We began in experimental mood as Sam's creation Year Of The Sheep got another playtest. With Joe's uncanny eye for detail, Sam made a lot of notes during the time we played. It also seemed as if your choices were made for you according to circumstances. No money? Then you have to protest so you don't have to pay rent. No food? Then you'd better harvest (or protest, if that card also gives you food). As such, there was little room for choosing different strategies.
Plus, the main point of the game – the cubes of the Black Watch clattering across the board colliding into your pieces – was still mostly absent: Too easily stopped by other protest cards. When it did occur, it was the most fun part of the game.
Due to the game's still unfinished state, this wasn't leaderboard, but for the record, I won.
Andrew 38
Adam 35
Joe/Sam 34
After an hour of this, we turned to more serious stuff... Magical Athlete! This racing game is dice based, but begins with a bidding round where you use your limited resources to put together a team of five characters, each with their own special power. Then five races are run, where everyone pits their characters against each other in a race across a shitty brown dirt track.
I enjoyed this, and was impressed by how close the races usually were. Everyone's special powers seemed to offer something different. Adam chose a very spoiling tactic, often choosing a character which would ruin other people's races. And, as such, he came in first.
Adam 14
Andrew/Joe 7
Sam 4
Next up was Biblios. A game so mysterious, it's very name can hypnotise Joe into repeating the title in a variety of emotions. Biblios? Biblios!! Oh... biblios...
It remains an enigma, but this time it seemed that people had a strategy of going after two colours. Whether this is the right strategy remains to be seen since everyone tried it, but only one person won.
Adam 7
Sam 6
Andrew 3
Joe 0
By now, we were on a roll! Maybe it was the smell of the new furniture that had addled our minds, but we kept on playing. Next up was Skull and Roses. A simple game of bluff and counter bluff, it was apparently once used to decide who would be next leader of Hell's Angels gangs. A story I personally doubt, but if it were true then Joe seriously chose the wrong path in life. He could be King of the Greasers by now. Or at the very least, friends with Lemmy from Motorhead.
1st Joe
2nd Adam
3rd Sam
4th Andrew
Was the night over yet? No!! We broke out Sam's brand new copy of No Thanks, to finish the night. For most of the start of this game, hardly any consecutive cards came out at all, and I think everyone picked up at least one card because they had to. But Adam ran into a run of lucky cards at the end. Not lucky enough to give him the first place all to himself, but lucky enough that he shouldn't complain after a good night's work.
Adam/Sam 41
Joe 48
Andrew 61
He leaps to the top of the form table by some margin.
| Points | ||||||
| Adam | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Steve | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| Sam | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 11 |
| Hannah | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| Joe | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 14 |
| Anja | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 13 |
| Andrew | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 16 |
That'll teach me to wait a day before writing my entry. I was feeling all pleased that we had got through 5 games only for my thunder to be stolen by your post! Never mind.
ReplyDeleteFive games in an evening is the new three games in an evening.
ReplyDeleteI would like to doff my cap to everyone for their patience with Year of the Sheep. After Andrew and I found it too easy to make pots of money I tweaked the rules only to find it was now too hard to make money (except for Adam, but then he had spawny Protest cards - another issue in itself). So I was disappointed that it felt a step backwards rather than forward, but it was a very helpful session in terms of getting the mechanics sorted.
ReplyDeleteLots to do...
...including tweaking the protest cards (so they can't totally negate the Black Watch), getting rid of the special actions on the Clearance cards, streamlining the 'protest' action and (perhaps) re-engineering the whole game so you start with more Septs and fight to keep them, thereby staying truer to the Highland Clearances theme.
ReplyDeleteI want to take issue with "Adam chose a very spoiling tactic, often choosing a character which would ruin other people's races" Mr Pirate Endersby!
ReplyDeleteAnyway it feels like there is a game in Year of the Sheep, but it's hidden by the detail at the moment. Unfortunately I don't know which detail...
I like the idea of starting with lots of Septs (although I don't know what a Sept is - can you call them Clansmen instead? Or is that a bit KKK?) perhaps one can sacrifice himself each time the blackwatch knock down a house to save the house? If the Septs didn't get you any points at the end of the game it would be a balance between preserving your village and having enough people to allow you to preserve it...
Also I think the tower was allowing us to aim a bit too easily - but if you put some pins through the side (tilted downwards) that would add a bit more uncertainty for anyone who strayed too close to the edge.
Most importantly can the Septs be painted tartan please!
I think I like playtesting!
Oh, and I didn't quite see how protesting was linked to what happens on the card or the waiving of rent? Are the events on the cards types of protest?
ReplyDeleteHow about a card where you steal some potatoes from the lairds manor rather than "gaining potatoes from supply" (I may not have remembered that right). And instead of carefully having to add Black Watch cards into the deck how about an Angerometer which goes up each time you protest and has steam coming out of the Laird's ears at the points where Black Watch attack?
Sorry, too many suggestions...
I think the protesting is refusing to pay the rent, rather than it being waived, am I right Sam?
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea, based on something that Adam just said, that would be in keeping with the theme but possibly shed some of the obfuscation. How about the houses are actually your septs (for play-testing purposes they can remain houses, but in the finished thing they could be tall-ish meeples (capable of being toppled)).
So ou use them as your septs during the game, but when the Blackwatch come calling, everyone has to line up their septs in the house slots, and if they get hit, you lose them (though may be able to rebuild them through other means).
And would the Septs be lined up in a line or like at a bowling alley:
ReplyDelete___O___
__O_O__
_O_O_O_
or in a Haka:
_O_______O_
___O_O_O___
or the shape of a thistle:
_O_O_O_
__O_O__
_O_O_O_
_O_O_O_
__O_O__
___O___
?
Ooh, that's a thought Joe. And some thoughts, Adam. Thank you both.
ReplyDeletere: Protesting; yes, you are refusing to pay - hence the deck diminishing and the Black Watch attack coming closer. That's the one bit of the game I was satisfied with, though in the cold light of (to)day I think I may have been deluding myself slightly.
This is all good stuff, thanks chaps.
Adam, it was the joy with which you said "Demon!" before every dice roll that stuck in my mind. I admit I went after you in race one, but only when you were winning. I didn't go after you at all in race too. See? All friends.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair I did buy two or three characters that screwed around with the others... If it wasn't for the dice rolling I think I'd really like Magical Athlete!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Magical Athlete, though my best race was purely down to the dice - with the Spy, whose special power doesn't help him racing. I think while there's some tactics it's a mostly-luck game.
ReplyDeleteBut oddly my destructive characters - the Witch and the something else - both backfired on me. So maybe it's not luck after all...
The dice LOVED you last night Adam. Even the ones in Biblios - I saw them making goo-goo eyes at you.
ReplyDeleteMmm... biblios...
ReplyDelete