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Played Clash of Cultures again last night with 2 players, me vs my wife. She never went heavy into military so I didn't press military much either other than to take out Barbarians and claim their settlements. I went into Trade Routes again (love Trade Routes) and went for Advances that helped me build up my cities and expand. I put an army or two in each city as I went, slowly pushing them towards my wife's cities just enough to keep the threat of military conquest alive to put a wrench in her planning. Near the end I had 5 cities sprawled across the little 2P map to her three cities. She held tight though and managed to build a Wonder near the end. Normally I don't go heavy at the Objective Cards but this time I managed to claim 5 or 6 of them due to not having to focus on military strength. I used Cultural Influence in the last two turns to swap a couple of her buildings for mine, which made the difference in points for the win. Took about 2 hours and I won by a measly three points.
Played our third game of Imperial last night, and the first game in which it felt like the game was opening up to us. We were more savvy about cash flow, getting into an "Acquire" mindset of valuing open cash and only buying bonds for explicit purposes. Four of the six countries changed ownership at least once (the two that didn't were on top of the power chart at the end; is that typical?). For the final half-hour one poor player (we were four) didn't have any country at all and I got the impression he didn't have much cash, either. Still very far from having a real good grip on the game, though; the power chart rankings at the end still feel very arbitrary (which is bad considering that they basically determine the final winner!), especially the breakpoints between 1x, 2x, 3x, etc., as well as simply the feeling like "if this country had one single more turn, it would be in a much higher position". Looking forward to playing it again next week!
Rowdy night last night. First was a game of Junta: Viva El Presidente (5p) which was fun, though it seemed like something was missing in the game. I have to play it again to figure out what's up. Then we played Cutthroat Caverns with 6p, which was a wild time full of backstabbery and laughs.
dragonstout wrote: For the final half-hour one poor player (we were four) didn't have any country at all and I got the impression he didn't have much cash, either.
Being without a country is not necessarily a disadvantage. Experience will show you.
Imperial 2030 introduces the Swiss Bank. If you don't have a country, you get the Swiss Bank token and you can force another player that is passing the investor space to stop there and force a payout. It's a really important change, and it's one you can implmement in "Old timey" Imperial pretty easily.
Imperial is one of the few games that for some reason I just can't play. Part of it is that it's not my kind of game; I can appreciate its design, but the things it stresses are not things that interest me. However, that usually isn't too much of a problem, and I can work with that most of the time. The last time my group wanted to play Imperial, however, as we were setting up and I was thinking about how to approach it, I just got this weird sense of nausea and wanted nothing to do with it. I started to just bow out when fortunately someone else arrived and I was able to do something 2p with him. I'd never really encountered that before, and I can't explain it, but Imperial just gives me the heeby-jeebys.
dragonstout wrote: For the final half-hour one poor player (we were four) didn't have any country at all and I got the impression he didn't have much cash, either.
Being without a country is not necessarily a disadvantage. Experience will show you.
Sure, not necessarily...BUT given that he had no cash, yes, it was a disadvantage. And, regardless of whether it makes you more or less likely to win or not, he still spent a whole half-hour making literally ZERO decisions.
I think that's more a commentary on the fact that they player in question must have played very poorly. Understandable in a first game. Imperial isn't a game that's going to give you a hug and tell you it'll all be alright if things are going bad. Imperial is the kind of game that kicks you in the teeth when you're down.
Sons of Anarchy...just one three player game to go on...but I think GF9 and the Spartacus/Firefly team might have pulled off the hat trick. This game might be awesome. I don't want to get too giddy about it in case it breaks down after a couple of sessions, but there is a REALLY fun game here. It is similar to Deadwood in quite a few ways. It's worker placement. But with a lot more aggro, direct negotiation/trading, and tiny plastic Glocks and duffle bags filled with "contraband" (read: drugs and pornography). Production is awesome (no bad ass paper money like Firefly though).
I think we're going to hear a lot about this one when it hits...it's fast (75-90 minutes?), has a great crime concept that is very underused or typically badly used, and I'm guessing it captures the atmosphere and storylines of the show.
Maybe I'll watch it...I really just want to play the game again though. My buddies really dug it too, lots of payoffs, intimidation, sonofabitchcraft, and bloodshed. I was the Mayans (Latinos) and won by just cranking out porn and drugs. None of us had seen the show, but the crime/gang concepts spoke loud and clear.
The show is really just typical gangster fair with soap opera elements and motorcycles mixed in. Of course the biker gang are all well groomed and have all their teeth so have pretty much zero in common with actual biker gangs.
repoman wrote: The show is really just typical gangster fair with soap opera elements and motorcycles mixed in. Of course the biker gang are all well groomed and have all their teeth so have pretty much zero in common with actual biker gangs.
It's noteable because it pushes the boundaries for a basic cable show and doesn't pull punches. Shit like girls being set on fire in a pit, killing off semi-main characters, mutilation, and brutal beatings. The plot also actually moves and characters tend to change (even if only superficially). It's not in the realm of The Wire or Rome, but it's pretty good.
Got in a game of Wiz-War last night. Only 2 players, which makes it less chaotic, and it was over quickly. I like the game, and the production is nice, but I'm not sure it's a keeper. I can't get it played with my regular group at all; too many people who dislike it.
Also Reobinson Crusoe. We played the second scenario (cursed island) and man, it was a roller coaster of emotions. We oscillated wildly between "we're doomed" and "omg so close!" We ended up winning (we think: do you have to finish out the turn where you complete the goal? If so, it could have been hairy.) Great game, and one I want to own. I'm up for it in the Gen Con math trade.
Speaking of getting games, playing Wiz-War completes
The Ultimatum List
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and I got the impression he didn't have much cash, either. Still very far from having a real good grip on the game, though; the power chart rankings at the end still feel very arbitrary (which is bad considering that they basically determine the final winner!), especially the breakpoints between 1x, 2x, 3x, etc., as well as simply the feeling like "if this country had one single more turn, it would be in a much higher position". Looking forward to playing it again next week! 
