Nadine slaughtered me, Bill, and Shirley in Puerto Rico.
Bill and Shirley are newer players. The position order was Nadine, Bill, me, Shirley. Bill's effect on me was to take coffee before my coffee; neither one of us produced coffee until past mid-game. I was already behind Nadine who had an early Factory and then Harbor, and I made the mistake of taking Factory on turn 8 or 9; that gave me lots of useless money by the end of the game but no points. I also made the mistake of not taking a Wharf a few turns before the game ended, instead taking buildings to complete my Guild Hall. I didn't anticipate how often I could have used it by the end of the game. Not that it would have made much difference.
Shirley's effect on Nadine was give her an early trade; this let Nadine get an early Factory and then Harbor. Nadine went on to get Custom's House and Wharf. Shirley also had a Harbor, so it was in her interests to keep taking Captain; this let her ship 4 or 5 points to Nadine's 9 or 10 points and also let Nadine take Craftsman again (instead of having to take Captain and Craftsman on alternate turns). My money-heavy strategy was only sufficient to beat Bill and Shirley.
Shirley had a tobacco monopoly which she used for trading but only occasionally for shipping.
Scores: Nadine 79 (44 shipping, 11 Custom's House), me 55, Shirley and Bill 52.
Showing posts with label puerto rico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label puerto rico. Show all posts
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Shabbat Gaming
Nadine, Abraham, and Sara joined me for lunch. Nadine came early, and we played two-player Puerto Rico with my usual changed buildings (I changed Discretionary Hold to save one barrel, instead of three, but neither of us bought it).
Nadine had early corn and an early victory point lead. But my building was far overtaking hers, even though I let her take Factory and instead took Large Business (provides both Builder and Captain privileges). LB is underrated. It can't undo the victory point lead the way that Harbor can, but it can stop the erosion and still provide a building boost.
We didn't finish, but we were pretty sure that I was going to win.
After lunch, Sara, Abraham, and I requested Antike, which we played over Nadine's mild objections (she would have preferred Power Grid). Turned out to be a great game experience, even for Nadine.
I won the game 8 to 7 to 7 to 7 (we play to one point less than the suggested value); as you can see, very close. We played on the Arabian board. I started in Palestine, smack in between the other players. I kept tight control of my little area, using my first-player advantage (which offset my pathetic position) to nab Market for the first victory point. But I had competition for Know-hows, and Nadine ended up getting four of the VPs there. I build some temples, but Abraham destroyed one when he took Wheels. Luckily only one, as he was one unit away from sacking both.
The next round I placed dozens of units to protect the rest of my holdings and, together with Democracy, I was undisturbed for the rest of the game. Nadine floated around Greece, pulling ahead to 6 points over my 5, because no one was disturbing her. Abraham tried his opening triple temple strategy again. Sara built up a huge pile of resources and exploded suddenly from 3 to 10 areas in one turn. Then she sacked one of Abraham's temples, since he had left them open after he had sacked mine.
Then Abraham sacked one of Sara's temples, since she had left hers open to sack his. This left one of Abraham's temples open for me to sack, which gave me the one extra point necessary (together with 7 seas) to pull ahead of Nadine to 7 points. I was easily able to take my last point in the Know-hows (all 8) regardless of what the other players did, though all of them got one more point in the final round.
Nadine had early corn and an early victory point lead. But my building was far overtaking hers, even though I let her take Factory and instead took Large Business (provides both Builder and Captain privileges). LB is underrated. It can't undo the victory point lead the way that Harbor can, but it can stop the erosion and still provide a building boost.
We didn't finish, but we were pretty sure that I was going to win.
After lunch, Sara, Abraham, and I requested Antike, which we played over Nadine's mild objections (she would have preferred Power Grid). Turned out to be a great game experience, even for Nadine.
I won the game 8 to 7 to 7 to 7 (we play to one point less than the suggested value); as you can see, very close. We played on the Arabian board. I started in Palestine, smack in between the other players. I kept tight control of my little area, using my first-player advantage (which offset my pathetic position) to nab Market for the first victory point. But I had competition for Know-hows, and Nadine ended up getting four of the VPs there. I build some temples, but Abraham destroyed one when he took Wheels. Luckily only one, as he was one unit away from sacking both.
The next round I placed dozens of units to protect the rest of my holdings and, together with Democracy, I was undisturbed for the rest of the game. Nadine floated around Greece, pulling ahead to 6 points over my 5, because no one was disturbing her. Abraham tried his opening triple temple strategy again. Sara built up a huge pile of resources and exploded suddenly from 3 to 10 areas in one turn. Then she sacked one of Abraham's temples, since he had left them open after he had sacked mine.
Then Abraham sacked one of Sara's temples, since she had left hers open to sack his. This left one of Abraham's temples open for me to sack, which gave me the one extra point necessary (together with 7 seas) to pull ahead of Nadine to 7 points. I was easily able to take my last point in the Know-hows (all 8) regardless of what the other players did, though all of them got one more point in the final round.
Sunday, May 08, 2011
Shabbat Gaming
Nadine and Elisheva (formerly Ksenia) came over for some afternoon gaming; we had invited a few others, but they didn't show up.
I took out Sumeria, read the rules, and we all played our first game. The game play is simple enough that I think we only got one rule wrong, which was turn order in each round. When I read the rules, I thought that the last player in each round was the one with the least number of people in the new "first place" province, but upon rereading it looks like it should really be the old "first place" province. I don't know how much of a difference that made.
Sumeria was the final game published by Reiver Games, the publisher who also published my game It's Alive (of which a few copies are still available). Sumeria is a fake-themed abstract, much like many modern light Euros. Each player has a number of pieces that he places on, or moves around, the board, the object of which is to score the most points over a series of rounds. In Sumeria's case, it is an area control game, with each placement or move not only establishing further control in an area but also raising or lowering that area in scoring order.
Each player gets three moves over the course of six rounds. At the end of each round, only the first three provinces in the pecking order score anything at all, and only the first or second place players in these provinces score. Scoring players collect chips in one of four colors. At the end of the game, your score is the triangular number according to the number of chips you have in each color (1 chip = 1, 2 chips = 3, 3 chips = 6, etc). Between each round, the scoring provinces are placed last and the other five provinces slide up the order.
On your turn, you can place a piece from your supply onto any empty space or move a piece one space or over any other pieces landing in the first empty space. You can also remove a piece from the board back to your supply. Whenever you move into a province, that province moves up in the scoring queue. When you remove a piece from a province, that province moves down in the scoring queue.
The game lends itself to a number of tactical considerations. You have to have a piece in a province in order to be able to remove it from that province. When you move a piece, you can move the farthest one in a line of pieces, thus maintaining an unbroken link of pieces, or you can move one from the middle of the line, which prevents other pieces farther away in the line from moving to where you just moved (since they must land on the first open space). The paths on the board seem random, but you quickly realize that every province is mapped out exactly the same.
There is, however, almost zero strategy, from what I can see. Provinces become blocked all too quickly, and once full of pieces, hard to manipulate in the rankings unless you can manipulate some other province to swap with it. With only three actions per round, this can be hard to do. You are far better off spreading yourself around the board for the flexibility of being able to effect swaps than you are concentrating in one area, which leaves you essentially powerless; you won't even score those areas in which you concentrated, because others will swap your areas out of scoring. That's what happened to Elisheva.
The game's muted picture that provides zero theme might bother some people. It's light with little in the way of anything new happening each round, although points grow as you collect chip sets; this is not a bad thing, since the rules feel almost natural. Some (like me) might have liked to have seen a little more variation in city effects, special abilities, board arrangement, or something, to add a little more in the way of surprises.
Nevertheless, the game works and is what it is, which is achievement enough for a quick game from a small publisher. I would play it again. I'm curious to see how the game holds up after a few playings.
Nadine and I came very close; I was 11 points ahead of her. Elisheva was many, many points behind both of us.
We then played Puerto Rico. Elisheva had played once before, long ago, and I had to reteach her. We helped her during the game. I started off rather weakly, but gained strength with a coffee monopoly; Nadine not only let me keep my monopoly but let me trade coffee with two coins on the trader at least twice. She was doing quite well, otherwise. Near the end of the game she had a Large Warehouse which she had bought simply for the points. She ended up using it, and, combined with her Harbor, it netted her a 9 point shipping after everyone else had no barrels to ship.
I squeaked a win over that, 55 to 52, with Elisheva at 44.
I took out Sumeria, read the rules, and we all played our first game. The game play is simple enough that I think we only got one rule wrong, which was turn order in each round. When I read the rules, I thought that the last player in each round was the one with the least number of people in the new "first place" province, but upon rereading it looks like it should really be the old "first place" province. I don't know how much of a difference that made.
