Weekend Gaming: Castles, Caylus, and Firefly

Most everyone was busy Saturday night, so Gina and decided to play Castles of Mad King Ludwig.  Gina was scoring quite a from the purple rooms, but I has a nice thing going with the L shaped rooms.  I managed to build every one of them so I received the bonus for the empty pile along with my bonus card for the same thing.  Gina had bonus cards for nearly everything she built as well, and we split the royal favors; she won for most square footage of hallways, while I had the most basement rooms.  After totaling everything up, the score was tied until we realized that the supply of stairs was also empty and needed to be scored.  My extra stairs ended up being the difference.

Joe was interested in a game at that point, so came over for Caylus.  I didn’t really have a strong plan, but I was trying to build as many buildings as possible.  I was doing alright, but had to switch things up about halfway through.  Gina was focused on contributing to the castle, while Joe was jousting and taking advantage of the favors.  I had stockpiled some cloth, so I began jousting in an attempt to get to the point where I could built the residential buildings.  I was successful in that, but it was far too little, too late.  Joe was in a position to build prestige buildings, and although I was able to build the castle, it wasn’t enough.  I ended up in third, while Joe took the win.

Then on Sunday, Gina, Jax, and I played my new copy of Firefly: the Game.  It took a bit to get rolling.  Jax didn’t want to do anything evil, so he was looking for all the legal jobs he could get.  I started off with some simple deliveries before stopping at the Bazaar for goods and crew.  I had a strong crew with Jayne’s Hat, a fancy tie, and a fake ID.  I was ready to roll.  Gina was pretty much working delivery missions, and Jax had found one crime job to do.  He was having a tough time making trouble.  He didn’t have a ton of resources, but he was lucky.  He managed to roll two sixes in a row to complete the job, and shortly after had the funds needed to win the game.  He just needed to cross the galaxy – while short on fuel – before Gina or I could turn get to Ezra to do the same.  He had the advantage of turn order, and made the trip safely to claim victory.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: CO2 and Five Tribes

Back to gaming this weekend and we kicked things off with Gina’s choice of CO2.  Things were a little dicey early with a starting CO2 level of 210 and at one point reached 490, but we were able to keep it in check.  I was trying to build in as many continents as I could for my corporate goal, and managed to do fairly well there.  I didn’t propose many projects at all and did most of my work  installing and constructing projects around the board.  It was looking like Joe might take control of the game when he was picking up CEPs all over, but in the final decade I was able to take control of Oceania.  With those CEPs and the three UN goals I had scored I finished in the lead.

Gina headed to bed and we followed that up Five Tribes.  I was just learning and was a significant disadvantage.  The game is highly dependent on maximizing points every turn, and seeing those opportunities.  The others had played the game a few times so they were scoring a ton each round, while i struggled a bit.  I didn’t place last (Joe did), which was a miracle, but I didn’t get close to Louis’ 157 point victory either.  It was an interesting game, though, so hopefully we’ll get it on the table again before too long.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Brass and Panamax

Nick and his family were again in town and Joe joined Nick and I for a game of Brass on Saturday afternoon.  I was building Cotton Mills early and often, trying to get my income up.  I managed to ship first to the external markets in both phases, significantly increasing my income.  My problem was that’s all I was doing.  Joe positioned himself to build a ton of tracks in the rail phase, while also building two boats.  Nick wasn’t building many tracks, but he did have quite a few different buildings in play.  During the final scoring, Joe scored 60+ points from his links and we thought he had the game locked up.  Nick had 101 points from his building, though, and beat Joe by two points.

Later that evening Kevin, Joe, Nick, and I learned Panamax.  It took a bit to get rolling and the game ended up taking a bit longer than expected.  I was relying too much on my own boats to get stuff done, and wasn’t really able to get much going.  Joe’s company was doing very well, and his stocks sold out quickly.  Kevin’s grew quickly later on and his shares were also quickly bought up.  At one point I was forced to take two bailouts because I had too many shipments on the board to be able to pay for them all.  That all but doomed me in the end.  I was able to get a bunch of European tokens to benefit from my bonus card, but it wasn’t nearly enough.  Kevin had a strong company and a couple strong bonus cards that propelled him to the victory,

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Terra Mystica and Brass

Nick was in town and was able to join Kevin, Joe, Gina, and I for games on Saturday.  Gina selected Terra Mystica for the first game of the evening.

Gina was the dwarves; Nick, the alchemists; Joe, the witches; Kevin, the nomads; and I had the chaos mages.  I took the upper right corner of the board and had the +1 boat tile for the first round and was able to do some quick expansion.  I was working on building temples and building my favor with the cults.

