The Auren's Power: Throwing the Game on the Final Turn

A serious situation came to light on Saturday night: Neil owned Terra Mystica...unpunched.

Clearly, this could not be allowed to stand.

Steve took the reins and did his usual excellent job at explaining the rules. Probably too good in retrospect. Neil had the Halflings, I was next up and choose the Auren over the Witches because I hadn't played them before, Steve picked Mermaids over Swarmlings (he doesn't like being strapped for cash) whilst Paul went with The Chaos Magicians because the Giants are a nightmare to play well.

The Auren, then, do nothing. 

Steve: "Do they get cheaper building costs...?" 

Me: "It doesn't look like it."

We sketched out Neil's strategy with him, as he had drawn start player, which amounted to little more than: spades = good. He seemed to need no more guidance than that and his diminutive furry-footed heathens spent the game merrily digging up the Eastern land section and ignoring all religion. 

My game plan was to get my stronghold out on turn one, then keep taking the 4vps for the stronghold tile whilst climbing up the cult tracks quickly to get the bonuses (something that I have never really played for consciously as a game plan before). I was handed a gift from Steve at the end of the second turn that helped me massively in getting a Sanctuary built on turn three for 5vps and a further 8vps when I passed. 

Steve seemed to have trouble spending resources. I also stuffed him (not, I hasten to add just to stuff him...heaven forbid...it was just too good an opportunity for me to miss) when he built a bridge to a forest hex, didn't build on it that turn, then didn't build on it in the following turn either. He passed, I built a bridge, and nabbed it. Thoughtfully, his bridge reduced the cost of my upgrade to a trading post. It was brutal and it cost him dearly. He fought back on the cult tracks but never really recovered his building plan.

Paul ploughed a lonely furrow on the northern continent. Expanded slowly and got a lot of oval gift tiles. And that's about it. A peaceful existence, if an expensive one. Having never played the Chaos Magicians I can't really offer any more comment. I would like to, though. I think that a game in which you 'go it alone' and ignore the power pots would be a different way to play.

So, it comes down to the last turn. Neil's romping along the vp track but knows he is going to pegged back by cult scoring. I am going last. I went last a lot as Steve (on my left) passed early most turns. I'm trying desperately to link up my two towns but need either:

• a priest to get to 4 shipping
• three red cult pips to get 3 power
• two workers

...and those are exactly the actions Steve, Paul and then Neil took. Flustered, I took the spade action, but still needed to terraform the hex in question twice more. If I got more power then it might work. It didn't- and the four power I spent on that spade action ended up costing me the game. I lost by 1vp with two gold unused- had I cashed in the four power for gold, that would have been a 1vp win.

Gah. 

To be fair had Steve not built that bridge I don't think I would have been in the running at all, so I should probably count my blessings. A close game at the end and a good reminder of how hard it is to play without mistakes

Neil 109, Matt 108, Paul 88, Steve 74

Pointless

I don't really see the point of this blog anymore I never go back and read it, I never want to know the scores from previous games and I'm not going to do any 'reviews'. I'm gonna knock it on the head. If you're really that interested in the games that I play (and to be honest I don't see why you should be) you can always follow the games logged on the boardgamegeek website, or even just ask me if real life.

I might re-activate this blog at some point but don't hold your breath.

13th Jan - 5 Games in one evening!!!!!

I was fed up with long boring games that take all evening to play when they shouldn't, so I decided to choose some faster, lighter more fun games. First up 2 games of Ave Ceasar.

1st Steve, Matt, Neil, Paul, Garry
1st Paul, Garry Neil, Matt, Steve

Then a couple of games of Fearsome Floors (run away, run away!). I didn't think it was possible to analyse all the fun out of a game about running away from a monster, but I was wrong. Steve won the first game and Neil the second.

And we still had time for 3 hands of Hol's der Geier

Paul 44, Steve 27, Neil 25, Matt 21, Garry 3

6th Jan - Key Market

Key Market is a great game and unfortunately out of print. It goes for crazy prices on the 'geek etc. It makes playing it a nerve racking experience, I watch every arm brushing past coffee mugs with my heart in my mouth. If they reprinted it it would do wonders for my blood pressure.

Garry 120, Matt 116, Paul 113, Steve 106

9th Dec - Tzolk'in

I really like Tolk'in, it has worker placement, resource gathering, multiple paths to victory and not too overly fiddly for what it is (I'm looking at you Bora Bora). But it also collects AP like nothing else. It should last about 90mins, but by half way the wheels are moving slower than tectonic plates on sedatives, I completely lost interest and my mind was wandering, (hmm... how many baked beans are there in a 14oz can?), I do like the game but...

Steve 67, Paul, 57, Matt 44, Garry 40

2nd Dec - Russian Railroads

This week another game of Russian Railroads, one of the better games from a lack luster year.

