Crawley Games Day
September 27th, 2004On Saturday, I went to Crawley, near Gatwick Airport, for a games day with my friend Michael and his crew. It was a superb day. There is always an easy-going relaxed atmosphere and the gaming was excellent. I played six new games, all of which I have wanted to play for a long time, and several of which are award-winners. As I never go to gaming conventions and as I am the only one in my regular group who buys games, I often feel frustrated about reading about all these great games that I am not playing. I could go out and buy every new game, but my regular gaming friends have become very resistant to new games in the last year and I have little storage space. This makes Michael’s games days especially enjoyable. I am starting to think I even enjoy these sessions more than my regular games nights.
Ave Caesar
Bruno Faidutti’s Ideal Games Library was one of my first gateways into board games. His games recommendations are usually reliable and he always rates Ave Caesar among his top games. I would have bought it a long time ago, but it is out of print and expensive on eBay. Michael recently picked it up for a £30, and suggested we play when one player was late to show up.
This strategic race game took five minutes to explain and the three laps took 15 minutes. Bruno Faidutti explains the mechanics very well. I can imagine any games group or family enjoying it, although £30 is expensive considering the quality of the components. It reminds me of a lighter Hare and Tortoise with more scope for attacking your opponents.
St Petersburg
I asked to play this one, as Mikko’s recommendation, its International Gamers Award and Deutscher Spiele Preis made me very curious. It is too early for me to say if I love St Petersburg, but it is definitely good. It feels different and there is obviously plenty to think about. I have read about possible balance problems, which is worrying, but otherwise it looks great. There is plenty to think about. If a game makes me say “Damn, that was a bad move. I am such a moron.” almost immediately after I make a play, it is a very good sign. I just wish the cards were nicer looking. The colours are too garish and the pictures are too rough for my taste.
Elfenland
Again, I was introduced to Elfenland through Bruno Faidutti. This time, [Rick Heli] describes the mechanics best:
Players take turns playing transportation tiles on roads between twenty destinations. Then all try to travel along these roads if they hold the matching cards. Whoever visits the most destinations and arrives closest at a secret destination wins.
What Rick does not say is how colourful and prettily Doris Matthäus painted the components. This is definitely a girl-friendly game and I am sure my wife would love it. It is also viciously vindictive, which is another reason why she might like it. 
I can see why this fine game won the Spiel de Jahres, as it is so family-friendly and accessible. It is not as good as Tigris and Euphrates, which won the Deutscher Spiele Preis in the same year, but T&E is too complex and intellectual for mass appeal.
Michael thought that the Elfengold expansion would make Elfenland too complicated and fiddly. Interestingly enough, Bruno Faidutti loved it.
Maharaja: Palace Building in India
This one was a runner-up in Bruno Faidutti’s Game of the Year, which might not be in the same league as the Spiel de Jahres, but I find it my best indicator of a quality game – along with the International Gamers Award.
Maharaja felt strangely different. I suppose the best description is like a beefy hybrid between Web of Power and Puerto Rico. You have to choose roles like in Puerto Rico, but you also have to manage area-control and route planning, like in Web of Power. I found it enjoyable but maybe a little abstract and slow. I expect it would become much faster and easy after a few games. The components are spectacular, with glass beads and immaculately drawn counters and map. I wish St Petersburg had this artist. Rick Heli complains of kingmaker problems , which certainly could have badly affected our game. Luckily the two losers were sporting enough not to get involved in the end game, but they could have just as easily changed things. I suppose you just have to agree beforehand that people with no chance of winning must make optimal moves in the last turn, without unnecessarily effecting the positions of the other players. Maybe there should be a rules fix for this, but I cannot think of it.
Amun-Re
Amun-Re won the Deutscher Spiele Preis in 2003 and is obviously a quality game. I learnt this one at speed, after about eight hours of gaming, so my mind was feeling fairly frazzled. It took me a while to understand what was going on, but my opponents were so easy on me that I won. It is definitely an intellectual game, with many factors to consider. My only complaint is the usual one with Reiner Knizia games of it being too abstract and dry. The ancient Egypt theme is now almost as overused as High Fantasy.
Ticket to Ride
Yet another award winner, Ticket to Ride won the Spiel de Jahres in 2004. I was surprised at how good-looking this was. The cards in particular are beautiful. One of the others even commented that I kept on saying that about every game we played.
Even after just one game I could see that the game is immaculately balanced, with different routes to victory. Gameplay is also simple. I picked up the gist after about a two-minute explanation, the opposite of Amun-Re. Probably the best tribute I can make is that I hesitate to buy it because my group would love it so much they would never want to play anything else for weeks afterwards.
All these games were good, but the best ones for me were St Petersburg, Elfenland and Ticket to Ride. I could definitely see myself buying them.
Michael and his mates go to Essen every year. I was invited, but could not go, due to cash problems, which really annoys me. If necessary, I will have to bankrupt myself next year.
September 27th, 2004 at 17:12
Glad you enjoyed it. We also played Goa after you left which would have completed the frazzling of your brain.
