New OTK Cheras welcomes gamers – 16 Sep 2011
By jack208
EXCERPT
BGC’s new meetup place (also called OTK Cheras) opened its doors to welcome our gamers at 2pm last Friday and they stayed till 8:30 am the following Saturday. Almost 19 hrs of gaming saw the following in action: Modern Art, first play of Eaten by Zombies, The Message, Havoc, Toc Toc Woodman, Samurai, Blokus, Cargo Noir, Warhammer Invasion, Pandemic, Glory to Colorful Rome, Troyes, Havana, 1889 Shikoku Japan and DUNE. Thanks to all who made this happened!
Games: Modern Art, Eaten by Zombies, The Message, Toc Toc Woodman, Samurai, Blokus, Cargo Noir, Warhammer Invasion, Havoc, Pandemic, Glory to Rome, Troyes, Havana, 1889 Shikoku, DUNE.
Location: OTK Cheras | Google Map | Lat-Long: N 03° 06.179′ E 101° 44.237′
Date/Time: 16 Sep 2011 2.00 PM – 8.30 am (Fri/Sat)
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Bye Old Town, Hi OTK Cheras
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When we started Boardgamecafe.net proper as a business back in 2010, one of the first questions was whether we should have a physical storefront or game center where gamers can meet up and play games. After all our business model was based on organizing meetups to grow the local boardgamers community.
While we were already meeting up regularly every Friday at Old Town Kopitiam (OTK) in Cheras since 2007, we kinda knew we’ll want a place to call our own, where our gamers can meet and game in leisure. Having our own place would also means I no longer have to decide what games to bring to our meetups (and then lug them to the venue).
Our very first meetup at Old Town Kopitiam back in Jan 2007:
Three guys staring at a phallic symbol? Hmm.. Picture doesn’t seem right. LOL
Three guys staring at a phallic symbol? Hmm.. Picture doesn’t seem right. LOL
Check out more photos from our first OTK meetup album in Facebook.
What we do not know then was whether we are using the new place as a boardgame café model (ie charge per game or hour), as a F&B café with games to play (not likely since our core is boardgames), as a physical storefront (eg Comics Corner) or simply as a warehouse.
We discounted the first model – boardgame café – since we have retailer partners which are boardgame cafes themselves (Classroom Cafe, Boardgame Depot, Family BG Station, etc) and for better or worse, we simply do not want to be competing in the same space as them. 😛
Our plan was to get into the new place before the end of this year, and in March we actually found a place that looks very promising but did not proceed coz a few things did not check-in for that location.
When an empty lot was available in Jalan Lancang (which is literally along the same “road” as Old Town Cheras) in July, this time we did not hesitate. The genesis for the new OTK was thus put in place. 😀
The Four BGC Pillars
It was a very busy August month as we work out the game plan and concept design for the new centre. The concept has to accommodate both our community of gamers (mostly adults) and the young children from waiyan’s Mind Muscle classes (most of whom are avid young boardgamers). We also wanted a design that highlights the four pillars that anchored the BGC business which are 1) Meetups, 2) Events, 3) Children Gaming and 4) Social Responsibility.
Special thanks to See Weai for bringing the above concept to reality, to Yee Ling for the printer’s contact, and to waiyan for working tirelessly with See Weai to get this ready on time! I luv the walls! 😛
OTK Wall of Fame
When I visited the Camp Nou (stadium of FC Barcelona) back in 2000 (on one of my project trips to Europe), they were switching from their former name to the new “Camp Nou” and they’d erected a poster wall listing the names of all the footballers who have played for Barca. I thought that was pretty cool and decided to do something similar for OTK. That’s where the OTK Wall idea originated from (though obviously we are not as famous as FC Barcelona hehe).
What I’m proud of is that none of the “names” listed in the OTK Wall is a stranger to me! I can claim to know and gamed with each of them personally and to me (and BGC), they are not just a “faceless” customer but instead very individual gamer. That’s the high human touch we bring to the transactions with our gamers, and we aim to continue doing so.
