Lisa and I decided to try the two-player variant of Border Reivers. This was the first time Lisa had played and the first time I had played with only two. We both admired the quality of the pieces and the general production. Lisa felt that at times the rules were not as clear as they could be. She thought that the game was hard to get into for someone who does not have a history of board/wargames (apart from playing Risk once...an expereince she is keen not to repeat!). This was her enduring criticism of the game, particularly the combat system which she could not make sense of (although I think I found a way to explain it afterwards).
In the end I won with 46 gold to Lisa's 38. We are a little concerned that we were not playing it correctly. We both realised that we could easily sit and build our settled empires without fighting each other and see who was the first to get 40 gold. There appeared to be no incentive to attack each other (definately not the case with 3 or 4 players).
Interestingly we both chose the Market, Training Camp and Guildhouses cards to improve the chances of increasing armies and revenue. I later chose a Reiving Party card which I used twice to annoy Lisa and keep down her income from taxation. I also got hold of the Mine which was worth doing. There was only one battle (apart from the Reiving Party) which I won by using Siege Engines to reduce Lisa's Castle to a Fortress and having twice as many armies. I then went on to destroy her city just soon enough to stop her winning by gaining more gold.
Although we enjoyed playing the game together it felt a little unsatisfactory. Lisa could have won really quickly had she not bothered defending an area which I did later attack. Had she used the armies committed to this to create cities she would have taxed her way to victory much sooner.
We will try it again soon and Lisa did say that she would like to try the 3 or 4 player version as well!
Showing posts with label border reivers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label border reivers. Show all posts
Friday, December 01, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
Saturday 16th September
Saturday was Beyond Monopoly at the Railway Institute in York. There was a good turnout and I managed to squeeze in 5 new games…which is a record for me!
Jon announced that the club will be playing games at the National Railway Museum in York on a Sunday in November. We don’t have to play only ‘train games’ though! I’m hoping to volunteer my services as I would like to do something to help out the club.
Jon also announced that we are going to be the first featured ‘Club of the Month’ in a new BBC games magazine! How cool is that! I hope that Jon is as proud of this as he should be….
First of all I got involved in a game of the Lord of the Rings with Andy, Mike, Adrian and George. To be honest I nearly bought this a few years ago but didn’t as it didn’t tie-in with the movies. Now, this seems refreshing. The game was excellent. I particularly liked the collaborative nature of it; I really felt that we were competing with Sauron and the evil hordes rather than against each other. In fact I was quite happy to sacrifice my character to increase the Fellowship’s chances. As it was my efforts were fruitless…
I also liked the interchangeable and reversible boards. The artwork was really good too. A solid 8 out of 10 from me. It was pointed out to us that we had played the idiot-level stupid persons version of the game…and still lost!
Next up the five of us were joined by Kevin for three hands of Who’s the Ass. This is a quick card game very similar to ….a standard card game whose name I can’t seem to remember (rummy?). It was good fun and I was pleased to come second. George did really well winning two hands, although he did have all four jokers in one of them! Final scores:
George 25
Paul 26
Mike 42
Kevin 66
Andy 80
Adrian 93
Kevin and George then headed off and the remaining four of us tried our hand at Hansa. In this game you play a fourteenth/fifteenth century trader in Scandinavia. You pay to move a trading ship, build trading booths in cities and buy and sell goods. I really enjoyed this. I particularly liked that you got taxed if you were doing too well and that it is not in your interests to stockpile goods too much. I felt this was quite a realistic aspect of trading at that time. (Monopolies seemed to become more economically viable 100-150 years later). The final scores were:
Mike 44
Paul 39
Adrian 35
Andy 35
Despite none of us having played this ever before we all enjoyed it.
Adrian then headed off to play something less mentally-taxing (I spotted him being introduced to Border Reivers) whilst the remaining three of us played Aqua Romana. I had not played this before but Mike and Andy gave clear instructions. Despite losing I really enjoyed this game and I hope to add it to my collection at some point. (I’m a sucker for tile-laying games!). It reminded me a little of Carcassonne: The Castle in that the board is a finite area and as tiles are placed it fills up rapidly. I quickly realised that my opening tactic of building straight pieces of aquaduct was flawed. I think I will do better next time. Final Scores:
Mike 33
Andy 32
Paul 28
I thought the quality of the board and playing pieces was outstanding and the mechanics were elegantly simple.
We decided on a final game before Mike and I had to head off. Mike introduced us to Adel Verplicht…which he said translates as Hoity Toity. I won this game but still enjoyed it a little less than the others. In essence you have to build a collection of antiquities to display at castles. Each turn you secretly choose to go to the auction house or the castle. Then you can buy new goods, steal money from the auction house, or steal part of a collection, display your exhibits or play a detective who foils any robbery attempts. There was a fair amount of bluffing and poker-facing going on….Mike consistently countered Andy’s moves! I fortuitously built the largest collection and then managed to arrest all the thieves leaving me free to exhibit my collection repeatedly and win the most points! Mike came second with Andy limping along in third. I think this may work better with more players. With only three it was relatively easy to work out what everyone was going to do.
All in all a really good day. It was nice to see Jack getting a go at Pitch Car and introducing people to Border Reivers. Also I think this was the first Beyond Monopoly when I have not played a single game with Jon!
Jon announced that the club will be playing games at the National Railway Museum in York on a Sunday in November. We don’t have to play only ‘train games’ though! I’m hoping to volunteer my services as I would like to do something to help out the club.
Jon also announced that we are going to be the first featured ‘Club of the Month’ in a new BBC games magazine! How cool is that! I hope that Jon is as proud of this as he should be….