Sumeria was the final game published by Reiver Games, the publisher who also published my game It's Alive (of which a few copies are still available). Sumeria is a fake-themed abstract, much like many modern light Euros. Each player has a number of pieces that he places on, or moves around, the board, the object of which is to score the most points over a series of rounds. In Sumeria's case, it is an area control game, with each placement or move not only establishing further control in an area but also raising or lowering that area in scoring order.
Each player gets three moves over the course of six rounds. At the end of each round, only the first three provinces in the pecking order score anything at all, and only the first or second place players in these provinces score. Scoring players collect chips in one of four colors. At the end of the game, your score is the triangular number according to the number of chips you have in each color (1 chip = 1, 2 chips = 3, 3 chips = 6, etc). Between each round, the scoring provinces are placed last and the other five provinces slide up the order.
On your turn, you can place a piece from your supply onto any empty space or move a piece one space or over any other pieces landing in the first empty space. You can also remove a piece from the board back to your supply. Whenever you move into a province, that province moves up in the scoring queue. When you remove a piece from a province, that province moves down in the scoring queue.
The game lends itself to a number of tactical considerations. You have to have a piece in a province in order to be able to remove it from that province. When you move a piece, you can move the farthest one in a line of pieces, thus maintaining an unbroken link of pieces, or you can move one from the middle of the line, which prevents other pieces farther away in the line from moving to where you just moved (since they must land on the first open space). The paths on the board seem random, but you quickly realize that every province is mapped out exactly the same.
There is, however, almost zero strategy, from what I can see. Provinces become blocked all too quickly, and once full of pieces, hard to manipulate in the rankings unless you can manipulate some other province to swap with it. With only three actions per round, this can be hard to do. You are far better off spreading yourself around the board for the flexibility of being able to effect swaps than you are concentrating in one area, which leaves you essentially powerless; you won't even score those areas in which you concentrated, because others will swap your areas out of scoring. That's what happened to Elisheva.
The game's muted picture that provides zero theme might bother some people. It's light with little in the way of anything new happening each round, although points grow as you collect chip sets; this is not a bad thing, since the rules feel almost natural. Some (like me) might have liked to have seen a little more variation in city effects, special abilities, board arrangement, or something, to add a little more in the way of surprises.
Nevertheless, the game works and is what it is, which is achievement enough for a quick game from a small publisher. I would play it again. I'm curious to see how the game holds up after a few playings.
Nadine and I came very close; I was 11 points ahead of her. Elisheva was many, many points behind both of us.
We then played Puerto Rico. Elisheva had played once before, long ago, and I had to reteach her. We helped her during the game. I started off rather weakly, but gained strength with a coffee monopoly; Nadine not only let me keep my monopoly but let me trade coffee with two coins on the trader at least twice. She was doing quite well, otherwise. Near the end of the game she had a Large Warehouse which she had bought simply for the points. She ended up using it, and, combined with her Harbor, it netted her a 9 point shipping after everyone else had no barrels to ship.
I squeaked a win over that, 55 to 52, with Elisheva at 44.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Shabbat Gaming
At Nadine's in the afternoon, I played PitchCar x 2, It's Alive, and Puerto Rico (other games played, in which I didn't participate, included Casino and Scrabble).
PitchCar
We played two games, using two different track layouts. I came in second in the first game; I was ahead nearly a lap at one point, but I crashed a few more times than one of my opps did, and he was just able to overcome me in the final stretch. I came in first in the second game.
My success is rather odd, as I don't typically win this game, but I played rather slow and steady, and that seemed to work.
It's Alive
We played a five player game (not my favorite) and Nadine taught it to two of the players. As usual in a five player game, there was a lot of auctioning and pieces went for face value. I pulled at least three of the Villagers and a few too many low cost cards, which hurt my income and progress. Nevertheless, I played with my new "keep my coins at exactly half of my board value" strategy, and I came in second with 45. The winner finished was the one who finished, and he had a score of 57. So it's not a perfect strategy.
Puerto Rico
Rachel, Nadine, and I played this. Even though we played on Nadine's set, and she only has the base set and official expansion, we proxied most of my usual custom buildings. I was third player.
Rachel on my left took the first trade good, coffee, so I took coffee, too. Nadine took tobacco soon after. I had a fairly early Factory, and access to a tobacco plantation, so I simply took tobacco soon after, giving me a full Factory. Nadine had the other early Factory. Rachel was the only one who had Harbor.
I ended with an equitable amount of shipping points, three of the big buildings, and an embarrassingly high score of 69 to their 49 and 52.
PitchCar
We played two games, using two different track layouts. I came in second in the first game; I was ahead nearly a lap at one point, but I crashed a few more times than one of my opps did, and he was just able to overcome me in the final stretch. I came in first in the second game.
My success is rather odd, as I don't typically win this game, but I played rather slow and steady, and that seemed to work.
It's Alive
We played a five player game (not my favorite) and Nadine taught it to two of the players. As usual in a five player game, there was a lot of auctioning and pieces went for face value. I pulled at least three of the Villagers and a few too many low cost cards, which hurt my income and progress. Nevertheless, I played with my new "keep my coins at exactly half of my board value" strategy, and I came in second with 45. The winner finished was the one who finished, and he had a score of 57. So it's not a perfect strategy.
Puerto Rico
Rachel, Nadine, and I played this. Even though we played on Nadine's set, and she only has the base set and official expansion, we proxied most of my usual custom buildings. I was third player.
Rachel on my left took the first trade good, coffee, so I took coffee, too. Nadine took tobacco soon after. I had a fairly early Factory, and access to a tobacco plantation, so I simply took tobacco soon after, giving me a full Factory. Nadine had the other early Factory. Rachel was the only one who had Harbor.
I ended with an equitable amount of shipping points, three of the big buildings, and an embarrassingly high score of 69 to their 49 and 52.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Weekend Gaming
Puerto Rico
Rachel, my brother Ben, and I played Puerto Rico on Friday evening. We used the basic building set with the following changes:
What do you know, the first third column buildings that either Ben or Rachel bought were Library. Mine was Harbor. No one bought Factory. I'll say that the decision as to which of the four three column buildings to buy was a lot tougher. Library did quite well, and I'm not sure if it should be bumped back to 8 or left at 7. On the other hand, I won without it, so there you go.
I was first player, followed by Rachel and Ben. On the first round, I took Settler/corn, Rachel took sugar, and Ben took coffee (instead of indigo). That set the stage for the rest of the game:
Since Ben took the first trade good, I was bound to go for tobacco while Rachel was bound to go for coffee. I took tobacco, but Rachel never got a trade good, which is a tough position to play, even with a Large Market. She bought one, but it didn't do her much good.
Rachel had a sugar monopoly for much of the game, but I forced her to ship it at a crucial time. Until about mid-game, we thought she might be winning, but after that I passed her in money, and my Harbor caught up to her early victory point lead.
Ben traded coffee a few times, but he waited for far too long to lock a coffee boat. Which means that the Harbor that he took didn't do him much good.
Ben and I both ended with two large buildings, but Ben had little else on his board. Final scores: me 60, Ben 53, Rachel 51.
Dominion
I taught my cousin's two teenage girls (15, 17) to play this, and Ben played as well. I had previously gotten them hooked on Bohnanza, and I think they had tried Settlers. Their father (my cousin) was holding discussions with my brother David about starting them on a D&D campaign.
Kingdoms: Chapel, Cellar, Moat, Workshop, Village, Militia, Moneylender, Council Room, Festival, Market.
Festival is nice, but it must be combined with card drawing. My most annoying hands was when I had the card drawing (but not the Festivals) and then I drew the Festivals but couldn't play them. Festivals are not exactly the same as money, after all.
Ben and I both Chapel's away from Estates early. He also took Militia, which he played often but never affected me in the least (either I had Moat, or I didn't care about tossing down cards). Surprisingly, I only took one Village; maybe I should have taken more.
The girls asked, round after round, nearly the same questions again and again: What can I do? What does this mean? What should I do? When I asked them back the same questions, they knew what they could do and what it meant; they just didn't want to decide what to do. Things finally began to flow smoother near the end.
Ben won 27 to my 26, and the girls each had in the high teens.
Princes of Florence
We stayed at a neighbor's apt, and, while looking around the room, I noticed that they had a copy of Ticket to Ride: Europe on the shelf. I thought that this would be a good second intro game for the girls, but David somehow convinced them, and Ben, to learn Princes of Florence.
Given the girls' lack of enthusiasm for making decisions in Dominion, I didn't think this would go over that well. But David sat beside them and helped them make nearly every decision as the game went on. In the end, the girls said that they liked both of the games equally well.
I won with three Jesters (one on the last round). I just squeaked to victory. One of the girls ended round 7 with the same score as me, and then we both played our prestige cards mine was half value at 4, while hers was half value at 3.
