Tuesday 29 November 2011

Vegas, Baby!

Tonight, the four core GNN regulars arrived at Sam’s with Joe bringing along Lords of Vegas as the evening’s special treat as Joe desperately tries to get everyone to play his freshly-bought board games to convince himself he hasn't wasted his money. Before we began, he ruefully admitted that he wouldn’t buy any more games until Christmas. But he did have lots of board games on his new iPhone. At least if he puts them there, they won’t take up valuable shelf-space in the house.

Lords of Vegas is all about gaining control of areas which will then hopefully score points and earn money. It’s all about gambling, since a random selection of areas never get played at all, allowing neighbouring players to take them over for a fee. Of course, this then leaves them worrying that this area may be revealed later in the game, meaning they lose the property they spent so much money on building. It’s all about risk and reward, and playing the odds.

Since it was everyone’s first game, I threw caution to the wind and I bought up vacant lots whenever possible, hoping that the casino would pay out. And, to my delight, it often did. Joe, who’d played this game before, was behind in the early part of the game but finished strongly. Gamblin’ Sam had mixed luck with the dice while Cautious Adam had some luck, but never reaped the full rewards since he often shared any financial risk with the bank. Less in losses, but less in wins too.

It’s a very gamble-y game, with choices made according to what you think the most likely card will be next. I enjoyed it, and there’s a certain excitement when somebody decides to reorganise a casino, meaning everyone’s dice get rolled and a new boss is chosen. I think we underplayed the trading section, but I don't think the game suffered too much.

Andrew 36, wins tiebreaker on money
Joe 36
Sam 26, wins tiebreaker on money
Adam 26

After such opulent gaming, with properties being developed for millions of dollars, why not continue the high-rolling atmosphere with For Sale! In this card game we bid for properties in the same care-free manner as other people feed bread to ducks. I felt confident in this game, too, after a round of betting between Joe, Sam, and Adam over the highest valued property left them all relatively cash-poor.

In the second half of the game, where we play out Property cards like trumps in order to earn money, we kept expecting Joe to play his lowly 1 card, but he didn’t. It was a bluffer’s paradise, with people tempted to play low cards, thinking that surely THIS time Joe would play his 1 card. But he didn’t... Until the last round of the game, where it didn’t help him much. After a recount, Adam was declared winner of For Sale.

Adam 68
Andrew 62
Sam 53
Joe 49

So after two games based around the crazy high life of property development, we stumbled back into the damp November air, still giddy with talk of tens of millions of dollars. For everyone except me, it was a middling performance, but my first and second pushes me up the new leaderboard. Now all we have to do is convince Quentin to turn up again. And then somehow make him lose.

The Form Table...
Points
Quentin111216
Andrew2113310
Adam1433213
Sam33223 13
Joe4232213
Jonny3245519
Dan3155519
Steve3255520
Andy2455521
Sally2555522

4 comments:

  1. I liked Lords of Vegas but it did feel to a certain extent the kind of mechanics Euro-games were moving away from. There was a large amount of luck involved... but that said there was also a decent helping of strategy, and as we noted last night, we underplayed the trading aspect. Even though my dice rolling generally favoured Joe, I look forward to playing it again.

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  2. Yeah I liked it too — thanks for giving it a spin chaps. I was expecting it to be slightly more riotous, maybe we were all in a bit more of a sober, chin-strokey mood.

    There is a lot of luck, and if it shines on you it's fun, and if it doesn't, it's going to be an enervating experience. Perhaps it's a tad too long given that, but I expect we'd play quicker if we played again.

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  3. It felt fairly jolly to me but even though you can blame yourself after losing at something like Year of the Dragon, it feels like a healthier remorse than blaming the dice, where (as Andrew and I found with Sauron in LotR) you feel a bit crestfallen. I made four expensive moves (two gambles, two reorganisations) that backfired, and three little ones that paid off. My best move of the night was by you, Joe!

    But as I say, I did like it. I think you're right in that it probably needs to be played a little quicker.

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  4. (Not that Sauron moves via dice, but the same sense of helplessness applies to his chance-based advance to the poor wee Hobbits.)

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