Dragon Delta – A good fun game

1. The game was a big hit with a couple of kids aged 6 and 10. Bth wanted to play it again after one play!

2. The game is a typical race game and reminded me of the old Chinese Checkers with the strategic euro element that makes it so much more interesting and fun.

3. The components are well produced though the box just looks a bit big for the amount of stuff in it.

4. The rules are simple and easy and can be explained in 5 minutes.

5. Pawns are moved across the delta based on a series of action cards. Each player chooses five cards out of their hand of action cards and place them face down below simultaneously.

6. The delta is filled with rocks. Stones have to be placed on the rocks, and planks across two stones to create a series of rickety bridges on which the pawn moves.

7. The dragon cards in each player’s hand cancel out the action of another player and adds just that element of nastiness to the game.

8. The other interesting factor is that though the planks are colour coded, this is mainly for the initial placement. There is also a restriction that when one plays, the card that helps one to replenish a plank from the board, you cannot take a similar sized plank that you already have. You can also not hold more than 2 colours of planks.

9. The game is won when the first player moves a pawn to a village on the opposite side of the delta. This again is colour coded in such a way that specific pawns have to move to specific villages in order to win.

10. Overall a good fun game, can be used as a gateway game also, has enough strategic elements to keep everyone interested. The theme also seems to sit very well on the game.

Thurn & Taxis and the expansion

I got the new expansion for Thurn & Taxis and immediately we played a 2p session. Firstly I realised that I had played T&T wrongly for so long now. I have completely forgotten to reduce the points for houses not placed onto the board at the end of the game! Thanks to BGG I noticed it only today. anyway coming to the expansion, it is a new board with new cards. The only thing you need from the original game is the houses in the different colours. As someone posted on BGG, you don’t even need the original if you just get the expansion! Personally the expansion provides me with just that different feel and interest for someone who has got bored of the original but liked it a lot. So unless you really loved the original, played a lot, got bored, but would not mind playing the same game with a subtle shift, this expansion is not worth it.

Games played May 07

Wow! Have completed 2 years of boardgaming. Things are just hotting up. Am getting a few more games this weekend and there are a few more games lying unplayed at home. So a good couple of months ahead on the gaming front.

May was the month of annual holidays for children. This means the kids in our building will get to some gaming at home. The tough part was in deciding what game to play. Shreyasi always has a game in mind and will not play anything else most of the time. Guha loves train games, while Sai wants to play a game he has ever played. We did however manage to a good month of gaming, 61 plays and 24 different games.

TTR:  USA 1910 – 8 plays – Still remains the favorite for everyone. Sushanth also has started playing it.

Bohnanza & Thurn & taxis – 6 plays each – Two of Sai’s friends actually landed up one evening and managed to learn and play T & T which was good. Bohnanza of course is Sushanth’s favorite game.

High Society & Settlers of Catan – 5 plays each – Settlers is played when Varadu comes in during his lunch hour at office. I enjoyed High Society again after a long time.

Cartagena, Prices of Florence & San Juan – 3 plays -We finally played the Cartagena version with open cards and it was a different challenge. Prices was the new game for the month and instant hit. Superb game and right t the top of my all time games along with Puerto Rico. San Juan, again only 2p games but it is getting closer and closer. All three games were won by a single point!

Alhambra, Atlantic Star, Carcassonne, Railroad Tycoon & TTR:Marklin – 2 plays each

Coda, Lucca Citta, Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper,  Power Grid Italy/France, Puerto Rico, Ra, Schildkroetenrennen, TTR, Tutankhamen & Wildlife – 1 play each – Lucca Citta was another new gam. It was ok but may not hit the table again. It was nice to play Ra again. Super game. I feel it is better than Amun-Re. Enjoyed Tutankhamen again. we finally played a full 6p game of Wildlife and it was really great.