Steve 285, Garry 249, Matt 239

Then a game of Potato Man, the totaly brilliant trick taking game.

Matt 31, Steve 26, Garry 24

25th Nov - Goa

Matt's choice: This week we played Goa, bit of an old classic (apparently) I've only played it once before and I couldn't remember anything about it. Think it'll need a few more plays to get the hang of it.

Steve 44, Matt 40, Paul 39, Garry 26

18th Nov - Terra Mystica

Steve's choice: This week we played Terra Mystica - brilliant brilliant game.

Matt 115, Paul 106, Garry 102, Steve 85

Then time for a few rounds of No Thanks
Matt 144, Steve 199, Paul 281, Garry 291

30th Oct - A day off work...

... to play some of the new Essen Games.

Funf Gurken
Garry 0, Matt, Steve 6

Potato Man
Steve 30, Garry 29, Matt 28

Gluck Auf (Coal Baron)
Steve 123, Matt 102, Jo 101, Garry 97

Russian Railroads
Matt 345, Steve 321, Garry 210

Funf Gurken
Steve 6, Matt 7, Garry 6
This is an elimination game, the scores are irrelevant.

Just back from Essen

This should keep me going for a while.

The huge pile of punched cardboard frames from Glass Road, 16 of them!
The game weighed the same as two small children, glad I bought it at the

end of the day or it would have dislocated my shoulders.

21st Oct - Tzolkin

Another game of Tzolkin, it's a really good game but if you know people who suffer with AP it can be a bit of a problem. There's an expansion out this year but there is already enough going on that I think I'll stick with the base game.

Steve 72, Matt 63, Garry 53

Then a game of Botswana to finish things off.

Matt 89, Steve 88, Garry 82

14th Oct - Hansa Teutonica

Last week Izzy sat in on the rules explanation for Hansa Teutonica and Matt reckoned that she would able to join in a game with the 'grown ups'. Well she finished in second place, just one point behind her dad, you've got her well trained Matt!

Matt 50, Izzy 49, Garry 40, Steve 39

Then time for a filler before the end of the night. Relikt is a great game but it's not a light filler, lots of game in a little box. Good job Izzy had gone to bed otherwise I'd have come 4th rather than 3rd (but still last)

Steve 12, Matt 12, Garry 6

7th Oct - Hansa Teutonica

I really like this game, and yes there really is more than one path to victory. Lance almost caught us all napping but didn't quite manage to follow through.

Matt 52, Lance 37, Steve 34, Garry 31

Then time for John Silver

Steve 25, Garry 18, Matt 16, Lance 3

30th Sep - Keyflower

Great game. Somehow I managed to get the win, I wish I could remember how I did it.

Garry 50, Paul 45, Steve 40, Lance 40, Matt 37

23rd Sep - CO2

This week we played CO2. It didin't seem to go down very well, I don't know why really as, looking back, I can't think of anything in particular that I disliked about it.

Didn't make a note of the scores.

9th Sep - Tzolkin

Tzolkin - Quite good but nothing that special (ie no trains in it). I made a huge mistake at the begining that haunted me all game.

Steve 73, Matt 68, Garry 31

Sep 2nd - Terra Mystica

Another play of this great game.

Steve 119, Matt 117, Garry 102

The time for Fish Eat Fish.

Garry 12, Matt 6, Steve 3
 

28th Aug - Caylus

This weeks Monday was on a Wednesday. We played Caylus this week I'd not played this in ages and still rate it a 10.

Matt 87, Paul 84, Garry 78, Steve 72

19th Aug - Snowdonia

Another great game of Snowdonia. Matt and I got a bit caught out by the end of the game coming a bit too soon for us.

Steve 100, Garry 78, Matt 75

Next was a game of Chronicle, same designer as Love Letter, great artwork a reccomendation from Matt, so I grabbed a copy at UK Games Expo. I really hated this game and nearly put it through the shredder when I'd finished.

Steve 3, Matt, Garry 1

5th August - Al Rashid

We played Al Rashid this week.
hmmm... the game itself is quite reasonable, a worker placement/bidding mechanism to gather resources and powers, it's not bad but nothing new.

However the problem with the game is this, first the rule book is a mess, this on it's own is not enough to put us off as clarifications are normally resolved on the 'geek. The graphic design (or lack of) is possibly the worst I have ever seen, despite being in English I couldn't read a single word of text, it was either to small that you would need a magnifiying glass to read it or it was written in a very stylized font that made it illegible, even the title on the box cover needs a bit of working out. Then the colours of the Guild Tiles are 5 different colours but they are are printed so similar that I could hardly tell the difference. Coupled with the sub 5pt type I couldn't read my own tiles let alone the ones available or owned by other players upside down over the otherside of the table, I made several mistakes due to this.

So a fairly run of the mill game that is totaly unplayable in it's current form, hope I never have to play it again.

Jo 29(tiebreak), Paul 29, Garry 25, Steve 19