BGC Warehouse
With our inventory of stock growing, we have certainly ran out of place to keep them. While we’ve been making endeavors in moving the stocks quickly and keeping our cash conversion cycle tight (which is important coz stocks that stay around too long simply means the biz is being managed in an inefficient manner), space is definitely becoming a key issue.
[No pictures of the store room yet as it’s a MESS now as those who came for our Opening Day last Friday can attest to, hehe]
Therefore one of the checklists for the new place is to provide storage space for our stocks! 😛
DONE.
BGC Storefront
Superstore? Nah… we prefer to keep a lower profile and just say we’ve a storefront now which displays all the games we’ve for sale and also new arrivals. Our biz model is very much driven online thru social media, and remote touchpoints provided for by our retailer partners, so a physical store was not actually a priority.
But since we are moving into a new place, might as well set up a nice corner to display our merchandise. Am sure it’ll lure some impulse buys from gamers but that was not really our *cough* agenda. Honest! 😉
I’ll put up a better picture next time, but the rows of shelf behind the gamers are where we are displaying our merchandise now. Feel free to drop by and browse. Those games are harmless, they won’t bite, hehehe.
Jack208 Boardgame Library
One key factors in hosting meetups successfully is a good range of games (not necessarily owning all the games) that are able to provide various gaming experience to different types of gamer. Over the years since we started boardgaming, CK has slowly built up a modest collection of boardgames that range from the light gateways such as Saboteur, Bang, Ticket to Ride; to medium weight Euros that’s a favorite among gamers such as Puerto Rico, Caylus, Power Grid; to the heavies strictly for the hardcore gamers.
Some of CK’s collection available for play during meetups in OTK Cheras.
Click here to read more about the games in CK’s library.
Click here to read more about the games in CK’s library.
It’s not just a matter of owning the games (which you can just do with money) but having the passion to learn and play all of them – which requires commitment (for most of the games) and insanity (for some games like “7 Ages” and “A&A Global“).
Putting them all in one place hopefully will see some of the rarely played games get rotated more often to the tables. Or simply those games that cannot be played practically on Old Town’s tables such as Ti3, Starcraft, Antiquity, Subbuteo etc
First Boardgame Center (in Malaysia) for Kids!
Through Mind Muscle (which conducts creative programmes for young children), waiyan has been running boardgame sessions for children; some as young as 5 yrs old. Those activities were loosely grouped under the BOARDGAMEKIDS banner.
Obviously one of the objectives for the new place is to be set up to host more regular children boardgame meetups… and for that purpose, we’ve also brought in a good collection of boardgames that are suitable for young children (age 5 -12). There are also plans to start GO sessions for children as part of our partnering with the Malaysian Weiqi Association.
Close to 150 children games are available now in our Boardgamekids Library to be used in their programmes and activities. For more information on their children boardgaming programmes and activities, pls keep a watch out on their Facebook page.
The New OTK is the first boardgame center for kids in M’sia where parents can simply walk-in, preview all the games available and talk with knowledgeable educators (and not just gamers or salesperson) such as waiyan (left) or wong to select the most suitable games for their children. And of course, sit down with their children for a game or two. 🙂
Expect to hear more from BoardgameKids!
Why called “OTK Cheras”?
After we’d secured the lease to the new place, the first thing we wanted to do was to get a nice name to call the venue. We popped the question on our Facebook wall and got some responses from the gamers. There were one or two names that rather appeal to us but a seemingly casual remark made by one of our evangelists Kareem struck a chord in me! Duh!
Kareem: But it won’t be known as OTK anymore… L
So true… Why search for another name? Why can’t we just continue to call it “OTK”? 😛
In a way, “OTK” has always been a misnomer for “Old Town White Coffee” which is what they are officially called. For some reasons, I’d thought their café was called “Old Town Kopitiam” but apparently they never call themselves “Old Town Kopitiam” here in M’sia. In Australia, yes they were known as “Old Town Kopitiam” but locally they use “Old Town White Coffee”.
