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Ben Bateson
United Kingdom
Ross-on-Wye
Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
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Another bumper turnout boded well for this week, as Sam continued to celebrate his half term by engaging in boardgames and pork scratchings.
After proving very adept at the fundamentals of Botswana, to the extent where he rendered the rest of us devoid of high-scoring plastic animals (lor' bless you, Gryphon Games, but your production values are marvellous), a game which also glimpsed the fleeting passage of Tony (now wipe that foul image from your mind) with his big box of Essen goodies.
A very modest haul this year: there was never very much on this year's Essen list that excited me, so I was content with the inevitable Dominion expansion, Tiebreaker, and a much-sought-after copy of For Sale. Tony had unwittingly acted as a Math Trade and Chain of Generosity mule (thanks Tony!), so I also wound up with two copies of Toledo (I won't attempt to explain why I have would up with two copies, but if you'd like one of them it's on this month's G4GG lottery) and one of Mystery Of The Abbey - a quaint old classic which I've always fancied a stab at. I also came into possession of a copy of Counter magazine: a new one to me which provided some engaging bedtime reading for the weekend.
Declining to unwrap everything straight away, we polished off Botswana, and split into two groups: Sam, Ben and John starting with Ankh-Morpork.
A proper old ding-dong ensued, with much second-guessing on all parts. Sam had the two opportunities to tamper with the character cards early on, and armed with this knowledge, built up a legion of buildings. John played circumspectly, scuppered by an early Fool limiting his handsize. And I had Vetinari, and really it's not easy to disguise the fact that you're playing Vetinari. The other two saw through it quickly and always kept me a minion or two from victory. For a long time we assumed Sam was playing Chrysoprase, but he passed 50 dollars in unspectacular fashion, before revealing his Lord card a few turns later. John also had a Lord and was never really in touch.
Ankh-Morpork plays extremely effectively with three. I had previously thought of it as one of those 'if you haven't got four, you might as well not bother', but this play completely reversed my opinion: I think it might actually be best as a three-hander.
Meanwhile, Becky was busy beating up Ian and Anne at Stone Age in a retributative effort for her poor showing last week.
After some debate and drinks-buying, we switched over Sam and Anne. Becky, much to her distaste, was required to teach for the second week running, but she did have the consolation of being able to play one of her favourites - Vikings. They had time for two games - Sam winning the first, and Becky the second.
Anne, John and I had embarked into the realms of On The Cards and a virgin try-out for my playtest copy (for which I am enormously grateful to Surprised Stare, having done but one afternoon of play-testing which I mostly spent bickering with Ian Vincent, because...well, some people are just good fun to argue with).
It was a good opportunity to get to grips with what I really think of the game, too. For the uninitiated, Sebastian has basically pinched every single mechanic available for trick-taking games, and by randomising decks of 'Deal', 'Card Play', 'Trick Taking' and 'Aim', you come up with the objective for each round. The winner takes the top card from the deck of their choice, thereby changing one aspect of the rules for the next round. It's a very clever premise on the surface, it does tend to throw up situations which are very counter-intuitive or don't allow for enough strategy, which is why I still believe there needs to be more guidance than just selecting cards randomly (this was the point which occupied much of the aforementioned bickering). It's only through a lot of trial and error that you'll work out the most fulfilling way of playing On The Cards, and with the best will in the world, I just don't think many gamers are going to put in the time.
As a novelty for experience card-players such as John and Anne, though, it works superbly well, and all were suitably impressed with it as to go away with the intentions of buying a copy. The men were no match for Anne's bridge-veteran tactics, although she had one round of complete brain-fart where nothing seemed to make sense. This, I suspect, is another big potential problem with the game.
Lots going on this week, then, with two tables and cards, dice and plastic animals galore. Next week, we hope to sample some of Tony's Essen captures: I particularly want to try Last Will and Drum Roll. Having said this, 'what I want to play next week' is usually mutually exclusive with 'what we actually play next week', so we'll see.
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Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
