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Category Archives: Board Games

Posts about our weekly game nights.

Gloria Mundi

We played an interesting game Monday night called Gloria Mundi. This is a game where you play a Roman statesman during the fall of the Roman Empire. The goal is to get as far from Rome as you can with the winner being the first to reach Africa. While the players are fleeing Rome, the Goths are rampaging towards Rome pillaging as they go. On a player’s turn, he decides what kind of a round it’s going to be: Farm, City, or Peace. The type of round he chooses determines what type of resources he gets. Unfortunately whatever a player chooses could help all the other players as well. After collecting resources, the player can build a building, if he can afford one. A player is able to move further from Rome by building buildings or by spending resources on a building’s ability. During the final phase of a player’s turn, he must decide if they are going to bribe the Goths or let them rampage, possibly destroying one or more of his holdings.

So how did our game go? Fantastic! In the beginning we all wondered just what the best strategy should be. We learned quickly just how devastating the Goth rampage can be. It wasn’t long though before a few players were using the Goth rampage to their advantage. I believe Owen was the first to cause someone else (me) to lose a resource card, while he scooped up the resource from the board.

Throughout the game I got very lucky in that I was able to purchase relatively cheap buildings that helped me move further and further from Rome. Soon I was in the lead and was managing to stay there. It looked liked Owen was going to give me a run for my money near the end of the game, but some unlucky resource losses kept him from getting too close. In the end I was able to win. (I told you the game went fantastic.) Owen was second, followed by Ben and then Mike.

I think we’re all anxious to play this again. Me, because it was fun. Everyone else, because they want to see if my win was pure luck or brilliant strategy. I think we all know which it was.

Chaos Steve

Ticket to Ride, Ingenious, & Kachina

On Monday night, Ben was King of the Games. Owen was gone on a trip through the tornado infested land of Mississippi, so it was just the three of us. Without Owen our gaming equilibrium was thrown off causing all kinds of strange things to happen; such as Ben being crowned King of the Games.

Our first game of the night was the Ticket to Ride card game. Mike and I could not stop Ben from continually placing many cards in his on-the-track card pile. (These are the cards you use to complete your destinations at the end of the game.) At the end of the game, both Mike and I had trouble completing all of our destinations. That meant negative points for us. Ben on the other hand completed all of his destinations; even the extra ones he had taken. He trounced Mike and I who were battling to not be in last place. It was close, but I was not last.

Next we played Ingenious, a tile placement game where your score at the end of the game is your lowest score within all your colors. Let me explain. The board is made up of hexes. The pieces are two joined hexes and each hex of the playing piece contains a different color. (Each color also has its own symbol, but we’ll just talk colors for now.) The idea is to score points by placing a piece such that the colors on it lie next to already-placed pieces with the same color. In our game, Ben once again was able to score vast amounts of points in all colors, nearly completing his entire score card. This time I failed to beat Mike and ended up in last place.

kachina
The last game of the night was Kachina, another tile placement game. This time Alex, Mike’s son, joined us too. Oh, what an awful game I played. I was in last place the entire game–usually way behind everyone else. Ben and Alex vied for first place most of the game. Mike got the biggest score of the night, nine points, which I gave him because of my previous tile placement. As the game drew to an end, Mike and I were scurrying to not be beaten by a nine-year old! Oh, the shame. Ben eventually won. Mike ended up tying the nine-year old and I came in last…behind the nine-year old. Well at least I was beaten by the best.

Chaos Steve

JimCon XV Con Report Available!

Howdy Harrowed Halls fans!  The latest JimCon Con Report is now available on Harrowed Halls!  Check it out!

Roborally

Evil Mike was out of town this week. When this happens it can only mean one thing…RoboRally! Ben, Owen, Mike the Younger, and I gathered at Andy’s house for the Straatman invitational. If you know nothing about RoboRally you can click the link above or go to GeekBo.com to check it out. Basically each player is one of several supercomputers in a fully automated widget factory. Each turn you program your robot’s path in a frantic, destructive race across the factory floors. Our games are always heavy on the destructive part of the race, as many of our robots are destroyed along the way. Fortunately you can archive copies of your robot along the way, so destruction isn’t the end, just a setback.

