OK, let's try this again. This week, I'll again be your
host, and I welcome you for an evening of games this Wednesday:

Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
My house in Pleasanton
(Contact me off-list if you need directions)

Dave

Again, it wasn't meant to be.  With no other attendees, I'll cancel
game night for this week.  I'll be unavailable next week, so the next
game night will likely be Wednesday, July 19.  Look for the
announcement a few days beforehand.

Dave


--- In trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com, "Dave Wilson" <daw65@...> wrote:
>
> OK, let's try this again. This week, I'll again be your
> host, and I welcome you for an evening of games this Wednesday:
>
> Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
> My house in Pleasanton
> (Contact me off-list if you need directions)
>
> Dave
>

Heeelllllooooo eeeeeeeverybody.

I have returned from 2 weeks of family vacation followed by 1 week of
business trip.  First a hearty thanks to Dave for offering to host.  Looks
like the group's playing time was as long as mine during my trips out of
town.  Let's see if we can change that this week.  I am looking forward to
games once again having not played any games in almost 3 weeks now.

I chanced to peek at the skies and the auguries look good ... So I can host
games on Wednesday

Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
My house in San Ramon
   (Contact me off-list if you need directions)

Rich

PS - With the El Grande reprint & Curse of the Dark Pharoah published, I am
starting to think of placing a game order.  Thinking of using one of the
online sites that offers free shipping for a minimum order (TH at the
moment, but might be B&B if I don't finalize until August) - so if anyone is
thinking of a game order also - would be happy to combine to make it a bit
easier to achieve the free shipping threshold.

Heeelllllooooo eeeeeeeverybody.

I have returned from 2 weeks of family vacation followed by 1 week of
business trip. First a hearty thanks to Dave for offering to host. Looks
like the group's playing time was as long as mine during my trips out of
town. Let's see if we can change that this week. I am looking forward to
games once again having not played any games in almost 3 weeks now.

I chanced to peek at the skies and the auguries look good ... So I can host
games on Wednesday

Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
My house in San Ramon
(Contact me off-list if you need directions)

Rich

PS - With the El Grande reprint & Curse of the Dark Pharoah published, I am
starting to think of placing a game order. Thinking of using one of the
online sites that offers free shipping for a minimum order (TH at the
moment, but might be B&B if I don't finalize until August) - so if anyone is
thinking of a game order also - would be happy to combine to make it a bit
easier to achieve the free shipping threshold.

I'm planning to come tomorrow.

- Dean

--- In trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Pardoe"
<RPardoe@...> wrote:
>
> Heeelllllooooo eeeeeeeverybody.
>
> I have returned from 2 weeks of family vacation followed by 1 week
of
> business trip.  First a hearty thanks to Dave for offering to
host.  Looks
> like the group's playing time was as long as mine during my trips
out of
> town.  Let's see if we can change that this week.  I am looking
forward to
> games once again having not played any games in almost 3 weeks now.
>
> I chanced to peek at the skies and the auguries look good ... So I
can host
> games on Wednesday
>
> Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
> My house in San Ramon
>   (Contact me off-list if you need directions)
>
> Rich
>
> PS - With the El Grande reprint & Curse of the Dark Pharoah
published, I am
> starting to think of placing a game order.  Thinking of using one
of the
> online sites that offers free shipping for a minimum order (TH at
the
> moment, but might be B&B if I don't finalize until August) - so if
anyone is
> thinking of a game order also - would be happy to combine to make
it a bit
> easier to achieve the free shipping threshold.
>

> I'm planning to come tomorrow.
>
> - Dean

Well, Dean looks to be the only person who will make it tonight.

No problem for me as I have plenty of 2P games that we can try.

I fully understand also if you want to wait for a larger participation
also.  If you prefer to wait for a larger group - just let me know and
we can try again next week.

- Rich

Dean was the only person who arrived tonight so we started with a 2P game
that he had been interested in, but had yet to play:

LOST CITIES

The first (of three) rounds started a bit confrontational as both Rich and
Dean played the investment cards for the red expedition.  But Dean's
expedition jumped from the 2 to the 7 card while Rich built up the 3, 4, 5,
6.  There is a bit of strategy in the game as to which expeditions to start
and when.  But in his first playing Dean over-commited a bit and started all
5 expeditions.  Rich had a double investment in the blue, but just couldn't
get another card drawn to move that expedition to positive points.  Opening
round scores:

Rich: 19
	 Red: I, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 = 14
	 Green: (None)
	 White: (None)
	 Blue: I, I, 5, 6, 7 = -6
	 Yellow: 2, 4, 7, 8, 10 = 11

Dean: 15
	 Red: I, 2, 7, 8, 10 = 14
	 Green: 2, 5, 7, 8, 10 = 12
	 White: 3, 4, 5, 8 = 0
	 Blue: 2, 3, 9 = -6
	 Yellow: 6, 9 = -5


In the second round, Dean did a bit better focusing on only 4 of the 5
expeditions.  But so did Rich.  In fact, Rich started to gather white
discards and opted to start that expedition mid-round as the cards were
presenting themselves:

Rich: 61
	 Red: (None)
	 Green: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 = 29
	 White: I, 4, 5, 8, 9 = 12
	 Blue: I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 = 24
	 Yellow: I, 5, 6, 7 = -4

Dean: 49
	 Red: I, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 = 28
	 Green: (None)
	 White: I, I, 3, 6, 10 = -3
	 Blue: I, 6, 7, 9 = 4
	 Yellow: I, 3, 8, 9, 10 = 20

In the third and final round, Dean managed to make a nice yellow expedition
but had a bit of trouble getting any other expedition advanced resulting in
negative points that offset the nice yellow gain.  Rich had a nice set of
blues, but wanted more investment cards so started to idle for time hoping
to get a second and then a third investment card.  Patience paid off as Rich
did draw both.  In addition, he also gathered the green discards to make a
nice run in green towards the end while hoping for the white 10 to try to
turn that expedition into the points.

Rich: 86
	 Red: (None)
	 Green: I, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 = 10
	 White: I, 4, 7, 9 = 0
	 Blue: I, I, I, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 = 76
	 Yellow: (None)

Dean: 25
	 Red: I, 2, 9, 10 = 2
	 Green: I, 6 = -28
	 White: I, 2, 5, 6 = -14
	 Blue: 2, 3, 8 = -7
	 Yellow: I, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 = 72

Adding it all up:

Rich = 19 + 61 + 86 = 166
Dean = 15 + 49 + 25 = 89

Lost Cities does offer quite a nice mix of options on each play.  As
player's first play a card and then draw, each hand is a choice which card
to get rid off.  Can a card be discarded now and reclaimed perhaps a bit
later?  Does discarding this card help my opponent?  Once the expeditions
are started, some discards are a bit safer, but still a bit of choice.
There is also some nice decisions around starting an expedition.  Start it
now and hope to get more cards.  Or wait a bit.  But if waiting what to play
while waiting.  Those discards that might help the opponent?  There is also
a nice ability to control to some extent the speed of the game.  Drawing
from the face-down draw deck advances the game one card closer to the end.
Drawing from one of the face up discards stalls the game.  Quite often
players need to stall to play more cards but then want to race to the end to
forestall their opponent's scoring.

All this makes for a nice intro level card game for two that I have enjoyed
teaching to others.  Dean also seemed to enjoy the game also.

With Lost Cities done, Dean had also expressed interest in exploring Igel
Ärgern.  For this game, we were joined by Sabrina to make for a nice 3
player game.  As it was Dean's first game, we opted for the basic rules of
can move one of your hedgehogs sideways and must move a hedgehog in the row
rolled.

