This year, in order to raise our profile in the village, we will have a stall at the Summer Festival on Sunday (weather permitting). We are planning to have a “Dobble Against the Clock” competition, Turf Horse Racing and a small table with people playing Army of Frogs.
We will be starting at 2pm on Sunday afternoon, hopefully on the village green in front of the church, as long as it’s not raining…
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| – Image from holisticvetmed.co.uk |
A couple of us arrived very early and managed to squeeze in a couple of games and dinner before anyone else arrived. First up was Forbidden Desert. This is a very new, cooperative game, where players work together to try to escape from the desert before the get swamped by the sand storm or die of thirst. Although they have a lot in common, it is quite different to its older brother, Forbidden Island, and we felt, quite a bit more advanced. Since it was only the second time out of the box, we played on the Novice Level. Essentially, the game consists of a grid of tiles with a storm in the middle. As the game progresses, the storm moves about, shifting the other tiles creating sand dunes as it goes. The explorers also have to combat the lack of water in the desert, all the while trying to find clues to the location of parts of an ancient burried flying machine, and eventually, the parts themselves. In the end we did it with a little breathing space, but there is no way we would have escaped without the Water Carrier’s special ability to get more water from the well.
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| – Image by BGG contributor duchamp |
Next we managed a quick game of Morels. This is a really pretty set collecting game with a mushroom theme and added “woodsiness” in the form of forage sticks which act as a sort of currency. The idea is that you can collect the easily accessible mushrooms “at your feet” for free, or you can choose a less accessible fungi for the cost of one or more forage sticks. Once you have a set of three or more mushrooms you can cook them, with added cider or butter flavouring to add points at the end of the game.
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| – Image by BGG contributor philsstein |
It is the Stanford-in-the-Vale Summer Festival this weekend and we are planning to have a stall to raise our profile (weather permitting). Since it is quite robust, we are planning to make Army of Frogs available to people to play, so we thought we should try to get to grips with it first. Basically the idea is that you jump one of your hexagonal frog tiles (if you can) and then place a frog from your hand, finally drawing another frog from the bag to make your hand back up to two frogs. Somehow, we managed to play this apparently simple little game wrongly not once, but twice! Something to work on before Sunday…
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| – Image by BGG contributor Moviebuffs |
Then, we played this weeks “Feature Game”, Mission: Red Planet, which is about colonizing Mars. In this game, each player is a colonial power which sends astronauts, in space shuttles, to occupy the most promising zones on the planet. It is an interesting game with a curious mixture of luck and judgement. The luck comes from the rockets that are available at the start of each round, the value of each region of Mars (which is hidden in the early part of the game) and the destiny cards drawn. The judgement comes from the character cards which enable players to place a number of astronauts into rockets and often do something else, like launch a rocket early or move astronauts around on Mars or even sabotage someone elses plans. The character played also dictates when the player gets their turn which leads to a lot of trying to “out think” everyone else, and with only ten rounds, once a card has been played you may not get the chance to play it again. This sort of game can either go very well or very badly and this is exactly what happened: Red came in four points ahead of Blue with fifty-five points, while Green finished with less than half that.
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| – Image by BGG contributor kilroy_locke |
The last game of the night was Salmon Run. This is a new little race game, where players are fish dodging bears, eagles and rapids, jumping waterfalls and trying to be the first to get to the spawning pool without being too tired. The game has a modular board and, as it was new to most of us, we used a fairly easy set up: S1, 4E, 3E, 2M and F1. Red started quickly up the right side of the course with Black and Grey giving chase. Unfortunately Red banged her head against the bank which gave Grey and Black the chance to overtake. Black set the bear on Grey a couple of times and managed to sneak ahead, but Grey made a run for the last water fall and managed to sneak into the spawning pool, and as the last player in the round, ended the game and the evening.
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| – Image by BGG contributor kilroy_locke |
Learning Outcome: For teaching at the Summer Festival, it is probably a good idea to have some laminated crib-sheets available!
The next meeting is on Tuesday 11th June playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.
