Good game of Eketorp and Dominion at Brians

 Last night was another good gaming evening at the as-ever good host Brian's house. This time it was with Nigel Heather and Nigel Wood. Firstly it was a game of Eketorp - new to all the players, although Brian had just bought a copy and played a few times with his family. It went down ok, but it is more of a family game than for four adult male gamers I think - Nigel H liked it but wasn't 100% hooked - horses for courses really. Nigel Wood brought Dominion with him - a great card game based on try to win as many Victory cards as possible from a starting deck of 7 which everyone gets the same. 5 cards are then taken from the starting deck and each player in turn decides what they are going to do - with one Action, One purchase.

For example if you have an action card, you can play it then follow its instructions then make a purchase of another card from the deck piles on the table, comprised of coin cards, victory cards and kingdom cards. For example three copper coins of value 3 altogether allows you to buy a kingdom card of up to 3 value or a silver coin card (which by itself has a value of 2 in subsequent purchases). Any purchased cards are put into the discard pile (to your right).

As your turn ends, any cards you have used on the table in front of you are put into discard pile as are any unused cards in your hand. Then you draw 5 more from the deck. As you continue to purchase money cards of higher value (copper = 1, silver = 2, gold = 3), these can then in subsequent turns if they are drawn be used to purchase kingdom cards that can give you advantages during play.

For example - for 5 coins, you can buy the Market. If played as an Action card, on it there is a statement that says Draw +1 card (so take a card from your stack into your hand), take +1 Action (so you can now play another Action card form your hand), +1 buy (so now you have 2 purchases for this turn) and +1 coin (so if you play 5 coins, you now have 6 to buy with). But the clever part is, the next action card you play could be another Market if you have bought two and the 2nd Market is in your hand, either originally or just picking it up. 

So now you have a 2nd Action to play, you can play this Market as well, giving ANOTHER card to pick up, ANOTHER action, 3 purchases and +2 coins.... This chaining of cards is great for allowing purchases of expensive Kingdom cards or Victory cards as well as undermining the efforts of others. 

This is a great, simple to play game, but very strategic in my view. I played this with the family and they enjoyed it but like others more. Like Eketorp is for families, I think this is more for four adults, but I could play against the family again soon and see if that has changed. 

A weekend of gameplay - 3 player Ticket to Ride and Germany changes history!

Blimey what a busy gaming weekend! We tried to get in as many games as possible with Citadels and Dominion on Saturday and Ticket to Ride: USA and Memoir '44 on Sunday. 

Citadels was another great game as usual, big family winner this. I just managed to win this with Roshni just denied an extra 4 points for all 5 colours in her Citadel cards by Anita Warlord destroying one of her coloured cards. 

Then we had another go at Dominion - this time was much better than the last with the game over in about 50 minutes. This time we learned the lessons of the past and used our money to buy more money and then use this to buy victory cards. Although the game is supposed to be only for 4 players max, we managed to  include Maya as a fifth player - she was happy to just buy up kingdom or money cards and randomly attack the rest of us with a Militia card, but as long as she was happy that was all that matter. 

Sunday we started with Ticket to Ride and this time Roshni played with Anita as a team, Maya played alongside me and Kavita by herself. This proved to be interesting as we'd only ever played TtR with 2 players/teams, so Kavita playing was a curveball - as Anita discovered! All of her normal gaming tactics seemed to go out of the window in the face of two rather than one opponent! :-) Kavita won in the end. 

Initial set up - look at those tanks!

Finally in the afternoon, Roshni and I took on our first Soviet vs German Memoir scenario. Wow, this turned into a huge battle! The Germans were on a push for the gates of Moscow with a huge en-masse of tanks and soldiers. The middle and right Russian positions could not withhold the attacks, even with the backup of artillery, and moved back to more secure positions. To the left, brave Soviet peasant infantry tried to hold out with German tanks in one direction and Commissars waving pistols in the other. A German tank platoon split a wedge between the left and centre Soviet commands by taking the bridge over the river. Then German tanks, which had been badly hit, in the centre, took the hills overlooking the city and forced a general retreat to the bottom right of the board. The remaining left hand command were left to their own devices and eventually destroyed by a huge tank advance! 

