21st August- Space Dealer/Ark

I know, I'm late with this post, but in my defence I did take delivery of a new computer last week and I've been playing with all the shiny new bits!!!! Anyway on to the games, Space Dealer, this is a game by Tobias Stapelfeldt and published by Eggert-Spiele. I think it was released at last year's Essen. I must admit I was looking forward to playing this game, if only to see how the simultaneous gameplay worked. It looks fantastic with all the coloured bits and cubes on the table.


Space Dealer layout

The egg timers can't be that accurate though and this could be a factor when the time runs out as you can finish an action if it is started before the cut off....seconds could count. Each player starts at their own planet with a generator and a mine, then you race to manufacture and deliver goods to the other players planets. You can do research to upgrade your planet and equipment bringing other cards into play. The only catch is that with every action you take you turn over one of your 2 timers and that action is not completed until the timer has run through (1 minute).


A players home planet

As I said all actions by all players are taken at the same time, to be honest I hadn't got a clue what I was doing for the first 10 minutes or so. We were playing with the time track on the supplied CD which gives an audio countdown. So quite a hectic game, I didn't look to see what other players were doing so I suppose that if you wanted to cheat it would be quite easy, anyway the game lasts 30 minutes and that whizzs by so quickly.


Another look at the layout

I must admit that after we had played I don't think I would rush to play again....all to hectic for me :)

Final Scores
Garry 25, Steve 24, Richard 24, Colin 22

I think the rules explanation for Space Dealer took about twice as long as the game but even so we had enough time left for a game of Ark.


Enjoying a game of Ark

This is a Doris and Frank card game about putting animals into the Ark before the flood. Of course only certain animals can co-habit with others and that's where it gets difficult. You can't have carnivores in with herbivores, or herbivores in with provisions (cos they eat them) and so on. Also each animal has a weight and you can't put animals down if they capsize the ark. As the game progresses it gets quite difficult to place your cards, but for each card you place you get a dobber on the appropriate type of card, and at the end of the game, after the fifth rain card, the player with the most dobbers on a type scores points as do the second and so on.


Close up of the card layout

I must admit I quite like this game, even though it makes my head hurt!

Final Scores
Garry 32, Richard 29, Colin 24, Steve 23

14th August - Vikings/Coloretto

Full complement this week, and my choice.....wooo hooo! Anyway I chose Vikings a game by Michael Keisling published by Hans Im Gluck/Rio Grande. Steve and Richard had played a few times but Garry and myself hadn't played at all. I think the overall impression is that we all like it. The board consists of a wheel surrounded by 12 places for tiles and viking dobbers, spaces to put the stacks of tiles and 4 spaces for special tiles. There are 76 tiles, 14 ships and 62 island parts, islands have a left, right and centre. Each player starts with a left piece which must be placed on their display when they purchase their first tile. So basically in your turn you purchase one of the tiles plus man available around the spinner and pay the appropriate price, and place them in your personal display. You do this 3 times, then there is a scoring, a small scoring after rounds 1, 3 and 5, this is just money, and a large scoring after rounds 2, 4 and 6. This gets you VPs and money, then there is a final scoring.


Overall board layout

I won't go into the rules in depth here, there are several excellent reviews on BGG. I seemed to go a bundle on goldsmiths for some reason and had loads of money but not many VPs. I think the score reflected who had played before, with Richard and Steve vying for first spot with Garry and myself in 3rd and 4th. I couldn't get enough fishermen on the board and so suffered a minus penalty for undersupplying my men.


Each players display

We didn't play with the advanced variant where you bid for the tiles/men on the spinner, but we did play with the special tiles which you get if you buy the most expensive pair from the spinner. As I say I got some tiles to enhance my goldsmiths, so lots of money, whereas Richard and Steve got enhanced settlement tiles which gave them big bonuses in the final scoring.


Vikings in full swing

Final Scores
Steve 50, Richard 41, Garry 37, Colin 42

Vikings doesn't take ages to play so we had a bit of time left to fit in a game of Coloretto. This is a card game by Michael Schacht in which you are basically collecting sets of different coloured cards. On the table there are 4 rows which can have a max. of 3 cards each. In your turn you can either draw and place a card in one of the rows or pick up a row.


Dos Rios near the start

Where you place a card can be critical you obviously want to deny good combinations of cards for your opponents while trying to get good cards for yourself. There are a couple of special cards, a +2 card, which is just 2 points, and a wild card which counts as any colour.
This is a great little filler and we had a good game.

Final Scores
Garry 103, Steve 90, Colin 85, Richard 83

August 7th - Dos Rios

Garry couldn't make it this week, Steve had to change his choice to a game more suitable to 3 players, and he chose Dos Rios. Dos Rios is designed by Franz-Benno Delonge and was published by Mayfair/Kosmos in 2004. I hadn't played before but Richard and Steve both had. Basically the board consists of a series of hexes of differing terrains through which two rivers run. The rivers can be dammed to change their course which will affect which hexes are scored. You start the game by placing 3 of your men on the board the other 3 start in the town which is at one end of the board.


