GAME, SETUP & MATCH!

GAME, SETUP & MATCH!

Spiel 09 - Day 3

24th October 09

ALBION

Each player takes control of a Roman legion, trying to control those pesky British. You start the game with a minor fortress, a camp and a couple of resources. The object of the game is to establish 3 settlements of level 4, including one in the dangerous North. Each player takes it in turn to take their actions, which could be to build something or to collect resources. Building something in which another player already has a superior presence than you means that of the resources you are paying for the building, one of them has to go to him as tribute. The mechanics are simple enough. A lvl 1 building costs 1 resource (any), lvl 2 = 2 different resources, lvl 3 = 3 different etc. Building a settlement gets you either a settler or a legionnaire; the settlers do all the building and the legionnaires add to defence. There are various pict tokens placed on the regions you are trying to subjugate, which are either peaceful or aggressive. The aggressive ones attack you with a strength of the number of aggressive icons in that region; and you need at least that much in defence or ALL players lose their buildings there. Whilst initially enjoyable, we found the options limiting and almost over simplistic at times. Perhaps better with more players, it would deserve a replay, but not at the top of the list. 6/10

FITS

Essentially Tetris the board game, each player has the same set of Tetris-like tiles. A different tile is chosen as each player’s starting tile and from then on, all players have to play the same tiles. The only difference from Tetris is that the piece can only travel vertically. No lateral movement is allowed. The game is played over 4 rounds. The first board is simply cover as much of the board as possible – negative points for each space you are unable to cover. Board 2 has a few spaces with points on them. Leave these spaces uncovered at the end of the round for bonus points. Board 3 has positive and negative points which are awarded if left uncovered, and board 4 has pairs of symbols. Leave both uncovered for bonus points, but get negatives if you leave only one of the pair visible. A very clever game from Reiner Knizia, and can be enjoyed by anyone of any age. No actual player interaction though – its almost like multiplayer solitaire. Indeed there are rules for a 1 player game. 7/10

JAIPUR

This is a 2-player only set-collection game. The idea is to collect sets of 6 different types of goods and then sell them to the market. Bonus points are awarded for sets of 3, 4 or 5 that are sold. It has an interesting mechanic using camels, whereby you can choose to take all the camels instead of a good, however this will bring that many new goods into play of which your opponent will have first pick. Any number of camels can be exchanged for goods on your turn. The game is played over the best of three rounds, with the player with the most money at the end of each round the winner. Billed as a trading game, however there is no trading between the players. Trading refers more to the setting than the actual mechanics of the game. Nevertheless a nice solid 2-player game, playable in under 30 mins. 6/10

SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS

You all play monks trying to retrieve your books in a labyrinthine library of corridors and staircases, very reminiscent of the famous scene from “The Name of the Rose”. You have a hand of cards with which you can manipulate the various tiles – rotate them or move them, trying to forge yourself a path to get to your 4 books whilst at the same time trying to make it as difficult as possible for everyone else to retrieve theirs. The game has very nice components and the setting is great. Its one of those games where it is virtually impossible to plan ahead, as the board will have changed so much by the time it is your turn again. Nevertheless a fun game, this one slipped under my radar last year as the name was so unpronounceable and there wasn’t really much in the way of a description. Will certainly play again. 7/10

COLONIA

Each round is played over seven days, with the object on the Sunday at the end of the week to buy relics which are worth VPs. You have a limited number of family members with which to perform actions. Monday is set up the board for the week. Tuesday is the council meeting – assign family members to the council to receive votes and determine player order. Wednesday is the market – send in your guys to purchase resources. Thursday is production – send your guys in with your resources to have goods made. Friday – load your goods onto ships. Saturday – ships sail, receive cash. Sunday is buy relics day. Edicts will come into play every turn which get voted on by all players which can alter slightly the options available. This game offers a bewildering choice sometimes. You are trying to plan so far ahead that it makes your head hurt. A lovely board and a nice theme though, and more meaty than your average Queen game. 7/10