The game started a bit cautiously as everyone tried to avoid the black spots
close to the start line.  Rich was the first around the one in the 5 Row and
was racing to the goal.  Dean soon advanced around the same blockade and
raced with Rich to the goal.  As those hedgehogs were one space away, the
rolls deserted the two and time was spent navigating the other hedgehogs.
Sabrina soon managed to get two hedgehogs into the 6th row and raced toward
the goal.

Pretty soon, the first hedgehogs soon reached their goals.  Dean's first
followed quickly by Rich's first.  Sabrina was next followed by Dean's
second.  Sabrina found herself at this time in 2 of the black pits with
limited options.  But as the whole field start to advance to the goal,
Sabrina slowly regained the ability to move these hedgehogs.

Dean had two hedgehogs in Row 5.  One was nearing the goal with the other
was on top of a stack consisting of a hedgehog from each of Rich and
Sabrina.  An obvious strategy would be to not move the stack top hedgehog to
block Rich and Sabrina while waiting for the other hedgehog to win.  Rich
say this and managed to move a hedgehog up Row 6 to sit on top of Dean's
other hedgehog.  As the blocking battle raged down on Rows 4, 5, and 6,
Sabrina had managed to free her last hedgehog in Row 2.  A roll of 2 by Dean
and he is forced to move Sabrina's third hedgehog across the goal giving
Sabrina the win.

Igel Ärgern adds nice twist to roll and move games.  The movement is fixed
(1 space forward) and the die is used to indicate where movement is to
occur.  As hedgehogs can move 1 row sideways, there is quite a bit of
flexibility and strategy how to move the pieces.  Throw in a bit of gentle
agression (sitting on other pieces) and the result is a nice mix of luck and
tactics.  As an added bonus, the game comes with lots of possible variants
so games can be made nastier, more tactical, etc.

With Sabrina wanting to play another game, she suggested For Sale.  Our
first auction set the tone as the 30 house appeared instantly to be won by
Sabrina.  The next round saw another extreme as the 2, 3, and 4 properties
were offered up.  But most of the rounds had a better mix of properties.

Then it was time to gain the checks.  One hand had the 15, 14, and 4 checks
on offer.  Sabrina learned from her last game and played her 30 to get the
15.  Dean had the 29, but hoped to use it on the other 15 should it appear,
so played the 13.  Rich thought the 30, 29 would emerge, so played his
lowest card (the 1) to gain the 4 instead of a higher card hoping to gain
the 14.  Dean outsmarted Rich and grabbed a nice check (the 14) for a modest
property (the 13).

When the scores were tallied:

Sabrina: 38 + 9 = 47
Rich: 56 + 3 = 59
Dean: 70 + 2 = 72

Looking at the cards, Dean had won the 14, 13, and 11 checks.  Looking at
the 6 cards set aside initially, we found 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 10 - so lots
of very high checks (for which Rich was waiting) were not in the game and
Dean did quite well to get the high value checks in play.

So with each player winning one game tonight, we called our first game night
after a bit of a break a success and look forward to next week.

It's too hot to write long missives...I can host games on Wednesday.  Who
plans on attending?

Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
My house in San Ramon
   (Contact me off-list if you need directions)

Rich

It's too hot to write long missives...I can host games on Wednesday. Who
plans on attending?

Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
My house in San Ramon
(Contact me off-list if you need directions)

Rich

It looks like I can actually make it.  See you then.

Jeff

--- In trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Pardoe" <RPardoe@...>
wrote:
>
> It's too hot to write long missives...I can host games on Wednesday.
  Who
> plans on attending?
>
> Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
> My house in San Ramon
>   (Contact me off-list if you need directions)
>
> Rich
>

--- In trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Pardoe" <RPardoe@...> wrote:
>
> It's too hot to write long missives...I can host games on Wednesday.  Who
> plans on attending?

Me.

:-)

Dave

Hi, my names Brendan I don't actually live in the Tri-valley area or
anywhere in the states for that matter (Canada, YaY).  My buddies and I
are much like this group we love to play Board games, and we recently
came across this old one called Gangsters unfortunatly it was Sans a
rule book and on your old website (found through google) I noticed you
guys, or at least some old members have played it.  I was hoping
someone might still have it laying around and be able to scan it to e-
mail to me.  Thanks a million and sorry to post off-topic


Sincerly from your canadian playen neighbor

                                             Brendan

Brendan -

While I don't own this game, perhaps someone else in the group does and can
help out.

If you haven't found it already, be sure to check out BoardGameGeek.
Specifically, the entry for Gangsters:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1471 BGG is a wonderful community to
explore games and to ask for (and most likely receive) information about
almost any game you could image.  I notice that some 200 BGG users indicate
they own Gangsters - so if we can't help you, there exists a much larger
pool of folks that might be able to.

Good luck on your quest....

Rich Pardoe

I assume it is the Avalon Hill game of that name, not the Tom Wham game that
appeared in GamePlay Magazine that you are interested in.  Once amazing
thing about BGG is you discover how many games have similar (if not
identical) names.

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 13:15:34 -0700
Richard Pardoe <RPardoe@...> wrote:

> Once amazing thing about BGG is you discover how many games have
> similar (if not identical) names.

And then you find people like Guenter Cornett who designed two very
different games, albeit both dealing with connections among islands, and
called them both "Kanaloa".  (One is the multiplayer version of Kahuna,
the other, the fish-flipping one, is a more logistical game of
directiional connection paths)

--
J C Lawrence                        They said, "You have a blue guitar,
---------(*)                        You do not play things as they are."
claw@...                       The man replied, "Things as they are
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/          Are changed upon the blue guitar."

Now I can't make it. :(

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jeff Hammond
Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 8:13 PM
To: trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [trivalleygamers] Re: Invitation to Play - Games - July 26

It looks like I can actually make it.  See you then.

Jeff

--- In trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Pardoe" <RPardoe@...>
wrote:
>
> It's too hot to write long missives...I can host games on Wednesday.
  Who
> plans on attending?
>
> Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
> My house in San Ramon
>   (Contact me off-list if you need directions)
>
> Rich
>









Yahoo! Groups Links

Dave was the only person available for games tonight, so we decided to try
out a few new games that had yet to be played by the group.

The first is this year's winner of the Spiel des Jahres: THURN UND TAXIS.

The name "Thurn und Taxis" is the name of the faimly that held the virtual
monopoly on imperial communications in Europe in the 16th century
establishing what would become the postal system in the area.  The players
in the game try to replicate that success by establishing branch offices in
various cities shown on the gameboard and developing longer and longer
postal routes between cities.  Both of these activities yield victory points
with the eventual game winner being the player with the most points.

The game play itself appears simple.  Players must draw a card and then must
play a card.  Afterwards, the players may (if they wish) to score their
cards.  But the game itself comes from the options and limitations that
these simple actions offer.  When drawing a card, players can choose from 1
of the 6 face up cards offered on the board or the topmost card of the
face-down draw deck.  When playing a card, players are attempting to make
routes between the cities shown on the board.  Each card depicts one of the
cities on the gameboard and a valid route is a series of cards that proceeds
from adjacent city to adjacent city.  If a player can't play a valid
connection, all the cards played in front of the person are discarded and a
new route started.  As a result, players should not only be considering
their play for this turn, but also giving some thought to a likely play next
turn.  Specifically, it is best to have the next card play in hand rather
than trust the "luck of the draw" to get that desired card.

