by Paulo Renato
Hey everyone,you know what time it is!!
The night of the Home Group Gaming Night... this time Mário couldn't come and since the next day it was an Holiday, that meant we had more time to play, so we decided to start with:
The Capitals
This is my favorite City Building game, for me it's so much better than Suburbia it hurts... There's much more to consider on every building you build and then on the activations you can do... the choices you have to make taking into account all the effects that a single building has in the city, where you can build it and if it benefits you to build in that place or if it's better to build "illegally" and take some negative points to better leverage the building later.
You have to manage your Progress Level so you can have Power to activate your buildings...
You have to Attract Population and then arrange Jobs or you'll be heavily penalized...
You have to raise your city culture to make it an interesting city to attract tourists from the other players, or at least keep your own people from going to visit the other cities, also the city with the Higher Culture will be able to have an extra activation of the buildings and that can be very important!
You have to keep an eye on your Public Services to keep your people happy, if you don't you will find that people will start to leave your city...
and of course you have to keep an eye on the financial situation.
The game is an excellent "simulation", for me it has only 2 small "problems":
1- It's a LONG, and I mean LONG game! We are not experienced players at it but our 3 player game was about 4 hours... with a bit more experience at the game we could maybe cut 15 to 30 minutes of, but not much because there will always be some AP when making our "bids" for turn order and selecting what building to buy from the ones on offer...
There's no avoiding it... you have to make careful choices or you'll be screwed!
2- The lack of tokens to put on the buildings to remind the players of Special Effects of buildings that get triggered in some circumstances... it's a chore to have to always be checking all the tiles when you build or activate some building on the city!
for me personally "issue" 1 isn't a big problem... I don't mind playing long games, the problems comes from being able to find the time to put it on the table... but when it gets there it's a treat!
For the 2nd point I resorted to my Stonemaier Treasure Chest, and I think it not also looks cool but it was very effective in terms of gameplay... I think it helped a lot.
Look at this photo:
The pieces are:
Bricks = Building that has an effect that triggers when you build other buildings
Gold Bars = Building that triggers when other buildings get activated
Blue Gems = Buildings that have a permanent effect that is not triggered with building or activations, example, The Church that when you get negative points you receive half.
This made it much easier for us to just take a look at the tiles and see what might be triggered or not... really happy with this idea :)
Also happy that I got the Boardgame Factory and put it to work!! :p
I started the game with a very cool money engine, I don't think I was ever bellow $20 the whole game :)
My first prosperity Building was the "Church" and this one is a gem... this game is brutal, specially in the early stage, you'll be taking a lot of negative points and the Church says that for each 2 negative points you receive you get 1 positive point.
We all managed to build the 5 Prosperity Buildings.
After that first financial pull I focused on getting some cultural buildings (the red ones) so I could build the Subway and also be in the lead in culture so I could have at least one of the other players cars in my city... this way I have 2 "free cubes" to do activations and one extra activation per turn, and on the early game when you can only do 1 activation this can be very important, provided that you have the power cubes to use!
I was leading in culture almost all the game, I only gave it up 2 rounds before the end of the game because I knew I wasn't going to be able to leverage the extra activation granted by being the most cultured and I had some buildings that allowed me to convert Culture Points into Victory points in a much more efficient way than the one at the end of the game, so I used them to get some sweet points :)
Near the end of the game I tried to get some population, I was way behind and some Industry to have jobs... I still ended in the Negative Points in those tracks but at least I had full employment :p
My city was also a disgrace through out the game in terms of Public Services... it conditioned some of my building choices when "buying" because I was almost always at the bottom of the track and every time I went bellow zero I lost population and normally I would lose also jobs... I did it a few times but there were other times that it was the decisive factor in taking one building over the other...
Check the tracks:
I was Blue, Tiago was Purple and Duarte was Red...
Score:
Me - 65
Tiago - 48
Duarte - 43
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We still had time to play one more game and there was one game that I was going to sell but that I hadn't played and wanted to try before it went out of the door and that was:
Pergamon
The game is pretty simple... there's a bit of luck involved in the process, starting with the Money that there will be available in Research Funds that it's not certain how much there will be, you know what the lowest amount and the highest amount can be but you will only know the exact amount after selecting the action space you want to do in the round and that will award some money or not, depending on the places the other players selected and the amount of money that was up for grabs...
I like this element of luck in the game, it makes you decide some "Push Your Luck" decisions or going for the "Sure" thing...
There's also luck in the 5 tiles that come out every turn and where they end up in the excavations spots...