Spiel 09 - Day 2

23rd October 09

KRYSIS

The players are trying to get gems and relics out of a mine using a combination of fighter and transporter cards. Turn order is decided by bidding gems in a closed fist, and this will dictate what space you go on in the next level of the mine. As for the card phase, this is dictate by the total speed of the 3 cards you play – fastest first. You can then either take your gems home (or to the bank for points), raid another player, or mine for more gems. The game lasts 5 turns, and most points at the end of the game wins. There isn’t a huge amount of decision making in the game, and it seemed to us that it is possible, and fairly easy, to end up with nothing to do except mine, even though you had planned something else. Which we found frustrating. Not terrible, but an average game which will probably not get played again. 5/10

SAMURAI THE CARD GAME

The card game of the Samurai board game. Players take turns laying cards next to villages which give 1, 2, or 3 rewards (helmets, buddhas or rice fields). Once a village is surrounded, count up the number of each reward that each player has, and whoever has the majority takes the reward of that particular type. Play continues until all villages have been played, players run out of cards, or one of the reward types has been exhausted. If one player has the majority of 2 of the types, he automatically wins – otherwise take the players that have one majority, and discounting that type, count up the rest of the rewards and the highest wins. We liked this game, although it felt that not much planning could be done in advance, as by the time it got back to your turn the landscape had changed so much. Reasonably light. 6/10

ASSYRIA

A full on Euro game – players build huts, ziggurats and wells in ancient Assyria, collect food and camels and score points based on what they built and where. Camels are then spent on a number of things – improving ziggurats, influencing counsellors, among many other things. As your empire grows it becomes harder to keep them all fed, and you will inevitably lose some huts. After each reign, the rivers flood and all huts on rivers are destroyed. The game lasts 8 turns, and total VPs at the end is the winner. Another game that we liked very much. A lot of decision making is required, and the components are solid. A very typical Euro game, but a good one and would merit several replays. 7/10

STRADA ROMANA

Move carts from one side of the board to the other, through Rome, collecting goods and contracts along the way. Pick up a contract and collect cash equal to the number of goods of that type on the board. Cash can be spent to perform special moves with your carts, but once you get to 5 cash you convert 5 coins into 1 VP. The board is laid out so that there will be a bottleneck through Rome. You can also not move a cart and take a gamble on which cart you think will be in the top 4. If you are correct you get bonus points at the end of the game, if you are incorrect then you lose them. We played this 2-player, and felt that it was almost too even. The way the scoring works is that you get points for your fulfilled contracts: multiply the variety of colours of fulfilled contract by the most that you have fulfilled in one colour. In a 2 player game this inevitably ended up with us having the same. We also had the same number of unfulfilled contracts (-1 point for each), and the only thing that separated us was one of the gambling tiles.. Would definitely play again, and I like that noone actually owns the playing pieces – they can be moved by anyone. I would say that it would be much more competitive with more players. 7/10

LANGFINGER

A heist game. The player needs to collect tools to commit robberies, and then fence the items he gets at the harbour. Each player plays a character that has one type of tool by default. In player order you get to put an action on one of the spaces - and once all players have placed their three actions they get carried out in order. So by the time it comes to your robbery, the item you wanted may have already been stolen! A very cute little game that lasts no more than 20 – 30 mins but is very fun to play. I would definitely recommend this one as a filler game. 7/10

PELOPONNES

Each player has to build up a civilization in 8 turns. Initially they bid currency on land or building tiles. You can choose whether to bid for one of the open tiles (on which you can be outbid) or go for a more expensive conquest tile which you are guaranteed to get. You must then pay the amount bid, plus any resources required and construct the tile. If you do not have the necessary resources you can delay it for a turn. Occasionally you will need to feed your population, and there are 5 disasters that will happen during the course of the game which will require you to spend a great deal of resources. After 8 turns, you complete the final scoring. It is a reasonably short game, and we found that it suffers from a few problems resulting in a player not being able to do anything for a turn. If this happens, in an 8 turn game, recovering is virtually impossible and therefore, through no fault of his own, a player can lose the game. These sort of problems I find very frustrating. I know this game has had some great write ups, but I’m just not feeling it. We even played it a second time and had the same issue crop up in the second game in a row, so it isn’t a rare occurrence. Some further game balancing, or some rules errata would make this game a much more fair and fun experience, but as it stands 4/10.

