After all the wedding and honeymoon hullabaloo, things have settled down into a (somewhat) normal routine. We've moved Christina into my apartment, and have managed to pack a lot into our a storage shed we rented especially for that purpose. For the curious-minded, yes - I did pack a lot of games into the shed. However, I only packed games I have for collectable purposes, and games that I didn't expect to play in the next 6-8 months. 95% of the games I've played in the last 12 months are still in my gaming closet. There are a couple of games I doubt I will play before the year is over, but I could bring myself to put in storage. (That means you,
Paths of Glory!)
Since things have slowed down, I've been able to go to a couple of gaming sessions - the aforementioned Cafe Brazil Tuesday gaming group, and a regular Friday night get-together at Jay's house. Here are some random thoughts from the games I've played:
Himalaya
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3800
This was my first play of this little gem from 2002. The scoring is clever. There are 3 different scoring methods players must balance - religious influence (area control #1), political influence (area control #2), and economic influence (comparison of economic VPs). At the end of a 4-player game, whoever has control of the least amount of religious influence ('stupa' points) loses. Between the remaining players, whoever has the control of the fewest areas of political influence ('delegate' points) finishes next-to-last. Then, between the final two players, whoever has the most economic influence (# of yaks in their herd) wins.
During the game, players are represented on the board by a plastic yak token. They program the 6 actions for the current turn with Robo Rally-like decisions. (minus the random cards) Then players move around the board, competing for gathering limited resources, which they can collect and deliver to pre-defined destinations to fulfill a specific order. For instance, one village on the board might need two salt and one tea. If you deliver those resources there, you can collect the reward, letting you score points in two of the different scoring types. The game is played over 12 turns, with 3 incremental scoring rounds to give extra influence to the biggest resource collectors.
I found the scoring mechanism to be very interesting. Players must balance the different scoring options, as they need to not come in last in any of the various scoring types. Our game played much longer than the recommended 60 minutes, but could be sped up with quicker play. I definitely want to play this one again, and might wind up buying my own copy.
Although I thought I was competing for first place, I wound losing the tiebreaker (# of yaks) during the political influence scoring, so I came in third. It's important to try to track how many yaks the other players are collecting, since this is the only hidden victory point information in the game.
Leonardo da Vinci
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/21920
Leonardo was a much-anticipated game for me. I sat on my copy for months before finally playing it last week. After a full game, I'm not sure what to think about it yet. At its core, the game is an efficiency engine that lasts a predefined number of turns. The goal is to maximize your resources to produce inventions which give money to the players who complete them. Most money wins. Multiple players can complete the same inventions, but more money is paid to the players who complete them first.
The basic mechanic of the game is an auction for various actions. But rather than bidding money, players bid by placing workers on the actions, like Caylus. Only here, multiple players can place on the same action. The player who places the most workers on an action gets to take the action for free, and the remaining players can take the action by paying an increasing amount of money. One trick is that once workers are placed on a space, they cannot be increased. (with one exception)
Inventions get completed by spending resource cards (like wood, rope, glass, etc.), along with the most expensive resource - research weeks. Each invention requires a number of man-weeks, which your workers must accomplish by being assigned to your laboratories.
Initially, I was very excited to play this release. However, I was underwhelmed with the game as a whole. Just when things get started and your efficiency engine gets into full production, the game ends early with a final two turns of zero-decision gameplay. I'd like to try this game again, and hopefully I'll warm up to it.
In our game, I fumbled around misunderstanding rules & strategy both. I wound up in last place. However, later reflecting on the scoring, I had scored myself zero points when someone beat me to an invention. I think I neglected to give myself the 2nd-place scoring for my final work. Still, Jay clobbered us with his mechanical men.
Goa
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/9216
Why don't I play this game more often? It's a really great game. I played a 3-player game with Jay and Dave. It was Dave's first time, and he had trouble with the once-around auction mechanic. My strategy was an early-game colony / late-game expedition card collection. I wound up with 3 colonies, matching 3 & 2 card symbols, and scoring 4 points for a duty tile for a victory. I know the Dallas Gamers got burned out on this game, but I've only played it a handful of times.
Taj Mahal
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/475
What can I say, this is my favorite game! I had my sights set on a trade good victory, but never could pull enough elephants or win the purple special card. I settled for palace chains after a few turns had passed, but was not able to optimize that strategy due to a lack of dual-color cards. This was the first time I felt a little hosed by the cards, which I've never considered a problem in Taj. Dave played a great game with a balanced strategy. It helped he kept the +2 bonus card for most of the game.
Lexio
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/19184
Underwhelming. I was hoping this would be a good Tichu alternative when we had 3 or 5 players. It was incredibly dull with 3 players. The decisions were much less interesting than in Tichu - probably because there were no trump Dragons or bombs. The scoring was easier to explain than in Tichu, which is promising for non-gamer groups. I see the potential for the game to play better with 5 players, so I'll try this again. I am disappointed that my set has red, green, yellow, and white tiles, rather than the blue that I've seen in most pictures.
YINSH
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/7854
Jay and I played a couple of games of YINSH, and he beat me in both. I remember being good at this game before, but maybe it was beginner's luck? I felt like I made a few boneheaded moves and was punished for them. Good abstract game, we should play this one more often.