wow.... super monster report!!! thanks!!!

guess we wait for wolfx to report on the games he played that was not in heng's report... chang cheng, blue moon city, red planet, etc. they also played some games together like antler island, etc.

errr, must find a better way to teach rules... put it on a video clip next year! by the time i taught the 10th game, i couldn't tell the difference between meeples and druids (ask ken)! ha2!

my apologies for the rule errors, but as they say - all is fair when all play the same wrong rules! hehe...

ok, here's my take on the games (bar those i still haven't played - blue moon city, container):

my favorite (yea, like it means anything these days, since blokus is my favorite game!) - king of siam!!! it has the concept of liberte where you have to pick a faction to run with. it plays sooo fast (30-40 mins). it is sooo tense (man, you only have 8 moves and there are 8 provinces to fight for, with no limit to the number of cards you can play to resolve each province!). IT HAS KEDAH/MALAYSIA ON THE MAP!!! yeehah!

great games for newbies/families - zooloretto (no wonder it won the games of the year), chang cheng (might be this year's game of the year), krumble. i'm excluding the light stuff which is of course suitable for newbies. woflx will probably write abot chang cheng, so here's something about the noisy game...

krumble will instantly appeal to anyone who's seen indianna jones & the temple of doom! up to 6 explorers start in level 1 of a temple, with the sole objective of running as fast as you can and finding the exit! each room you enter costs you certain points - either knowledge, strength or agility (you start with 6 of each, which is the max). when you run low on points, you can rest to regain some - however, the saying "standing still is actually falling behind" is so true here as it could cost you your life if the temple crumbles during your moment of rest! throughout the game, portions of the temple will crumble (level 1, then 2, then 3...), and if your explorer is caught, he/she turns into a ghost! no player elimination, but more fun.. and yes, mega revenge! since you are likely to get caught in the lower levels due to your other explorers throwing obstacles at you, the case of how the ghost comes back to haunt you is oh, so true in this game! once a ghost, your sole objective is to hunt the other living explorers still left in the temple and "suck the life out of them", by draining their points! the game ends when there are no more living explorers left in the temple, and the one with the most life points (all three combined) wins. in the event of a tie, the living explorer wins (ha2)! tons of fun, tension every turn, but light enough for newbies to enjoy!

light stuff - great for fillers - can't stop and uptown. the first is classic push your luck game. good warm up for a night out in genting! the second has the addictiveness of blokus, as you have to clear all (but 4) of your tiles while trying to keep as many, if not all of them, connected in a single group. the winner is the one with the least number of groups (eg. 2 single, unconnected tiles = 2 groups).

brain burners - die dolmengotter. a game about celtic druids and their ritual of forming circles with stones to place dolmens as offerings to their gods. those that make the best offerings shall have the favor the the gods. i would call this a brain burning abstract where the simple part is using your 3 druids to move around to place stones and dolmens in strategic areas. the really tough part is that this is technically a game of majorities... meaning that you cannot place a dolmen if you complete a circle by yourself. so players are forced to compete with others, and hope to be the majority. druids get to place a dolmen at the top of the stack (players have dolmens of various values) each time they gain a majority, and at the bottom of the stack if they equalize an existing majority. thus, the position of dolmens constantly change during the game. which in trun affects the scoring as the higher placed dolmens score more. it plays under an hour and i recommend this for anyone looking for a brain workout!

for euro gamers - darjeeling, arkadia, stonehenge, red planet, antler island, hameln, haste bock, space dealer, etc. of these, red planet stonehenge and antler is probably more suitable for newbies than the others. bear in mind, we only played one (of 5) games within stonehenge - the one by richard garfield - and i liked it.

in this game, magicians compete using the power of their spells (which have different strengths depending on whether it is day or night!) and bluff, to send their apprentices to collect the necessary ingredients, that then allows the magician to raise the majestic stones. i guess this is the first euro game to follow the old "four-in-one" gamesets found in toyshops...

i liked arkadia & darjeeling a lot - no/little luck, beautiful bits, plays within 1-1.5 hours - so i would put them as something heavy gamers might enjoy.

space dealer on the other hand, is simply one-of-a-kind! first time players (no matter how experienced) will be totally overwhelmed as you are playing against time and having to plan your next moves while the sandtimers are counting down (read= 1 minute of thinking time, each time!). it is a lot of fun though!

for heavy gamers - container? have to ask heng on this. from what i hear, its a not-much-room for error type game. but unfortunately, the heavier games either didnt arrive (cuba, hamburgum) or didnt get played (siena).

as for agricola, i don't quite know where to place this, but let's just say that i am playtesting this today, and the first group that will be playing this on saturday/whenever, will be heng-wolfx-lili-ew-shaun!