HAVANA

Essentially a card version of Cuba, this game has a great little mechanic whereby each player has the same set of cards to choose from, numbered 0-9, and you always have 2 in play, however the player with the lowest possible number combination will go first. This makes for some intriguing decision making as to whether you want to remove one of your more powerful cards in exchange for going first. You collect building materials and money and construct buildings in Havana. A very elegant game design, simple to play yet with many opportunities to outwit your opponents, we really thought this was a great little game, if a touch on the expensive side. 8/10

ABANDON SHIP

Help the rats escape the sinking ocean liner. You score points for 3 of the 7 coloured rats, which is kept secret from all the other players. Each rat gets a dice and there is a wild (white) dice to roll as well. The starting player will roll all the dice, choose one result and move the appropriate rat, and then pass all the rest of the dice to the left. This carries on until one player is passed only one die, at which point the ship sinks by an amount as dictated on a sinking tile. If any rat is caught by the rising water on its own, it drowns. If multiple rats on the same space are caught by the water, the last one o escape will drown. There is cheese (points) to collect on the way to the top, and its also worth noting that the first rat to escape does not get any points. Only 2nd, 3rd and 4th. A hilarious and fun light filler game, well worth a look. Highly entertaining. 8/10

Spiel 09 - Day 1

22nd October 09

I thought I'd write a few lines on each of the games we played at this year's Spiel, along with our impressions:

PRIESTS OF RA

A bidding/set collection game where the players take turns either drawing tiles out of a bag, or invoking Ra to start an auction for the tiles that have already been drawn. Each player has 3 sun tokens of a different value, and there is a sun token in the centre. The winning bidder will take the tiles and exchange their sun for the sun in the middle. The tiles that are being collected are either people, buildings, or sections of a pyramid. There are also plague tiles which are worth negative points, but when you are bidding on the tiles, you have to take them all. Ra tiles can also be drawn, which trigger an auction, and these go on the board. Once a certain number of these have come up, the end of an Epoch is triggered. Scoring takes place, all the people die (buildings remain), and the process starts over. The game lasts 3 Epochs. A nice, solid, yet unoriginal game, well themed and good components. 6/10

TOBAGO

Treasure hunting on a Caribbean island. Each player has a wooden ATV piece (or “jeeple” as we called them) and a hand of treasure cards. Each card narrows down the possible position of a treasure – there are four treasures in the game represented by coloured cubes. When you play a card next to one of the treasures, it will narrow down where the treasure could be (e.g. “next to a lake”, “within two spaces of a palm tree” etc.). You also put one of your coloured chips on the card. Once a treasure has been narrowed to one space, any player can go and pick it up by moving their jeeple onto the correct space. They then get a coloured chip on the stack, and draw treasure cards equal to the number of player chips on the stack. Each player gets to see a number of cards equal to the number of their own chips on the relevant stack. They then get shuffled, and then starting with the player that found the treasure and working in reverse order up the stack, treasures get drawn and each player can decide if they want to take that particular one. Play continues until all the treasure cards have been taken. We really enjoyed this game, and will certainly play it again. 7/10

STRONGHOLD

Wow! Where to start? A massive game for 2-4 players about attacking and defending a fortress. The game takes place in 6 phases, and the attacker needs to select the cards at the start of the game for each phase that will dictate his strategy for the rest of the game. The attacker spends time (hourglasses) and resources recruiting troops, building siege weapons, training special troops, performing rituals and deploying his forces. Anything the attacker does costs time. These hourglass tokens are then passed to the defender in each phase and they must be spent on building the defenses. Both players have a bewildering array of options that take a while to get used to, but the board and components are superb, the atmosphere and the tension-building is great, and all round the game is fabulous. It isn’t necessarily about winning or losing the battle for the fortress, but about how much ‘glory’ you get during the course of the battle. Definitely one to be considered as a heavy, epic game, it will take a long time to plough through the rules and ensure that you understand all the options available to you, but it is well worth the effort. Make sure to allow 3-4 hours for your first game, and I think personally that it will play better with 2 players than 3 or 4. 8/10