Dos Rios near the start

In your turn you have six action points which you use to move your men onto or around the board. There is a deck of action tiles of which 4 are turned over, these have the terrain types on them or one of the rivers or bandits. The active player can after they have used their action points activate the left most tile or not. If it is activated then the terrain that is on the tile that passes through the river is scored, all players that have a man on the appropriate terrain get 100 dollars.


A nice funnel of dams

Each player has 4 houses and 1 estate, these cost 5 hundred to build a house and 1,000 to build an estate the first person to build all their buildings is the winner. You can win by building 3 houses and the estate if they are all on a riverbank. The bandits can be devastating, killing the first 3 men counting from the source of the river.


Steve's just built his estate

I liked this game, it gives you lots of options and with only 6 action points you always want to do more than you actually can.

Final Scores
Colin - 4 houses, 1 estate

July 31st - El Grande

Tonight was Steve's choice and he had chosen Buccaneer, a game by Stefan Dorra, and Marquis. This plan went out the window when Jo arrived unexpectedly with Richard, making us 5. On to plan B, we switched to the next game on the BGG top 10 list we hadn't played which was El Grande. We last played this in early January 2006, so we were a bit rusty on the rules plus we were going to play the expansion that added America, France and the Mediterranean.


El Grande starting positions

We took a bit of time to go through the rules so we didn't start playing until well past 8.00pm. Now I like EG, it's a game that gives you lots of decisions and quite a bit of interaction with the other players, the edition we were playing was the german so Steve had to give all a quick translation each round as we turned over the action cards. As most of you probably know each player has a set of cards numbered 1 to 13, each player, starting with the start player plays a card, the following player cannot play the same number. When everyone has played, the player who played the highest number chooses an action card from the action card stacks, the other players then do the same, starting with the next highest and so on. The number of men on the card you played lets you put that number from your province on to your court, ready for immediate use. The number of men printed on the action card lets you put that number of men on the board, you can perform the action before or after this has taken place.


Going through the rules

The game is played over 9 rounds, after the 3rd, 6th and 9th there is a scoring round. I won't go into the rules in depth here (see BGG for more details of that), but the Castle is a nice addition to the scoring round enabling you change ownership of a province before it is scored. The expansion adds not only France, America and the Mediterranean, but a ship that enables you to get to those distant shores. The benefits of getting there include obtaining gold and goods which can score you more points.


Garry and Richard trying to understand the rules!!

Once you get going the game plays pretty smoothly, the action cards let you do all manner of things, re-positioning not only your own men but other players as well, moving the King, getting a card you've already played back into your hand, scoring certain provinces and a lot more.


The king guards a province full of caballaros, while Valencia looks pretty crowded as well

We didn't finish until well after 11pm so the game probably took best part of 3 hours. In the end it was a pretty close finish between Jo and Richard, with Richard just edging it.

Final Scores
Richard 111, Jo 106, Colin 96, Steve 76, Garry 69

July 24th - Hermagor

Richard managed to drive back from Birmingham to make our session this week, so we are four again. Garry's choice and he chose Hermagor, I think the only game he hadn't played from his Essen purchases from last year. Hermagor is a game by Emanuele Ornella, published by several companies, Rio Grande and Mind the Move among them.


Hermagor Board

Basically you are buying products then moving around the map of Hermagor and establishing trading stations and selling them. The board, which is quite a mess, is divided into 3 areas, the map of Hermagor, the marketplace (where the product tiles are bid for) and the production chart which shows how much each product is worth when sold. The game is in 3 phases, first tiles are drawn from a cloth bag and put on the marketplace. There are 3 types of tile, single product which also lets you increase the value of the product if you wish. Double product which doesn't and a few special tiles. Each player has 4 buyers (dobbers) which in turn they place on the tile grid in the spaces between the product tiles this has a cost the most influential spaces costing more, at the end of this the player with the most influence on a tile wins it.


Mid game

In phase 2 the tiles are distributed to the players with the most influence surrounding it. Then there is a payout depending on where your buyers are placed on the marketplace. Then in phase 3 your seller moves around the map establishing trading stations and selling the products that you hold the tile for. Moving along the roads has a cost too, which varies from 2 to 5. You can move and sell, move only or sell only. If you move only, the road tolls are only half. The board is divided into areas and dukedoms, the roads define the areas and rivers define the dukedoms. If you enclose an area with trading stations you can put a dobber on the production chart for a product that is indicated in the area. Basically that is it, you do that for a number of rounds which is determined by the number of playes. At game end you get extra money in several ways. In the dukedom in which you have least trading stations the number of TS is x 3. For each dobber on the production chart you get a points according to the value of the product and the player that has most TS on the main road gets 5 and the player who has the least gets -5. Add up your money and the player with the most is the winner!