Finally, if desired, a player may score their route if it is at least 3
cards in length.  The length of the route results in points two ways.
First, the longest route a person has played is represented by a mail
carriage for that length.  Higher (ie longer route) carriages are worth more
points.  Whenever a player builds a route longer than their current
carriage, they take the next carriage.  There are also points awarded for
routes of length 5, 6, and 7, but the most points are scored by being the
first to score a route of that length.  Subsequent points are less.  The
second way routes score points is by establishing branch offices in the
cities that are part of the route.  Each of the cities on the map are
divided into various geographic regions.  When scoring a route, a person may
add a branch office to all the cities in their route in 1 region (or) add 1
branch office to each of the regions in their route.  Similar to route
length, there are points awarded for the establishing branch offices in all
the cities in a particular region, but again a declining point value for the
subsequent players that score that bonus.

Additionally, once per turn, each play may invoke a special character to
gain a special power.  These powers are to draw 2 cards (or) play 2 cards
(or) replace all 6 face-up cards (or) add 2 cities to your route length when
upgrading your mail carriage.  The game will end either at the end of the
round wherein the first player has claimed the 7 city mail carriage (or) a
player has played all their branches to the board.  Ending the game is worth
1 additional victory point.

Player's scores are then calculated by taking the value of their carriage
adding in all the length and regional bonuses and subtracting any unplayed
branches in their supply.  The player with the most points wins.

Dave started the game by playing from Passau; while Rich started at
Sigmaringen.  Dave then had to scrap his early route and built up nice route
of 4 (Kempten-Augsburg-Ingolstadt-München).  Rich matched the length with
Sigmaringen-Ulm-Augsburg-München.  But Dave's route nicely allowed him to
play 4 branch offices in Baiern while Rich's route was 3 branches (1 branch
in each region depicted).  Both these routes let Rich and Dave gain the 3
Carriage (the lowest carriage route available).

Rich then built a 5 route (Augsburg-Innsbruck-Salzburg-Passau-Linz) to
promote to a 4 carriage while playing an additional 3 branches.  But Dave
scores a nice 7 route
(Lodz-Pilsen-Würzburg-Stuttgart-Sigmaringen-Freiburg-Bassal) which not only
scored the first 7 route bonus but also let Dave play 7 branches as each
city is in a different region!  So, 2 routes into the game, Dave has played
half of his branches!

Rich tried to respond with a 6 route
(Wurzburg-Stuttgart-Ulm-Ingolstadt-Munchen-Regensburg) but Dave played to
the southeast with Innsbruck-Salzburg-Passau-Linz-Budweis which allowed him
to score the outside of Baiern bonus.  Rich tried again with
Lodz-Pilsen-Regensburg-Passau-Budweis-Linz-Salzburg, but Dave worked the
Eastern edge with Zürich-Freiburg-Carlsruhe-Stuttgart-Ulm.  With only 2
houses left to play, Dave played Regensburg-Nürnberg-Würzburg to place his
last two branches and end the game.  All Rich could do was play
Kempten-Ulm-Stuttgart to claim a regional bonus.

Adding up the scores:

Dave had 5 points for his 5 carriage to which we add 5+6+3 (14 points) for
regional bonuses and 4+1 (5 points) for route length bonuses and 1 point for
ending the game.  As Dave ended the game playing all his branches, he had no
negative points and a total of 25 points.

Rich had 7 points for his 6 carriage to which we add 2 points in regional
bonuses and 3+2+2 (7 points) for route length bonuses.  But from this 16
points, we need to subtract 5 for Rich's unplayed branch offices for a total
of 11 points.

An overwhelming victory for Dave.  But this game does point out some key
aspects of the game.  Racing to the 7 carriage while a nice point bonus is
not the only path to victory.  Dave did quite well scoring 6 points for
having a branch in each region outside of Baiern and 5 ponts for having a
branch in each city in Baiern.  By not keeping pace with Dave's branch
placement, Rich also was hurt by 5 more points.

Could I have done anything differently?  Perhaps.  I do feel that the routes
I played seemed to offer themselves more readily than the routes I might
have played (eg to the Western side of the board to gain the outside Baiern
bonus).  But I was looking to get to the 7 carriage and it's 10 points
quickly, so I might have overlooked routes that were shorter but might have
helped me place more houses and/or gain regional bonuses.  But having
learned the hard way how valuable such might be, I will be more vigilant in
my next game.

Despite the loss, I liked TuT almost immediately.  I believe it is a well
deserved winner of the Spiel des Jahres.  There are multiple paths to points
so players not only need to watch what they are doing, but also what their
opponents might be striving for.  As the special ability can be used only
once per turn, there is a nice bit of decision making to be made each turn.
Do I draw two cards?  Do I wipe the board to gain better choices?  Do I wipe
the face-up cards to get rid of that card my opponent might be after?  Do I
build two cards now to finish a route quickly?   While not each decision
comes to bear each turn, I hope one can appreciate some of the thoughts that
might go into a typical turn.

The game plays fairly quickly.  Dave and I finished in less than an hour
including the rules explanation and Dave has already added this game to his
wish list for desired games to receive.  I certainly am looking for a chance
to play this game again.

Looking at other unplayed games to try, we decided on METROMANIA

In Metromania players are developing subway lines which are represented as
the edge of a triangular piece.  The empty city plan is hexagonal subdivided
into triangular spaces where lines (tunnels) can be built.  Players will get
points for connecting stations, but more importantly, they would like their
lines to be part of the final series of test runs conducted after all the
lines are built.  On the board are unmarked houses, offices, and fun spots.
Each player will start with some labeled destination spots.  For example,
the first (A) test run is House A to Office A.  Player's whose lines are
part of the fastest connection on a test run will share points in the final
part of the game.  Like the days of the week, there are 6 different test
runs (A~F) followed by a final test run between a lake and a park.  When a
player builds a line to one of the unmarked locations, he must place one of
his labelled destination markers on that space.  So as the game develops,
players will start to see where the test runs will be conducted.

Dave and I set up for the basic 2 player game where I would have one half of
the test run destinations (namely the A~F starting spots) while Dave would
have the other half (the A~F destination spots).  We both started to play
our lines with Rich building the A Home first hoping to also get a station
near the lake to participate in the final test run also.  Dave then built
his line from behind Rich and developed the A Office in close proximity to
the A House and connected the two.  But Rich returned the favour by
connecting in the C-Fun zone to Dave's C-House in a similar manner.  Rich
also extended his lines along the other side of the park hoping to surround
it and avoid to delay connections by Dave.

Rich had developed line and then spent a few turns building stations.  Dave
however figured out a more efficient way to gain stations - run his lines
together at the desired spots and stations appear without taking a turn to
specifically build them.

Dave was the first to finish a line exiting out the other side of the board.
Dave continued to develop lines as did Rich and soon threatened to finish
his next line which would have triggered the end of the line construction
portion of the game.  In fact, there was little Rich could do but finish one
of his lines so as to have at least a single completed line.

At this point in the game, Rich had connected 8 stations (and had 8 points)
while Dave had only connected 4 stations (for 4 points).  Because Dave had
finished both his lines, he kept his points.  Because Rich had connected
only 1 line, he lost half his points so was tied with Dave for 4 points.

Looking the test runs - A, B, and the park/lake run were tied as both
players had lines with the quickest connectin.  Rich had the quickest C
connection while Dave had the quickest F connection.  Routes D/E were not
scored as neither player had placed the location tokens so both were
penalized equally.  As a result, we were tied in points and looked for the
tie-breaker.  That tie-break was completed lines - so Dave wins.

As we discussed the game afterward, Dave pointed out that Rich might have
forfeited his completed line and instead extened a line towards house
allowing him to play the D-House location spot.  Dave's thought was that
Rich would forfeit his 4 point, but would cost Dave 6 points penalty as the
D-run would be impossible because Dave hadn't played the D-office.  This
would give Rich the points victory.  Rich pointed out that even though the
location was built, the station would not be built - so Rich would still
share in the penalty for the D run.