But since our first meetup there back in 2007, we’ve stuck to using “OTK Cheras”. In fact a few new gamers trying to use their GPS couldn’t locate “Old Town Kopitiam”.
So in the end, we became what we’ve wrongly called to begin with. 😛
Not a bad thing since “OTK Cheras” has a special meaning in the local boardgaming context and I’m only pleased to continue using this special name for our new place. It brings a sense of continuity and familiarity to the proceedings, and allows us to continue building on the strength of the “OTK Cheras” name.
I hope this now brings some clarity to some of you who have been confused about “OTK Cheras”, “New OTK”, “BGC OTK” etc. My apology… the confusion was in a way deliberate over the past two weeks when we were building up the buzz on the new place. 😛
Moving forward, when we use the term “OTK Cheras” we are in fact referring to our new place/center at the following address:
157-1 (1st Floor), Jalan Lancang
Taman Sri Bahtera
56100 Kuala Lumpur
And we’ll be referring to Old Town White Coffee (where we were hosting our Friday meetups previously) simply as “Old Town” now. We’ll miss Old Town but I’m sure occasionally we’ll organize some meetups there or just have yamcha on those tables where many legendary sessions of jousting, train-building, farming, exploring and imperial-ing had happened in the twilight of the night.
I’ll get the Long-Lat coordinates for our new place later.. but if you enter as a search “157 Jalan Lancang” in Google Maps Malaysia, you’ll be able to easily locate this place. Hope to see you at OTK Cheras soon!
SUMMARY
In summary, new OTK Cheras can be the following thing(s) to different people:
- A meetup place where BGC will host our regular Friday OTK Meetups which start from 8 pm and usually end in the early morning 6 am the following Saturday. To get invites to our Friday Meetup, join our Facebook page but expect to change your circadian rhythm (hehe).
- A resource place with a very good library of children games for parents to find out more about how playing boardgames is an important learning & development path for their children. Preview the games, play a session or two or simply sign-up for any of the Boardgamekids programmes. Check out Boardgamekid’s Facebook page.
- A repository for CK’s modest (ahem) collection of games. 🙂
- A physical storefront where you’ll see the full range of the games we sell (check out our webstore if you do not like the hassle of travel, we can ship the games right to your doorstep!)
- A warehouse to keep our stock for distribution to retailer partners (email us if you wish to sell boardgames in your store/centre/café)
Hope that sets you properly as an introduction to our new meetup place. I’ll write again in a separate entry as to the operating policy for this new OTK, how to get here, when we are opened, are we charging for boardgaming, what are some of the activities we’ll be doing here, etc. For now let’s get back to more urgent matters ie. the sessrep for last Fri/Sat’s Open Day at OTK Cheras!
Opening Day 30% Sales
Oh ya, in conjunction with the opening we also had a 30% sale on ALL games and accessories; with a special promo price of just Rm42 for Toc Toc Woodman and The Message (normal retail Rm95) for those who came for our opening. Am glad to see many gamers took advantage of this offer to (hehe) add to their own boardgame library. 🙂
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GETTING READY FOR FRIDAY 16/9 HARI MALAYSIA
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The packing and moving of stuff from Mind Muscle’s old office (nearby Cheras Biz Centre) took us longer than we thought. The renovation work at the place – even though we did minimal renovation – did not complete on schedule due to the long Raya holidays when some contractors actually had extra work piling up on them.
Anyway we timeboxed what we can do and worked to complete those by 16th since being a public holiday AND a Friday, that was the obvious best day to do our opening. With the 16th date locked-n-loaded, it was a rush on the last few days especially Thu evening! A big kudos to the contractors and waiyan who worked till 3am to get things ready (or as ready as we could).
I’m not a big person on “opening days” where you simply gather as many ppl as you can, to drop by, say Hi for a while, eat, drink and practically do nothing.
