Madison Board Gamers Session Report,
October 16th, 2002
written by Everett E. Proctor

Games Played:
Condottiere, Web of Power, Castle, LOTR: Friends & Foes, Fantasy Politics (Bill's Prototype), Ra, Guillotine, Citadels, and Chrononauts.

Players:
Adam, Todd, Chris, John, Everett, Sara, Joel, Bill, and Mike

Had a good turnout tonight, with two new members showing up (Hi Chris and Adam). Chris said that he had a good time tonight, and that this was exactly the sort of group he was looking for. Thanks Chris, and thanks to everyone who shows up and makes new members feel welcomed. It does seem that becoming an official Student Organization has helped in spreading the word, and we've had quite a few new people stop by and give us a try. I like having more people, not only do you encounter different strategies, but with more games going, there's more of a chance that you'll get to play a game you really like. It's a good thing.

Bill wanted to continue his argument that Aladdin's Dragons is not a blind bidding game. (I don't have his argument right now, but will post it when I get his e-mail.) The rest of us were in pretty much agreement that Bill is delusional.

Also, it was the day before John's Birthday. Happy Birthday John!

Condottiere:
1st game: Joel, Sara, Everett
2nd game: Joel, Sara, Everett

Once again, Sara, Joel, and myself were the first ones there, and the best, quickest, three player game we had on hand was Condottiere. We played two games of this while other people were showing up. All three of us played this game for the first time last week, and it was so well received that we wanted to try it again, to see if it was as good with multiple playings. Joel still really liked it. Sara commented that she likes it better with more people, as her style of play works better with more players. And I still have the complaint that it is a little too luck driven and too hard to catch up from a bad start for my tastes, so the ratings are about the same as last week.

Winners: 1st game: Everett, 2nd game: Everett

Ratings: Joel 9, Sara 7, Everett 6

Web of Power: Bill, Todd, John, and Adam

The people who arrived in the middle of our second Condottiere game started up a game of Web of Power while waiting for us to finish, and while waiting for Chris to show up to play LOTR. This is one of Todd's favorite three player games, and works well as a quick filler game with some meat for a small group. Bill's obligatory comment about France for this game: "The battle for France was surprisingly small (0 pieces)." This was the first time Bill and Adam had played the game, and it showed in the placings.

Placing: John 1st, Todd 2nd, Adam 3rd, and Bill 4th.

Ratings: Todd 8, John 8, Adam 7, Bill 6

Fantasy Politics: Everett, Bill, Joel, and Sara

Bill finally got to play-test his game! We consider it a successful play-test, even though we didn't finish a single round. Each player plays a character trying to win an election in a fantasy based country. Each character has a different rating (from 1-10) in four different areas: Morality, Regional, Military, and I forget the fourth. The country is divided into several (around 50?) territories, and each of those territories has a preference in each of the four areas, also rated from 1-10. Your initial influence in each territory is equal to 40 minus the difference between your ratings in each of the four areas and the territories ratings in those four areas. Whoever has the most influence in a territory gains its votes, and the goal is to obtain more than 50% of the total votes in the country. The problem with the game as it is now, is that it takes WAY too long to calculate everyone's influence in each territory. While Bill was calculating the initial influence, Joel, Sara, and I played a game of Castle. Then during the first turn, Sara modified her Military rating, which took several minutes to calculate, and then I changed my Military rating, at which point we decided that the game as is would take too long. We suggested that a spread sheet be made for calculating these totals before we try the game again.

Scores: unfinished

Ratings: General agreement that the game still needs some work.

Castle: Sara, Joel, Everett

Sara, Joel, and I played this while Bill was calculating our initial positions in Fantasy Politics. Sara was the only one who hadn't played before. It's a little too random, and there's a little (very little) too much messing with other people as opposed to helping yourself, for this to be a great game for me; but otherwise I find it to be a really enjoyable, quick, light game, especially if you don't take it too seriously. Sara really enjoyed her first game of it, and definitely would like to play it again.

Scores: Everett won, Sara: three cards left, Joel: five cards left

Ratings: Sara 9, Everett 6, Joel 6

LOTR: Friends & Foes Expansion Adam, Todd, Chris, and John

While some of us were trying out Bill's game, the rest of us played LOTR: F&F. This was requested in advance by our new members, Chris and Adam. Everyone had played the base game before, but John was the only player to have played the expansion. Once again, our intrepid adventurers, the hobbits, failed to accomplish their mission. In fact, Sauron ended up corrupting every single hobbit, including three of the four all at once. I would say that of all the games of this I've played, or seen played, with or without the expansion, that the hobbits have won less than 25% of the time. And that is with Sauron always starting on the 15 spot. How other groups can say that that is too easy, and that they start Sauron on 12 or closer, completely baffles me.

Scores: Sauron: won, Hobbits: lost

Ratings: Sauron 10, Adam 9, Todd 8, Chris 8, John 8

Ra: Everett, Joel, Bill and Sara

After we gave up on Fantasy Politics, we turned to Ra. This is a game I didn't like at first (mostly because we did not have the essential player aid mats the first time I played), but has grown on me. Ironically, Joel said that he likes this game less the more that he plays it. This was the first time Sara and Bill had played this game. Auction games aren't Bill's favorite, but he said that this was o.k. for an auction game. Sara and Bill had great first epochs, gaining 9 and 8 points respectively, Joel gained 4, and I lost 2 points. I took the most points in the second epoch, but it wasn't enough as Sara also had a huge 3rd epoch and took the win.

Scores: Sara 44, Bill 34, Everett 28, Joel 22

Ratings: Sara 8, Everett 6, Joel 5, Bill 4

Citadels: Chris, John, Mike, Adam, and Todd

After the hobbits were defeated by Sauron, they decided for a nice "friendly" game of Citadels. This is one of my favorite games, but since I play it about once a week outside of Wednesday nights, I don't mind sitting out on this one on Wednesdays. This was the first time playing this for Chris, Mike and Adam. Everyone seemed to enjoy the game and gave it high ratings. John was the first to 8 buildings, but was the only one not to have all 5 colors, and lost by one point to Chris.

Scores: Chris 34, John 33, Mike 29, Adam 24, Todd 23

Ratings: John 9, Chris 8, Mike 8, Adam 7, Todd 7

Guillotine: Bill, Sara, Joel, and Everett

We played a couple of games of this as a wind-down game before people had to leave. It's a light game, without much strategy or skill involved, but it is a fun game. And no, I'm not going to discuss the morality involved in describing a game about chopping off heads as being "fun", it just is. After all, it's a game about France. Sara was the only person to not have played before.

Scores: 1st game: Joel 21, Everett 14, Bill 12, Sara 11
2nd game: Joel 24, Sara 22, Everett 22, Bill 16

Ratings: Bill 6, Sara 6, Joel 6, Everett 6

Chrononauts: Todd, Chris, Adam, Bill, and Mike

They were in the middle of this game when I left.
Todd's notes: Todd won the game because, like most games of Chrononauts, other players changed the timeline in accordance with his ID, and he simply had to reveal it when his turn came around again. It's from Looney Labs, whaddaya expect? Mike gave it the low rating because he really didn't understand what was going on.

Results: Todd won

Ratings: Todd 7, Adam 6, Chris 6, Bill 6, Mike (1st time) 4