The Mine Shaft Gap

Venue: Brian’s place
Present: Andrew, Jeff, Alex, Richard, Neil F., Brad, Pat, Brian, Paul
Played: Emerald, Race the Wind, Trendy, Atlantis, I Don’t Know What do You Want to Play?, Power Grid (Central Europe), Dry Gulch Junction, Ra The Dice Game, Set, Dungeon Lords, Master of Rules, Carcassonne Wheel of Fortune.

Tonight felt kind of chaotic (hence the title of this post), perhaps with memories of Dungeon Lords top of mind. But with so many games crammed into the whole night, things were chaotic overall. Note that’s not a bad thing - a little bit of disorder every now and then can be refreshing.

Emerald: Something chaotic about dragons.
Results: Alex, Brad: 29. Jeff: 26. Pat: 25.

Race the Wind: A racing game about yachts. Attempts to simulate some of the rules and effects related to wind and bow directions and the interactions of nearby yachts. The trouble is that, a) resolving the effects of those interactions was not straightforward nor was it intuitive (to a non-boat person like me, at least); and b) in-between such interactions was ‘normal’ boat-racing, which had nothing at all compelling about it (move one space then change direction a bit, etc…). Certainly chaotic, especially since they’d made the boats to scale, including curved bases that meant they kept falling over on the flat surface of the board. But just not very interesting.
Water pattern on the board looks good, though.
25 mins rules and setup; 39 mins game time.
Results: Richard across the line first, then Andrew, Brian, Neil F, Paul, in that order.

Trendy: The Emeralders filling in time
Results: Brad: 154. Jeff: 143. Pat: 129. Alex: 124.

Atlantis: New purchase for Brian, supplied by Caterpillar Games via Neil F., and played by Jeff, Pat, Brad and Alex.
But I have no scores or times recorded here. Can someone please advise in the comments below?

I Don’t Know What do You Want to Play: One might think we’d be tired of this by now. But somehow it continues to pull through. On this occasion it was used to decide on…

Power Grid (Central Europe map): This was the first playing I’d had of this map, that features three regions that don’t permit nuclear power (if you build exclusively in those areas) and also features the city of Vienna (Wien), which confers a $1 discount on each unit of garbage you buy if you occupy.
Richard seemed to be picking Andrew as a likely winner, but I was seeing the game as mostly going Richard’s way. He took the lead early and therefore was penalised with resource buying costs and building placements, but through this managed good plant purchases and power-ups to maintain a healthy income stream throughout. Brian was surprisingly close on his heels, perhaps underrated because of his choice for Wien and garbage plants. I thought I had good placement on building positions, but sub-optimal plant purchases left me just off the pace.
Great tension in this game throughout, but especially the last two turns.
8 mins rules and setup; 72 mins game time.
Results: Richard (black): 11 (+$15). Brian (green): 11 (+$2). Paul (blue): 10. Jeff (purple): 9. Andrew (red): 6.

Dry Gulch Junction: The theme for this one is easy enough to figure out from the name, although I don’t know anything about the game play. But, it’s great getting Neil F. to take the game results down for you, because you often get a nice little commentary. Here’s his summary of this game play:
A bordello near a boarding house, a 3-story soup kitchen, no sheriff. You do not want to visit Dry Gulch Junction unless you are a cross-dressing super hero.
Actually I do want to visit, to see all this stuff and the CDSH…
Results: Pat: 52. Neil: 49. Alex: 47. Brad: 45.

Ra the Dice Game: Somebody else was hooked tonight (I did see Pat pull out the box).
28 mins game time.
Results: Alex (yellow): 44. Pat (blue): 42. Brad (red): 37. Neil (green): 35.

Set: 10 mins of matching and counter-matching.
Brian’s score is not a completely fair reflection of performance, since he was busy making tea and only played part of a game.
Results: Richard: 13. Paul: 9. Brian: 3.

Dungeon Lords: This was the biggie, pushing out over two hours from setup to pack up. And despite the heightened sense of chaos I actually felt I played a most ordered game. All except the events requiring me to pay taxes for my dug dungeons. Both occasions were frank fails and I collected a total of six penalty cubes for a cool net -18 points at game end. My final score was not a complete disgrace because I played it safe and ended up with the ’softer’ adventurers, catching all six before they could inflict too much dungeon damage. I also pulled in maybe 2/3rds of the exclusive titles for a good points gain. My summary at game end was that I had a good quality dungeon, I was just unable to pay for it!
But, Jeff won the day fair and square. He climbed the evilometer scale and landed both Paladins in his lap – tough fights, but the net +10 points for these nudged him way out to the winning position.
21 mins rules and setup; 112 mins game time.
Jeff (yellow): 22. Paul (green): 16. Brian (red): 14.

