E-zine, UK Games Expo, GMT Games, Essen Games Fair, ManorCon, Monastery, Solaris

THE RUGBY WORLD CUP GAME

Two playtests so far using the 2007 Ruigby World Cup. Board needs refinement to make it easier to comprehend, the scoring needs to be higher e.g. The 2007 Group stage produced 2191 points; TRWCG only produced 844 in one game and 849 in the other. Also issues with players ignoring their weaker teams so scoring in those games including weaker teams was very low. A few new ideas on the horizon.

THE WORLD CUP CARD GAME 2010

A recent idea and it seems to work. It's a quick card game version of the main board game which still plays an entire tournament - in this case, 2010. The draw has been made and the card game is now available. See The World Cup Card Game page for more information.

MANORCON XXVII 17-20 JULY 2009

The largest UK games convention devoted to boardgames continues to be a great event. First game up was a pre-arranged game of Here I Stand, currently my favourite game (except The World Cup game of course!). The MidCon report from 2008 below will have some details of what the game is all about. The players were: Matthew Barratt (Ottomans); John Hatfield (Hapsburgs); Simon Gatherer (England); Shaun Derrick (France); Kelvin Allton (Papacy) and John Boocock (Protestants). This game was a dour affair played in a very peaceful manner. John H won with the Hapsburgs on turn 4 jumping from 16 to 25 victory points in this turn. Circumnavigating the globe was the final victorious action.

This image is a French player view of the map towards the end of turn 2. Those familar with the game will see that the Protestants are really struggling to reform the German areas, the French have pushed into Italy to take Florence. That's Charles V on a ship in the Barbary coast just about to take Algiers from the Ottomans. The eagle-eyed will notice how far ahead the Papacy is on the VP track - that purple counter!
The New World is a favourite VP gathering station so there are lots of explorations and conquests ready to roll in the top right of the picture.

Ahh! Here are the motley crew who played Here I Stand. Picture left sees how peaceful game 1 was!
We were all so dissatisfied (except John H, I guess) with this game that we played it again. The next game was a whirlwind win in turn 2 by Simon as the Papacy. We switched the powers round as follows: Ottomans (Kelvin); Hapsburgs (Shaun); England (John B); France (Matthew); Papacy (Simon) and Protestants (John H). All blood and thunder in this game which was more satisfying thus shocked and disappointed that Simon won so early. This is the quickest game of HIS that we have ever played!

To round of the first day we played 2 games of Agricola and The World Cup Game of course. We intended playing Spain 1982 but as more people joined we got a group of 8 so switched to Germany 2006. Favourites Italy and France had a hard time in the group stages with Italy being eliminated (it was my team too!!) and France scraping through in 2nd place by a single goal difference from Switzerland. Second favourites Germany and Portugal eased through. The only low ranked team to make it was Angola.
Germany played England in the Round of 16 which always raises some raucous comments, particularly as England succumbed 3-1 to the Germans. Some notable teams fell by the wayside in this round - Portugal, Brazil, Spain and Angola (shame!).
The Quarter-Finals saw France and Germany defeated leaving an unlikely Semi-Final showdown between Argentina, South Korea, Australia and Paraguay - what happened to the European teams!? Argentina beat Australia in the final 3-2, and the Paraguay beat South Korea 2-1 in the 3rd place play off.

The end of the game shown here with Argentina the victors over Australia in the final! (Picture left)

Day 2 was the trial day for Imperialism - the zenith of Empires. We played the three player game to see if that would be feasible in a game which revolves around diplomacy. The mechanics are fine, but the diplomacy aspect suffers badly with so few players and there needs to be some mechanism to resolve that. I am sure 4 players would also be limited, so 5-7 players would work best with 6 being the optimum number. Some rules to iron out but overall it worked reasonably well.

Two more games to round off the day - Acquire which I had not played for a few years. Kelvin and Simon had never played before but we were joined by Tony Wheatley who likes to strictly enforce the rules. I suffered for this as twice I forgot to buy shares after making a merger.

Final game was Stone Age, another man-placement - pick resources - trade for better, etc. Lovely graphics and the game works reasonably well but I prefer Agricola, Caylus and Pillars of the Earth which are all in a similar vein.