Ave Caesar – I disagree that there is no luck in the game. The fact that you only have 3 cards in your hand to play means there is quite a large element of luck involved and sometimes you have no influence over things that can screw you. It doesn’t detract from the fun elements of the game though and I think it’s a great ‘filler’. Interestingly enough, I have never really understood those gamers who differentiate between ‘starting fillers’ and ‘closing fillers’ but I think this is one that I would prefer at the end of a session (possibly after a few beers) rather than the start.
St. Petersburg I like a lot. If there is an optimum strategy I haven’t found it yet (only 2 plays after all) and I can’t see it spoiling our enjoyment. I actually quite liked the artwork.
I much prefer Elfenland to E&T. To me the latter is more of a mathematical exercise . Elfenland is a game. Actually this definition probably explains why I am less enamoured by Herr Knizia’s games than other people are.
I also liked Maharaja a lot but it may just be a little too chaotic for my liking. It’s difficult to plan when positions can change so much before your next turn. Still, this was our first playing and we did get one of the rules wrong (ability to to split up your actions across Architect journies is allowed) so I shall reserve judgement.
Having said that, Amun-Re is my favourite Knizia design. To my mind, it is one of those games that a newbie should never win when they are playing against opponents who have several games under their belt. I find it quite remarkable therefore that you managed the victory. I am not very good at analysing games so I want you to tell me how you managed it.
Ticket to Ride is in my view an essential purchase for any group that occasionally likes lighter games or often plays with more casual gamers. Buy it.
September 28th, 2004 at 08:53
Nice report Ian. Sounds like a fantastic day’s gaming: every game you played I really enjoy.
Wasn’t sure if you were aware but there is an excellent PC conversion of Saint Petersburg and the AI looks pretty good for the computer opponents. It is free to download from http://www.westpark-gamers.de/index.html?/sp_pc.html
I also should plug my own website in case you’re interested. It’s updated fairly regularly with session reports from the Shrewsbury Boardgames Club. The link is http://www.trickylight.co.uk
Garry
September 28th, 2004 at 11:23
Michael
Ave Caesar
Point taken about the luck. I’ll change the main entry.
Maharaja
I agree it is very chaotic, but I like that. You have to predict what your opponents will do and that take a lot of skill. Steve’s final moves of shifting the turn order were clever, so he deserved to win. I am not sure that rules mistake would have made a huge difference to my game.
Amun-Re
You are too kind. I just copied what everyone else did and took all the advice I was given. I was defintitely treated with kid-gloves by the others. You were probably the easiest of all on me. If you had gone that bit further and won our ****ing contest I would not have won.
Ticket to Ride
OK!
Garry
Thanks for the link. To be honest, I try to avoid computer board games, as I think they reduce my appreciation of the face-to-face game. For instance, I typically only play-by-web games in order to get a feel for it, to see if I would like to buy it. After that, I tend to leave them alone.
I have already seen Tricky Light and I enjoy it. I like that you do not play just the standard latest games that everyone else is raving about. The problem for me is that you do not publish an rss feed of your updates. Have you thought of changing to a blog format like this one? WordPress is amazingly easy to setup and use.
September 28th, 2004 at 22:43
Iain
I know what you mean about on-line play. I’d much rather play F-T-F, but the StP game is nice for the occasional experiment, particularly as a game takes less than 30 minutes to complete.
The Blog format for my website is something that looks very appealing but I’ve dithered so far because:
1. I want to keep the Trickylight domain running and I’m not sure how much technical know-how is involved in integrating a third-party hosted blog into my own site; and
2. I would like to move away from Wanadoo hosting the site, as part of my broadband connection package to something that is a bit more flexible, but am uncertain on the best way to proceed.
You’ll gather that I’m not the most technically-savvy gamer on the planet so I’m currently doing what is comfortable. RSS feeds sound great but it’s overcoming that knowledge-acquisition hurdle (with limited time available) that’s stopping me in my tracks.
By the way, I meant to mention in my last post, if you’ve never been to Essen, you’ve got to find some way of getting there one year. This fair will be my 6th time and it’s always great but the first visit you make is inevitably the best.
Garry
September 29th, 2004 at 11:10
Installing Wordpress is very easy. If you are savvy enough to handle Tricky Light, you can install WordPress. You just need to be able to use an FTP client.
I am about to transfer to http://www.web-mania.com. To change the domain, I am pretty sure you only need to get in touch with your domain registrar and change two settings. If you need any help, please email me.
I want to go to Essen too much.
September 29th, 2004 at 16:14
Garry – I too like your site but what I really want to know is when are you going to do another Bitz quiz. Not that I’m any good at them, but they’re very enjoyable.
Michael
September 30th, 2004 at 17:45
Iain
I’m going to have to set aside a weekend and jump right in and do something. Just have to persuade the missus first. Web Mania looks pretty good and awfully cheap. If they hadn’t been around since 1995, I’d think they were just in it for the short-term.
Michael – regarding the Bitz Quiz, I enjoy doing them and the answer to your question is ... pretty soon.
Garry
October 1st, 2004 at 10:01
The installation will not take that long. If you need any help with the install, just look me up in the phone book.
The only thing that can take a while is playing with the stylesheet to make it look right. Luckily, the WordPress wiki points to several stylesheets you can import and use instead. If time is scarcer than money, why not check out TypePad instead? They do the whole thing for you.