tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53301768022408270502024-03-18T20:17:07.727-07:00Playing Board GamesA Blog of my Board Game activity excluding the British Bausak Championships which I lost to this Heron.kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-6881462193654392582014-06-13T16:01:00.003-07:002014-06-13T16:07:03.662-07:00MAB + 1 Photos<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyCT07iwmWFWGJ-2E9t6cOwWLLAVtriIerIPoYQr0W9rDQC3riFPWPqYSuk0JzbGCNpVV1BU9jUSJiEc7UmjrnoUGLeYCwMmIMutN8L_SrAwjke914hc02KUTjQfjGPtqWBXdIjJr2omy7/s1600/P1040473.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyCT07iwmWFWGJ-2E9t6cOwWLLAVtriIerIPoYQr0W9rDQC3riFPWPqYSuk0JzbGCNpVV1BU9jUSJiEc7UmjrnoUGLeYCwMmIMutN8L_SrAwjke914hc02KUTjQfjGPtqWBXdIjJr2omy7/s1600/P1040473.JPG" height="193" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Medway Area Boardgamers</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fuzzy Heroes</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Darjeeling at MAB</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maori at MAB</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glass Road at MAB</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj59uYuTuWUGF77ZOlnSxB1m3CMjMffXf44abwzHO0IuU1w42w11XzK_9W6OnL8XIX4iGHTHgKBhSkzK3pD6oQn5CujOe-oLqV1FUfLh8T4RaZSMe8LiXXvHZ5r4U0LbRzo2kkojpznhtyo/s1600/P1040586.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj59uYuTuWUGF77ZOlnSxB1m3CMjMffXf44abwzHO0IuU1w42w11XzK_9W6OnL8XIX4iGHTHgKBhSkzK3pD6oQn5CujOe-oLqV1FUfLh8T4RaZSMe8LiXXvHZ5r4U0LbRzo2kkojpznhtyo/s1600/P1040586.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glass Road at MAB</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samurai Card game at MAB</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQWFhb9lyGCnf0G3gcLkTjwi7JID0C29oP8HCW1e1GsMp8pXGBDX6RaB-lw3Lnh1QheRnDZ0fTJpf6cefIBVuySo3hUY3ixne8Z-kL7EMP7wGhUJ5DekhB8hP2WhrDWp22XnrqCHvVsdaw/s1600/P1040589.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQWFhb9lyGCnf0G3gcLkTjwi7JID0C29oP8HCW1e1GsMp8pXGBDX6RaB-lw3Lnh1QheRnDZ0fTJpf6cefIBVuySo3hUY3ixne8Z-kL7EMP7wGhUJ5DekhB8hP2WhrDWp22XnrqCHvVsdaw/s1600/P1040589.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samurai Card game at MAB</td></tr>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-84171669542741414302014-04-07T13:27:00.002-07:002014-04-07T13:49:24.163-07:00Fuzzy heroesHeroes come in many forms and in Fuzzy Heroes they are soft and cuddly.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicDGZl4rdHKfpIz3BW_Ibpv3O07zyPkTe1wk-YrdGVmOOUpZ0jkmNr-CLsTRLuEOTHZbb_3e3Jc_JQNom_QxwiZ_hdD4gyTTAMQwDt8niffhygYj0izu_TGg5eXASpA-He2nS54AL1qpjK/s1600/P1040223.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicDGZl4rdHKfpIz3BW_Ibpv3O07zyPkTe1wk-YrdGVmOOUpZ0jkmNr-CLsTRLuEOTHZbb_3e3Jc_JQNom_QxwiZ_hdD4gyTTAMQwDt8niffhygYj0izu_TGg5eXASpA-He2nS54AL1qpjK/s1600/P1040223.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pogwin meets Reindeer</span></td></tr>
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It must be heavily emphasised that in Fuzzy Heroes no cuddly toys ever get hurt, they just have "nap-time" until the game is over.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimNyV_YACOEq1_C426C92k-8SIR8peNvMfz8TGb3PL6ZMLDN53lL16m4T18HsJvn84gyDxQHiDGwGA5zDkoj5m0pX06sTXtdIKWKMA8QGEC6Yf4S3LfowoW2_rbrYJoMgURXwRuBsFitgh/s1600/P1040290.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimNyV_YACOEq1_C426C92k-8SIR8peNvMfz8TGb3PL6ZMLDN53lL16m4T18HsJvn84gyDxQHiDGwGA5zDkoj5m0pX06sTXtdIKWKMA8QGEC6Yf4S3LfowoW2_rbrYJoMgURXwRuBsFitgh/s1600/P1040290.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Too much exercise and they will just fall to sleep, no matter where they are</span></td></tr>
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The playing area is a mythical island (in this case Kay-Tan) and using strength, speed and a variety of skills the Heroes try to dominate the island and become the last Cuddly still awake on it. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8_oTmYLVy1ef7cEmbOq4l9m9hX9rP_rFW2SyWVuYnR2sxyDCqowjn7wQ0YKgZs0rGctvXGlZvD8jX99Da_7W3_E924Zc7OW-YrHSYPB_peVzksGXxBS2dA4aw07Z3R9VfZlStRZO4LF1X/s1600/P1040234.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8_oTmYLVy1ef7cEmbOq4l9m9hX9rP_rFW2SyWVuYnR2sxyDCqowjn7wQ0YKgZs0rGctvXGlZvD8jX99Da_7W3_E924Zc7OW-YrHSYPB_peVzksGXxBS2dA4aw07Z3R9VfZlStRZO4LF1X/s1600/P1040234.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">A part of the island of Kay-Tan</span></td></tr>
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But danger lurks in many forms, every time a Cuddly is eliminated from the tournament (by being pushed off of the island) an empty island tile is removed by the victim. Not only must the Heroes remain awake but they must avoid being pushed into the encroaching waters.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXvtTcmWKAfn_HSTt5fiIMBA_Rw2L6zcHqDw8BwGCnYDLr04Ym-c8seUrDuQn-9a7mEG6dfqZjZ61HwKkmJ7dxLQDHchJwNAsly7qNh6NcQmuJTpoJHOvOhp-iwIx5aZOQEQd0ZmUnPZa/s1600/P1040304.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXvtTcmWKAfn_HSTt5fiIMBA_Rw2L6zcHqDw8BwGCnYDLr04Ym-c8seUrDuQn-9a7mEG6dfqZjZ61HwKkmJ7dxLQDHchJwNAsly7qNh6NcQmuJTpoJHOvOhp-iwIx5aZOQEQd0ZmUnPZa/s1600/P1040304.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The advantage that camouflage can play in Fuzzy Heroes</span></td></tr>
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Fuzzy Heroes is open to all, please feel free (in fact I encourage you) to bring your own Cuddly (between 3 and 15 inches) or if your Hero is too shy to attend you may borrow one of the fully trained Toys I will have with me. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD10NnoEjXIkkcz4nV78BvrZCAsnQA4IXGraN428g1YhPnkdZczc8H5yiZL87SAojtqSmrSqJq2PALWepZxlKVj1puUkKNW5DqZcpinuEe12gjNd-DezogNrmyLXv3Zo5qU62TcIjBhONW/s1600/P1040219.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD10NnoEjXIkkcz4nV78BvrZCAsnQA4IXGraN428g1YhPnkdZczc8H5yiZL87SAojtqSmrSqJq2PALWepZxlKVj1puUkKNW5DqZcpinuEe12gjNd-DezogNrmyLXv3Zo5qU62TcIjBhONW/s1600/P1040219.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Heroes in the making - all hoping to get picked</span></td></tr>
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This is a free to enter player participation game with easy to pick up rules. Playing time will be between 20 minutes (for those eliminated early from the game) to 90 minutes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Heroes in Training</span></td></tr>
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This event is a fusion of ideas using mechanisms from "Escape From Atlantis" , "Settlers of Catan" and "Sumo" all under the umbrella of the Rules of "Fuzzy Heroes" by Inner City Games.<br />
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Fuzzy Heroes is a family friendly fun game<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16718/fuzzy-heroes"><span style="color: magenta;">http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16718/fuzzy-heroes</span></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge7SwO6kVjVOmnsqBtxJbRMgjcqWmPvN7_mTPRCXAsSINR5qw2-2CRdYx_nDR-NXeOutxKSgD78n7T9_iQhSaYmQMVLhTeNyNjdpLsmD6LEvQwXZiB-rdQMIlOEWEjnSkDg8lejWEKXabp/s1600/P1040314.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6GzUXJt6EWMkzJXJmia0ISoYK1-xQwiyzYgMEuVTJ6XkMnu-P9i2JqR4qhO9mrRhvJQajcr9VoG1rd3uyJ0Zb8dE0x2GAmfGY5f9OvFNM0u0MtcVQn0x99nOn04Aj9kB2qp-hlrAoMAc/s1600/P1040223.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-88468438076129352382012-01-12T09:26:00.000-08:002012-01-12T09:26:14.430-08:00Meltdown 2020<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKps66DJExd7TYdnCKjOLFpBlv552Ta7yjnK1oM2K8SgzcneOH__WlQITTj9WN2lweSoPDzrhBQHpfBRic6uKGjtj9-tg4AoAC-NFLkRXfBDuxzb-cw1TvgkdtsV8S5Z5OZmA5anrCN1x3/s1600/P1010759.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="261" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKps66DJExd7TYdnCKjOLFpBlv552Ta7yjnK1oM2K8SgzcneOH__WlQITTj9WN2lweSoPDzrhBQHpfBRic6uKGjtj9-tg4AoAC-NFLkRXfBDuxzb-cw1TvgkdtsV8S5Z5OZmA5anrCN1x3/s400/P1010759.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Box Cover</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Meltdown 2020 is designed by Corne van Moorsel and published by Cwali. It is for 1-5 players aged 8 and up and plays in about 45 minutes. The theme behind the game is that the players are organisers of rescue teams on an island where seven Nuclear Reactors are beginning to malfunction. Each turn players get to know which reactors are affected and manoeuvre their vehicles to rescue their colour meeples and move them to the airport where they are flown to safety. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOCM5F-_Ts98c8EtCJraYJyk1WNGt1YbTZlFv7lBUyOVOSNs23IsJ7vju-EdZVlBq1Q6_x6qXKt6wuUydJ7V51SbEqJ2S1aMngS_iZQ0Q8lLlPXVJkfLZ6_ih70CN2VNrQ4DJcwiD8yhG/s1600/P1010784.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="242" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOCM5F-_Ts98c8EtCJraYJyk1WNGt1YbTZlFv7lBUyOVOSNs23IsJ7vju-EdZVlBq1Q6_x6qXKt6wuUydJ7V51SbEqJ2S1aMngS_iZQ0Q8lLlPXVJkfLZ6_ih70CN2VNrQ4DJcwiD8yhG/s400/P1010784.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">An example of a playing area with Radiation counters and a few rescued Meeples</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">The game box contains 12 Tiles, 20 Meeples in each of 5 colours, 3 Vehicles in each of 5 colours, 1 Phases Board, 15 Radiation Counters and an 8 sided Die. I will take the tiles first as they are placed together to create the playing area. Each tile consists of 7 Hexes, on 7 of the tiles one of the hexes is a nuclear reactor, on 2 of the other tiles one of the hexes is an airport. All the other hexes have coloured markers for placement of all the Meeples and the vehicles at game set-up (some hexes have 2 such markers).</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidO38iqnwhLiQwXG0p81sZAdqpl6Hh3eHrYYXYGkogqiNC1tBHplwLY3MimVAJ66PCC7q0X6iq8gB_IbeygJK1eI7KHM_3ECHfKGVGQvutUdk1FDZmMICcf68zQLpaTBiENiNxLdSvzRwS/s1600/P1010792.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="181" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidO38iqnwhLiQwXG0p81sZAdqpl6Hh3eHrYYXYGkogqiNC1tBHplwLY3MimVAJ66PCC7q0X6iq8gB_IbeygJK1eI7KHM_3ECHfKGVGQvutUdk1FDZmMICcf68zQLpaTBiENiNxLdSvzRwS/s200/P1010792.JPG" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tile with Airport</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCml-UG7tte0j2Yn6zOXoDSVOV9TmE_AqL8aXrEJWr3zIGdp2kwaYCI720mW8LmaBokXcMEyofSBWx9UhpcID_doIk-7yPcGkcqsb5aattzuvXrVw96nj4L8venVEXdgHJ3bzvoXb7Bi1t/s1600/P1010786.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="156" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCml-UG7tte0j2Yn6zOXoDSVOV9TmE_AqL8aXrEJWr3zIGdp2kwaYCI720mW8LmaBokXcMEyofSBWx9UhpcID_doIk-7yPcGkcqsb5aattzuvXrVw96nj4L8venVEXdgHJ3bzvoXb7Bi1t/s200/P1010786.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tile with Nuclear Reactor No3</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">The 3 vehicles are a minibus which can carry 4 people but only move 2, a Saloon car which can move 3 and carry 3 and a Helicopter which can carry 2 and move 4.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8wjPlEdrp9wNFRJf6E89yuOgEETUu3-Tks2-JQTL9K85neV9rCaSdJAW-FqFmcVXvgtteG5M0_K_8AmFalswXWn-09GnginOXmP-MbOWdDCbvnYxZJHwjLS7QqvF4-Q8aqsLiCEaN1gRj/s1600/P1010794.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="267" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8wjPlEdrp9wNFRJf6E89yuOgEETUu3-Tks2-JQTL9K85neV9rCaSdJAW-FqFmcVXvgtteG5M0_K_8AmFalswXWn-09GnginOXmP-MbOWdDCbvnYxZJHwjLS7QqvF4-Q8aqsLiCEaN1gRj/s400/P1010794.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Cardboard Vehicles</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">A round is governed by the Phase Board. The first thing that happens is the die is rolled and a Radiation Marker placed on the corresponding Nuclear Reactor, then everyone in player order gets to move their Minibus. The die is rolled again and another Radiation marker placed and the saloon cars are moved, finally the die is rolled again but this time a marker is removed (if there is one) and the Helicopters moved. The final phase of a turn is reactors radiating, the strength of the radiation is defined by the number of discs on a reactor and distance from them, radiation from multiple reactors accumulate. All meeples have 3 states, happy, ill, and very ill; their orientation (lying on their side, on their back) reflects the level of illness whilst those that have taken three or more lots of radiation are removed from the board. Vehicles of different players are not permitted to occupy the same space except at an airport.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEorfTRdzj9JOFr5xUBsK2FHLvS1ctkkmFyProqL7ZVYjjRuF-qFrg9lnhJU4otNeAZfZepjQLmXGF7DWBIN-ZZa8Scp6ZLlGxw129dMQS2Bt0knrLny_YoK3nQb8_AVWAu1jZuuIuUoo/s1600/P1010789.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="268" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEorfTRdzj9JOFr5xUBsK2FHLvS1ctkkmFyProqL7ZVYjjRuF-qFrg9lnhJU4otNeAZfZepjQLmXGF7DWBIN-ZZa8Scp6ZLlGxw129dMQS2Bt0knrLny_YoK3nQb8_AVWAu1jZuuIuUoo/s400/P1010789.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Phase Board</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">So how does this play? We played this four player over Christmas and it went down very well, the mechanics work perfectly and there was a certain amount of tactical play in blocking the passage of your opponents vehicles whilst desperately getting your own meeples to the airfield. There was also a certain amount of logistics involved, getting your helicopter to sweep meeples up from distant locations and depositing them in groups for the slower vehicles to pick up; I tried to be systematic and ignored responding to the early nuclear Markers assuming that there would be some losses – unfortunately for me there were a large number of 8’s rolled meaning that fewer Radiation markers appeared on the board and my tactics were doomed.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6D24EytX5XLHBnsB_h15toh6f21FK-Dhg8dpxIIMk2SyO8xkf9IFy6ezPG2ghYdKZUo4_N8hNc9GTpYBT9AHSw8lzEsK7SQUaBU1SrHUcSvQO5yBJDRzucX9NU-vYPei3tyM-2c971s0B/s1600/P1010790.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="254" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6D24EytX5XLHBnsB_h15toh6f21FK-Dhg8dpxIIMk2SyO8xkf9IFy6ezPG2ghYdKZUo4_N8hNc9GTpYBT9AHSw8lzEsK7SQUaBU1SrHUcSvQO5yBJDRzucX9NU-vYPei3tyM-2c971s0B/s320/P1010790.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Radiation markers - good and stocky</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">I am always interested in games that play solo, most just mimic the game and it becomes more of a puzzle solving exercise. I played this twice solo, first just using one colour as per the rules (the rules do not give separate solo rules), secondly using all the colours. The one colour version was quick and very dull, there was never a game there, it was just me seeing what numbers I rolled on the die and seeing how lucky I was. The multicolour version worked a lot better, I stuck to the rule that only one vehicle colour could occupy a hex and that each colour could only rescue its own meeples. Like most solo versions of games it was still a puzzle, in this case how do I avoid getting in my own way whilst maximising the movement of all the vehicles, but I did get a feeling of some control over what was happening.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXMpAdJNx2EFE43jQTVTui5TSpYHOKk309GLsMcMQAGKwFDFD3rFU11gaavxWhV1_p4plDBHT4T1PPxop4EDuJr9voHTgTtsc0WYtGkM0fJa_LRdxLlRz3WJTybrCxwZIb2OO3wtSy9nAu/s1600/P1010788.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="147" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXMpAdJNx2EFE43jQTVTui5TSpYHOKk309GLsMcMQAGKwFDFD3rFU11gaavxWhV1_p4plDBHT4T1PPxop4EDuJr9voHTgTtsc0WYtGkM0fJa_LRdxLlRz3WJTybrCxwZIb2OO3wtSy9nAu/s400/P1010788.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Phase board with saved Meeples aligned by health in the solo game.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cwali manage to fit everything into a nice sized box, no wasted space, the wooden bits are robust, but here comes my one and only complaint of the game, the vehicle pieces are bent pieces of card that “clip” together at the top – or rather that is what they are supposed to do, it only works with the smallest vehicles. The card tears at the bottom and you end up with floppy bits of card that keep coming unclipped midgame knocking meeples over as they do, remembering that meeple orientation is important in this game. Why they did not go with a piece of card in a plastic stand or even wooden representations of the vehicles I have no idea. </span> </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfpJNBqJ1_GcueEQzCDEtBm7c0_rL8H1dOradJo_ETbSL-5lr9vgUlHlZQgW1HA2ZAkxfnBj4BqdGSUoMtRHeTUKHz5Ze-m8ghHSIrfbAWonruIwqqI9Pnw9Q6NuFS7wlE3o2D38L1xD8h/s1600/P1010795.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="240" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfpJNBqJ1_GcueEQzCDEtBm7c0_rL8H1dOradJo_ETbSL-5lr9vgUlHlZQgW1HA2ZAkxfnBj4BqdGSUoMtRHeTUKHz5Ze-m8ghHSIrfbAWonruIwqqI9Pnw9Q6NuFS7wlE3o2D38L1xD8h/s400/P1010795.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Minibus - folded</span> </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQgAHZ7u3EeSHM72J5zxHXNY38JYC7boZusClDluMb-MKWMkHQ6Qf7t_cSuWksFSFiP6JNB0BWhanrutxpFpzjwti4gzFwwp8vUSdDHGPL__FZEmKeHgI5779vnUHb3Ptn9HlqakkT7Npc/s1600/P1010796.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="165" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQgAHZ7u3EeSHM72J5zxHXNY38JYC7boZusClDluMb-MKWMkHQ6Qf7t_cSuWksFSFiP6JNB0BWhanrutxpFpzjwti4gzFwwp8vUSdDHGPL__FZEmKeHgI5779vnUHb3Ptn9HlqakkT7Npc/s400/P1010796.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Helicopter - unfolded</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">To finish on a high note, Meltdown is an excellent game with well balanced mechanics, it is a lightweight game and probably best as a session starter. I am glad I managed to pick up a copy as its not available through many UK outlets.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-34414183690256452822012-01-08T13:21:00.000-08:002012-01-08T13:21:42.343-08:00Christmas Games part deux<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It probably seems a bit quirky having the Christmas Games Report after the New Year Games Report, but that is how it is this year/last year?!?...... Anyway here is Christmas Gaming 2011 part deux giving a brief overview of the games played over 3 days, reviews for most will follow later in the year.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHSRxYOgl7xCfk0XzfwjdY7OsTI4D6SEcHm-iH1MpFnDJ4eStJS10Achg85-hDai_hK5pqD9lSeIJfmNAxwCpWwnJ3Wpewx9QmREcdsWuFH8S2qFsMc__V386atYIrs6p49MqIZudNdQ_m/s1600/P1010656.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHSRxYOgl7xCfk0XzfwjdY7OsTI4D6SEcHm-iH1MpFnDJ4eStJS10Achg85-hDai_hK5pqD9lSeIJfmNAxwCpWwnJ3Wpewx9QmREcdsWuFH8S2qFsMc__V386atYIrs6p49MqIZudNdQ_m/s400/P1010656.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Christmas Day after a superbly excellent Christmas lunch cooked by Wendy and present unwrapping the first game hit the table. First on the table was “Lucky Ducks” published by MB and designed by Len Stubenfoll. It is for 2-4 players aged 3 and up and plays in about 10 minutes. You may be surprised that this game came out for a group of adults, Lewis certainly was – he had expected “Duck Duck Go” and in my obtuseness I had deliberately brought the wrong game. Ah the humour of it all! The idea of this game is collect your three ducks denoted by your colour on a sticker underneath it as they revolve around on a motorised duck pond. On a players turn they select a duck, secretly look at it, if it is their colour they take it and place in front of them, otherwise they must place it back on the path and the next player has a turn. This continues until everyone has found their ducks, the first player to do so, winning the game. We had fun playing three games of this over half an hour, what I haven’t mentioned is the mechanical quacking that continues from the revolving pond during the game – it is almost hypnotic. The game was quite intense, so much so that I cannot remember who won the three games.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEM5ykLe16HnoQXVhLDaIjLETcwgQuNv13rKCazsD4PyWM7x0-3hQMuaIrJ6iew2oiO48OH6t14DwPiUPt3dDnzcTsSk5jxeYsiICnCpUspCfY7q7RDump35hDsbSA08XP_71Kiy5YW55s/s1600/P1010668.