Hallo liebe Freunde, ich habe ein paar sehr schöne Tage mit Lydia und Gerald in der Lüneburger Heide hinter mir! Das milde sonnige Herbstwetter und die schöne Landschaft waren ein würdiger Rahmen für Lydias Geburtstagsfeier. Wir haben eine Kutschfahrt Richtung Wilseder Berg gemacht und die schöne kleine Stadt Celle mit ihren alten Fachwerkhäusern und die Hengstparade im dortigen niedersächsischen Landgestüt besucht (ich muss dazu bemerken, dass sich die Hengstparade in Neustadt/Dosse, die ich schon ein paar mal besucht habe, nicht hinter der Celleschen verstecken muss).

Als feierliches Geburtstagsessen hatte ich mir Heidschnuckenbraten ausgewählt, um zu überprüfen, ob der Kutscher recht hatte, der uns erzählte, dass Heidschnucke wie Wild und nicht wie Schaf schmecke – stimmt nicht, schmeckt wie Schaf, was ich aber mag.

Ich habe immer verlangend auf die Dächer der großen Bauernhäuser geschaut: am First sind in Niedersachsen die gekreuzten Pferdeköpfe aus Holz angebracht – ich möchte so gern auch welche für meine Scheune haben – aber woher bekommen, ich kann sie doch nicht von den Dächern klauen…?

Wir konnten die Zimmer dann nicht länger buchen und Lydia und Gerald sind noch ein paar Tage mit nach Gumtow gekommen. Wir haben Ausflüge gemacht, u.a. nach Havelberg, und haben an einem Abend auch Sonja und Bernhard besucht.  Nun sind Lydia und Gerald abgereist,  und ich muss mich wieder verstärkt um meine Angelegenheiten hier kümmern. Es war eine schöne Zeit, aber es kann nicht alle Tage Sonntag sein.

Macht´s gut, bis bald, eure Renate

David Fair posted his “Pimp my Agricola” show.

Played two more games of Kutschfahrt. The second game was interesting in that both teams quickly discovered identities quickly, but then had to jockey for position and time attacks to best use the items and identities. Probably half the game was spent with known teams, which meant attacks were quick (all people instantly declare support). There were a few trades to share information or get items into the correct position. I’m still enjoying this, and its now got ~10 plays from our group.

And a few more games of Race. Perhaps I’ll write up another card review at some point. Not right now, though.

…mal wieder ein Regenschauer zum richtigen Zeitpunkt. Wir haben die große Runde in Moritzburg ausgewählt nachdem wir die kleine schon einmal mit dem Schlitten gemacht haben. Prompt fing es unterwegs zu schütten an. Glücklicherweise war unsere Kutsche ein echtes Cabrio und wir konnten das Verdeck schliessen lassen. Die Jungs hielten der Kutscherin die Treue und texteten sie weiterhin im Regen zu.

Es hat sich trotz oder gerade wegen des Wetters gelohnt.

Kuriose Nachricht aus zuverlässiger Quelle: Ein Pferd und ein Hund stehen gemeinsam in ‘Verdacht’ Unfallflucht begangen zu haben. Da die Geschichte ein glimpfliches Ende fand, gehört die Meldung wohl zu den seltenen Nachrichten, über die geschmunzelt werden darf. > Mehr dazu

My one game of Race was interesting enough. (Oh, Linnaeus posted his thoughts about Race. And Mikko posted his review). But (amazingly), games were played.

New to me was Escalation! — a Knizia game that I guess is in the climbing family. I suppose. You have a hand of six cards, which range 1-14 and a few specials. One player leads, and then each player must meld a higher total. A mild is one (or more) cards of the same value, and the total is just that. When one player can’t meld, they take all the cards. Each card taken is one point, points are bad. After playing you refill, and once the deck runs out you play until one player empties his hand … everyone else drops their hand into cards taken.

Well … it’s fast. Not bad, actually (perhaps better with fewer players?). But this felt slapped together. Basic idea, a few card specials, and go. My “some cards way better than others” pet peeve was off-the-chart. I mentally rebuilt the deck to narrow the range of card powers in five minutes, I’m sure Knizia could have done it if he wanted to. And, lets face it, the “Card game where we keep playing until the last gamer arrives” genre is just stacked like Pittsburgh’s steel curtain.

Got in another Power Grid game with the expansion deck. I like it.

Two more games of Kutschfahrt included one game nearly deadlock. Several players each discovered an opponent, but made a supporting play (to throw said opponent off-kilter). Well, it worked as everyone kept saying things like “At least two of you are idiots.” Deception can work, but it can backfire. I think the game works a bit better if everyone plays it straight. I would be very interested to see how a group that played this seriously evolved … eventually you’d get to a point where people would end the game when they were ‘almost’ certain they were right (because waiting for certainty risks your opponents ending the game). Eventually you’d see people end the game when they had a reasonable shot (say 2/3rds). A winning strategy would be to make any claim that had a greater than 50% shot. Would the game be interesting at this point? (As a game, and not a theoretic device)? This would make an interesting project — write computer players and evolve them. (I nominate ya’ll).