Master of Rules: Don’t know what this one was about, but it was on the next table and was very loud…
About 6 mins rules and setup; 35 mins game time.
Results: Brad: 10 (1st). Pat: 10 (2nd). Richard: 7. Alex: 6.

Carcassonne Wheel of Fortune: Latest (?) in the Carcassonne franchise, this one apparently consisting of a spinning wheel in which various events are decided by the equivalent of a dice roll. Although I understand the wheel doesn’t actually physically spin, does it…?
Richard: 185. Alex: 184. Close scores.

Venue: Pat’s place
Present: Jeff, Alex, Richard, Brian, Lindsay, Pat, Paul
Played: Ad Astra, Assyria, Don, Factory Manager, Gloria Mundi, Pack & Stack, Ra The Dice Game.

Post title is simply a distant reference that even Valentine’s Day is an appropriate occasion for gaming.

Ad Astra: Star system expansions. Although scores remained close for much of the game, by the last turn or two Richard was clearly positioned for the win. Alex trailed for most of the time, despite being the most prolific player of score cards. His plan became clear on the final score reckoning, however, when he revealed his possession of the special alien artefact that allows the owner to win if their score is exactly 42. Seems like Alex also activated his improbability drive to pull this one out.
33 mins rules and setup; 82 mins game time.
Results: Alex (yellow): 42*. Richard (blue): 64. Paul (green): 54. Brian (red): 51.
(Unfortunately my close-up shot here is just a little blurry…)

Assyria: The ancient middle east. Lindsay did the courtesy of recording scores, but also added a note about each player’s strategy.
A very close game from the looks of the scores, but apparently focus is more rewarding than diversification..?
About 20 mins rules and setup; about 70 mins game time.
Results: Lindsay (orange): 115 (strategy: Ziggurats). Pat (brown): 110 (strategy: Offerings). Jeff (yellow): 108 (strategy: Ziggurats/Offerings).

Don: Making offers that can’t be refused to fill in between-games time.
15 mins.
Results: Jeff: 22. Lindsay: 21. Pat: 10.

Factory Manager: This is my second playing of FM. There is still one aspect of the game that I don’t fully get yet, and maybe this is best resolved by me reading the rules myself. The thing that I have been partly confused by is when your worker tokens are allocated, when they are consumed by actions and when they are not. I basically get it, but I’m still (partly) confused!
My overall opinion echoes that of Greg Schloesser (Feb 4, 2010) - this is very dry. Somehow the interactions in Power Grid bring out more ‘personality’ in that game than they do in this, and for that reason PG remains my preference of these. The game did however, provide me the opportunity to get my best pic of the night (the close-up).
22 mins rules and setup; 75 mins game time.
Results: Alex (yellow): 282. Jeff (blue): 218. Paul (green): 191. Brian (red): 190.

Gloria Mundi: Barbarians at the gate pushing our heroes closer to north Africa. Thanks again to Lindsay for recording the results for this one, in terms of progress in their quest to escape from the advancing Visigoths.
17 mins rules and setup; 66 mins game time.
Results: Pat (blue): Africa. Richard (green): Close to Africa. Lindsay (yellow): Messina.

Pack & Stack: Dice rolls give you a collection of the old Cuisenaire-like rods, up to a max of 5 units long. Then players flip over their face-down truck card, then try to beat all other players in choosing the optimal truck for their rod collection (each truck has a different space pattern and a different capacity). Points are subtracted for unpacked rods and for empty space left in the truck.
With 7 of us playing competition was fierce for the trucks and I think I was last to choose at least twice. Another go perhaps some day for redemption?
8 mins rules and setup; 13 mins game time.
Results: Lindsay: 84. Pat: 45. Richard: 32. Paul: 31. Alex: 11. Jeff: 8. Brian: “-ve something”.

Ra the Dice Game: As I noted in the previous post, this game is just habit-forming. Given a spare 30 mins and no other game choice forthcoming, why would you choose anything else?
Once again I lost, horribly.
28 mins game time.
Results: Pat (blue): 42. Alex (yellow): 41. Jeff (red): 29. Paul (green): 26.