With that being said, the game is interesting, I "dig" the theme (pun intended) and I like how fast the game plays... it really flies by :)
I consider this to be a very interesting light weight game, very good to introduce people to modern gaming.
Score:
Me - 38
Duarte - 37
Tiago - 37
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The night of the Boardgamers of Porto Meeting, I was a bit tired and with an headache so I only played one game but it was a good one :)
Libertalia
Some of you might know others won't know but Libertalia is neck a neck with Through the Ages for my favorite game of all time, so it's always a pleasure to play it :)
It was a game with the full compliment of players, 6 and that means a lot of Chaos!! and Fun!! :)
We played again with Negotiation and I really like this little variant we came up with :)
Lots of ups and downs, I managed to get 3 maps in the second and third week but it wasn't enough :(
Score:
Sérgio - 100
Joana - 93
Me - 91
Pedro Rocha - 84
Biscaia - 74
Mário - 52
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Me and my wife went to a friends house and of course I brought some games but I had decided I wasn't going to play, I would just explain them and help them play :)
So I thought Love Letter: Batman and Tales & Games: The Hare & the Tortoise
I enjoyed it pretty much :)
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The day of the Boardgamers of Porto Monthly Gathering, the last Saturday of every month, a day for gaming :)
Ironically I only played two games, I spend much time talking with the other members :p
The first one was:
First Train to Nuremberg
It was my first game of this and we played the "Last Train to Wensleydale" map, and spoiler alert... AWESOME game!!!
The map and components are great, really like the look of it...
But the thing I like the most about the game is the planning that goes into everything you do, the interaction between the players... the "auction" that goes on at the start of each turn that has a randomized item in every box in each round and that auction determines player order in therms of laying track, transporting and buying trains, etc...
Also, the way you sell your previously laid tracks to the "govern" so you don't have to be paying the upkeep of those tracks it's pretty cool...
I don't think there was a single thing I disliked about this one!
Score:
Me - 29
Nuno - 23
Eduardo - 21
Juliana - 12
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and the final game of the day was:
The Castles of Burgundy
with some expansion boards :)
I ended up with one of those boards...
Man, there's nothing more I can say about this game, it's super-awesome... it's simple and yet the kinds of combos you can do are just amazing...
Don't think I'll ever turn down a play of it
Score:
Mário - Board 2 - 241 Points
Tiago - Board 13a - 228 Points
Me - Board 13h - 204 Points
Cristina FF - Board 1 - 201 Points
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In this section of the Blog I'll be listing the Kickstarter Projects I am currently backing or that I'm considering to back... maybe it will bring some games to your attention and more backers to the project, so everyone gains :)
- Thrash'n Roll - KS Link
Very cool and different theme for a board game... really like how the dice placing mechanics are implemented
Also it's not that expensive it's US Canadian and EU-Friendly and it has Free Shipping for those locations too... so Kudos for that!!
Check it:
Youtube Video
Youtube Video
- Mare Nostrum: Empires - KS Link
Don't know the 1st game, but this one seems to have address the complaints about the original one and it looks fantastic... also, a LOT of SG unlocked!!
- The Gallerist - KS Link
People say it's expensive but the component quality and the genius work of Vital are more than worth it!
- Carson City: Big Box - KS Link
I like Carson City and in this KS Project you can find a variety of ways to pledge to suit the different needs in case you already own Carson City...
The box looks amazing and the Upgraded Wooden components look great too.
I haven't made the pledge yet but I highly doubt that I won't be backing :)
- Masters of Football - KS Link
I love the Beautiful Game, the real Football :p and so every game I see out there about that theme makes me take notice... this one has the plus that the designers are Portuguese... I don't know them but it's always a thing I value, the products of Portuguese minds :)
- Scoundrel Society - KS Link
I really like this type of tongue and cheek games, games with hidden role selection and simultaneous reveal that promote the guessing and double guessing of what other players might be doing...
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Entering the Collection:
- Prêt-à-Porter
Left the Collection
- Elysium
- Pergamon
- Survive: Escape from Atlantis! (with all the expansions)
- Takenoko
Elysium left The Collection because despite being stunning, I felt the game play had something not quite there, specially in the 2P version and in the 4P there's too much downtime and AP during turns... It's a game that I will play gladly but that I don't need to own.
Pergamon is a cool fast game but I have others that I consider better to play... and since space is now an issue it went away!
Survive I haven't played it... I look at it and it seems fun, but I never got to play it... got a good offer so it just Escaped my grasp :p
Takenoko, it's a awesome looking game that I never play because I think it's too light... making way for other games!
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Have fun guys and has always, thank you for reading, commenting and thumbing :)