Sessions in July

July is usually a weak month for gaming, but to be honest this year it was a little bit better. The usual problem is a lot of the others disappear on holiday and the like; coupled with the shift pattern at work this means when I can usually make it there's nobody hosting. However, I was taking some time off this July and happily some of it allowed me to attend a few more sessions than I expected.

Railroad Tycoon

I don't know what possessed me, but an appalling start to my first game of the month meant I sat around for the best part of three hours trying desparately to regain something salvageable from utter disaster. What might surprise you is that the game in question was Railroad Tycoon, supposedly the more forgiving cousin of my favourite, Age of Steam. Yet my first turn error made irrecoverable damage to my chances of even a decent placing.

For some reason I have not yet managed to work out, I ended up with five shares issued after the first turn was over. This immediately turned into six shares issued as I had managed to ship nothing. The game just went downhill from there, and all my efforts to salvage something from it were fruitless.

Still, I had a good East-West series of links by the endgame and might have made something of it had we been allowed to continue for another fifteen turns. Railroad Tycoon is a very different game from Age of Steam; I don't think I'll ever get the hang of it properly. Then again, it isn't so different from Age of Steam that I can write it off just yet; it just has so much more chaos than it's cousin that it gets difficult to perceive which is the best track to follow.

King's Progress

Finally, I got King's Progress to the table; however we had to cut it ahort at the end of the first round because after Railroad Tycoon time was a little rarer than I thought. I have played enough to know there are a lot of cleverly interwoven mechanisms at play here. The King moves slowly to his destination, and while he does players must vie to influence the courtiers who will be most in his favour by the time he reaches the next palace.

Like all good games of this nature, players must make choices which are often difficult. In this particular case, players must choose a maximum of two actions from advancing a courtier towards the King's current destination, building their influence in any one courtier, taking up cards from the tableau or discarding cards from their own display.

You exert your influence over courtiers by laying down cards in an almost Union Pacific fashion, except they are ordered so that the top card only is visible. This top card in conjunction with the total number of cards in the stack is used to determine who has the most influence over that courtier and hence gains the major or minor gifts from the King. If you have a weak card on top of any of your melds, then it can be desirable to discard it to expose a stronger card.

There are eight courtiers and only five will manage to reach the current palace before the King and receive his favour. However each courtier also has a special action which may be used once while you have major influence over that courtier; for example the knight has a coach which will allow any courtier to advance once for free. Hence, it can still be quite useful to influence somebody who isn't going to make it to the palace; besides which there are two other visits to be made before the end of the game and setting up something for the follwing round could be valuable.

King's Progress is designed by Steve Kingsbury, same designer of the wonderful City & Guilds you've heard me rave about before. I really look forward to playing a full game as it looks like a very clever, gamer's game.

Canal Mania

For my first Tuesday session of July, we had a guest; Iain was in the area and came over to play. His arrival coincided with Canal Mania's maiden session. Canal Mania is fast becoming one of my favourites; perhaps the main reason for this is that everybody I have played it with so far has enjoyed it.

My opening canal was the Coventry canal, a simple build and a few easy points. Neil built the Bridgewater between Liverpool and Manchester, Iain the canal between Gloucester and Oxford. As this was our first ever game, it was very difficult to ascertain which contracts were the best to take and what was the best way to fulfil them. Chris's first canal was Worcester to Glucester (I think), and Hatti's first ran from Manchester to Stoke.

Having built something relatively short (and gotten a couple of minor goods shipments out of it) I progressed with the Manchester-Goole canal which had to run via Leeds. In the meantime, Neil had commenced the Leeds-Liverpool canal and ignoring the presence of Preston built straight over the rough ground towards Skipton. When bopth our canals were complete we were variously in competition and cooperation for goods appearing at Manchester and Leeds.

Meanwhile, further South, Chris had connected Gloucester with Birmingham using two contracts and Iain had connected London to Oxford. Iain was successfully utilising goods appearing at Worcester and Birmingham to gain him points by running them over his canals; a strategy which proved very useful in boosting his score. However, Chris was also well-placed to take advantage of this and other early goods shipments and did the same.

I obviously had my Age of Steam head on during this session, as I kept looking for ways to link the Coventry Canal with the Northern network. First, I took a contract to run a canal between Sheffield and Goole; then I looked for some way to connect Sheffield with Burton. However, there isn't a way to do this directly - even though the distance is relatively small no contract exists for such a canal. So, because I foolishly did not pay attention to history my plan was scuppered.

Towards the endgame, Iain was making the longer shipments between Gloucester, but Chris was managing to successfully compete. I further connected Oxford to Coventry but it was too little too late as far as goods shipments were concerned. The North had been dominated by Neil and the Midlands were primarily in Chris's hands. Hatti had managed diverse building but never really exploited her links to the full. After the goods decline had been conducted, everything was fairly close and it came down to contracts. Chris took a comfortable win.

Turf Horse Racing

We still had some time to kill after all that navigation, so something lighter was brought to the table. This game has recently been reissued as Winner's Circle; however this is the Gibson's original with comparatively mediocre components. My strategy with this game (if it can be called a "strategy") is to risk heavier bets on outsiders (hopefully on my own). It never works, and tonight was no exception. We continued for a total of two or three races before calling it a night. We welcomed Iain's attendance at future sessions when he is in the area.

Samurai

I hadn't been to Frome for some time; attendance has dropped since Wassail Games closed and the proprietors moved on. I took along a wide-ranging selection because I had no idea who would be there, and fortunately it turned out that (apart from the wargamers) there were four of us up for boardgaming. I offered up Samurai and as there were no objections I proceeded to teach the other three novices Knizia's art of war.