This week the “Feature Game” is Mission: Red Planet, which is about colonizing Mars. In this game, each player is a colonial power which sends astronauts, in space shuttles, to occupy the most promising zones on the planet. We’ve chosen this game as it is not too long and we should be able to play two or three others.
And talking of Mars…
NASA was interviewing professionals to be sent to Mars. Only one person could go, and it was a one way trip.
The first applicant, an engineer, who was asked how much he wanted to be paid for going.
“One million pounds”, he answered, “Because I wish to donate it to an educational trust.”
The next applicant, a doctor, was asked the same question.
He asked for two million pounds. “I would give a million to my family,” he explained, “And leave the other million for the advancement of medical research.”
The last applicant was a politician.
When asked how much money he wanted, he whispered in the interviewers ear, “Three million pounds.”
“Why so much more than the others?” the interviewer asked.
The politician replied, “One million is for you, I’ll keep one million, and we’ll give the engineer one million and send him to Mars.”
The first game of the evening was Ice Flow, the cute strategy game where players have to cross the Bering Straight from Alasaka to Siberia by jumping from ice floe to ice floe. We had played a quick game last time just before we finished, and this game started the same way as that one with Black making all the running and Red following on behind. The first explorer home was Black with a Yellow explorer was hot on her heels. Black’s remaining two explorers were very close to home though and ready to pounce. This meant that Yellow was forced to try a bit of blocking to prevent Black and Red getting home, but unfortunately it needed a couple of moves too many and it was an easy win for the Black as the youngest player, with Red a close second.
The other game we played was the “Feature Game”, Agricola, which is a highly regarded game about farming in the middle ages and since half the players hadn’t played it before, it was very much a learning game. The idea is that players are medieval farmers living in a two room wooden hut with their spouse. Life is hard, and success is measured by the quality and size of your home, the number of animals you keep, and your ability to put your land to good use. However, your priority is simply to get enough food to survive and survival is difficult without resorting to begging. Each round, the family go out to work to try to obtain materials to improve their homestead or to work on the land to avoid starvation, but there are always lots of things players want to do, and never enough turns. To make matters worse, at intervals during the game, there is a harvest when the animals breed and the grain is brought in, but everyone has to be fed.
It was quite difficult for the players who had not played it before to grasp how to start, but Cyan and White started out collecting all the wood, while Green hoarded all the clay. In the absence of anything better, Blue scraped together enough wood to extend her hut and decided engaged in a little procreation which meant she could send the children out to work on the land and an early age. Meanwhile Cyan moved into animal husbandry building lots of fences and breeding sheep while Green got all house proud building a clay oven and extending and renovating his hut from a wooden shack to a brick cottage. Unfortunately Green failed to use his shiny new oven before harvest so famine arrived and his burgeoning family had to beg to survive. Although Cyan had a very impressive flock of sheep, without an oven, her family were forced to live on fish and it showed in the final score. Green’s large family and building a huge paddock in the last round offset some of his five begging cards and he came home a close third, however, Blue ran out clear winner 11 points ahead of White in second place.
Learning Outcome: You needed to do a little bit of everything to be a successful farmer in the middle ages.
The next meeting is on Tuesday 28th May playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.
This week the “Feature Game” will be Agricola, which is a a highly regarded game about medieval farming This is heavier game than a lot of our previous Feature Games, but supports many levels of complexity from the “family” version to more advanced versions, so we can play a level that is appropriate to the people that turn up.
And talking of farming…
A farm boy accidentally overturned his wagon-load of wheat.
The farmer who lived nearby heard the noise and yelled over to the boy, “Hey Jeff, forget your troubles. Come in and have tea, I’ll help you sort out that wagon later.”
“That’s very nice of you,” Jeff answered, “But I don’t think Dad would like me to.”
“Aw come on Jeff, a bite to eat will give us the strength we need,” the farmer insisted.
“Well OK,” Jeff finally agreed, and added, “But Dad won’t like it.”
After a hearty dinner, Jeff thanked his host. “I feel a lot better now, but I know Dad is going to be very upset.”
“Don’t be silly!” the neighbour said with a smile. “By the way, where is he?”
“Under the wagon.”
