Weekend Gaming: Bavaria and Britain

It was just Kevin, Joe, and I for games on Saturday and we kicked things off with Castles of Mad King Ludwig.  I jumped to an early lead with some large recreation rooms, but then stalled.  Kevin bought the basement room I was hoping to get, and Joe grabbed my back-up, so I never built a single basement.  Joe was racking up points with the purple rooms and Kevin had a bit of everything.  It looked like Joe might run away with the game, but the gap was quickly closed with the end game bonuses.  Kevin’s bonus cards ended up being the difference maker and he took the victory.

We followed that with Railways of Great Britain.  It ended up that Kevin had the North, I had the center, and Joe ruled the South.  Joe and I were fighting over a couple bonus cards, while Kevin just kept delivering and increasing the capability of his train.  He had a nice loop from Edinburgh to London and back, and was making 4-6 point deliveries consistently.  It was pretty close, but Joe and I couldn’t overcome Kevin’s deliveries.  I was hoping for second place, but Joe’s baron was worth 8 points to my 5, and that left me in last.

We finished the evening with Brass.  I didn’t have a real strong plan in the first phase of the game, mainly trying to set up some coal and positioning for phase two.  The best play for me was probably sneaking two cotton mills onto the board and tanking the external market before Joe was able to ship.

In phase two I ended up with a bunch of Liverpool and port cards, so after building a decent network of rail links, I focused on building as many ports as possible.  I ended up with four of them along with a few more cotton mills.  Joe was forced to use my ports to ship his cotton at the end of the game, providing me quite a few points.  Kevin was building boats, and managed to get two of them built, but he was lacking links.  In the final scoring, Joe had the most points from his links, while Kevin had a ton from his buildings.  I had the best of both, though, and managed to come away with the win.

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.