But this was really a learning game.  I could sense there is a bit more
depth to the game.  Dave called it a game in brutul efficiency.  But I could
sense that this game is probably better with 3 or 4 players competing with 2
lines each and a more random set of destionation spots.  I did like some
aspects of the game.  The triangular tiles are very interesting and very
difficult to block as the course runs along the edge of the tile.  While the
resulting map does tend to resemble a subway map, I didn't really get the
sense of "building the railway" - but to be fair very few track laying games
really feel like running a railway or subway.  Again, this sense might come
with repeated plays as we (ie multiple players) start to maneuver for the
efficient test runs.

So two games had their initial TVB plays tonight.  Until next week,

Rich

OK, I got last week's session report written, now I am free to think about
next week and games on Wednesday.....Wouldn't mind another game of Thurn und
Taxis.  Or we could explore Mauer Bauer (aka Masons).  Or we could play
something else.  The key is -  let's play a game or two.  Who can make it?

Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
My house in San Ramon
   (Contact me off-list if you need directions)

Rich

--- In trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Pardoe" <RPardoe@...> wrote:
> The key is -  let's play a game or two.  Who can make it?

I can.

Dave

--- In trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Pardoe" <RPardoe@...> wrote:
> The key is - let's play a game or two. Who can make it?

I can.

Dave

I was wrong...I can't make it after all.  Hope you have fun

Tyra

I recently had an opportunity to trade for the original Chaosium edition of
Arkham Horror that was the basis for the redevelopment published by Fantasy
Flight Games (and the subject of a couple of session reports).  With only
Dave in attendance tonight, we decided to give this version a trial to see
how it compares with the current incarnation.....

A sense of dread hung over Arkham as the disturbances around Founder's Rock
intensified.  There were even rumours of the undead prowling about.  Such
thoughts and rumours is enough to send folks out of town, but at the train
station four folks arrived.  Four determined to get the bottom of the
disturbances and rid the town for them once and for all.  Carolyn Fern left
the Train Station and stopped by Harney Jone's Shack to get an earful of
Harney's ramblings.  All he could mutter was monsters, monsters.  Some move
left, some move right, think smart and sneak.  Jenny Barnes heard some
strange sounds coming from the North Church, so stopped to look inside.  It
was just a regular service.  Jenny didn't have time to pray, so quietly
closed the door behind her as she went back to the streets.  Monterey Jack
felt a bit tired from the long train ride, so stopped by the Boarding House
for a quick nap.  A good rest help clarify his thoughts and helped nudge his
sanity upward as he braced for what was ahead.  Harvey Walters caught a taxi
at the nearby taxi stand to the Library.  The long journey and musty books
put Harvey to sleep.  In his sleep, he saw the Dreamlands.  The villagers in
these lands gave him a mysterious box.  When he awoke in the library, he
found a taxi whistle in his hand where nothing had been before.

Rumours raced through town that the disturbances were also in the woods.
Certainly, strange beings were seen lurking in the shadows.

Having heard enough from Harney, Carolyn headed south on the streets
wondering where to head.  Jenny had an idea and she researched the archives
of Miskatonic University to discover the Powder of Ibn-Ghazri.  Monterey
stumbled into the Curiositie Shoppe and dusted off an old book to learn the
Dread Curse of Azathoth.  Harvey went over to the Historical Society who had
gone bird-watching in the woods.  Taking a ride from the janitor, Harvey
went to the woods and stepped through a gate to the Plateau of Leng.

Strange happenings at the Silver Twilight Lodge.  Was it just the lodge
initiation rites?  Or something much, much worse?

Jenny went to the Lodge to find out and found herself in the Abyss.  Carolyn
had stopped by the Graveyard and was forced to endure the ramblings of
Testifyin' Cooter Falwell.  (Carolyn always did lend an ear to anyone who
wanted to talk....)  From deep within his coat, he pulled out a pulsing red
stone, a healing stone that he offered to sell to Carolyn.  The price was a
bit steep, but fast-talkin' Carolyn managed to get Cooter to lower the price
and the stone was hers.  Monterey wanted to get a better view of the goings
on, so climbed aboard the Ferris wheel at Dark's Carnival.  At the top of
the ride, all he saw was shadows of shapes.  Large, ravenous shapes seeking
to devour.....Monterey felt a shiver down his spine and wondered what the
heck he was doing here.  The well-being after the nap wasn't so well
anymore.  As Harvey climbed the Plateau, he could see the mountains moving
with him.  A sense of terror started to eat into his sanity.

Harney Jones was missing.  The shack was still there, or was it still there?
Had it moved to another dimension?

Carolyn wanted to avoid the strange things on the streets, so ducked into
the Shunned House.  A broken down wreck of a house.  Leaning against a wall
to catch her breath, the lathe and plaster crumbled revealing $10 hidden by
someone.  Carolyn felt the money would not be missed if she took it.  Jenny
continued exploring the Abyss; while Monterey catches a taxi to Harney
Jones' Shack location.  Stepping through the door, he finds himself in
Yuggoth.  Harvey returns from the Plateau of Leng, but is still shaken by
the experience.  His attempt to cast a spell fails, the gate remains.

More disturbances at the Silver Twilight Lodge.  Another monster?

Carolyn ventures to Miskatonic University and uncovers a "Find Gate" spell.
Jenny's progress through the Abyss is quiet, too quiet as nothing is around.
Monterey struggles through Yuggoth as a cylindered head cackles, "You will
never return".  Remembering what he saw from the Ferris Wheel, Monterey
feels despair welling up inside and struggles to keep his sanity.  Gathering
his thoughts and concentrating, Harvey casts a shriveling spell and closes
the gate at the woods.

But as one closes, another opens.  The lighthouse shines its beacon directly
at the City of the Great Race inviting all to come to Arkham.

Carolyn is overcome with dread.  Her legs are wooden as she can barely move
and needs to stop on the sidewalks outside Miskatonic University.  Jenny
returns from the Abyss not at the Lodge where she started, but Founder's
Rock.  A quick spell and she closes the Gate to the Abyss.  Monterey returns
from Yuggoth and casts the Dread Curse of Azathoth to close the Gate.
Exhasuted from his journey, Harvey stops by the Boarding House for a quick
rest, recovering a bit of sanity as a result.

But Devil's Beach is the next site of unnatural activity as the Great Hall
of Celeano gate emerges from beyond.

Carolyn has reached the Silver Twilight Lodge.  She ventures deep inside and
is confronted by Carl Stanford who wonders why a non-member is in the
private realm of the lodge.  His piercing eyes shake her, but she produces
the Dragon's Eye.  Throwing it against the ethereal gate behind Carl, the
Eye does its job and closes the Gate.  But the shock from the concussion
renders Carolyn unconscious and in the hospital.  Jenny decides to explore
Founder's Rock, only to stumble across a gate and find herself in Yuggoth
instead.  Monterey, still shaken from his journey through Yuggoth and
casting the curse, takes a taxi to the Sanitarium hoping to regain whatever
shred of sanity is left.  Harvey runs from the Boarding House to the Beach
to enter the Great Hall of Celeano.

The Woods had been calm, but no longer.

Carolyn awakens in the hospital but is in no condition to go anywhere, more
bedrest and more recovery for her.  The elements bear down on Jenny.  From
exhaustion, she forgets the key parts to the "Bind Monster" spell she had
studied prior to her arrival at Arkham.  It all seemed to simple then.
Monterey also needs more recovery, so stays at the Sanitarium.  As Harvey
explores the Great Hall, he finds a not-so-great book.  It is actually small
enough to carry and read.  The spell of Cloud Memory becomes etched in his
brain.

