Madison Board Gamers Session Report,
September 25, 2002
written by Everett E. Proctor

Games Played:
Merchant of Venus, TransAmerica, LOTR: The Confrontation, Settlers of Catan, Aladdin's Dragons.

Players:
Josiah, Everett, Joel, Sara, David, John, Todd, Brett, Steve, Bill, Dale, and Tim

About an average turnout tonight. Several of us had brought games, so we had a good selection to choose from. We also had a new member show up (Hi Brett!) and I'm glad that we had Settlers along as he had e-mailed me before saying that that was the game he was itching to play.

Merchant of Venus: Josiah, Everett, Joel, Sara, David and John

John had been bringing this one every week, as it's one of the Internet Top 100 games that I hadn't played before. We decided to get this out of the way so that John wouldn't have to keep bringing it back and forth all the time. John warned us beforehand that even though it's designed for up to 6 players, that it slows way down with more than 4. However, even with this warning, there were so many of us that wanted to try it who hadn't played before (John was the only veteran) that we ended up playing with 6 players. (Note to self: always listen to John.) I found with 6 players the down time between turns was really tedious. Add to that that you are basically playing 6 player solitaire (we played without any optional rules), the game really started to drag. Josiah got off to a huge start, gaining the powerful relic combination of Jump Start and Auto Pilot, pretty much giving him the ability to move almost wherever he wanted on his turn. With this power, Josiah ran away with the game. Everyone else were pretty close, except for me, who had horrible luck. The only time I rolled high for movement was when I only needed a 2 to land on a planet.

Scores: Josiah $2,020; Joel 1,210; David 790, Sara 790, John 640, Everett 60
(John would like to note that if he rolled better than a 5 on three dice his last turn, he would have had $350 more.)

Ratings: John 6, Josiah 5, Everett 5, Joel 5, Sara 5, David 4
It was generally agreed upon that it would be a much better game with only 4 people, and the ratings would have probably been a bit higher.

LOTR: The Confrontation: Todd and Brett

While six of us played Merchant of Venus, Todd taught Brett this game while waiting for more people to show up. They didn't leave me any notes besides the score and ratings.

Scores: Todd 2, Brett 0

Ratings: Todd 8, Brett 7.5

TransAmerica: Todd, Brett and Tim

Our local store just got in the Rio Grande version of this game recently, so this was another filler game while they were waiting for more people to arrive. Todd was the only one of the three who had played before.

Scores: Brett 8, Todd 0, Tim 0

Ratings: Todd 8, Tim 8, Brett 7.5

Settlers of Catan: Todd, Brett, Steve, and Dale

Time for the classic. This is my old edition of the game with my home-made 5th player gold pieces (created because back in 1996 this was one of the few good games I had at the time, my roleplaying group had 5 people in it, and we'd usually play a board game after our RPG session.

Scores: Dale 10, Brett 9, Todd 6, Steve 5

Ratings: Brett 10, Todd 8, Steve 8, Dale 8

Aladdin's Dragons: Bill, Steve, Todd, and Brett

They were just starting this when I had too leave (work sucks). Brett was the only person who hadn't played this before. Before I left, Bill was arguing that this was not a blind-bidding game, and everyone else was disagreeing with him. In the notes that I got back, Bill says "It's unlike any other game about Aladdin or Dragons you've ever played"

Bill's comments - Here's why Aladdin's Dragons isn't a blind-bidding game: Blind- bidding games are those where blind-bidding is the prominent element in the game. That's not how Aladdin's Dragons works. Using spells and artifacts to good effect is more important than bidding one more point than the other guys. I can play poorly with my tokens, but I will beat you if I use my spells correctly. The token allocation could even be construed as NOT being blind bidding- we all have the same resources to work with, who uses them best? This game is about clever resource allocation and cunning spell use, not blind bidding.

Scores: Bill 7, Todd 6, Steve 6, Brett 5

Rating: Brett 7.5, Todd 6, Steve 6, Bill 5