Celebrities is still a good game.

(Is it just me, or is the Geek really slow these last few days?)

I finally (finally!) managed to play the published version of Race for the Galaxy. Hopefully those games will last me until I get my copy. Also played Modern Art, and two more games of Kutschfahrt. These were played with the full set of cards (and six players). The five or so “advanced” cards do help flesh out the game (as they let you trade professions, and also pass item cards around the table). Now that our group has a few games under our belt, this moves along fairly quickly and a range of reasonable inferences means that we don’t have to spend nearly as long deducing teams. There are still other options to figure out, though. One team lost because one player thought the obvious move was to keep a victory item, and the other thought it was correct to trade it to the 3rd person (to verify the association). It’s tough to get a convention, because your opponents can (if they know where the victory items are) raid you to grab them.

But in any case, I’ve upped my rating of this game to an eight, and recommend it. I could see burning out on this (I’ve only played five times), but it’s quite enjoyable and fast. Despite the fact that it plays up to 10, six or eight may be the sweet spot.

And no, I haven’t bailed arguing about Taxonomy. OK, I have, but it was to play games. I like the (now obvious) definition that a race is a game where the end condition is also the victory condition.

A Session Report is on the SABG site, which has some mechanics.

First up — a homemade set of Haste Worte. Basically, you get a minute to write down a list of things that meet the category (“Articles of clothing.”) After the minute, everyone secretly bids a number (1-21). The lowest number reads first … if, when it’s your turn to read you can’t come up with enough (previously un-named) items you get zero points, otherwise you get your bid (You only name as many items as you need). You play until someone reaches 20 points.

We used a home-made set, so I’ve no idea how the categories are in the original german. You could easily play this without buying a game. (I’ve told you everything you need to know). A reasonable party game.

Two high-larious games of Cash N Guns Yakuzas. I died in both. Apart from the fact that the Yakuzas have swords and shuriken (with their differences) and other special abilities, the game is completely changed by the introduction of teams. Teams get to discuss strategy after the opening deal (a team might get 3 special powers, and keep two) and at the halfway point. My partner and I used baseball signals to show/request specific targets (although we didn’t think about how to show loading states until later). The Yakuza are fairly chaotic. They basically point in a direction (left or right) and, if they’ve played a “Bang” (“Clang”) card, hit the next player in that direction. Of course, if people have dropped, that may be a Yakuza. As a compromise, they don’t get cowardice tokens from dropping (they just get a “cut off your own finger” token … every other finger is a wound!) Balanced? Who cares.

I enjoyed this, but I love Cash N Guns. Still, it felt quite different … and took longer. (Maybe 30 minutes a game instead of 20).

Our second game of Kutschfahrt (with 8 players) pushed this solidly into the “interesting keeper” category. First of all, it handles 6-10 players (awkward numbers) and its novel. We may need a variant to prevent the situation where one player starts with their item (and never really wants to trade it then), but I’m not sure. (Perhaps deal out two items per player, keep one … and you must keep a bag, if dealt). Still, not willing to make this a variant yet. What was interesting is that I don’t think we went around the table 3-4 times before there was a certain declaration. If it hadn’t been made, I was probably willing to make an 80% shot on my turn (fearing that I’d never get another turn).

This does feel like a flaw, in that if a player has a sure thing then other players will likely recognize this, and take a “decent odds” shot. Still, that keeps the game short.

Finally, we played World of Warcraft. I thought it was OK, although long (5 hours — normal for a first game with six players, I hear). Like most RPG games, WoW is a race at heart … level up faster, beat the bad guy. One interesting part (to me) is that you have two teams. That’s nice … if you invest 5 hours there will be multiple winners. It also allows for collaboration, planning, trading, and all that fun. Our game timed out, so we had a massive “Team vs Team” fight. It was fine.

The core mechanism is a “Every player gets 2 actions a turn.” With the actions being “Move, fight, rest, train (get new spells/powers), or Explore the Town.” [Town gives a small rest, the possibility for training, and maybe buying stuff. But, you have to be at a town.” Each team has a few quests, which involve throwing a ton of dice. The combat system looked interesting enough. And, like many FFG games, there were a ton of cards so each game will be different (you have all the various characters, final bad guys, and random events).

One glaring flaw — there are wandering monsters that are just as tough as the quests (tougher, actually). If they appear on you (or block your path) you have to fight them at the cost of 1 (or more) actions and potential death. And for this you get … nothing.

I mean, why not just have a card that says “Lose a turn.” It would be faster. Jacqui and I (on the same team) got killed by one of those that we should have beaten. So instead of losing 2 actions (each of us fighting) we lost about 8 (since we had to heal, move back, and then spend another action fighting them). Since a 3-player team only has 90 actions, that was basically a 10% penalty. I’m told the first expansions fixed this.