TTR 1910:USA – What makes it different and better

I have been raving about this game the last few months and just noticed that the no of plays is close to 100 now.  We have been playing it everyday almost. Aarthi (my wife) just loves the game and does not mind playing it with any number of players. What makes it different? Is it not the same as the original game? Well here is my take on this. Firstly 1910 has 3 different ways of playing the game. I don’t care for the 1910 or the Big Cities version that much. It is the mega game that is most engaging. Firstly the mega game has 65 destination tickets. There for there is a lot at stake in terms of points. There have been games where we have runaway winners with 200+ points. There have been games with players winning only because of the bonus got from completing the maximum no of tickets. There have been 5 player games where everyone gets minus points and it becomes a scramble to get the winner. There have been games where one tries to finish the game fast and not allow others to pick up more tickets. There are some obvious strategies to the design of the tickets. If you can connect LA-NY-Chicago-Miami quickly then you can make a killing picking up more tickets. But this becomes very difficult if one player keeps picking cards from the deck and you never get the cards you want.

In terms of no of players, the game is very tight with 3 and 5. But with 2 and 4 the strategy depends more on the ability to pick more tickets. Sometimes picking more tickets can also backfire and each one ends up picking the others’ tickets and getting minuses in the process! Overall the game is engaging, tense, bouncy and makes you completely forget the original. I had got bored of the original but after getting this the game has picked up immensely.

Large group, no game components? Play these games

There is a large group and you want to play some games. No game components available. Check this out. They are a sure fire way to pass time especially with some little children around! Hoping to catch a few these with my kids when we travel in summer this year.

Yehuda: 12 Games With No Components For Large Groups

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Goa – Some thoughts

Goa is a highly ranked game on BGG. It is basically a gamer’s game as explained in the many reviews I have seen of it. We managed to open it and get it going this month. We had 3 plays with 2 players and here are some initial impressions.

• There is a similarity to Puerto Rico in some ways. Though not directly it is more to do with the Euro feel of the game I think. There are so many ways of winning. As Srikanth likes to say, ‘Euros are games that give you many ways to win!’
• For first timers there will be some difficulty in assimiliating all the different ways of accumulating victory points, but after a few plays the game is very clean and smooth.
• The amount of choices are a bit overwhelming. For instance you have 6 different actions to choose from. In addition you can play expedition cards any time and also play some of the tiles that you won in an auction. So the choices are really huge.
• The game plays very well with 2. It is for 2-4 players but the initial auction mechanism is also quite engrossing even with 2 players.
• The only grouse if any in a 2 player session is that because we have only 4 rounds for each set of tiles, there are more tiles that never get used as opposed to the ones that get auctioned.
• Am really waiting to play with more players to see the difference.
• In the final analysis rock solid game with lot of strategy and flow. A trifle dry you can say though.

Boardgame Knowledge

&games: Boardgame knowledge.

Check out the above link. A super post on how one acquires boardgame knowledge. This is something people whom I introduced games to haev always wondered about. How did you know about this? Where did you find out about all these games?

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Puerto Rico – 2 player session!

Puerto Rico is the no 1 ranked game on BGG. But it is meant for 3-5 players. I actually got San Juan, the card game version of Puerto Rico, and we enjoyed the 2 player sessions so much. Finally when we got PR and started playing it we had stopped SJ. Until recently we rediscovered SJ and have been enjoying it a lot. Now finally I managed to download the offical Alea 2 player rules and got it going. We played a great game, it was tight and perfect and aarthi just exclaimed “This is better than San Juan because we can see everything!” Yes I agree, it was much better than SJ and I am so happy Aarthi got down to playing it today. Now there will be more such sessions in the near future. But I would advice a word of caution here. In case you have never played either PR or SJ then I would not advise this variant for 2 players. My personal progression would be to play 2 player SJ first, then play multi player PR and then move to 2 player PR. But this is because I had no one to teach me these games and had to struggle through the initial plays until we got more familiar. If you have someone to teach you the game play anything! They are all great fun and excitement!

Top 15 games played in 2006

2006 was my second year in gaming. A great year with a lot of new games being acquired. Finally now I have reached a stage where there is a slow pile of unplayed games in the gaming cupboard. Best way to show that I am hooked and doomed! I have to buy games frequently even though I may not find the time or the people to play them. A classic case was how I got Die Macher recently. This is like an all time classic. But reports say you need more players preferably the full quota. You also need 3 to 4 hours to play the game. Both these things are a rarity here but still I have to get the game when it has just been republished!

