HoodedHawk

Board game night: We played 1812: Invasion of Canada, and Lancaster. For 1812, this was the first time playing for 4 of the 5 of us. Cody had brought the game, and taught us. Lots of fun! Let’s classify it as a “light” territory-control game. Two sides, American and British. The American side has two armies: Regular and Militia. The Canadian side has three: Canadian Militia, British (Redcoats), and Indian. I played Canadian, with Steve and Phil playing Indian, British. Cody and Pete played American. My faction liked to flee from battle a lot (you use specialized dice, and two of the sides cause your one of your armies to “flee” the battle. That’s better than being killed, but not helpful for the current battle. Lots of “French” analogies bandied about. :)

The game lasted about 90 minutes (British defeated the Americans); it would have been only about an hour, but it was our first play. Highly recommended! 8/10 stars.

Next we played Lancaster. Phil, Steve, Pat and I had played before; Cody joined us. I’d classify this as another light game. Basically you try to advance your knights’ by winning counties or fighting with France, etc. Most victory points at end of game wins. Multiple strategies to gain points; you basically compete with other knights to win counties, or defeat the French. While Cody was not a real fan, the rest of us like the game (we’ll be playing again). :) Recommended. 7.5/10

Fun night!

Last night we (George, Steve and I) played Through the Ages. George brought the game (it’s one of his favorites) and he was happy to teach Steve and I as we had never played. This one’s a keeper.

A civilization-building game, this first time through was rather long, at about 4 hours. I was enjoying myself so much it really didn’t feel like 4 hours! The game has, I believe, 4 “Ages”: Ancient, I, II, III. As it was, we didn’t get to finish the game (it was close to 1AM); we stopped at the end of the Age II. George won by a wide margin (89 Culture points vs. my 54 and Steve’s 51). We will definitely be playing this one again as all of us enjoyed it.

George did mention that the first game is usually long as everyone is learning the rules – and the 2nd game is just as long due to players refining their strategy, etc. So by the 3rd or 4th game we’ll get a whole game in at one sitting I assume. By then I think I will at least have an idea of what cards are in each Age, so I will be better able to decide on which Leader to grab, etc. George was using James Cook – who was actually quite useful for accumulating Culture (Victory points), especially if you grabbed Territory.

I did like my Joan of Arc (see pix), as she minimized the number of times I was attacked: I got 5 Culture any time that happened. She also gave me a Military strength for each Smiley I had in a Temple. But George was able to increase his per-turn yield of Culture, and this is critical for winning the game. It’s hard to pass someone who gets 15 Culture per turn when you only get 5. I’ll change focus next time around.

This is one I’ll definitely get a copy of, and hopefully play more often. I’d put this in my top 3 –I like it even more than War of the Ring.

Rating: 8.5/10. Keeper.

Last week we played Civilization: The Card Game. This was included as an add-on with a box-set of the Video game series. Steve had had it around and never played it. So we did! It was a fairly fun game, easy to learn. There is a bit of down-time when it is not your turn, but not enough to diminish the game. The game lasted about 3 hours. If the production values for the game were better I would get a copy, but the cards are quite thin; reminds me of a print-and-play copy. As a freebie add-on that’s fine though.

Rating: 6.5/10

Another great Board Game Group evening last night: War of the Ring. I really like this game – it follows the theme of the Lord of the Rings well, and the gameplay allows for narrative description as quoted below.

We had 4 interested so we played the “multiplayer” version; two of us played the Free People, and two played Shadow. I was on the Shadow side (again). This was the first time playing with 4 (usually I’ve played 2-player). I liked the cooperative aspect of two per side.

Great game, and it flew by. I had to leave the game early -about 3 hours in (I never do that; but I had to pick up some allergy meds for Olivia who was still up and miserable at 11:30). That is one other benefit to team play: the game didn’t have to end because I had to leave.

George sent me a recap of what happened after I left. I thought his overview was fantastic; he gave permission to post his recap below. Also, he has painted (most) of the figures used in the game – great job and it really adds to the aesthetic enjoyment we get from playing!

We finished out the action dice you were using, and rolled them once more. We were finished by 1am, probably a little before.

Gondor besieged Minas Tirith to set up Rohan’s use of the “Paths of the Woses” to get Eomer & Theoden’s army to North Ithilien and within striking distance of Mordor. The orcs of Dol Guldur, having taken Dale from the Northmen, threatened both the Woodland Realm and Erebor, but didn’t do more than sword-rattling. The Rohirrim stormed the Black Gate at Morannon, slaughtering the cave troll there.

Aragorn led his army south to Pelargir, reclaiming that. Sauron mustered forces in Mordor, and Saruman raised more Dunlendings. Aragorn’s force headed south to besiege Umbar while the Rohirrim held their position in Morannon. The first battle at Umbar was a brutal one, lasting for 3 rounds. The Gondorians fought bravely, killing all but one stalwart Southron, but not without cost; over half of Gondor’s mighty army lay buried in those blood-soaked fields.

Rohan mustered a token defense in Edoras to ward off attackers from Helm’s Deep, denying Saruman an easy victory. Sauron directed another force of Southrons to relieve Umbar, but Aragorn’s leadership proved too strong for the war oliphaunts, and Gondor repelled the attack with nary a casualty. The battle proved tiring for the Gondorians, however, as they attempted 2 more attacks on Umbar. Sauron made a few last ditch recruiting efforts, but it was too little too late to claim any of the lightly defended Free People strongholds.

As the time drew short, Aragorn and his last 2 Gondorian soldiers made a final push against the gates of Umbar, and prevailed!

Final score FPMV, FP: 4, SP: 7

The Fellowship sat 4 regions outside of Rivendell for most of the game, with Gollum as their guide. The Elves and Dwarves sat on their collective butts, toasting the prowess of Men with wine and malt beer, respectively.

This was a really good game, and pretty tense.

Dylan and I played a game of Risk 2210 this weekend. I finally managed to clear space to setup a gaming table in the man cave. This allows us to leave board games in play and continue later – without the little kids or the cat demolishing things. In this case, Dylan demolished me anyway, so no loss. I do like this version of Risk even better than classic – mostly because it is limited to 5 “turn years”, so doesn’t go on forever. It still suffers from the classic Risk game mechanic of rolling dice to attack, so you can (as I found) quickly lose ground by losing dice rolls (either attacking or defending).

This new version does have added features, such as command cards, which (if you are lucky enough to draw them) can quickly turn the game around. It also features underwater (naval) territories as well as lunar territories. Game mechanics such as having commanders (land, naval, space, diplomat, or nuclear) which allow you to roll (or defend) with 8-sided die, space stations (to help defend, or get you to the moon), etc.

But all in all, it’s still Risk, and still basically a terrritory-conquering game. Fun, but only occasionally. I’m trying to use it to get Dylan into board games, as he really likes Classic Risk. Next will be to get him to play War of the Ring.