With Andrew off in the distant climes of Northern Italy, Anja and Steve readying the house for a wee bairn and Hannah pilateing herself into a noble posture, it was a struggle to get a GNN session going at all. Only by coaxing Adam with texts and chocolate did we finally assemble a trio - Joe and I started the evening chez Bergers as a pair, and tried out Thebes Tomb Raiders. We didn't like it a great deal, and abandoned it at the same time Adam abandoned his chips. Joe says it's where Martin Wallace got the 'time track' idea for Tinner's Trail, but the game that came with the time track here did not have TT's strengths or intuitive play.
For what it's worth Joe was ahead of me; 69 to 61 points.
With the nine o'clock looming we didn't want to start anything big and Joe suggested Kingdom Builder, the game of ever-changing boards and rules. Adam and I were amenable and so we started building our settlements across the vast tracks of grasslands, forests, canyons and, er, deserts. Citizens and Hermits scored big, and each separate settlement brought you victory points. However both Joe and I fundamentally misunderstood one of the scoring cards (they vary from game to game) and despite our discussion of how best to meet the card's requirements midway through the game, Adam was unable to enlighten us as to our misapprehension, as he was deep in thought, mulling over his turn.
Built by cowboys
So at the final count-up we both thought we'd done very handsomely indeed (I was pretty sure I'd won) only to discover that Adam had interpreted it both differently and correctly. As a result he ran away with a resounding victory, and I for one was slightly crestfallen. It was like thinking you were digging out a swimming pool only to discover it was your own grave.
(What Joe and I would have scored if our interpretation was correct is in parentheses!)
Adam 46
Sam 27 (78)
Joe 25 (61)
With that slightly underwhelming experience (for two of us) over, we settled on something a bit more lighthearted: Incan Gold. It's very much a game of push your luck, however on this occasion luck favoured the cowards (Joe and I) whereas Adam got caught and eaten by Zombie Ladies and Spiders. The round he survived on his own he discovered the next two cards after escaping the crypt were 17 crystals and a thingy that gives you ten points. I forget what they're called. After an abortive final round (Zombie Ladies again) I assumed Joe had won but it was a close thing:
Joe 56
Sam 55
Adam 40
Adam and I were in the mood for something like Poison to round off the night, but we discovered to our horror that Joe has put it in the attic, as part of some sort of Wildean pact with Charlotte no doubt. I suggested High Society but Adam pooh-poohed. Joe suggested Wizard, which I pooh-poohed. However my pooh-pooh was pooh-poohed and I found myself on the recieving end of a cajole for a change. It's not as bad as I thought - you feel wanted, even if only in a mathematical sense.
So Wizard it was, which as Andrew noted last time we played, is essentially contract whist. However it differs in three regards - you only score your tricks if you hit your target, the hands start low and go upward (rather than down as in CW) and there are wild cards - specifically Wizards and Fools, who can ignore the standard following-suit rule in order to automatically win or lose a hand respectively.
This game is wizard
I'm glad I was convinced because it was fun - better than contract whist I'd say. And obviously I like winning:
Sam 270
Adam 160
Joe 60
With three games under our belts we called it a night. Thanks Joe for hosting and pizza, and Adam for those last chips. On the form table it's still very embryonic, with most people still to shake those red fives...
| Points | ||||||
| Sam | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 11 |
| Adam | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 13 |
| Joe | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 14 |
| Steve | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
| Anja | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Hannah | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 21 |
| Andrew | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 23 |
Thebes Tomb Raiders is the new, card game version of Thebes. It felt a bit flabby and unfocused - the final scores would have been in the two - or even three - hundreds, with a lot of adding up. That always feels like a design flaw to me.
ReplyDeleteI was annoyed by getting the Kingdom Builder rule wrong too, though to be fair to Adam, I wondered why he wasn't following our excellent strategy but kept quiet. Ah, hubris.
I like KB - it's almost filler-length, and I like the restrictive card play. I do find four special powers and three scoring criteria almost too much to keep in my puny head.
Incan Gold was a good shout too, and saved me from a night of leaderboard defeats by a whisker.
And thanks Sam for being cajoled into giving Wizard a spin - a resounding win was your reward; a pathetic floundering my just desserts for strong-arming.
There's a maths trade just starting on the geek, think I'll send Thebes that way. But not Bora Bora. Not yet.
Labels updated, thanks Joe.
ReplyDeleteNo, don't trade Bora Bora. It's too long and too complicated but also too good to trade!
You didn't really strong-arm me. I was taking a bit of artistic licence as I was enjoying the term pooh-pooh so much. Last night I thought I was being very funny but this morning I remembered the pooh-pooh repetition actually features in and old Fry and Laurie sketch. Nothing's original any more...
While writing that comment this morning, I was thinking that games where the final tally is up in the hundreds of points, with only a few points difference between the players, feel very dissatisfying.
ReplyDeleteBut actually I think it's only a problem if they don't have a score track. With a score track, it doesn't matter how high the points go, it's always a race to get ahead of your competitors. Where there is no score track, in Thebes:TR, Ora et Labora to name a couple of offenders, it feels more problematic.
If there are too many points to even attempt to keep track in your head, you may be in with a shot but there's no knowing, producing a lack of tension, maybe?
Lack of score track is often a design decision, and one I like for some games - part of the fun of Kingdom Builder is the final tally; up to that point no-one knows how anyone is doing. Same with many games where the most money wins: Chicago Express, Hab and Gut etc.
Some games have no score track per se, but the points are there for all to see if only we could be bothered to do the sums: Tinners Trail and Santiago spring to mind.
And then there are games which have both; Stone Age, Bora Bora, Castles of Burgundy, Railways of the World - probably the majority of games - there's a points track with a bit of hidden scoring at the end. Perhaps this is the most balanced approach, but there's a place for all types. What a rich and varied hobby this is, eh?
As Sam said I think I was deep in contemplation when you were both discussing that Kingdom Builder rule. I had the rule wrong last time we played. It'd be good to play it right at least once - and probably a lot more times after that.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few games where scores in the hundreds are fun - Ticket to Ride and Stone Age for example - but they both have score tracks, backing up your theory Joe. Thebes didn't look like a fun one, and with more players I think the "dealing cards out of the deck onto the appropriate pile" mechanic could get very annoying.
As for hidden score vs apparent score, in Kingdom Builder if you have time you can see exactly how everyone is doing. Although so far I've been so busy trying to work out what I'm doing that everyone else's play is a distant concern. Perhaps having two public scoring cards and one hidden for each player would spice that up? Or just massively unbalance things...
I still like Incan Gold, although I feel like I always do badly at it, while Wizard just felt arbitrary - you guess how many tricks you'll win and it doesn't forgive the slightest error. I mean well played Sam!
Or is it Blackadder?
ReplyDeleteEr, sorry that wasn't directed at you Adam. I was still on the pooh-poohs.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I would disagree with your summary of Wizard. I regard it as a hugely complex game!