We like the robot option cards, so we have several home rules that include them. Each robot starts with an option and as you touch each flag you get a new option. This is above and beyond the normal option rules.

We made the horrible mistake of allowing Ben to pick the factory floor boards. (We play with the new Hasbro release of Roborally, but I have all of the boards and expansions from the original release too.) Of the three boards Ben chose, two were particularly deadly. One was filled with conveyors and spinning gears, while the worse of them was filled with lasers and walls—forcing you into the lasers.

All through our game we had lots of programming mistakes, but I don’t think any directly ended in robot destruction. Indirectly though, there was lots of damage as players used their robot lasers at every turn. My robot got off to a slow start and even was destroyed early in the game at the hands of a crusher. Still this ended up being a good thing. While everyone else was ahead of me, they were also interfering with each other, slowing each of them down. This allowed me to eventually catch up with my robot being pretty much unscathed.  Mike the younger took an early lead, but those nasty boards that Ben chose soon had his robot in trouble. This allowed everyone else to catch up. A low point for my robot was during the turn I powered down. Granted, I was in a horrible position, but Andy didn’t have to shove me into a laser (well, maybe he did actually.) And Mike didn’t have to keep shooting me…register phase after register phase. My power down turned into a destruction sequence.

At the end of the game Andy and Owen were primed for the win, but a mutually destructive laser battle postponed one of them from leaping in for the win. Ben and Mike were nearby, ready to touch the final flag too. But where was I? My robot was doing a spirited ballet on one of the spinning gears…right turn, right turn, right turn… In the end it was Owen’s robot that touched the final flag first-using his robot’s extendable arm, then his robot did a victory danced on the flag itself.

Chaos Steve

Rise of Empires (again)

Once again we tried our hands (and brains) at Rise of Empires–the game where you build an empire in just three short eras. Of course, for us those three short eras took four hours. If you want to know more about the game itself you can check out my previous post. Let’s just jump right in.

Ben is an idiot and so am I. That was the first revelation of the game. It doesn’t matter why or who said those things because those involved will be crushed! Crushed I tell you! But that will have to wait until another game–maybe Roborally. 

Just like our previous game, Mike took the lead and refused to let go of it. We tried everything short of poisoning his drink to overtake him, but he just kept scoring more victory points.  I spent most of the game in last place, while Ben and Owen shuffled around in between.  Owen tried a different strategy that didn’t depend upon owning areas on the board. Instead he grabbed up victory point yielding cities, technologies, and territories. This served him well at the end of the game. Both Mike and Ben took the shipping technology, that along with island territories; gain you any type of resource you want.  This time I settled on grabbing up forests that gained me people.  It cost me a fortune in food, sending me to the low edge of the food track, but I think it worked ok. Looking back on the game–and this may be obvious to everyone else–but it seems the less you need to fight with the other players over resources, the better you are.

Our game ended with Mike garnering about 160 victory points, Owen was only a short eight points away from him in second place. I think I was about 20 points behind Owen and Ben was way in last place…at the end…behind everyone…even me…again.  

(Ben’s still in his gaming slump, but on the up side he has been working feverously on a piece of gaming terrain for Mike. Somehow that makes it all ok.)

Chaos Steve

Rise of Empires

Last night we played a new game called Rise of Empires. Rise of Empires, as you may guess, is an empire-building game in which players develop their empire from Ancient Age to Modern Age. This is done over 3 era’s. Each era is broken into an A turn and a B turn. One unusual dynamic of the game is that what you do in your A turn, dictates what you will be able to do in your B turn. The B turn is almost a mirror image of your A turn. The main part of each turn is the Action phase. In it, each player takes six actions, one at a time, in turn order. These actions allow you to bolster your empire by adding territories, cities, technologies, and resources to it. You must manage carefully what you select because at the end of each turn and at the end of each era, you must pay for what you want to keep. As far as empire building games go, this game is more abstract than most. I had a hard time getting my mind around just what I should be doing. Because of this, many errors were made. You win the game by having the most Victory Points.

