Madison Board Gamers Special Session Report,
October 5th and 6th, 2002
written by Everett E. Proctor

Games Played:
Castle, Throne World, Robo Rally, War! Age of Imperialism, Orcs at the Gate, Tikal, LOTR: The Confrontation, King Maker, and Battle for France

Players:
Bill, Everett, David, Matt L., Chris, Mark, Steve, Scott, Sara, Joel, and Joe P.

I had the weekend off from work, so arranged for some weekend gaming in order to play some of the longer games we normally don't get to play on Wednesday nights. With it being held on the weekend, we were joined by some people from MADwarp (another gaming group)and a few old friends who aren't able to normally come on weekends, (hi Chris, Mark, and Matt). Despite there being some trouble with our room reservations, this turned out to be a big success, so we will have to try to do this more often.

Castle: Bill, David, Everett, and Matt

Those of us who arrived early played this quick game while we were waiting for others to show up. This is one of those "controlled chaos" games where the point isn't so much strategy or tactics, but messing with and other people. As long as you realize this and don't take it too seriously, it's a fun game. Matt was the only person who hadn't played this before. In the end, Bill won by using the Fairy to make room for his Ambassador in the courtyard.

Bill's comments - Once again a very close game of Castle. If I hadn't won, Dave, Everett, and Matt would have won, in that order, for that was the turn order.

Rank: Bill 1st, Dave 2nd, Everett 3rd, Matt 4th

Ratings: Bill 10, Dave 8, Matt 7, Everett 6

Throne World: Matt, David, and Matt

I picked this up at GenCon, so I was really glad that I got a chance to play it. It is very similar to, and came out around the same time as, Twilight Imperium. The main difference is that Throne World is more of a war game, and Twilight Imperium is more of a diplomatic game. I think overall that I slightly prefer Twilight Imperium for those reasons. David also would have liked more diplomacy. The end game of Throne World is bizarre, since as soon as someone controls enough planets to win (usually by taking Throne World), there is no more production until they are knocked down below winning conditions or someone wins. This results in an endgame which is a war of attrition as everyone sends their fleets to attack the leader and nobody having a chance to rebuild after these onslaughts. This was the first time any of us had played this game.

Scores: David (winner) 15 planets, Matt 9 planets, Everett 9 planets

Ratings: Everett 8, David 8, Matt 8

RoboRally - Capture the Flag: Bill, Scott, Chris, and Steve

Steve had a couple of RoboRally variants he wanted to try out, so a few people tested a team capture the flag variant. Bill and Scott teamed up against Chris and Steve. I don't know what rules they were using but there were unsatisfied with the rule they were using about dropping the flag. The note the left me says "Need to refine rules about dropping the flag. Perhaps say the dropped flag needs to be picked up by another teammate. Otherwise it's too easy to defense against losing it." This was the first time Chris had ever played RoboRally.

Bill's comments - I played horribly in this- I was crashing into pits way too often, and usually I'm really good at this game. It wasn't unfamiliarity with the variant or anything, I just wasn't playing my best for some reason. Regardless, Scott had rocking cards and I was able to stay out of his way, leading to an easy victory for our team. I'm not too sure about how this compares to normal Roborally- it's a different kind of rally. I'm not sure if flag-dropping is as big a problem as Steve suggests.

Scores: Bill and Scott won, Chris and Steve lost

Ratings: Bill 7, Scott 7, Steve 6, Chris 5

War! Age of Imperialism: Steve, Scott, Chris, Bill, and Mark

Steve has been wanting to play this with the full advanced rules, but since he was the only person to have played before, they settled on the standard rules. Mark had to leave about halfway through the game, and gave his position to Bill (who had lost most of the territory he started with). Bill converted his three remaining territories to native. They didn't play till the very end and concede victory to Chris and Bill.

Bill's comments - Risk with Money, and weaker borders, and everything that entails. Maybe the advanced version would play better, but it was long enough to learn and play as it was. I got a cheesy win by getting Chris's abandoned position, but at least I freed China.

