KL BOARDGAMES MEETUP REPORT @ BOARDGAMECAFE.NET CHERAS
8/7/07
by ayheng & jack208
PRELUDE: YUMCHA @ OLD TOWN KOPITIAM
reported by jack208 |
It's our usual Friday Meetup at the Cheras area which we've been doing
regularly for the past few months just that I've been busy and haven't been
diligently updating this blog with meetup reports and photos.
We started off with yum-cha and chit-chat session at Old Town Kopitiam. I was
there having dinner with another buddy of mine (Koh) to do some catching up.
OTK's White Coffee is always a good companion to chit-chat with.
LostBoyz was the first gamer to drop in.... looking a bit lost (hehe)
as he was scouting OTK 1st Floor looking for signs of any gaming activities. He
joined us and chit-chat while having his curry chicken rice dinner.
Koh left, Heng arrived. Dinner for Heng while we changed topics to (what
else) boardgames.... Surprisingly when Koh was around, we were actually talking
about Xbox gaming; Xbox Live, Second Life, WOW all crept into the conversation.
Last night's session was a rousing success, guanranteed by
Boardgamecafe.net's three stooges:
namely Jedi Council jack208, Jedi Knight ayheng and Jedi Padawan-Knight-to-be-coming-soon
lostboyz.
The session was dealt a terrible blow early on as people started dropping out
like flies and ayheng was delayed by urgent work. lostboyz and jack208 soldiered
on at 8pm at OTK with a starting meal.
9pm and an urgent message was sent out: where are you? ayheng finally made it to
OTK and the three power figures started discussing the serious business of the (boardgaming)
FORCE. (yeah well, we talked mostly about upcoming and favourite releases while
I ate my curry chicken rice dinner).
10pm thereabouts we adjourned to BGC and enticed laiwah to a game of Formula De!
This fun racing game uses dice in a creative way, namely, you get a
progressively better dice with higher numbers as you shift gears up, until you
are in a lean-mean-unstoppable racing machine flying down the straight at gear
5! (of course, that is before you realize the wicked corners that are coming up
and you burn rubber and metal to slow down frantically)
Laiwah and Ayheng discussing the La Rascasse corner.
Each player got 2 cars and as a result, there were 8 cars racing on the
board. This game amazingly can handle 5 players with 2 cars each, or 10 players
with one car each! A good game to have for the occasion of having 8+ players.
Lots of reckless drivers abound as the newbie racers went neck to neck into the
corners, scratching paintjobs and occasionally, doing damage to their own
bodywork. In a car that's designed for two races, some of the
(shall-not-be-unnamed-to-protect-their-identity) players limped past the
chequered flag in the first lap with a badly damaged car.
[jack208] Lostboyz's Williams (blue) zooming past
jack208's Ferrari (red)
in the final straight when Lostboyz threw a 20 in 5th
Gear! jack208's Ferrari
was actually almost a total wreck; having gone into
corners aggressively and
"bumped" into a few too many cars. :P
The corner mechanics are pretty neat as it forces the racers to stop a requisite
number of times in the corners in a low gear before shifting up for the exit.
The lane changing mechanic is also quite inspired as it often creates a
situation where the front driver can benefit from an open lane to change lanes
according to how fast his car is going. Whereas the back driver will find
himself putting the brakes on his car when confronted by the blocking maneuver
of the front car. Definitely a game to play for the experience of car racing.
[jack208] The two leading teams - Renault
(yellow) and Williams (blue)
attempting to block off the corner from the
incoming pack.
The game comes with two tracks and lots of expansion tracks to bid on e-bay. The
tracks that came with the game are quite good as it features the technically
demanding
Monaco circuit and the (comparatively) more relaxed Holland circuit.
The game's a bit longish as it took the 4 of us about 2 hours to finish 1 lap.
The rules are not particularly tough and the main strategy is in trying to get
out of a corner fast enough to outrun the rest.
In our game, lostboyz's first car on the starting grid ended up finishing second
last due to his prudent taking of the corners while his last car ended up
finishing first due to his risk taking on going into the corners. jack208 also
did well with one of his cars, showing us how to go into a corner fast and then
take a minor fuel penalty to fast-downthrottle rapidly. I did okay with both my
cars finishing consistently in the middle. laiwah took too many a safe approach
and was thus left in the dust by other maniac pedal-to-the-metal drivers.
