Sunday, April 19, 2009
Student Nationals - Day 2
A shorter day for gaming as the closing ceremony takes up a chunk of time. Still four sessions but now each game is one that is quicker to complete. In one session, we have the time to complete two games. Strangely, I completely forgot to take any photos of the games but luckily others can remind me what we played.
Citadels
Of all the games this weekend, Citadels was the only one I had played before. A reasonably simple card game where you get to choose to be a particular character (king, architect, assassin, merchant, etc.) each turn and build parts of your city. Our game became unbalanced because one player knew how to play the game well tactically and the rest didn't. Although he didn't win, it did have the effect that one of the other players kept getting assassinated and missing their turn. Missing turns sucks in any game and missing a few in a row kills off your chances.
Zooloretto
This is an interesting resource management game where you try to fill the fields of your zoo with animals whilst avoiding having creatures you have no space for - no one likes culling pandas. My risk assessment in this game was pretty poor and my big plans ground to a halt through lack of money.
Dominion
A few players in this game - rated an impressive 8.1/10 on BoardGameGeek - were familiar with the rules and happily charged off into the distance towards victory as the rest of us started to get the hang of things. It's a card game where everybody starts off level with a small deck but over time you buy more cards to make your deck more efficient - that is, make sure the cards you draw each turn allow you to pick up more cards and generate more wealth. If you know what you're doing, your deck will get faster and faster - Magic: The Gathering fans will be familiar with the concept. Why play 1 card when you can play 5? An alternative approach, favoured by myself, was to force the end game before the power players had started to Hoover up all the victory points. It may not let you win but it sure stops you coming last.
Next were two short river games played as one slot.
Fast Flowing Forest Fellers
This was a quick and easy fun game where you have to move a couple of lumberjacks down a river and off the other end of the board. In the way are logs and other players which you can shove out of the way, Abalone-style. There are also rapids that force areas of the river to flow in different directions. Looks a simple game but when you have 5 players all trying to squeeze past some rocks at the same time, it became nightmarishly hard to predict where you would be come your next turn. Being able to push other players into the rapids and back up the river was definitely amusing. Recommended game for playing with non-gamers.
Mississippi Queen
Out on the Mississippi are Lovely Ladies waiting to be picked up and carried further down-river on your paddle steamer. On the way the river winds through small islets and round bends which limit your speed and force you to spend more coal on manoeuvring. And, like in FFFF above, you can be bumped out of the way by a boat coming through on its turn. Fortune favoured the brave so I didn't win.
After all the games were finished and results taken away, we had to wait for the Awards Ceremony to start so played another couple of games of Dominion to pass the time.
The Awards Ceremony is a long, drawn-out process and, traditionally, is late starting and seems to go on forever. This year's was no exception. The programme stated (amusingly with hindsight):
5:00pm Awards Ceremony
6:00pm Close and Go Home
First up was the charity aspect of the event - a donation to Christie's, who raise money for The Christie in Manchester (one of the largest cancer treatment centres in Europe).
Next was the raffle where, for a change, we won nothing to resell on eBay. There was also a prize for getting a slip stamped by all the traders in the hall - a good way of encouraging people to visit them. And a third prize for guessing the total number rolled by the 400+ dice collected at registration on Sunday. Another Vague novelty.
Eventually, it's way past 5pm and the AWARDS part (where points are dished out to the different teams) starts to kick into life. The Crystal Vague had been a success and Big Bad Jon announced the best costumes (individual (SteamPunk) and team (Wizard of Oz with flying monkey)) and the overall winners before condemning the team that trying to cheat their way to victory. It should have been in the "Bible of Vague Roleplay" that was on sale at the event - BBJ will catch you out.
Nearing 6pm and we get to the actual games played. Unfortunately, we had a train to catch and so started to collect our luggage together and squeeze through the crowds to the exit. Deciding that a loo break would be a good idea, I went upstairs to the toilets by the bar. When I returned, they were calling out the Boardgames results and I was 3rd - the first time ever that anyone from GARPS had placed! By the time I'd clawed my way back to the stage, they'd moved on to 2nd and I'd missed my seconds in the limelight although Judy Bartlett (Vague boardgames supremo) did sing our society's praises for me.
And so to Manchester Piccadilly where we ease into our seats in the train with plenty of time to spare. We had allowed for a lot more time to get to the station than we needed - two thirds of a mile does not require 30 minutes to walk - so I was annoyed with myself for leaving the Nationals so early.
With an uneventful trip to Euston, Waterloo and Earley, we were home by 11pm.