First of all I got involved in a game of the Lord of the Rings with Andy, Mike, Adrian and George. To be honest I nearly bought this a few years ago but didn’t as it didn’t tie-in with the movies. Now, this seems refreshing. The game was excellent. I particularly liked the collaborative nature of it; I really felt that we were competing with Sauron and the evil hordes rather than against each other. In fact I was quite happy to sacrifice my character to increase the Fellowship’s chances. As it was my efforts were fruitless…
I also liked the interchangeable and reversible boards. The artwork was really good too. A solid 8 out of 10 from me. It was pointed out to us that we had played the idiot-level stupid persons version of the game…and still lost!
Next up the five of us were joined by Kevin for three hands of Who’s the Ass. This is a quick card game very similar to ….a standard card game whose name I can’t seem to remember (rummy?). It was good fun and I was pleased to come second. George did really well winning two hands, although he did have all four jokers in one of them! Final scores:
George 25
Paul 26
Mike 42
Kevin 66
Andy 80
Adrian 93
Kevin and George then headed off and the remaining four of us tried our hand at Hansa. In this game you play a fourteenth/fifteenth century trader in Scandinavia. You pay to move a trading ship, build trading booths in cities and buy and sell goods. I really enjoyed this. I particularly liked that you got taxed if you were doing too well and that it is not in your interests to stockpile goods too much. I felt this was quite a realistic aspect of trading at that time. (Monopolies seemed to become more economically viable 100-150 years later). The final scores were:
Mike 44
Paul 39
Adrian 35
Andy 35
Despite none of us having played this ever before we all enjoyed it.
Adrian then headed off to play something less mentally-taxing (I spotted him being introduced to Border Reivers) whilst the remaining three of us played Aqua Romana. I had not played this before but Mike and Andy gave clear instructions. Despite losing I really enjoyed this game and I hope to add it to my collection at some point. (I’m a sucker for tile-laying games!). It reminded me a little of Carcassonne: The Castle in that the board is a finite area and as tiles are placed it fills up rapidly. I quickly realised that my opening tactic of building straight pieces of aquaduct was flawed. I think I will do better next time. Final Scores:
Mike 33
Andy 32
Paul 28
I thought the quality of the board and playing pieces was outstanding and the mechanics were elegantly simple.
We decided on a final game before Mike and I had to head off. Mike introduced us to Adel Verplicht…which he said translates as Hoity Toity. I won this game but still enjoyed it a little less than the others. In essence you have to build a collection of antiquities to display at castles. Each turn you secretly choose to go to the auction house or the castle. Then you can buy new goods, steal money from the auction house, or steal part of a collection, display your exhibits or play a detective who foils any robbery attempts. There was a fair amount of bluffing and poker-facing going on….Mike consistently countered Andy’s moves! I fortuitously built the largest collection and then managed to arrest all the thieves leaving me free to exhibit my collection repeatedly and win the most points! Mike came second with Andy limping along in third. I think this may work better with more players. With only three it was relatively easy to work out what everyone was going to do.
All in all a really good day. It was nice to see Jack getting a go at Pitch Car and introducing people to Border Reivers. Also I think this was the first Beyond Monopoly when I have not played a single game with Jon!
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Monday 11th September 2006
Monday night is games night! We were a little depleted in numbers...Greg was away somewhere doing something work-related and Jack was busily constructing sets of Border Reivers. However, Andy, Spence and Vin did trek out to the wilds of Osbaldwick!
Lisa joined us for a quick game of Guillotine before disappearing to sort out her budgetary overspend. As always it was fun, if a bit silly. Vin arrived a third of the way through..and looked thoroughly bemused!
The final scores were:
Andy 17
Spence 23
Lisa 26
Paul 29
I made timely use of The Scarlet Pimpernel card to end the game when I had just taken the lead.
Lisa then disappeared to the realm of numbers and accountancy whilst the rest of us indulged in a game of Flanders 1302...or whatever it's called. I had played this once at Beyond Monopoly and so thought I may have something of an advantage as the other guys had not even heard of it. How wrong I was! I'm not sure where I went wrong....but I did! On reflection I think I spread myself too thinly across too many cities. We did not use the neutral pieces or church pieces to hamper each others scoring as much as I had anticipated. I was braced waiting for this to happen...but it didn't! I admit I played badly but I still think this is a fine game... a pity it has been discontinued. The pieces are beautiful and the mechanics are satisfying. My only question is ...why 1302?
The final scores were....
Neutral - 2
Paul - 32
Andy - 38
Vin - 42
Spence - 49.
All in all a fun evening.
Lisa joined us for a quick game of Guillotine before disappearing to sort out her budgetary overspend. As always it was fun, if a bit silly. Vin arrived a third of the way through..and looked thoroughly bemused!
The final scores were:
Andy 17
Spence 23
Lisa 26
Paul 29
I made timely use of The Scarlet Pimpernel card to end the game when I had just taken the lead.
Lisa then disappeared to the realm of numbers and accountancy whilst the rest of us indulged in a game of Flanders 1302...or whatever it's called. I had played this once at Beyond Monopoly and so thought I may have something of an advantage as the other guys had not even heard of it. How wrong I was! I'm not sure where I went wrong....but I did! On reflection I think I spread myself too thinly across too many cities. We did not use the neutral pieces or church pieces to hamper each others scoring as much as I had anticipated. I was braced waiting for this to happen...but it didn't! I admit I played badly but I still think this is a fine game... a pity it has been discontinued. The pieces are beautiful and the mechanics are satisfying. My only question is ...why 1302?
The final scores were....
Neutral - 2
Paul - 32
Andy - 38
Vin - 42
Spence - 49.
All in all a fun evening.
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