Joe and Kevin were spreading all over the place, while Nick and Gina were in the lower right building their towns.  By the third round we all had at least one town, and Joe was working on his second.  I had the upper right corner locked up and was working towards my second town, but I wasn’t able to get it completed before Kevin overtook me for the lead in the water cult.  I ended up with first place in one cult, second in two, and third in the last.  Joe’s three towns, though, launched him well into the lead early and he held it until the very end.

We followed that with Brass, with Gina heading to bed.  I didn’t really have a strong plan for the game, simply starting with coal mines and going from there.  Joe was trying to maximize his income early with lots of coal and a bunch of early cotton mills.  Kevin was just setting up for the second phase, while Nick did a little of everything.

In the second phase, I was setup to build a boat in the northern-most city, so I directed my builds in that direction.  Also, no one was building cotton mills, so I was able to drop a couple to take advantage of the external market for some income.  Joe’s income wasn’t quite enough and he had too much coal on the board, so they weren’t emptying out causing him to struggle a bit.  Kevin was building track like crazy, and that ended up being the difference in the game.  Nick and I were both able to build our boats, but Kevin scored 60+ points from his links and my buildings weren’t able to overcome that difference.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Welcome to 2015

Joe, Kevin, and I got the new year rolling Saturday with Castles of Mad Kind Ludwig.  Joe was building as many Utility rooms as he could get his hands on — paying a premium for most of them.  I had a few basement rooms, and a bunch of activity rooms.  My bonus cards rewarded hallways and corridors, but I didn’t have many opportunities to capitalize on that.  I was doing well on points throughout the game, but when it came to score the bonus cards Joe had us beat by a bunch.

Brass finished the night, and Joe and Kevin were both developing early.  I was able to build Ironworks to take advantage of the demand, and then finished the first phase with a couple cotton mills and ports to increase my income.  I started the rail phase with quite a few ports and a coal mine available to quickly build from.  I continued to build ports and then eventually built into more cotton mills.  Joe had developed to his level four cotton mills and built them in Colne before I could get there.  I ended up in Macclesfield and Stockport instead.  Things were very close at the end, while I had plenty of money to spend, there just wasn’t much to build.

Joe and I had nearly identical scores from our links, but he had me beat by two points after scoring his buildings and cash.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Here’s to 2014 and 2015 to Come

We’ve reached the end of 2014.

The holiday week has been pretty crazy.  I received Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Panamax, and the Clash of Cultures: Civilizations expansion from my family.  Gina and I played Castles on Christmas Day and had a lot of fun, even though we played with the entire deck instead of just the 22 cards intended for two players.

Then, over the weekend we were visiting my family and played plenty of party games.  We played Cards Against Humanity all night Friday with my sister and brother-in-law and some of their friends.  Then there was some of Cranium and Rummy 500 on Saturday.  It was great to hang out with them and the kids had a blast playing with their new toys.

On Sunday Joe wanted to get a game in, so he and Dana came over for Takenoko.  We followed that by teaching them Castles of Mad King Ludwig, which they both loved.

Finally on Monday, Joe had been hankering for another game of Brass.  He and Kevin joined me and I managed to win by building a bunch of cotton mills to build my income early, and then building mills and ports in the rail phase.  I was helped by Kevin when he decided to build over Joe’s steel mill instead of one of mine on the last turn – otherwise Joe would have taken the win.

Now for some reflections on 2014

I played 40 different games a total of 102 times (~2.5 plays/game)

I had 2 dimes (played 10+ times):
Dominion
Flash Point: Fire Rescue

I had 3 Nickels (played 5-9 times):
Caverna: The Cave Farmers
Eminent Domain
Hanabi

My favorite new game published in 2014 (so far) is: Castles of Mad King Ludwig

My most anticipated game of 2015 is: No clue. I haven’t even looked at upcoming games, since my backlog is too high.

My most anticipated expansion of 2015 is: Terra Mystica: Fire & Ice – I’m still trying to get my hands copy of this.

My biggest disappointment of 2014 was: Snowdonia – It wasn’t published in 2012, but I didn’t play it until 2014. After hearing a lot of good, I found it to be more of the same.

Until next time, happy gaming and have a wonderful 2015!

Weekend Gaming: Xidit and Brass

We kicked off games on Saturday with Lords of Xidit.  I was doing alright, but was behind on mage towers throughout.  I knew I had to catch up, but there weren’t a whole lot of locations available.  Joe and Louis both had 10, Gina had five, and Kevin had 13.  In the last year, I was able to pick up three to get to nine, and I had a wizard left over to hopefully win the final census to score a tenth tower.  Everything was going well until both Louis picked up three more towers and Joe snatched a single tower on the last action of the game.  I ended up getting eliminated, and Joe went on to win the game.

Gina headed to bed and the rest of us played Brass.  I was trying to get some Iron Works built early, but was only able to get one.  I didn’t have a real strong focus and was really only able to get a couple of ports built in Lancaster in the first phase.  Kevin had a much stronger first phase with some Cotton Mills and plenty of canals.  There was a ton of coal built in the first phase as well, and everyone was taking loans.