Hello.. We are a boardgame meetup center la, and the only reason we meet at this place is to PLAY! And not just to show our face for some PR work for BGC. 😛
So did we get enough boardgaming done for the day? Read on….
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ARRIVAL OF CLASSROOM “SCHOOL TEACHERS”
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The firsts to arrive were the Classroom Cafe people – Charlie, CK Chong and Ang – who dropped by to say Hi and picked up some demo games for their café. They didn’t have time to stay and game, but we appreciate very much their presence. They are one of the newer boardgame café partnerd of ours set up in Ss15. We’ll be having our Halloween Night‘s gaming in Classroom this year!
Picture © Classroom Cafe 2011
If you are around the SS15 area and fancy some boardgaming, do pay Classroom Cafe a visit and give them your support!
Join Classroom Cafe on Facebook!
Picture © Classroom Cafe 2011
We are also planning a Memoir 44 tournament at Classroom Cafe (and also Boardgame Depot) hopefully in September. With so many things happening around us, we need to re-look at our schedule. But this is certainly happening… soon. 😛
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MODERN ART
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The BGC Kickstarter team of Kareem, Junyet and Jacelyn true to their namesake were the first wave of gamers to arrive, and soon they were joined by Zharif and his fren Jeremy. With a table of five, they kickstarted BGC’s OTK Cheras Opening Game Day with Knizia’s best auction game, MODERN ART.
Hmm… as a game based on the art painting industry, the game components are decided below-par (as observed by another customer of ours, Joshua) but do not let that detract from the gameplay which is top notch! This is a very well designed game about speculating and timing the auction market.
I think Junyet won this session but win or lose, all of them enjoyed the game immensely. To win this game, you do not optimize your moves but instead need to understand how to “play” the market (and your opponents). MODERN ART is indeed one of Knizia’s finest during his golden years (with others like Samurai, RA, Tigris Euphrates etc).
Maybe we’ll host a KNIZIA GAME DAY soon at OTK Cheras! 🙂
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THE MESSAGE
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The next group of gamers soon filed in… and we got them started on the main gaming table to prepare for the current hot game of the month THE MESSAGE. To read a review of this game, visit Hiew’s Boardgame Blog where he also has an updated translation of the rules for you to download. Any game that makes Hiew break his 12 midnite curfew hours at Old Town has to be seriously good… 😛
THE MESSAGE is another recent Werewolf/Mafia variant, not unlike The Resistance but this game is themed along the popular and well-made Taiwan spy-thriller movie, The Message.
Ken, all dressed up in order to send a message? Hmm…
Peter scratching his head. Yeah Pete, the English translation was not very well done. Hehe.
The most “marked” person in The Message game has to be Dennis (above). Basically when it comes to your turn and you do not know what to do, kill this guy! You have a 120/1 odds of him being a MOF. *CK runs away*
I lost track of how many sessions of THE MESSAGE that was done by this group before some broke off for another awesome card game, HAVOC (The 100 Years War).
A few more gamers (Victor’s group) dropped by and they filled in the gaps for the Message table.
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EATEN BY ZOMBIES – First Play!
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When the MODERN ART table completed their game, it’s time for Kareem to bring out the most anticipated game for today – EATEN BY ZOMBIES – a game still in Kickstarter phase but due to his pre-order, Kareem already has an early copy to playtest. A numbered and autographed copy I’ve to add. 😛
Kareem explaining the rules of EbZ to the group with aanemesis joining them in their hunt for zombies.
Note: The flowing long hair is not from a zombie… LOL
How did the game go? Overwhelming it seems… You always get the constant pressure of having the zombies horde chasing after you relentlessly… Eh? I thot the game was about hunting zombies? Oh.. Wrong game.. That was Zombies 2nd Ed (below)!! LOL
In the Eaten by Zombies game, I was told it works the other way around. The zombies hordes are DANGEROUS and they keep growing and keep coming after you. You basically dun bother to stay-n-fight. Just run! Especially when you see the football player zombie (see below) who comes after you at fantastic speed!