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEM5ykLe16HnoQXVhLDaIjLETcwgQuNv13rKCazsD4PyWM7x0-3hQMuaIrJ6iew2oiO48OH6t14DwPiUPt3dDnzcTsSk5jxeYsiICnCpUspCfY7q7RDump35hDsbSA08XP_71Kiy5YW55s/s320/P1010668.JPG" width="285" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second game we played was “Vikings” by Rio Grande Games, designed by Michael Kiesling it plays in about an hour for 2-4 players aged 10 and over. Probably one of the most played games in my house during a year showing its popularity again by being chosen by Lewis for playing at Christmas. The idea is to collect tiles and place them in your own tableau to create islands in a grid pattern, the tiles come with various coloured meeples who are placed on the tiles. It is the combination of meeples and tiles which gains you victory points, the game is played over 6 rounds, whoever has the most points at the end wins. Lewis beat Wendy by one point, however what this game will be remembered for especially by Alan is his score of “2”, which achievement will be revealed as even more remarkable when I mention everyone starts the game with 10 points and In general a bad score is considered to be between 30 and 40 points.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Yy6TYjuTqdnBk7h85P-8yyi0_DPvTgWiQ0iHYy1j7mkZcGPtwhX1UqJ36kDzdNXhpHrosXbtgKWM2_ohQ446A1qHaBoRydcgpY0s_MGMpmk5dYfoo3J-nslWSPiTx45y626bzjgktphZ/s1600/P1010776.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="390" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Yy6TYjuTqdnBk7h85P-8yyi0_DPvTgWiQ0iHYy1j7mkZcGPtwhX1UqJ36kDzdNXhpHrosXbtgKWM2_ohQ446A1qHaBoRydcgpY0s_MGMpmk5dYfoo3J-nslWSPiTx45y626bzjgktphZ/s400/P1010776.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Kingsburg” was next, designed by Andrea Chiarveslo and Luca Iennaco and produced by Fantasy Flight Games, it is for 2-5 players aged 13 and above and plays in about 90 minutes, though I think 10 year olds could cope without too much difficulty. The game falls under the worker placement category where you roll a set of 3 dice which become your workers, these are placed on various spaces on the board to collect resources; these resources are used to build buildings which give you victory points and special power-ups during the game. Each board space can only be used once during a game turn, so blocking others whilst maximising your own resources is part of the fun, again<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cannot remember who won, I should start writing the results down as they happen, not a week or two later.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTRFmISOM8TOIRUKHUNTey9eqZZtcZALjnxDd9aeLeZqW8RuWbaeydDadh3sSJU-2BxAlnDdK6okmCNNy5B_k5UIyGDfHH7YKUgBkjpFgMRJF9trvKU79TfwaiwmDKdE0-3hVMyJE0QIlk/s1600/P1010780.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTRFmISOM8TOIRUKHUNTey9eqZZtcZALjnxDd9aeLeZqW8RuWbaeydDadh3sSJU-2BxAlnDdK6okmCNNy5B_k5UIyGDfHH7YKUgBkjpFgMRJF9trvKU79TfwaiwmDKdE0-3hVMyJE0QIlk/s400/P1010780.JPG" width="297" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fourth game (we are now on day 2 by the way) was “Egizia”, produced by Rio Grande Games and designed by Acchittocca, Flaminia Brasini, Virginio Gigli, Stefano Luperto and Antonio Tinto. It is for 2-4 players aged 12 and above and plays in about 90 minutes. This is a lovely game and plays over 5 turns, each turn a variety of power cards are interspersed with power spaces on the board then players take turns putting workers on these spaces, only one worker per space so whoever gets there first gets it. As you can never go back up the path of these power spaces, careful choices have to be made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was a hard game, this is the third time I have played it 4 player and it plays differently to 2 or 3 player games which is how I think I prefer this game. With 2 and 3 players there is a degree of predictability which makes you feel you have some control, this to me is lost with 4. Wendy though seems to cope with it no matter how many players there are and has won more than her fair share of this game (she is 4-1 up 2 player) and added this one to her winning tally also.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXwQY04fPyqZTuMUsf7W9iqmWY1wYhbZRGvmwWts7getcDff5e7W3cHHTq3cSUPC_Jm8XIHld6SHeDAwe4Fw0fUQym2J18cHoeMjs9rOGOwleh7_7iRKdYCRJ_tQ5rykwga0QmKIvHZ_33/s1600/P1010777.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXwQY04fPyqZTuMUsf7W9iqmWY1wYhbZRGvmwWts7getcDff5e7W3cHHTq3cSUPC_Jm8XIHld6SHeDAwe4Fw0fUQym2J18cHoeMjs9rOGOwleh7_7iRKdYCRJ_tQ5rykwga0QmKIvHZ_33/s400/P1010777.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was about now we played “Duck Duck Go”, chosen to play by Lewis, designed by Kevin G Nunn and produced by APE Games, it plays 2-4 players (you can actually play up to 6 with another couple of ducks) aged 8 and up in about 30 minutes. Best described as “Roborally light” this was actually the Duck game Lewis wanted to play. A brief overview appears in the New Year Session Report, again a fun time was had with ducks careening into one another, a lucky winner drawing all the right cards at the right time was ME! If anyone knows where I can get Booster Boxes in <country-region><place>Kent</place></country-region> I would be obliged – I have a yen to collect all the ducks.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_DSkktEoOH-2LyTpRydAgWirpJzAi-OsUy2xZAyxLKiCo956Od_3Jfyz4mk00UKn8TRvU5itpK_NQUddPvHDr6eT8W4LyNVJ1RotaivXl8_DKMgB9mBVXj2hj1hvTFDOk5y2Xg95hTnur/s1600/P1010778.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_DSkktEoOH-2LyTpRydAgWirpJzAi-OsUy2xZAyxLKiCo956Od_3Jfyz4mk00UKn8TRvU5itpK_NQUddPvHDr6eT8W4LyNVJ1RotaivXl8_DKMgB9mBVXj2hj1hvTFDOk5y2Xg95hTnur/s400/P1010778.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Meltdown” which was on my choice list is designed by Corne van Moorsel and published by Cwali, it is a game for 1-5 players aged 10 and above and plays in about 45 minutes. This game is themed around Nuclear Reactors going critical where the players play rescuers, saving and evacuating<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>meeples to the nearest airport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An unusual subject for Christmas, however it was one of my newer games and it hadn’t been played yet. It was an interesting game, however some lucky early die rolls meant our game was quite tame with limited losses. I lost the game quite convincingly by trying to save everyone and failing. There is an element of luck in this game, however it played very well and everyone enjoyed it, Wendy won.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9U3Ea4nw03xdkUyu4kjf8G4nUnKnnABabBWubU6KD11styuTwjxmIyuaiUzT6iXcC-UAsZ0APrO_6OyE4Te0bW8ERNGs0nDYVe2LnZlgdq6eXnpa-R2TtZ8kjZC0Sedm6hcSAiLiWaXcZ/s1600/P1010749.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9U3Ea4nw03xdkUyu4kjf8G4nUnKnnABabBWubU6KD11styuTwjxmIyuaiUzT6iXcC-UAsZ0APrO_6OyE4Te0bW8ERNGs0nDYVe2LnZlgdq6eXnpa-R2TtZ8kjZC0Sedm6hcSAiLiWaXcZ/s400/P1010749.JPG" width="292" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lewis had to leave on day 3, so the remaining games were played 2/3 player. First up after a nice walk to see the Purple Sandpipers was “Richtofen, Ace of Aces”, I last played this about 20 years ago and Alan refreshed my memory with the basic rules. The game was designed by Alfred Leonardi and produced by Nova Game Designs, it is a 2 player game with the basic game lasting about 15 minutes, playing time can lengthen with the advanced rules and if playing a campaign. It is an aerial combat game based during the Great War where each player has a booklet of pictures showing views from your cockpit, you select a manoeuvre and based on the cross-indexing of manoeuvres chosen gives you a new view and perhaps a victim in your sights. I had fun and is one of the games missing from my collection.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmgim2JrQU7SkDPRb2TmLdpIKPkcUMTmg1lLoIj_5Up9xYinqyoo_gb7PvJyVyGjk4BzKWvkCdBXDC4eAnKkAWP-mMbemFQaDRx291e8cp9wr5ccXHnpcNIOrylSIOH7AnY9N1vK26T1iu/s1600/P1010746.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmgim2JrQU7SkDPRb2TmLdpIKPkcUMTmg1lLoIj_5Up9xYinqyoo_gb7PvJyVyGjk4BzKWvkCdBXDC4eAnKkAWP-mMbemFQaDRx291e8cp9wr5ccXHnpcNIOrylSIOH7AnY9N1vK26T1iu/s400/P1010746.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alan and I gave “Satanix” a whirl next, it is a word game for 2 players aged 10 and above and plays in 15 minutes. The design is uncredited and is produced by Habourdin International. The game consists of 16 reels on a central spindle, each reel has 10 faces. Each reel has one blank, one “E” and 8 other random letters, one on each face. On your turn you create a word starting with the left hand reel, your opponent then tries to create a longer word. The mechanisms, both the reels and spindles, and the game itself, work very well; we were playing for pleasure and had plenty of time so our game lasted for about an hour, if playing seriously I would strongly suggest using a minute egg timer.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifcRbEEy2B3Xu7t5no3jFZhAsyNaq9VdM3uYfA9i2olZgdJiGsZi4RBhUtXDXjc1JO15y4MrvLqCk9zZSH6QSoGmXVWwY8jMwOUWLq13d1Z-nB7br8xBLaixwP2-s6I7Yy6Z_dJhfWxmxb/s1600/P1010367.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifcRbEEy2B3Xu7t5no3jFZhAsyNaq9VdM3uYfA9i2olZgdJiGsZi4RBhUtXDXjc1JO15y4MrvLqCk9zZSH6QSoGmXVWwY8jMwOUWLq13d1Z-nB7br8xBLaixwP2-s6I7Yy6Z_dJhfWxmxb/s400/P1010367.JPG" width="281" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last Christmas session game played was “If wishes were Fishes” chosen by Wendy and which she joined us for, this game was reviewed by me on <date day="30" month="11" year="2011">30-11-11</date>. Designed by Michael Adams and Peter Sarrett, produced by Rio Grande Games, it is for 2-5 players aged 10 and above. The theme is around catching and selling fish shown on cards, however each card can either be used as the fish or a special action – but not both. Another great game was had and a nice light finish to 3 days of games, food and fun. Thank you Alan for providing the venue of our festivities and being a marvellous host, we all had a great time.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Scalectrix? Well lewis and I set that up on day 2 after I spent half an hour digging it out of cupboard hidden by stacks of games, the course was not bad and was about 15 feet long made up from quite a few basic sets I picked up years ago, several races were had with Lewis winning them all.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-52650729272559264022012-01-03T16:44:00.000-08:002012-01-05T06:41:47.657-08:00New Year Games<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Christmas game sessions I hope to catch up with later – they are half written, however hot off the press is the New Year games session, there are no reviews in this article, just an overview of the games we played.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oeQNHDkG2eg/TwOVsuUupYI/AAAAAAAABPI/5BQP8rLnadA/s1600/P1010708.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="386" rea="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oeQNHDkG2eg/TwOVsuUupYI/AAAAAAAABPI/5BQP8rLnadA/s400/P1010708.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wendy and I got to spend New Year with Chris and Julia, other guests over the two days included Jay, John, Jens, Beth and Mike. We all had a lovely time, Chris and Julia as always being fantastic hosts, whilst Beth supplied a superb vegetable pie (those simple words do not do justice to how marvellous it tasted). However on to the games. When we arrived Jay, Chris and Julia were playing Kingdom Builder, a game by Donald X Vaccarino, produced by Queen games for 2-4 players aged 8 and over. I got a quick rundown on the rules and I began to see what the current interest is in this game and I look forward to playing it sometime. In brief (very brief) it is a territory claiming game with points awarded for various goals which are on view to all but change from game to game, so each game is different. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l4YPVfwDBfc/TwOZfInJrdI/AAAAAAAABPc/TQlXtkfUloc/s1600/P1010720.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" rea="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l4YPVfwDBfc/TwOZfInJrdI/AAAAAAAABPc/TQlXtkfUloc/s400/P1010720.JPG" width="291" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We all then played Last Will another game I had heard a lot about. It is designed by Vladimir Suchy, produced by Czech Games Edition and <city><place>Rio Grande</place></city>. It is aimed at 2-5 players aged 11 and above and plays in about 60 minutes. The game is all about losing your money as fast as possible, one cannot help but draw a parallel with the excellent Richard prior film, “Brewster’s Millions”. On your turn you use a marker to select from six possible action groups; dependent on which one you choose, it will give you from 0-6 unknown cards from chosen decks, one or 2 hat moves (special actions to collect specific cards), and from 1 to 4 player actions. The better the selection, the later in the round you will go next turn. The actions allow you to play cards to your playboard which chew up cash at various rates. If you have chosen your cards correctly you will get to play multiple cards at a time chewing up even more cash. Houses devalue, but MUST be sold before you can declare yourself bankrupt and that money also squandered away. It was an enjoyable game and I was able to win in a true Brewster manner, with a big party.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-80gZMtGsYTA/TwOb7gYWNqI/AAAAAAAABP0/VudBKlgkte4/s1600/P1010700.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" rea="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-80gZMtGsYTA/TwOb7gYWNqI/AAAAAAAABP0/VudBKlgkte4/s400/P1010700.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After lunch the first game was MOTO GP, designed by Rafael Nunez-Maturana and published by Games for Table Races S.L. (<country-region><place>Spain</place></country-region>), playing in about 90 minutes for 2-8 players aged 8 and over. It is essentially a Motorcycle race round a track, the rules are relatively simple and consist of on your turn selecting a card from a hand of 3, playing it and suffering the consequences. Cards run in value from 5 to 9, should you play a 9, or an 8 or 9 in a bend, or “bully” through blocking bikes on the straight, or have to play a card you cannot fully use then you roll 2 dice, a 5 or less and you suffer 1 damage point. You have a total of 6 damage points and as you accrue them the you have to do more checks when using lower value cards, you crash when you get your seventh point. You are supposed to play a 3 lap race, however we thought that 1 lap would give us a feel for the game when we could choose to do more laps if we wished. We got a feel for the game after the first 4 bends, however we still <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>persevered to the end of the lap. I cannot say the game was bad, but inconsistency in the rules, a lack of choice in moves and no real opportunity to plan ahead made it a dull game. It really needs a proper gamer to overhaul the rules; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>there is a game there but it still needs a bit of work. This should not detract from Mikes superb gameplay to get the win.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nIHsVIqo_d8/TwTUhE3ZnWI/AAAAAAAABRg/ldUbPFTuPhQ/s1600/P1010703.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="336" rea="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nIHsVIqo_d8/TwTUhE3ZnWI/AAAAAAAABRg/ldUbPFTuPhQ/s400/P1010703.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next up was Kaleidos, designed by Spartaco Albertarelli and published by Edtrice Giochi, a game for 2-12 players aged 10 and up playing in about 60 minutes. This is an excellent observational game, each player gets the same picture to look at, a dial is spun giving a letter of the alphabet and an eggtimer is then turned over and you get a minute to write down as many items you can see in the picture beginning with that letter. At the end of a minute everyone stops writing and lists compared, you get 2 points for a unique answer, 1 point for a shared answer and lose a point if everyone except one person has the answer (as does everyone else with that answer). Play a number of rounds and whoever has the best score wins. Chris won this one with about 20% higher score than anyone else. The pictures are a mass of items and animals and curiosities within a common setting and the artists Marinna Fulvi and Elena prette are to be commended. It was a fun game with many discussions – some very short lived such as my claiming an Alley-Cat for the letter A when everyone said “no – it’s a Cheshire Cat” to the slightly longer for Beth’s “It’s a Mammoth” for M with everyone saying “It’s an elephant” – no one though got Mammal!!!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RyVpEi3XOWU/TwOeH-kIzGI/AAAAAAAABQY/Jw3ZgIVcbtg/s1600/P1010701.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" rea="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RyVpEi3XOWU/TwOeH-kIzGI/AAAAAAAABQY/Jw3ZgIVcbtg/s400/P1010701.JPG" width="280" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next game was Take it Easy XXL, produced by FX Schmid and designed by Peter Burley, it plays in about 20 minutes and takes from 1-8 players aged 10 and up – though I know 8 year olds that could cope with it. A lovely game, each player has a small hex board with a set of hex tiles, each tile has coloured lines going across it with various values<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for example 1’s ,5’s & 9’s go N-S. On a turn a caller draws a tiles and then says what numbers are on the tile, everyone takes that tile and places it on their board. A tile placed cannot be moved. Play continues until all boards are full and then you score up. Each completed line scores the value of the line times the number of tiles in the line. We played two rounds with me winning the first and drawing in first place in the second, though most of the others were first timers to this game.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YkhdIaIo3sk/TwW2b5XzFYI/AAAAAAAABRs/nCM-Qh2I29s/s1600/P1010431_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="397" rea="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YkhdIaIo3sk/TwW2b5XzFYI/AAAAAAAABRs/nCM-Qh2I29s/s400/P1010431_crop.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think it was here when we played Duck Duck Go, designed by Kevin G Nunn and produced by APE Games, it plays 2-4 players (you can actually play up to 6 with another couple of ducks) aged 8 and up in about 30 minutes. The game consists of playing cards to move ducks on a board, the ducks race round trying to tag bouys before crossing the finish line – which is a plughole. Cards are played simultaneously, revealed and played in numerical order, this blind play often leads to collisions and mishaps. It is a fun game not to be taken seriously, strategically it is a nightmare as you never have the correct cards at the right time – but the ducks are so cute you can forgive the high luck element. A review of this game will follow soon.</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sbll0jhBn4o/TwOeiNtgr7I/AAAAAAAABQk/wT6-Wz7s7Mk/s1600/P1010709.