Final scores: me 60, cousin 59, Ben 54, cousin 51. The lower scoring cousin was unable to play her last profession.
Moot
I dropped this on the table for my aunt, sis-in-laws, mom, cousins, and other non-gamers to play with, and they all love it.
Rachel, my brother Ben, and I played Puerto Rico on Friday evening. We used the basic building set with the following changes:
- Assembly Line instead of Small Market
- You mys move one of your colonists onto Hospice when you buy it
- Factory was 8 instead of 7 and replaced University
- Library was in the 7 slot
What do you know, the first third column buildings that either Ben or Rachel bought were Library. Mine was Harbor. No one bought Factory. I'll say that the decision as to which of the four three column buildings to buy was a lot tougher. Library did quite well, and I'm not sure if it should be bumped back to 8 or left at 7. On the other hand, I won without it, so there you go.
I was first player, followed by Rachel and Ben. On the first round, I took Settler/corn, Rachel took sugar, and Ben took coffee (instead of indigo). That set the stage for the rest of the game:
Since Ben took the first trade good, I was bound to go for tobacco while Rachel was bound to go for coffee. I took tobacco, but Rachel never got a trade good, which is a tough position to play, even with a Large Market. She bought one, but it didn't do her much good.
Rachel had a sugar monopoly for much of the game, but I forced her to ship it at a crucial time. Until about mid-game, we thought she might be winning, but after that I passed her in money, and my Harbor caught up to her early victory point lead.
Ben traded coffee a few times, but he waited for far too long to lock a coffee boat. Which means that the Harbor that he took didn't do him much good.
Ben and I both ended with two large buildings, but Ben had little else on his board. Final scores: me 60, Ben 53, Rachel 51.
Dominion
I taught my cousin's two teenage girls (15, 17) to play this, and Ben played as well. I had previously gotten them hooked on Bohnanza, and I think they had tried Settlers. Their father (my cousin) was holding discussions with my brother David about starting them on a D&D campaign.
Kingdoms: Chapel, Cellar, Moat, Workshop, Village, Militia, Moneylender, Council Room, Festival, Market.
Festival is nice, but it must be combined with card drawing. My most annoying hands was when I had the card drawing (but not the Festivals) and then I drew the Festivals but couldn't play them. Festivals are not exactly the same as money, after all.
Ben and I both Chapel's away from Estates early. He also took Militia, which he played often but never affected me in the least (either I had Moat, or I didn't care about tossing down cards). Surprisingly, I only took one Village; maybe I should have taken more.
The girls asked, round after round, nearly the same questions again and again: What can I do? What does this mean? What should I do? When I asked them back the same questions, they knew what they could do and what it meant; they just didn't want to decide what to do. Things finally began to flow smoother near the end.
Ben won 27 to my 26, and the girls each had in the high teens.
Princes of Florence
We stayed at a neighbor's apt, and, while looking around the room, I noticed that they had a copy of Ticket to Ride: Europe on the shelf. I thought that this would be a good second intro game for the girls, but David somehow convinced them, and Ben, to learn Princes of Florence.
Given the girls' lack of enthusiasm for making decisions in Dominion, I didn't think this would go over that well. But David sat beside them and helped them make nearly every decision as the game went on. In the end, the girls said that they liked both of the games equally well.
I won with three Jesters (one on the last round). I just squeaked to victory. One of the girls ended round 7 with the same score as me, and then we both played our prestige cards mine was half value at 4, while hers was half value at 3.
Final scores: me 60, cousin 59, Ben 54, cousin 51. The lower scoring cousin was unable to play her last profession.
Moot
I dropped this on the table for my aunt, sis-in-laws, mom, cousins, and other non-gamers to play with, and they all love it.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
It's Been a Long Time Coming: Puerto Rico with Rachel and Nadine
Our first game since last July.
We played with:
Rachel on my right had an early tobacco and a Small Fashion District. She maintained a tobacco monopoly and was able to trade both good several times, as well as keep a tobacco boat going most of the time. She also took Discretionary Hold, which ended up being the sought after power building. And she won with two large buildings and 20 shipping points.
Nadine on my left had a coffee monopoly and the other Discretionary Hold. And she also ended with two large buildings, and 27 shipping points.
Meanwhile, I should have taken a tobacco to compete with Rachel on my left, but somehow I never did. In fact , on the very first round I could have taken a coffee instead of a second corn, and that was the root of all of my problems. I also never took Large Market. I eventually took a Large Business and a few quarries, but it was too late to help much. I ended with 22 shipping points.
We played with:
- Assembly Line 1/1: When occupied, all of your production buildings may hold an additional colonist (and thus produce an additional good when matched to an additional manned plantation.
- Hacienda
- Small Fashion District 2/1: Trade indigo at +2 doubloon.
- Small Warehouse
- Hospice: When you buy Hospice, you may move one of your colonists onto it.
- Large Market
- Trading House
- Discretionary Hold 6/3: a) May store an additional three barrels. b) At the end of the Captain phase, may add a barrel of any type to the "Hold" of every full ship for 1 VP each. If two players have DH, alternate adding barrels to full ships. Each ship's Hold can store only a single barrel.
- Large General Workhouse 7/3 (2 circles): Produce any types of goods with matching plantations. This building is usually 8/3, but wasn't getting enough action, so I moved it down to 7/3.
- Factory 8/3: Usually 7/3.
- Large Business 8/3: a) -1 building cost. b) +1 VP on first shipment during each Captain phase.
- Wharf
- Cathedral 10/4: +1 VP/3 red building points.
- Fairgrounds 10/4: +0/1/2/3/5/7 VP for 1/2/3/4/5/6 different plantation types (including quarries).
- Fortress
- Custom's House
- City Hall
Rachel on my right had an early tobacco and a Small Fashion District. She maintained a tobacco monopoly and was able to trade both good several times, as well as keep a tobacco boat going most of the time. She also took Discretionary Hold, which ended up being the sought after power building. And she won with two large buildings and 20 shipping points.
Nadine on my left had a coffee monopoly and the other Discretionary Hold. And she also ended with two large buildings, and 27 shipping points.
Meanwhile, I should have taken a tobacco to compete with Rachel on my left, but somehow I never did. In fact , on the very first round I could have taken a coffee instead of a second corn, and that was the root of all of my problems. I also never took Large Market. I eventually took a Large Business and a few quarries, but it was too late to help much. I ended with 22 shipping points.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Shabbat Gaming
Anagrams
Yael is a friend of mine and my wife's for multiple reasons. She's brilliant, beautiful, creative, and charismatic. She recently published a fantastic book that took ten years of research: Nehama Leibowitz: Teacher and Bible Scholar.
And she's also been a Settlers of Catan fanatic for the last five years or so, ever since I introduced her to the game. For a long time she didn't want to play any other games; she would only play SoC with her friends on the other side of town, and didn't come to the game group. Only recently I've gotten her to try Amun Re, which she also liked and which she asked to play Friday evening after dinner.
Unfortunately, I don't actually have a copy of the game, and it was only two of us and late (Rachel went out to walk the dog). So we played Anagrams. She was good, which is good.
Anagrams and Set are two games that I'm pretty good at, sometimes too good at. I don't like to win either of these two games by too much, as it's discouraging to play them unless you feel like you're playing with a reasonably matched opponent. If I'm winning by too much, I will sometimes slow down a bit and let my opponent catch up. I didn't have to do that with Yael.
Only these two games, really; maybe sports, too. I think it's because they're straight measurable ability based games that hit a certain area of the brain. After it's clear that you're faster than the other person in that particular area, there's really no point in continuing.
Of course, I've also met people who can beat me in either of these games; I don't mind that at all.
By the way, Yael is - incredibly - still single. Time's a-wasting, guys.
Robo Rally
I had promised to introduce Tal's friend Nechemia to a board game, and Nadine also stayed after lunch. Robo Rally was the right length of time and weight for the occasion.
I chose a simple board with a few tricky spots, and three flags. I was liberal with "reprogramming" in the first the rounds, and we played with infinite deaths and no options. It was a little repetitive, but still quite fun.
Nechemia won without ever getting a single point of damage, as he took a slightly different route than the rest of us did. Silly and fun game, if it doesn't go on too long.
Puerto Rico
Nadine, Rachel, and I played our final game before Rachel leaves for the US (Rachel will still be here two more shabbatot, but we won't be able to play on them). I switched Small Market's and Construction Hut's costs.
Playing third player, I had to decide whether to spend 2 for Small Market on round 1 phase 2. I opted to pass in favor of Construction Hut, which I would otherwise never buy. Nadine, as first player took Indigo Plant.
Round 2 then went rather crazy. Rachel took builder again, and Nadine took Small Market with her manned quarry. I took Craftsman and Nadine left me both Trader and Captain for round 3 with two coins. I took Trader and felt like I now had a decent start.