Jeremy (below) desperately playing his hands trying to see if he can escape from the relentless horde!
Did someone survive? I thought Jeremy survived the last chase – or did he succumbed too?
Here’s a nice picture for posterity… all these people mostly ended up as zombies food in the First Play of EATEN BY ZOMBIES @ OTK Cheras! LOL.
Thanks Kareem for bringing this brand new game to the table! This is a Kickstarter game that’s being promoted in our BGC Marketplace forum. To make pledges for other Kickstarter games, pls visit our forum for more details.
Dun just stand and stared at the Kickstarter Wall… come and join us in pledging to these awesome Kickstarter boardgame projects (visit this link)
The Kickstarter for the Eaten by Zombies game has already closed (19/9) and if you’ve missed it, dun worry as BGC will be bringing in regular copies for retail sales later but you dun get all the goodies & promo stuff from the Kickstarter project. J
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HAVOC, THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR
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This is an OOP (out of print) card game that’s seeing some buzz recently at OTK. Published then by Sunriver, and in low quantity volume the game quickly sold out it’s first print and even though they did a 2nd print, that didn’t last too long. With such brisk sales you would think they’ll reprint this game but for some reasons, that didn’t happened.
We managed to get ourselves a couple of copies for this game while it was widely available and today, it stands as one of the best poker-variant card game to bring out when you’ve a table of 5 or 6.
The Sg Long Weiqi gamers – who are mostly poker fans as well – love this game especially Dennis. This is Ho’s first play of the game so I won’t know what’s his feedback yet.
This guy (above) definitely luv the game.. He was calling HAVOC so often that Dennis, who sits to his left was so infruriated by his tactics! LOL
Norman with a strong hand of Full House. The thing is you’ve limited cards… but there are so many battles to fight (see below) which brings out the bluffing element of poker at its delicious best.
Do you all want a HAVOC competition? 😛
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TOC TOC WOODMAN
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When we were approached to publish this game for local distribution, we were hesitant at first. Looks kiddie. We were wrong. The game is FUN!! We are glad we participated. We have just got some early preview copies and have distributed them to our local retailer stores.. and initial feedback were all positive. So much so we decided to go a special promo of Rm42 on this game for our opening day!
Let me just share with you pictures of our gamers enjoying Toc Toc Woodman!
Caleb studying the “tree” before axing it!
This is actually a very well “axed” tree… the cores are basically intact! Not an easy job as I’ve seen some lumbering gamers whacked the core together with the barks (each core knocked down cost you -5 pts). Such a lack of finesse.
Silvia checking how the cores are balanced before whacking her axe into the tree…
You can buy this game from us or our retail stores at the special promo price of Rm75! (normal retail Rm95).
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TROYES
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With TROYES being out of stock at Zman’s level and the whole world waiting for the reprint, this game is always asked for the tables at OTK.
And whom better to school you in TROYES than the reigning Malaysia (and soon to be World) Champion, in the orange corner… laaaadies and gentlemen, wearing the unmistakable Troyes cap… our very own (drum-roll….) AAAA L L E N S A M (cue: screaming gals noise) or more popularly known in the Troyes arena as B L O W N … F R EA K S!!! (cue: gals fainting)
Actually not “Champion” la, more like “Top Ranked Msian Player” in BoardgameArena but since we haven’t organize local TROYES tournament yet, he can be Champion for now la…
Hmm… okie. Allen lost this game. Nvm.. All champions also lose one in a while. It’s okay, this session not counted in Boardgamearena.com.
Kareem also brought this to the table again when Nurul arrived. They did a 3-player session with Norman.
HAPPY FACES when Troyes on the table. 🙂
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1889 SHIKOKU (JAPAN)
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The 18xx game has been a distinctive feature of OTK Cheras meetups. At OTK, not only will you find many willing gamers to do an 18xx session, we also have a rather good collection of 18xx titles in our library for you to explore.