The disturbance at the woods spreads to the neighbouring Graveyard.

Carolyn needs more oomph against the gates.  So looking up the street, she
sees a Dimensional Shambler heading toward her from the left and a
Nightgaunt approaching from the right.  A plan develops.  Rushing towards
the Shambler, she casts Bind Monster to capture the Shambler under her
power.  The Nightgaunt sees her move and pursues.  Putting up mild
resistance, Carolyn finds herself transported to the gate in the Graveyard
and in the City of the Great Race.  Jenny returns from Yuggoth, but is too
exhausted to cast a spell accurately.  Monterey heads out to the streets and
binds a Star Spawn for use against another gate.  Harvey continues to
explore the Great Hall and sees a Gug in the shadows.  Too much to fight
now, so Harvey sneaks away quietly.

Carolyn uses her knowledge of Find Gate to return quickly to Arkham and
unleashes the Dimensional Shambler against the gate destroying both in the
process.  Jenny recovers sufficiently to destroy the gate to Yuggoth.
Monterey heads to the North Church, but the gargoyles start to move causing
Monterey to doubt his sanity once again.  Harvey returns from the Great Hall
(but at the Woods) and destroys the seventh gate in town.  Unfortunately 3
remain open in town.

Carolyn then returns to Miskatonic University to regain knowledge of the
Bind Monster spell.  Jenny heads to the Sanitarium and recovers quite
nicely.  Monterey heads once again to the Boarding House and is offered a
shotgun for purchase.  But short of cash, he has to refuse.  Harvey uses his
taxi whistle to returh to Devil's Beach to once again explore the Great
Hall.  But instead of a Gug, it is a Star Spawn that lurks in wait.  This
time, Harvey can't sneak away and can't cast a spell, so is attacked by the
Star Spawn but only superficially.  Perhaps fate is on Harvey's side.  He
attempts to sneak away, but can't.  This time the spell is cast, but not
enough damage to hurt the Star Spawn which reacts with full fury and Harvey
is mortally wounded.  At the train station, Gloria Goldberg has arrived to
assist the team.

Carolyn and Jenny find themselves in the same Hospital room and recovering
nicely.  Jenny attempts Brazen Head but summons a Shoggoth.  Seeing that
Jenny is defenseless, Carolyn gives Jenny "Bind Monster" which Jenny uses to
capture the Shoggoth and then heals Carolyn in return.  Monterey heads
through the gate to R'lyeh while Gloria finds herself trapped at the train
station by the monsters on the street.

The woods remain popular as yet another disturbance (#11) emerges.

Carolyn has lost most of her items, so heads over to Dagon Mission to gain a
charitable gift of 2 items.  Jenny heads to the street knowing the
Nightgaunt will swoop down upon her.  Monterey continues through R'lyeh
while Gloria rushes out to the streets and kills the raging Maniac, but
again, another Nightgaunt hovers close by to send her to the Other worlds.

Carolyn heads over to the Historical Society while Jenny progresses through
Another Dimension.  Monterey returns from R'Lyeh and closes the gate (#8).
In the Plateau of Leng, a distant rumble causes Gloria to look up.  All she
sees is a cascade of rocks rolling down the mountains directly toward her.
Avalance!  Gloria's contribution is all too brief as Mandy Thompson arrives
at the Train Station.

Carolyn heads over to Velma's Dinner to gain a shotgun.  Jenny returns from
the Another Dimension and launches the bound Shoggoth against the gate
closing it (#9).  Monterey, running low on sanity, charges at a wandering
Migo, killing it and gaining a knife in return.  Mandy can't leave the train
station as the Zombie is directly outside the door.

Jenny barely has time to rest as another gate (#12) opens at the Graveyard
transporting her to the Dreamlands.  Carolyn heads to the Police Station and
manages to share a nice piece of chocolate cake with Deputy Dingby.  That is
enough to take the edge of her thoughts and let her think just a bit more
clearly.  In the Dreamlands, Jenny is tempted by a sly Moonbeast.  She tries
to talk her way out of being forced to the ship, but is not successful.
Jenny is never seen again.  Joe Diamond steps of the train.

The Silver Twilight Lodge continues in its mysterious ways and summons the
evil (#13)

Monterey has entered Celeano. Lurking in the shadows is Ithaqua.  Way to
powerful for Monterey, he manages to sneak away.  Monterey also realizes he
doesn't have enough sanity to cast the spell needed to close the gate when
he leaves Celeano.  Mandy rushes into Celeano to catch up with Monterey.
Monterey gives Mandy his second copy of the Dread Curse of Azathoth.  Mandy
then casts "Find Gate" to exit from Celeano via one of the two gates in town
and destroys the gate (#10).

With Arkham at the brink of doom, only monsters appear.  Four investigator's
and three gates, a plan develops.  Carolyn heads towards the Dreamlands gate
at the Graveyard, but is one movement short of entering.  Joe uses the taxi
to get to and through the gate to the Plateau of Leung.  Monterey sneaks
away from a Gug while in Celeano and prepares to return to Arkham.  Mandy
enters the gate for Celeano, but fails to cast "find gate".

Another chance, but again no gate, only monsters.  Carolyn is in the
Dreamlands.  Joe advances through Leng.  Mandy returns but fails in the
attack on the gate.

But then it ends.  In exactly the same place where it started.  Founder's
Rock.  The 14th gate and Arkham is doomed......The investigators lose.

...........

The box score - 7 investigators closed 10 gates, but 4 were left on the
board.  For those familiar with the new version of AH, there are quite a few
obvious similarities between the two but there are also some key
differences.

The main difference is that there is no "Old One" waiting at the end of the
game.  Instead, the monsters like Ithaqua, Cthulu, etc are just monster
tokens in the game.  The only victory condition is clearing the board of
gates before 14 open or a set number (7 in our case) are open for 1 full
turn.  Also, if you read the above carefully, you will notice that gates are
closed (not sealed).  There are a few elder signs (we didn't get any) in the
game to permanently seal areas, but generally gates can and will reappear at
locations.  As a result, the game has a nice accelerating sense to it.  The
early gates seem slow to develop, but the investigators are a bit weak so
can't easily destroy the gates.  As the investigators gain
strength/spells/abilities to close gates, the gates are more numerous and
the monsters start to block the path  The result is that the tension does
seem to build in the game rather nicely.  Dave and I almost pulled out the
victory a few times, but each time stumbled.

I also felt the game was a bit more streamlined, but that is probably a
result of the encounter lookup method.  In this version, almost all
encounters are D6 rolls and lookups on a published table.  No stacks upon
stacks of cards to shuffle and read.  Granted with only 6 possible
encounters per location (Arkham or Other World), one might suspect the game
gets a bit repetitive.  With repeated play, I would agree.  But for the
occasional play, and certainly during our one play tonight, I did not get
that sense at all.  Another streamlining aspect is that most die rolls are a
simple D6 or 2D6 instead of a variable number of dice as in the FFG version.

All in all, I enjoyed the game.  It was similar, but uniquely different to
FFG's Arkham Horror.  Is there any sense in having both?  Probably not for
most gamers.  One or the other (most likely the most recent) would probably
be sufficient.  Certainly the FFG version has the evocative artwork, the
atmospheric text.  In fact, I suspect part of my enjoyment of this game is
because I could draw on the mood of the FFG version to help lend atmosphere.
(Disclaimer - I haven't read any Lovecraft, so can't tell how well either
game captures the spirit of the stories.)

I got the last session report out early (and revised it a bit more as I
worked on posting it to the Geek).  Nice that I don't have catch up with the
old before I can focus on the new (and unplayed).....