I actually like the fact that I could leave when it wasn’t my turn. In a five hour game, that’s not necessarily a downside. Still, there’s some fixed-fun issues, and I think this would be better with 4. I’d play again … but honestly, I was just as impressed with Talisman.

Tried three new games (two from Essen).

Eight of us tried Coach Ride to Devil’s Castle. I knew this was an interesting idea, and I think it worked, but it wasn’t unanimous. Scott Tepper’s review details the mechanics, suffice to say that there are two teams, and you are trying to identify your team-mates, and acquire the necessary objects to win. The game ends when one player takes their turn and says “Myself (and possibly two more players) have the necessary objects to win.” Then you flip up the people, verify that they are on the same team, and verify that they have the necessary objects. Each named player must have at least one object, too. At least, that’s my reading. If the announcement is correct, that team wins. If wrong, the team opposing the announcer wins.

The interesting part is … no communication. (In theory). The play of the cards will often allow one player to see another’s affiliation (or items). You can attack another player … the winner can either steal an item, or see the loser’s affiliation.

Not only can you build up a number of known facts, you can deduce items. The teams need different items to win. If someone offers you an item you need, chances are they are your team-mate. People keep supporting those you are attacking (or being attacked by)? Probably the other team.

You can bluff to deceive, but you’ll be bluffing your team-mates as well.

Our game (with rules) took about an hour, and had a bit more communication than zero. Ah well. This is one of those games where your first play will have everyone confused. I enjoyed it after one game, but we need to play again to figure things out. You can get into a position where other people know a lot more and your starting item doesn’t really help you. Unbalanced starting position … you’ll have to hope one of your team-mates did better. Also, each player gets a mild “modify the rules” power, and I don’t think those are balanced. But at 1 hour for the first game (and possibly dropping 15-30 minutes with an experienced group) I enjoyed it. We’ll have to see. [I do recommend trimming the deck as suggested for your first game].

Antler Island was ok. Much better than Shear Panic. (The sheep herd idea worked well, but all the scoring ideas felt random). Our game took ~45 minutes, with rules. A planning/simultaneous selection with some flexibility in how your reveal. This could possibly be played deeply, not that I did. Worth trying again, but no way would I shell out $80 (or even $50) for this. Not my type of game.

I can see why some people consider Galaxy Trucker the Hit of Essen. The game theme reminded me of the infamous “S.P.I.V.s,” but it’s somewhat friendlier. There are three “Trips.” Each trip starts by building your space ship. You flip up tiles, one at a time, and add them to your ship (or reject them, or put them in a holding tank). You have to connect everything legally, Carcassone style (edges that have a connector must match with all other edges). Ships have various components, thrusters, lasers, crew components, shields, batteries, storage, and a few specials. You can also take time to scout the route, looking at some of the cards you’ll encounter. But it’s real time. When one player finishes, they start a timer on everyone. Once time is up, you order ships 1st to 4th, shuffle up the cards, and go. The cards could be bad, like pirates, smugglers, asteroids, or a combat zone. Those tend to blast parts of your ship away (which may cause other parts, no longer connected to the core, to fall away). You can also pick up goods at planets, etc. It’s random. The 2nd and 3rd day have more cards, and also allow you to have bigger spaceships. You get money for finishing the haul first, and any spare goods you manage to acquire (or money earned from defeating pirates, etc).

I enjoyed it, and I’d play again. Short randomness is good. I’m not sure this has long term potential, but it’s more to my tastes than Antler Island.

Speaking of Randomness, I also played the new edition of Talisman. Without all the expansions, it was relatively quick. Perhaps a touch under 2 hours (for 5 people). Again, as games get longer the randomness becomes more annoying, but four out of the five players had a reasonable shot at winning (ie … got to the final space of the board or were one step away) and the fifth player had the strongest character! So I can’t complain this time, as it was close. Not something I’d play often, but not as bad as I remembered.

Update: Here’s the SABG discussion of Kutschfahrt (and the other games). Talisman took almost 2:30, but the rules took about 30 minutes (partially because people were in and out).

Zwar wird die Teilnehmer an meinem nächsten LiSA-Seminar vom 27. – 29. Oktober 2006 in Österreich wohl kein Schnee erwarten, dafür aber diese beiden Damen …

(Zwar sind mir die Namen entfallen, aber ein Bild sagt ohnehin mehr als tausdend Worte)

Mehr als vier Personen passen allerdings nicht in eine Kutsche (naja fünf, wenn einer vorne Platz nimmt).

Auf jeden Fall wird die Fahrt zum Haldensee garantiert wieder ein Erlebnis.

Ich freue mich, wenn Sie dabei sind.

http://www.martingeiger.com/beschreibung_lisa.php4

Martin Geiger