Madison Board Gamers Session Report,
November 20, 2002
written by Everett E. Proctor

Games Played:
War & Sheep, Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (x2), Kardinal & König: das Kartenspiel, Puerto Rico, La Citta, Samurai (HiG)

Players:
Everett, Joel, Mike, Todd, Tim, Bill, Steve, Ben and Joe

So many games, so little time. There were so many new games on the table this week that we had no chance to give them all a try. They included the new 2-player games by Eurogames: War & Sheep, Drake & Drake, and Tony & Tino; the two games from my Boulder Games order that we didn't play last week: Funkenschlag and Die Handler; the new Rio Grande Games import: Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers; and a free downloaded game: Kardinal & König: das Kartenspiel. We also had a good turnout tonight, with a few of our semi-regulars showing up. However, we were missing one of our regulars who was home taking care of his newborn daughter, Cecylia Ruth Richards. Congratulations John!!

War & Sheep: Todd, Everett

This is one of three new 2-player games designed by Frenchman Bruno Cathala and published by Eurogames. Bruno Faidutti gives a good review of these games on his site. War & Sheep is played on a 6 by 6 board on which each player controls 6 sheep. The rest of the board is covered with face down tokens, of which 2 are wolves and the rest are grass worth 1, 3, or 5 victory points. On your turn you have two actions, with which you can: scout (take a look at two face down tokens), move a sheep (turning over and scoring any grass counters it ends on), move a wolf (killing any sheep it lands on), or play an action card. When a sheep eats (scores) a "1" grass counter (also known as fermented grass), you draw an action card; when a sheep eats a "3" counter (normal grass), nothing special happens; and when a sheep eats a "5" counter (good grass), the sheep is full and is removed from the game. While most of the action cards are beneficial, there are a couple of bad cards in the deck (we didn't draw any in our game, so I can't remember exactly what they do; they may just make you discard any action cards you already have). The game continues until either someone loses all of their sheep, or all the grass is eaten. Whoever has the most points wins. This is a fairly light game, and has similarities to Tally Ho!. However, I think that the action cards make this game work, whereas I did not enjoy Tally Ho!. The other games in this series are supposed to be more strategic, and now I can't wait to give them a try.

Score: Everett 27, Todd 10

Ratings: Everett 5, Todd 6

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers: Bill, Todd, Everett, Joel

Considering that Carcassonne gets high ratings in our group, it was a no-brainer that we would have to give the new version a try as soon as it came out. The elements of Hunters and Gatherers are very similar to the old version. Forests replace cities, rivers replace roads, and hunters replace farmers. The new elements are huts, which score at the end of the game for the entire river network they are connected to; and special land tiles, which you get to draw and place whenever you complete a forest of three tiles or more. The changes are that uncompleted forests and rivers do not score any points at the end of the game, and that hunters don't score for forests, but instead score 2 points for each animal in their field, with each tiger in that field eliminting one of the deer in that field. The game play is the same: draw and place a tile, and then you may play a meeple or a hut. The tile mix and the incentives to complete forests do cause this game to be played differently from the original Carcassonne. The forests tend to be smaller and competed more often than the cities were, the fields tend to be smaller, and "instant meeple retrieval" tends to be worth more points. I think that this game also relies a little more on the luck of the draw than the original version, and so I would have to rank it slightly below the original version. However, it is still a very good game. I would like to give Hunters and Gatherers a try using the variant where you hold a hand of tiles, as this may add a little more strategical planning to the game. In the game we played tonight, Bill won the game by controlling a large field that had a fire tile (one of the special tiles that cancels out the effect of tigers in that field).

Score: Bill 123, Everett 90, Todd 88, Joel 87

Ratings: Bill 8, Everett 7, Todd 7, Joel 6

Kardinal & König: das Kartenspiel (Web of Power, the Cardgame): Tim, Everett, Joel, and Todd

