August 30, 2011

Participants: Nadine, Gili, Eitan, Emily

Hive

Eitan+ Nadine

We played when Eitan arrived first. I had printed out the rules, but forgot that my version has different animals so I had to translate them. I do own a game but it's somewhere else. Eitan caught on and thought and planned well.

Lo Ra

Nadine 52 Eitan 35 Gili 10

We played correctly this time except I didn't check who starts first in new Yovels, we just kept going in order. First Yovel I had 7, Eitan -5 and Gili -6. Next one I had 26, Eitan 6 and Gili -5. It seemed like luck that things worked out for me, though I did decide well on calling auctions several times, and second Yovel I had two auctions to myself because I'd had low money amounts. It's an interesting game.

Shadows Over Camelot

We won! 4 players, no traitor. We waited to add a traitor after six swords, but then decided we better not, it would be too hard to win. And Gili didn't want to get the traitor card.

Citadels

Nadine 25, Emily 23, Eitan 22, Gili 16

Emily and Eitan brought two of the few games they have, this and Gosu. They like Citadels and play a lot, but the two-player game is different, faster and better. I didn't like the game, too random; Emily and Eitan didn't like it as much 4-player. I focused on finishing the game to get the extra points even though I didn't calculate whether I would win, ending was my best chance.

The Game of Life

Eitan 2,800,000 Gili 2,115,000 Emily 1,705,000 Nadine 1,625,000

Gili wanted to check this out for her kids, and we ended up playing it because the others hadn't seen the newer version that I have. Gili decided it was very similar to her Pirate version so didn't borrow it. I like not going to college, my salary was fine, and I switched with Emily's 100,000 towards the middle, then Eitan took it from me near the end. I still wouldn't have won, but I lost a lot by selecting Millionaire Estates. Even though I had more money than Eitan who went there too, he took 3 Life cards away from me when the pile ran out, and the 4 I gained were all only 50,000, so I lost a few hundred thousand there. Eitan had a lot of Life tiles.

August 24, 2011

Participants: Nadine, Gili, Eitan

Nadine takes over the session reports. Game night was at her house.

Emily wasn't feeling well, refua shlema!

Set

Nadine+, Gili, Eitan

Eitan arrived and joined when we were almost done.

A Touch of Evil

Nadine+, Gili, Eitan

Gili brought this, we'd played it once and she played it one other time. Eitan was interested in trying it. We all agreed it was anti-climactic, a lot of build-up for a 2-roll battle at the end. I was behind in cards and power, but was in the right position to be able to fight first, and the werewolf only had 5 combat. I almost lost, but someone else would have won if I hadn't tried. Gili bought the first Lair after it went down to cost 3, but couldn't reach the spot on her next turn despite having a 2 horse. I couldn't reach my spot either, but it was my turn next. Gili thinks the advanced game should be better.

Ra (my Lo Ra version)

Nadine 66, Eitan 31, Gili 19

I won due to experience and luck, first game for both Eitan and Gili. And I didn't remember the rules so well, we haven't played in years, so that affected my explanation and made the game harder for them. They liked the game, and understood it by the second round. We played a few things wrong, like allowing auctions after the last auction card, not playing disasters immediately, not bidding on just the money tile if there weren't other tiles, and not having an auction when the track was full. I remembered most of the correct rules but we had already started playing wrong so we continued.

August 10, 2011

Participants: Nadine, Esther, Jon

I had to come to Jerusalem this week. Even though most everyone else on vacation, Esther was available this one more week, but going on vacation herself next week. So Nadine invited her over to play.

It's Alive

Esther, Nadine

Nadine taught Esther the basic version. She liked the game. Nadine had two 10 point coffins and would have come within 3 points of winning in the advanced version.

Puerto Rico

Esther 53, Nadine 47+, Jon 47-

I thought I was doing ok. However, my shipping was terrible, and I began to realize that as the end-game started. I had 11 shipping points, while both Nadine and Esther had 20 or more. My superior building wasn't enough to make up for it.

Esther pretty much played on her own; once or twice we led her through a play to explain all the implications. She decided to start with Hacienda instead of Small Market, letting Nadine take it instead. She did well with it, netting a tobacco, corn, and coffee. Esther also had a coffee monopoly. I had no quarries and a de-facto tobacco monopoly. Yet I took Guild Hall around mid/end game when I should have taken Harbor. I ended with two big buildings. Nadine ended with one big building, though she had both Factory and Harbor for half of the game.