Scores: Chris win, Bill 1/2 win

Ratings: Mark 8, Steve 7, Chris 7, Scott 3, Bill 3

Orcs at the Gates: Joe, Everett, Tim, David, and Matt

Joe only had about 2 hours to play a game, so we played this, which was guaranteed to last only 2 hours. I admit that as far as game mechanics are concerned, that this is a broken game. However, as long as you aren't playing this for serious competition, the humor value makes this an enjoyable game for an occasional diversion. Joe was the GM, and probably would have slaughtered us if we were playing with the correct rules, but we played that you automatically came back to life the turn after you were killed. This resulted in Tim, who was playing Knuckles, dying about 10 times. In the end, I won as Sarah by repeatedly using Squirrly to pick up Limited Wish and getting 200 XP each time.

Scores: Everett 1185, Matt 560, Tim ?, David ?, Joe - lost

Ratings: Joe 9, Matt 6, Everett 5, Tim 5, David 5

Tikal: Bill, Everett and Steve

This was the last game we played Saturday night. We played the auction variant. This quickly became a lopsided game as both Steve and I went for treasures and both of us refused to back down and give it to the other person. So every time a treasure hex came up, we would bid each other up to a ridiculous amount, with Bill laughing at us and snatching up temples for almost nothing. "The more they bid against each other the funnier it was!" Both Steve and myself saw what was happening and where this was going, but neither of us were willing to change our strategy, so Bill ran away with the win.

Bill's comments - I felt kinda bad for Steve and Everett. I don't find the treasures that lucrative, and I think it's more important to use your movement points than it is to draw a good tile in most situations. As a result, I tended to bid very low, and didn't fight over tiles, leading to some very lucrative temples for me while Everett and Steve fought it out for both first-play rights and the treasures. Coupled with the fact that both my lock-downs (a 9 and an 8) didn't use my Leader, I was able to use my Leader to defend other non-lockable temples and jump on other people's claims. Everett and Steve were both fully aware that I was going to easily win, and had a very amusing (at least from my perspective) and close battle for second place.

Scores: Bill 142, Steve 98, Everett 95

Ratings: Steve 9, Bill 8, Everett 5

King Maker: Steve, Everett, Sara, Joel

This was the only big game we played on Sunday. It's the first time Sara and I had played, and Steve hadn't played for several years. We played the advanced rules, and I don't think we every got the rules down exactly right. I was not impressed with the game as I only received one noble in the setup, and every third round he ended up get called to some riot or revolt in England, so I was unable to do anything for the first half of the game. Joel got very lucky with drawing nobles, and ended up with nine nobles when Steve and I each had three, which gave him a big advantage. I disliked the game because I don't like games of this length in which you may have no chance from the beginning just because of luck of the draw. However, both Steve and Joel did enjoy the game. Steve's note was "Good game, but Avalon Hill sucks at writing coherent instructions, so we wasted much time reading the rules." We played for about 5 hours, but then people had to go to work, so we had to quit before we were sure who the winner would have been.

Rank: ??? Undetermined, except I had no chance. Everyone else was in the running.

Ratings: Steve 8, Joel 6, Everett 4, Sara 4

LOTR: The Confrontation:
1st game: Everett vs Bill
2nd game: Bill vs Joe

Played a couple of games of this between the longer games.

Bill's comments - Once again, a decent game that could be better. Everett and I both had a win when we played white, but my win was more decisive, as I was very aggressive with my Gandalfs. Against Joe, I wanted to chance to try out some darkside strategy, as it seemed that the forces of evil are a little disadvantaged. It would have been closer if he was more experienced, but it has the advantage of being fast.

Score: Bill 8, Everett 5 (full game)
Score: Bill 3 (won), Joe 3 (Saruman-Balrog tag team killed Frodo)

Ratings: Everett 8, Bill 6, Joe ?

Battle for France:
Bill, Everett, Chris, Mark

Bill got in a few games of this as well. For those of you who aren't familiar with this game, the rules can be found here.

Record: Bill 3-3, Joe 1-2, Mark 1-0, Chris 1-0, Everett 0-1

Ratings: Bill 10, Everett 4 (only cause it takes only 6 seconds), Mark 2, Chris 1