In the rail phase, Joe was taking loans like crazy, while Louis was able to build a sizable income.  Kevin was still working on Cotton Mills and connections.  I had build more in Preston and Lancaster and was actually able to build a boat up in the far North.  Joe managed to build two boats, but in the end it was Kevin that managed to win the game.  His connections and strong Cotton presence was too much to overcome.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Brass

Joe, Kevin, and Louis joined me Saturday and we learned Brass.  I’ve been sitting on this game for a while, but I hadn’t been about to get it to the table.

After going over the rules and a few kinks in the first round things were pretty smooth.  Kevin and I were focusing on Cotton Mills, while Louis and Joe were more interested in mines and iron works.  Joe was developing quite a bit more than the rest of us, which allowed him to have more of his industries stick around from the canal phase to the rail phase.  He also had the best score coming out of the canal phase.

In the rail phase, I was able to build a few ports and use them to ship from my cotton mills.  That helped with my income and allowed me to build quite a few links.  Joe was sitting with the lowest income throughout, but was building some we developed buildings.  He ended up scoring a ton from his build, launching him into first place.

Until next time, happy gaming.

Weekend Gaming: Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We spent the weekend with family and had a great time. The only gaming was some Cards Against Humanity on Thanksgiving eve. We had a blast playing with my sister and her husband.

We did do some shopping on Friday, while my aunt took the kids to the hotel for swimming. Then, after returning home on Saturday, we started decorating for Christmas. It was a great weekend and lots of fun with family.

Until next time, happy gaming.

Weekend Gaming: New Games and Warhammer 40k

This weekend, we were out of town for a Warhammer 40k tournament.  We were staying at Nick’s house, so we spent Thursday night learning one of his new games, Tzolk’in.  It was an interesting game with plenty to track and plan for.  The main part of the game is an ingenious gear mechanism that moves the players’ workers around each turn.  You need to plan ahead to make sure that your workers were in the right place to get their actions done.  The game was close as we all tried to figure out the best way to go.  Nick ended up winning, thanks to a strong monument purchased on the last turn.

Then on Saturday, Nick and I played in a Warhammer 40k charity event.  It was a fun tournament setup using a 500 point list for one game and a 2000 point list for the other two games.  There were six other there playing Chaos, Tyranids (two of them), Tau and Imperial Knights, Dark Angels, and Imperial Guard.  I was playing Eldar and Nick had his Orks.

My first game was 500 points against Chase and his Tyranids.  My Warp Spiders were the MVPs, destroying his Zoathorpes and generally being a nuisance as he failed to kill them in assault and then watched them jump out of combat just to shoot more into the bugs.  I had two units of jetbikes that didn’t do much.  They were protecting some objectives, but one group, including my Farseer got tied up by his Mawloc and perished.  The other squad survived the game, but I ended up losing by a couple points.

I played against Nick next, which is always fun.  I was doing well early, destroying the majority of his vehicles within the first couple turns.  The highlight was my Wraithlord destroying a Battlewagon with a single well placed bright lance shot. After four turns, the game ended in a draw.  I just couldn’t kill off enough of his orks since they were actually armored, and he wasn’t able to get close enough to get into assault.  Things would have been really interesting on turn five, but we were out of time.

My final game was against John’s Tyranids.  He had a lot more big bugs than Chase, but there were plenty of smaller things too.  I was able to destroy a squad of gaunts and his warlord on the first turn with some nice shooting.  On the second turn, he had a huge squad of guants outflank to my left and a Mawloc appear near my Avengers.  The guants killed all but one of my Warp Spiders, and that Spider managed to survive the rest of the game in some ruins.  The Mawloc missed on his entrance and couldn’t do anything on his turn, so I was able to put a ton of fire into it and then assaulted it with a Wraithlord, killing it.  The Guants were shot up by Dire Avengers  and jetbikes, and then wiped out in assault.  At this point it was mostly clean up for the Eldar.  I just had to avoid the worst of the big bugs and finish out the last two turns for the victory.

The Tau ended up with the tournament victory.  I did end up winning a gift certificate, which I used on a new game, and ultimately the 8 of us raised over $120 for Sanford Children’s Hospital.

That evening, Nick, Gina, and I learned my new game, Lords of Xidit.  It was another game with lots of planning.  This time the planning involved deciding on your next six actions before each round.  Then the actions were carried out in order to move around recruiting warriors and defeating monsters.  The pre-planning aspect made things somewhat relaxing as we weren’t working out every move with excruciating detail.  You had to plan ahead and try to guess what the others were doing, but once those moves were set, it was just a matter of executing.  Nick won again, just barely beating me with the tie-breaker.

Until next time, happy gaming!