Seattle Cosmic Game Night, Saturday, 03 January 2004

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Attending tonight in vague order of appearance were Dave Adams, Aaron Mercer, Greg Stripes, Jeff Walter, Jeff Rosenfeld, Alex Duncan, Ben Sklar, Natalie Dupree, Steve Dupree, John Reiher, Alex Rockwell, Chad Urso-McDaniel?, Cathy Sullivan, and others.

We met for game night at the house of Dave Adams and Kathy Kizer once again. A group had showed up at noon for a long game day of Age of Reannaisance, which was still in progress when people started arriving. Lots of pizza and soda were consumed.

--Steve_Dupree?

Age of Rennaisance

Game: Age_of_Rennaisance?
Players: Dave Adams, Jeff Rosenfeld, Greg Stripes, Jeff Walter, Aaron Mercer
Location: Dining Room
Time: 12:00pm- 5:30pm
Winner: Greg Stripes
Prize: Bragging rights

Scores

I don't know what happened in this game, or even the scores.

Perhaps the players can fill us in??

--Steve_Dupree?

Player Experience was the key in this game. The more experienced the player, the higher the score. Aaron was playing for the first time, Jeff W for the 3rd time, and Jeff R for about the 5th time.

Age of Renaissance has a pretty steep learning curve, and it takes several playings to really understand all that is going on. And more so than most games, every card play you make, has a huge impact on the game, even when it doesn't seem like a big deal. Playing that Timber card, just to get it out your hand, not only pays out other players, but puts the card back into the deck, allowing for a future payout, and lengthens the game by putting a card back into play.

Aaron bid 5 and selected Paris, Dave bid 4 and took Barcelona, Jeff W took London for 2, Jeff R took Genoa for 1, and Greg was left with Venice for a bid of 0. The game had a pretty standard opening with typical expansion. London drew Crusades on turn 2 and played it despite his low token bid. Venice forgot to buy a boat on turn 2, after playing 2 leaders to get a jump on advances. Holding the Gold/Ivory card, the two Ivory markets in Africa and seaworthy vessels, Genoa missed an opportunity to take Iceland and West Africa and get a big payout.

Venice got a 128 payout for Silk early, coupled with several leaders to take a big lead. Wool was played often to give London a steady supply of cash. Barcelona took advantage of several Metal shortages, and multiple Spice cards to keep in the game. Misery event cards were played repeatedly and recycled leading to heavy misery for both London and Paris, both had a shot of going into Chaos. War! was played all three times, with London losing twice resulting in 4 Misery. Genoa was the single victim of Civil War, and also bought Holy Indulgence 1 turn later than the other players. Black Death hit Venice and Genoa in mid game, and later Area V.

London and Venice got to the Far East first. London chose the gold market for questionable reasons, missing out on several Silk payouts. Also drawing the gold card in Epoch 3, not realizing he had 3 gold markets, instead played the gold card in surplus on the last turn. Venice occupied both North and South America and held them for several turns.

Religion was banned several times, once to prevent the purchase of Patronage to protect leaders, and on the last turn to protect Venice's Cathedral. Venice used Cathedral to get two big Metal payouts late in the game, and also to discourage attacks.

The last cards were drawn in turn 9, and Venice bought all the remaining advances. Since Religion was banned Barcelona was unable to buy the last two advances. Despite gaining 4 misery on final card play, Venice still ended with only 80 Misery. Paris ended with 800, and London with 700. Metal and Fur were the only remaining payouts in final card play.

Oh yeah, and Greg wore his Lucky AOR shirt, a rugby shirt that is made up of the colors of Genoa, Venice and London. He is now 2-0 wearing that shirt, 1-0 as Venice and 1-0 as London. Genoa is next. :)

--Greg_Stripes?

TransAmerica?

Game: TransAmerica?
Players: Steve D, Alex D, Nat D, Cathy S, Ben, John R
Location: Fiesta! Room
Time: 5:30-6:30
Winner: Steve D
Prize: none

Scores

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Steve_Dupree?

This was the first of three games that I played for the first time tonight (and the first of three games I played in toto) so I'm not too ashamed of my distant second. What happened? Well, I built a lot of little wooden railroads, not fast enough. I might have done a point or two better if I hadn't mistaken my San Diego card for San Francisco at one point. Someone mentioned that there was a lot of strategy in this game that isn't obvious on the surface, but I wasn't picking up on it.

--Alex_Duncan?