Wah u guys gonna be playtesting agricola today? I want! Where? I'm on leave after all.

 

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Long live the emperor of man!

forgot to mention...

1. all participants got to buy all the games featured, including those yet to arrive, at 50% off retail price... not for re-sale of course ;-)

2. 1st play of agricola, cuba & hamburgum exclusively for participants (who are in town)...

CE: Thanks, I also wanted to try Agricola, but I rather play later with clarified rules than doing it wrong. Container really caught on with my fiancee for some reason. You can probably give the game a spin. I can give the rules explanation if you want.
King of Siam is more of an abstract game, despite it being released by Histogames, makers of Bonaparte et Marengo and Napoleon's Triumph. However, the theme is rather fitting for the game mechanics in that the King of Siam plays off the various factions against each other to retain its sovereignity.There are historical notes that came with the game but I didn't manage to find time to read it.

Dave: thanks! try out Container with CE, it is different so you can't approach the game with a eurogame mentality.

Aanemesis: You're welcome. I played before Die Saulen De Erde, so no big loss, but I feel for the others :P BTW, I like my proverbs the way it is. If i would change it, I would put "Hendak seribu daya, enggan seratus ribu dalih..." :P

macedwin: So Agricola this Sat? Gotta bring my fiancee, I think she's temporarily addicted.

ayheng:

Ah... now I und why in another sessrep on Mage, someone commented aanemesis was snickering all the time while playing Antler's Island. You all must have been showing him too much of the stag's backside (see above pic).

 

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CK Au (jack208)
Boardgame Meetup photos at Flickr
Angkor Wat blog

ayheng:

macedwin: So Agricola this Sat? Gotta bring my fiancee, I think she's temporarily addicted.

macedwin invites you ayheng to a game of Agricola play testing at his place this Friday. In or not?

 

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Long live the emperor of man!

ayheng:

Container really caught on with my fiancee for some reason. You can probably give the game a spin. I can give the rules explanation if you want.

Dave: thanks! try out Container with CE, it is different so you can't approach the game with a eurogame mentality.

Hengy, thanks. Do you know who has an open Container? Unless Macedwin kindly provides his demo copy for us to try. Dave and I were talking about the game yesterday. We reeeeally wanna try it.

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Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something. ~ Plato

Blog: http://ofgamesandotherfings.blogspot.com/

got demo copy but its going to the new toybox first.

No probs. Got to visit the new toybox to have a look anyways.
Thanks.

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Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something. ~ Plato

Blog: http://ofgamesandotherfings.blogspot.com/

oh, forgot to add. just updated my post with pictures from wolfx. now it reeally is monster post

wolfx:

ayheng:

macedwin: So Agricola this Sat? Gotta bring my fiancee, I think she's temporarily addicted.

macedwin invites you ayheng to a game of Agricola play testing at his place this Friday. In or not?

 

friday... got OTK or not? how about saturday afternoon?

ayheng:

wolfx:

ayheng:

macedwin: So Agricola this Sat? Gotta bring my fiancee, I think she's temporarily addicted.

macedwin invites you ayheng to a game of Agricola play testing at his place this Friday. In or not?

 

friday... got OTK or not? how about saturday afternoon?

Dunno...seems like Jeff airlines still grounded in Brunei. Besides i rather Agricola than OTK. Mwahah.

Oh btw Saturday afternoon I planning to have TI:3 game @ Mage. You in?

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Long live the emperor of man!

ayheng:

friday... got OTK or not? how about saturday afternoon?

Got.. OTK Fri is onz tis week. Next week is the FHM thingie though.

btw great report, ayheng!

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CK Au (jack208)
Boardgame Meetup photos at Flickr
Angkor Wat blog

Nice pics, Wolfx. Was looking for pics of players playing Container to see if they were enjoying themselves or not.

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Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something. ~ Plato

Blog: http://ofgamesandotherfings.blogspot.com/

Champion Eternal:

Nice pics, Wolfx. Was looking for pics of players playing Container to see if they were enjoying themselves or not.

Sorry...but 2nd day i was having so much fun until I forgotten to take photos. Haha. Sorry.

 

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Long live the emperor of man!