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" rea="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sbll0jhBn4o/TwOeiNtgr7I/AAAAAAAABQk/wT6-Wz7s7Mk/s320/P1010709.JPG" width="230" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last game of the day was Olympos by Ystari games,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>designed by Philippe Keyaerts, its for 3-5 players aged 10 and up (I would say 12 and up) and lasts about 90 minutes. The game consists of a map of <country-region><place>Greece</place></country-region> and Atlantis sectioned off into areas with resource counters thereon. The winner of the game is the player who gains the most victory points which are gained for areas owned at the end of the game, power cards picked up and not used and for “additional power” tiles picked up during the game. The game revolves about a time track, everything you do takes time which is recorded. On your turn you can add troops to the board and conquer areas thus gaining the resource counter or you can buy a power tile; both take “time”. Saving time is essential, as is collecting the right tiles, I missed on both these essentials until it was too late and then it was a fight to stay out of last place. I cannot say I enjoyed the game, the mechanism does force you to attack someone at some point to improve your position and I don’t generally like those sort of games. A game is either a war game where there is the ebb and flow for all participants or it is a resource game, a resource game which has a small amount of combat usually end up being “pick on the weakest” with no catch-up mechanism; such was the case in this game. Jay attacked me to obtain a specific resource he wanted, however I also needed the resource so I attacked him back, we both lost time to the other players putting us a turn behind them – with no material gain by either of us. The game was won by Wendy in rather dramatic style, Julia had established a strong position, however Wendy had concentrated her efforts in just the right areas to overtake Julia at the end.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 2 saw us start with Powergrid – The First Sparks produced by 2F Spiele, designed by Friedmann Friese for 2-6 players aged 12 and above playing in about 75 minutes. This game is about expanding tribes on a map made up of hexes that have one of four resources, Grapes, Bears, Fish or Mammoths. Players gather these resources to expand and feed their tribes, to assist in this there are cards to be bought from a deck in a similar manner to powergrid. When someone reaches 13 the turn is played out and furthest past the post wins with food in hand being the tie-break. Julia won this quite easily with John being the only real challenge, I suffered a glitch mid-game by running low on food and Wendy started off a bit too slow and ended up a turn behind the rest . I have to draw the conclusion that the game is unforgiving with mistakes, it is simpler than Powergrid and really a different game though it draws its mechanisms from its “parent”. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IriD2siLGFQ/TwOfVY6OcCI/AAAAAAAABQ8/Alj4lSuj15c/s1600/P1010707.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" rea="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IriD2siLGFQ/TwOfVY6OcCI/AAAAAAAABQ8/Alj4lSuj15c/s400/P1010707.JPG" width="195" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next game was Alles im Eimer published by Kosmos, designed by Stefan Dorra, aimed at 2-6 players aged 10 and above. A card game where you start off with a hand of 12 cards, they can be of numbers 2 to 8 and in any of five colours. On your turn you must follow suit and beat the previous players total, you can do this by playing 1, 2 or 3 cards. If you do so, play passes to the next player, if you fail then you lose a colour token matching the cards you failed to play. The coloured tokens are placed in a pyramid, when you lose a coloured token, any it is supporting you lose as well. Matching numbers switches direction of play. It was a good game where I kept my head, but not the majority of my tokens; this game was won by Mike carefully avoiding the tit-for-tat battles going on and playing some high combinations to avoid losses.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Tghyh2cNGME/TwOftQMKJVI/AAAAAAAABRI/Qdsz30GM87o/s1600/P1010705.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="336" rea="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Tghyh2cNGME/TwOftQMKJVI/AAAAAAAABRI/Qdsz30GM87o/s400/P1010705.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next game was In 80 Tagen an die Welt designed by Michael Rieneck and published by Kosmos, it plays from 3-6 players in about 75 minutes. The game consists of a number of travel routes round the board which require either Train and/or Ship cards to move by, each card has a number of days thereon which is kept on a tally round the board. The idea is to complete the round trip in less than 80 days. Each turn a number of cards are placed face up dependent on the number of players next to an action space. On a turn a player takes a card and the associated special action and may also complete one Route section. The game plays well, there is an element of luck with die rolls replacing cards, but this is at the players choice, special action cards also have an element of luck to them. All in all the game is well balanced with Mike getting his marker to London first in just under 90 days, on the following turn John, Wendy and Julia also reached London but with an accumulated time of 80 days or less with Julia taking the shortest time. In the meantime Jens and I failed to reach <city><place>London</place></city> choosing (I would like to think) to put our feet up in <country-region><place>America</place></country-region> for a while.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0dzm8ZeGUx4/TwOgeWGN45I/AAAAAAAABRU/vuSg-sL8n4k/s1600/P1010725.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" rea="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0dzm8ZeGUx4/TwOgeWGN45I/AAAAAAAABRU/vuSg-sL8n4k/s400/P1010725.JPG" width="282" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last game of the day was Nefarious published by Ascora Games and designed by<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Donald X Vaccarino , a card driven game for 2-6 players aged 8 and up playing in 30 minutes. It is a light card game with little depth, you each have a game board, some mad scientist tokens and 4 action cards. Each turn the players simultaneously choose one of their action cards, they are all revealed and then played in numerical order. The choices are 1, place an investment counter, 2 get 2 cash and an invention card, 3 create an invention, 4 grab 4 cash. The invention cards generally have additional actions you can carry out but cost money, however they also carry the victory points you need to win the game. We played a 4 player game, due to event cards money was tight, I was very bad at balancing the books, and came last, John came first a well deserved win. I hope to review this game at a later date.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most of these games were new to me and the two I enjoyed most were Last Will & Kaleidos. Thank you once again to Julia & Chris</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-49188161361918452672011-12-28T16:00:00.000-08:002011-12-28T16:00:16.071-08:00Christmas Gaming 2011<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the Christmas period I played games with Wendy Alan and Lewis and as a small task beforehand I asked them all to nominate a game that they would like to play. They each gave me two which made my task easier. The games we played I hope to review over the next week, but as a small appetiser here were their choices.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lewis<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>. Duck Duck Go and Vikings</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alan . Stoneage and Kingsburg</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wendy . Egizia and If Wishes were Fishes</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kevin . Meltdown and The Christmas Game</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sadly Stoneage and The Christmas Game did not get played, however instead we did play Scalextric, Ace of Aces and Satanix.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had also done a little quiz as a filler, four sections were pictures only and as I cannot attribute the sources I will not reproduce them here, so you are left with the first seven sections. Wikipedia was only one of the many sources used for this quiz. Feel free to try your luck, answers will be published in 2 weeks time.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sections are :-</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Music – 1pt each except 8 (2 pts), 6, 9 & 10 (2 pts) 1 for the song & 1 for the artist</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fictional Places – 1 pt each.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alias’s and pseudonyms – 1 pt each</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Literature – 2 pts each, one for the book and 1 for the author.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Loosely Sporting – 1 pt each except 42 (3 pts) and 45 (2 pts)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pot Luck – 1 pt each</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Games – These are games which you probably have played or are at least on display in Alan’s house or at Kevin & Wendy’s. – 1 pt each.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MUSIC</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What shape is the body of a Balalaika?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which land did Puff the Magic Dragon Live in? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The washboard and tea-chest bass are normally associated with which musical genre?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the Beatles which is the biggest selling group ever?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How long is the Camptown racetrack? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is the best selling <country-region><place>UK</place></country-region> single with 4,865,000 sales?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who has the most No 1 singles in the <country-region><place>UK</place></country-region>?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was George Gershwins one and only Opera called? For a bonus point what was the title of its opening aria? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It’s close to <time hour="0" minute="0">midnight</time>, there’s something evil lurking in the dark” Is the opening line to which song? (1pt each for song and artist)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“ Whatcha gonna do with all that junk, All that junk inside your trunk.” Is the opening line to which song? (1pt each for song and artist)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>FICTIONAL PLACES</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In which series of books does the building “Hogwarts” appear?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">12.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In which TV series does the residence “<street><address>31 Elm Tree Avenue</address></street>, Purley” appear?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">13.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><place><placename>Blandings</placename> <placetype>Castle</placetype></place> appears in many books by which author?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">14.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>32 Railway Cutting’s, <place>North Cheam</place> appears in which series?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">15.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><place><placename>Honolulu</placename> <placetype>Heights</placetype></place>, Barry, <country-region><place>Wales</place></country-region> appears in series 3 of which TV programme, now filming series 4? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">16.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which family lives at <street><address>1630 Revello Drive</address></street>, somewhere in <country-region><place>America</place></country-region>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">17.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>742 Evergreen Terrace, appears in which American TV series?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">18.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which family lives at 368, 12th floor, Nelson Mandela House, Dockside Estate, Peckham, <city><place>London</place></city>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">19.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><place><placename>Burgh</placename> <placetype>Island</placetype></place> in <place>Devon</place> is the real name of an island that inspired the setting of a best selling book that was serialised in the Daily Express in 1939. Who was its author?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">20.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ambridge is the village setting of which series?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BY ANY OTHER NAME :: The following are the birth names of famous people; who are they better known as? To help a little, I have added in which century they passed away where applicable.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">21.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Costadinos Contostavlos (Singer)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">22.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (d 20th) (Nobel prize winner)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">23.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Roy Harold Scherer Jr (d 20th) (Actor)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">24.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ellis Bell (d 19th) (Writer)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">25.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eldrick Tont Woods (Sportsperson)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">26.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (Singer)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">27.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eileen <city><place>Regina</place></city> Edwards (Singer)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">28.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili (d 20th) (Politician)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">29.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (d 20th) (Spy?)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">30.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tiziano Vecelli (d 16th) (Painter)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">LITERATURE :: The following are the first lines from popular / famous books. Book and author required, 1 pt for each.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>31.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">32.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">33.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high-pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">34.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">35.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">36.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug." </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">37.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">38.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'Where's Papa going with that axe?' said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast." </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">39.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">40.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Marley was dead, to begin with." </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>LOOSELY SPORTING</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">41.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which Jamaican holds the world record in the Mens 100Metres, achieved on <date day="16" month="9" year="2009">16-9-2009</date> in <state><place>Berlin</place></state> <country-region><place>Germany</place></country-region>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">42.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On February 8th & 9th 2011, He played for 25 hours against 604 players, winning 580 (97.35%) of the matches, drawing 16, and losing 8 thereby gaining a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the most simultaneous games. A point each for his name, discipline and nationality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">43.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Superbowl has the winners of which two “leagues” going head to head (acronyms accepted)? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">44.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This sport is judged on accuracy where a final position like the hand of a clock scores best at <time hour="12" minute="0">12 o’clock</time> to the competitor. Sometimes judging from the side is required where for example, an angle from the ground of 84 degrees is better than 68 degrees. What sport is this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">45.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gholamreza Takhti (<date day="27" month="8" year="1930">27/8/30</date> – 7/1/68) won 1 Olympic gold, 1 Asian Championship gold<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and 2 World Championship golds between 1956 and 1961. He was most famous for his attitude to sport, an example being when he heard that his opponent Alexander Medved had an injured right knee. Not once during the match did he attack this weakness. He lost the match but showed that he valued honourable behaviour above victory. What discipline did he win his golds in? 1 extra point each if you can name the discipline he was a world reknowned practioner of and his home country.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">46.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What sport made its debut as a demonstration sport in the 1988 Olympics; again was a demonstration sport in the 1992 Olympics, missed the 1996 Olympics but then gained official medal status in the 2000 Olympics?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">47.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Svetlana Masterkova holds the Womens World Record set on <date day="14" month="8" year="1996">14th August 1996</date> in a distance for which <date day="6" month="5" year="1954">the 6th May 1954</date> is a landmark date. What is this distance?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">48.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In which sport do 5 Shimpan watch proceedings?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">49.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In which sport does a “Mark” get rewarded with a “Free Kick”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">50.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Past champions include Chris Anderson, Helen Thorpe and 14 year old Jo Guest. It is a British sport with at least 200 years of history behind it, taking place over a 200 yard course with speeds of up to 70mph. What is the name of this sporting event? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">POT LUCK</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">51.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Using their atomic numbers only, add Boron, Carbon and Nitrogen; multiply the result by Helium and then finally add Hydrogen. What number do you end up with?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">52.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is this symbol commonly known as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">53.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is any of various lateen-rigged sailing vessels, typically having a raised poop, a raked stem, and one or two masts, used along the coasts of the <place>Indian Ocean</place><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>called?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">54.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wuhai, <place><city>China</city> <state>&</state> <state>Valdivia</state>, <country-region>Chile</country-region></place>; <place><city>Christchurch</city>, <country-region>New Zealand</country-region></place> & A Coruna, <country-region><place>Spain</place></country-region>. What do these two pairings have in common?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">55.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is a Steam Calliope? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">56.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although its authorship is in question, who is the “Book of Lemmas” (or at least its contents) generally attributed to?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">57.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What were the 2 gangs in west side story (1 point for each)?