CHEESE

The lightest of light filler games. Players take it in turns to flip a brick-shaped foam cheese like a beer mat off the edge of the table. The brick has one corner that has been nibbled by a mouse. If the nibbled corner lands upwards, the player pokes a hole in the cheese worth 1, 3 or 9 points depending on which side it landed on. First to 12 points wins. As the holes appear in the brick of cheese, the weight and aerodynamics change. A 10 minute game with no depth whatsoever, but how often to you get to flip a block of cheese? 5/10

EXPERIMENT

A simple card bidding game where the players bid for flasks and beakers containing coloured fluids. The small flasks are face up, and the larger beakers are face down – and the highest bidder gets to look at the face down cards but gets last pick. The players are trying to complete experiments where the goal is to match the coloured flasks on the experiment cards. Flasks are red, yellow or blue, and beakers are orange, green and purple, made by combining two of the appropriate flasks. Another light game but again a good one. Playable by younger players too. 6/10.

DAY & NIGHT

An award winning two player game. Each player takes the role of either Day or Night, and they are both trying to complete two temples of 9 tiles each. The first to do so is the winner. The tiles are double-sided and get placed on the board or flipped during the course of the game by the hand of spells held by both players. Once a player gets 9 contiguous tiles of his type in a row, they form a temple and can no longer be altered by the other player. Each player has a deck of cards (spells), and has up to 12 hours worth of actions to play during their turn. Moving one space costs 3 hours but allows the player to draw a card – the only way to do so. We really enjoyed this game, described as Magic the Gathering meets Othello by one of our group. The game is very elegant, and the artwork is really nice. 8/10

PONY EXPRESS

Players compete to reach the end of the track and deliver the mail before anyone else. This is primarily a poker dice bluffing game. You roll up to 3 times in secret, and then declare what hand you have. The player nearest to you on the board can then decide to call your bluff or not. If you are believed, you move the number of spaces that corresponds to the hand you declared, and resolve the action on the space which you end on. If your bluff is called, reveal your hand. If you were telling the truth, the player that calls your bluff is put in prison. If you were actually bluffing, then the player that called it moves the spaces you declared instead of you. A great feature of the game is that when one player ends his move on another players’ space, a gunfight ensues. This involves rolling the dice at each others meeples from across the board – hilarious. A nice game, with some truly hysterical moments. Will play again. 7/10

NOSTRA CITY

Players play as minor gangsters “collaborating” to get the boss off, who is currently on trial. Play takes place over 6 months (turns) and each player is trying to get as much money, turf, mobsters, and ultimately respect as possible. The player with the most respect at the end of the game wins (assuming the boss is not guilty). If the boss is guilty, then only the players who are FBI snitches can win. Players can ‘cheat’ each other, by not handing out the correct amount of cash, or by not allowing other players any turf or mobsters – but this will result in the cheated player getting Vendetta cards which can be used for revenge. A very stylish game with a great theme that we really enjoyed and would certainly play again. 7/10

BADGER 2 - IT'S ALL NEW! SAT 14th NOVEMBER

24th September 09

Following on from the success of the first BADGER [Berkshire's All-Day Gaming Event in Reading], GSM in association with eclectic games bring you BADGER 2 - IT'S ALL NEW! The format will be the same as the first BADGER, an All-Day Board and Card Game Tournament to take place on Saturday 14th November at Eclectic Games, Thames Tower, 37-45 Station Road, Reading (opposite Reading Station). The Tournament will be from 11am - 8pm and entry will be £6, with prizes for the top players on the day. At this BADGER, we will be showcasing all-new games that are hot off the press from the Spiel '09 show in Essen, Germany (The world's biggest Board Game show). Once again games will be suitable for beginners or experts alike, and chances are that they will mostly be new to everyone. We hope to see you there.

Ticket To Ride World Championship

24th September 09

In order to celebrate its 5th Anniversary, Days of Wonder have announced a series of tournaments to find the Ticket To Ride world champion. National Tournaments will be held in a variety of countries, including North America (USA & Canada), UK, Germany, France, Spain, Benelux and Poland. The winners of the national Tournament will be invited to Paris in June 2010 for the grand final, and the World Champion will receive a trip for two on the Orient Express, along with a set of gold-plated TTR trains and score marker. No details have been announced yet regarding the UK regional event - I will keep you posted. For all the latest on this event, check out the DAYS OF WONDER website.