We had enough people show up by now that we had to break up into two groups. This was yet another game on the Internet Top 100 list that I had not yet played. It is, as you can tell by the name, a card game based on the Web of Power board game. Not only that, it is free! If you'd like, you can download the game here. It does a fairly good job of incorporating the scoring mechanisms of Web of Power into a card game. The game consists of 56 cards, each card representing one of 9 countries (these are analogous to the cloisters in the boardgame). Each card also has 1 or 2 circle symbols (except for the Denmark cards which have none) which represent the houses trying to control those countries (advisors in the boardgame). Some of the cards also have either a ship or a carriage symbol on them (cloister chains in the boardgame). These cards are laid out in four rows of 14 cards each. On your turn you may take cards from either end of any of the rows, following two simple rules: the cards you take must be of all the same country, and you may take no more than 2 of the circle symbols. Each player also gets 2 or 3 claiming stones, depending on the number of players. You may place one of these stones on card. Another player may only take a card that has an opponent's stone on it by discarding one of his own stones. This gives you a limited ability to reserve cards for yourself, but not a guarantee of getting that card. The other twist to the game is that on two of the cards in each row special law cards are placed face down. Whoever takes a land card with a law card on it gets the law card as well. The law cards either have a beneficial effect, such as allowing you to take 3 circles in a turn, or are worth -2 victory points at the end of the game. Players continue to take cards until all of the land cards have been taken, then you score. For each country, whoever has taken the most cards scores 1 point for every card that country has (from 4 to 8). Whoever has the second most cards scores one point for every card the first player has. Whoever has the third most cards scores one point for every card the second player has, and so on. After you have scored each country this way, you score the symbols. Whoever has the most circle symbols of the same type in each country scores that number of points. Everyone else scores nothing. Then you score the chains. If you have 5 or more ships, you score 1 point for each ship you have. If you have 5 or more carriages, you score 1 point for each carriage. The person with the most points wins.
One complaint I have about the game is that the law cards add too much randomness to the game. In the game we played tonight, I won because I got 2 good law cards, and Joel got 2 of the negative law cards. I would prefer it if either the law cards were all beneficial or all harmful, and I may try playing that way next time I play. Other than that, it is a fine card game that has some of the same elements as Web of Power. However, considering that Web of Power is so short, and has a bit more strategy and crucial decisions in it, I would rather play the board game version than the card game version. And there is no reason not to. The only advantage I see that the card game has is that it is smaller and easier to carry around, so I'll probably keep it in my backpack and always have it available.

Scores: Everett 48, Joel 46, Tim 29, Todd 29

Ratings: Tim 8, Everett 7, Joel 7, Todd 7

La Citta: Steve, Bill and Ben

Steve brought this game and taught Ben and Bill how to play it.

Bill's notes: "Steve won due to having all three society value-color-thingies in all three of his cities. Both Ben and Steve had three cities, I only had two. The thing I remember most about this game is that I had one small city on the side that would get a guy every turn and then give it to Steve's city, while just making massive gold (6 a turn), and that I had a monster city in the middle that sucked up guys from three cities, but I just didn't have the population growth to match Steve or Ben. And plus, my people were starving unless I got bountiful harvests. Everyone had very large amounts of gold in this game, which Steve said was unusual."

Scores: Steve 30, Ben 28, Bill 22

Ratings: Ben 8, Steve 7, Bill 7

Samurai: Steve, Bill, Joe and Ben

Joe arrived and joined the La Citta players for a game of Samurai when they had finished. Again, I don't have much information on this game, except that Bill won by an instant victory by having the most hats and the most rice.

Bill's notes: "When explaining the rules to Joe and Ben, Steve said that the only way one would get an instant victory was if they were playing against really stupid people. So what's that say about Steve?"

Scores (hats/rice/buddhas): Bill (5/4/3) instant victory, Ben (3/3/4), Steve (4/3/3), Joe (1/3/3)

Ratings: Joe 7, Bill 6, Ben 6, Steve 6

Puerto Rico: Everett, Joel, Mike, Todd, and Tim

While the other table was conquering Japan, we where settling Puerto Rico. I love this game, but I suck at it. I was hoping that with John being away, that I might actually have a chance at winning my first game of this. (John, btw, is ranked 4th in the world in Puerto Rico on Brettspeilwelt.) But I had my usual horrible score. I didn't even beat the two newbies, Tim and Mike. Buildings seemed to be an overall low priority with everyone in this game, with, I think, the most buildings anyone having being 8 and no one getting any of the large buildings. Mike got coffee early, and was able to make a lot of money with his marketplace. Todd went for a balanced strategy and won the game despite having several earthquakes (he kept on hitting his gameboard).

Scores: Todd 38, Mike 33, Tim 28, Everett 26, Joel 26

Ratings: Todd 9, Mike 8, Joel 8, Everett 8

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers: Bill, Steve, Mike, Joe, and Todd

A second game of Carcassonne: Hunters and Gathers was starting up right when I had to leave.

Scores: Bill 112, Steve 98, Todd 78, Mike 63, and Joe 59

Ratings: Bill 8, Joe 7.5, Todd 7.5, Mike 7, Steve 6