Happy to host games, anyone interested?

Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
My house in San Ramon
   (Contact me off-list if you need directions)

Rich

--- In trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Pardoe" <RPardoe@...> wrote:
>
> Happy to host games, anyone interested?

I'm interested.  See you then.

Dave

--- In trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Pardoe" <RPardoe@...> wrote:
>
> Happy to host games, anyone interested?

I'm interested. See you then.

Dave

Richard Pardoe wrote:.

>Happy to host games, anyone interested?
>
>
Kern and I are likely to come this week.

Dave W.

Three were expected to arrive making four for games.  When Dave arrived a
bit early, Rich brought out Gene Pool to try.

This is a smaller card game for two players.  Each player is a genetic
researcher working to get a short, very short strand of DNA in the right
sequence to repair the genes (base sequence) in that DNA.  Each repaired
sequence is worth 1 or 2 years of reasearch depending on the length.  The
first researcher to complete 9 years of research wins the Nobel Prize (and
the game.)

Of the 26 cards in the game, 12 represent base pairs.  If you remember your
high school biology, those pairs were Cytosine~Guanine (C~G) and
Adenine~Thymine (A~T).  So there are 6 C~G base pair cards and 6 A~T base
pair cards.  Each player receives 1 card of each base pair.  In addition, 1
of each base pair is set to one side as the draw pile for that base pair.
The remaining 6 cards are shuffled and placed in a row between the players
to form the initial 6 bp DNA sequence.

The remaining 14 cards represent Gene Research cards and show either a 4
nucleotide sequence or a 5 nucleotide sequence.  Players will try to
manipulate the 6 bp DNA sequence in the center of the table so that is
contains the nucleotide sequence on the Gene Research card.  If it does so,
the player can claim the Research years on the card.  The shorter 4
nucleotide sequence is worth 1 year.  The longer 5 nucleotide sequence is
worth 2 years.  The two different types are set to one side face down to
form 2 draw piles for the research cards.  At the start of the game, players
will also draw 1 face down research card from either stack.

An a players turn, they can perfom one of the following actions to
manipulate the DNA sequence:

A) Insert a card from their hand into sequence on the table and trim
(discard) a base pair card from either end (to keep the length at 6 bp)
B) Delete a card in the sequence on the table and add a base pair card from
hand (to keep the length at 6 bp)
C) Mutate a card in the sequence by replacing it with a card in hand,
discarding the replaced card

In each instance above, the discarded base pair card goes to the matching
face-up draw pile set to one side initially.  A final way to manipulate the
DNA sequence is:

D) Invert 1 or more adjoing base pair cards in the sequence by rotating them
as a group (not individually).  In this way, a sequence of A/T and G/C would
be rotated to become C/G and T/A

The final two actions that can be done are:

E) Draw a new base pair card from one of the draw piles into the player's
hand.
F) Draw a new Gene Research card to a hand limit of 2 Gene Research cards in
hand

After choosing the above action the player checks to see if any of the
nucleotide sequences in the DNA strand now matches their Gene Research card.
If it does, they claim the points (1 or 2) by setting that research card
aside.  Should they then have no reserarch cards in hand, they draw another
card (again free choice from either pile) and their turn ends.  As noted
above, the game continues until 1 player has achieved 9 years of research.

As both players were new to the game, we initially played a bit cautiously
drawing the 1 year Gene Research card as our opening choice figuring that 4
would be easier to match then 5.  Dave the first to score his research
needing only a quick adjustment to get his 4 bases in the DNA strand.  Rich
then countered matching his 4 until Dave pointed out that Reverse
Transcription doesn't work in this game.  If one needs to match the sequence
TACA, the sequence read in the DNA must be TACA not ACAT.  Rich realized his
research error and continued on.

With Rich delayed, Dave scored another 4 base sequence to jump to a quick
2-0 lead.  Rich and Dave then traded research accomplishments until Dave
inverted part of the sequence given Rich his desired 2 year sequence without
further effort. Rich edges ahead 4-3.

But then Dave's plan is reveal when he announces the simulataneous repair of
two sequences scoring a 1 year and 2 year card from the DNA sequence on the
table.  6-4 for Dave. While Rich tried to keep pace, Dave's research was one
a roll and he quickly scored a couple more 2 year cards to gain the win
10-6.

Gene Pool is a game of pattern recognition - more importantly seeing the
potential in the fragmentary patterns on the table.  By knowing what to spin
to achieve your desired research chain I think is a key to victory as
rotations move multiple bases as opposed to the more piecemeal
insertion/deletion method.  The game plays quickly so is a perfect intro (as
we used it tonight) or as a filler between games.  I suspect it also makes a
nice lunch time game for a couple of quick hands in a limited time.

As Dave and I wrapped up Gene Pool, Dave W and Kern arrived to complete our
players for the evening.  We did discuss what games to play (Um
Reifenbreite, Merchant of Venus) when Kern spotted Scream Machine and
remembered playing this about a year ago (June 22, 2005 to be precise), so
we opted once again to build our amusement parks.

For our initial rides, Dave W focused on roller coasters and thrill rides -
seeking to attract the macho dare to be frightened youth in the customer
base.  Dave went for thrill rides also in direct competition to Dave W but
diversifed into food also.  Rich also went with food attractions but focused
on kiddie rides.  Kern made it a trifecta in food, but focused on family
rides as his primary attractions.

The first line up of customers saw 2 water riders appear - but no water
rides in any of the parks.  Dave takes the opportunity to add water rides to
his park.  Rich's initial food play was for a valuable (5 point) food
attraction so he decided to let that be as Dave hadn't increased his food
attraction because he was busy with the water rides.  Kern also didn't
increase the food.  In addition, he had the opportunity to tie Dave in Water
Rides but opted to increase his diversity with some nostalgia rides.  When
the local customers are revealed, Dave also finds another water customer
scoring 3 points from his investment in water rides.  Rich hits a lucky
streak as 3 of 4 local customers were food junkies and they all came to
Rich's park.  The advertising must have paid off more than the one point
Rich had purchased.

Scores after Round 1:

Rich: 5
Dave: 4
Dave W: 3
Kern: 2

The next round say the budget travelers (called "cheapskates") arrive to the
national queue.  Dave W minimized his development and attracted not only the
national cheapskates, but also a few local cheapskates.  This round also saw
a few of the local customers not go to any park, leaving them available for
the next round of action.  With limited actions, Rich again advertised for
an additional point.

Scores after Round 2:

Rich: 8
Dave: 6
Dave W: 7
Kern: 3

The next round saw a wave of nostalgia riders show up.  Rich drew a new ride
in hopes of drawing a nostalgia ride, but no luck.  But even without the
Nostalgia riders, Rich still manages to gain a few thrillseekers and kiddie
riders, especially as Dave took a chance on some cheapskates by destroying
one of his rides to lower the overall value of his park:

Scores after Round 3:

Rich: 14
Dave: 9
Dave W: 13
Kern: 3

Entering into the final round, Dave W decided to invest in a bit of
advertising as well as rounding out his park.  When the customers are
revealed, Rich is happy to see the food junkies return for another round and
more points:

Final Scores:

Rich: 18
Dave: 14
Dave W: 19
Kern: 7

So by 1 point, Dave W claims the win.  The advertising points (2 for Rich, 1
for Dave W) did make a bit of a difference, but the luck of the draw might
have a larger factor.  Rich got very lucky scoring 2 of his 4 points from
the face-down local customers (ie blind luck).  Similarly, the food
attraction remained at a single card the entire game and then drew more
customers again at the end.  Interestingly - looking at the geek, I see the
original game concept was that players kept their customers after each round
so that the customer draw might be a bit more spread out.  I would certainly
like to try this version.