UPDATE: The UK Regional Qualifiers are as follows:

North - 17th October 2009 at Game '09 in Manchester. GAME '09

South - 28th November 2009 at Dragonmeet in London. DRAGONMEET

Reading - 23rd January 2010 at Eclectic Games

Exeter - 27th February 2010 at Clifton Road Games

Edinburgh - 27th March 2010 at Conpulsion

BADGER Results Announced!

14th September 09

GSM's first event took place on Saturday, and I'd like to thank everyone who showed up. We had a great day of playing games, and I hope you all got to play something new that you might not ordinarily have tried. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and I'll definitely be organising a similar event in the near future - probably around November so that we can showcase some of this years new releases from Essen.

And so onto the winners:

In 3rd place: David Berry

In 2nd place: James Sheahan

In 1st place, with an astonishing record of 4 wins and 2 seconds: Alan Pengelly

If you're interested in seeing the final table in full, you can download it HERE.

I hope to see you all again at BADGER 2!

GSM Board & Card Game Tournament - Sat 12th September

11th August 09

GSM, in association with Eclectic Games in Reading, Berkshire, presents a Board and Card game tournament on Saturday, 12th September. The "Berkshire All-Day Gaming Extravaganza in Reading" [BADGER] will take place at Eclectic Games, Thames Tower, 37-45 Station Road, Reading (opposite Reading Station), 11am - 8pm. Entry is £5, and there will be prizes for the top 3 players. A large variety of games will be played, perfect for beginners or experts alike. We look forward to seeing you there on the day!

Innsmouth Horror winner announced

11th August 09

The winner of our July competition is Mike Sheley. Congratulations to him, and a copy of Innsmouth Horror is on its way. Keep an eye out for more competitions coming up.

Win Innsmouth Horror!

3rd July 09

Anyone signing up to the forum this month will be entered into a free prize draw to win a copy of Innsmouth Horror (or the equivalent in vouchers). Sign up today!

CALLING ALL BUDDING DESIGNERS

23rd June 09

A couple of design competitions to tell you about...

Firstly, we're talking race tracks for Formula D! Asmodee are holding a design contest for the 3rd Formula D expansion to be released in November 2009. In this expansion, the Formula 1 circuit will be Singapore, however the street racing circuit is where you come in! The winner of their circuit design competition will form the other half of this expansion!

In order to enter you must submit the layout of your track (must fit on a 65cm by 95cm board) plus any special rules your track has (rules must be in English, max length 3000 characters including spaces).

The deadline for entry is August 31st 2009. Entries can be submitted by email to asmodee@asmodee.com with the subject "Concours circuit Formula D" or sent by mail to:

Asmodee
Concours circuit Formula D
ZAC le Merantais
Angle rue aux fleurs/rue des tilleuls
BP 00037
78960 Voising le Bretonneux
FRANCE

The second design contest comes from Canada. Ne Tirez Pas Sur Le Messager (Don't Shoot the Messenger) is running a game design competition. Deadline for entry for this one is September 6th 2009. Full details can be found on their site http://netirezpassurlemessager.net or you can download the RULES from here.

WE HAVE A WINNER!

23rd June 09

The UK Games Expo prize draw has been made, and the winner is Tony Simons from Corsham, Wiltshire. Congratulations to Tony, who already has a copy of Agricola and has chosen to take vouchers instead. Thanks again to everyone that entered the draw - we hope to see you again soon. Perhaps we'll see you at Dragonmeet in Swindon on Sunday 28th?

GSM LAUNCHES AT UK GAMES EXPO

17th June 09

The weekend saw Game, Setup and Match make its public debut at the UK Games Expo 2009 in Birmingham. First off, a massive round of applause goes out to all the organisers who put on a fantastic show! And a big thanks to everyone who stopped by the stand upstairs and signed up to our mailing list. The premise of a UK Gaming Community was universally well received - so let's keep the momentum going. Also, watch this space for the announcement of the winner of our prize draw! In the meantime - we took a few snaps - if you weren't there this is what you missed...

GSM Team...

Dr. Who meets Star Wars!

D&D Dungeon

Munchkin!

Aren't you a little short for a Storm Trooper?

Gaming

More gaming!

Still more gaming