Ben is in the house of virgins

Last week I played the Princes of Machu Picchu with Ben, new rich and Devs Brother whose name escapes me at the moment. New Rich slipped off the pace having played a blinder last week he did not aquire enough cards during the game. In the end the VPs went fairly evenly with the cards. Ben was third, I was second and the newbie won! Well played. I enjoy princes of MP, its a resource management game with a good level of interaction as other players choices and order of choices dictate the winner much more than in some other games I like. After Devs brother and I played a couple of games of battle line which I managed to win to gain back some pride.

I don’t remember what Jimmy played with Rich and Bondy......and so to tonight

Last Week - Hello New Rich

Jimmy taught Rich, Pete and me Phonecia which I very much enjoyed and it got a reasonable table reception. It had been an Essen release some while ago and was high on my radar but had slipped down my want list as no one I knew had played it and despite good initial feedback the game had gradually got a more tepid response. Not from us. An interesting turn mechanic linked to an auction that after your go you could no longer compete in. An engine building game where limited resources are auctioned in the middle while the money you receive is linked to your position on the game board. When you improve your village you increase your income for future rounds or acquire VPs (or combinations of each) its very easy for the newbie to underestimate aspects of the game or to pay to much for mediocre goods. Positive feedback is also an issue and these elements stop this game being great, however if we play it often enough these aspects should make little impact in a good group. Jimmy won, timing his last dive for the line with perfection. Had the game gone another round I’m sure things would have been different. Rich was in a strong position but was not acquiring enough VPs, Pete was at least one round behind having in hindsight spent poorly early on.

Matt taught El Grande to a group containing new Rich, Ben and others but I don’t recall who. Ben won and Rich came second. They also played Basari which New Rich won and we played St Petersburg. I won st Pete ahead of Jimmy who got some bad luck which made up for him piping me to the post in Phonecia.

The Norwich Car show

An automobile contest. No we weren’t drag racing instead we had two tables playing the relatively new Martin Wallace game. I played with Chris, Rachel and Captain John. Jimmy led a table with Matt, Rich, Ben and Peter following a ubiquitous rules session led by Jimmy, the twist being the size of the crowd.

The game got a mixed reception, I loved it as did some others, a few hated it and others where indifferent. So not much to gleam from that. It’s typical Wallace fair, some engine building, some resource management. There is interesting interactions as whilst you play much of the game solo in the decisions that you make and the costs involved, there is a limited ‘market’ for selling cars and you only know partially what that may be. There is a negative element to the game which adds consequences rather than interaction, other players opening or closing factories effects your liabilities in relation to others which amongst shroud players is interaction and as players choose their ‘roles’ for a turn this avoided the feeling of playing in a bubble, at least for me.

In our game I really thought Chris was on a winner, He read the first two rounds perfectly and came unstuck in the third when his cash flow dried up. In hindsight had he invested a bit more here I think he would have romped home in front. I played very much the reverse angle, I invested loads of money, spending ridiculous amounts and getting big returns but the difference/profit was not convincing me. I acquired lots of negativity and spent out my supply of helpful white cubes by halfway and I had to bend my strategy accordingly. In the end I won the game on our table amassing a fortune, but i’m not convinced this was down to tactics or mere opportunism.

Our Four player game finished around the time the other table got to the halfway point so we played Pickomino and sat and waited........and waited...........and waited.......and waited.....and waited..............................