Tuesday 7th March

Two more spaces

Lizzy wrote:Put me down Kes. I think Tom is bringing Isle of Skye for me so could play that after

Yes, I'll be bringing that for you to play. It's a nice game.

Catan sounds good to me Kes

I'll Catan, too.

Cool, full then!

Had some cracking games this week, thanks David and Jamie.

First up was Manhattan Project, a worker-placement game with the aim of building bombs in a race to be the first to 50 points. I really enjoyed it, lots of interesting mechanics, such as non-synchronised worker return/redeployment, and an espionage space that allows you to use (and therefore block) progressively more of your opponents' buildings. Along with the board spaces, the buildings are what give you the different resources, such as more workers, money etc. and also plutonium and uranium, which are needed for bomb-building. The non-synchronised redeployment means that you can potentially block spaces for ages - you can return workers whenever you wished. Combining that with the espionage space means that you can really screw with people's plans...but they can screw with yours too of course. Not to mention the fact that you can also destroy buildings... All in all, a superb game!

Then it was onto Celestia, a push-your-luck game about trusting whoever is the current captain of the game's lovely 3d airship to overcome hazards inorder to journey as far as you can. The further you get, the more points are available, first to 50 wins. Again, I really enjoyed it - both the games of it we played were super fun and the push-your-luck mechanic is great - it's really satisfying when it works for you (particularly so if everyone else's luck fails) but then aaargh when it all goes (inevitably) wrong at some point. Definitely want to play again!

Finally, Secret Hitler. Enough said...oh go on then. Another cracking game of it, which somehow the Fascists won (from 4-2 behind), thanks quite a lot to Stephen aka Major Swine...er I mean Sven convincing my good honest Liberal self to assassinate Jamie instead of Tom...who just happened to be Hitler. Fair play though Stephen, you played an awesome game, you deserved the victory! Had I assassinated Tom though it would have been 2 Hitler assassinations in successive games for me, but it was not to be... Already looking forward to the next game!

Also, David, I've picked up two Celestia player tokens you left behind, let me know when you're next coming along and I'll bring them with me.

Good summary of Manhattan Project, Samuel. It's a great game, one of my favourites. I recently got the Second Stage and Nations expansions for it, which add in a number of different, small variations, including giving each player a starting nation, each with different abilities; a bunch of people associated with the MP who are available as short term benefits; more powerful weapons; additional buildings.

If you're up for a game soon then Liz and I were planning to play at the club in the coming weeks.

We played Catan: Cities and Knights last night. I love Catan and I don't play nearly enough of it, C&K gives the game a quite different feel and a bit more depth. As well as the usual resource management and building you have a development track, which gives more frequent access to development cards; barbarians that loiter menacingly off-shore, waiting to pillage the weakest cities; and knights to defend you against said barbarians. I enjoyed it, despite the longer than usual play time. Keen to play more of Catan and it's expansions.

Glad you enjoyed it Samuel!

I did suggest we should assassinate Tom, given that we were sure he was Fascist, it's a 25% chance insta win, plus, importantly, it extends Liberal majority to 3. No, much better to assassinate someone who kept playing and passing Liberal policies, and had done nothing to make anyone think he was Fascist!

To my mind, the team cohesion for Liberals was dire, and as Liberals that's the most important thing we need to get right. I may have to write a guide / tips for playing Secret Hitler.

Stephen did play well though, a natural born sneaky one!

Jamie wrote:I may have to write a guide / tips for playing Secret Hitler.

Tip #1: Don't sit next to Aneurin (spellcheck: "Urine").

Anachrony was great!

Anachrony did look great yesterday. I'd love to have a go at it sometime.

I enjoyed Cities and Knights, added some interesting elements. Did take far too long though. I think playing two games of regular Catan would have been more fun.

Sorry I didn't get to play Isle of Skye Tom! Thanks for bringing it. One day...

That Catan did drag out. Little bit of AP going on with having to squeeze every bit of development out of each turn. It was quite good but not good enough for the sitting around time.

Anachrony does sound like one to try. Reviewers are going nuts for it.

karl_b wrote:Good summary of Manhattan Project, Samuel. It's a great game, one of my favourites. I recently got the Second Stage and Nations expansions for it, which add in a number of different, small variations, including giving each player a starting nation, each with different abilities; a bunch of people associated with the MP who are available as short term benefits; more powerful weapons; additional buildings.

If you're up for a game soon then Liz and I were planning to play at the club in the coming weeks.

Yes I would definitely be up for a game, sign me up!

Lizzy wrote:Anachrony did look great yesterday. I'd love to have a go at it sometime.

Yes from what I've read Anachrony looks great, I would also like to try it at some point.

Meurig wrote:Anachrony was great!

I've only just finished punching it! There's so much stuff!

It was really busy and I arrived a bit late (bloody Wendys!) so myself and Dave went downstairs and played a couple of games of Star Realms. Lost both games as a varied strategy beat my specialisations. Went heavy green in the first game and managed to do a lot of damage but it fizzled out towards the end. Then I tried a yellow/blue combo which struggled when no blue were available in the trade row. I had to resort to buying Explorers which you should only do in an emergency!

There were a couple of Professors discussing literature sat next to us and we were happily sat there blowing up space ships! Should have asked them to play Shakespeare or something!

Cities and Knights takes some getting your head around and definitely will force you to make harder decisions than base catan. However, I don't think it would take that long if everyone had a little more experience with it.
Sorry for whinging the entire game it was just really shit for me!

Kes wrote:Cities and Knights takes some getting your head around and definitely will force you to make harder decisions than base catan. However, I don't think it would take that long if everyone had a little more experience with it.
Sorry for whinging the entire game it was just really shit for me!

I dont think I'd enjoy Catan without that expansion to be honest. Makes it a proper game

So MoM... I'm still not sure. Still fells like it would have made a better computer game and the board is surplus to requirements (they could have easily animated the models in game). Perhaps the app running on individual devices might help? Also the scenarios are also pretty same'y considering this is an app and could have almost infinite permutations of events. I had played the Cycle of Eternity story before and each time it has been virtually the same. I was biting my tongue for most of the game to avoid spoilers. But given all my moaning I did enjoy the game last night. Probably more the table company than the game though. And the challenge of actually fulfilling my insanity condition - which meant I had to commit suicide on the last turn. With the surprise appearance of a Star sporn - it was pretty easy to freak myself out just as Tim was completing the mission.

I'd be keen to play with you all again but 1st edition and see what you all think.