Madison Board Gamers

Madison Board Gamers

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Madison Board Gamers Session Report,
Saturday, May 3rd, 2003
written by Everett E. Proctor

**Session 39**
Date/Location	5/3/2003
Attendees	Everett Proctor, Justin , Steve Mading, Todd Jensen, Mike O'Brien
Games Played	Duel of Ages, Amun Re, Puerto Rico, Royal Turf
Summary	It was a light turn out for our Saturday Sessions, partly because of it being near the end of the semester, and also because of a few people had other commitments. So there were only five of us, but on the other hand, five is the perfect number for many of our games, so it worked out well. Hopefully next month we'll get a few more people now that they won't have to worry about that bothersome school thing.
Duel of Ages
Played By	Everett P. Justin Steve M. Todd J. Mike O.
Teams	1-Everett P.
Summary	This is a fairly new game that has been generating some interest on boardgamegeek.com and spielfrieks. So when Todd brought it, I was eager to try it to see what all the talk is about. DoA is a chit and hex battle game, where each side controls 3 or more warriors from 5 different eras that have somehow found themselves on this battlefield. Each character has about 12 different stats that determine how many hits they can take, how good they are at fighting, throwing, aiming, etc. Basically, you can either go beat up on you opponent, or you can go into special adventure areas and try to complete the challenge which will get you weapons, making it easier for you to beat up your opponents. That is pretty much all there is to the game, which is my main complaint about it. In the end, it is just a complicated game of Frag. It's the type of game that I would have played every weekend for hours when I was in high school, but nowadays I am looking for something a little more in my games. This looks like one of those labor of love games, that I am sure the designers spent years developing and tweaking, and it does have pretty nice components. They've come up with an interlocking modular hex game board, which looks nice, but unfortunately, our boards were slightly warped and it did not work that well.
Winner(s)	Everett P., Mike O.
Finish	1-Everett P. (3) 2-Justin (2) 2-Steve M. (2) 2-Todd J. (2) 1-Mike O. (3)
Ratings	Everett P. (6) Justin (6) Steve M. (5.5) Todd J. (6) Mike O. (5.5)
Amun Re
Played By	Everett P. Justin Steve M. Todd J. Mike O.
Summary	This is another new game that Todd brought that I have been wanting to play. It is the newest by Knizia, which many of you know is my favorite designer, so I was really looking forward to it, and wasn't disappointed. There isn't really any new, clever mechanics in this game, but Knizia does combine several mechanics from different games to create an interesting, challenging game. The map represents Egypt, divided into 15 regions. Each round, a number of provinces will be auctioned off equal to the number of players, in an Evo-style auction. Each region has different advantages. Some have a lot of farmers, some give you bonus power cards, and some give you bonus bricks for building pyramids. After the auction, each player then gets to buy power cards, farmers, and bricks. How many of each of these you can buy is determined by the provinces you own. The cost of each of these increases pyramidically, like the cost for moving in Hare and Tortoise (e.g. 1 costs 1, 2 costs 3, 3 costs 6, etc.). Power cards have various effects, such as giving you extra farmers, or income, or bonus points during the scoring. Farmers give you money during the sacrifice phase. And bricks let you build pyramids: 3 bricks to make a pyramid. After everyone has had a chance to buy, you go on to the sacrifice phase. Each player secretly determines how much money they will sacrifice to Amun Re. If the total amount all players sacrifice is high, Amun Re is pleased, and the harvest is good, and each farmer will earn its owner up to 4 gold each. If the sacrifice is low, then each farmer may only be worth 1 gold each. In addition, there are some provinces with caravans will provide their owners extra cash only if the sacrifice is poor. These phases are repeated 3 times and then there is a scoring phase, where players score for their pyramids, and for completing certain goals on their power cards (such as having all of their provinces on the same side of the Nile). Everyting is removed from the board except for the pyramids, and then another 3 rounds are played and then there is a final scoring round, where money also scores you bonus points. I won by going for the caravan and going for low sacrifice values in the first part of the game, then going for farmers and high sacrifice values in the second half of the round. It also helped that I was about to score five of the special power cards. Steve didn't understand how the pyramid scoring worked until the end of the game, but he did well anyways, coming in second.
Winner(s)	Everett P.
Finish	1-Everett P. (48) 2-Steve M. (40) 3-Justin (37) 4-Mike O. (31) 5-Todd J. (30)
Ratings	Everett P. (8) Justin (7) Steve M. (8) Todd J. (8) Mike O. (8)
Puerto Rico
Played By	Everett P. Justin Steve M. Todd J. Mike O.
Summary	Ahhh . . . Puerto Rico. I really like this game, I'm just not very good at it. It always seems to end right when my strategy is about to start making me a bunch of points. Since this always happens, I guess there is something wrong with my strategy. Todd dominated the game early on by producing and shipping a lot of corn. Justin started catching up with him by having 3 quarries and building a lot of buildings, but wasn't able to catch up.
Winner(s)	Todd J.
Finish	1-Todd J. (53) 2-Justin (46) 3-Everett P. (43) 4-Mike O. (43) 5-Steve M. (42)
Ratings	Everett P. (8) Justin (8) Steve M. (7) Todd J. (9) Mike O. (9)
Royal Turf
Played By	Everett P. Justin Steve M. Todd J. Mike O.
Summary	Unfortunately I had to go to work, so I only had time for a quick game, so we played Royal Turf. Justin kept on making plays that the rest of us questioned, such as moving a horse that he hadn't bet on its maximum movement when he could move another horse he hadn't bet on one space, but since he one, it obviously worked for him.
Winner(s)	Justin
Finish	1-Justin (2300) 2-Todd J. (1600) 3-Everett P. (1500) 4-Mike O. (1300) 5-Steve M. (100)
Ratings	Everett P. (7) Justin (7) Steve M. (6.5) Todd J. (7) Mike O. (7)