Princes of Florence

Nadine 63+, Jon 63-, Esther 53ish

First play for Esther. it's very hard to figure out your auction strategy during the first few rounds of your first game. I got three Jesters on rounds 1, 2, and 4, all for 7-800, so I was feeling pretty good, though I was spending more than my opponents. Nadine took two early Prestige cards. I took three later ones, though the last one was by default on the last round when I had nothing better to do (come to think of it, I think I could have earned one more point with a Recruiter) and Esther had taken the landscape that I needed. The last Prestige card earning me 0 points.

Still, I earned 12 points from my other two. I had best work every round that I played a work (3 or 4 rounds). So how did I lose? Nadine had more works, more buildings, and spent less money, I guess. I don't know.

August 03, 2011

Participants: Jon, Nadine, Esther

Nadine, I, and Saarya were the only three participants at the first "official" JSGC night back in October 2003, so it's only right that Nadine, I and someone are the only members at the last JSGC night that I shepherd (for the foreseeable future). Esther is new; she called me on Sunday having just heard about the club. She was rather disappointed to learn that I was leaving the group and handing it off to Nadine and Gili.

But, after all, with attendance between 2 and 4 every week, it's gotten pretty pathetic. Our regulars weren't.

Some of them said that they were busy during the academic year, or busy on Wednesdays, and might be able to come again starting soon. Esther enjoyed her game tonight and wants to come again. We will see. It's up to Nadine and Gili, now.

It's Alive

Nadine 52, Jon 43

We weren't sure if anyone else was coming. I had packed all my games away and moved them to Raanana, so we met at Nadine's house. This was one of the few two-player short games that she had available.

Despite the fact that I count points and Nadine doesn't, she beat me handily. Apparently I still don't quite know what I'm doing in this game.

Puerto Rico

Nadine 56, Jon 42

The ignominy. In what I thought would be the group's last game, Nadine beat me handily again. Mostly because she started with corn and I had allowed Harbor in the game, when I usually replace it with Large Business. Nadine had both Factory and Harbor, despite not having a trade good.

Jon 53+, Esther 53-, Nadine 50

I left after the two-player game, thinking that we were done, but after I left I got a call from Nadine that Esther had shown up after all, so I came back. Esther had played Settlers of Catan. We thought it a reasonable choice to try her on Puerto Rico.

It was a good choice. She loved the game. We played with the straight up standard set of buildings. Nadine took an early Harbor over Factory, and she also had a coffee monopoly and bought Guild Hall. However, she sat to my left, and I managed to block many of her moves during the game. She often only had one boat on which to ship and she didn't get any corn until the last few turns of the game.

I was pretty sure that Esther was winning by a good 7 points of so. She was shipping well, trading tobacco, had a Factory and Wharf, had two big buildings, and was the only one to complete her board. But we ended up tying because I had Harbor and better control of the boats. I won the tie with 4 corn barrels and a doubloon versus Esther's 4 doubloons.

And that was the end.

July 26, 2011

Participants: Jon, Nadine, Ben, Gili

My brother showed up, mostly to collect things I'm giving away. :-)

Carson City

Nadine 56, Ben 50, Jon 50, Gili 43

Scores approximate. First play for Ben. This game, like Endeavor, is deceptively slow in the first round or two only to explode in the last rounds. This must be the first game in a really, really long time that I had to think for an extended period of time before deciding on a move - not once, but twice. Both times were for role selection.

Like all but the first two times we've played, I reduced the gun bonus from three to two (though it still counts for three when calculating gun spaces) on both the role and the "three gun" board space. I found that three guns was just too many; it essentially meant automatic victory on all future gun battles. That meant that, if you were fighting someone in several spaces, this battle determined all other spaces, which was too much to decide with a single die roll.

Ben points out that reducing the "three guns" space to two guns only nets you a single gun gain, since you have to give up a guy to take it, and the guy counts as a gun, anyway. Not to mention that, if you fight someone for the gun, they get their guy back, netting them a one gun gain. Yeah, yeah, I know. Trust me. It still works much better this way. In fact, there was no lack of people fighting for the "three gun" spot, which proves my point. On the other hand, no one took the gun role this game, but he has been chosen many times in previous games, so there.

Anyhoo, I took a strong start, while Ben made a small error in understanding one of the buildings, so he gained a little less income than he was anticipating. Nadine and Ben were hot on my heels by round two, however, and Nadine passed me by round three. I still had more building points than she did.

In round four, however, I chose roles last. Ben took the sheriff gaining him a 5/1 trade, while Gili and Nadine both took the roles that let them store $60, giving them a lot of 6/1 trade. That left me with roles letting me store a maximum of $30. Advantage Nadine.