I got a coffee monopoly, and never produced more than 1 coffee and 2 corns the entire game. Nadine had tobacco, Small and Large Markets, and Discretionary Hold. Rachel had Small Market, Small Warehouse, and lots of the three cheaper goods.
My strategy was to trade coffee and build quickly. I ended three big buildings.
Last move of the game, I had to decide whether to man my third big building and also Nadine's only big building. It would give me 5 points, but I didn't know how much it would give Nadine. Or, I could take Settler and a plantation for 2 bonus points (for Fairgrounds). I opted to man the buildings.
Final scores: me 45, Rachel 43, Nadine 42 . If I hadn't manned the buildings, final scores would have been: Rachel 43, Jon 42, Nadine 38.
Yael is a friend of mine and my wife's for multiple reasons. She's brilliant, beautiful, creative, and charismatic. She recently published a fantastic book that took ten years of research: Nehama Leibowitz: Teacher and Bible Scholar.
And she's also been a Settlers of Catan fanatic for the last five years or so, ever since I introduced her to the game. For a long time she didn't want to play any other games; she would only play SoC with her friends on the other side of town, and didn't come to the game group. Only recently I've gotten her to try Amun Re, which she also liked and which she asked to play Friday evening after dinner.
Unfortunately, I don't actually have a copy of the game, and it was only two of us and late (Rachel went out to walk the dog). So we played Anagrams. She was good, which is good.
Anagrams and Set are two games that I'm pretty good at, sometimes too good at. I don't like to win either of these two games by too much, as it's discouraging to play them unless you feel like you're playing with a reasonably matched opponent. If I'm winning by too much, I will sometimes slow down a bit and let my opponent catch up. I didn't have to do that with Yael.
Only these two games, really; maybe sports, too. I think it's because they're straight measurable ability based games that hit a certain area of the brain. After it's clear that you're faster than the other person in that particular area, there's really no point in continuing.
Of course, I've also met people who can beat me in either of these games; I don't mind that at all.
By the way, Yael is - incredibly - still single. Time's a-wasting, guys.
Robo Rally
I had promised to introduce Tal's friend Nechemia to a board game, and Nadine also stayed after lunch. Robo Rally was the right length of time and weight for the occasion.
I chose a simple board with a few tricky spots, and three flags. I was liberal with "reprogramming" in the first the rounds, and we played with infinite deaths and no options. It was a little repetitive, but still quite fun.
Nechemia won without ever getting a single point of damage, as he took a slightly different route than the rest of us did. Silly and fun game, if it doesn't go on too long.
Puerto Rico
Nadine, Rachel, and I played our final game before Rachel leaves for the US (Rachel will still be here two more shabbatot, but we won't be able to play on them). I switched Small Market's and Construction Hut's costs.
Playing third player, I had to decide whether to spend 2 for Small Market on round 1 phase 2. I opted to pass in favor of Construction Hut, which I would otherwise never buy. Nadine, as first player took Indigo Plant.
Round 2 then went rather crazy. Rachel took builder again, and Nadine took Small Market with her manned quarry. I took Craftsman and Nadine left me both Trader and Captain for round 3 with two coins. I took Trader and felt like I now had a decent start.
I got a coffee monopoly, and never produced more than 1 coffee and 2 corns the entire game. Nadine had tobacco, Small and Large Markets, and Discretionary Hold. Rachel had Small Market, Small Warehouse, and lots of the three cheaper goods.
My strategy was to trade coffee and build quickly. I ended three big buildings.
Last move of the game, I had to decide whether to man my third big building and also Nadine's only big building. It would give me 5 points, but I didn't know how much it would give Nadine. Or, I could take Settler and a plantation for 2 bonus points (for Fairgrounds). I opted to man the buildings.
Final scores: me 45, Rachel 43, Nadine 42 . If I hadn't manned the buildings, final scores would have been: Rachel 43, Jon 42, Nadine 38.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Puerto Rico: Switching Small Market and Construction Hut
I always remove Small Market and Construction Hut from our three player Puerto Rico games. Small Market is always bought first and gives too great an advantage at the early game for its cost. Construction Hut is never bought at all; who really needs a bunch of quarries at the expense of developing production? Especially since, in a three player game, you have ample opportunity to grab a quarry on your turn, if you really want to.
I usually replace them with two other buildings, but this time I thought to include them with switched prices to see what would happen.
It worked out very well.
Small Market was the second, not the first, building bought by two of the players (Rachel and Nadine), since the loss of an extra early coin meant that getting either indigo or sugar up quickly would be that much harder. It was agonized over and bought anyway, just a little bit later than usual. And it helped them, but didn't dominate the game.
Construction Huts were bought early, since the one cost buildings are always bought, if, for nothing else, by someone who has a quarry and doesn't really want to buy anything else. I took it on my first buy in second position, because it didn't cost me any cash at all. Nadine eventually got the other. Again they helped, but didn't dominate the game. I'm not sure if I would buy it early again in another game.
I had first coffee while Nadine to my right started working on tobacco; I expected Rachel on my left to take tobacco ahead of Nadine, but she took coffee. She traded it once when she needed to. She also bought an early Commodity Exporters (5/2 like a Harbor, but only for indigo and sugar) and gained a few VPs from that, but the boats quickly got blocked to slow that down (and I also got a CE a few rounds later).
Nadine had Factory, but ended with only one big building to our two each, partly because she shipped her tobacco to slow down the boats. I think. I don't really know why. She rightfully should have ended with two big buildings, but I scraped enough together to buy it in front of her by sacrificing sente for shipping to Rachel twice.
As a result of that, Rachel ended with a few more shipping points than me and we had about even boards. Nadine had about the same shipping points and slightly less on the board.
It was a close game. Rachel won 61 to my 58 to Nadine's 52 (or 54).
Also
Friday night I played Scrabble with Rachel and beat her by a scant five points 306 to 301. I hate having seven letter words and nowhere to put them (two turns in a row at the very end of the game).
My step-daughter played Jungle Speed On Saturday afternoon with her friends (loudly).
Facebook name: http://www.facebook.com/yehuda.berlinger
I usually replace them with two other buildings, but this time I thought to include them with switched prices to see what would happen.
It worked out very well.
Small Market was the second, not the first, building bought by two of the players (Rachel and Nadine), since the loss of an extra early coin meant that getting either indigo or sugar up quickly would be that much harder. It was agonized over and bought anyway, just a little bit later than usual. And it helped them, but didn't dominate the game.
Construction Huts were bought early, since the one cost buildings are always bought, if, for nothing else, by someone who has a quarry and doesn't really want to buy anything else. I took it on my first buy in second position, because it didn't cost me any cash at all. Nadine eventually got the other. Again they helped, but didn't dominate the game. I'm not sure if I would buy it early again in another game.
I had first coffee while Nadine to my right started working on tobacco; I expected Rachel on my left to take tobacco ahead of Nadine, but she took coffee. She traded it once when she needed to. She also bought an early Commodity Exporters (5/2 like a Harbor, but only for indigo and sugar) and gained a few VPs from that, but the boats quickly got blocked to slow that down (and I also got a CE a few rounds later).
Nadine had Factory, but ended with only one big building to our two each, partly because she shipped her tobacco to slow down the boats. I think. I don't really know why. She rightfully should have ended with two big buildings, but I scraped enough together to buy it in front of her by sacrificing sente for shipping to Rachel twice.
As a result of that, Rachel ended with a few more shipping points than me and we had about even boards. Nadine had about the same shipping points and slightly less on the board.
It was a close game. Rachel won 61 to my 58 to Nadine's 52 (or 54).
Also
Friday night I played Scrabble with Rachel and beat her by a scant five points 306 to 301. I hate having seven letter words and nowhere to put them (two turns in a row at the very end of the game).
My step-daughter played Jungle Speed On Saturday afternoon with her friends (loudly).
Facebook name: http://www.facebook.com/yehuda.berlinger
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Shabbat Gaming and Stuff
Puerto Rico with Rachel, Nadine, and her daughter Ginat. Order: Ginat, Nadine, Rachel, me.
Unfortunately, we played at Nadine's, and she doesn't have my expansion buildings, so we played with the regular set, only changing: Hospice and University allow you to move one of your colonists onto them when you buy them; Factory and University switch costs; and Discretionary Hold in place of Large Warehouse.
That left two of the most broken buildings in place: Small Market and Guild Hall. Both of which Nadine bought, and - big surprise - she won, but just barely. Nadine had 55 and 10 tie-breaking points to my 55 and 6 tie-breaking points. Ginat had 47 and Rachel 42.