I like TransAmerica?, but I have to disagree that there is a *lot* of strategy. There is some, but it is relatively straightforward: You want to wait for other people to lay track so you can piggyback on it. This is better than building the track yourself, and much much better than building the track yourself and someone else piggybacking on it. Any other strategy points are merely an implementation of this. For instance, one reason for putting your start marker in your yellow city is that if you put it in, say, your green city, you would have no choice but to build all the connecting track to the center to meet up with everyone else, and everyone will know that you are going to build that track for them and would do other things while they wait for you to do so. However, TA is far from a totally random game like some complain. There is definitely a skill involved and better players will win far above random chance.

--Steve_Dupree?

Expedition

Game: Expedition
Players: Jeff R, Steve D, Nat D, John R, Cathy S
Location: Fiesta Room
Time: 6:30-7:30
Winner: Jeff R
Prize: none

Scores

It finally happened. I lost a game of Expedition. I was close to winning, but between the time I was set up to win and my turn Nat (the only person to play during this time) took the expedition in the wrong direction and I was unable to finish my sites. There was a lot of that happening during the game, as always. Also loops were getting closed like it was going out of style.

Comments from the players?

--Steve_Dupree?

Industrial Waste x2

Game: Industrial_Waste?
Players: Nat, Cathy S, Jeff R, Alex R
Location: Dining Room
Time: 12:30 - 2:00
Winner: Alex R x 2
Prize: none

Scores

While they were waiting for their respective rides to finish Lunar Rails, Nat, Cathy and Jeff played a couple games of Industrial Waste. Alex stayed to play along. He won both games, by a healthy margin. Jeff commented that he didn't feel he learned much, coming in dead last both games.

Comments from the players?

--Steve_Dupree?

We didnt record scores. I only remember my score and Nat's from the second game...

--Alex_Rockwell?

Puerto Rico

Game: Puerto_Rico?
Players: Alex R, Chad M, Dave A, Ben
Location: ?
Time: ?
Winner: Alex R
Prize: ?

Scores

I dont remember exactly how much Dave and Ben had, but I think it was upper 40s.

We started with an unusual opening line of Builder, Settler, Mayor, Craftsman on turn 1. As player 3, I was able to capitalize on the unusual plays with a corn trade on turn 2 for 3 doubloons (1 bonus on the trader and a small market). This set me up with a coffee roaster and corn early on. Chad matched this with a tobacco plant, and soon we were trading for 4-5 doubloons while the others gained only 1-2. Dave and Chad both bought factories the turn I wanted to, just before me, so I was forced to settle with a warehouse followed by a harbor soon after. It worked well for both Chad and I, as he was able to build two large buildings and I was able to ship for 39 vps. Forcing Chad to discard goods several times later in the game was my margin of victory...

I was lucky to be in the third seat for this game, as it is the one to most commonly benefit from mistakes by other players. Pretty much the entire main line opning for Puerto Rico is designed to hurt player 3, and nullify the inherent advantage of that seat. This main line (for a 4 player game), is:

Turn 1: Settler, Builder, Mayor, Prospector (not Craftsman, instead gaining a much more important doubloon, denying player 3 a trade on turn 2, and denying player 2 a two doubloon prospector). Turn 2: Trader (gaining one doubloon and 'spiking the trader' to prevent player 3 from trading with two bonus doubloons next turn), Craftsman, Captain (preventing player 3 from trading), Prospector (ensuring no two doubloon roles exist for player 3 during his governor phase). These plays are not just defensive, they are also almost always the most beneifical plays for the player choosing them.

The main line opening is the result all players being focused around following the dominant strategy of Puerto Rico, which requires focusing on money and income early in the game.

--Alex_Rockwell?

Transamerica (again)

Game: Transamerica?
Players: Cathy S, Jeff, Alex R, Nat,
Location: ?
Time: 12:00 - 12:30
Winner: Alex R
Prize: ?

Scores

I won the first round, finishing my track while my opponents needed 6, 8 and 8 links to complete theirs, jumping out to a big lead. Jeff managed to win both of the next two rounds, finishing in a solid second. Everyone, as always, complained about their cities a great deal. I think thats a necessary part of playing Transamerica.

--Alex_Rockwell?

Lord of The Rings

Game: Lord_of_the_Rings?
Players: Alex (Sauron), chad, Nat, Jeff, ? (hobbits)
Location: ?
Time: 8pm - 10pm
Winner: Fellowship
Prize: ?

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It was a sad day for the forces of darkness...