But to be fair - this is a lighter card game.  It has a nice theme
(amusement parks) and there are certianly decisions to be made each round.
So while I don't give this game as high a rating as others might, I
certainly don't mind playing it.  As Dave rightly points out - this is a
game of area majority, but on two (or 3?) levels.  There is the overall area
majority for national customers as well as local area majorities for the
local customers.  The third aspect are the cheapskates which reward area
minority.  There is enough in the game that I don't mind playing when it is
suggested.

With a bit of time left, Rich brought out Seismic - a game based on building
roads in an earthquake prone area.  The basic game is one of laying routes
and claiming them for end game scoring.  The twist is that some of the tiles
are "earthquakes" that will remove tiles connected to the central start
tile.  The tiles themselves have a variety of road patterns on them - some a
single road, others with 2 or even 3 roads connecting various edges of the
hexagonal tile.  In addition, some tiles have additional cities with a
number of connections (1 to 6).  A road will only be scored if it starts and
ends at a city.  Incomplete roads are worth nothing at game's end.

To add some variety to the game - the 6 earthquakes are mixed with 6 simple
tiles (2 straights, 2 gentle (120°) curves, 2 tight (60°) curves) and 6
tiles are removed from the game.  Therefore, the number and magnitude of
earthquakes will vary in each game.  The remaining 6 tiles are then mixed
with the rest of the tiles to form a draw pile (but we just used a cloth bag
as it was easier).  The start tile (San Andreas - a city w/ 6 road
connections) is placed on the table. Three tiles are turned face up and play
begins.  A player chooses one of the three face up tiles to connect to the
road network.  If desired, they can place a road crew on one of road
sections on the just played tile to claim that road as their own.  That ends
their turn and the next player begins by turning another tile face up to
once again have a choice of three possible road tiles.

Should an earthquake be drawn, tiles will be removed from the network.  The
earthquake strikes along the longest of the 6 rows of tiles emanating from
the start (San Andreas) tile.  The magnitude of the earthquake (1~6)
dictates how many tiles are removed.

As we started the game, we drew the M5.0 earthquake as one of the initial
start tiles.  Per the rules, this was discarded and replaced, so we survived
at least one earthquake as it wouldn't occur.  Kern went for an early, quick
build strategy connecting drawn cities almost immediately to San Andreas to
gain San Andreas's 6 points.  But these roadways were also on one of the
possible fault lines so were at risk should an earthquake be drawn.  But
such would not happen.  Kern managed to help direct some of the building in
another direction making that the longest row for when an Earthquake struck.
In fact, as the network developed, a lot of the building was in one of the
"hexants" between the spokes coming from San Andreas as those tiles would be
safe and unaffected by any earthquake.

Our road network was fairly developed when the first earthquake struck (M6.0
- the big one).  Kern's quick scores were protected as the earthquake
radiated away from those points taking out 6 tiles impacting a open roads
along the way - meaning that most of the roads were yet to be closed and
worth points.

Dave W was working on a longish connection and had in hand the tile to close
the road, but it would have meant sharing the road points with Kern, so he
opted not to do so.  A wise choice as a 4-city emerged with let Dave W score
his points on his section while given Kern a few points for his connection
on the other side.

As the hextant was being built out - Dave managed to draw the other 6 city
(worth 6 points if connected) and managed to make a few roadways to that
city.  Rich tried to tie in also, but Dave helped Rich out by attaching a
straight road to Rich's road sending him away from the city and needing to
work a bit more to try to connect back.  (Rich did call this a Metro move as
it was reminiscent of the type of connections that can be made in that game
also.)

As the game neared its conclusion - the smallest earthquake struck (M1.0)
which removed a 6 connection tile next to San Andreas.  But as Dave W draws
the last tile from the bag - it is the 3-straight 6 connection tile and it
fits right back in the damaged spot with the added bonus of joining Dave W's
road not to 4 City, but to San Andreas itself.

With all the tiles played, we removed markers on incomplete roads and set
about scoring the remaining roads:

Rich: 8+6+7+13+12 = 46
Kern: 7+8+9+9 = 33
Dave W: 10+10+6+16+9 = 51
Dave: 9+11+9+114+13 = 66

So Dave pulls out the win.

For a first play, we did enjoy the tension of when (if) earthquakes might
strike.  The careful reader will have noticed that only 2 earthquakes struck
our game.  Three were removed during the tile removal phase and another
during the initial face-up tile set up phase.  So in the end, we worried a
bit about a minor threat.  Of course, none of us had studied any sort of
tile distributions.  We were aware how many cities remained, but studying
the developer's website afterwards (http://games.bezier.com/seismic.html) I
also see that each city tile is a unique layout.  Therefore, we should keep
track not only of what cities are missing but also their likely layout as we
can then avoid hoping for a city that is already on the board.  The same can
probably be extended to a bit more knowledge of the tile distribution also.

I did like this game and look forward to trying it out again.  I remember
well that my enjoyment of Carcassonne increased once I had learned the tile
distributions so could make a better choice about tile plays knowing the
types of tiles that were remaining.  Making those intelligent choices will
be key to network games like Seismic.

So after last week's long narrative, we conclude our gaming night with three
quicker games.  I wonder what next week will bring.

- Rich

Hard to believe that summer is almost over as conversations about the start
of school start to invade conversations....

But some things stay constant:

Happy to host games, anyone interested?

Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
My house in San Ramon
   (Contact me off-list if you need directions)

Rich

--- In trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Pardoe" <RPardoe@...>
wrote:
>
> Happy to host games, anyone interested?

I'm interested.  See you there.

Dave

This may be just a rumor.  But I might be able to make it!! (have to
check schedule.) ( Fuel tank )  Do not tell anybody and get there
hopes up! Where are my running shoes?

LAwrence



--- In trivalleygamers@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Pardoe"
<RPardoe@...> wrote:
>
> Hard to believe that summer is almost over as conversations about
the start
> of school start to invade conversations....
>
> But some things stay constant:
>
> Happy to host games, anyone interested?
>
> Wednesday Night, ~18:30 to ~21:00
> My house in San Ramon
>   (Contact me off-list if you need directions)
>
> Rich
>

Dinner ended early and Sabrina was bored waiting for the others to arrive,
so we played a game of Gene Pool as Dave and I played last week.  Since that
initial play, this little game has come out a few times as it plays quickly,
is attractive on the table, and Sabrina enjoys it.  As I noted last week,
this is a game where the ability to see patterns and shifts in patterns in
key.  And to be fair, Sabrina hasn't quite developed those skills.  But
there is an easy handicap that I have adopted in the game.  I will initially
go after the 2 year (5 bp) sequences while Sabrina has free choice.  Of
course, this means that I must get more of the sequence lined up which can
take awhile.  As I was going for GCTAC, Sabrina managed a couple of quick
scores with TCGG and GTCA, so I was down 0-2 before I could get GCTAC to
even up the scores.

But this didn't last long as Sabrina manged TACA while I was trying for
CTAGT.  Sabrina then felt confident enough to go for a 2 year sequence and
maneuvered the sequence on the table to get it.  The scores continue in this
manner with each of us trading the lead a few times:  Rich 4-3, Sabrina 5-4,
Rich 6-5, Rich 7-5, All Tied 7-7.  At this point, she wanted another 2 year
sequence, but they were all gone as Rich was trying for the last sequence.
As a result, Sabrina had to go for the 1 year results.  While Rich tried to
get his single sequence for the win, Sabrina managed the first 4 bp sequence
to edge into an 8-7 lead.  The next sequence scored would win the game.
Sabrina and Rich twisted the cards, inserted a gene and approached the end.
Sabrina needed 2 moves to get her sequence, but Rich only needed 1 and
scored ACTAC to win the game 9-8.