Even way back in 2007 when we first hosted our Friday Meetups at Old Town, we have started dipping our toes into the 18xx game system.
The Group of Five who did 18GA in our first Friday OTK meetup back in January 2007
I was pleasantly surprised to see one of the gamers in the session above – Alan Tan – dropping by at our opening today! Haven’t seen him for a while. Without questions asked, he was pulled straight into our 1889 session. He veteran ma. J
CK going thru the rules of 18xx with Peter, Alan (not in picture), Ang and Teddy
The 1889 Shikoku map, relatively small compared to the larger 18xx series like 1856 & 1870. The smaller map size allows this game to finish in 2-3 hours. The unique feature of this map is the high terrain cost that a train company has to pay when laying tracks across those mountainous regions.
Three early companies floated by Ang, Peter and CK – all of them in the lower par value bracket except Peter who floated his at mid par-value of Y80.
Peter shocked at the work of “incompetent engineers” at Shikoku! 😛
Teddy (middle) & Alan have remained largely passive investors, trying to observe and decide which companies best to invest in. Teddy did get in the railway operation business late in the game by starting Sanuki Railroad while Alan remained a passive investor till the end. How did they fare comparatively?
Ang giving me the “look” just before he started his 2nd railway company, the Tosaden Railroad.
The Tosaden shares were subsequently thrashed (I wonder who ler? hehe) before it even floated… Am sure Ang has learned a useful lesson/skill here. 😛
The companies were building around the expensive mountain hexes even though there’s one private which would have allowed laying of track for free through the mountains.
CK started Awa (red) as his second railroad to leverage on the work done by his first company Uwajima.
It was deja-vu when Ang tried to dump his Iyo company to Alan and realized he can’t do so due to the HS50SU technicality which was what happened back in 2007 to Marcus (friedrice) when he also tried to dump a railway company in the 18GA game above to Henry. See this post.
HS50SU = Hot Sun 50% Screw Up.
Investor Alan Tan’s portfolio (top). I love that guys’ faith in both my railway companies (red and brown)! Everyone should learn from this guy. Tsk tsk tsk.
Everyone getting antsy (gan-chiong) as the game moved towards it’s finale.. except Ang. LOL
The final railway network with six of the seven companies in play.
And the final stock exchange position for the six listed public railway companies. Uwajima’s share value which is double that of its closest competitor shooed it’s investors in for a good win.
Let’s look at the result table below. In terms of cash, all those who were actively running a company were on par cashwise (Peter, Teddy, Ang, CK). The passive investor Alan did the worst here. So what does this say about being a passive investor in an 18xx game? It sucks. 😛
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Name
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Cash
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Shares
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Total
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Peter
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1791
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1635
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3426
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Teddy
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2039
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1640
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3679
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Ang
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1998
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1835
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3833
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CK
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2078
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2935
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5013
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Alan
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1587
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2000
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3587
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The key differentiator here was Uwajima’s current market value, which at Y315 is almost double that of the closest competitor the Awa at Y175. Unfortunately the Awa was Uwajima’s sister company and since a common shareholder owns majority in both, the game was lost for the others.
Incidentally Alan as passive investor has the 2nd highest net worth in terms of share value with his strategic investments in both Uwajima and Awa but his cash-in-hand let him down.
To pick up other useful pointers for 1889 Shikoku, refer to a post I wrote about 4 yrs back when we first played this map courtesy of CE’s copy at Mage Cafe – click here to read.
This map is good for 4-player as a learning game, tough for 5-player and absolutely brutal as a 6-player game.
If you are keen to learn how to play this 18xx system, feel free to drop by any of our Friday Meetups! We think 18xx is the best business game par none (the only downside is the length of playing time) and with no-luck in the game, it’s the best heavy strategy / investment game.