After Owen explained the rules to us, I think most of us were still in the dark as to how the game would play out and to what strategies we should try to employ. By the end of the game, or at least by the time we had to stop, I was still in the dark. I strayed from my normal strategy of going after victory points; this is probably why I was in last place almost the entire game. Mike took an early and substantial lead. But as the game progressed, it was easy to see that Owen was gathering a large amount of resources, control cubes, and gold.

We only played through two eras. Just by happenstance, I had a stellar B turn in era two that earned me 25 victory points (as compared to my normal 5-10 points in previous turns.)  This thrust me into second place. Owen was out in front by now, but not by that much. Mike was in third place. A place he didn’t think his playing deserved. I agreed. I think had we continued to play he and Owen would be battling it out for first place. But let’s not discount Ben’s effort. Sure he was in last place…at the end…behind everyone…even me, but I could see him as a solid finisher had the game continued. Many of us–ok, not me actually–had empires poised for greatness. At one point during the game Owen exclaimed I was a genius. Only to realize he was looking at someone else’s tokens, then changed it to “Steve, you’re an idiot.” There were many, many other creative and fun comments during the game. Fortunately I can remember any of them.

We’ll certainly have to play this game again, and soon, so we can further work out our strategies. In the meantime, I’m looking on GeekDo.com for a playing aid that shows all of the city and territory tiles.

Chaos Steve

Endeavor

endeavor
This week we played a new game called Endeavor. As the game description reveals, Endeavor is a game of world exploration and empire building. I had seen this game on ThoughtHammer and suggested it Owen. Why did I suggest it to Owen? Because it has both of Owen’s weaknesses when it comes to games: a good rating at geekDo AND it had tons of components.

(BTW, this week wins for containing the most web links.) 

The game is played over 7 rounds and each round has four phases: Industry, Culture, Finance and Politics. During the Industry phase you build new factories that either increase a particular facet of your empire or allow you additional actions in the Politics phase. During the Culture phase, you gain new workers for your empire. The Finance phase allows you to free up Factories to use again during the current round. Finally the Politics phase is where you can take various actions (Ship, Occupy, Attack, Draw or Pay). Using your actions you expand your control over cities and shipping lanes. At the end of the game, these garner you Victory Points; called something else completely in the game rules, but I forget what.

This looks to be a very fast playing game. Three of the four phases are very quick, and then there are only 7 rounds. What we discovered, though, was as you progress through the rounds and more opportunities open up on the board, the Politics phase for each player takes much longer as you decide just what to spend your actions on.

We all enjoyed this game very much. As the game progressed, I could see that Mike was managing his empire very well, Owen was planning for a big finish, and Ben was floundering in a flood of empiric bureaucracy. (Ben attacked my cities during the game. You should not attack the cities of the person writing the write-up.) In the end, it was Mike and Owen* who tied for the win; each having 56 victory points. I came in second with 51 points and Ben had some number much lower that shall be lost in annals of time. He would be embarrassed if I actually noted the number of points—dreadfully low, actually.

*After we finished the game, I had made some reference to Mike and Ben tying for the win. This brought me no end of grief from both Owen and Mike. But I got it right in the write-up!

Chaos Steve

The History of the World

history of the world
This week we revised The History of the World. There is so much to say about this game. Fortunately, I’ve forgotten most of it, so I’ll just the hit the parts that I remember. If you want to know all of the details of how to play the game, go to www.geekdo.com (formerly BoardGameGeek.com).

The game started out normally enough. Owen had a small lead after the first epoch, with the rest of us tied for second place. By the end of the second epoch Mike was the pre-eminent one (the leader) and earned the first of many pre-eminence markers (bonus points). By the third epoch things were in chaos. I completely forgot to use my special cards. Mike ended the third epoch by scoring a boatload points—taking another pre-eminence marker. This was to be how each of the remaining epochs ended and here’s why.

