Tuesday 5th July

I'd like to play Blood Rage, please!

Meurig wrote:I'd like to play Blood Rage, please!

Done

I'll join blood rage it there's space!

AndyM wrote:I'll join blood rage it there's space!

As long as we're not interrupting your lie-in



(I somehow managed to find an article that doesn't appear to presume you're scum just for being part of a union...)

Haha, I'm on paternity leave so doesn't apply but thanks for your support!

Is there a space in Guilds this week? Otherwise I'll go for Quadropolis.

DaveB wrote:Would like to try out some expo purchases - anyone up for Kingdom Builder and/or Quadropolis?

1, DaveB
2, PaulC
3,
4,

This still going down Dave?

AntW wrote:This still going down Dave?

Yes indeed - shall I mark you down?

Sam wrote:Is there a space in Guilds this week? Otherwise I'll go for Quadropolis.

Nice to know we're your second choice!

DaveB wrote:

AntW wrote:This still going down Dave?

Yes indeed - shall I mark you down?

Sam wrote:Is there a space in Guilds this week? Otherwise I'll go for Quadropolis.

Nice to know we're your second choice!

Yus please!

DaveB wrote:Would like to try out some expo purchases - anyone up for Kingdom Builder and/or Quadropolis?

1, DaveB
2, PaulC
3, AntW
4,

Would quite like to go for Quadropolis as well Dave, so can step in if Sam is playing Guilds...

Sam you are in Start at 7pm? Tom C is bringing Isle of Skye for afterwards... it will be like a re-living of the UK games expo.

TheOtherPaulG wrote:Would quite like to go for Quadropolis as well Dave, so can step in if Sam is playing Guilds...

Excellent shall see you tonight

Had a blast today. Guilds of London is the best new game I've played since Isle of Skye at the Expo. Very strategic, very interactive, plays in exactly the right amount of time for me (an hour or so). Rules can be explained in probably 5 minutes but not because they're simplistic, they're just really elegant and sensible. Seems like an absolute gem.

We also played Isle of Skye again. I've played twice now and I can confirm it is excellent. Flows so damn nicely. Lots of attention paid to other players, specifically by stressing that other people might steal "your" tiles, or tiles you want (might make you want to punch each other). Designed to be a very close game (you either get the tiles you want or you get paid for them, and players in behind get paid more per turn) so very elastic. Both times I've played that photo finish was really exciting. Maybe more so because you've all built off each other's losses. For a pointsy game it is quite cleverly social. Also plays in an hour or so. Got a bit overexcited when I won, though only by one coin, and one of my coins had been rescued from under the table and we had only assumed it must have belonged to me... so who knows.

Also Kodama, and a few very funny games of Deception, both great fun too.

Rule elegance is exactly what Blood Rage lacked. Unacceptable amount of rulebook checking for a first game. The rulebook was of the sort that meant that some answers were found by googling. For the first game, the scoring and the cards are also very unintuitive, which makes strategy difficult to gauge. It also took us too long for what it is.

I suspect it will be a very good gaming experience from the 2nd game on. I also suspect the above issues could be solved pretty easily with a crib card. This probably already exists on Bgg.

I did wonder slightly about replayability. Obviously the drafting provides lots and there's a small amount of variability on the board setup. But I do think the game would benefit from the option of variable player powers from the start on*. You could rig this into the game by drawing/selecting/drafting clan upgrade cards (perhaps to a value of 1/2) prior to first round. I wouldn't be surprised if it appears in an expansion.

Highly recommended though.

*Variable player powers are probably my favourite game feature. Unsurprisingly a notable part of RollftG. But it was Cosmic Encounter which made me love them!

Sorry, DaveB, PaulG2 and AntW. I just couldn't click with either game last night, probably due to the sh*tty mood I was in. Hope it didn't impair your own enjoyment.

For what it's worth I would probably enjoy Quadropolis under normal circumstances, it's not a bad little filler; Kingdom Builder not so much, I'm filing that one under M for Meh!

psychomansam wrote:Rule elegance is exactly what Blood Rage lacked. Unacceptable amount of rulebook checking for a first game. The rulebook was of the sort that meant that some answers were found by googling. For the first game, the scoring and the cards are also very unintuitive, which makes strategy difficult to gauge. It also took us too long for what it is.

I suspect it will be a very good gaming experience from the 2nd game on. I also suspect the above issues could be solved pretty easily with a crib card. This probably already exists on Bgg.

I did wonder slightly about replayability. Obviously the drafting provides lots and there's a small amount of variability on the board setup. But I do think the game would benefit from the option of variable player powers from the start on*. You could rig this into the game by drawing/selecting/drafting clan upgrade cards (perhaps to a value of 1/2) prior to first round. I wouldn't be surprised if it appears in an expansion.