First of all, our servants the Nazgul were unable to located the bearer of my One Ring until they had already entered Mordor! All that searching in vain! Only 6 of my 9 Nazgul were able to be put into service, and missing were the critical Terrify and Bewitch spells, two of the three most powerful! Finally, that meddling Gandalf interfered with the casting of the Paralyze spell, saving Sam from its devistating effects, at the foot of Mount Doom, but that is the end of the story...

The journey started off in a hurry, as the hobbits left Bag End without even having time to grab supplies. Unfortunately, this gave me less time to locate them and prepare my assault.

In Moria, things started to look grim for the fellowship. First of all, my Nazgul assaulted the fellowship (played Nazgul assault card), but Pippin managed to fight off their attack (discarded 5 fighting symbols). I then attacked Sam with all my power, but he proved very resilistant to its effects (Sam drew 17 straight bad tiles in Moria, of which 9 were rejected. There were 2 events, and 4 invocations of Sauron...but since this was Sam, all it did was allow Sauron to fill his hand and do a couple points of damage). However, the fellowship was able to fight there way out of Moria before being trapped by the orcs or cought by my black riders. Luckily, they were not able to find the Red Arrow, which I hoped would bring me the victory later on...

The Battle of Helms Deep was a mixed blessing. Time passed too quickly for the fellowship to make friends, and they were unable to enlist the help of the Riders of Rohan. However, once again they escaped before my riders could find them, and Helm's Deep did not fall.

Next, the hobbits passed into Shelob's Lair. Things began to look bad for the dark forces, and the fellowship was doing very well. Still, they had used up almost all of their preventative abilities to get this far relatively unharmed and untouched by my riders. As my riders made their search this time, they were thwarted by the Star of Elendil and the Bravery of Merry, and failed once again to damage the ringbearer.

As the hobbits crossed into Mordor, this worst blow of all struct the forces of darkness. the ring passed to Merry, who miraculously, was nearly unharmed and free from corruption (only 3 spaces down on the corruption path...the others were all near dead). Still, there was time to make an assault with my Nazgul and try and claim the ring. I waited for my captain, the Lord of the Nazgul to arise with his full power. Without the Red Arrow, the fellowship could not use Eowyn to stop his attack, and victory would be mine. Luck was only the side of the forces of good however, as the Lord of the Nazgul failed to arrive in time to save the day. (The felloship didnt draw enough events to get to the critical event #2 on the event track).

The hobbits marched across the plains of Golgoroth and up the slopes of Mount Doom. Finally, my nazgul were able to locate the ringbearer, but it was too late. I made one final stab at the hobbits as they fought to destroy the ring. First Frodo took the ring, to be destroyed, but I lashed out at him with all my power, and he was killed (Sauron played a 3 damage card to kill Frodo). Next the ring came to Pippin, but his will too failed. My riders were coming. If only they could reach the top of Mount Doom, all might be saved, and the ring returned to its rightful owner. Next came Sam, and he too was struck down. Only one hobbit remained, but he was too pure to be corrupted. Only if my riders could arrive in time could they prevent the destruction of the ring. The Nazgul sped towards the black gate, they crossed the plains of Mordor and nearly reached my fortress, but then Merry overcame the power of the ring and cast it into the fires of Mount Doom. (Sauron played a rider moves 5 card to bring the rider to space 14, one space short).

The fellowship had won, but paid a heavy price, as only one hobbit returned home to tell the tale...

--Alex_Rockwell?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

BANG!

Game: BANG!?
Players: ?
Location: ?
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Winner: ?
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Key:

Bold: Player won that game.
Italics: Player was killed.
Bold Italics: Player was killed, but their side won anyway.

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--Ron_Hale-Evans?

NEXT MEETING

Saturday, 10 January 2004, 5:00 PM at the house of Eric & Dave in Seattle. Come play for fun and FABULOUS PRIZES from the PrizeBag!

Remember, Seattle Cosmic Game Night occurs every weekend, in one of four locations: Kent, Mill Creek, Seattle, or Tukwila. Email Ron Hale-Evans for a full schedule and directions. If you come, please bring a snack or drink to share (cookies, chips, soda, juice, etc.)

Supporting Seattle Cosmic and Games to the Rescue

GamesToTheRescue is a philanthropic project of the Center for Ludic Synergy and Seattle Cosmic Game Night. The aim of the project is to provide game equipment and a book of game rules to hospitals, for use by patients and visitors. You can support GamesToTheRescue by buying games via our Funagain affiliate program, buying Seattle Cosmic Gear, and in a number of other ways. See the GamesToTheRescue page for more details.

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