The Germans take the hills, ready to capture the Bridge!

The left command is crushed!

With German guns firing from the hills, there was little to do, but try to rush them from the right and try to retake the hills, but all was lost with the loss of the Left command and the capture of the bridge over the river! The road to Moscow was open and history changed again! 

With the left, Bridge and hills taken,
little remains but for the Soviets to retreat!

Fancy a game of Dominion? Nope, lets play Citadels!

We were planning to play Dominion tonight, but we decided on a game of Citadels - nice little game; poor Maya got hit badly by a Thief card when she gathered up a stash of gold and lost it all to Roshni!! She was not happy :( Nice little game - Roshni won in the end with two special purple cards that gave two extra gold each at the end.

"Why did our Dominion game last 1.5hrs?" forum post on Boardgamegeek gets a big response!

After our first game of Dominion, we were wondering why the game lasted 1.5 hours (the box says half an hour) and we still hadn't finished - there was still at least 8 of high scoring 6-point Victory Cards. So I posted a question on the General forum of Dominion on Boardgamegeek. And blimey did I get a reply! See it here at: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/540511/play-lasted-1-5-hrs-in-first-go

Dominion day

Today we cracked open Dominion to have a family play - and once it got going, they were pretty happy with it - it seems fairly complex, but it is pretty easy; everyone starts the same deck of ten cards but over time the players start to gain Action and other money cards and build a deck of their own. When 3 piles of cards are used up or all of the top scoring Victory Cards are finished, its game over - whomever has the most Victory Card amount wins.

Sounds simple, but it is fairly complex in its approach and strategy, but its easy to pick - the girls were fine with it and enjoyed it. The best bit about the game for me is the fact that everyone starts with the same set of cards (7 copper and 3 Estate cards - worth 1 victory point each) and from there you determine your own strategy and overall fate in the game.

The Turn is three phases - play an Action card from your hand (if you have one), Buy another card with the money in your hand, Clean up the cards on the table.

An Action card is one card from 10 piles that can be purchased in the Buy phase - the cost of the card increasing depending on what is can do. For example one of the most expensive cards is Mine which when played allows you to turn a low amount treasure/coin card into a higher one ready for the Buy phase. In the box there are lots of different Action cards, but only 10 piles can be used per game, meaning lots of different combinations to play with.

You can also buy more expensive money to then use later on or in a future turn. Once a purchase is made, used cards and the purchased card go into a discard pile and a new set of cards is drawn from your personal draw pile. Once this is used up, at any point, the Discard pile is shuffled and cards can start to be drawn from it again.

It does sound complex, but it isn't. Our first game last 1.5hrs mainly for rules re-reads and catching up with play and mechanics, but I suspect our next game will be much quicker.

Catan and Martin family game play

 Today proved a great success for getting new people involved in games - our family friends the Martins came over for an evening meal and then a game of Diamant and Eketorp - I thought I'd give them two very different types of games, a slow paced tension builder and a fairly fast paced resource management game.

Diamant proved to be a big hit with them - we were able to play with a full set of players (8) and our guests were surprised at how quick the game was over and how much fun it generated in that time. Eketorp had a mixed review, not bad in anyway, but some preferred Diamant, some Eketorp. All in all a great evening.

On top of that, I bought a couple of Settlers of Catan with my vouchers for Battlequestgames. It looked like quite a promising family game with a quick to quickish play length. It is only for 4 players, but there is an expansion for 5 to 6 players if its a family hit. Time will tell. Hope to crack on with a game of Dominion and Settlers this weekend.

Birthday treat!

So, birthday finally arrives and I get £40 from Anita for use in Battlequestgames! Yay! Then dad gives me £20 (so again that will be diverted :] ). Off we go into town and I nip into BQGs after my several month exile (to stop me buying up loads and getting into trouble). We had a look around the family games and find Dominion - which plays from 8+ so Maya can play - although its 4 players only, so she'll have to work alongside someone. It looks interesting and a card based game like Citadels, which was a sure-fire hit, so looking forward to playing this.

Oh and later a few friends came around for some birthday drinks and I got another £20 - this time specifically in Battlequest vouchers! Nice!