_______________________________________________

The MidCon report 2008

MidCon is held in the Thistle Birmingham City Hotel in mid-November; this year it was the weekend of 14-16 November, and; for the first time in a number of years I attended all three days. I was introducing two games players from my local board games club to the convention and, by all accounts was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
The intention for Friday was to start at lunchtime with a game of GMT’s Napoleonic Wars, but with 6 of us there we split into two groups of three with Simon Gatherer and Kelvin Allton joining me for a game of Agricola while Gordon Sweeney along with Dale and Paul Dowden played another GMT game – Wellington.
Agricola seems to be the game of the moment as Puerto Rico was a few years ago. I hardly need to mention what the game entails as almost all games players have played it and are aware of what it’s all about. The one great aspect of Agricola is how difficult it is to do the actions you really want to do to maximise your farm. Your hand of cards certainly influence your early strategy, but later I find them less useful as you strive to keep up with developments. The downside is that if you get into a rut you are probably doomed; usually of your own making, and this can detract from the pleasure of playing.
After our three player game we were joined by Dave Norman and Robin Walters for a 5 player game.
As attendees started to pile in, we then played an 8-player game of Shadows over Camelot. Nice graphics (akin to Pillars of the Earth) and miniature characters but I wasn’t overwhelmed by the game. I was dealt a Traitor card so my task was to allow the evil side to win. There may or may not have been a 2nd traitor in the 8 player expanded game!
Each player has to go on quests and attempt to complete the quest before the ‘dark’ side prevails. Each player must promote evil in some way or lose a life point, so all the ‘loyal’ players must do all they can to complete their quests. For myself, I had to pretend to be helping out on a quest but really hoping it would fail – not easy! Victory is achieved by placing the relevant number of White swords (for the loyal players) and Black swords (for the evil player{s}) on the Round table. With 6 White and one Black sword on the table I was concerned that victory was slipping from my grasp. However, Simon was accused of being a traitor and indeed, he was! Therefore I had an ally who was attempting to promote evil as much as he could.
The loyal players were definitely suspecting me of being another traitor as I had to break off from a quest that I should have completed. At this point when my turn came, there was a quest that was one card away from failing which meant victory for me and Simon. Everyone knew I was a traitor as soon as I opted to ‘take the risk; of drawing a card instead of losing a life or adding a siege engine (another evil advantage) outside Camelot. The card was exactly what I needed; the quest fell to the evil side and the Traitor’s won!! Tense finish, but the fact that this is essentially a co-operative game detracts from the competitive aspect that I normally like.
Can’t remember if we played another game, but we didn’t stay too late as we wanted to be up early to start a game of Here I Stand on Saturday morning.

There were supposed to have been 2 games of Here I Stand but unfortunately two players didn’t turn up and another decided to play something else, so the one game that did occur had 6 experienced players. This helped to complete a game to the end of Turn 7 in around 8.5 hours. Anyone who knows Here I Stand will know that that is quick work. Compare with last year which was a 12 hour marathon which ended before turn 6 was completed.
The protagonists were: Ottomans(Kelvin Allton); Hapsburgs (Jason Johns); England (Simon Gatherer); France (Mike Gallagher); Papacy (Shaun Derrick) and Protestants (Matthew Barratt).
Jason and Mike were Americans who are in the UK for some reason – can’t remember why! They were new to the group while the rest of us knew each other well from previous encounters.
The following is a short report on the game...
Turn 1: I was concerned that France would be gunning for me. Mike had Spring Deployed to the south. However, it turned out that he wanted to secure his position in Italy but not threaten me directly. The Ottomans had a rough time (as they always seem to in our games), Janissaries Rebel stopped any significant advance by Sulieman. England just kept on building troops and sent an explorer to the New World. The Hapsburgs consolidated, took Metz and prepared for the Barbary Pirates as they came out early!

Turn 2: John Zapolya boosted the Hungarian defences and the Hapsburgs increase the army size in Vienna. France was playing it cool, but I was still suspicious of his motives in Italy. The New World did not contain a single Hapsburg explorer or conqueror at the end of turn 2 – a first for us! The Protestant Reformation got into full swing and started spreading rapidly through Germany. Hapsburgs got Andrea Doria to control Genoa.