I had a tobacco monopoly, while the other three had coffee. Rachel bore the brunt of that; even though she built coffee first, she never got to trade with it. She should have bought Large Market or Office to compensate for that, but she's less used to four player games and their timing issues. On round 2, Nadine took Builder instead of the scripted Trader+, and then Rachel took Craftsman+, giving me an early corn trade. I followed with an early indigo trade and then an early tobacco trade. In other words, I took three of the four first trades.
So I should have won. But Small Market for Nadine, and then an early coffee trade for her gave her first access to Guild Hall. Both of us had two big buildings, but Guild Hall was worth +10, while all the others were worth +4 or +5.
Anyhoo.
Next BGG.con
I'm working on a game for the next BGG.con, but in truth, the last one was so successful - other than some tweaks - that I might just do something similar. Piratenhandler had a lot going for it: easy to understand, social interaction, and you could play with just a few cards without having to see all of them, but you got better chances the more cards you saw. I need to balance out the paths, and make adding up the results a little easier. Unless I come up with something better.
Rachel Going to Ohio
Rachel got a job as associate professor next year at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. I still have to stay here to act as home base for the kids. So we'll be apart again for several months. She'll visit and I'll visit. So I'll be playing at the Cincinnati board game club on occasion. I would play at the Dayton club, too, but they only play on Friday nights and Shabbat.
And since I'll be in the states, I imagine I'll sometimes get to some other places, and not only BGG.con.
Links
There's a BGG forum thread following Brenda Brathwaite's Escapist article on board games created to evoke emotion. The thread starts off as predicted, but many of the later comments on pages 2 and 3 are worth the read. Of course, the big point: Games don't have to be fun, or replayable. Games made for entertainment have to be fun, but games do not have to be made for entertainment.
An article in Haaretz compares Backgammon to Chess, and how Backgammon became associated with gambling.
This NY Times article's headline reads: Gaza Militants and Israel Exchange Fire. One might think by reading that headline that Gaza fighters and Israeli soldiers shot at each other. Not, say, that Gaza lobbed rockets at Israeli civilians trying to kill farmers, families, and children, while the soldiers blew up tunnels for smuggling weapons to carry out terror attacks. One might think.
Unfortunately, we played at Nadine's, and she doesn't have my expansion buildings, so we played with the regular set, only changing: Hospice and University allow you to move one of your colonists onto them when you buy them; Factory and University switch costs; and Discretionary Hold in place of Large Warehouse.
That left two of the most broken buildings in place: Small Market and Guild Hall. Both of which Nadine bought, and - big surprise - she won, but just barely. Nadine had 55 and 10 tie-breaking points to my 55 and 6 tie-breaking points. Ginat had 47 and Rachel 42.
I had a tobacco monopoly, while the other three had coffee. Rachel bore the brunt of that; even though she built coffee first, she never got to trade with it. She should have bought Large Market or Office to compensate for that, but she's less used to four player games and their timing issues. On round 2, Nadine took Builder instead of the scripted Trader+, and then Rachel took Craftsman+, giving me an early corn trade. I followed with an early indigo trade and then an early tobacco trade. In other words, I took three of the four first trades.
So I should have won. But Small Market for Nadine, and then an early coffee trade for her gave her first access to Guild Hall. Both of us had two big buildings, but Guild Hall was worth +10, while all the others were worth +4 or +5.
Anyhoo.
Next BGG.con
I'm working on a game for the next BGG.con, but in truth, the last one was so successful - other than some tweaks - that I might just do something similar. Piratenhandler had a lot going for it: easy to understand, social interaction, and you could play with just a few cards without having to see all of them, but you got better chances the more cards you saw. I need to balance out the paths, and make adding up the results a little easier. Unless I come up with something better.
Rachel Going to Ohio
Rachel got a job as associate professor next year at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. I still have to stay here to act as home base for the kids. So we'll be apart again for several months. She'll visit and I'll visit. So I'll be playing at the Cincinnati board game club on occasion. I would play at the Dayton club, too, but they only play on Friday nights and Shabbat.
And since I'll be in the states, I imagine I'll sometimes get to some other places, and not only BGG.con.
Links
There's a BGG forum thread following Brenda Brathwaite's Escapist article on board games created to evoke emotion. The thread starts off as predicted, but many of the later comments on pages 2 and 3 are worth the read. Of course, the big point: Games don't have to be fun, or replayable. Games made for entertainment have to be fun, but games do not have to be made for entertainment.
An article in Haaretz compares Backgammon to Chess, and how Backgammon became associated with gambling.
This NY Times article's headline reads: Gaza Militants and Israel Exchange Fire. One might think by reading that headline that Gaza fighters and Israeli soldiers shot at each other. Not, say, that Gaza lobbed rockets at Israeli civilians trying to kill farmers, families, and children, while the soldiers blew up tunnels for smuggling weapons to carry out terror attacks. One might think.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Interactivity in Dominion
Nadine came over for dinner and we ended early enough to convince Rachel to try another game besides Puerto Rico (or Scrabble). We would have tried Agricola, but we wanted something quicker so that we could also play Puerto Rico afterward.
So I taught both Rachel and Nadine how to play Dominion (Amazon's price right now: $159 ???).
We used the basic set; I've yet to play with any other. One of the problems with the basic set is the lack of interactivity. Aside from the very remote possibility of cards running out in a stack (unlikely, unless everyone is following the exact same strategy), there's only the Militia kingdom.
As a result, Rachel found the game rather boring. Nadine liked it, although she is also looking forward to sets with higher interactivity. I beat her 40 to 39; pretty close.
It shouldn't be hard to increase the interactivity. Instead of 10 cards in 10 kingdoms and the game ends when 3 piles run out, why not 3 cards in 20 kingdoms and the game ends when 12 piles run out? This way, you get the interactivity of running out of piles quicker, more strategic options, and less of the game running out really quickly (if it still does, make it 14 or 15 piles).
Of course, you can't buy tons of all the same card. And there's less variance in the game, but once the first few expansions come along, that won't be a problem.
Anyway, after Dominion we played Puerto Rico. I started the game really well, so well that I though victory would be a piece of cake. I traded tobacco early, pulled two corn plantations with a Hacienda and got a Wharf (we don't play with Harbor). All well and good, but Nadine's coffee, Factory, and Discretionary Hold managed to trump me. If I had gotten a Factory before my Wharf and I would have done much better.
Nadine won with 54, to my 48 and Rachel's 39.
So I taught both Rachel and Nadine how to play Dominion (Amazon's price right now: $159 ???).
We used the basic set; I've yet to play with any other. One of the problems with the basic set is the lack of interactivity. Aside from the very remote possibility of cards running out in a stack (unlikely, unless everyone is following the exact same strategy), there's only the Militia kingdom.
As a result, Rachel found the game rather boring. Nadine liked it, although she is also looking forward to sets with higher interactivity. I beat her 40 to 39; pretty close.
It shouldn't be hard to increase the interactivity. Instead of 10 cards in 10 kingdoms and the game ends when 3 piles run out, why not 3 cards in 20 kingdoms and the game ends when 12 piles run out? This way, you get the interactivity of running out of piles quicker, more strategic options, and less of the game running out really quickly (if it still does, make it 14 or 15 piles).
Of course, you can't buy tons of all the same card. And there's less variance in the game, but once the first few expansions come along, that won't be a problem.
Anyway, after Dominion we played Puerto Rico. I started the game really well, so well that I though victory would be a piece of cake. I traded tobacco early, pulled two corn plantations with a Hacienda and got a Wharf (we don't play with Harbor). All well and good, but Nadine's coffee, Factory, and Discretionary Hold managed to trump me. If I had gotten a Factory before my Wharf and I would have done much better.
Nadine won with 54, to my 48 and Rachel's 39.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Doing Instead of Blogging
I've been doing a lot of things lately, and I'll be posting about them as soon as possible. Doing can sometimes get in the way of blogging.
Puerto Rico
This weekend Nadine, Rachel, and I got a chance to play Puerto Rico on Friday night, something we haven't done in a while, and something we won't get to do again in a while: Rachel is off to the US and London this Thursday, and won't be back until January 2.
We played with our usual set of mixed buildings, but I added Library as a cost 7 building in place of Factory. We nearly never buy it at 8, so I wanted to see how it would do at 7. Turned out to be pretty good.
It was a close game. Nadine took Library, but didn't have a trade good, and not too much corn; very different from her usual play. Instead she had 4 indigos going, and the first sugar. She won with 47 points and 4 coins. Rachel had the only coffee, but it was very late. Still, it earned her enough for Wharf and a large building. She ended with 47 points and 3 coins. I had a first and early tobacco, second sugar, and a bunch of corns, as well as a Discretionary Hold. I thought I was doing ok, but I ended with 45 points. Rachel ran the colonists out to fill her Fortress.