This continues to be a fun, quick (~10 minute) game with just a bit of
thinking to make the exercise enjoyable.  Not only in how the patterns might
play out, but also in the pace of scoring.  Who knows, if Sabrina had
noticed the 2 year cards were almost gone, could she have forced Rich to
play the 2 1 year cards while she made the winning move?  We will need to
play again to find out.

Just as Gene Pool was starting, Dave and Lawrence both arrived and watched
the game.  With Gene Pool over, we launched into the game of the evening.
In honour of Lawrence's return after some absence, Rich wanted to bring
Viktory II to the table.

Viktory II is a light game of conquest.  It is in the same vein of Risk
(wait, don't run away), but I think improves on Risk (and its ilk) in
several ways.  First, one's armies are directly related to the number of
towns/cities developed on the landscape.  The only way to get more armies is
to get more towns/cities.  One simply can't turtle down in a region letting
the armies build up to then steamroller over the board.  Secondly, the
conflict is determined by the mix of units instead of the number of units.
While more units are useful to absorb losses, the overall attack is
determined by the unit type not the unit number.  This encourages a more
balanced development as focusing on one or two unit types most likely isn't
successful over the long run.  Finally, the board is hexagonal and modular.
This allows not only for a variable layout, but also has been used nicely to
reduce the board size depending on the number of players.  Combined with the
need for land to build armies - players enter into conflict fairly quickly
in the game.

The basic game turn has 3 steps.  The first step is to build a town or
improve a town into a city if desired.  This adds another unit to the
players army, but that unit doesn't enter play immediately. Instead it is
placed in reserve.  There are 4 types of land - plains, grass, forest,
mountain that support cities/towns and generate units (infantry, cavalry,
frigates, cannons respectively).  The 5th land type (water) won't support a
town, but is used to take advantage of the frigate's speed and move quickly
across the board.

The next step is the combined movement/attack phase.  As noted above, attack
and defensive strength is determined by the unit mix (and defensive
terrain).  This is translated into a simple number of dice rolled (1-4 for
the attacker, 1-6 for the defender).  Rolls of 3 or less are hits resulting
in unit loss.  But combat losses are not "eliminated" instead they are moved
to the player's reserve to be redeployed onto the board.)  Once the player
has finished all his moves/attacks, he may then bring any and all of his
reserve units back to the board.  (As I realized a bit too late in the game
- this does make a suicidal attack a bit less so.  If units can be
redeployed back to their starting locales, why not make the attack.  The
attacking player is no worse off than in the instance of no attack, but
might have weakened an opponent or even captured a city.)  The only way to
permanently remove an opponent's pieces is to destroy the supporting
infrastructure (namely the towns and cities that created them in the first
place.)

With the rules quickly explained, we launched into our game.  We did play
with the hexes face down, so the first few turns were probing and exploring
the land.  Rich found his capital on the end of peninsula of land as it was
connected on only 1 edge to another land piece.  Lawrence and Dave found
their capitals close to a mountain range that ran through one side of the
board.  Lawrence's capital was in the middle of the mountains while Dave's
was just adjacent.  At the foot of these mountains as one headed to Rich's
capital was a vast stretch of plains.  By the time we had revealed the
entire board, we had only 5 water hexes (excluding the watery frame for the
board).  2 of those to form a completely land-locked lake with no
possibility of a port to connect to other bodies of water and with no
possibility of building a frigate as the nearest forest hexes were all
closer to the water around the periphery of the board or would never have a
city/town built upon them.  But while this might de-emphasize the utility of
frigates, such was not to prove the case as the game developed.

Dave started modestly, building towns in a nice close network at the minimum
distance of 2 hexes apart.  In fact, Dave built up 5 towns before he even
considering upgrading to a city as he wanted to lay claim to the land first.
Rich (with his capital on that spit of land) pushed towards the center of
the board, but spread his cities a bit further apart opting for a few 3
hexes apart to see more of the land.  Lawrence did a combination of the two,
but we quickly ran out of real estate with 15 settlements on the board
shared amongst all the players.  At this point there was simply no other
place that could be developed.

At this stage, we started to build up our forces.  First blood was drawn
when a cannon shot was launched into one of Lawrence's town.  Lawrence
realized he had a cannon high in the mountains and started taking pot shots
at Rich's peaceful farmers down in the valley.  Upset by having their soil
aerated, Rich's farmers sent one of his frigates around to remove the cannon
with a return favour.

But the first battle was a combined force of Cavalry and Infantry from Dave
attacking one of Lawrence's Infantry unit hunkered down in the mountains.
The battle was bloody with losses on both sides, but Dave was the sole
person standing.  Dave also sent his frigate down towards Rich's city.  As
Rich had another frigate behind the city, Dave sailed around the point
hoping to bombard the frigate (no luck).  But that didn't deter the joint
cavalry/infantry force from attempting to storm the city.  Unfortunately for
Dave, his first wave scored no hits, while Rich's return fire eliminated the
cavalry.  The second wave wasn't any better and Rich's return fire
eliminated the infantry.  But Dave could redeploy his losses and also move a
cannon closer to range.  So the next turn, with artillary added, Dave
stormed the city again, but this time taking it.

In the meantime, Lawrence was feeling hemmed in on Rich's side of his
mountain range, so ventured out to storm the mountain city Rich had built to
get access to cannon pieces.  An overwhelming force and Rich was feeling his
empire being squeezed from both sides.  In fact, Rich was down to 4 cities
while Lawrence had 5 and Dave had 6.  But Dave's cities were nicely
diversified, so Dave could make combined arms (infantry, cavalry, cannon)
against Rich and Lawrence to slowly push both backwards.

With Rich weakened, Dave loaded a frigate and made an amphibous assault on
Rich's capital.  And Rich was the first to be decapitated.  But Dave was
also working the forces against Lawrence also.  A nice move was to place a
frigate adjacent to one of Lawrence's cities and bombard it to soften up the
defenses.  Then embark adjacent forces (but across the water) and disembark
them for an amphibious assault against the same city.  By this time, Rich
and Lawrence were down to 2 cities apiece to Dave's 11.  So as Dave reached
into the next bag for more bits to deploy on the board, we conceded the
victory to Dave.

As the game developed, I noted several things I might have done differently
to improve my situation.  The key is a change in tactics.  Dave was the
first to realize that battle losses don't go away, they just get redeployed.
Therefore, a series of attacks can gain ground and even the city.  Instead
of being defensive - a bit of an aggressive strategy is encouraged.  Also
looking at the area around my capital, I overextended a few towns placing
them 3 hexes apart denying myself of critical developments with which to
gain a larger and more diverse army.  Another interesting aspect was the
assymetry of the tiles.  We had a much greater than expected proportion of
mountain and plains hexes and a much smaller than expected proportion of
water hexes.  Not to take anything away from Dave's victory, but he might
just have had a bit better mix of tiles in his region than Lawrence or I had
in ours.  But that probably is a reflection of us not playing to the
strengths of our region.

So in the end, the game does what it wants to do (be a lighter conquest
game) very well.  We played the entire game (with rules explanation) in 2.5
hours.  Not bad for a type of game that is more noted for lasting hours on
end.  As I noted in the first part, I think this game removes some of the
bad warts (length, large number of dice in combat, turtling, etc) that is
associated with these games resulting in a game that retains the conquest
flavour in a bit better stream-lined version.  Thanks Dave and Lawrence for
trying this one out tonight.