For Sale – 122 plays

This is a bit skewed I should say. The reason is that I was on a concert tour in the US last year and all my group members liked this so much and wanted to play it almost every day. We had so much fun and the game shines with a lot of strategy when played with 4. I rarely play this since I got back.

Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper – 26 plays

This really is the no 1 two player game that I play with Aarthi. The game is so wonderful and both of us are slowly getting into more and more different strategies of playing this. Every time I think of the learning curve that we had to go through I am not even confident I can teach another person and get them to play this with us!

Through the Desert – 24 plays

Again a bit skewed. My brother and sister in law were here in January last and most of the plays were logged then. Still a great game and little Sushanth has also picked up the game.

Alhambra – 22 plays

This is one of our staple games that we play 3 player when Varadu drops in during his lunch hour. There is a nice strategic feel when we play with 3 but can get chaotic with more players.

Puerto Rico – 22 plays

The no 1 game on the Geek! I finally got this and have enjoyed playing it so much. In fact apart from Aarthi and Shreyasi at home atleast 4 or 5 others have learnt the game and enjoy it. This will be a solid game to play whenever there are more players.

Transeuropa – 21 plays

Again mostly played on the my US tour with my group. Did not see much plays later. A good intro to a train game. Must be played with the full quota to get more fun out of it.

Bohnanza – 20 plays

Shreyasi’s friends Sai and Guha love this and we get a lot of 5 player sessions in. Aarthi and me also play a number of 2 player bean duels. Good fun.

The Settlers of Catan – 19 plays

Another luchtime favorite of Varadu’s. We mostly play 3 player sessions and I mostly win! One of the very few games that I win a bit more than Aarthi. Otherwise she wins most of the games.

Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 – 19 plays

The current hot game in the household. all these were played in December alone!

Elasund: The First City of Catan – 18 plays

This is surprising. I never though we had played so much of this. When I got it first it was mostly 2 player. But now we got in a few 3 and 4 player games and it is great. Aarthi however will not play Elasund if we have played Settlers recently. There is a similar feel but I like both games and do not mind playing them at anytime.

Atlantic Star – 17 plays

The new star in our gaming collection. Great great little game. I got it for 10 euros in a sale in a German game store. I bought it because it said Dirk Henn and I had liked Alhambra.

Modern Art – 17 plays

You can call it the local Knizia favorite. Everyone loves this and doesn’t mind a play.

Hansa – 14 plays

A surprise this year. I got this because I like Michael Schacht. Even the game got some not so good reviews and Srikanth agreed to the reviewer that it is a boring game, aarthi and me love playing it!

Ticket to Ride – 14 plays

After the arrival of the new edition this has petered down completely. Most of the plays were done in Australia when I was there. Mohan had not got Marklin and USA 1910 was not out then.

Carcassonne – 13 plays

Another favorite for Aarthi and me. We literally play only 2 player sessions these days. But the game is growing on us like Mystery Rummy and gets plays on a regular basis.

I have to add 2 more games that saw 13 plays so the list actually will have more than 15 games I guess!

Ra – 13 plays

A simple game to get people into gaming. We had a number of plays but spread over the year. The surprise was Sushanth picked it up easily!

Thurn & Taxis – 13 plays

Again mostly 2 player sessions but with Srikanth picking up the game we had some good 3 player sessions in December.

Shopping for games in Auckland

Have been in Auckland the last week or so. Was just browsing through the Whitcoulls store on queen st in the city. And I found Settlers, Seafarers, Carcassonne, Transamerica, Tikal, Age of Mythology, Doom, Nexus Ops, Roborally, Ricochet Robot and a few more that I cannot remember. I was pleasantly surprised and happy to come across these placed along with the more popular Scrabble, Monopoly, Cranium etc etc.

Prices seem ok not too much. I picked up Railroad Tycoon, Coda and Motley Fool Buy Low Sell High altogether for about 130 NZ$.