Then Ben and Nadine fought over one of the scoring spaces, Ben lost the die roll even though he was up on the tie, and Nadine took the five points that Ben would have taken. If the single die roll had gone the other way, Bwn would have won instead of Nadine. And that's why we all hate dice.

July 19, 2011

Participants: Jon, Nadine, Gili

Attendance is still so low, it's hard to feel too bad about leaving Jerusalem. I'd like to stay and keep a good club going, but three people week after week is not much of a club. Hopefully things will pick up again if/when Nadine and Gili take over.

Quest Adventure Cards

Jon 43, Nadine 34

I was sent this to review. I received six packs (1 through 6), which is enough for a two player game. You can play up to four with more packs.

I will give a full review on Purple Pawn soon. Nadine and I played only one game. It was, at least, a quick playing game, but only because the decisions were either trivial, luck-based, or irrelevant. Maybe I'm missing something.

Nadine didn't understand the point count at the end. Actually, now that I remember the rules correctly, since the sixth quest wasn't completed, the game actually ended in a tie.

Santiago

Nadine 132, Jon 122, Gili

This is not really meant to be a three player game; there's too much water and the water carrier makes no money. What's left is calculating the amount of money spent vs money returned compared to the other players, which is still fun to those who like that sort of thing.

I gobbled up a center potato field and got some cubes on some of Nadine's fields. Gili had a smaller field, and we were all pretty sure that I was going to win by a bit. But Nadine spent almost zero money on the bidding, while I was down to about 5 dollars before the final tally. She won due to frugal spending.

Cities and Knights of Catan

Nadine 13, Jon 11, Gili 11

Although I often complain that I'm losing when it feels like I'm losing, but stop complaining when I see that I'm actually doing ok, in this game I really really felt like I was losing and I was really really surprised to see that I actually came fairly close to winning.

Though I didn't start the game with either 6 or 8, I had good and varied numbers and resources on my starting hexes - except sheep. I even pulled an early Inventor and switched away an 11 for a 9. Wouldn't you know it, but 11 and 8 rolled up time and time again, with barely any occurrences of 5, 9, or 10 over the entire game.

As a result, I watched Nadine and Gili pull resource after resource while I collected the occasional brick or ore. Nadine's hand already had over ten cards several times before the barbarians hit, and she maintained a large hand throughout the game.

Gili and Nadine both got to an early/mid-game Aqueduct, while I didn't get to it until near the end game. Wow, is it hard to do ANYTHING without Aqueduct. I already knew it's the most important strategy in the game, and I still keep underestimating it.

Nadine had early knight control. Gili got the first metropolis (paper) and took over the knights around mid-game. I managed to disappoint them both by failing to activate a single knight, twice losing cities to the barbarians in the process.

Despite this, and my paucity of building and resources, I finally got a harbor and a string of 4s to give me a metropolis in coins. I was sitting on the merchant card. I came so close to 12, only to lose a city (twice) or be off by a single resource each time.

Nadine missed an opportunity to end the game through stealing my coin metropolis, but she managed to get her 13th point anyway on the next turn.

July 13, 2011

Participants: Jon, Christian, David K, Nadine, Gili, Shmuel

Christian is a visitor from Germany who will be in Israel for a month. Shmuel is Gili's nephew, who will also be in Israel for a month.

San Juan

David 41, Jon 38, Christian 32, Nadine 27

Christian had played this once a while ago; it has been supplanted in his group by Race for the Galaxy. I changed the Guild Hall to only give 2 points for each type of production building.

No one built a Prefecture, but David built a fairly early Library. And he still built a complete Guild Hall. I had Aqueduct and Wishing Well going. Nadine was behind in buildings.

Odin's Ravens

Shmuel, Gili

Gili relearned this game and taught it to Shmuel. Shmuel won the first race after Gili extended the board several times. They ended the game after the one race.

Homesteaders

Jon 56, Christian 49, David 34

First play for Christian. One my, and David's, favorites. I racked up some early debt, eventually hitting 5 debt chips, which had me worried. Also, I'm usually able to buy Church by round 6 or 7; when I couldn't, largely because I wasn't producing any trade goods (gold, cow, or copper), I was concerned. David had both Gold Mines; however, he didn't have a single trade chip producing building. He was taking trade chips, instead of more valuable goods, when he moved forward on the railroad track.

In the end I was able to cancel all but three of my debt chips, though just barely.

Tribune

Nadine+, Gili, Shmuel

First play for Shmuel. I didn't see how it went.

Tichu

Jon/David 600, Nadine/Christian 200

First play for Christian. We played five hands. I bid and made one Tichu and one Grand Tichu, both by the skin of my teeth. I bid the Grand Tichu with AKQJT92 and the Phoenix.