The first game we played this week was our “Feature Game”, the card game, Saboteur which is a little like a cross between two games we’ve played before: Avalon and Incan Gold. In this game players are dwarves working together mining for gold, with the catch that there could be a saboteur in their midst… Since nobody had ever played it before, the first round was a bit of an experiment for all of us and we all started out “honest” playing path cards and maps. However, suspicion arose a when one player claimed to have run out of useful paths and had to play a broken pick-axe, with inevitable reprisals. Unfortunately, he HAD been honest and there were no saboteurs, but as we just managed to get to the gold, it didn’t really matter.
Since we felt we were starting to get the hang of it, we went went for a second round and this time correctly identified the saboteur and pinned him down with a pile of broken picks, lanterns and wagons while we dug up the gold. When we picked on the same player for the third time, however, he was understandably distressed and protested his innocence. Nevertheless, since he had very obviously shut off one of optional tunnels we had been carefully building, the pleading fell on deaf ears and failed to prevent the hail-storm of broken tools, only for it to become apparent that, once again, he was innocent. When we asked why he had behaved in such a treacherous way, he forlornly explained that he was trying to stop us going the wrong way as he knew where the gold was. Next time I suppose we might listen to him…
Next, we played the Scandinavian Ticket to Ride, a game we were all reasonably familiar with. This is a really beautiful edition of “the train game”, but with slight twists to the usual rules. White and Purple took the first few points, but Black joined in quickly and play continued pretty much evenly. Black ran out of trains first which stymied Purple’s attempt to get the long track into Murmansk, however, we were all within ten points or so when we went into the final scoring. Unfortunately, it turned out that Black and Purple had accidentally conspired to block White making her take a sizeable detour. This had consequences for the number tickets she could complete. Black and Purple jointly took the Globetrotter bonus with five completed tickets each, but it was the magnitude of the completed tickets that made the difference and Black ran out the winner by some fifty points.
Next we returned to semi-cooperativity with a quick game of The Great Balloon Race. This is a great little race game (albeit with a ridiculously large box), where players have three different coloured balloons and the first to get them all home wins. The snag is that nobody knows who owns which colour and it is highly likely that players will share at least one balloon with other players. We last played this back in October and Blue and Orange got a bit victimised. This time it was Blue and Pink…
Finally, we squeezed in a game of Ice Flow. This is a really pretty strategy game where players direct teams of three explorers that are trying to get from Alaska to Siberia, climbing pack-ice, dodging polar bears, catching fish and occasionally jumping in for a quick swim. Although this is a new game to boardGOATS, we were all familiar with it, so with a quick reminder of the rules we were off, jumping from ice floe to ice floe. The game has a bit of a tendency for players to get stuck unable to get fish or rope, but we were wise to this and managed to control the resources quite successfully. Black got an explorer home first, followed by a couple of Red meeples, however, while Black’s last piece dodged a hungry polar bear, Red managed to get his final one home for the win.
Learning Outcome: A clever move can sometimes be mistaken for a guilty one, however much you protest.
The next meeting is on Tuesday 14th May playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.
This week the “Feature Game” will be a card game that we haven’t played before called Saboteur. This is a quick game where players are dwarves working together mining for gold, but the catch is that there is a saboteur in their midst… We’ve chosen this game so that we can play something longer that is appropriate to the people who come.
And talking of dwarves…
It was Snow White’s birthday, so the the Seven Dwarves clubbed together to get her a camera as a present. When she opened it she was thrilled with such a generous gift and happily took lots of pictures of the Dwarfs and their surroundings. The next day she took the film to be developed.
A week later she eagerly went to get the developed photos, but the shop assistant said the photos were not back from the processor yet. Needless to say, she was very disappointed and started to cry.
The clerk, trying to console her, said, “Don’t worry, someday your prints will come.”
The next meeting is on Tuesday 14th May playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.
This week the “Feature Game” will be a card game that we haven’t played before called Saboteur. This is a quick game where players are dwarves working together mining for gold, but the catch is that there is a saboteur in their midst… We’ve chosen this game so that we can play something longer that is appropriate to the people who come.