Although, to be on the fair side, she would have won if we did two laps like we
originally promised to.
The race result for 070608 Monaco
Jack208's comment on
the BGC Monaco race.
This was a 1st race for
everyone (except me who had done a 2-lap race on Monaco a couple weeks
back). We initially decided to do a 2-lap race so that we can use
pitstop as part of our strategy. In the end, as the cars were limping
towards the end of Lap 1 we decided it's better to just end the race
there as.... i) this is a learning game and hence a 1-lap race is
equally satisfying, and ii) a few of our cars probably won't make it
till end of Lap 2. hehe..... |
 |
Obviously this kinda messed up the plans of those who were driving a little bit
prudently as a 2-lap strategy (eg. laiwah's Honda) since they'll likely not be
in the lead coming into the end of Lap 1, as compared to those reckless drivers
who burn tyres like there's no tomorrow and scrapping each other's bodywork off
by driving too close to one another.
The Mirabeau corner and the subsequent Loews Hairpin turn is the first test
for budding F1 drivers.
We did a 4 team race on the Monaco track with each team having 2 cars. The
roster of F1 cars and their managers.
- Williams (blue), manager: lostboyz
- Renault (yellow), manager: ayheng
- Honda (green), manager: laiwah
- Ferrari (red), manager: jack208
The Monaco track
is a slow and tight track. You hardly get to test your car in 6th gear and
there's only a couple of long straights where you get to zoom into 5th. But if
you get into those long straights not at 5th gear then you'll likely lose
ground. Therefore the ability to get into corners fast and sharp so that you can
exit at speed would be key in determining how well you do in this track.
The Mirabeau Corner is often the first key - and in
the first lap, it can be deadly as most cars would bunch in to this corner at
the same time making it very congested. After Mirabeau you get a short straight
and immediately you'll be confronted with the 180º
Loews Hairpin turn. It's not uncommon to see cars
dragging thru this in 1st Gear.
The Loews turn is also where blocking tactics can be employed to fend off the
chasing pack. In the picture above, the two leading teams (Renault and Williams)
were closing off the Loews turn to prevent the chasing pack from overtaking
them.
The Ferrari managed to squirm itself into a good
position between the
Renaults and Williams, coming into the Portier
double-corners.
However fortune favors the bold and aggressive. If you can maneuver the Loews
Hairpin and gain a good position coming out of the turn and into the Portier
sharp-right, you stand a chance to open a gap with the chasing pack (or catch-up
with the leading cars).
In another race also at Monaco (Landak Gamers), another driver did a very
aggressive but sharp turn into this section and not only caught up with the pole
leader, but overtook him as he sped out of the Portier turn into the tunnel
straight....... he went on to win the race. Obviously if he mistimed his
corners, he would end up a total wreck!
The leading cars once out of the Portier corners,
speeding off in high gear
while the chasing pack is still navigating the double
right-handers.
However Ferrari's aggressive driving in the Mirabeau-Loews-Portier section was
not without cost as it sustained some bodywork damage due to minor collisions
with the other cars as everyone jostled for position in those tight corners.
The cars speeding past the Piscine "S". You can see the
swimming pool in
the middle of the photo.
Renault were driving a hard race with both their cars in the leading pack.
Williams obviously still has one of its car in the lead while Ferrari managed to
insert one of its among the leaders. Honda was driving more prudently obviously
planning to go the distance in the 2nd lap.
After Piscine is a very tight 180º right-hander
named the Rascasse Corner. The corner looks rather
"harmless" and "easy" but appearance can be deceiving. This is the corner that
can win (or lose) you the race especially since it's just one more corner away
from the final straight (grandstand).
Cars speeding into the tight La Rascasse corner which
is a 180º-turner.
In this race, Renault was in pole heading into the Rascasse with Ferrari and
Williams closing the gap. A combination of aggressive (and some said reckless)
driving and sharp positioning allowed the Williams (blue-white) to close the gap
and overtake the Renault (yellow-blue).
LostBoyz (right), team manager for Williams (blue)
pondering on his next
move as he watched his leading Williams car being
overtaken by a reckless
Ferrari in the Rascasse Corner.