Turn 3/4: This and turn 4 seemed to blur into each other from my memory. Somehow the French got Metz and also took Florence before I was able to get there. France was looking dangerously close to winning so we wanted England to make a move. Simon tried to get Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon free of charge, but I wasn’t having it. I took the minimum card draw for a divorce but Simon only rolled a 1, so he will need to marry Henry again to try for Edward. This meant he delayed attacking France for a turn. By turn 4 both the Hapsburgs and the Papacy were back at war with France.

Turn 5: The Schmalkaldic League was activated late. The Protestants then shot up to a threatening number of Victory points but all except the Ottomans had a chance to win at some stage, it really was a close game. England and France had a major war, England took Paris then ran out of cards and lost it again losing Henry and Brandon to the dungeons of the French king. The Hapsburgs took Milan and I took Florence so together we pulled France back. The Ottomans kindly donated a card to my efforts in taking Florence. Up until now the Hapsburgs had been trailing behind but now Circumnavigated and conquered one of the native American groups. My dice rolls in the constant stream of debates I initiated were hopeless. Only Tyndale had succumbed to the stake at this stage.

Turn 6: With the Hapsburgs and Ottomans at peace, Charles V started moving into Germany to take the relatively soft targets of the German Electorates. From this point the Protestants suffered badly and their threat waned significantly. I was one of the powers close to victory, I had Venice as an ally and a fairly strong army to deter any invasions of my Italian areas. The Barbary pirates didn’t affect the game very much as the Ottomans concentrated on making sure they were well defended. They had an average card value of 2 for most of the game!
England had ransomed Henry and Brandon and returned to attack France again allied to the Hapsburgs. Then Henry died and Edward acceded to the throne.

Turn 7: This was the final turn, the Protestants were doing well against me with their Reformation but suffering in combat. All but two Electorates were captured by the Hapsburgs who were becoming a real threat for victory now. The Ottomans declared war on the Papacy and I suffered the loss of Venice to the Moslems. This pushed the Ottomans into 5th place ahead of the Protestants. Edward had been born healthy to Jane Seymour and England had done fairly well in the New World. He had also obtained Antwerp in a deal with the Hapsburgs which meant he was not far off the magic 25VP mark too. France just didn’t have enough options for victory as he was hampered by England for the second half of the game. With almost all cards played, the Hapsburgs produced ‘Copernicus’ for 2VP which pushed them to 26VP and victory. Winner, Jason, pictured above. The contraversial 'Copernicus' card giving Hapsburg the victory pictured below right.

This was an amazing game, very tight, switching alliances, hard fought campaigns and a plethora of Papal induced debates. Here I Stand remains my favourite ‘long’ game as even after more than 8 hours, I was sorry to see the game end.
The final results were: 1st Hapsburgs 26 (Jason); 2nd France 24 (Mike); 3rd England 21 (Simon); 4th Papacy 19 (Shaun); 5th Ottomans 18 (Kelvin); 6th Protestants 17 (Matthew).

A game of Jamaica followed by another game of Agricola and finally Scream Machine, a card game that didn’t grab me at all – one to avoid.

On Sunday Kelvin, Simon, Gordon and myself settled into a game of Napoleonic Wars – the one we were expecting to play on Friday. Gordon explained the rules, we chose out powers: Gordon (France), Kelvin (Britain), Simon (Austria) and me (Russia) and settled into turn 1. The French army lead by Napoleon and Davout forced their way into Austria, suffering a minor defeat in the first encounter but went on to win all the other battles. My army led by Kutusov rushed into Austria to help my ally, took Munich and hoped that would give me a central position from which I could consolidate with Austria. Britain defeated the combined Franco-Spanish fleet very early on to dominate the seas.
A lot of effort was put in to push the Danes away from being friendly to France, the Swedes allied to Britain and Turks allied to Austria. Prussia was erring toward Austrian friendship too.
However, the game came crashing down with the crazy ‘Peace die roll’ which ended the game abruptly with a French win! None of us liked that premature end and it’s a fault in the game in my opinion. France won by being slightly ahead on Keys captured.

So, with more time to spare than we thought we had another game of Agricola, then played the West Germany 1974 World Cup Game from Expansion set 4. My Dutch team beating West Germany 1-0 in the final.

