This Monday night Rick called and cancelled games at his house.  Poor guy fell off a ladder and is hurting.  Chris was en route to pick me up, so when he arrived I informed him of the cancelled session.  So we retired to the Game Bistro and played a few games:

First up was Carcassonne: The City.  This is the fancy wooden box game of Carcassonne with wooden walls.  This is a game that I find quite wonderful, so when Chris suggested it, I was happy to oblige.  It opens up very similar to most any permutation of Carcassonne.  You lay city tiles, place meeples, and score point for having meeples on roads, or for standing in markets.  You can also place them in residential districts for end game scoring.  But in the middle of the game a whole new angle begins with the placement of walls, and guard meeples atop the walls.  Now you are looking at scoring opportunities by row and rank of what view the guard has.  Compounding this is the ability to score points for towers along long lengths of walls placed.  Finally the walls inhibit the growth of the city, forming a barrier of city growth. 

In other words this is Carcassonne on steroids.  I can never understand how little love this game achieves.  I like the way the game opens up into a much more deep and strategic game, and I love the 3D aspect to the scoring, and I love the cool little walled city you build by the end of the game.

  Here is the city Chris and I built:

Next up we played a couple scenarios from Memoir ‘44.  This is a game I have multiple copies of, almost 2 sets of every expansion, an immense amount of support materials for.  Yet I almost never play it.  We have an annual game of Overlord which I relish, but usually that is all.  So we played scenarios #2 and #3 from the original game.  Even so, we had to remind ourselves of the basic rules, and played slowly enough to ensure we got them right.  We had great fun, even if the two scenarios were blow outs.

With about an hour left, I suggested we give Manoeuvre another whirl.  Manoeuvre is a great 2-player game that received a handful of plays when I first got it, but almost no attention for the past year.  We got through most of a battle before I realized I had missed a key rule.  We decided to put it away, as time was running short, but armed with this experience we are both interested in playing more of this interesting system.  With 8 different armies and lots of terrain tiles, this game appears to have a number of facets to explore.

A fun evening, if not the one I expected.  I hope Rick is okay.

Monday night had the usual foursome back together.  Chris had left his copy of Endeavor at Rick’s house, who taught it to Gary during our absence.  So we played it with everyone having some prior experience.  I’m rather impressed with this game so far.  The development tree is interesting, but at the same time the board play demands attention.  Balancing how to manage all your needed attributes and board positions is so far eluding me – but it is fun trying!

We finished up Monday night’s session with the ever popular Bohnanza.  Great game that has endured extremely well over the years.

Tuesday night was a banner night for The Game Bistro.  At one point we had 14 people playing!  I played Snow Tails with Sally, Michael, Tiffany and Chris S.  At the same time five others were playing Princes of Florence, and another table of 5 were playing Endeavor.  Our game of Snow Tails was new to everyone but Michael and I.  After the first race, folks wanted to have another go, so we set up a more elaborate route that included saplings and snow drifts.  Great fun, and just my sort of racing game.

To round out the evening I played Titan: The Arena with Sally, Michael, Chester and Bob.  This is a game I had in my collection long ago, and eventually let it pass through my hands.  But last year I found a copy available cheap, and on a whim recollected it.  It was fun to revisit this old chestnut, and it was received fairly well by everyone at the table.

Other games I witnessed in play included Dominion, Tichu, and Tumblin’ Dice.  It was nice to see so many gamers out for the evening.  Some folks who hardly ever come were present, along with one new player who came with his brother.

We enjoy playing a variety of games on Tuesday nights.  Many games only get played once or twice during a given year.  A few favorites get played 3-5 times.  But Planet Steam, a game that takes 2 hours to play, was played 7 times in 2009.  Only Tichu and Call My Bluff were played as often, but both of those games are a much smaller investment in time.

So what makes Planet Steam so good?  First of all, let me tell you what is wrong with it.  The box is ridiculously large, with a creative fold, the box could easily be 1/2 the size.  While the components are eye-candy, they are fidley.  The silver-colored tanks are a fun idea, with slots cut into them to allow you to press attachments into the slots.  Too often the attachments are either too loose or too tight.  The compressor domes are small flat bottomed domes that are placed on top of the production tanks.  We routinely chase these across the game table as they constantly fall off.