Labels: Manchester, Student Nationals
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Student Nationals - Day 1
The Live Action Role Players (LARPers) definitely take their art/sport/hobby seriously...
The games for the Nationals start today so everybody turns up to the Student Union at 9am. Pretty quickly the smell starts to hit you - some male gamers tend not to recognise the need to wash regularly. Luckily there are only "hot spots" of odour and we are off to our events before the air quality deteriorates too far.
The wargamers (large-scale tabletop battles with figures) are off to the sports centre; roleplayers leave for the Geoffrey Manton building; LARPers have a secret destination far away; which leaves the boardgamers to go back to the bar (woot!) to play out our sessions. Having food and beer just yards away from the game tables wins Vague, the hosts, a gold star in my books.
We find that a few players have dropped out and the organisers pressgang other Vague people into filling their spaces. In the end we have 4 tables of 5 people and the gaming commences.
Steel Driver
This is a railway line building game but not very similar to "Railway Rivals" or "Ticket To Ride". There are two phases - the taking of routes by different railroad companies followed by the determining of the company share prices. Unless you've played this before, you won't realise how damned important the second phase is. After setting up an impressive railway network and profiting well as a result, I was pipped to the win by the player with shares in the most highly valued company.
Giants
Giants needs you to build Easter Island style statues and move them to the beaches of an island for erection. There's an interesting compromise between distance (statues moved further generate more points) and time (making sure you have four statues in place before the other players). Next time I will make sure I have lots of trees cut down for logs to roll statues over.
Terakh
This was an interesting strategy/combat game which I won by encouraging the other players to concentrate on fighting each other. Thanks, guys. The concept of the game - moving pieces around and engaging in combat seemed OK but the designers threw in a set of cards to give an extra element of luck (in addition to that of the dice used in combat resolution). I didn't feel these cards sat well with the design - you could have a nice strategy coming along and then somebody plays a card which chucks a spanner in the works. I can imagine the game playing fine without them.
Mission Red Planet
Quite a busy game which I didn't quite get the hang of - another few plays through would be necessary. The idea is to get your troops onto Mars to occupy strategic locations for victory points. The troops get to the red planet via spaceships which are launched as a result of player whim. Or sometimes they don't as a ship gets sabotaged by a player, or they're shot by another. Tricky game.
After the day's sessions of games, Sue and I went back to the Atrium to drop off our bags - I didn't want to carry my rucksack around all evening for no reason. Unfortunately, we napped for a few hours instead and it wasn't until after "Casualty" that we ventured back.
There was a lot going on with the Crystal Vague problem-solving event which we had decided not to enter as there were only the two of us in our team. After a drink or two spent chatting and admiring people's costumes, we went downstairs to the Rock Kitchen. This wasn't part of the Nationals but we did get subsidised entry. Two rooms of the Student Union's first floor were given over to the public for a night of rock music; one large room with a heavy duty sound system and the other with music at a level you could enjoy and endure. Spent a good couple of hours listening to some classic rock before strolling home to get some sleep.
The games for the Nationals start today so everybody turns up to the Student Union at 9am. Pretty quickly the smell starts to hit you - some male gamers tend not to recognise the need to wash regularly. Luckily there are only "hot spots" of odour and we are off to our events before the air quality deteriorates too far.
The wargamers (large-scale tabletop battles with figures) are off to the sports centre; roleplayers leave for the Geoffrey Manton building; LARPers have a secret destination far away; which leaves the boardgamers to go back to the bar (woot!) to play out our sessions. Having food and beer just yards away from the game tables wins Vague, the hosts, a gold star in my books.
We find that a few players have dropped out and the organisers pressgang other Vague people into filling their spaces. In the end we have 4 tables of 5 people and the gaming commences.
Steel Driver
This is a railway line building game but not very similar to "Railway Rivals" or "Ticket To Ride". There are two phases - the taking of routes by different railroad companies followed by the determining of the company share prices. Unless you've played this before, you won't realise how damned important the second phase is. After setting up an impressive railway network and profiting well as a result, I was pipped to the win by the player with shares in the most highly valued company.
Giants
Giants needs you to build Easter Island style statues and move them to the beaches of an island for erection. There's an interesting compromise between distance (statues moved further generate more points) and time (making sure you have four statues in place before the other players). Next time I will make sure I have lots of trees cut down for logs to roll statues over.