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">58.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Computer engineering what does VLSI stand for?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">59.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Halley’s Comet will next make an appearance during which year?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">60.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A unit of mass equal to 200mg is more commonly called what?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">GAMES :: These are fairly well-known games. I have selected a tell-tale rule or two from the game which may be slightly altered to avoid too easy an identification. All you have to do is name that game. ~x~ refers to words taken out of the clue – you do not get them that easy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">61.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A chain containing 11 or more hotels is safe and cannot be taken over by another chain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">62.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Judge picks a green ~x~ card from the top of the stack, reads the words aloud, and places it face up on the table. / For a more leisurely and thoughtful game, allow everyone except the judge to play a red ~x~ card in each round.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">63.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After players have decided whether they will jump out or stay in the ~x~ ~x~ , the ~x~ pilot must decide what he or she will do.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">64.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moving back to a <street><address>Tortoise Square</address></street> costs nothing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">65.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A player cannot sink a green hill piece before all the yellow lowland pieces have sunk. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">66.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then turn the crank clockwise in the direction of the arrow and watch the action. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">67.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mounted Indians cannot enter or pass over the squares marked with trees, boulders or battlements. / General Custer with his 2 guns, is allowed 2 shots (at the same or different opponents). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">68.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When a player draws a card, he looks at it and may either keep it or pass it on face down to any player who does not already have an Empire card. / A player must not look at an Empire card passed to him until all players have received one.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">69.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Escape Equipment cards are obtained in a similar way to the Escape Kit, but by placing two POW’s in each room where the required equipment symbols are shown.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">70.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may only build a settlement at a tile intersection and only if all three of the adjacent intersections are vacant.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-82230533146897256812011-12-02T06:25:00.000-08:002011-12-02T06:25:48.597-08:00Martian Dice<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Martian dice is a simple fun game designed by Scott Ames and produced by Tasty Minstrel Games. It is new this year and is aimed at ages 8 and over (though the rules can be understood by a 6 year old). It is for 2 or more players. but I would not go much above 8 because of the downtime between turns, with large groups you tend to get 2 or three players who run the game whilst others socialize/chat giving a nudge to other players when its their turn, strategy is limited to your own turn so knowing what others have done is not really important.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2psPI2Is1HcK-3fMJLll0gkiAH8AWw2eir4JW6Oh7-9IizAdWeftwBTGRbopkutrofRPtMnHHZfvjLhefxeIe5mfwr7ZLkJO4C6grp1I6-2-6OYm-WN-2I1wWPdfTUm55YlsHMXaDXj3P/s1600/P1010375.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2psPI2Is1HcK-3fMJLll0gkiAH8AWw2eir4JW6Oh7-9IizAdWeftwBTGRbopkutrofRPtMnHHZfvjLhefxeIe5mfwr7ZLkJO4C6grp1I6-2-6OYm-WN-2I1wWPdfTUm55YlsHMXaDXj3P/s320/P1010375.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The tube it all comes in</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The container is small yet still too large for the game, it could easily have been sold in something a third its size and even more annoying it is a tube. I have a thing against tubes because they are a pain to store, they just do not stack properly with other games or tubes and each company seems to pick completely different sizes to sell their products in, they also leave gaps round them on shelves. Still they are better, only just mind, than blister packs which some small games come in and which have no discernable stacking shape at all.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIA_AiSvC50LTbkptLcX_634ekOWFP3nutkwVZeALofkJA5vjcNqfqsGPMl4DSwRjk-o0kEmHeOgMkhrff8VlbfdgHI4heDGOZ-RiKq33SytObnXnI9dtnNR5qATcBPi0DlxlzMG1WSgAb/s1600/P1010376.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIA_AiSvC50LTbkptLcX_634ekOWFP3nutkwVZeALofkJA5vjcNqfqsGPMl4DSwRjk-o0kEmHeOgMkhrff8VlbfdgHI4heDGOZ-RiKq33SytObnXnI9dtnNR5qATcBPi0DlxlzMG1WSgAb/s320/P1010376.JPG" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Rules</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game consists of one sheet of rules and 13 dice. Each die is a normal 6 sided die with five possible faces. A chicken head (yellow), a human head (blue), a cow head (white), a human tank (red) and a laser canon (green) which is shown on 2 of the faces. The aim of the game is to score 25 points over a series of rounds, when someone achieves 25 or more points at the end of their turn the round is completed and victory goes to furthest past the post.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwpc1eNaXKlr4oMuJtbR4M0bMdoUzTKOpDpiHqMP8IlH0QFYOoYz-fXYMvDS-eXJy04polpiis7KWkohOZw4WV880ZgTbh3g8iMZxffsQG68pCf1xDSIHywSV0K0XzkmA7kaZbiU9uF7cm/s1600/P1010377.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwpc1eNaXKlr4oMuJtbR4M0bMdoUzTKOpDpiHqMP8IlH0QFYOoYz-fXYMvDS-eXJy04polpiis7KWkohOZw4WV880ZgTbh3g8iMZxffsQG68pCf1xDSIHywSV0K0XzkmA7kaZbiU9uF7cm/s320/P1010377.JPG" width="299" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 13 Dice</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On your turn you throw all the dice, put aside all red faces (these are the evil defending Earthlings) and all the dice of one other colour having done so you may </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">re-throw the remaining dice and likewise collect all red faces and one other colour. Other than the laser canons (green) you may only collect the remaining colours once in a set of throws. i.e. Yellow, white and blue </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">– the abductees – you are a Martian after all, all chickens cows and humans are strange creatures to be examined and questioned at length later back on Mars. You may stop whenever you want and score up and if you have a turn where you cannot collect any non-red dice because of the above restrictions your turn will end and you may score up.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLy_7c9R4wfcYKZYe1bhvfzAeV9DzQhOAX6bXLnuxbvh6SOvYtQkCxBeA0qEIoWXs_5h3V5CksH_dN8uOHx0rolVulRHy3kC_4BPsYjSDYHG-tjlxg_SbQ36u8CZL0DNAneZgf36eSopov/s1600/P1010379.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLy_7c9R4wfcYKZYe1bhvfzAeV9DzQhOAX6bXLnuxbvh6SOvYtQkCxBeA0qEIoWXs_5h3V5CksH_dN8uOHx0rolVulRHy3kC_4BPsYjSDYHG-tjlxg_SbQ36u8CZL0DNAneZgf36eSopov/s320/P1010379.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The possible faces</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before you score there is a pre-requisite and that is that your laser canons (green) must equal or exceed the number of defending evil Earthling tanks (red), if successful then you may score the other coloured dice – your abductees. Each scores 1 point per die and you get a bonus of 3 if you have all 3 different abductees represented in your collection. The dice are then passed on for the next player to have their turn. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWSnrKF1ZrqSJtD8dZWemxjQ009MrnEmOacJmeR0SF5tFKSw1saVevUcnMapuKLEXRStC2jL1eBkmnpeLV2lbTHUTrTKrremXUh2yyJXtqvMiR5u1xT0aq2CMRMK3lruH-IwIgtnUKTrcl/s1600/P1010448.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWSnrKF1ZrqSJtD8dZWemxjQ009MrnEmOacJmeR0SF5tFKSw1saVevUcnMapuKLEXRStC2jL1eBkmnpeLV2lbTHUTrTKrremXUh2yyJXtqvMiR5u1xT0aq2CMRMK3lruH-IwIgtnUKTrcl/s320/P1010448.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gary shows complete contempt for the puny Earthling forces - and all for 2 points!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would like to thank Sally of Spirit Games <a href="http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/">http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/</a> for introducing this game to me.On the whole it is a quick simple filler game, lasting about 3/4 minutes per player. I have played it with a number of groups and each have enjoyed the game. It is fun but requires little in the way of pre-planning or forethought in that you just do the best with what you have got, there are decisions to make, but not big ones so I can see it sliding to the back of the shelf after a while for me, though it may remain a sticker with some groups.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-32212311247239262582011-11-30T12:30:00.000-08:002011-11-30T12:30:04.297-08:00If Wishes were Fishes<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I picked up a copy of If Wishes were Fishes in “The Works” recently where I think I walked in at the right time as they were selling off a number of Rio Grande and Queen Games fairly cheap, and most I had never heard of before. </span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKpHXhD_1Mw7pSNqLgfZ6JHUYetkF2Uh0XFsj746s3GlPrqcTglONXYBc4Kv_sU5bNAco8uTTkKD-HXsVtviHEOuaVfpGWnKTthXe3fl00NQEiylIIPq4dJQEsCBDbLla_2xfYHE_e9AuG/s1600/P1010367.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKpHXhD_1Mw7pSNqLgfZ6JHUYetkF2Uh0XFsj746s3GlPrqcTglONXYBc4Kv_sU5bNAco8uTTkKD-HXsVtviHEOuaVfpGWnKTthXe3fl00NQEiylIIPq4dJQEsCBDbLla_2xfYHE_e9AuG/s320/P1010367.JPG" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Box lid showing multiple language version</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If fishes were wishes is designed by Michael Adams and Peter Sarrett, it is produced by Rio Grande Games and takes from 2-5 players aged 10 and above and plays in about 45 minutes. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The box contents consist of a playing board, depicting 7 market stalls each stall with a different type of fish and a score track going around the perimeter; 75 small wooden fish and 5 small wooden discs split into the 5 player colours; a deck of 70 fish cards and 4 “Closed market” cards; 5 wooden customer counters valued 3, 2, 2, 1 & 1; lastly 30 large rubber worms.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtmygYNc81Siufrq1TPvEmQGh-FQL3CV_K-osD3cb2ZtCGiCJKgN1uIAd8IsjmI1YQCJ1E329O-1b70RZospibs9k19XkuacYXMMq2Zl1pFVHfaLgpw8ZSstuSgwW5gWKg9HOMv4x5TzgU/s1600/P1010374.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtmygYNc81Siufrq1TPvEmQGh-FQL3CV_K-osD3cb2ZtCGiCJKgN1uIAd8IsjmI1YQCJ1E329O-1b70RZospibs9k19XkuacYXMMq2Zl1pFVHfaLgpw8ZSstuSgwW5gWKg9HOMv4x5TzgU/s400/P1010374.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Playing Board</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Rules booklet is multilanguage (German, French & English) and easily read being 2 pages and one page of card explanations. There are a couple of ommissions though common sense will work these out (eg with each sale do you put a fish on for making a sale at the market or for each fish you sell at the market? This is not covered anywhere, we worked it out to be one for each fish sold). </span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Xm7djQ8M0osYb-YYNsNYYL4NJLn5LRDl7zCDAx10WHJ7SvHvxGb2l90Fd-pcuDIdzMWgIGqTGTYgTtkdHGNM4FBgyMIRK2SICt_q3ZnYG9ffGcOAv-SF17tV_ReyyPZszgdvkbj8XZrc/s1600/P1010373.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Xm7djQ8M0osYb-YYNsNYYL4NJLn5LRDl7zCDAx10WHJ7SvHvxGb2l90Fd-pcuDIdzMWgIGqTGTYgTtkdHGNM4FBgyMIRK2SICt_q3ZnYG9ffGcOAv-SF17tV_ReyyPZszgdvkbj8XZrc/s320/P1010373.JPG" width="224" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rules Booklet</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most of the fish cards are split in two having one of the seven fish depicted upon it and the second half containing a wish, i.e. an action which the card can be used for.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlO2CnaJB3Jf2oOdeYqIfJpc50VPkIXDY6TGttaBBAFUngSL3VrUABypSsF5udMF3gbVFhKNsm1xR7XBxQJFCCmKksIGu5FZoIjB7yY8ayyT0Zce7OBnsgElkYMpE7hvduXyNhJ0ZjBgn/s1600/P1010372.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlO2CnaJB3Jf2oOdeYqIfJpc50VPkIXDY6TGttaBBAFUngSL3VrUABypSsF5udMF3gbVFhKNsm1xR7XBxQJFCCmKksIGu5FZoIjB7yY8ayyT0Zce7OBnsgElkYMpE7hvduXyNhJ0ZjBgn/s320/P1010372.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Market Card, Player Start Boat, Additional Boat, four Fish Cards</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The winner of the game is the player who collects the most cash, this is generally gathered from collecting fish cards and then selling them at the appropriate market stalls, however cash bonuses can also be obtained by selling the majority of fish at a stall when it is closed or having the most worms, in addition some of the wishes give a little cash bonus. The game is all about taking the correct actions at the correct time. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The set up consists of players taking their fish markers and 6 worms, placing their disc on the score track, randomly putting a customer on five of the seven stalls and dealing out 4 fish cards in a line. Each player also has 2 ethereal boats (my edition came with a card showing the 2 boats, but they are not available in all copies).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5b4Ae7_wPNIVGZhWeTtnaBezukCG0wYCTX1xND8ozcdDhI4l4Os8HiHNmW61NOcxXJnpEvTVqY3mAI5EEROjWPOQl_6ThUblhmvHTXYyPDc_SARTzGdgYHx1GdKhrgh56PdSR9rC1c-Z4/s1600/P1010368.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5b4Ae7_wPNIVGZhWeTtnaBezukCG0wYCTX1xND8ozcdDhI4l4Os8HiHNmW61NOcxXJnpEvTVqY3mAI5EEROjWPOQl_6ThUblhmvHTXYyPDc_SARTzGdgYHx1GdKhrgh56PdSR9rC1c-Z4/s320/P1010368.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Game Pieces</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A turn consists of taking one of three options. The first is taking a fish card from the row as a fish and placing it in your boat. Any cards you jump over in the row you must place one of your worms upon. When a card is taken all cards move down and a new one placed at the end, any worms on a card when taken go into the takers stock.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHtwHtMyxQ1-0046WlyOTcdkxXYoahcxQXhj_EQkHiEYibEDsja5a6kD-3DUOQBzXCsgyUQrgxKfs5zPz37CR0hPgDZpdzJI92p2mXVUM2_XPvOJzl7NmfQrS1nAYrm9TZlN9hM9Clwnfj/s1600/P1010370.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHtwHtMyxQ1-0046WlyOTcdkxXYoahcxQXhj_EQkHiEYibEDsja5a6kD-3DUOQBzXCsgyUQrgxKfs5zPz37CR0hPgDZpdzJI92p2mXVUM2_XPvOJzl7NmfQrS1nAYrm9TZlN9hM9Clwnfj/s320/P1010370.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The worms (they are fun to play with on their own)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second option is to sell a fish that you already have in a boat at a market stall, in such a case the value of any customers there is added to the stalls base value of 2, the card is then discarded, cash added to the points track and a fish placed on the stall. If after a sale a stall contains as many fish markers as is shown on the next closed market card, that stall is closed and bonus points given for first and second placed majorities. More fish can be sold at the stall, but they are placed on the rubbish tip. The game ends when either ten fish are on the rubbish tip or 4 stalls become closed.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrsvRRkCi4yg7HxDMxsmmTPRban-eT3X58koKbokKwoGZr_eg_qEbMSkKtYAo3WKMC__RQsYjSKcx_D-On6t_Bol2eB4XVCfQwlYuUoa2gkFzvS7eZmjpHec1ncRQLLQTEfoufrDJZmeNl/s1600/P1010369.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="77" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrsvRRkCi4yg7HxDMxsmmTPRban-eT3X58koKbokKwoGZr_eg_qEbMSkKtYAo3WKMC__RQsYjSKcx_D-On6t_Bol2eB4XVCfQwlYuUoa2gkFzvS7eZmjpHec1ncRQLLQTEfoufrDJZmeNl/s320/P1010369.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Customers in various sizes</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The third option is to take a fish card but use the action part of it, actions can only be taken from the card row and worms must be paid for each card you pass over. There are many actions which involve moving customers, selling multiple fish, collecting cash for worm holdings, throwing someone’s fish on the rubbish tip, creating another boat and selling one type of fish as another. It is the use of actions at the right time which will win you the game, choosing when to take fish, when to sell and when to pay out worms for the right card.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilvRjjyOQTgZzvRlQ5UKNCJv9EK5mb7WStuUqb2XcKtpVeSKRms4lv4lSqOhjgCHjxELVYKyCVxEeL6pDXvnKHi2Sj-Rx7eT-6XIwD3D9Yjyw-XJaFNmMep_huBKSe2PbAm_XdFFkdG7fT/s1600/P1010371.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilvRjjyOQTgZzvRlQ5UKNCJv9EK5mb7WStuUqb2XcKtpVeSKRms4lv4lSqOhjgCHjxELVYKyCVxEeL6pDXvnKHi2Sj-Rx7eT-6XIwD3D9Yjyw-XJaFNmMep_huBKSe2PbAm_XdFFkdG7fT/s320/P1010371.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up of Fishes</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game plays very smoothly, I have played it several times 2 player and a couple of times with 4. No matter how many players it has always been a tight contest with no fixed strategy. In one game I paid out worms to get more boats, in another game I decided to hoard worms instead of chasing the extra boats. Both strategies won, what was key to both successes was getting in multiple sales, so fish stock management in your boats is crucial. This is a good game, light enough to interest non-gamers and strategic enough to entertain the thinkers and at £8 well worth the money.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-76939370338017067442011-10-20T08:25:00.000-07:002011-10-20T08:25:59.690-07:00Montego Bay<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge2rXH-eXGyBa69Z0_dAB4Qh84seRrPMY5VLCN-rnJIKDcrfu9IxY_lx0zGx_RX_rP9FXBsBWERE53i17yaYmi6kcrCHdkd0U-riby41H-4v3BWVXXgmmTbzU8dG3Z-jtd7Tw0yv90INaD/s1600/P1010356.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285px" rda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge2rXH-eXGyBa69Z0_dAB4Qh84seRrPMY5VLCN-rnJIKDcrfu9IxY_lx0zGx_RX_rP9FXBsBWERE53i17yaYmi6kcrCHdkd0U-riby41H-4v3BWVXXgmmTbzU8dG3Z-jtd7Tw0yv90INaD/s400/P1010356.JPG" width="400px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Box</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><place>Montego Bay</place> is a game for 2-4 players aged 8 and over, designed by Michael Feldkötter<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and produced by Queen Games. It plays in about an hour. The contents include 15 wooden coins, 16 cardboard boats, 16 barrels in each of the four player colours, a big and small playing piece, a score marker for each player and 2 neutral pieces the Tallyman and Lazy Jack. Each player will also receive a set of cards numbered 1 to 5 for each of his pieces. </span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioDhSeLCrJBba8IwoZvt3Gb7hyphenhyphen9fUeI06P2Qu67VgWTrJmv4-Dzhs5_ldFmKWM06Gs25eKSzPh5dkVfQfS9s8-wO6JBhA9P-yOLnMI2SKS2TWTyRxYGC10IYz7k1_B2lNgEBx-XZraYnWV/s1600/P1010365.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="330px" rda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioDhSeLCrJBba8IwoZvt3Gb7hyphenhyphen9fUeI06P2Qu67VgWTrJmv4-Dzhs5_ldFmKWM06Gs25eKSzPh5dkVfQfS9s8-wO6JBhA9P-yOLnMI2SKS2TWTyRxYGC10IYz7k1_B2lNgEBx-XZraYnWV/s400/P1010365.JPG" width="400px" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Playing Pieces</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The board is quite big and depicts several warehouses each split into 2 store rooms, 4 loading piers, 2 pubs and a circular path. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rules are quite clearly written and contain examples for clarification.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKhCrp2WDoBuUEYyk95YZpT_Tug0ktm3GhZ7oOSoR9sEM4IRkj3EAdaxf3epcuE7IgNncpfau2fKN4JsRGsEdJ1lvsHT8GO7PhOR1bQ5DNq1Ii7ZeZghTE484nBG5bHHoq9o1rqw7CYYWr/s1600/P1010360.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="157px" rda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKhCrp2WDoBuUEYyk95YZpT_Tug0ktm3GhZ7oOSoR9sEM4IRkj3EAdaxf3epcuE7IgNncpfau2fKN4JsRGsEdJ1lvsHT8GO7PhOR1bQ5DNq1Ii7ZeZghTE484nBG5bHHoq9o1rqw7CYYWr/s400/P1010360.JPG" width="400px" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Playing Board</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The background is that you are in charge of a couple of dock-labourers whose job it is to load barrels from the warehouses into the waiting ships, whoever has loaded the most barrels onto a ship when it sails gains points. The winner is the player with the most points at the games end.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjQzNTVp6xn6oxSTrVXv5gzZO9s-png_AhfGo-n8mz6JciTphA0O18XyhSvceWnTAn1EwiJECr0a0pxS4dp4xWXYgyrbDhU9Yf9qrPi8dRO_SQzptKo4ty-GpCvZOwacCo-eAl9YqUqcqi/s1600/P1010358.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="252px" rda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjQzNTVp6xn6oxSTrVXv5gzZO9s-png_AhfGo-n8mz6JciTphA0O18XyhSvceWnTAn1EwiJECr0a0pxS4dp4xWXYgyrbDhU9Yf9qrPi8dRO_SQzptKo4ty-GpCvZOwacCo-eAl9YqUqcqi/s400/P1010358.JPG" width="400px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stickers for the wooden playing pieces</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your 2 workers are placed in the pubs at either end of the building, movement round the board is in a clockwise direction only, and once moving only one piece can end on any one spot. Should a piece be moved so that it ends its move on another piece, that piece is pushed through to the other side of the warehouse it is next to; however if that space is occupied then your piece moves to the last free space it can reach. In some cases this may mean it will not move at all. Pieces move in a set order which is determined at the start of the game, this is shown by a line of tiles at the end of each turn last tile is moved to the front to begin the next round. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Movement is chosen from the set of cards for each of your pieces, all cards are available each turn.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIEMYs1KAU2rE36KX31M45-JT5_wGC4Sq_J94l2geu08PI5-R9XxvUzHz6TfBPqhZsYzv0KLyKy25LOvRf0sReFGeobVW0zFgH8gMm_3AOurY_POZ_aDM4Z2shO26G-VTX3l9sLJklCmNA/s1600/P1010363.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320px" rda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIEMYs1KAU2rE36KX31M45-JT5_wGC4Sq_J94l2geu08PI5-R9XxvUzHz6TfBPqhZsYzv0KLyKy25LOvRf0sReFGeobVW0zFgH8gMm_3AOurY_POZ_aDM4Z2shO26G-VTX3l9sLJklCmNA/s320/P1010363.JPG" width="243px" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cards for the Yellow Players Pieces</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After all pieces have moved the tallyman walks round the board anti-clockwise and each docker in turns loads a number of their barrels equal to the side of the warehouse it is next to into any of the ships that the player wants in whatever breakdown. If at any point a ship fills all its hold spaces the ship leaves immediately and scores up, all ships move up one space and a new ship added to the end. The ship at Pier 1 also moves off at the end of the round, scoring as it leaves play. The stern of each ship gives points for first and second in 2 and 3 player games and third position in 4 player games. Position in a ship is based on a majority basis. Players also score a point if they put the last barrel in a boat.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi86P5VZ2_l4zWKz0OQB-Vo93kO3hCjyjDo3q0uTu4V4p9sAASRmtkVjyb1xIKwJbq-cB0cym1g1lURNALDRyE87QoW3fgaaA4RKnS2MkSZHYR-f4PgolMX06-80emk5YIrhBJc1KsGOMj6/s1600/P1010366.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320px" rda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi86P5VZ2_l4zWKz0OQB-Vo93kO3hCjyjDo3q0uTu4V4p9sAASRmtkVjyb1xIKwJbq-cB0cym1g1lURNALDRyE87QoW3fgaaA4RKnS2MkSZHYR-f4PgolMX06-80emk5YIrhBJc1KsGOMj6/s320/P1010366.JPG" width="290px" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Boats 2/3 player on left 4 player on right</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Play continues until only 3 or fewer boats are at the piers. Some of the warehouses give coins, most of these are at store spaces where you have to take barrels off of ships. Three coins can be used to hire Lazy Jack, he then goes on a space with another of your dockers and moves first using one of that docker’s cards. It is expensive, but other than that the coins are only used at the end for a tie break.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitA-tl4uVx1DtTxlFV_Q7kVbp-F80NORpdtKyaQRV7bW_F4_wkcU3dpTjQjPOkogZ5vtKIENpQcZtS1zHT9XjP0OWr4uhie6UlmACf0pu18ivb993edfqOhibfrFowmqif0VOn3InCK5QH/s1600/P1010361.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175px" rda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitA-tl4uVx1DtTxlFV_Q7kVbp-F80NORpdtKyaQRV7bW_F4_wkcU3dpTjQjPOkogZ5vtKIENpQcZtS1zHT9XjP0OWr4uhie6UlmACf0pu18ivb993edfqOhibfrFowmqif0VOn3InCK5QH/s400/P1010361.JPG" width="400px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three of th warehouses each with 2 store rooms</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wendy Alan and I played it three player and it worked very well, playing in about 45 minutes and that was with Wendy leaping in and out of the kitchen cooking a crumble and home made custard. It is a light game with enough second guessing of other players movement choices to add an air of excitement.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-34401266789516147832011-07-27T08:15:00.000-07:002011-07-27T08:15:09.374-07:00Small World<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have just had three game sessions 3 days in a row so there is a bit of catching up to do. This review is based around Small World. Last week there were seven of us sat round the table to play games so we split into a 3 and a 4, the group of 4 chose Kingsburg whilst Joe, Wendy and I played Small World. I do not know how Kingsburg went other than everyone enjoyed the game and thus onto Small World.</span></div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbF9Tw0UW5W1fXRcNvdcZIrStpAjC-uBjLhZJANeOtkcNQoCjwy9rMABnyMGLV1SDpTHEtZdjh09xj4-JUx8xHZs-ytVYNaXQb1OOdmgwJOP5J3e3K_aomc4TlJoi8XIyihDn8nvPDxcu1/s1600/P1000767.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbF9Tw0UW5W1fXRcNvdcZIrStpAjC-uBjLhZJANeOtkcNQoCjwy9rMABnyMGLV1SDpTHEtZdjh09xj4-JUx8xHZs-ytVYNaXQb1OOdmgwJOP5J3e3K_aomc4TlJoi8XIyihDn8nvPDxcu1/s400/P1000767.JPG" t$="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Small World Box Lid</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Small World is produced by Days of Wonder, designed by Phillippe Keyaerts, it is for 2-5 players aged 8 or over and plays in 40-80 minutes. The box on opening is nicely laid out with holes for everything, and a lift out counter tray. There are 2 two-sided map boards, crib sheets, 36 Board and Game Markers, 14 Race and 20 Special Power Badges, 109 Victory point chits (coins), a reinforcement die and Rules Booklet.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTE2AIvGW_nKeSUng798KJuvMkZl8ORxuyKxWWKxZkfD0PS88VDagIWea3h7KiX1KA1XsdOStkYJzuPauWb13hmpCao2peV_FhvlYU6aacAEhRkwWixzyre2qAp13shFf6KHe9n4FcIjNm/s1600/P1000766.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTE2AIvGW_nKeSUng798KJuvMkZl8ORxuyKxWWKxZkfD0PS88VDagIWea3h7KiX1KA1XsdOStkYJzuPauWb13hmpCao2peV_FhvlYU6aacAEhRkwWixzyre2qAp13shFf6KHe9n4FcIjNm/s400/P1000766.JPG" t$="true" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Rules Booklet</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiElQNreo5Apo2Iq0BQwNzXvgT-MtTojbpvl-nHobLOGH5hvzhLqqLwdu1MM_Me3TqMrjuK-Ro4tHBxTLhDpRQybPJrGYmWALAyVGcJ7nhPq_0tx__MFO2jKX9sNGQKm6tPk4RPaqzmV37T/s1600/P1000734.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="383" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiElQNreo5Apo2Iq0BQwNzXvgT-MtTojbpvl-nHobLOGH5hvzhLqqLwdu1MM_Me3TqMrjuK-Ro4tHBxTLhDpRQybPJrGYmWALAyVGcJ7nhPq_0tx__MFO2jKX9sNGQKm6tPk4RPaqzmV37T/s400/P1000734.JPG" t$="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Victory Point Chits, Mountains, Races and Skills Tokens</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Small World is a derivative of Vinci by the same designer which was published by Eurogames; it has been upgraded with a Fantasy Theme, had some minor but telling alterations to the rules and is now supplied with a small variety of maps depending on the number of players. These map boards show various coloured regions depicting different land types with some containing special symbols defining a power or resource base. So how does it play?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAJoqF2Hqz3qB-7WrcttcGxiGI0ugANoOdOxFy8vuJYnDaWxp7l5sClQlf8kqB-1lX1Q_VbhY07rz3CLlkguZBaAoueLj5HMnstrYA5DIRmVGwTE8XOM1QbOS6wPKReuvan3ixVxW54MDG/s1600/P1000770.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAJoqF2Hqz3qB-7WrcttcGxiGI0ugANoOdOxFy8vuJYnDaWxp7l5sClQlf8kqB-1lX1Q_VbhY07rz3CLlkguZBaAoueLj5HMnstrYA5DIRmVGwTE8XOM1QbOS6wPKReuvan3ixVxW54MDG/s320/P1000770.JPG" t$="true" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-leEtJFJLYx9i9w1BhSmZjR-0s1d_pFKKL4I0mCp7wPoTjJZ5Z_Kx6ibMU6rIz5VEb-fyLW2HF0wk1lbgryQFDQUv1XTthR8H1jx6S3iblOg-6fTK_t_L3O78dwzyODewCd4HJFukukid/s1600/P1000735.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-leEtJFJLYx9i9w1BhSmZjR-0s1d_pFKKL4I0mCp7wPoTjJZ5Z_Kx6ibMU6rIz5VEb-fyLW2HF0wk1lbgryQFDQUv1XTthR8H1jx6S3iblOg-6fTK_t_L3O78dwzyODewCd4HJFukukid/s320/P1000735.JPG" t$="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stout Wizards (a la Pratchett?) and Diplomatic Humans (Damn Politicians!)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To start with 6 race badges are randomly picked and laid out, together with a randomly picked Special Power, the two tokens mesh together and you get a number of troops as shown in large red discs on the tokens. These troops start from a board edge and attack a chosen land space. To attack an area you place 2 troops for the land and an extra troop for each defending unit, an additional troop is also needed for attacking Mountains. Any troops in hand can go on to attack another adjacent land area in the same way. You keep going until you run out of troops. With your last attack you need not have all required troops, in such a case you can roll the die which will provide from 0-3 extra troops for that battle only. After all attacks, you count up the number of land areas you own and take that many victory points. Then the next player takes a turn. On your next turn you can choose to either take spare units back into hand and continue to expand or you can go into decline. In decline you just leave one upside down counter (they are double sided for this purpose) in each area you own and score as before. On your next turn you can choose a new pairing of Race and Special Power and attack with this new combination, you will then be scoring points with both your active empire and your empire in decline, however you may only have one declining empire.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3tD6d7sDicfUfn5cxN2io0U3yx9AvZlfaOlfecoTY-Bkla_cS-JFbSyn0nmDqveOxHKpuvXCgmFflOCbWmywHerMHHoUz8_3ceSOXJ7feOv3KLo7jcABvCUBPU1T3G7mROT4EIxYky-6T/s1600/P1000736.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3tD6d7sDicfUfn5cxN2io0U3yx9AvZlfaOlfecoTY-Bkla_cS-JFbSyn0nmDqveOxHKpuvXCgmFflOCbWmywHerMHHoUz8_3ceSOXJ7feOv3KLo7jcABvCUBPU1T3G7mROT4EIxYky-6T/s400/P1000736.JPG" t$="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ratmen Counters</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nZXt_FHdC89J1cVDF5Qtr5X8f2sJQoxKMHQ_amlE1xnrWJbxzTERba_15UyBoBfd8_fFWzVygPawPFr8E5m5dwrReV6bxrFVKt43YF6u7RJuuIGsSHKTSid8tibJdK6tKDO4KDTEVnIO/s1600/P1000736+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nZXt_FHdC89J1cVDF5Qtr5X8f2sJQoxKMHQ_amlE1xnrWJbxzTERba_15UyBoBfd8_fFWzVygPawPFr8E5m5dwrReV6bxrFVKt43YF6u7RJuuIGsSHKTSid8tibJdK6tKDO4KDTEVnIO/s400/P1000736+-+Copy.JPG" t$="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Counter tray</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuUm9h5s99lGpDeKEVL4yqqTBuCKt7nV7JlYWL3WbqaPqDdGCSRI-MoaWQYDrdrDLXyUFxXYb2ZrwtMYmM-0emNqmeu4Xcj2LLEioUgCGtX1LbkljUeklq1Snw8DCYKdI5AJxz0UXIN0dn/s1600/P1000737.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuUm9h5s99lGpDeKEVL4yqqTBuCKt7nV7JlYWL3WbqaPqDdGCSRI-MoaWQYDrdrDLXyUFxXYb2ZrwtMYmM-0emNqmeu4Xcj2LLEioUgCGtX1LbkljUeklq1Snw8DCYKdI5AJxz0UXIN0dn/s400/P1000737.JPG" t$="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Special Tokens</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The extra twists in the game are given by the race and special power badges, these may give you bonus points for owning particular land types, or bonuses in attacking, some even allow you to break some of the rules such as attacking non-adjacent areas or having more than one empire in decline. Most, but not all, powers do not work in decline. There is a fine balance in the races and special powers and it is choosing the right combination at the right time which will win you the game.</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge0IX7mIMFCxS8GPws4KM72cxGhOuz4e_yXVuCZvTC9zzNzLBqRxFLK_U8WU9ezUo8q1XzcOYo94nJiMBEUFzQWc5rwOXmNrmK1i09UOHb9Rw8mwKTYzOrviqODcXcfdEkrN_s3QfuMvIS/s1600/P1000773.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge0IX7mIMFCxS8GPws4KM72cxGhOuz4e_yXVuCZvTC9zzNzLBqRxFLK_U8WU9ezUo8q1XzcOYo94nJiMBEUFzQWc5rwOXmNrmK1i09UOHb9Rw8mwKTYzOrviqODcXcfdEkrN_s3QfuMvIS/s320/P1000773.JPG" t$="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Diplomatic --- Tritons</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those who want to know about the differences with Vinci, other than the map board which for Vinci is of Europe and the Small World maps appear to be purpose built for the player numbers, they boil down to three things. The first is that in Vinci a players’ new empire may not lay adjacent to their declining empire, this rule does not exist nor is it needed in Small World. Vinci does not have a random die for the last battle, so cool calculations are required to get the best from your empire; the last is that victory points are secret and therefore there is no long winded calculations going on in the last couple of turns. These changes take it away from the “wargame” feel of Vinci into the fun family game realm and knocks about 20 minutes off the playing time.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8yfHBeaIcKAN78AaZZVrVQyMtAINHVkoylaK00tCiQirOZUEAq1kTmbMb_62VC9qrX8IYHm6oGtEsD7V_ZJWlAa7egQ8MvgUYMaSnlE0K6VjgkUqP0BY1kv8-eB-y3fa7SpdwcmtEC_GR/s1600/P1000741.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8yfHBeaIcKAN78AaZZVrVQyMtAINHVkoylaK00tCiQirOZUEAq1kTmbMb_62VC9qrX8IYHm6oGtEsD7V_ZJWlAa7egQ8MvgUYMaSnlE0K6VjgkUqP0BY1kv8-eB-y3fa7SpdwcmtEC_GR/s400/P1000741.JPG" t$="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">5 Player Board</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So how did our game go? Sadly for me not very well, Joe had a good game and had picked Heroic Sorcerers which he kept from start to finish, he also played an aggressive game, so I played a defensive game leaving barriers across most of the board, Wendy did not have as good a time as me, at one point she had a null turn where she could not attack or defend and so went into decline, as this was the penultimate turn she had no chance to recover either. Saying that, it was an enjoyable and fairly close game. The game was spoiled by one thing and that is the crib sheets which accompany the game. First of all they are large so take up too much table space and secondly we used them to explain our powers, but they are horribly incomplete; an example being that they state the Sorcerer can change a solitary unit of every other player in the game once per turn and misses out the all important word “Active”. In the end we ditched the crib sheets and just used the rule book. </span></div> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3zaWvDtPquNryUeyXiglwz2GIjUl-kIQSAMIkcbEy1YozPIzUhcRRbvBpPHtBx3A6iQMRNM7jsadC6hvb3FACTvveuajCQpG-eyl9O24ac9VK3JzryaTsRaZAf8R9kqy_9G4CsRgc3NLw/s1600/P1000738.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3zaWvDtPquNryUeyXiglwz2GIjUl-kIQSAMIkcbEy1YozPIzUhcRRbvBpPHtBx3A6iQMRNM7jsadC6hvb3FACTvveuajCQpG-eyl9O24ac9VK3JzryaTsRaZAf8R9kqy_9G4CsRgc3NLw/s400/P1000738.JPG" t$="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unuseful Crib Sheets</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This game played slightly differently when I played it 2 player when I visited peter in June. Our game also played well with two different strategies going on Peter was the more aggressive attacking my active empire whenever he could and when he didn’t have the troops for this he went into decline, I on the other hand was concentrating on easy targets – empty areas or his declining empire and trying to get the most points out of an empire before declining. I won in the end. As a note Vinci does not play well as a 2 player game.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGomWtgVSyB-p8Bg0-Al7A25uWGWrYB5SeeSKlZf6cZZuWPfU1k5MsbceNgToJEqIbypGxmL9cYHOIs-dsyq7sK7YDE6sOQxypi2CwSODhhimTL76saHdfxFDWQDrBazlWOQVL_yAgS6_d/s1600/P1000740.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGomWtgVSyB-p8Bg0-Al7A25uWGWrYB5SeeSKlZf6cZZuWPfU1k5MsbceNgToJEqIbypGxmL9cYHOIs-dsyq7sK7YDE6sOQxypi2CwSODhhimTL76saHdfxFDWQDrBazlWOQVL_yAgS6_d/s400/P1000740.JPG" t$="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2 Player Board</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The final verdict is a nicely balanced game no matter the number of players, I would say careful choosing of race and powers is very important, more so than in Vinci, it also scores over its predecessor by having a shorter playing time. </span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-76743876807040452952011-07-17T03:27:00.000-07:002011-07-17T03:27:54.289-07:00Smite<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sorry for the lack of posts, this has been mainly due to carpal tunnel syndrome (in both hands). Anyway on to this report.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I first started writing this report a couple of weeks ago, since then Smite has had a number of airings, so it now is a composite of those playing sessions. Smite is an outdoor game and is the <country-region><place>UK</place></country-region> version of a Finnish game Molkky. According to Wikipedia Molkky has similarities to Kyyka<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(aka Finnish skittles, aka Karelian skittles) whose heritage lies in <place>Karelia</place> where a wooden bat is thrown at a line of skittles 10 metres away.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw4bykXjmweyFm6BVDt6kS8fgVGkpe1gUpI0rQ64-Xw37u8_-B0f5DQOHY6tdH8SVzm3FEgsbVkzhyphenhyphen653hyG3nVdSBYU1MUukWr2psbKtoVJhi-VMJhPLLXWqmCKT89IOyV0NyRIN9NwNT/s1600/P1000823.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw4bykXjmweyFm6BVDt6kS8fgVGkpe1gUpI0rQ64-Xw37u8_-B0f5DQOHY6tdH8SVzm3FEgsbVkzhyphenhyphen653hyG3nVdSBYU1MUukWr2psbKtoVJhi-VMJhPLLXWqmCKT89IOyV0NyRIN9NwNT/s400/P1000823.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Wooden Box</td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However back to Smite. The game is produced by Smiteonline.co.uk , the designer is not acknowledged. The game can be played with any number of players and works as well with 2 as it does with 6 or possibly more and can accommodate singles, pairs or teams equally well. A game with six players usually plays in about 20-30 minutes.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNyqH-QogmEJT18R4Uyq5bP_JDE7jfl5dZ1hH9eznMXKjjHsZmLR9VSdKdP-CyQn8wJOqoalcQEgk6P0V2X5JD7PclvVmY-MONYe4QhPZP572dHjUgS0mD26bJzS8lUmkWKmldweifq1Q/s1600/P1000827.