At the start of the forth epoch, I handed Mike the game on a silver platter by stupidly allowing him to go first, thus magnifying the boatload of points he had just scored a hundred fold. (Ok, not really a hundredfold, but certainly by a lot.) Ben and Owen were duly outraged. I wish I could say they were struck speechless by my act of incredible idiocy, but alas, no, there weren’t. Mike extended his lead and never looked back.

I was in second place most of the game, with Owen lagging a bit behind and Ben lagging way behind…way behind.

Before I talk about Owen’s lucking changing, it has come to my attention that I may have had something to do with Owen’s horrible luck during the past several weeks. For this I apologize to Owen and now turn my curse ridden eyes towards my true target, Mike.

The end of the game was predictable in that Mike won by a huge landslide. What was surprising though was Owen’s ability to make up for a lot of lost ground and come in second. It wasn’t really that surprising I guess. Owen has always had a way of scoring a ton of points at the end of whatever game we are playing. That left me in third and Ben in very last place…very last place.

Chaos Steve

Struggle for Rome

struggle for rome
When we got together to play games this time, one of the guys had left his brain in Vegas and another one was talking muscle relaxers and pain medication. You would think that I had a pretty good chance of winning whatever game we were playing. You would think that; but you would be wrong.

We broke out Struggle for Rome again. It didn’t take long before Ben, the Vegas-brained gamer, took his first turn…moving my army and collecting his spoils. I pointed out in no uncertain terms that I was playing blue and he was playing white. He agreed, so it didn’t come to blows.

About halfway through the game, Feel-No-Pain Mike made sure that I would note that his poor performance was drug related. Soon after Owen, clear minded and alert, accused me of cheating. Me!? I was outraged; and so were the other players. Somehow Owen had confused me with Ben. I was cleared on all charges and the game continued.

As the game progressed Ben and I seemed to be doing well, but I knew I was in trouble. Mike on the other hand had slowly built up a good base and had a solid future. Owen’s bad luck continued as he had trouble getting, and keeping, resources. (Ben kept stealing Owen’s resources from him. Yes, it was Ben; and only Ben.)

In the end, it was Mike who announced that he had 10 victory points—enough to win. He actually had 11 once it was all added up. And according to his wishes, I should point out that his win was drug induced having no particular connection to his skills. I had a respectable 9 points. Ben had 8 and Owen had 7. Owen is due for a win here soon.

This time I don’t think many of use enjoyed the game as much as we did the first time around.

Chaos Steve

Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan 002
Last night we played Settlers of Catan, but we played it on a one-of-a-kind super board made by our own Ben Hodgson. Although we certainly gave Ben a hard time about this or that during the game–as we always do—he really did a nice job on the game board pieces. And he’s already talking about future changes he can make to it to improve it.

At the start of our game Owen said something extremely clever (as he usually does.) Mike said for me to be sure to remember it for today’s write-up. Mike said to write it down so I wouldn’t forget it. Mike said he’d even provide the pen and paper to write it down. Well Mike said a lot of things and after a while all I heard were dolphin clicks. On the other hand, you should have heard what Owen said; it was great–very funny.

First I’ll tell you how the game ended. Ben won. And had he not won on his turn, Owen would have won. And had Owen not won on his turn, I would have won. And had I not won on my turn, Mike would have won. That shows you just how close the game was. Looking back over the game, Mike and Ben were rich in Resource Cards throughout the game. I though Mike was going to announce a win many times over, but apparently he had no luck picking up any Development Cards with victory points on them. And he picked up A LOT of Development Cards. Mike’s starting position caused him to be a little hemmed in too. Still, he did amazingly well. Owen suffered from some bad luck as far as Resource Cards were concerned. His hand continually waxed and waned. I was Resource Card poor. Where I should have been drowning in bricks to feed to my 2:1 port, it was not to be.

I’ll leave with a little Ben-wisdom. (Boy, you don’t see that often: “Ben” and “wisdom” used in the same sentence.)

“Wood is like gold dust.”
                –Ben Hodgson

 

By Chaos Steve