Terakh
This was an interesting strategy/combat game which I won by encouraging the other players to concentrate on fighting each other. Thanks, guys. The concept of the game - moving pieces around and engaging in combat seemed OK but the designers threw in a set of cards to give an extra element of luck (in addition to that of the dice used in combat resolution). I didn't feel these cards sat well with the design - you could have a nice strategy coming along and then somebody plays a card which chucks a spanner in the works. I can imagine the game playing fine without them.
Mission Red Planet
Quite a busy game which I didn't quite get the hang of - another few plays through would be necessary. The idea is to get your troops onto Mars to occupy strategic locations for victory points. The troops get to the red planet via spaceships which are launched as a result of player whim. Or sometimes they don't as a ship gets sabotaged by a player, or they're shot by another. Tricky game.
After the day's sessions of games, Sue and I went back to the Atrium to drop off our bags - I didn't want to carry my rucksack around all evening for no reason. Unfortunately, we napped for a few hours instead and it wasn't until after "Casualty" that we ventured back.
There was a lot going on with the Crystal Vague problem-solving event which we had decided not to enter as there were only the two of us in our team. After a drink or two spent chatting and admiring people's costumes, we went downstairs to the Rock Kitchen. This wasn't part of the Nationals but we did get subsidised entry. Two rooms of the Student Union's first floor were given over to the public for a night of rock music; one large room with a heavy duty sound system and the other with music at a level you could enjoy and endure. Spent a good couple of hours listening to some classic rock before strolling home to get some sleep.
Labels: Manchester, Student Nationals
Friday, April 17, 2009
Student Nationals - Day 0
It's the Easter holidays so time once again for the Student Nationals. As Vague won last year, the event is hosted at the Manchester Metropolitan University Student Union.
This will be the fifth we've attended representing Reading University Games and Roleplaying Society (GARPS). ("We" being Sue and I as no-one else at Reading can be bothered to summon up the energy to go with us.)
Lunchtime we are squeezing onto a train to Manchester that seems a coach or two short without any reduction in passengers. Thankfully we booked weeks in advance so had the right to turf people out of our seats. The ride was pretty uneventful apart from having to endure the whingy kid opposite who never seemed happy.
From Manchester Piccadilly it was a short-ish walk to the Atrium on Princess Street. This place rented out apartments which sounded better than hotel rooms although what we paid for was effectively a very nice bedsit with a bathroom. The fridge came in handy for storing some food but we didn't cook anything - too many restaurants around.
Great view of the Rochdale Canal under the window, which seemed to have more traffic cones in it than ducks and geese.
And across the road was one end of Canal Street, the centre of the Manchester Gay Village.
After dumping our stuff, we set off into Manchester to do some food shopping. Or that was what I was led to believe we were doing. Instead I ended up following Sue round a series of weird and wonderful shops, like Cyberdog and Afflecks.
To be fair, we did eventually find a supermarket in the form of an Aldi. I'm so unfamiliar with this chain that I couldn't even pronounce the name correctly - apparently it rhymes with Audi.
On the way back through Piccadilly Gardens, we spotted some delightful urban furniture against a delightfully colourful wall. I would have to be really drunk to use these - which is probably a good thing as that's when they're most needed.
Next stop was China Town for tea - a HuNan restaurant on Faulkner Street.
After finally getting back to base, we dumped our shopping and set off to the Nationals to register. Importantly, I remembered to take a pair of dice which was the toll for admission - no die, no entry.
We were too late to catch Big Bad John's welcome speech to the masses so retired to the bar where we spent the night chatting to people we'd made friends with over the years and playing "Apples to Apples".
This will be the fifth we've attended representing Reading University Games and Roleplaying Society (GARPS). ("We" being Sue and I as no-one else at Reading can be bothered to summon up the energy to go with us.)
Lunchtime we are squeezing onto a train to Manchester that seems a coach or two short without any reduction in passengers. Thankfully we booked weeks in advance so had the right to turf people out of our seats. The ride was pretty uneventful apart from having to endure the whingy kid opposite who never seemed happy.
From Manchester Piccadilly it was a short-ish walk to the Atrium on Princess Street. This place rented out apartments which sounded better than hotel rooms although what we paid for was effectively a very nice bedsit with a bathroom. The fridge came in handy for storing some food but we didn't cook anything - too many restaurants around.
Great view of the Rochdale Canal under the window, which seemed to have more traffic cones in it than ducks and geese.
And across the road was one end of Canal Street, the centre of the Manchester Gay Village.
After dumping our stuff, we set off into Manchester to do some food shopping. Or that was what I was led to believe we were doing. Instead I ended up following Sue round a series of weird and wonderful shops, like Cyberdog and Afflecks.