Puerto Rico
This weekend Nadine, Rachel, and I got a chance to play Puerto Rico on Friday night, something we haven't done in a while, and something we won't get to do again in a while: Rachel is off to the US and London this Thursday, and won't be back until January 2.
We played with our usual set of mixed buildings, but I added Library as a cost 7 building in place of Factory. We nearly never buy it at 8, so I wanted to see how it would do at 7. Turned out to be pretty good.
It was a close game. Nadine took Library, but didn't have a trade good, and not too much corn; very different from her usual play. Instead she had 4 indigos going, and the first sugar. She won with 47 points and 4 coins. Rachel had the only coffee, but it was very late. Still, it earned her enough for Wharf and a large building. She ended with 47 points and 3 coins. I had a first and early tobacco, second sugar, and a bunch of corns, as well as a Discretionary Hold. I thought I was doing ok, but I ended with 45 points. Rachel ran the colonists out to fill her Fortress.
Monday, November 10, 2008
3 Player Puerto Rico Game
Sat night I played three player Puerto Rico with Rachel and Nadine. I won 67 to Nadine's 57 to Rachel's 48.
We played on Nadine's board. She has only the regular and expansion buildings, unlike me who has dozens of extra buildings I designed. So we used Library in place of University, Small Wharf - which we played as Discretionary Hold - in place of Large Warehouse, Trading Post in place of Office, and Aqueduct in place of Small Market. We also played with the special Hospice rule.
Unfortunately for us, we didn't exactly clarify the rules before we stared playing. Thus Rachel took Aqueduct and began playing as if it were Assembly Line, which is what we sometimes do. In the meantime, I took Aqueduct and played with it as if it were Aqueduct.
Only around halfway through the game did I notice that Rachel had extra colonists on her Small Indigo and Small Sugar, at which point I realized that we were both playing the same physical building as different buildings. That was fun.
My success was due to a coffee monopoly, fairly early Factory, and choosing Harbor after Nadine beat me to Guild Hall, which I consider overpowered. Rachel suffered due to having only indigo and sugar going. She took a Hacienda, but drew nothing but indigos and sugars from it. On the last round of the game, the corns began appearing.
We played on Nadine's board. She has only the regular and expansion buildings, unlike me who has dozens of extra buildings I designed. So we used Library in place of University, Small Wharf - which we played as Discretionary Hold - in place of Large Warehouse, Trading Post in place of Office, and Aqueduct in place of Small Market. We also played with the special Hospice rule.
Unfortunately for us, we didn't exactly clarify the rules before we stared playing. Thus Rachel took Aqueduct and began playing as if it were Assembly Line, which is what we sometimes do. In the meantime, I took Aqueduct and played with it as if it were Aqueduct.
Only around halfway through the game did I notice that Rachel had extra colonists on her Small Indigo and Small Sugar, at which point I realized that we were both playing the same physical building as different buildings. That was fun.
My success was due to a coffee monopoly, fairly early Factory, and choosing Harbor after Nadine beat me to Guild Hall, which I consider overpowered. Rachel suffered due to having only indigo and sugar going. She took a Hacienda, but drew nothing but indigos and sugars from it. On the last round of the game, the corns began appearing.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Yom Tov Gaming
Important Note: I'm screwing around with the hosting for both this site and for Purple Pawn, so you may experience disruptions.
Mr Jack
Adam came for dinner and I taught him how to play Mr Jack. He took to it very well. I squeaked out an escape on turn 8, but I suspect that he won't let me get away with that next time. It's a natural fit for a Go player.
Puerto Rico
Played with Rachel and Nadine. Rachel won again, 52 to my 49 to Nadine's "much less". Factory wasn't in the game, but Rachel did an unusual building strategy. I tried Library once again, just to see, and even though I played it to the max, it was still a sub-par use of my money compared to other buildings in the same class.
Mr Jack
Adam came for dinner and I taught him how to play Mr Jack. He took to it very well. I squeaked out an escape on turn 8, but I suspect that he won't let me get away with that next time. It's a natural fit for a Go player.
Puerto Rico
Played with Rachel and Nadine. Rachel won again, 52 to my 49 to Nadine's "much less". Factory wasn't in the game, but Rachel did an unusual building strategy. I tried Library once again, just to see, and even though I played it to the max, it was still a sub-par use of my money compared to other buildings in the same class.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Puerto Rico with the usual
I played Puerto Rico with Rachel and Nadine. I added a bunch of less-used buildings to the mix:
- Forest House (working with 1,3,5, .. forests, instead of 2,4,6)
- Irrigation 4/2: Produce one extra barrel.
- Commodity Exporters 5/2: +1 VP when shipping indigo and/or sugar.
- Beachfront 6/2: You have wharf of size equal to number of forests you possess.
- Large Business 8/3: Both Builder's and Captain's privileges. Actually this is a standard replacement building, but it needs to be mentioned.
Rachel tried the forest strategy, and it did ok, but not spectacularly. Nadine had a Factory, but bought a late Wharf when she would have done better with a large building.
I bought an early Commodity Exporters, and then a Large Business. At that point, when I took Captain to ship, I was earning 4 points for shipping one barrel of Indigo. That was pretty big. I added Irrigation to the mix, but never got it to do much; Irrigation has been pretty good in other games, however.
In the end, we were all pretty close in building, but I was about ten points ahead in shipping.
- Forest House (working with 1,3,5, .. forests, instead of 2,4,6)
- Irrigation 4/2: Produce one extra barrel.
- Commodity Exporters 5/2: +1 VP when shipping indigo and/or sugar.
- Beachfront 6/2: You have wharf of size equal to number of forests you possess.
- Large Business 8/3: Both Builder's and Captain's privileges. Actually this is a standard replacement building, but it needs to be mentioned.
Rachel tried the forest strategy, and it did ok, but not spectacularly. Nadine had a Factory, but bought a late Wharf when she would have done better with a large building.
I bought an early Commodity Exporters, and then a Large Business. At that point, when I took Captain to ship, I was earning 4 points for shipping one barrel of Indigo. That was pretty big. I added Irrigation to the mix, but never got it to do much; Irrigation has been pretty good in other games, however.
In the end, we were all pretty close in building, but I was about ten points ahead in shipping.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Puerto Rico as an Intro Game
We had Nadine and Yael over for dinner. Nadine is a long time game groupie and Yael is a new student of Rachel's with no particular game experience. Somehow we convinced her to stay for a game after dinner.
I was nervous about using Puerto Rico as the first game for a new player thinking that it's complications would scare her off. Nadine argued otherwise. She said that Puerto Rico's very difference with other games is interesting to new players and she has experience explaining the game to new players in a way they can understand.
As usual I was appalled with the way Nadine explains PR. She start by handing out barrels to the player, taking some herself, laying out the ships, and then walking through shipping. Then she backs up and mentions production buildings and plantations and colonists, and then a little about buildings. Then she points to the roles and privileges and starts the game.
This is nothing like what I do when I explain the game. I explain the goal of the game, and the primary means of acquiring these goals. Then I mention the basic round structure, a little about each role, and the privileges. Then I review explaining how to combine the roles and rounds into the two major paths (to building and to shipping), and where the challenge of the game comes in. Then how and when the game ends. Then we start the game.
Somehow new players still manage to do well with Nadine's method, although she continues explaining parts of the game through the first few rounds. I also continue explaining during the first few rounds, but only to explain implications of what the choices mean, and the idea behind which buildings to consider.
Anyhoo ...
Usually the new player wins the game but this time Nadine won at 52 points. She had Factory and Guild Hall. Rachel and I tied exactly at 48 points + three items. I had an early coffee and Harbor. Rachel had Harbor, too. Yael ended with 42 points. She had Factory and a tobacco monopoly for much of the game.
Yael enjoyed herself. I still think that For Sale, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, etc. probably make better intro games.
Yehuda
I was nervous about using Puerto Rico as the first game for a new player thinking that it's complications would scare her off. Nadine argued otherwise. She said that Puerto Rico's very difference with other games is interesting to new players and she has experience explaining the game to new players in a way they can understand.
As usual I was appalled with the way Nadine explains PR. She start by handing out barrels to the player, taking some herself, laying out the ships, and then walking through shipping. Then she backs up and mentions production buildings and plantations and colonists, and then a little about buildings. Then she points to the roles and privileges and starts the game.
This is nothing like what I do when I explain the game. I explain the goal of the game, and the primary means of acquiring these goals. Then I mention the basic round structure, a little about each role, and the privileges. Then I review explaining how to combine the roles and rounds into the two major paths (to building and to shipping), and where the challenge of the game comes in. Then how and when the game ends. Then we start the game.
Somehow new players still manage to do well with Nadine's method, although she continues explaining parts of the game through the first few rounds. I also continue explaining during the first few rounds, but only to explain implications of what the choices mean, and the idea behind which buildings to consider.