Ferrari (red-yellow) taking advantage of a slight hesitation from Williams then
cut across the corner and claimed pole for the first time in this race, coming
out of the Rascasse. Thus in the blink of a corner, Renault has dropped from
pole to third position. This is the importance of taking the Rascasse well.
In another incident from the Landak Gamers race, the driver who was in 3rd
position coming into the Rascasse Corner for the final lap, with the 4th placed
driver in hot pursuit, attempted to take this corner too fast, spun and can only
watched while his pursuer sped past him to a podium finish (3rd).
So neglect the Rascasse at your own peril.
Even tho' Ferrari did well to grab pole from Williams in the Rascasse, the
Williams driver were not to be denied this victory! He floored the accelerator
(rolled 20 in 5th Gear!) and raced neck-to-neck with the Ferrari in the final
straight, piping Ferrari to the chequered flag by a nose-length.
Note: Oh, by then we'd decided to change this race into a single-lap
race. Therefore the results don't really matter as we took this as a learning
game for everyone. As Heng mentioned in his report (see above), Honda would have
done better if we did complete this as a 2-lap race.
Williams taking the chequered flag. Ferrari lost by a
nose-length while
Renault took the last podium finish.
MONACO STATISTICS
- 18 corners (15 marked corners in the Formula De track)
- 3.34 km in real distance (1+ hr per lap in Formula De time)
FORMULA DE LEAGUE
On the following day, the gamers at Mage Cafe also brought this game to the
table and did the Zandvoort (Holland) track. They enjoyed this game so much we
are planning to do a Formula De Championship which would cover a few different
tracks such as Sepang, Shanghai, Suzuka, Imola, Buenos Aires, etc. Points will
be scored for Drivers and Constructors. If you are interested to take part in
our Championship,
sign-up at
this thread.
NOTE: For those wishing to
buy this game,
sadly it is already OOP (out-of-print) and also out-of-stock with us. The last
(and final) reprint from Asmodee has now been sold out. You may scan eBay for
listings but do expect to pay a lot for those listed there.
One game down, one more to go. Round 2 started at 12am with jack208
explaining the rules of Wallenstein to ayheng and lostboyz.
rhyen temporarily got the boyz' hopes up by declaring that he was making his way
from Mages to Boardgamecafe. Which however he did not turn up. And so we settle
into a three player game.
The game's of area-control game with some wargaming elements settled by the
infamous cube-tower! How it works is like this: you take your army cubes, you
take your opponents army cubes, shake it up in your hand and throw them into the
cube tower! some cubes will get stuck, and other cubes got stuck there before
might come unstuck! So what happens is an interesting result which favors the
person with the more cubes... MOST of the TIME. Not always. Sometimes your cube
just don't want to drop out.
Cube towers aside, there's some planning to be had each round which seriously
causes some mind-f*** going on. Players start guessing and second guessing other
people's actions. As all actions are put down first and then revealed
simultaneously, this will cause some serious screwage to happen as players' plan
are thrown into wreck by unforeseen moves. Glorious!
[jack208] The Action Cards that determine the
sequence those actions will
be executed. Players plan their actions for each
season based on this sequence.
jack208 seems to get the strategy on this one as he finishes a respectable 2nd
after losing precious points in the first year to a peasant riot. Myself did
badly as I didn't manage to get building majority on many provinces. lostboyz
with his devil-may-care attitude went on a province grabbing spree managed to
finish first as he was able to put down his rioting-starving-peasants. Nice
game.
[jack208] LostBoyz (blue) seems to be heading for a
major peasants' revolt
during Winter coz his provinces haven't been producing
any grain!
Note: Wallenstein is already an OOP game. However it has recently
been republished as Shogun; fully English edition, improved
game board with scoring track, and some enhancement to the rules. You can
get Shogun here.
The night finishes with more talk and finally a lite game of The Downfall of Pompeii
to intro to lostboyz. This game is very lite and is right up 'litegamer'
lostboyz' alley. Another satisfied tossing-meeples-into-da-burning-volcano
customer.
Woo hoo! three games in a nite, we finished at 4-ish. Highlight for me tonite
was Formula DE. But I don't recommend anyone to get it because I WANT IT (wait
till my next budget, sigh).
The above report is also published in
Heng's Gaming Blog.
Click here for more photos of this gaming session.
For more gaming reports, visit our
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