All in all, the hotel was OK but expensive on food and drinks. Numbers of attendees seemed slightly up on last year as space was at a premium.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Busy, busy busy!! Spiel 08 at the Essen, Germany was attended by more than 150,000 people exhibiting, selling, buying and playing all things to do with games. It is the biggest Games Fair in the world and one not to be missed by anyone with an interest in games! essen08setup

The Wednesday was the chaos that reigns when trying to set up the stand. I was in Hall 5, Stand 55 (set up chaos on Wednesday - photo of stand on the right) shared with JKLM, MAG, Warfrog, Treefrog, Ragnar Brothers, Surprised Stare and Myndgames – an all British collection of small games publishers. We also had Stratamax from the US exhibiting their latest game too.
The final set up ensured everyone had an outside table to display and play their games. Tony from Myndgames was last to register so only got an inside table for the first three days. Over the 4 days I played 9 games of The World Cup Game, 1 x 1934; 1 x 1962; 4 x 1974; 2 x 1978 and 1 x 1994. Sales were up on last year with Expansion sets 3 and 4, especially, selling well.

(Warfrog crew frantically signing copies of Tinners Trail - photo left)
Despite the fact that I would love to buy loads of games, I restrict myself to just a couple from Essen – flying back instead of driving means I don’t have much space. However, the intention was to buy GMT’s Napoleonic Wars as it is a card driven game similar to Here I Stand, but having read the rules I wasn’t entirely convinced. Instead I opted for Agricola, the number 1 game of the moment where each player has to develop their own farmstead, starting with a small wooden hut, a wife and some land. Each player has to develop their farm by sowing fields, planting and growing crops, keeping animals, extending and improving their home, extending the family too. Very similar to the ‘place and block’ system used in Caylus but with a huge number of cards which can influence the game in many different ways.
Jamaica is a game we play at our local boardgames club on a regular basis. However, the copy we use was trashed by ‘Wils’ and his penchant for knocking beer glasses over! Therefore I picked up a copy with the extra three treasure cards that they were giving away on the Gameworks stand which happened to be behind our stand.
essen08

(Just before the public surge - Essen games Fair before opening time
- photo left)
Evenings were solidly routine with a bar meal, beer and games. Also in the same hotel were Alan and Charlie Paull and Tony Boydell of Surprised Stare Games. Dave Norman who was the main organizer of the stand, working for JKLM was there too. We also had special guests on a couple of nights to join the fray.
Games played were ...
Traders of Carthage: A neat bidding game in which you collect resource cards and trade them for resource chits. Works well. Designed by a Japanese guy which is unusual.
The Name of the Rose: Not entirely convinced about this game. You play a card depicting a part of the abbey (the board) and you place coloured monk characters into that area, gain or lose points for that monk. The idea is to score the least amount of points. The game revolves around the fact that each player has drawn a colour at the start of the game to represent that particular monk and you have to try and guess which colour the players have drawn at the end of the game.
Jamaica: As there were six of us we opened up the copy I had bought for the club. Lots of luck, fun game with amazing artwork. Didn’t feel some of the others liked it that much.
Agricola: Just to teach me the game, Alan, Charlie and Dave took me through the first 4 phases of the game which helped me to understand the game much Solaris

better than from 1 reading of the rules. I am in two minds if this purchasing decision was a good one – the system is a combination of other games, but works well. More games will no doubt have me hooked.
I have since played the solo version of the game which is entertaining and now want to play a full multi-player game!

I have also got Monastery from Ragnar Brothers as Gary Dicken left his display copy on the stand. I brought it home to give it a try at the local club – to be advised!(Gary offers a 'blessing' to an Essen attendee - photo right)
(Tony Carr demonstrates his Solaris card game - phot left)
I find it amusing that the Games Fair is held in Germany but the people that buy The World Cup Game are usually not German! The Dutch, Belgians, Swedes, Spanish, Italians and even the Americans buy, but the Germans rarely do. German games players like their game in their own language, not English! Even with the German rules kindly translated by Ferdinand Köther and on my website, as the box and components in English – a lesson to be learnt for future Eurogames that I publish!
I will no doubt be there again next year – 22-25 October 2009. I certainly hope to have a new game by then!

E-Zine