Anyhoo ...
Usually the new player wins the game but this time Nadine won at 52 points. She had Factory and Guild Hall. Rachel and I tied exactly at 48 points + three items. I had an early coffee and Harbor. Rachel had Harbor, too. Yael ended with 42 points. She had Factory and a tobacco monopoly for much of the game.
Yael enjoyed herself. I still think that For Sale, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, etc. probably make better intro games.
Yehuda
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Weekend Gaming
Puerto Rico game with Nadine and Rachel. Standard replacement buildings.
I went third, but somehow Rachel pulled ahead in victory points early on. Nadine and I both were worried and got Factories before Rachel could. I also got a coffee monopoly, but fairly late (traded twice, shipped once near the end of the game).
Skip forward to the last round of the game, Rachel is shipping more than us, but Nadine and I are looking at getting our second big buildings each. Unfortunately, we can't prevent Rachel from getting one, too. But then we see that Nadine can end the game with one more building, preventing any more shipping.
I encourage her to do it, and she does. None of the last three big buildings bought get filled by Rachel's choice. Game ends with Nadine and I tied at 41 points each, both with two barrels on our board. Rachel has 37. Another game where slight changes in the play on the last two rounds would have swung the game. If Nadine hadn't filled in her last building spot, she and Rachel would have gotten more shipping points; Rachel would have gotten more than Nadine, but Nadine would have won anyway because she would have gotten more than me.
That's Puerto Rico for you.
An article in the Jerusalem Post about the guy who runs the Jerusalem Chess club.
Yehuda
I went third, but somehow Rachel pulled ahead in victory points early on. Nadine and I both were worried and got Factories before Rachel could. I also got a coffee monopoly, but fairly late (traded twice, shipped once near the end of the game).
Skip forward to the last round of the game, Rachel is shipping more than us, but Nadine and I are looking at getting our second big buildings each. Unfortunately, we can't prevent Rachel from getting one, too. But then we see that Nadine can end the game with one more building, preventing any more shipping.
I encourage her to do it, and she does. None of the last three big buildings bought get filled by Rachel's choice. Game ends with Nadine and I tied at 41 points each, both with two barrels on our board. Rachel has 37. Another game where slight changes in the play on the last two rounds would have swung the game. If Nadine hadn't filled in her last building spot, she and Rachel would have gotten more shipping points; Rachel would have gotten more than Nadine, but Nadine would have won anyway because she would have gotten more than me.
That's Puerto Rico for you.
An article in the Jerusalem Post about the guy who runs the Jerusalem Chess club.
Yehuda
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Shabbat PR Game (I Lose Again)
Rachel, Nadine, and I played our shabbat afternoon Puerto Rico game with the usual substitute buildings.
Rachel opened with Settler/corn, I took sugar, and Nadine took tobacco. As Rachel didn't have a quarry, and we don't play with Small Market, I decided to use this opportunity to try Mayor instead of the usual Builder. This prompted Nadine to take a round 1 Craftsman. And already I was losing.
I decided to continue the trend with a turn two Builder/Hospice. We play that you can immediately move one of your colonists onto Hospice when you buy it, which didn't make much difference in this game, but can help, sometimes. Throughout the game, I used Hospice rigorously, taking several corns and quarries, and preparing myself for coffee.
Let me tell you a little bit about coffee in this game. By round five, we had seen no coffee plantations. No one else was preparing to buy coffee, and in fact both of them appeared to be committing to tobacco, so I took a plunge and decided to buy a Coffee Roaster, even though I had a tobacco plantation already. With my Hospice, I figured on being able to use a coffee plantation the minute it appeared.
There are 9 coffee plantations in the game. There are some 55 plantation tiles. Not a single coffee plantation appeared until there were only 15 remaining plantation tiles. By the time I actually got coffee going, I was able to trade it once or twice, but by then I had lost so much in the waiting that I was too far behind to catch up. Sometimes, that's just how it goes.
Nadine was the only one who bought Factory, and she ended up buying three large buildings. She ended with 63 points. Rachel had Discretionary Hold, and good production, and ended with 53 points. I had good production and a Small Warehouse. At one point, I had every single corn barrel, preventing Nadine from fully utilizing her Factory. But I couldn't get them all shipped. I ended the game with seven corn barrels on my board, and 47 points.
Ah, well. It's always fun to try something new, even if it doesn't quite end up working.
Yehuda
Rachel opened with Settler/corn, I took sugar, and Nadine took tobacco. As Rachel didn't have a quarry, and we don't play with Small Market, I decided to use this opportunity to try Mayor instead of the usual Builder. This prompted Nadine to take a round 1 Craftsman. And already I was losing.
I decided to continue the trend with a turn two Builder/Hospice. We play that you can immediately move one of your colonists onto Hospice when you buy it, which didn't make much difference in this game, but can help, sometimes. Throughout the game, I used Hospice rigorously, taking several corns and quarries, and preparing myself for coffee.
Let me tell you a little bit about coffee in this game. By round five, we had seen no coffee plantations. No one else was preparing to buy coffee, and in fact both of them appeared to be committing to tobacco, so I took a plunge and decided to buy a Coffee Roaster, even though I had a tobacco plantation already. With my Hospice, I figured on being able to use a coffee plantation the minute it appeared.
There are 9 coffee plantations in the game. There are some 55 plantation tiles. Not a single coffee plantation appeared until there were only 15 remaining plantation tiles. By the time I actually got coffee going, I was able to trade it once or twice, but by then I had lost so much in the waiting that I was too far behind to catch up. Sometimes, that's just how it goes.
Nadine was the only one who bought Factory, and she ended up buying three large buildings. She ended with 63 points. Rachel had Discretionary Hold, and good production, and ended with 53 points. I had good production and a Small Warehouse. At one point, I had every single corn barrel, preventing Nadine from fully utilizing her Factory. But I couldn't get them all shipped. I ended the game with seven corn barrels on my board, and 47 points.
Ah, well. It's always fun to try something new, even if it doesn't quite end up working.
Yehuda
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Weekend Gaming
Puerto Rico
Nadine, Rachel, and I played in the late afternoon. Unusual buildings:
Poorhouse 2/1: Take a doubloon if you end a building phase with 0 or 1 doubloons. Result: I bought it as my second building and managed to use it three times. Not a very powerful building.
Mercantile District 5/2: +1 VP when you trade. Result: No one bought it.
Specialization Wharf 6/2: After crafting, you may discard the barrel on SW and place one of your barrels on SW. Only one barrel may be on SW at a time. When shipping, you can use SW as a wharf for the barrel type on SW. Discard the barrel on SW after SW is used. Result: No one bought it. But it's fine.
Private Boat 9/3: You may ship any three barrels on your own ship.. Result: No one bought it, but it's fine.
Reserves 10/4: +2 VP for each type of good on your board. Result: I've used this before, but it's hard to use. You have to time it perfectly. And have a Storehouse.
In our game, Rachel bought a Hospice and Assembly Line, while I bought an early Indigo Plant with my Poorhouse. As a result, the colonists went quickly, and the game ended with the colonists running out (first time in years, I would guess). Scores were therefore low. Rachel won 39 to mine and Nadine's 33.
Yinsh
We ate lunch at some friends, and they had two young men as guests. One of whom, Joe, brought out some of his Magic cards when he found out I played games. He had played Settlers of Catan once before, but couldn't find anyone else to play with. Meanwhile, the other one, Adam, had heard about Settlers and wanted to learn how to play.
They came over to my house while we were playing Puerto Rico, and I gave them Yinsh to play with until we finished our game. Joe picked it up immediately and loved it, while Adam is a less serious analyzer and so played more for fun. Joe won handily.
Settlers of Catan
After we were done with our games, I brought this out and taught Adam and we played. We had a great game, I was trailing a bit by mid-game, with a bit of bad luck with the numbers. Adam and Joe were also both cautious traders, but not in a bad way.
I managed to buy a slew of development cards near the end of the game, and earned two hidden victory points and Largest Army. I was pretty close to victory, but Joe got Longest Road and revealed his own hidden victory point to take the game.
More converts. Joe goes back to the states next week, but Adam will be around until January, so hope to see him come to game nights in the meantime.
Nadine, Rachel, and I played in the late afternoon. Unusual buildings:
Poorhouse 2/1: Take a doubloon if you end a building phase with 0 or 1 doubloons. Result: I bought it as my second building and managed to use it three times. Not a very powerful building.
Mercantile District 5/2: +1 VP when you trade. Result: No one bought it.
Specialization Wharf 6/2: After crafting, you may discard the barrel on SW and place one of your barrels on SW. Only one barrel may be on SW at a time. When shipping, you can use SW as a wharf for the barrel type on SW. Discard the barrel on SW after SW is used. Result: No one bought it. But it's fine.