Planet Steam is rated for 3-5 players, but don’t believe them.  It is best as a 3-player game, but also quite good as a 4-player game.  But avoid adding a fifth player.  The game suffers with this extra player.

But if you do play, you will find a demanding economic game, and should you like the sort of challenge of building a factory and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps this game gives you an interesting game space to explore.  Do you like Steam Punk?  Planet Steam hooks onto this theme well, the production tanks, the steam punk artwork, the idea of dropping shafts and harvesting ore, water, and quartz all give a nice hue to the proceedings.

There is no income for you, except that which you build for yourself.  The game limits how many production tanks come into the game, ensuring you must scrap against the other players to get the materials you need to build your factory.  The initial auction for specialists can be daunting, and this is a game that rewards experience.  You can put yourself in very tight straits as there are several areas of risk to manage.

This is a tough game!  Oh the rules are not tough – the challenge is.  And that is why we have played it 7 times at the club, and why I played it over 10 times through the year.

Alex and Amy hosted their annual game day on New Year’s Day.  I enjoyed playing A Brief History of the World with Rob, Alex, Zack, and Lawrence.  Everyone was familiar with the earlier version, and so teaching the game was delightfully easy.  The parent game, History of the World takes quite a long time to play, my recollection is hazy, but I think it runs close to 1 hour per player- so a 6 player game runs close to 5-6 hours.  I did not time our game, but I think we played the Brief History version in less than 3 hours.

Shorter is nice, but what is key, is that the game is still full of the interesting parts from the original.  There are two main changes.  The empire selection is now basically foolproofed so that the leader should not ever get a great choice.  (In the original, it was unlikely, but it could still happen.)  In this new version battle has been reworked, and in a very clever way.  I like how it mimics historic stories of a mammoth siege which when the city finally fell the surrounding lands quickly were overwhelmed.  Well done.  I doubt I will ever suggest the old version again.  I feel the new version has kept the best parts of the original, and shortened the game to a point I can actually play it on an evening session.

Rob, Sally, Julie and I then played World Without End.  This is the game based on the sequel to Ken Follet’s best-selling book Pillars of the Earth.  To be clear, Ken Follet is the author of the books, not the games.  The original book is a great read, and one I would easily recommend to anyone interested in the great cathedrals of Europe.  The game Pillars of the Earth is not a bad game, but not a favorite of mine.  Also, while I loved the original book, Pillars of the Earth, I merely liked the sequel, World Without End.  So combined with my ho-hum reaction to the Pillars game, and my ho-hum reaction to the World Without End novel, I had not seriously considered the new World Without End game.

Rob taught us how to play, and with a minimum of fuss, we were soon tracking through the arc of the story.   Briefly, the cathedral is already built.  Wool and cloth sales develop.  The plague comes to town.  An ambitious builder wants to build a bridge, and then later an impressive tower on the cathedral.  (Ken Follet would shudder to see this synopsis.)  Rob and I were the only two players who had read the books, and I think we may have gotten a bit more out of the game’s theme for it.

So how was it?  Good.   Not great, though.  Comparing this game to Pillars is attractive, but ultimately unhelpful,  Pillars had bidding and worker placement mechanics.  World Without End is about resource gathering and management done by card play.  The artwork and theme are tightly related, but the gameplay is not.  I’m glad they are so different, as I had wondered if this second game would just be a reflection of the first.  It is not, and I am more impressed with how this game takes you through the saga of the story.  In this regard I think World Without End is a better game than Pillars of the Earth.  However, I didn’t see enough here to make me want to go buy a copy for my collection.

My final game was a quick game of Through the Desert, played with Zack, Julie and Amy.  I once owned this game, having traded it years ago.  I seem to have trouble coping with too many color inputs.  The whole combination of 4 player colors atop 6 different camel colors turns the board into a sea of color for me.  Through the Desert is a solid strategy game.  But it is one I will never request.  (as an aside, I also dismissed Liberte from my collection for similar reasons.

We played The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game at the Bistro this week.  This is a game we play once every year or two, and since we had exactly 6 players, it seemed like an opportunity.  Response was lukewarm from Jason, but most everyone else seemed to enjoy it, with Michael beeing especially happy with it.  As the name implies there is a a lot of direct hosage in this game.