To be fair, we did eventually find a supermarket in the form of an Aldi. I'm so unfamiliar with this chain that I couldn't even pronounce the name correctly - apparently it rhymes with Audi.
On the way back through Piccadilly Gardens, we spotted some delightful urban furniture against a delightfully colourful wall. I would have to be really drunk to use these - which is probably a good thing as that's when they're most needed.
Next stop was China Town for tea - a HuNan restaurant on Faulkner Street.
After finally getting back to base, we dumped our shopping and set off to the Nationals to register. Importantly, I remembered to take a pair of dice which was the toll for admission - no die, no entry.
We were too late to catch Big Bad John's welcome speech to the masses so retired to the bar where we spent the night chatting to people we'd made friends with over the years and playing "Apples to Apples".
Labels: Manchester, Student Nationals
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Rheinländer
| Rheinländer certainly looks impressive from the box art but the contents do not meet your expectations. The game isn't too bad - I did find myself actually starting to understand the underlying strategy needed to win as time went by (normally this doesn't happen for me). The pieces, though, do detract from the visual experience and not surprisingly a bad-looking game can real kill off people's enthusiasm, no matter how good the game-play. Here you have plastic figures (representing dukes), round wooden counters (troops), grey plastic blocks (bastions), and a very large wooden bowling pin (the arch-bishop). We felt that some consistency would have been better here. All plastic would have been fine, or all wood, but not mixing them. Makes you wonder if they run out of money when selecting the components and had to buy cheap stuff. The game revolves around players placing troops on areas along the river and building up duchies of occupied territories. To take out neighbouring players, you simply expand up to their duchy and assimilate them in a Borg-like fashion. The areas you get to place in is based on random cards you pick up so you can be screwed by the luck of the draw. Each player does have bastions which can be placed in any areas to make it neutral for the rest of the game and so blocking other players taking them over. This just seemed to be a bodge - I expect they found in testing that the game ended or became one-sided too quickly and couldn't come up with a neat way to modify the game mechanics. Grey blocks that look like concrete and cannot be moved do not fit well. All that said, I would still play the game again. I'm still surprised nobody said anything rude about the arch-bishop marker but then that may just be me... |  |
Labels: Student Nationals
Boardgamer category for Student Nationals 2007
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Open Gaming Category, Student Nationals 2006
Here are the 6 mighty players (and 2 GMs) that fought for the title of Best Open Gamer:
Back row: Sue Breakwell (6th), John Breakwell (4th), Andrew (2nd), GM, Dave (5th).
Front row: Winner, GM, Andy (3rd).
Games played:
Day 1
- Roborally (6 player)
- Pirates of the Spanish Main (6 player)
The following three were played in parallel and everybody played each game once- Balloon Cup (2 player)
- Lost Cities (2 player)
- Odin's Ravens (2 player)
Day 2
- Medici (6 player)
- Ticket to Ride (2 tables of 4 players - GM as 4th player)
- Carcassonne (6 player)
- Saving Doctor Lucky (non-competition game)
Roborally is hard work although the mechanics are simple. You program a robot with 5 move instructions (forwards, backwards, rotate left/right) based on cards in your hand. There are conveyor belts and rotating areas on the board to add some complexity. Also, the other players' robots will bump into you too. And there are lasers. Mustn't forget the lasers. Oh, I'm dead (1st life gone). I seem to have also forgotten that I am on a rotating area and so program my robot off the map. (2nd life gone). Did I say not to forget to the lasers? (3rd and last life gone).
Pirates of the Spanish Main is a collectable game where you punch out pieces from plastic cards and build your ships. Being a US manufacturer with a large US market, there are American ships in the game even though the British still ruled that colony at the time the game is set. Who cares about history when there's money to be made? Anyway, in our game the object was to search out as much buried gold as possible in the time allowed and get it back to your home island. I decided that an alternative approach was to ensure you were last-man-afloat. Tragically this tactic, although heroic and daring, resulted in a fleet of derelict ships...
Labels: Sheffield, Student Nationals
Friday, April 07, 2006
Off to the Student Nationals
For the 2nd year running, the Reading University Games/RPG/LARP Society sends a representative team to the Student Nationals. Yet again that means me and Sue as no-one else seems interested enough. That's a pity as we had a good time last year at Bradford (the winner of each National becomes the host for the following year so we are now on our way to Sheffield, the wiiners of the 2005 event).
Labels: Sheffield, Student Nationals
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