I was, of course, the fourth novice; educating the others so well that I ultimately lost. Thankfully I was not in last place, but first was Rob with a massive array of high-hats bolstered by buddhas. There is just the right level of chaos in this game that it can be challenging to the more experienced player and still hold the interest of the novice. I don't get to play this half as much as I should; I am glad I got to play it as often as I did in July.

Canal Mania #2

Half way through our Samurai game, two more boardgamers turned up. However, they were only part of the way through Alhambra by the time we had finished so rather than wait for them and then engage in a six-player game we started playing Canal Mania instead. This was my second attempt at teaching and playing this game, only this time there would only be four of us. Occasionally an onlooker would ask about the game and point out how it looked a lot like Age of Steam. I objected profusely at each such statement, pointing out the only similarities were the transport elements. But they insisted on continuing with this annoying comparison, which as any AoS player will tell you is a poor one to make. Well, alright; there are some similarities but then again you don't hear anybody saying Draughts is like Chess just because they're played on the same board, do you?

Anyway, I played a very poor game coming in last place. I am sure I will be forgiven for not actually remembering who got first place, but I seem to remember it might have been one of the Pauls. Whoever it was, that was a close game for everybody except me; at least I learned valuable lessons for the next time I would play. The most important thing I learned this time is that when choosing a contract one should think not only about what you wish to build but also what others do. Indeed, it can be very useful to set up that link right in the middle of another player's series of waterways.

Canal Mania #3

With just five of us attending a relocated Tuesday evening session at Neil's establishment, Canal Mania saw another outing. The two newcomers were Tom and Mike; despite this they both managed to fare quite well.

Tactics were considerably more cut-throat than the two previous sessions, with players deliberately building to block others off. The three "experienced" players were also discovering many new ways to take advantage of what previously seemed very limited canal building; strategies employed included deliberately building through nearby difficult terrain to garner a higher score for the canal, and visiting more towns per canal. I managed to build my best ever personal network, which included a five-town loop. However, not only were the goods unavailable for most of the game but I also faced competition in the form of Neil and Chris who both managed to pilfer a few choice shipments from under my nose.

While all this was going on, Tom slipped under the radar and built the first ever six-town network (by that I mean one capable of shipping using all six towns and hence gaining up to six points per shhipment). In addition he had managed to score pretty well for his canals and finished with more (or better) contracts than two of us. Tom hence won the game; this happened despite his complaints of never getting the cards he required.

Tongiaki

We rounded off the evening at Neil's with this little gem of a closer. Chris went straight into kinging two islands, but this left his presence generally weak. Something we were unsure of (but the general impression I got was we were correct) was whether Chris had to remove his kings if he chose the option of transferring to a new island - we agreed he didn't. Tom was consistently kicking others off Fiji and Hawaii, and I was consistently struggling to expand beyond the four or so islands I had managed to populate. The game ended when Tom made the final expansion out of Hawaii and dragged Neil to victory; I think by that time I must have amassed the lowest score I ever have playing this game. It's fun to have a go once in a while, however.

Louis XIV

A first time play for John and Ricco at Mike's session, Louis seems to have been met with favour. I pointed out what a fuss there had been over the coat-of-arms scoring during my detailed rules explanation and went on to play one of the best, most competitive games of Louis I have ever had the pleasure of being involved in. With two of us holding the same number of missions after the final round the shield count was crucial; however the opponent who benefitted most from the coat-of-arms scoring was neither of us. John amassed an extra three points from shields which kind of put him back in the running. However, the final tally was in my favour and I took victory.

The two newcomers quickly took in the importance of turn order; Ricco in particular made several efforts to be the last to play in any influence phase; unfortunately my efforts to play after Ricco were often more fruitful. It's a key approach to be able to affect the order in which influence is placed; this leads me to believe the chance element in the form of which mission card a player draws is much more significant than the random element involved in drawing shields. Well, perhaps "significant" is the wrong word to use; "critical" is probably better. Get the right mission card and complete it, then you will find yourself with an advantage that at best one other player will possibly neutralise.

Of course, placing last alone does not guarantee a win; but the advantage can only be offset by one of the other players if they can make placements which are strong enough to discourage your competition or else strong enough to compete with you. The more one plays this game, the more one sees that the coat-of-arms "problem" lacks effect and significance.

Samurai #2

We followed Louis with a go at this Knizia classic. I had played once this month already, but it had been a while for the others, notwithstanding we opted for the "expert" set-up where everybody chooses a scoring token and places it. I managed to scrape a victory due to Knizia's characteristically unusual scoring mechanism, despite having collected less markers than two other players.

Money

We closed my last july session with a game of Money, Reiner Knizia's game of international currencies with a peculiar and interesting bidding mechanism. This is a game I managed to successfully introduce to some colleagues during breaks at work; the object is to score the most by collecting sets of the same currency. Any currency set below one hundred scores nothing, anything else below two hundred scores its value less one hundred and triplets of twenty or thirty notes in any relevant currency give a one hundred bonus.

Despite lots of practice at this game in the past six months or so, I played terribly and after three deals I took last place. Still, it's a clever little card game and one I am always keen on playing.

Well, that's all I have to say about July; it seems to me that since my shifts at work changed the opportunity for games has diminished; the answer is to make sure I play nothing but quality games. It won't be a long time before you find out how this month went so watch this space.