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OTHERS – CARGO NOIR, BLOKUS, PANDEMIC, WARHAMMER INVASION, SAMURAI, GLORY TO ROME. HAVANA
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Many other games were brought to the table in our 19-hr long gaming…. here’s a quick look at some of them.
CARGO NOIR was taught by Kareem to this group… more smugglers!
Classic BLOKUS was also seen.
BGC’s copy of SURVIVE finally saw some action with Ang and CK scheming to kill each other’s people before they can escape from the island!
Peter teaching SAMURAI to another group of gamers (below). Peter’s returning to Hungary next week. It’s been fabulous having Peter at our meetups and we hope he’d enjoyed the OTK sessions! Hope to see him back in M’sia.
PANDEMIC was in the front table (Zharif’s group) while I was informed GLORY TO COLORFUL ROME was done in the background table with Kareem’s group where Afifter was also seen (his Taipan gaming buddy Leoskyangel was around but didn’t see him join any game).
HAVANA also saw some action.
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TOC TOC WOODMAN – again?
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Another group setting up the table for TOC TOC WOODMAN even though it was already past 1:30 am! What’s sleep when there’s wood to be cut! LOL
Chop wood mesti ada gaya sikit…
… and with some style!
Laughing at other’s misfortunes… how typical. 😛
Actually this group’s not doing this too well… everything got chopped off! You are suppose to leave the core intact. Tsk tsk.
Penuh konsentraksi…
ROME demands wood!
Okie… they are finally getting better at this.. Leaving the cores intact. Practice makes perfect it seems. 🙂
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CAN’T STOP
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A relatively low-profile push-your-luck dice game, this has not seen any play at Old Town tables. Main reason is probably becoz this is a Franjos edition in a bulky carton. But tonite’s the time to bring this to the table again!
Note: The box above is the Face2Face edition and is not the same as the Franjos edition below.
Game is simple. You throw dices in an attempt to move your climbers up 10 possible peaks. The first to reach the summit of three peaks win. It’s at its heart the “Chicken” game where you see who blinks first.
Caleb (left) and Ken went mano-o-mano on this, and Ken was leading so much at one time he kept taunting Caleb explaining how skilful he was in dice throwing!
Caleb rode his luck, didn’t blink and had the last laugh literally when his third climber overtake Ken’s to climb the 3rd – and decisive – peak! A real in-your-face victory.
Ken then went away muttering, “Dice game la.. all luck la.”
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1860 ISLE OF WRIGHT
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While at around the same time… on a different galaxy not too far away from OTK Cheras, another session of 18xx was ongoing.. this time it was the Isle of Wright map. This game is from Zman but I didn’t pull any copy in as I was not sure how good it would be. Looking at the map – and the feedback from the Weiqi group – this is certainly worth another look. J
Check out more photos at Ho (thirdman)’s Facebook album.
CK with Ho when he was at the new OTK in the afternoon.
Glad to know the Weiqi group is getting into the 18xx series as that’ll make it much more feasible for us to organize the second 18xx Game Day in M’sia. We did the first one – jointly with Singapore gamers who came all the way to KL – back in 2008 at Mage Cafe. Shall we plan one early next year at OTK Cheras? 😛
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DUNE
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DUNE was the last game to grace the OTK tables for tonight and while we were hoping for a 6-player complement, we had to settle for a 4-player session as some of the gamers had to take their leave, understandably as it was getting close to 3 am.
Four families were in play: Harkonnen (Peter), Guild (Zharif), Emperor (Teddy) and Atreides (CK)
Didn’t take much photo for this DUNE session. But the pivotal moment for this game came in the 2nd, after some fierce fightings between the Peter’s Harkonnen and my Atreides, there was a sweet opening for the Harkonnen to send their troops and attacked two strongholds in the same turn – and should this move pays off, will lead to a swift victory for the Harkonnen.
The first to fall was Arakken when my Atreides, weak from the recent battles were simply not able to withstand the forces of Harkonnen.
