a great game, so I won’t try to wax lyrical.
Good game, with Euhan’s experience - and stone huts with bonuses - tipping the rest of us by a chunky margin.
25 mins rules and setup; 115 mins game time.
Results: Euhan (white): 38. Paul (purple): 32. Brian (red): 25. Jeff (green): 14.

Robin des Bois (I think): Neil told me “Robin Hood”, and I think it was this one since this has been played before in this group - I found an entry here for April 28, 2008. Anyway, as reported by Neil F., Richard apparently triumphed (on 30 points) by splitting up the champion networks of the two Neils (Neil M: 18; Neil F: 13).

Other games: Amongst other games that were played included the one pictured, which I failed to take note of the name of. Castles something…? No info.

Here is some additional info to help round out the session from Andrew:

[...] I played Techno Witches with Alex, Pat, and Jeff. Alex won, we didn’t play out the other places (but I nearly won).

Disclaimer: the quality and depth of the above information does not excuse tMSG management from writing their own damn content. Errors and omissions exempt, etc etc

Thanks for the additional damn content, Andrew; every extra bit is appreciated!

Ok, nerdy, goofy, etc. in the extreme.
Anyone reading tMSG should be able to relate…

(This report submitted by Andrew in Paul the Gapper’s absence)

I’m going to leave those East-table splitters to report for themselves, but suffice to say they at least played a Martin Wallace game.

1. The more trendy West table started off with Tinners’ Trail, because Neil F hadn’t played it before. He seemed to suck up the lucid rules explanation like a giant Arab sponge, so off we went. I don’t recall too much about the game, so let’s jump straight to the final scores:

Results: Andrew (red): 108, Neil F. (blue): 85 + £1, Brian (yellow): 85 + £0, Neil M. (green): 80.

I was relieved to finally crack my maiden win of this title.

2. Next was a couple of games of Hey! That’s My Fish! while we waited for the other table to get their act together. The first game saw your faithful correspondent get whooped (27-25-22-20?), but I came back to win the next one (26-25-24-20?).

3. Last game before I had to leave was St Petersburg, another game I like and own but rarely win. We’d all played before and only needed a quick rules refresher before we were in. Neil F. spurned the “build your engine” strategy and this folly was borne out in the results. Neil M. spurned the “play quickly” strategy and likewise came a cropper:

Results: Andrew (red): 96, Brian (yellow): 66, Neil F. (blue): 52, Neil M. (green): 50. (same colours as the previous game).

Venue: Paul’s place.
Present: Pat, Brad, Nick, Euhan, Alex, Jeff, Brian, Neil M., Phil, Paula and Paul.
Played: Hey! That’s My Fish!, Bacchus’ Banquet, New England, Last Night on Earth, Tribune, Tribune (again), Galloping Pigs, Alex’s Game, Caylus, Saboteur, Corsari.

We were pleased to introduce Phil Harding, of Adventureland Games, Archaeology (Boardgames Australia BAGotY’08) and Cannonball Colony fame, to the group tonight.

Hey! That’s My Fish!: Starter fun for Pat, Brad and Nick.
10, maybe 15 mins (Brad reckons 10 mins is generous and that it was less than this.)
Results: Nick: 36. Pat: 33. Brad: 29.

Bacchus’ Banquet: Pat boycotted this one, and by the end of the game apparently Brad wished he had too. I see a little entry in my notes that reads simply, “horrible game - Brad”.
Played by Nick, Euhan, Alex, Jeff, and Brad.
Brad won, apparently Jeff about “one off”. The green bottle in the pic is not part of the game, BTW.

New England: It had been years since I’d played this game so I had forgotten pretty much the whole thing. But, it didn’t take too long to get into the swing of this and I actually felt that I was doing alright. At one point I made a rather ‘pussing’ (that’s pronounced pʌsɪŋ for those who are unfamiliar with the term) play against Neil, partially intended, but in fact at the time I didn’t fully appreciate that I completely destroyed his chance of ever being able to play down the 10-point card that he had tucked under his barn. I did feel kind of bad about this afterwards, but hey, we all move on…
By the time I had collected 5 pilgrims, I even thought I was in with a chance of winning. But the cost of collecting them is high - your land tiles are of course tied up and can become impossible to score from, and this too was my problem. I think I got a decent score in the end - just not enough to win.
15 mins rules and setup; 70 mins game time.
Results: Pat: 36. Paul: 34. Brian: 33. Neil: 27.

Last Night on Earth: I didn’t play this, but it seems that one of the hardest decisions was right at the start - choosing between the nurse and the cowgirl. Weight of consensus in the room was with the cowgirl…
We let them play with the ambient zombie CD on in the background, although I think they should’ve had the lights down low too. Could have been a problem with reading the text on the cards, but we could have broken out the candles.
Played tonight by Euhan, Alex, Jeff, Brad and Nick. I’m looking forward to having a go at this one myself sometime.
About 70 mins. Results: The zombies won with about 3 turns left.

Tribune: I might get to play this one day!
Played this time by Nick, Brian, Neil M and Brad. Don’t know scores or timings.

Tribune (again): The first thing I need to do is confirm that this game was indeed played twice tonight, and I that I don’t simply have two entries in my book for the same playing! The recorded players are the same, which makes me think there is the chance of a mix-up here…
20 mins rules and setup; 50 mins game time.
Results: Brian won with 4. Then Brad, Nick and Neil.

Galloping Pigs: We played a couple of variants in this filler:
1. Six players! The game is only spec’d for 4. We reduced the number of starting cards per player in each round, although in hindsight I don’t see any fundamental reason for doing so, nor in why four players should be a hard game limit. All it does is add more randomness to the whole show…
2. As can be seen in the picture, Pat was inspired to seek the unofficial Hot Wheels overpass expansion!
15 mins for three rounds.
Results: Alex: 9. Jeff: 6. Pat: 4. Paula: 3. Euhan: 2. Paul: 0.

Alex’s Game: Keep on bringing the new design prototypes!
With this one, although I got the mechanics fine, I struggled with the strategy and what sort of decisions were best to make with each play. This is because there is a ‘plans within plans’ aspect to the play of cards and subsequent scoring, which I didn’t fully appreciate at first. But, by the end I felt in agreement with Alex’s suggestion that it might take about 3 playings to ‘get it’, and some of the decisions might even be a little easier with 4 or more players (since the 3p variant required the play of 2 cards per round instead of one, and then won-cards are distributed to the stacks of ‘virtual’ players, all of which disappears in a 4p game).
So please, bring this one along again, Alex, to give it the chance to sink in a bit better…!
Results: Alex: 24. Jeff: 14. Paul: 12.

Caylus: A rather severe introduction to the group for Phil, who hadn’t played Caylus before! Obviously Euhan was allowed to get away with murder… But I imagine that just like my first playing of Caylus, the range of options available, especially during the mid-game, could be considered quite overwhelming for a first-timer…
95 mins.
Results: Euhan (yellow): 101. Pat (blue): 93. Phil (green): 49.

Saboteur: Finger-pointing fun. Even more fun when you’re one of the Saboteurs, I think…
10 mins rules; 37 mins game time.
Brian: 8. Paul: 7. Pat: 6. Alex: 4. Jeff: 3. Euhan: 0

Corsari: Although everyone else decided to call it a night, both Pat and Phil were keen for another game so I was happy to oblige. Phil fell victim yet again to first-timer’s syndrome on this one. Although I’m pleased to say that I think this was the first time in a long time (maybe the 2nd time ever?) that I’ve won this with Pat playing…
5 mins rules; 55 mins playing time.
Results (lower is better): Paul: 40. Pat: 49. Phil: 126.