Highly recommended though.

*Variable player powers are probably my favourite game feature. Unsurprisingly a notable part of RollftG. But it was Cosmic Encounter which made me love them!

Did everyone gang up on you Sam? I heard what sounded like protestations regarding your weakened state, and that people should attack elsewehere, was that the gist of it? How did it pan out?

PaulC wrote:Sorry,  DaveB, PaulG2 and AntW. I just couldn't click with either game last night, probably due to the sh*tty mood I was in. Hope it didn't impair your own enjoyment.

For what it's worth I would probably enjoy Quadropolis under normal circumstances, it's not a bad little filler; Kingdom Builder not so much, I'm filing that one under M for Meh!

Its fine I very much enjoyed Quadropolis, looking forward to playing it again especially the expert mode! I agree about Kingdom Builder, didn't really excite me, felt like I spent the game either being disrupted by other players, or by my own poor RNG from the terrain deck.

Jamie wrote:

psychomansam wrote:Rule elegance is exactly what Blood Rage lacked. Unacceptable amount of rulebook checking for a first game. The rulebook was of the sort that meant that some answers were found by googling. For the first game, the scoring and the cards are also very unintuitive, which makes strategy difficult to gauge. It also took us too long for what it is.

I suspect it will be a very good gaming experience from the 2nd game on. I also suspect the above issues could be solved pretty easily with a crib card. This probably already exists on Bgg.

I did wonder slightly about replayability. Obviously the drafting provides lots and there's a small amount of variability on the board setup. But I do think the game would benefit from the option of variable player powers from the start on*. You could rig this into the game by drawing/selecting/drafting clan upgrade cards (perhaps to a value of 1/2) prior to first round. I wouldn't be surprised if it appears in an expansion.

Highly recommended though.

*Variable player powers are probably my favourite game feature. Unsurprisingly a notable part of RollftG. But it was Cosmic Encounter which made me love them!

Did everyone gang up on you Sam? I heard what sounded like protestations regarding your weakened state, and that people should attack elsewehere, was that the gist of it? How did it pan out?

I had a great first round and first half of second round. Which made Andy in particular decide to just try to take me down. As it happens, scoring well or controlling the board in the first half of the game is largely irrelevant to end scoring. Andy and I got thrashed by Tom who was thrashed by Meurig who was heading towards double my score. I don't follow football at all, but apparently this is fitting...

Hi Jamie (and all those playing spheres of influence) - sincere apologies from me for the no-show, I was locked in a horrendous commercial meeting until 9pm with no way of letting you know. hope you had a good game and will be back soon! thanks, paul

bigpaulie wrote:Hi Jamie (and all those playing spheres of influence) - sincere apologies from me for the no-show, I was locked in a horrendous commercial meeting until 9pm with no way of letting you know.  hope you had a good game and will be back soon!  thanks, paul

No problems Paul. Hopefully we'll have another game before too long, or maybe even a game of Risk 2210 AD? I'll suggest it in a couple of weeks or so. Catch you around, Jamie.

psychomansam wrote:

Jamie wrote:Did everyone gang up on you Sam? I heard what sounded like protestations regarding your weakened state, and that people should attack elsewehere, was that the gist of it? How did it pan out?

I had a great first round and first half of second round. Which made Andy in particular decide to just try to take me down. As it happens, scoring well or controlling the board in the first half of the game is largely irrelevant to end scoring. Andy and I got thrashed by Tom who was thrashed by Meurig who was heading towards double my score. I don't follow football at all, but apparently this is fitting...

I wasn't actually that far ahead of Tom but certainly my strategy paid off really well at the end and your early game domination counted for little. I feel like there must have been a way for you to capitalise on the fact that you had all your tracks up so much further than everyone else half way through the game though.

There wasn't really ganging up although Andy was trying to encourage it! I'm not really sure ganging up works anyway, because 1) everyone fights at the same time 2) whoever wins keeps all their figures and everyone who loses loses all theirs, so there is no way to chip away at people, other than the fact that the winner loses cards 3) winning fights isn't necessarily what you want to do anyway. I won largely on the back of ensuring I got loads of dudes killed. Tom too, was racking up points by getting ships killed, I think.

I enjoyed it a lot. It dragged a bit more than it needed too I think, and a quicker playthrough would have been more enjoyable. Quite a lot of the rule checking was avoidable (like when I made up a rule about only one ship in a fjord for who knows what reason) and in any case would be eliminated on subsequent plays, which would help.