And talking of dwarves…
It was Snow White’s birthday, so the the Seven Dwarves clubbed together to get her a camera as a present. When she opened it she was thrilled with such a generous gift and happily took lots of pictures of the Dwarfs and their surroundings and the next day she took the film to be developed.
A week later she eagerly went to get the developed photos, but the shop assistant said the photos were not back from the processor yet. Needless to say, she was very disappointed and started to cry.
The clerk, trying to console her, said, “Don’t worry, someday your prints will come.”
Like last time, we again started out with a quick game of Love Letter while we waited for late arrivals. This time we found that players were winning rounds without getting very deep into the deck, which is strange. However, one thing that didn’t change was that beginners luck again carried the day…
Next we quickly played a new game, Diavolo. This is a dice rolling game where players take it in turns to roll dice and depending on the outcome of the “Order” die, dive for a cute little imp. If they fail to grab one (or get the wrong one), the player loses a gem and the last person to lose all their gems is the winner. We all found this game very stressful so we had one quick round of an old favourite, No Thanks! as the last player arrived and went to the bar.
Once again, our less experienced players were otherwise engaged, so we decided to forego Ticket to Ride and play something we enjoyed a couple of months ago, namely The Speicherstadt. This is a clever little auction game that is relatively quick to play and easy to teach, but has a lot of strategy. In short, cards are turned over and players take it in turns to place one of their “Village People” next to the card they would like to buy: contracts, ships (use to fulfil the contracts), firemen (to protect against inferno) etc.. The first player to bid for a card has first refusal for that card, but the price they must pay is equal to the total number of “Village People” next to the card. If they decline, then the next player has the choice, and the cost has reduced by one. Despite the fact that the different players seemed to employ quite different strategies it ended a very close game. For example, Blue eschewed firemen and ended up taking nearly all the negative points due to fires. Thus, Blue was some twenty points adrift at the back before the final accounting although they had a couple of valuable contracts and the warehouse. In contrast, White invested heavily in firemen, and was way out in front, but had less to add in the final reckoning. White and Blue ended level on points in last place, but only two points behind the winner who had engaged in more trading.
Finally, we just managed to squeeze in a game of Keyflower. This is a really beautiful resource management and bidding game where players use meeples (or “Keyples” as they are known here) both as currency for bidding and as workers to generate resources. Played over four Seasons, with new tiles available at the start of each one, players take it in turns to bid for the different tiles. However, the catch is that once a bid has been made, any subsequent bids for that tile must be both larger and made with the same colour. In addition to the colour management, there are lots of other really elegant aspects to this game. For example, players can place workers on tiles and use the products during that same Season, thus, if a player needs red for bidding, they may be able to use a worker to obtain the necessary Keyples. This means you rarely find you can’t do anything, but you often can’t do exactly what you want. Although it was a new release at the end of last year, we had all played it before, so we just had a quick reminder of the rules as we set up and then launched into it. In contrast to the last game, this was a bit of a white wash with the leader wining by some thirty points. What was particularly interesting, however, was that this was based on a skill tile strategy which netted some sixty points at the end of the game. None of us had ever found them all that useful before, presumably at least partly because the right tiles had never come up.
Learning Outcome: In some games, you can be quite convinced you are losing and be very, very wrong.
The next meeting is on Tuesday 30th April playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.
Since we didn’t play it last time, the “Feature Game” will again be Ticket to Ride, which is a train game where players compete to make routes connecting cities. We have chosen this as we are uncertain who will be coming, but we have a couple of new gamers showing an interest. There are lots of different variations of this game, so it is very flexible and we can choose what variation to play depending on who comes.
And talking of trains…
Two brothers, Jeff and Joe were taking their first trip on a train. After a couple of hours, a vendor came down the corridor with a trolley selling food. Now Jeff and Joe had led a sheltered life and the man was selling bananas which they’d never seen before, so they bought one each.
Jeff eagerly peeled his banana and bit into it just as the train went into a tunnel. When the train emerged from the tunnel, he looked across at Joe and said, “I wouldn’t eat that if I were you.”
“Why not?” asked his brother.
Jeff replied, “I took one bite of mine and went blind for half a minute.”
boardGOATS 