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNyqH-QogmEJT18R4Uyq5bP_JDE7jfl5dZ1hH9eznMXKjjHsZmLR9VSdKdP-CyQn8wJOqoalcQEgk6P0V2X5JD7PclvVmY-MONYe4QhPZP572dHjUgS0mD26bJzS8lUmkWKmldweifq1Q/s400/P1000827.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Contents (minus rules)</td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Smite comes in a nice wooden box, and contains 10 skittles numbered from 1 to 10 and a “smiter” made from a light but durable wood. The box also contains a small sheet of the rules which are clearly written.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKXWzhgawjqmGzSNiJGPv6uLy_KEKCNkhlPCdPt0_tLUx_DKkNRFlKluQGhoAjCredwo4G1JzcqHZ0bOngBs1W_GJS49_G2WuUYPkQbk9cTlnYJp1gxzFYC_-WuynJWkJPJdoaj6o6yDpE/s1600/P1000824.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKXWzhgawjqmGzSNiJGPv6uLy_KEKCNkhlPCdPt0_tLUx_DKkNRFlKluQGhoAjCredwo4G1JzcqHZ0bOngBs1W_GJS49_G2WuUYPkQbk9cTlnYJp1gxzFYC_-WuynJWkJPJdoaj6o6yDpE/s400/P1000824.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "Smiter"</td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The skittles are set up in a triangular formation about 4 metres away from the box with the point furthest from the players, players then take turns throwing the “smiter” at the skittles with the aim of being the first to reach exactly 50 points. On their turn a player has one throw at the skittles and scores a number of points equal to the number of pins they knock over, however if only a single pin is knocked over then the player scores the value of that pin. Skittles that have been knocked over are stood up at their resting place for the next thrower, thus as the game progresses the skittles get knocked further away from the other skittles and become easier solitary targets. If a player exceeds 50 points, they reset to 25.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm0DxwiN-vnc6DlJcKCiGovnVpmqjiAgB8EOcEQ1IXKqizbce6BvnZWMbieFS0r1iXcXVBT5ZUNdpnxfr2pJQsY1o6CWV_C91z6gqPGwGk8Ua4iGHijklIu8s7abXw8m8LVMDoxxnBOhir/s1600/P1000825.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm0DxwiN-vnc6DlJcKCiGovnVpmqjiAgB8EOcEQ1IXKqizbce6BvnZWMbieFS0r1iXcXVBT5ZUNdpnxfr2pJQsY1o6CWV_C91z6gqPGwGk8Ua4iGHijklIu8s7abXw8m8LVMDoxxnBOhir/s400/P1000825.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Set Up (opposite to rules set up)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So how does it play? Well several weeks ago there was six of us and we enjoyed about an hour playing 2 games where several tactics were noted to improve peoples chances, Wendy elected “The long stride” stretching as far forward as possible, Joe went for consistency, Naomi for the lob and Steve liked the “aim at Kevin” technique (as I was the re-righting the fallen skittles I was generally stood near them). All these techniques were for nought as Adam won the first game with a very neat throw. Undaunted, we launched into the second game where my obsession with aiming at the 10 pin eventually, after a number of misses, won me the game. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoRQDToyH1YBi6L6tPBkVZxGahlzV8oJqDV32JHYgHrqrgMxtjpcagK1W9Lho0ADXecglCRv3TG386uaBIgwsIWRjSXXLklcBYX4zGtfdMrqYQ1eVPLPN00YIAqCorx08RVbQd-31NuH1K/s1600/P1000939.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoRQDToyH1YBi6L6tPBkVZxGahlzV8oJqDV32JHYgHrqrgMxtjpcagK1W9Lho0ADXecglCRv3TG386uaBIgwsIWRjSXXLklcBYX4zGtfdMrqYQ1eVPLPN00YIAqCorx08RVbQd-31NuH1K/s400/P1000939.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steve throws</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYis7WddhlO4lz5wRECs76SlFIirg4ti_4-lR5_DeRIPs66RLjU1RPitbCtJMN1TT0k0ANt5uqUs7Xbm47QPIhmdWtSjMOra3r4ck106YOreokfiCFV_A_-q_fdMPB87L7X4hZneNVRUCQ/s1600/P1000940.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYis7WddhlO4lz5wRECs76SlFIirg4ti_4-lR5_DeRIPs66RLjU1RPitbCtJMN1TT0k0ANt5uqUs7Xbm47QPIhmdWtSjMOra3r4ck106YOreokfiCFV_A_-q_fdMPB87L7X4hZneNVRUCQ/s400/P1000940.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Position after several rounds</td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next session was played in a back garden in Bromley with different friends where a large number of 30 point games were played </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ln8LYoNRAOzwWO7Nb-gA9QPulddPy1NTMsy1IgbjOmK_6DN-wYfAKXVia1brXvpoFnatrAO2x7N_I4hUuyjrfgx1vy2ZzlVxVxic1KG0F-hrKksgEmwgE8NiY4qkF2jFSTrC2in6FJds/s1600/P1000821.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ln8LYoNRAOzwWO7Nb-gA9QPulddPy1NTMsy1IgbjOmK_6DN-wYfAKXVia1brXvpoFnatrAO2x7N_I4hUuyjrfgx1vy2ZzlVxVxic1KG0F-hrKksgEmwgE8NiY4qkF2jFSTrC2in6FJds/s400/P1000821.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jonty & Wendy watch Lee throw</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxqGmG-dY6EOr1I31FumDeosAXU-8Cy2109sizDwRoPpGhMUucA0RV9kDEs_I-fQqnXl6OpBSAfLlrqy1uYKInq-MHyFZ9MUypcuW-dGqE6a4tL4nBDZfSKh6Q6YVyw4hFYuRwqcqOeWaq/s1600/P1000819.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxqGmG-dY6EOr1I31FumDeosAXU-8Cy2109sizDwRoPpGhMUucA0RV9kDEs_I-fQqnXl6OpBSAfLlrqy1uYKInq-MHyFZ9MUypcuW-dGqE6a4tL4nBDZfSKh6Q6YVyw4hFYuRwqcqOeWaq/s400/P1000819.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A singleton hit for 3 points</td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most recent session was back in <city><place>Canterbury</place></city> where we played three 50 point games. Smite is fun and an excellent garden game. Every time I have introduced this game to people they have insisted that they play more than one game and some have even sent off for their own set however we do play with a few house rules which (I think) makes it a “friendlier” game whilst still retaining the skill element. The first is that you can only go out on a single skittle (this is the added skill factor). Secondly exceeding 50 is treated the same as in darts in that you bust and retain your old score (not reset to 25 as in the rules which seems a bit harsh). The third house rule is that if everyone in a round does not score, then the box is moved a yard nearer to the pins. The rules have it that anyone that does not score 3 times in a row is eliminated from the game – again we felt this overly harsh for what is a garden game for all to enjoy, so I ignore this rule. The last house rule is that throwing is done with one foot touching the box (anywhere) whereas the rules are quite prescriptive with a throwing line, if we had that we would never get to see Wendy’s “lunge” shot!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4YXy_A7-CxZja2DZHiYsXXuSU8sM4HC8-wrLsjAK09Zgb6coqrZBEK7d4aMxZoBvlN732-OiOqQ51hPFJVE_gmCgrwicUTjPVP2MsmdCG4gO3fPSCpFvIgA4N7pJF3zGbtJr-k-K6ubTS/s1600/P1000942.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4YXy_A7-CxZja2DZHiYsXXuSU8sM4HC8-wrLsjAK09Zgb6coqrZBEK7d4aMxZoBvlN732-OiOqQ51hPFJVE_gmCgrwicUTjPVP2MsmdCG4gO3fPSCpFvIgA4N7pJF3zGbtJr-k-K6ubTS/s400/P1000942.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wendy watches Steve for alternative throwing techniques</td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Final synopsis is that Smite is a lovely game and easily adapted to minor rule changes to suit different groups of players without spoiling the game. There are also Championships played, Smite has an event in <city><place>Cornwall</place></city> and the World Molkky Championships are in <city><place>Lahti</place></city> <country-region><place>Finland</place></country-region>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"></div></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-91307762536121199272011-06-25T05:51:00.000-07:002011-06-25T05:51:48.141-07:00Croquet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The latest game session had 8 of us ready to play and the elected game was Croquet. Okay, so Croquet is not a board game (I am not including Carpet Croquet or Tiddly-Winks Croquet), but it certainly is an excellent game combining both tactical and physical skills.</span> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWJQdqX55J_xWIjZSFKyHef455HazprI8yMszmvYupoZiBH1PcCRB92Ee8LQZCnAFhi_jFq2HhiJPgiGYgWULwJUucDceiw5MfuAZqACd295XJtBR1kvsehR9lsWE5nuViskLvC_H2rkic/s1600/P1000790.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWJQdqX55J_xWIjZSFKyHef455HazprI8yMszmvYupoZiBH1PcCRB92Ee8LQZCnAFhi_jFq2HhiJPgiGYgWULwJUucDceiw5MfuAZqACd295XJtBR1kvsehR9lsWE5nuViskLvC_H2rkic/s400/P1000790.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Man armed with a Croquet Mallet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> <div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what is in my big croquet box (and it is a big box)? A Centre Peg, 6 Hoops, 4 Mallets, 4 Balls and a small Rule Book. Before going too far I ought to talk about quality of equipment. If you are going to get a set it is worth investing in a decent set. The balls need to be weighty to run properly on the grass and you need a solid mallet to get proper strikes. The hoops need to be solid enough that they don’t shake or move when a ball hits them, the set I have (and which is shown in the photos) is at the lower end of the scale of decent sets. My set is quite old and most sets now include corner flags, scoring clips (I use painted clothes pegs) and a wooden mallet (to knock the hoops and peg in) as well as the above items. There are quite a few companies who make croquet sets and I cannot comment on who does or does not do a decent set, the set in the photos is a Townsend set and my match mallet (not featured in the article) comes from Jaques</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ1Iy0_NtXVz3OI9k8qcP8iwY1DH-FK75EaQGiwkbZG5wXe-CUVHxgHZTp1Mq3KYMfE7yp88j0404SQT65QIpXDNH2s1V2HS0ReCd4zlX45j8vkJPna5Cl503hmc7zZ-VCy9xf7qV_2TZD/s1600/P1000788.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ1Iy0_NtXVz3OI9k8qcP8iwY1DH-FK75EaQGiwkbZG5wXe-CUVHxgHZTp1Mq3KYMfE7yp88j0404SQT65QIpXDNH2s1V2HS0ReCd4zlX45j8vkJPna5Cl503hmc7zZ-VCy9xf7qV_2TZD/s400/P1000788.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The balls split by team colours</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUek2cn5zCw2q1z-dcXrvz8TfQ4oar92lKUO72KcCcLmo4htFQR7V2Y8bOgCTRYwrDku6_4KIdq8QDf77-oHfYBPuOYRvXUQqY85UV5zAKGoO-XoKVpZ5sgDBf2Q3r5gY00suRrcVDMLJR/s1600/P10007888.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUek2cn5zCw2q1z-dcXrvz8TfQ4oar92lKUO72KcCcLmo4htFQR7V2Y8bOgCTRYwrDku6_4KIdq8QDf77-oHfYBPuOYRvXUQqY85UV5zAKGoO-XoKVpZ5sgDBf2Q3r5gY00suRrcVDMLJR/s400/P10007888.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A hoop with scoring clips attached</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So how do you play Croquet? I will give only the basic rules here so no complaints please (the official rules I have is nearly 50 pages long), we were playing for fun and an introduction to the game, so full rules were secondary. Each team (a team can consist of one player and normally not more than 2 players) plays with a pair of balls either red and yellow or blue and black. The aim of the game is to get both your balls through all the hoops and then hit them on to the central peg. On their turn a player goes on to the lawn and uses the mallet to hit one of their balls once. Then it becomes the turn of the other team. However a player may earn bonus strokes, the first method is by running a hoop, that means getting your ball completely through the metal hoop, success results in getting another turn. The second way is by hitting another ball with your chosen ball, yours or your opponents, this is called a roquet. After a roquet you pick your ball up and place it touching the ball you hit, you then strike your ball with the mallet again, in a way so that the other ball moves, this is the croquet shot after which you get one more free stroke. You may roquet each of the other balls once in a turn, an extra bonus is gained if you run a hoop as the roquet count resets and you may once again roquet all the other balls. In this way it is possible to complete all the hoops and peg out in one turn.</span> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Lf7ojmzy4jEkEIFn0VCFQYCpYTvEftUAG0Ibv4GBwAFsEYwKnoKG6szlS07xL-YmI4GV894BbIDekMicm3dFBGc1hUQH0hzJqkhXIsHVRCc3T-GcLdZcdv3W3bW7PLfN1b2hrAm1-LpC/s1600/P1000798.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Lf7ojmzy4jEkEIFn0VCFQYCpYTvEftUAG0Ibv4GBwAFsEYwKnoKG6szlS07xL-YmI4GV894BbIDekMicm3dFBGc1hUQH0hzJqkhXIsHVRCc3T-GcLdZcdv3W3bW7PLfN1b2hrAm1-LpC/s400/P1000798.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Joe shows how to run a hoop</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmOWN4ZgLiyriFilVxntxG46yneNldP6mXVc5CBr_2oqIuyzNZ2qPWX3sBsQOslyaS5wdCcdVI9T7Vf-n_if9o3Nt2ZnLce5P1_xF3wr5QaqkaSwPICJO6ShYMolPmN8Tn2DxSlEpTqPNN/s1600/P1000799.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmOWN4ZgLiyriFilVxntxG46yneNldP6mXVc5CBr_2oqIuyzNZ2qPWX3sBsQOslyaS5wdCcdVI9T7Vf-n_if9o3Nt2ZnLce5P1_xF3wr5QaqkaSwPICJO6ShYMolPmN8Tn2DxSlEpTqPNN/s400/P1000799.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An old man leaping at the chance to roquet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The skill of Croquet is in how you play your shots, a little knowledge of angles and vectors helps as does practice in the various types of shots you can do with your mallet. Roll shots and stop shots by putting top spin or bottom spin on the ball; on a perfect lawn there is also the nap (similar to a snooker table) to consider. A good player will run several hoops before their turn ends. Once you get to this stage preplanning of where you are placing the other balls during your croquet shot is very important, its not about splitting your opponent up (though this can be a satisfying consequence) its about placing balls ready to run the next few hoops.</span> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6psZNWq0n0PMWS9zPzAFz-x5yVSfS76X6OHxxmxiJtdwkNYl_7p5VA7HfqwHLV63l_bW_FTJomCzW2eZcsgwGr0eyAcSbJw8bl5fuIThFGfA__zFNkB1H7hgNa-oZoWDSVA_c0KcvCkDc/s1600/P1000793.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6psZNWq0n0PMWS9zPzAFz-x5yVSfS76X6OHxxmxiJtdwkNYl_7p5VA7HfqwHLV63l_bW_FTJomCzW2eZcsgwGr0eyAcSbJw8bl5fuIThFGfA__zFNkB1H7hgNa-oZoWDSVA_c0KcvCkDc/s400/P1000793.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Joe finds hoop but no blue ball, where is it?</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHYx6QRxxpSdde-DXm0s98JRHBqQ8OM9aXfYJrWBzOfxADu94F5DQ-RZOjdm9NeZWuzas0fjZEt7s93GQS-j-fK_mQ7WF9Bgr1E1bslCyt8ukx5ng6I0RXFuwhuvSQONFZ58GADHeX2hAt/s1600/P1000802.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHYx6QRxxpSdde-DXm0s98JRHBqQ8OM9aXfYJrWBzOfxADu94F5DQ-RZOjdm9NeZWuzas0fjZEt7s93GQS-j-fK_mQ7WF9Bgr1E1bslCyt8ukx5ng6I0RXFuwhuvSQONFZ58GADHeX2hAt/s400/P1000802.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hidden behind a tree, Team 2 deny their ball is off the lawn</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So on to our particular game. The first thing to mention is the lawn, a lot of hard work had gone into carefully mowing it prior to the game, it was an open green complete with trees, manhole covers and tussocks and although smaller than a competition lawn it still required a certain skill and deftness to negotiate successfully. We split into 2 Teams with the 2 captains taking turns to pick. Team 1 was Wendy (Captain), Steve, Adam and myself; Team 2 was Becky (Captain), Joe, Steve and Phil.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5mL6lyuuFDkTBJ1Ov9qZQ5QcPtDLeU9M1kJYl7hgyaBmIglCMw1CKX-1fc7ZI71obE2fOQekU-8C6KFoxEeHujm-kZP4jhPR0x1RE_GSTpHmZztCwKj1Xg1l30LcUUSkfvCy82ybw1XxO/s1600/P1000791.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5mL6lyuuFDkTBJ1Ov9qZQ5QcPtDLeU9M1kJYl7hgyaBmIglCMw1CKX-1fc7ZI71obE2fOQekU-8C6KFoxEeHujm-kZP4jhPR0x1RE_GSTpHmZztCwKj1Xg1l30LcUUSkfvCy82ybw1XxO/s400/P1000791.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hoop 2, Team 2 got there first</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were only playing 6 hoops so the Rover hoop was at hoop 6. Initially we were all playing well and although Team 2 got there first, we were running neck and neck through the first 2 hoops. Team 2 then started to slowly edge ahead and were on hoop 6 whilst Team 1 who had missed a couple of hoops, including myself missing a sitter (aaarrgghh the agony of it all), were still on hoop 4. Team 2 then made their assault on the centre peg, pegging out one of their balls, Team 1 saw their opportunity to attack and pushed Team 2’s remaining ball towards the corner, but not far enough, they returned to the peg on their next turn and Team 1’s second attack failed, Team 2 pegged out their second ball and one the match. The final score was Team 1 - 7 points, Team 2 - 14 points. Team 2 must be congratulated for a level of accuracy which Team 1 never quite achieved, also their team spirit, sometimes calling on all members of the team to discuss and plan a shot before playing it.</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0a2XSuPgiJzEXKf5kh5F5il5gYocOxiF3zd9dzd3jNy0a5cW-l6vqnnZ72z1lxd7r1cvnRf02T8bEbztACaXi1NDxatpEt90PfR8ENteE3UphFujWsj4T8wid496WhmH6Ht_oNFxLskv7/s1600/P1000796.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0a2XSuPgiJzEXKf5kh5F5il5gYocOxiF3zd9dzd3jNy0a5cW-l6vqnnZ72z1lxd7r1cvnRf02T8bEbztACaXi1NDxatpEt90PfR8ENteE3UphFujWsj4T8wid496WhmH6Ht_oNFxLskv7/s400/P1000796.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Steve, Phil, Becky and Joe (Team 2) discuss a difficult lie</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgcgH8oKHkOlVcx5t8koj5GS5_li4LrtBjUgtFBozGO3pn2PodQp74GzPJLcLePKB01rq0gTn771E3tQfWsz6rcnjXr6li3WdWfkZfgLpSdao0ihgtHxgm4KPmbmc1c1QXlT6VKe1khQvg/s1600/P1000801.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgcgH8oKHkOlVcx5t8koj5GS5_li4LrtBjUgtFBozGO3pn2PodQp74GzPJLcLePKB01rq0gTn771E3tQfWsz6rcnjXr6li3WdWfkZfgLpSdao0ihgtHxgm4KPmbmc1c1QXlT6VKe1khQvg/s400/P1000801.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Adam, Wendy and Steve (Team 1)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was an excellent match, the threatened rain stayed away (except whilst I was setting up the course) and everyone had fun. Next time though Team 1 will be giving no quarter.</span> <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-15616672371140427902011-06-16T07:48:00.000-07:002011-06-16T07:50:54.656-07:00Jambo - Kosmos<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whilst I have been recovering from a tooth extraction Wendy and I have been playing a few games at home, this week. Last night we played Thurn and Taxis, designed by Andreas and Karen Seyfarth, published by Hans im Gluck, it plays in about an hour for 2-4 players aged 10 and above. It is a game that works well 2 player and over the 3 years we have been playing, wins have evened out, however last nights victory was mine. This is a game to be reviewed on another occasion.</span></div> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqczMsBcj1Fau_H3ihPUG14sSa4n1kd42hESg4MRE24duzOIwTjZpPywk7sm19bF7kq8nhjadsgMKYSY-9cANHg_epooKZqi6yQNxUGTz9m4dUd3zqPcdSEFlHgcPdJOl8usrBDQ1HThke/s1600/P1000787a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqczMsBcj1Fau_H3ihPUG14sSa4n1kd42hESg4MRE24duzOIwTjZpPywk7sm19bF7kq8nhjadsgMKYSY-9cANHg_epooKZqi6yQNxUGTz9m4dUd3zqPcdSEFlHgcPdJOl8usrBDQ1HThke/s400/P1000787a.jpg" t8="true" width="337" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thurm and Taxis</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have also played Kingsburg this week which although Wendy says I am better at, it is always a close run thing. I still think lucky die rolling is half the battle and I certainly did well on that the other night. I am still not sure that this game flows nicely playing 2 player; do not get me wrong it does work, but I think it lacks a little something. One small thing I have noticed, especially 2 player, the winter battle can have a significant affect on your position, to the point of unbalancing the game. However I am sure it is in for quite a few more plays and a verdict will follow with the review.</span></div> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1nzK6Q1_7vwtdp7W1q9fGtEttpmEba-rI1QfJMvSrD2JnAV9M4CGSqMrrxFCzZkqrmtlDpZ1-XSGwsrKa4Sue306SIFpm0JOHsYHazAg1oeGYcoQqKIiZi43yoz9B9WQ0Rv-qUTg6Acn/s1600/P1000721.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1nzK6Q1_7vwtdp7W1q9fGtEttpmEba-rI1QfJMvSrD2JnAV9M4CGSqMrrxFCzZkqrmtlDpZ1-XSGwsrKa4Sue306SIFpm0JOHsYHazAg1oeGYcoQqKIiZi43yoz9B9WQ0Rv-qUTg6Acn/s400/P1000721.JPG" t8="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kingsburg</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game that has been played three times this week is Jambo. This<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2 player card game is designed by Rudiger Dorn and produced by Kosmos, I have a <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rio Grande edition which is essential for English speakers as there is a lot of text on the cards and it is aimed at players aged 12 and above.