Venue: Paul’s place
Present: Jeff, Alex, Pat, Neil F., Lindsay, Euhan, Paul
Played: Dungeon Lords, Star Wars Risk, Dungeon Lords (again), Alea Iacta Est, Ra The Dice Game (x2).

Back into games after the thrill of last week’s expo. But then again, Sunday nights are like our own little expos anyway, just with fewer people.
Check out my close-ups for Dungeon Lords, Alea Iacta and Ra tDG…

Dungeon Lords: I’d been looking forward to this game since seeing it on the retailers’ shelves and on the gaming tables last week in Canberra, with Richard’s copy still in shrink-wrap waiting in our house for pick-up, tempting me all the while…
And I wasn’t disappointed. Frustrated, yes, but definitely not disappointed. I love the concept, I love the little bloody plastic imps, the artwork (including the title font on the box cover), and the zany text on the magic battle cards. I like the fact that it’s made me despise bands of merry adventurers, seeking out fame and treasure through home invasions. It’s like someone, namely Vlaada Chvatil, the game’s designer, has taken the whole fantasy roleplaying genre and said, “Right, enough’s enough. Let’s look at this adventuring thing from the perspective of the victims: Those innocent monsters whose job - nay, lifestyle - is to defend their land from those raiding criminals from the surface…”.
Anyhoo, on the frustrating part, this was related to my experience in having my dungeon be judged the most evil on the game’s evilometer. My evil index was pushed so high that the Paladin (and three other smarmy adventurers) were attracted to my dungeon. In the course of play, my best monsters (two dragons) were rendered as good as useless by spells that were applied to everyone’s dungeon. I would have liked to pick off one more adventurer in that final battle (and would have too, if not for those crippling spells), but it was not to be.
Very cool fun.
47 mins rules and setup; 116 mins game time.
Results: Euhan (yellow): 26. Paul (red): 21. Pat (blue): 6. Lindsay (green): 4.

Star Wars Risk (Clone Wars): Neil F., Jeff and Alex played this at the other end of the table. Seemed like an unlikely choice given the range of new games available, but hey…
About 28 mins rules and setup; 120 mins game time.
Results: I had Neil make the record in my notes, which was (alongside Alex’s name): “Darth Sidious was successful.”
And (alongside Neil and Jeff’s name): “Republic loses once Order 66 was called by the evil and halitosis (sic) ridden Sidious”

Dungeon Lords (again): The two previous games ended close to the same time, so the Risky guys took up posts at the Dungeon Lords end in an attempt to better our efforts against the nasty adventurers.
About 25 mins rules and setup; 90 mins game time (don’t know why these guys did it so much faster than us!)
Results (again, thanks to Neil for recording these): Alex, Neil: 0. Jeff: Dungeon Master with 14 “and got a gig in Nth Korea”. Also: “We are pleased that the Dungeon Powers-that-be saw we could be 0 and still build another day”.

Alea Iacta Est: Brand new dice game apparently about sending noble couples to various provinces in the ancient Roman Empire, although the exact intention of the theme has escaped me.
Still reasonably interesting, although for a Euro-themed dice game my current favourite is still the title below this one…
10 mins rules and setup; 35 mins game time.
Results: Lindsay (green): 41. Pat (blue), Paul (grey): 31. Euhan (yellow): 24.

Ra the Dice Game: Yep, this one’s got me hooked right now, even though I should be wearing that novelty gamer t-shirt that says “Dice hate me”.
We played one game and I was a little surprised that there was no resistance to my suggestion that we play again. This game is like addictive gambling, but without the financial loss and with a larger range of colours to look at.
6 mins rules and setup; 28 mins game time (1st game), 24 mins game time (second game).
Results: 1st game: Pat (blue): 41. Euhan (yellow): 34. Lindsay (green): 33. Paul (red): 19.
2nd game: Lindsay (green): 41. Pat (blue): 31. Paul (red): 29. Euhan (yellow): 28.

(A little bit of concept art with the last image here - an alternative monument for Ra The Dice Game…)

In posting this I feel a little like one of those people who forwards lame jokes in email around the office.
But this one seems to be going viral, albeit in the small-ish community of gamers. I’ve already seen a bit of discussion building out there on the concept of “strip Settlers” and “strip Agricola”.

Certainly this is not a hint to my usual circle of gamers that I have any interest in playing strip-anything with any of them. Although somehow combining it with Lightning Reaction could be interesting, in an weird, Abu Ghraib kinda way…
I have nothing further to say on this topic. (For now.)

Source: http://www.xkcd.com/.
Thanks Mark for finding.