Gamers: Marcus Lau (friedricetheman), Lester, Rob (cunning), Swee Ee, CK Au (jack208), Ainul (aanemesis)

Games: Claustrophobia, Race for the Galaxy, Colosseum and Agricola

Location: Pitstop Section 17, PJ Google Map

Date/Time: 24 July 2010 (Sat) 2.30 PM – 7.00 PM

Boardgamecafe.net Meetup Report @ Pitstop Petaling Jaya 24/7/2010
by aanemesis

Well, it’s been a while since we did the first meetup here, what with the Genting BGC boardgame retreat and other bg activities. So we sent out a rather late shout-out for a bgc meetup here – sorry about the short notice guys. Thanks to those who did turn up to help me get my boardgaming fix (even though didn’t manage to get Homesteaders to the table – next time!) and to those who turned up just to watch – Walter, ayheng, Champion Eternal.

First to hit the table was Claustrophobia, introduced and moderated by friedricetheman, played by newbies Lester and myself. I’d describe it as a “dungeon-crawl lite”. The set-up, rules explanation and gameplay took just over an hour total.

friedricetheman giving a quick rules explanation

And for those who like such things, the game comes with dice and miniatures! It also comes with large tiles, which makes it less fiddly and easy to set up and put away.

Then we were joined by cunning (Rob), and we had a couple of quick Race for the Galaxy games – with the The Gathering Storm expansion extra cards and goals. Then friedricetheman had to take his leave.

Rob trying to figure out why he has 14 cards on his tableau when the rest had barely started...

For R3 Colosseum hit the table and we were joined by Swee Ee for a 4-er. In this game we play Roman show/event producers, at the Colosseum (of course) hoping to have the best events to attract not just the largest crowd …

Colosseum event

….and the nobility, and to make the most money.

Colosseum nobility - good to have at your events

Game is played over 5 rounds, which include bidding for “assets” i.e. performers, animals, props and even ships! Yes, the Colosseum was known to have staged a sea battle – not just coz wikipedia says so, saw this on a TV documentary.

A pile of assets i.e. tiles on the left

Thanks to cunning for a  quick rules explanation and we were soon gathering gladiators, chariots, orators, lions etc for our events. Lester was making the grandest shows and attracting the largest crowd for most of the game.

Lester the supreme event manager!

However, a fortuitious trade I made with Mr cunning for a show asset and “just 3 coins” proved to be the thing needed to help me scrape a win from what would otherwise be a tie.

The tie breaker - 3 coins!

Then Lester had to leave and for R4, jack208 joined in for a 4-er Agricola. Again cunning explained the rules for Swee Ee’s benefit and we were soon building our farms and fretting about feeding the family.

The veteran farmers & the newbie lady farmer

A nice closing to the day’s gaming as Agricola is one of my favourites. By this time Pitstop was filling up with diners and curious onlookers.

Perhaps next time they’ll join in! Till next time guys.

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