</span> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjtCPu7B-uc_mPdfXQ_xrmyv8kvidYq50bbbygNXOQ4gh7vL8gX6Y0WAHSin77h0612uJEpM9rT0z3lBWi0iOXVjeu-fhHJbYBvrb_bu_lWoiUkV2IcnIZoFQv8cIgQ79xt5WfnB6aBuD1/s1600/P1000777.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjtCPu7B-uc_mPdfXQ_xrmyv8kvidYq50bbbygNXOQ4gh7vL8gX6Y0WAHSin77h0612uJEpM9rT0z3lBWi0iOXVjeu-fhHJbYBvrb_bu_lWoiUkV2IcnIZoFQv8cIgQ79xt5WfnB6aBuD1/s400/P1000777.JPG" t8="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jambo</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what is in the box? 112 cards, 52 Gold Pieces, 36 Ware markers and 5 action tokens, and the rules all neatly packaged in Kosmos’s standard 2 player game box. The rules are clearly written, though I did not understand the use of Utilities – perhaps because all that went through my brain when reading the word was the water and electric board! As mentioned this game is text intensive so ensure you get a language version you are happy with. The aim of the game is to have the most gold at the end of the game which is triggered when a player gets 60 gold or more, the other player then has one more turn. The only elements which are hidden are your cards which you get dealt 5 at the game start. The theme is that you are a stall holder, your stall can carry up to 6 goods (or wares) and it is buying and selling of these wares that gains you your profit.</span> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAp3o7dTmnR5WAQJvdZkoh4pWKTw44yfFEP_qnYkpDvqhJhrALasQiBsGDzsrCbqhkCW-tst0rK9yE9QjReQ6ykOzaTPRpi1KQGon91uPzI_q54bLg7w4HK4PwnZEP838r6ioAVNQq2V3W/s1600/P1000778.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAp3o7dTmnR5WAQJvdZkoh4pWKTw44yfFEP_qnYkpDvqhJhrALasQiBsGDzsrCbqhkCW-tst0rK9yE9QjReQ6ykOzaTPRpi1KQGon91uPzI_q54bLg7w4HK4PwnZEP838r6ioAVNQq2V3W/s400/P1000778.JPG" t8="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Players start stalls, Gold, Wares and Cards.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The cards are the driving force behind the game and there are 5 different types. First the goods cards, these will show 3 wares on them and a buying and selling price, if you buy the set of goods you must pay the smaller amount and take the 3 items, and if you have those items on your stall you can sell them as a set for the selling price. You cannot buy goods if you do not have the room on your stall. There are Utility cards, these you play in front of you, once down in front of you, you may action them once a turn for a special ability. You are limited to 3 utilities at any one time. There are people and animal cards which are essentially one off actions, the animal cards being an attack card which can be negated by use of a Guard card. The last type of card is a stall extension which allows for a further 3 wares to be held.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBx-WlFzDshyphenhyphenAH4Rh1QCzT-NHjw2MmJgfaVErjrFBmL_j9Xq40b9Q8LHtyWQX-UW8rkL9OldqY0PzEOD8siQ-OC6PhUNlFL8svgAsyrdxMOHisohGSubKUfsNqV8G8YwX46hFz8ZH_uTxL/s1600/P1000781.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBx-WlFzDshyphenhyphenAH4Rh1QCzT-NHjw2MmJgfaVErjrFBmL_j9Xq40b9Q8LHtyWQX-UW8rkL9OldqY0PzEOD8siQ-OC6PhUNlFL8svgAsyrdxMOHisohGSubKUfsNqV8G8YwX46hFz8ZH_uTxL/s400/P1000781.JPG" t8="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ware, Person and Utility card</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On your turn you have 5 actions, the action markers are there to help you remember, though most of the time they are not needed. For your first action you may take a card from the face down deck, if you do not take a card for your first action, you may not take a card later as one of your remaining actions. If you do not want the card, you can discard it and take another card, but this costs an action too, you may repeat this until all 5 actions have gone. You may also play cards, each card you play costs an action, you may also use a utility, this costs an action. You may also forfeit your last 2 actions to gain 1 gold. An example of a turn could be :- 1) Pick up a card, 2) Play a new utility card in front of you, 3) Use the utility card, 4) & 5) Take a gold. Another example :- 1) Play a ware card buying 3 goods paying 3 gold, 2) Play a second ware card taking another 3 goods paying 3 gold, 4) Play a 3<sup>rd</sup> ware card selling 3 goods for 11 gold, 5) Play an animal action card.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwo8aBjKiSIbAJcyKX7U9iuDuSZEmmaJs6FSkDU9QzSUUkOhyphenhyphenRuV-oDQTx8973eBG8dVa99eXIzY_JBZp-VKffiyvTR9vAEbjaTXA0JGLWtXcdp8SIbkPPULSKs5gZpREHYsfLRSOv1kY5/s1600/P1000779.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwo8aBjKiSIbAJcyKX7U9iuDuSZEmmaJs6FSkDU9QzSUUkOhyphenhyphenRuV-oDQTx8973eBG8dVa99eXIzY_JBZp-VKffiyvTR9vAEbjaTXA0JGLWtXcdp8SIbkPPULSKs5gZpREHYsfLRSOv1kY5/s400/P1000779.JPG" t8="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Players stall with 3 wares on it</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So how does it play? Very nicely thank you (we have played it 3 nights in a row), there is a lot of thinking to be done and the interaction of the cards seems well thought out. There are cards which appear stronger than the others, but they do seem to even out. The really important thing is to try to get a turnover of cards, just taking the standard 1 card a turn will not win you the game, there are various utilities and action cards which will increase your card turnover and the importance of a Guard card to protect you position cannot be over emphasised. So if I am aware of all this why is Wendy beating me at a ratio of 2 :1 over a 4 year period?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-72051042144807304752011-06-01T04:39:00.000-07:002011-06-01T04:39:26.780-07:00Africa - 999 Games<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Wendy, Alan and I had a 3 player game session the other afternoon after we had been birding where I had found myself as Mosquito dinner. We managed to get through 3 games, the first was Kingsburg where I was a little cross with myself that I made a misplacement, I knew where I was to go, I just did not do it, this led to a missed crucial build which would have given me an extra 6 resources throughout the rest of the game. Added to this my last roll of the game was a 9 and that was with 4 dice (average 14), beaten by the other 2 who were rolling just 3 dice. The game ended with a well deserved draw between Alan and Wendy. I made a mistake and suffered by it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1nzK6Q1_7vwtdp7W1q9fGtEttpmEba-rI1QfJMvSrD2JnAV9M4CGSqMrrxFCzZkqrmtlDpZ1-XSGwsrKa4Sue306SIFpm0JOHsYHazAg1oeGYcoQqKIiZi43yoz9B9WQ0Rv-qUTg6Acn/s1600/P1000721.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1nzK6Q1_7vwtdp7W1q9fGtEttpmEba-rI1QfJMvSrD2JnAV9M4CGSqMrrxFCzZkqrmtlDpZ1-XSGwsrKa4Sue306SIFpm0JOHsYHazAg1oeGYcoQqKIiZi43yoz9B9WQ0Rv-qUTg6Acn/s320/P1000721.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kingsburg</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The second game we played was Offrandes, where I was introduced to a correction of two of the rules. First off Alan put one set up for auction which Wendy won, but decided to end his turn there. A check of the rules revealed that he MAY put up another set for auction if he does not win the first set. The second rule query was in relation to the sacrifice, I read the rules on value being in relation to the value of the sacrifice, when in fact it relates to the individual animal value. My advice is when playing for the first time make sure you read the sacrifice criteria carefully. Despite all my misunderstandings I managed to pip Alan to the post by concentrating on sacrifices at the higher value altars. Wendy came last, again falling foul of the Briber in the first turn. </div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijvCEzK7L0CRGp3DncGtbgxQLDMN5PTwMbPjKMXkTCRmJ0SM4-iI5WYeaa9-RBJ0_9gW98fQdq7suTvmPx41dTCJKlh31kwOfLa3ZYHaYx-t00WARGxFN9y4tJQExbKG_-QwbXenc1TtXD/s1600/P1000720.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijvCEzK7L0CRGp3DncGtbgxQLDMN5PTwMbPjKMXkTCRmJ0SM4-iI5WYeaa9-RBJ0_9gW98fQdq7suTvmPx41dTCJKlh31kwOfLa3ZYHaYx-t00WARGxFN9y4tJQExbKG_-QwbXenc1TtXD/s320/P1000720.JPG" t8="true" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Offrandes</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The third game was <place>Africa</place>, designed by Reiner Knizia, my version is by a Dutch company, 999 Games though the copywright shows Simba Toys. Takes from 2-5 players aged 10 or above and plays in just under an hour.</div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWYHA4l_1LBT3hi3F4B6gOG2vEyybNYfydr0T_DHpQ6NmVGq94157faUj-7jtY_MXGp0Cha4XWmus5kJfksKRYizZ5VpBXu8Qe8s-oVcxl7SYc7ODB5sT6Qg8k9x3exnxAXNNxwueJzthk/s1600/P1000729.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWYHA4l_1LBT3hi3F4B6gOG2vEyybNYfydr0T_DHpQ6NmVGq94157faUj-7jtY_MXGp0Cha4XWmus5kJfksKRYizZ5VpBXu8Qe8s-oVcxl7SYc7ODB5sT6Qg8k9x3exnxAXNNxwueJzthk/s320/P1000729.JPG" t8="true" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Africa - Box Lid (not a spelling error, this is the Dutch edition)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The game contains a game board, playing pieces (2 for each player) 20 plastic pyramids, and a large number of printed discs. The game board is a map of <place>Africa</place>, over which is laid a hex pattern, there are enough printed discs to place one on each hex, at random, face down. One of your playing pieces is an explorer who will move around the map collecting the discs, the other becomes your scoring token. Each player also receives two pyramids. The rules are clearly laid out, in explaining the game to others though I have noted that there sometimes is a little confusion about scoring in relation to Nomads and Animals, so read that bit carefully. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZRwvwECmeQ67FSIvFU8vnTFY0Kvq1MypztUXTbHXO0Y2xIQWWkFz_1y-9hm68J1XapZHdi5e2dIKZ_NeKq1jQK1HSsO7U6QgE9pafhyphenhyphen_UVSPpwTuM_bx0tRUaYkYBwywgTfysxphwQiW_/s1600/P1000725.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZRwvwECmeQ67FSIvFU8vnTFY0Kvq1MypztUXTbHXO0Y2xIQWWkFz_1y-9hm68J1XapZHdi5e2dIKZ_NeKq1jQK1HSsO7U6QgE9pafhyphenhyphen_UVSPpwTuM_bx0tRUaYkYBwywgTfysxphwQiW_/s320/P1000725.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The playing pieces</td></tr>
</tbody></table>On your turn you can either for your whole turn, teleport to a new location, or you get to move your explorer twice. After each movement of one or two spaces, you may reveal an adjacent token or take an action, namely drop a camp or move an animal or move a nomad. In moving though you are not allowed to travel over or onto any unexplored disc. So what is on the discs. A disc will only contain one symbol which can either be one of 5 different Animals, a Nomad, an artefact, Gold value 1 or 2, Diamond value 1 or 2, or a Monument. You score 1 point for an animal plus one point for every adjacent animal of the same type; you score 1 point for every vacant hex adjacent to them; you score 1 point for a 1 Gold or 1 Diamond, 2 points for a 2 Gold or 2 Diamond; an Artifact comes off of the board into your possession and scores at the end of the game; finally a Monument gives you a pyramid. <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgywqTf3xdY8tOoveHks4IhbTYwrgyLXsKeCF7uTzVurJd_OGn-zXvCchsatZ-fNjX2DVVsUf8cQU3g3LNvmcrAcGomAJB8qnZrkX0KxtcN0kS0ONoCB0aTAo7IYLCaWlsFikqVm57ezrxH/s1600/P1000722.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgywqTf3xdY8tOoveHks4IhbTYwrgyLXsKeCF7uTzVurJd_OGn-zXvCchsatZ-fNjX2DVVsUf8cQU3g3LNvmcrAcGomAJB8qnZrkX0KxtcN0kS0ONoCB0aTAo7IYLCaWlsFikqVm57ezrxH/s320/P1000722.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Game Board</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The game continues until the 11<sup>th</sup> monument disc is uncovered, the explorer gets a 3 point bonus, but the game ends immediately and final scoring takes place. During the game you can get bonus points from dropping camps (pyramids) onto the board, they score 1 point for each adjacent monument, animal or nomad. Dropping a base camp can also be used to take possession of all diamond and gold tokens. If you chose to move an animal or a nomad, the score you obtain must be greater than what it currently has and you only obtain the difference. The artefact sets gain you 1,3,5,8,12 points depending on how many you own in a set, during the game you may swap artefacts with other players artefacts, but swap criteria is quite restrictive.</div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbjquQ8ulCUSstd3sFh9a-oIQ6aQlFFCiUkCCvyRUqaEzMg6C3iGPaTFLIRbWj_smJyfqFchjhSUACg9P4wTjj0alJ6WDu_RwSJRu2fzRYghyQVrA1WH-MWX3v_wUcyLn5VQf2rfI-Txg9/s1600/P1000726.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbjquQ8ulCUSstd3sFh9a-oIQ6aQlFFCiUkCCvyRUqaEzMg6C3iGPaTFLIRbWj_smJyfqFchjhSUACg9P4wTjj0alJ6WDu_RwSJRu2fzRYghyQVrA1WH-MWX3v_wUcyLn5VQf2rfI-Txg9/s320/P1000726.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Discs</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">So how does it play? The actual mechanism is fairly straight forward, but luck does play a part on what symbol you reveal, I find that on average animals score about 1-3 points, nomads 2-4 points, gems 1-2 points, but having the most at the end of the game gives a 10 point bonus, 6 for second place. Artifacts generally give a score of about 2-2.5 points each. As all this point grabbing seems to average out during the course of a game, tactics actually do come into play. I believe in area control and usually manage to leave myself more unexplored tiles than my opponents leaving them to waste a turn teleporting, I also try to gain control of Gold and Diamonds; Wendy excels at utilising Nomads and never misses an opportunity to maximise her scoring during a turn. </div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCBxChQC-guLb-PPoP7IImhMeluJHXt-Q8yCuvjl0YyYBcCb5IkioFj-0dqNPDP7Yei41Wn4JeCznVnV-ZEp5y8E9LY4j2Oy-gJlO0hEKy7YbCdKjFz8H35l0x8le6It8mF36ifPk8toYp/s1600/P1000728.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCBxChQC-guLb-PPoP7IImhMeluJHXt-Q8yCuvjl0YyYBcCb5IkioFj-0dqNPDP7Yei41Wn4JeCznVnV-ZEp5y8E9LY4j2Oy-gJlO0hEKy7YbCdKjFz8H35l0x8le6It8mF36ifPk8toYp/s320/P1000728.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An example of (from left - right) Animal, Artifact, Gold, monument, Nomad, Diamonds</td></tr>
</tbody></table>This game ended as a close run thing, Wendy won with one point separating each of us, myself just ahead of Alan. So was it luck or skill? <place>Africa</place> always leaves me in doubt on that question, but I cannot help feel it is luck, but when I look at how Wendy beats me (and she often does) it must be skill and she is the better "Africa" player. No matter whether luck or skill, it is a light fun game and generally gets a regular airing.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-71330223594836009192011-05-28T09:01:00.000-07:002011-05-28T09:03:48.697-07:00Offrandes - Ludonaute<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">This gaming session there were two games played, the first was Offrandes which I picked up at <city><place>Essen</place></city> last year. Designed by Cedric Lefebvre and produced by Ludonaute, it takes from 3-5 players and claims to play in 60 minutes, only having played it twice I think this can only be achieved with experienced players, it is aimed at age 10+.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijvCEzK7L0CRGp3DncGtbgxQLDMN5PTwMbPjKMXkTCRmJ0SM4-iI5WYeaa9-RBJ0_9gW98fQdq7suTvmPx41dTCJKlh31kwOfLa3ZYHaYx-t00WARGxFN9y4tJQExbKG_-QwbXenc1TtXD/s1600/P1000720.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijvCEzK7L0CRGp3DncGtbgxQLDMN5PTwMbPjKMXkTCRmJ0SM4-iI5WYeaa9-RBJ0_9gW98fQdq7suTvmPx41dTCJKlh31kwOfLa3ZYHaYx-t00WARGxFN9y4tJQExbKG_-QwbXenc1TtXD/s320/P1000720.JPG" t8="true" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Offrandes Box</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The box contains 3 separate playing boards, a quantity of cash, a number of discs in player colours, 7 auction cards and the best bit – lots of wooden animals, namely chickens, pigs, goats, sheep and cows. The rules are clearly written with examples to help. The theme of the game, if not already guessed, is that the people of <country-region><place>Greece</place></country-region> in an effort to fend off a plague which is devastating their cities are offering sacrifices to the Gods. It is the player who gains the most points in the game that wins.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Yyn3drkkFgZhXpNbP1pHfVVjGPkhB2R9gGamIa3Zx-QKVnKMUlHALD8owMiRCtit_QcqW6r9U4okyImuBc4uB5OJ9x7uBbOB44uU7uxiUWcv4TRU2PhryQb4H_ga1v5lb4C_VKvGR07N/s1600/P1000706.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Yyn3drkkFgZhXpNbP1pHfVVjGPkhB2R9gGamIa3Zx-QKVnKMUlHALD8owMiRCtit_QcqW6r9U4okyImuBc4uB5OJ9x7uBbOB44uU7uxiUWcv4TRU2PhryQb4H_ga1v5lb4C_VKvGR07N/s320/P1000706.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The playing boards</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The game is played in a series of rounds. In each round every player runs a number of auctions after which corruption takes place, then points are awarded for prayer and each player may make a single sacrifice at an altar gaining further points. The game ends when all altars have a sacrifice or someone gains 100 points, at which point game end bonuses are added. As a brief aside for the purists I have missed out a few of the “if and but”/minor rules, so no complaints there please.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrNxgVupfnFO__WeYBHJaEoVsWzuIkhx6pPc0P5rf7x3zVjkoQuncohwJUbsozEFY-ZT50f9Wi8OC0oFEk9XBMJ0ONHoWUUzcEwgey_s9onItGxjtIdifcBXmrVy-Z4e74fkTuT8Gzah4T/s1600/P1000719.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrNxgVupfnFO__WeYBHJaEoVsWzuIkhx6pPc0P5rf7x3zVjkoQuncohwJUbsozEFY-ZT50f9Wi8OC0oFEk9XBMJ0ONHoWUUzcEwgey_s9onItGxjtIdifcBXmrVy-Z4e74fkTuT8Gzah4T/s320/P1000719.JPG" t8="true" width="254" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rule book</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">There are seven jobs up for grabs which are dealt with by way of auction. The auction process was difficult to get to grips with when I initially read it and equally difficult to explain on the two occasions I have introduced other players to the game, however saying that, after everyone has completed their first round of auctions it all seems so simple and the games have ran smoothly; so feel free not to understand the rest of this paragraph. In short the first player chooses 2 of the jobs for auction and makes an initial bid, if another player is the winner than the first player chooses a second pair to auction off, the winner of the first pair cannot bid. If again another player wins he gets to auction off a third pair in which the previous 2 winners cannot bid. If the first player wins any pair he puts up for auction, then his run of auctions ends at that moment and no further pairs are put up for bidding; all the jobs are collected together and the second player then runs some auctions. This continues until all players have run some auctions. A player can choose to forgo their run of auctions and just pass the job stack on. Now perhaps is the time to explain that money is tight, and at times, very tight. Each round after the sacrifices you get an income of 10 Drachmae, this must last you all the auctions run by all the players this round, the good news is that you can carry money over between rounds but there is a maximum holding of 25.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7B-A_xztQvGtP_DFm3E7gG1iQSiyhTdxfM9mKYrnqBJIFRKE2VT4O9M_RTR7_bHSvthGHdZxuOmjssEbIMO-QE4iUkEC1eoxQeR6XkWBjQOtgcqBZ6mJf02V4_HG0UyksWudps5uG-7ac/s1600/P1000718.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7B-A_xztQvGtP_DFm3E7gG1iQSiyhTdxfM9mKYrnqBJIFRKE2VT4O9M_RTR7_bHSvthGHdZxuOmjssEbIMO-QE4iUkEC1eoxQeR6XkWBjQOtgcqBZ6mJf02V4_HG0UyksWudps5uG-7ac/s320/P1000718.JPG" t8="true" width="195" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drachmae and start token</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">When a player has run his set of auctions all players get to move their markers up the scale of the two jobs they obtained, before handing back the tiles to go to the next player to run his auctions. So what are these jobs, the first is the peasant from whom you take the animals, the higher up his scale the better the type of animal you obtain. The water carrier purifies the animal and the flower carrier adorns the chosen animal type. The lowest on these two scales dictates how many animals get sacrificed. The <place><placetype>Temple</placetype> <placename>Guardian</placename></place> allows you to sacrifice at a higher level of altar, the Priestess scale is where you pray for additional victory points during the sacrifice phase. The Briber allows you to corrupt a player whose token is lower than yours on the Soldier scale.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTiy4_w8MRzAn5xXQidHz85B9R-bM9-w8Hh-LBGhs1rQ81YCFFcXh7dZ-YGwmp7XA2JfBE1nOICoJoUObzmKEhoQutfeXbDmZjz4n53iAyNYBTG9_kBrxraDBFf2l21PeqQTDJCJwDX6QT/s1600/P1000717.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTiy4_w8MRzAn5xXQidHz85B9R-bM9-w8Hh-LBGhs1rQ81YCFFcXh7dZ-YGwmp7XA2JfBE1nOICoJoUObzmKEhoQutfeXbDmZjz4n53iAyNYBTG9_kBrxraDBFf2l21PeqQTDJCJwDX6QT/s320/P1000717.JPG" t8="true" width="264" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Jobs for auction</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