Board at game end

Steve was the only one of us to have played before and that was only once. I forgot about the dukedoms completely when choosing my routes so only got 3 points for that whereas Steve got 15. The game is a bit of a brain burner but I enjoyed it and would play it again (and I would remember the dukedoms this time!). The most critical phase is the first, getting the right production tiles for the route you want to follow. I think we all enjoyed it.

Final Scores
Richard 106, Garry 86, Steve 82, Colin 75

July 17th - Canal Mania 2nd Edition

This week we are back to full complement, Richard managing to finally get to a session. I think we may lose him next week though. Anyway, it was Richard's choice and he chose Canal Mania 2nd Edition. Everyone had played this version of Canal Mania except me, I had played the 1st edition so was keen to know what the differences were. Well the new board has removed a couple of hexes and added a couple of hexes, this happens mainly in the north, and quite a few of them have changed colour from the 1st edition. To reflect this there is a new set of contract cards, which now have 4 squares printed on them with a blob in the relevant square showing with part of the board they are in. There is also new junction contract cards, one per player, these are a value of 2 and must only be used to join 2 cities/towns. Obviously this helps to complete a network for yourself or screw up someone elses network. And finally the boat pieces have been changed to look a bit more like barges!


Getting to grips with the 2nd Edition

One thing we do is to get coloured cubes from another game and as the contracts are turned over mark the start and finish hexes on the board with one on the actual contract card, this gives a much clearer idea of what's going on. Garry started and of course picked the contract I was going to take, but I got Birmingham to Gloucester I think and that wasn't too bad. As it turned out no contracts for the middle section of the board came out that would have enabled me to build an efficient network. They were all north or south....sigh.


Board near the start

The number of points that trigger the end phase in a four player game is 50 and it didn't seem too long before we reached it. Richard, who had lagged a bit behind in the mid game, raced up to 2nd place, Garry and myself who had been near the front in mid game now dropped back as the final goods cubes were shipped.


Board end position

So, do I like the differences, having only played the original twice, and a while ago, it's a bit difficult to decide but I think I do. I like the little junction contracts, gives you a bit more flexibility in your plans. So, the scores were fairly evenly spread over a 14pt range.

Final Scores
Steve 86, Richard 78, Garry 76, Colin 72

July 10th - Caylus Magna Carta/Notre Dame

Once again Richard is tied up with work and it was his choice of game, so it was just Garry, Steve and myself to decide what to play. We chose Caylus Magna Carta. We had played Caylus last week so it would be interesting to see how the card game differed from the boardgame. The theme and mechanics are similar to the boardgame although obviously there is no board. Also there are no favours, no bailiff and no scoring track. What there is are cards, workers, resource markers, the provost, and castle building stones.


Garry checking his cards

At the start of the game the peddler card, the pass card and the castle are laid out. A number of pink cards according to the number of players are laid to the left of the peddlar. Each player has his own deck of cards, these are shuffled and the top 3 are drawn, you can ditch these and draw another 3 if they are not to your taste. You can do this once. Then on your turn you can:

1) build a new building by extending the road (paying the appropriate
resources) each card has a VP value which counts at the end of the game
2) pay 1 to draw a new building card
3) discard your hand and draw a fresh hand (with the discard deck being
shuffled for a new draw deck once the draw deck is exhausted)
4) place a worker on one of the existing building cards
5) build one of the common prestige building cards
6) pass

Once everyone has passed, players can in passing order move the provost up to 3 cards at a cost of 1 denier per card, then the buildings are activated up to the card with the provost. Card ownership is denoted by colour and when the card is activated the player with the worker on the card gets his reward, also the owner gets a benefit, either cubes or money. Then comes the castle building phase, each player in passing order can buy castle stones at a cost of 3 resources (1 wood, 1 food, 1 stone), these stones are worth either 4VP, 3VP or 2VP. The highest value stones are bought until they run out. The player who built the most stones (or first to build if a tie) gets a gold cube. Note the gold cubes are like jokers and can substitute for any other resource in this game.


Caylus Magna Carta card layout

The game ends when all the castle building stones are gone. Player with the most VPs is the winner. The game seems to flow really well, although some of the decisions are a bit harder I think. All in all I think we all liked it and it played a lot quicker than the boardgame, so much so that we were able to get in a game of Notre Dame after we finished.


Adding up the points

Final Scores
Garry 32, Steve 30, Colin 25

As I said we had enough time left to play another game and we chose Notre Dame, Steve and myself had played before but Garry hadn't. So Steve ran through the rules for his benefit.


Notre Dame

I really like this game there are several ways to go about winning, I managed to avoid the plague right up until the last round, but I also went for the park and got 4 cubes in it so garnered 2 extra VPs every time I scored VPs. Notre Dame itself also proved to be very lucrative and I managed to scoop the points on my own twice.


Board layout at game end

See June 26th entry for more pics and stuff on Notre Dame.

Final Scores
Colin 59, Steve 48, Garry 41