Madison Board Gamers Session Report,
May 7th, 2003
written by Everett E. Proctor

**Session 40**
Date/Location	5/7/2003
Attendees	Steve Mading, Josiah , Tim Achee, Sara Friedemann, Mike O'Brien, Todd Jensen, Everett Proctor, Joe Powers, Joel Uckelman, Bill Palecek, John Richards, Justin , David Solie, Ed McGlinn
Games Played	Royal Turf, Carcassonne, Queen's Necklace, Gang of Four, Thor, El Grande, Trias, Thor, Lifeboat
Summary	Another good turnout, with thirteen people showing up. Of course with our usual mixture of people who have to leave early or arrive late. However, I was the only who was able to stay the whole time who had brought a bag-o-games, so we were pretty much limited to what I brought (and Justin's Gang of Four). I'll thow in a different mix of games for next week (except I'll probably bring El Grande again).
Royal Turf
Played By	Steve M. Josiah Tim A.
Summary	First, finishing up some of the reports from games that finished last week after I had to leave. I don't have any notes from these except for their scores.
Winner(s)	Josiah
Finish	1-Josiah (2650) 2-Steve M. (2550) 3-Tim A. (2150)
Ratings	Steve M. (7) Josiah (7) Tim A. (7.75)
Carcassonne
Played By	Sara F. Mike O. Todd J.
Summary	Another game that was played last week after I had to leave. Sara wanted to prove that she didn't always suck at this game (after getting stomped on by Bill earlier in the night), so she wanted to play it again, and proved her point by winning.
Winner(s)	Sara F.
Finish	1-Sara F. (225) 2-Mike O. (146) 3-Todd J. (125)
Ratings	Sara F. (9) Mike O. (9.5) Todd J. (8.5)
Queen's Necklace
Played By	Sara F. Everett P. Joe P. Joel U.
Summary	We were looking for something fairly quick and easy to play while waiting for more people to show up, so Sara and I decided to teach this to Joe and Joel. This was one of the lowest scoring games I've played of this, and I won by keeping most of my gems until the very end, and ended up only making two sales, but one of them with a ring, to take the win in the end. The king card ended up cancelling out some of the other players' big sales which made this possible.
Winner(s)	Everett P.
Finish	1-Everett P. (130) 2-Joe P. (80) 3-Sara F. (70) 4-Joel U. (50)
Ratings	Sara F. (6) Everett P. (7) Joe P. (7) Joel U. (4)
Gang of Four
Played By	Bill P. John R. Justin David S.
Summary	This has been a pretty popular new game. Bill so far has dominated playing this, and always seems to win. But he hasn't played me yet (but I haven't played the game at all yet, so I should just shut up now). I'm sure it's going to get a lot more play in the future.
Winner(s)	Bill P.
Finish	1-Bill P. (5) 2-John R. (33) 3-Justin (51) 4-David S. (71)
Ratings	Bill P. (9) John R. (8) Justin (8) David S. (8)
Thor
Played By	Josiah Sara F. Everett P. Joe P. Joel U.
Summary	Taught this game to a couple of new players tonight ( I think Joe and Joel had not played before). It is a nice filler game in that it is quick and easy to explain, but the more I play it the less I like it. However I have played it a lot recently, probably too much, so it is probably going to go on the back shelf for a while. Tonight, Joe and Josiah were neck and neck for most of the game, with Joe pulling out the one point win.
Winner(s)	Joe P.
Finish	1-Joe P. (74) 2-Josiah (73) 3-Everett P. (63) 4-Sara F. (58) 5-Joel U. (44)
Ratings	Josiah (7) Sara F. (7) Everett P. (6.5) Joe P. (8) Joel U. (5)
El Grande
Played By	Sara F. Everett P. Joel U. David S. Ed M.