After all the auctions, players have moved their tokens up the various scales, now the Briber takes effect, when you corrupt another player you get to move their token down one space on a scale and you move yours up one. This may sound devastating for the victim, however the amount of corruption in the game is low due to the Soldier which provides protection, and most of the time where it does take place the corrupter usually falls victim to another player and often their own victim, thus balancing out the corruption they did themselves.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglBuKqYzVQiKOizhyYPSGHtlGCGzdGN2P0EcqFx86rmIaRFdI1jE9orIGiyyXPUGXYCn-gp5AA6R_0pSEarCYeoC58DdD-2PhtpeILb4yXc0RpSeLep4fsMnqQWoAiIUHICh1Mz_czJeEm/s1600/P1000707.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglBuKqYzVQiKOizhyYPSGHtlGCGzdGN2P0EcqFx86rmIaRFdI1jE9orIGiyyXPUGXYCn-gp5AA6R_0pSEarCYeoC58DdD-2PhtpeILb4yXc0RpSeLep4fsMnqQWoAiIUHICh1Mz_czJeEm/s320/P1000707.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soldier and Briber</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Victory points are now obtained from the Priestess, and then in player order everyone may make one sacrifice. They take the animal(s) as dictated by the Peasant, Water and Flower carriers and place at an alter level or lower than their <place><placetype>Temple</placetype> <placename>Guardian</placename></place> token. They get points equal to their sacrifice rating. You leave a player token with the sacrifice as altars score bonus points at game end. You may replace another’s sacrifice at an altar, provided your sacrifice is different and of an equal or greater value than the one already there. After sacrifices, the turn marker moves on, cash given out and you start again until game end conditions are met, when you get the altar value of all the sacrifices you have remaining at altars.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG3JxIFc1y8GmAJdp-WHWNBsGmnGJ0PNTXZzruPF8pbsCRcuYlYH77x7f9YU8iqxXia1dQWiB9TCWf9VPpUk0Y98PVkxQTkGZ1d7iJpj3fQ8rpksh3TeHhfK91VTzDCopeyyca3mQ-Q3PK/s1600/P1000712.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG3JxIFc1y8GmAJdp-WHWNBsGmnGJ0PNTXZzruPF8pbsCRcuYlYH77x7f9YU8iqxXia1dQWiB9TCWf9VPpUk0Y98PVkxQTkGZ1d7iJpj3fQ8rpksh3TeHhfK91VTzDCopeyyca3mQ-Q3PK/s320/P1000712.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Altar Board</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
So how does the game play? After the initial round of bidding where players get to grips with the auction system, it runs very smoothly and various nuances within the game system become apparent. The choice of jobs you put up for auction, and who wants what jobs become quite important; the last player in a round to run an auction has more control as cash is limited by then; you can lock out people from auctions due to cash, and if an auctioneer wins their own first auction they will be the only one to advance tokens that phase. My advice to this particular group of novices was to look to bid a maximum of around 3 Drachma, so the very first pairing went to 3 Drachma and I talked through the various possibilities saying that at this stage a bid of 4 was stupid and a bid of 5 suicidal; it was only a few turns later that I made a bid of 7 and the mocking began! One of the players tried hoarding his money to gain greater control in auctions, this cost him dearly in that he was not advancing any tokens and then in the later auctions he just ended up paying more as he was pushed up in the bidding. The net effect was his tokens were now behind the other players. It is interesting to note though that a holding of just a few drachma more than other players can be very useful. Another player due to circumstances got hit with corruption in the first 2 turns without being able to defend, normally this would not have had a lasting effect, but in a game of first time players, recovery was a little longer and she fell too far behind to catch up. So as the most experienced player did I win? Not by a long shot. I was neck and neck with Alan throughout the sacrificing stages and was even sacrificing a better class of animal, to edge slightly ahead; however Alan’s sacrifices were at a better class of altar than mine and I lost heavily in the bonus point stage at the end, gaining only 40 points to Alan’s 75. </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTGnmqQPUTpPIz9Kcsegl6UrybXWqlnCkL_G2faRfkmA4k0xxXRw8UVhWxAYPP1OWWufaIjCSojIf0qewVyXFCVrlutaJCF7AHfCLOrRS3Q8wrXhT6b42OPlnVkzpskgpNxCuCdWfQGhME/s1600/P1000709.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTGnmqQPUTpPIz9Kcsegl6UrybXWqlnCkL_G2faRfkmA4k0xxXRw8UVhWxAYPP1OWWufaIjCSojIf0qewVyXFCVrlutaJCF7AHfCLOrRS3Q8wrXhT6b42OPlnVkzpskgpNxCuCdWfQGhME/s320/P1000709.JPG" t8="true" width="311" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Animals in close up</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
It was an enjoyable game and all players said they would be happy to play it again. I myself like the game a lot. The underlying subtleties of doing certain things at the right time keep you thinking throughout the game and the interaction of current token positions with jobs put up for auction will make every game different, and to top it off it comes with loads of wooden animals. Fantastic!</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguIIpqHqcm6_x8KPbGkoHmQbtiInv8VpfQ419-vx0MGxwWUvQVH3mkY1iQ6A0ZH8uMjShcjFlccA6gghS0rFiGSsC7ujsWM6br-Zql3FxkA_s8-2edqz2_Q5n4lAsUvt3l0pzUKNfrKZA7/s1600/P1000715.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguIIpqHqcm6_x8KPbGkoHmQbtiInv8VpfQ419-vx0MGxwWUvQVH3mkY1iQ6A0ZH8uMjShcjFlccA6gghS0rFiGSsC7ujsWM6br-Zql3FxkA_s8-2edqz2_Q5n4lAsUvt3l0pzUKNfrKZA7/s320/P1000715.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loads of wooden animals</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The second game we played was Kingsburg from Stratelibri, this game is well thought of in gaming circles and there are enough reviews out there for me to keep this one short and sweet. A brief overview of the game is that there are 5 game years over which you try to accumulate the most victory points. Each game year is split into the four seasons; in each of the first 3 seasons you get to roll a set of dice, place these dice on the playing board, gather resources based upon your selection and then use those resources to build one building. In the fourth season there is an attack which every player must defend against. Success brings bonuses, defeat results in losses. </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1nzK6Q1_7vwtdp7W1q9fGtEttpmEba-rI1QfJMvSrD2JnAV9M4CGSqMrrxFCzZkqrmtlDpZ1-XSGwsrKa4Sue306SIFpm0JOHsYHazAg1oeGYcoQqKIiZi43yoz9B9WQ0Rv-qUTg6Acn/s1600/P1000721.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1nzK6Q1_7vwtdp7W1q9fGtEttpmEba-rI1QfJMvSrD2JnAV9M4CGSqMrrxFCzZkqrmtlDpZ1-XSGwsrKa4Sue306SIFpm0JOHsYHazAg1oeGYcoQqKIiZi43yoz9B9WQ0Rv-qUTg6Acn/s320/P1000721.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kingsburg Box</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
The resource spaces may include one or more of the following resources/options :-</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Gold, Wood, Stone, A Good of choice, Combat Bonus, A +2 Chit (which can be used to boost a die roll) , A Victory Point, and Advance information of the enemy to be fought in the last season. Most of the victory points you gain will be from the buildings you build, however these also provide in-game benefits such as combat bonuses, die rolling bonuses or boost to Victory Points when doing certain things.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">During the game you will build about half of the buildings, so early choices have to be made as certain advanced buildings cannot be built until the relevant minor building has been built.This game again was new to the group, however the basic rules were easier to explain and the building/crib sheet is an excellent player aid. Despite not finishing until <time hour="1" minute="30">1.30am</time> we all had a good game and everyone was happy for a revisit on another occasion. <city><place>Gary</place></city> won the game and it pays homage to his capacity for new information that this was the third new game that evening, that I had taught him the rules to. The first being Antiquity by Splotter, as we were soon to be playing it by post.This had taken the first hour of the evening as I had had to run a dummy game through the first few turns to fully explain the interaction of the mechanics. A review for another day.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Anyway, back to Kingsburg, this will be a favourite for a while with its very well balanced mechanism, playing equally well with anywhere between 2 and 5 players. I am hoping to pick up the expansion set for it soon, I will do a full review of this game then.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-65478395326509963112011-05-27T05:23:00.000-07:002011-05-27T05:37:28.019-07:00Mystery of the Abbey - Days of Wonder<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">This is more of a game review than a game session summary. Only managed to play one game last night and that was Mystery of the Abbey by Bruno Faidutti & Serge Laget, it is produced by Days of Wonder. Six of us sat down to play, the game is recommended for 3-6 players aged 8+ with a playing time of 30-60 minutes.</div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEistRe-H4n_PP5WyyfYHBFQiq-pK9iH8uQge50vtDPtFmQKq-4fJkf_ESRYVvmRqmftFjyJPhoIdIZUSsxBTwDUYGfLZ06mUsnX1zjrwNSOVPdlPCa1Re6QQr_bDnsNSWWFC4mMlm3T2pKA/s1600/P1000705.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEistRe-H4n_PP5WyyfYHBFQiq-pK9iH8uQge50vtDPtFmQKq-4fJkf_ESRYVvmRqmftFjyJPhoIdIZUSsxBTwDUYGfLZ06mUsnX1zjrwNSOVPdlPCa1Re6QQr_bDnsNSWWFC4mMlm3T2pKA/s320/P1000705.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The unnecessarily Deep Box</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">First the Box, it measures 29.5cm x 29.5cm x 7cm within which there is nothing but air in the bottom half of the box; over-packaged? Certainly, which is pain to those of us with an eye on shelf space. The board depicts an Abbey with a central courtyard split into 4 zones and various rooms around the edge. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFf5yQBC0e3Ox4P7S7U7fehUnFl57K-eZuJOB-1qbPltGdYohzQz4wwVB77iD0qV2Lg2S80oQVnOuLGNEsUxJXw08hfp6efWnXwnry3BrEVOWniCeYazxVq08NJiFZrlhKsdLhyTCQ-XMr/s1600/P1000703.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFf5yQBC0e3Ox4P7S7U7fehUnFl57K-eZuJOB-1qbPltGdYohzQz4wwVB77iD0qV2Lg2S80oQVnOuLGNEsUxJXw08hfp6efWnXwnry3BrEVOWniCeYazxVq08NJiFZrlhKsdLhyTCQ-XMr/s320/P1000703.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Board</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">The rest of the contents are shown below; the rules are clearly written as are the crib sheets which are very useful if not essential, in game play.</span> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilgHSzjb84ROwHlRjgm8ZYOpjAVYTrE9d2BNPXIxv44-jUQ_xiGjPKbVeXkEl_MhPLYE6yrPMR-jo2JIwzvxyWOHQk95qQHu-oEKPK8-TncWdEnu7GQ-bDCz3K9CTAqI0lJAy0CUkyQomc/s1600/P1000701.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilgHSzjb84ROwHlRjgm8ZYOpjAVYTrE9d2BNPXIxv44-jUQ_xiGjPKbVeXkEl_MhPLYE6yrPMR-jo2JIwzvxyWOHQk95qQHu-oEKPK8-TncWdEnu7GQ-bDCz3K9CTAqI0lJAy0CUkyQomc/s320/P1000701.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Various Decks of Cards, Pawns, Crib Sheets, Dice and Bell</td></tr>
</tbody></table>When reading the rules I felt the game was an elaborate form of Cluedo crossed with Guess Who. The game setting is an Abbey within whose walls a monk has been murdered. We as players, have to deduce the murderer. There are 24 suspect cards, one of which at random is placed under the board, the others are dealt out evenly to players, with the remainder placed in the Parlour, each card has 8 different traits, i.e. which order they belong to, their rank, bearded or clean shaven, cowled or uncowled, thin or fat. During the game you can make a delaration that the suspect has a specific trait for which you gain positive points if correct and negative if wrong. Successfully naming the suspect also gets positive points. <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6FWeb0BriF38Op2p4wI0QWK88XUD3kDWJcUunY4Rs478natZmM8YtxKGhChc4KKkRLYWjA9hvnFSzq9Fcky-3Vj42IehYsPgs4BCmlYHZyNmoSaPPo5-7gwH6ZAMTdphut0q00zpGwRJW/s1600/P1000704.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6FWeb0BriF38Op2p4wI0QWK88XUD3kDWJcUunY4Rs478natZmM8YtxKGhChc4KKkRLYWjA9hvnFSzq9Fcky-3Vj42IehYsPgs4BCmlYHZyNmoSaPPo5-7gwH6ZAMTdphut0q00zpGwRJW/s320/P1000704.JPG" t8="true" width="245" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Rule Booklet</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The play is simple, on your turn you must move either 1 or 2 spaces (3 in a 6 player game), you may then ask a question of any other player in that space, they can either choose to not answer, or they can answer for which they can then ask you a question in return. After this you get to interact with the room you are in. Some of the rooms have power cards namely the Library (one use only) and Scriptorium, also the Crypt has a double turn token (player holding limited to one). Whilst in others you get to take cards from other players hands, namely the player cells and the confessional, however if caught in a cell by the resident, you miss your next turn. Lastly the Parlour allows you to take a Suspect card from those left over after the deal, or if empty, to ask any player about 1 or 2 traits and they must show you a card that fits if they have it. Finally after every 4<sup>th</sup> turn (3 in a 6 player game) all playing pieces are returned to the chapel for Mass, a sort of game reset, an event card is turned over, and depending on the round, everyone passes a set number of cards to the player on their left.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">So how did it go for us? As can be seen, there is a lot of card movement and it needs a good memory to keep track of where the cards you have already seen are, in fact in reality you can only really track cards between Masses. Conversely the card movement also ensures that the game does not drag by ensuring that eventually all suspect cards will be seen by most players. A couple of players felt limited by being only able to move 3 spaces (the longest journey is 8 spaces) however most players during play were able to reach a room and gain a benefit every turn – though it may not have been the room they wanted at that time. The power cards in the Scriptorium were on the whole weak, but seemed to help those players who collected them. The greatest imbalance I found was in the Library, other players who went there had the advantage of seeing up to 5 cards held by other players, whereas mine only permitted me a free guess at a trait, I was no better off information wise and I had little information upon which to base my guess. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">What I have not covered yet is questioning other players, in a 6 player game this did create a level of dead time, if there was a lot of questions and answers, then it seemed like forever before your turn came round again, this was especially so if you got caught in another’s cell and had to miss your next turn. To be its most effective you had to plan a chain of questions (or chain your question to another players question earlier in the round) and ensure you got to ask them all before the next Mass moved all the cards on. Questioning someone on your right was likely to result in them remaining silent as they knew what cards you had from the last <state><place>Mass.</place></state> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Question phrasing was often important, however the answers did not often help (or that’s how I felt). </div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_M6h5e_S_nJeGib4KT-KEwIju157YpVr2-qMuL7OJYTaBmdBu8WFp7_0rXgEZkrBDg-wqccl8PbNmcoAhVhUGV4XnEOz0nWJqKt2PF2_r-1pSxJ57_AtndiBGA8Ti7u0bBkrSuWpZ421V/s1600/P1000702.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_M6h5e_S_nJeGib4KT-KEwIju157YpVr2-qMuL7OJYTaBmdBu8WFp7_0rXgEZkrBDg-wqccl8PbNmcoAhVhUGV4XnEOz0nWJqKt2PF2_r-1pSxJ57_AtndiBGA8Ti7u0bBkrSuWpZ421V/s320/P1000702.JPG" t8="true" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;">One of the Suspect cards</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">So how did we all do, Most players got down to the last 2 or 3 suspects when Joe made a successful accusation. I still had 9 on my sheet! So where did he go right and I go wrong. Joe made good use of the Scriptorium cards, pre-planned a lot of his moves and had structured questioning. I on the other hand was met with a fair few “no’s” to my questions, though to tell the truth they were just shots in the dark. I suffered from a bad Library card, I was also an early victim to thievery, so although I already had the information from those cards and thus no real loss other players also had that information in addition to their own. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Conclusion. It was an interesting game and played within the time, I felt I was a victim to the chaos of card movement, however I know there is more to the game than that and if I had gone to the right rooms at the right time then I would have fared a lot better, I still wouldn’t have won, but I would have had a better sense of achievement at the end. We had a few laughs and jokes during the game, but I don’t think it will get another airing with 6 players as there were times (due to the games structure rather than the players) when it dragged a bit. I would love to give it another go as a 4 player game where your turn comes round a bit quicker and you are more likely to be involved in someone else’s turn. </div><br />
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</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330176802240827050.post-2361670151330999692011-05-24T13:29:00.000-07:002011-05-24T13:29:01.444-07:00Just an introductionThis blog will be a record of my board games activity. It will also have a few reviews as I go along though feel free to take them with a pinch of salt, as a game played with one group will feel totally different when played with a different group. I may even give a list of house rules, these usually crop up to make a game more playable mainly because I misread the rules in the first place. I will also add the odd photo to make the Blog colourful.<br />
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"<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script language="javascript" src="http://boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=Kweevnidny&numitems=5&header=1&text=title&images=small&show=random&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&domain=boardgame"></script></div>kweevnidnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14376960989074379007noreply@blogger.com0