Briefly – each player has a stable of 6 horses.  He will field one of those 6 horses each race.  The horses are ranked from 1-6, with the higher ranked horses having some advantage in the race.  There are 6 races, of varying purses to be run.  Players can make money by finishing in the top 3, or by betting on the winning horse.  A LOT of money can be potentially won on bets.

You are under no geas to run your horse effectively.  If you want it to lose (because you bet on a different horse), you can run your horse in an ineffective way.  In addition, each player has 3 cards they can use during the game.  These cards have various effects, mostly bad effects, which can cause a horse to fall and leave the race.  The potential for wrecking any given horse’s run is ample.

The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game is mostly an experience game.  There isn’t too much strategy available.  You make a few decisions, and watch them play out.  I enjoy the game, but am never surprised when it doesn’t please someone.

We had a late arrival, so when Really Nasty finished, three Bistro players pulled down Tinners’ Trail.  Michael, Chester, Chris Anderson and I played Web of Power.  Great little game.  We finished it quickly.  Michael departed, and so Chris, Chester and I played it again.  I think Web of Power is best as a 3-player game.  In the first game I neglected placing cloisters concentrating on placing advisors.  This did not work out and I finished in 4th place.  For the second game I swapped to trying to get cloisters down, and only dabbled with Advisors.  I was able to get two chains, which was just enough for victory.

I like Web of Power quite a lot.  (Although I would decline a 5p game – too much chaos.)  For a game that plays in 30 minutes or less, I feel like a lot of decisions are offered.

Tuesday night was the last game night session at the Bistro prior to Christmas.  In year’s past I have hosted elaborate parties, including big potluck dinners and gift exchanges, etc.  Over the past few years I’ve been scaling back.  This year Peggy and I baked a few cookies, and I made some non-alcoholic Wassail.  Kenneth, making his annual appearance, had baked a pumpkin pie, and assorted other goodies were brought in by other Bistro players.  Altogether there were ten of us, making for smaller but fun party.

I set up Carabande as a socializer to get us started.  Nine of us played it over two different 1-lap heats.  Somehow Michael Wester managed to win both times.  Carabande had not been played for a couple years, and a lot of the new folks had never played it (or Pitchcar) previously.  We enjoyed Carabande for the two heats and by then Bob Mueller had arrived so we broke into two tables of gaming.

I made a point to play with Karen, who came with Ed, as this was her first time to come to gaming.  Ed suggested keeping it light, so I proudly brought out my latest “silly game” acquisition, Tanz der Hornochsen.  This is a game about avoiding stepping in cow poop!  There were five of us, Ed, Karen, Amy, Michael and myself.  This was the first time this game had been played by the club.  It’s hard to take this game seriously, which is why I selected it.  We laughed our way through it, and Tanz der Hornochsen garnered some good ratings.

Amy decided she needed to rescue her small children so she could get them to bed somewhere close to their bedtimes, so with her departure we were four (the other table of 5 being in the middle of their El Grande game).  Michael and I thought Tonga Bonga would fit the light but fun desire expressed by Ed, and indeed, Tonga Bonga was a big success.  I am very pleased with Tonga Bonga.  While there is a lot of luck, there are several interesting decisions every turn.  The turns are fast, and the fun is generated.  Tonga Bonga is a bright cheerful looking game, and one I cannot effuse over enough.

As we finished Tonga Bonga, the El Grande game also came to a close.  We took this opportunity to mix things up a bit.  Ed, Karen and Michael hopped into a game of Der Untergang von Pompeiji – probably better known as The Downfall of Pompeii.  I visited the table briefly to help with the rules, but other wise I sat down to a game of Shark with Chris Anderson, Tiffany and Jason.  Jason has taken an interest in Shark after I had introduced it to him earlier this year.  This was Tiffany’s first exposure to it, and she was less sure about it.  We used the rule of 7, which is a rule not found in the rulebook, but one that the author has expressed on the internet.  I think it improves the game. 

I had a fine time, and I think everyone who attended also had fun.  Thanks to all the Bistro Players who come out every week for gaming!