Private Boat 9/3: You may ship any three barrels on your own ship.. Result: No one bought it, but it's fine.
Reserves 10/4: +2 VP for each type of good on your board. Result: I've used this before, but it's hard to use. You have to time it perfectly. And have a Storehouse.
In our game, Rachel bought a Hospice and Assembly Line, while I bought an early Indigo Plant with my Poorhouse. As a result, the colonists went quickly, and the game ended with the colonists running out (first time in years, I would guess). Scores were therefore low. Rachel won 39 to mine and Nadine's 33.
Yinsh
We ate lunch at some friends, and they had two young men as guests. One of whom, Joe, brought out some of his Magic cards when he found out I played games. He had played Settlers of Catan once before, but couldn't find anyone else to play with. Meanwhile, the other one, Adam, had heard about Settlers and wanted to learn how to play.
They came over to my house while we were playing Puerto Rico, and I gave them Yinsh to play with until we finished our game. Joe picked it up immediately and loved it, while Adam is a less serious analyzer and so played more for fun. Joe won handily.
Settlers of Catan
After we were done with our games, I brought this out and taught Adam and we played. We had a great game, I was trailing a bit by mid-game, with a bit of bad luck with the numbers. Adam and Joe were also both cautious traders, but not in a bad way.
I managed to buy a slew of development cards near the end of the game, and earned two hidden victory points and Largest Army. I was pretty close to victory, but Joe got Longest Road and revealed his own hidden victory point to take the game.
More converts. Joe goes back to the states next week, but Adam will be around until January, so hope to see him come to game nights in the meantime.
Monday, August 11, 2008
1 Game of Puerto Rico
Yitzchak, often member of our game group, just got married this afternoon. Mazal Tov.
Nadin stopped by on the way home from the wedding to play a game of Puerto Rico with Rachel and me.
We played with the usual set of buildings, except for one: Poorhouse 2/1 - At the end of any Building phase in which you have 1 or 0 doubloons, take a doubloon. It looked decent enough, but no one ended up buying it, so I can't tell you how it worked out.
I played corn, and I won by a point: 64 to Nadine's 63 to Rachel's 55. I had an early coffee monopoly, successfully trading two coffees before Rachel got coffee going. She never got to trade it, however.
Selecting trade goods in a three-player game
In a three player game, the first person to activate a trade good (coffee or tobacco) wants to ensure that their right-hand opponent (RHO) activates the next trade good. This is because they're likely to want to activate whatever you haven't. Then, when your left-hand opponent (LHO) activates a trade good, they're going to activate what your RHO chose (being on your LHO's left) rather than what you chose (being on your LHO's right).
Nice theory, but unfortunately you have more influence over what your LHO does than your RHO. As a result, I kind of forced Nadine on my left to choose first. Naturally, she chose tobacco, and Rachel, on my right then chose coffee. That gave me a headache (which I managed to survive) and Nadine a tobacco monopoly.
For the record, if your LHO chooses first, you want to choose what they chose, not the other good. If you choose the other good, your RHO will choose the same good as yours, not as your LHO's. This gives your RHO a monopoly, but at least you're in front of your LHO producing the same good. If your RHO selects first, you want to select the other good, which is just ace all around.
All of this naturally assumes that no one is choosing both trade goods. Which happens.
Nadin stopped by on the way home from the wedding to play a game of Puerto Rico with Rachel and me.
We played with the usual set of buildings, except for one: Poorhouse 2/1 - At the end of any Building phase in which you have 1 or 0 doubloons, take a doubloon. It looked decent enough, but no one ended up buying it, so I can't tell you how it worked out.
I played corn, and I won by a point: 64 to Nadine's 63 to Rachel's 55. I had an early coffee monopoly, successfully trading two coffees before Rachel got coffee going. She never got to trade it, however.
Selecting trade goods in a three-player game
In a three player game, the first person to activate a trade good (coffee or tobacco) wants to ensure that their right-hand opponent (RHO) activates the next trade good. This is because they're likely to want to activate whatever you haven't. Then, when your left-hand opponent (LHO) activates a trade good, they're going to activate what your RHO chose (being on your LHO's left) rather than what you chose (being on your LHO's right).
Nice theory, but unfortunately you have more influence over what your LHO does than your RHO. As a result, I kind of forced Nadine on my left to choose first. Naturally, she chose tobacco, and Rachel, on my right then chose coffee. That gave me a headache (which I managed to survive) and Nadine a tobacco monopoly.
For the record, if your LHO chooses first, you want to choose what they chose, not the other good. If you choose the other good, your RHO will choose the same good as yours, not as your LHO's. This gives your RHO a monopoly, but at least you're in front of your LHO producing the same good. If your RHO selects first, you want to select the other good, which is just ace all around.
All of this naturally assumes that no one is choosing both trade goods. Which happens.
2 Games of Puerto Rico
The set:
Assembly Line 1/1: You may add an additional colonist to each production building.
Small Fashion District 2/1: Sell indigo at +2.
Hacienda
Small Warehouse
Irrigation 4/2: Take an extra barrel when producing.
Commodity Exporters 5/2: +1 VP when shipping indigo or sugar
Inheritance 5/2: Take a manned plantation when buying corresponding production building
Discretionary Hold 6/2: a) store up to three barrels, b) place any one barrel onto a full ship for 1 VP
Super Market 7/3: Trade at +3
Large Business 8/3: a) -1 to build, b) +1 VP for first shipment during Captain
Large General Workhouse (2 circles) 8/3: Produce any goods with corresponding plantations
Wharf
various big buildings
--
Irrigation, Inheritance, and Super Market are not our usual buildings. In addition, we've already decided that Commodity Exporters is rather strong in two or three player. But it's not overpowering, and I don't have better buildings for 5 spot.
Rachel bought CE both games, and lost both games, so there you go.
I won the first game 60 to 57. Rachel started. She took Commodity Exporters, while I took Irrigation and Discretionary Hold. Irrigation is enough of a balance to CE a long as only one boat has either indigo or sugar, which I ensured it did. I out-shipped her 30 to 22.
I won the second game 65 to 49. She started again, and again took CE. This time I took Super Market, which turned out to be a BOMB building in two player. I could sell corn for 4 doubloons. I got Large Business and a quarry, and easily out-built her. She out-shipped me by 5 points.
First Turn in 2 Player
First turn in 2 player is tricky. If player 1 starts with quarry, player 2 taking Builder only gives player 1 a manned indigo. If player 2 takes Mayor, player 1 uses his manned quarry.
If player 1 starts with Builder/Sm Indigo, player 2 may take Mayor to prevent the manned indigo, giving player 1 Settler/quarry anyway. It's in any case much easier for player 1 to skip the opening Settler/quarry if there's a corn (better yet, two corns) in the opening plantations.
Haven't yet figure out best practices here.
Assembly Line 1/1: You may add an additional colonist to each production building.
Small Fashion District 2/1: Sell indigo at +2.
Hacienda
Small Warehouse
Irrigation 4/2: Take an extra barrel when producing.
Commodity Exporters 5/2: +1 VP when shipping indigo or sugar
Inheritance 5/2: Take a manned plantation when buying corresponding production building
Discretionary Hold 6/2: a) store up to three barrels, b) place any one barrel onto a full ship for 1 VP
Super Market 7/3: Trade at +3
Large Business 8/3: a) -1 to build, b) +1 VP for first shipment during Captain
Large General Workhouse (2 circles) 8/3: Produce any goods with corresponding plantations
Wharf
various big buildings
--
Irrigation, Inheritance, and Super Market are not our usual buildings. In addition, we've already decided that Commodity Exporters is rather strong in two or three player. But it's not overpowering, and I don't have better buildings for 5 spot.
Rachel bought CE both games, and lost both games, so there you go.
I won the first game 60 to 57. Rachel started. She took Commodity Exporters, while I took Irrigation and Discretionary Hold. Irrigation is enough of a balance to CE a long as only one boat has either indigo or sugar, which I ensured it did. I out-shipped her 30 to 22.
I won the second game 65 to 49. She started again, and again took CE. This time I took Super Market, which turned out to be a BOMB building in two player. I could sell corn for 4 doubloons. I got Large Business and a quarry, and easily out-built her. She out-shipped me by 5 points.
First Turn in 2 Player
First turn in 2 player is tricky. If player 1 starts with quarry, player 2 taking Builder only gives player 1 a manned indigo. If player 2 takes Mayor, player 1 uses his manned quarry.
If player 1 starts with Builder/Sm Indigo, player 2 may take Mayor to prevent the manned indigo, giving player 1 Settler/quarry anyway. It's in any case much easier for player 1 to skip the opening Settler/quarry if there's a corn (better yet, two corns) in the opening plantations.
Haven't yet figure out best practices here.
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