Summary	This is one of my favorite games (up there with Vinci), however, I don't get to play it near as often as I like (there are too many other good games out there). Anyway, that's my excuse for making a horrible mistake in round 2 that crippled me for the rest of the game (I played a high action card, which meant I could move 4 guys from my court onto the board, but I had no guys in my court, so it ended up being a wasted turn). We played the King and Intrigue expansion, which in my opinion adds a lot to the game. However, it does make it very difficult for someone who hasn't played the game before, as they don't know which cards they should choose at the start of the game for their hand. Ed and Sara were the new players to this game. However, despite that, Ed dominated the game and made some good moves early on to give him a lot of caballeros on the board. Dave tried to catch up, but wasn't quite able to, with Ed winning the game.
Winner(s)	Ed M.
Finish	1-Ed M. (61) 2-David S. (59) 3-Joel U. (48) 4-Everett P. (40) 5-Sara F. (39)
Ratings	Sara F. (7) Everett P. (9.5) Joel U. (9) David S. (8) Ed M. (8)
Trias
Played By	Steve M. Josiah Tim A. Bill P.
Summary	This is another new game that has been getting a lot of play. However, this was the first time for all four of these players. It ended up being a very close game, with Bill winning on the unexpected tiebreaker (herds in stock). The game was consistantly Bill vs. Josiah and Tim vs. Steve conflicts.
Winner(s)	Bill P.
Finish	1-Bill P. (24) 2-Josiah (24) 3-Steve M. (21) 4-Tim A. (16)
Ratings	Steve M. (6) Josiah (7) Tim A. (5) Bill P. (8)
Thor
Played By	Steve M. Josiah Tim A. Mike O. Bill P.
Summary	Another game of Thor played tonight, with Josiah winning.
Winner(s)	Josiah
Finish	1-Josiah (85) 2-Bill P. (81) 3-Tim A. (71) 4-Steve M. (64) 5-Mike O. (63)
Ratings	Steve M. (6) Josiah (8) Tim A. (8.75) Mike O. (7.5) Bill P. (7)
Lifeboat
Played By	Steve M. Josiah Tim A. Mike O. Everett P.
Summary	This usually gets played at Perkins after my Monday night Deadlands game whenever Citadells doesn't, but this is the first time we've played it on Wednesday night. It's a Cheapass-style light game where half of the fun is role playing your characters, but with some problems that you can overlook as long as you don't take the game too seriously. Each player is a character in a lifeboat after a shipwreck. Each player is dealt a card that is kept secret which tells you which character you hate (which you'll get points for if they die before you reach land) and a card that tells you which character you love (which you'll get points for if they survive until you reach land). At the front of the boat is the provisions that are passed down each round, so the closer you are to the front, the better choice of goods you have. However, whoever is at the end of the boat is the navigator, and gets to choose the cards that determine who ends up overboard (and hence takes wounds), who gets thirsty (and hence takes wounds), and whether or not you get closer to land each turn. Each turn, after you get provisions, each player can either do nothing, row (which gets more cards for the navigator to choose from), try to steal a provision from another player (which may start a fight), or change position in the boat with another player (which may also cause a fight). The most fun I've had playing this game was this Monday night, when we had too many people, so Mike G. and Vince decided to play one of the characters together, with Mike knowing who they hated, and Vince knowing who they loved. It was a blast. Tonight, Tim playing the weakest character, got knocked unconsious fairly early in the game, and had nothing to do but wait around for the rest of the game. I got killed a little while later, and had to leave for work before I saw the end of the game, so I don't know who won or lost.
Winner(s)
Finish	Steve M. Josiah Tim A. Mike O. Everett P.
Ratings	Everett P. (5)

Maintained by John Richards and Everett Proctor.