The next – and supposedly – last citadels was Teddy’s Emperor stronghold. Peter (black) sent in a huge wave of troops… almost definitely to overwhelm the Emperor’s (red) royal guards…
… but guess what? Peter sent in a Harkonnen leader who has secretly sold himself to the Emperor’s service!!
Ah-hahaha…. Peter, your leader is your traitor.. he’s mine – says Teddy!
This game should have ended at 4 am… but it then turned into a battle of attrition between two allying forces – Peter/Zharif and CK/Teddy – as each side swung at each other hoping to take the 4th stronghold for the win. In the end, at 8:30 am Sat (after almost everyone has been up playing games non-stop for more than 18 hrs) decided to call a truce and split the spices of DUNE.
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A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL WHO GRACED OUR OPENING!
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It has been an amazing night or two… as we had a great start to boardgaming at our (new) OTK Cheras. I’m sure this heralds better boardgaming times to come to OTK Cheras (which in case you forgot, is the name for BGC’s new meetup center at Jalan Lancang). We’ll miss Old Town yet at the same new OTK offers some compelling reasons for us to stay on thru the nite and game!
To those who came and game with us on Fri & Sat – thank you.. it was awesome boardgaming with all of you! To those who bought games from us- thank you for your support (we’ll need that to maintain the new centre) and enjoy the games you bought!
To the rest, thanks for reading this really LONG post (it was a long night anyway) and we hope to see you at OTK Cheras one day!
‘Tis all a chequer board of nights and days,
Where destiny with men for pieces plays;
Hither and thither, and mates, and slays.
~Edward Fitzgerald
Bye for now from everyone at BOARDGAMECAFE.NET
AN UPDATE: If you have been contemplating making a visit to our OTK Cheras, here’s one good reason for you to do so… our OTK First Visit Promo (20% discount!). Details here.
RELATED LINKS
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For more boardgaming reports, visit our Boardgamecafe.net Blog.
To discuss this gaming session, join us in our Facebook Page.
To buy the games played in this meetup, please visit our Web Store.
To view a listing of all games in stock, please visit our (blog) Webstore Listing page.
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Categories: Boardgamecafe.net, Meetup, Meetup Cheras
Boardgamecafe.net 
good long post! LIKE!
the name confusion will probably continue for some time… i’m very tempted to call the new place OTaK Cheras. 😀 afterall we’re playing mind games. hopefully we don’t get any Ong Tee Keat supporters mistaking us for something else.
i’m interested in mind muscle / boardgamekids. after all these years working in the corporate world, i have been thinking of whether i should try to do something different. will chat with you and wai yan about this when i have the chance.
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Congrats on your opening and finally having your own place!
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wow great post! congrats on the opening of OTK Cheras! 😀
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I like the OTaK Cheras idea. Perhaps let’s think of some cool names that OTK can stand for and vote for the name!
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haha.. yeah the word “OTAK” did cross my mind when I was thinking of using OTK as our venue name. Would luv to have you onboard for boardgamekids. Let’s discuss that over a cup of coffee/tea at Papa Rich (no point talking on Fri Meetups since that’s when we shud be playing games) 😛
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“But since we are moving into a new place, might as well set up a nice corner to display our merchandise. Am sure it’ll lure some impulse buys from gamers but that was not really our *cough* agenda. Honest! ;)”
Impulse buys was definitely what happened =P! Great job on the opening CK =D! Absolutely fantastic!
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I tried Heng’s challenge, but couldn’t come up with anything nice. Over The Kill? Of The Kingdom? Oust The King? Only The Kaput? Open Till Konk? Open Table K…. something… Koyak?…. now my brain is koyak
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Posted details on the OTK First Visit Promo. Check it out if this is the first time you are dropping into OTK Cheras for gaming!
http://blog.boardgamecafe.net/2011/09/23/otk-first-visit-promo-get-20-off-all-games/
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haha… join in the fun. Old TIme Kawans, Odd Time Kawans, Odd Time Kakis, Over The Kencheong,……. giler…
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