GAME TWO took the gamers from exotic unknown ALIEN FRONTIERS to the riches of VEGAS, then  exciting treasure hunting in TOBAGO, the adrenalin rush of smuggling contraband to MACAO and then back to the wonders of MARS.

 

 

The previous sessrep ended with the conclusion of the first semi-competitive game of the Retreat (ie Game One), light and easy-to-get-into type of games to get everyone started. We stepped up a gear in Game Two with Alien Frontiers, Lords of Vegas, Tobago, Cargo Noir and Mission Red Planet.

 

 

The games selected, while a step up in complexity from the previous round, are essentially centered around a push-your-luck theme and are perfect to set the tone before we move the gamers into the more complex Game Three.

 

Table	Game Title	P1	P2	P3	P4
1st	Alien Frontiers	junyet	nurul	bgc waiyan	teddy
2nd	Lords of Vegas	lee ching	sk wong	emil	jacelyn
3rd	Tobago	ken yen	bk woo	kareem	swee wan
4th	Cargo Noir	jonathan	lc wong	lester	daren
5th	Mission Red Planet	azmir	lee peng	janette	jun keat

 

 

 

 

This is the much anticipated game from a relatively new publisher Clever Mojo Games, and while our stocks for this game are delayed (until end June earliest), we do have a playset (courtesy of Allen Sam) and everytime we brought this to the table (usually in our OTK Friday Meetup), everyone has nothing but positive feedback for it. Let’s hope Clever Mojo keep up the good work with their upcoming releases !

 

 

It features a very good looking game board (and not unlike Mission Red Planet‘s board, another game also coincidentally being played in the same round) which I think helps to add to its appeal.

 

 

While Ainul represented BGC in the earlier rounds – and won at Table 2! – this time BGC was represented by Waiyan. Obviously regardless of how well the BGC players do at their respective tables, they’ll earn points but they won’t qualify to win any prizes therefore our presence in the tables were merely to “randomize” proceedings. Hehe.

 

 

The game uses a similar mechanic as Kingsburg in allocating your dice – and you do get to roll a good number of dice in this game. Because of the unique allocation mechanic and the ample opportunities to “spend” your dice, you usually do not feel a bad dice roll.

 

In fact sometimes there’s just a wee bit too many options for your dice roll, it can induce (gasp) analysis paralysis! Should I send the dice to the Alien Artifact hub to get an alien tech card, or should I mine some ore, or maybe I should just throw them all into the Colonist Hub and move my spaceship along….

 

 

This game was won by Junyet followed closely by Teddy (right). It has won another new convert, someone who confessed that she normally does not fancy sci-if or dice games. But Nurul (left) fell in love with this game after just one play… and I bet she’ll be reserving one copy of this for herself when our stocks arrive here end of this month. 🙂

 

 

 

Table 2 takes you to VEGAS or rather the STRIP before it was turned into the glitzy casino-land it is today. Players arrive here on the Strip to hopefully turn their early bird status into tons of moolah… you get to buy parcels of empty (and mostly barren) land, turn them into casinos. Small lots at first… then merging with your neighbours (or when terms are not agreeable, there’s always the “expansion” approach).

 

 

Two gents – Wong and Emil – and two ladies – Jacelyn and Lee Ching – hustled & jostled to see who shall end up as the LORD OF VEGAS.

 

 

The theme of VEGAS runs strong.. and luck – whether you embrace or reject it – will play a large part in your destiny in the Strip. So reject the luck of the roll at your peril.

 

 

The gents did all they could….

 

 

.. but they could not beat Lady Luck’s cold piercing stare… and in the high stake game of you blink you die, they succumbed to the Ladies of Vegas (Lee Ching & Jacelyn) who shall take their casino fortunes and compete next with Henry Ford in the automobile industry.

 

 

 

The theme of luck, discovery and adventure drove this round. This time there’s no dice but luck still abound as four adventurers hopped around the island of Tobago in their MPVs looking for the buried treasures rumoured to be in abundance… yet cursed!

 

 

 

This game seems to attract a international cast with Kareem (left-most) and Swee Wan (right-most) having returned from their respective jaunts in China while Ken and BK just arrived from Egypt (Mykerinos).

 

 

In this game, each player lays down a clue card on their turn, which eliminated and narrowed down the location of the treasure spots as they drove their MPVs around frantically trying to be the first to arrive at the hidden spot to uncover the gold.

 

 

There’s an element of “chicken run” here as some of the treasures are cursed and you do not want to be burdened with the bad karma of digging up such accursed items.

 

 

Whenever I went near this table, Ken always grumbled to me he’s doing not so well and would be losing this badly. He was probably unruffled by watching the others digged up large amount of gold compared to his.

 

Ken (right) to Kareem: Ooi… I helped you dig, I dun get anything ar?

 

While Kareem (left) eventually emerged victorious (and he did win by a large margin), Ken was likely as surprised as the others to find the other three was separated by just 1 point each (ie Swee Wan has 32 to Ken’s 30 pts). That’s a very very close score – and in fact Swee Wan scored a 6-pt card in literally the last dug of the game which probably tipped her over to 2nd.

 

The gold of Africa and spices of Nagasaki await Kareem & Swee Wan, while Ken and BK went on to become… moon priestess??? 😛

 

 

 

The far flung frontiers of space. The gambling riches of Vegas. And the lost treasures of Tobago. What next? Smuggling contraband in the black markets of Macao?

 

 

That’s where Daren and Lester found themselves as a reward for winning the O Zoo Director awards of Le Mio. They were joined by LC Wong and Jonathan, both still complaining about the firemen of Speicherstadt not doing enough to save their warehouses from burning down.

 

 

In Cargo Noir, you need not play fair. Or at least I’ve yet to see smugglers playing by the books when it comes to milking out a profit.

 

 

The rules in Cargo Noir is simple. If you are successful and made tons of money, no one remembers your past. Else you are just nothing but a low-rate scum trying to be a smart-ass smuggler. 😛

 

 

The two most unscrupulous smugglers eh.. sorry I mean, well-respected businessmen – Daren & Lester – who have contributed much to the growth of Macao and it’s trading ports, went on to form internationally recognized Hansa (trading leagues).

 

Jonathan and LC? No one remembered what happened to them. Tsk tsk.

 

 

 

With a box cover that screams steam punk, this game can’t help but attract the looks. It’s game board probably inspired Alien Frontiers, and…

 

 

… it’s selection of roles mechanic (for your astronauts) reminds one of Citadels.

 

 

Not surprisingly this is a game from Bruno & Bruno (so expect some chaos) about exploring & colonizing Mars.

 

 

Rockets ready to take you to the moon… no, I mean MARS.

 

 

Janette planning her round-the-universe-trip to MARS

 

 

Lee Peng (left) was the runners-up for this round and together with Junkeat (not in pic), they moved up to Table 4 for the next game session.

 

More photos for GAME TWO

 

 

 

Scorecard after Game Two. Scores in the 3rd number (red).

 

For the final game of Day One, we’ve (in our opinion) one of the best Euro game last year AUTOMOBILE sharing the stage with the equally highly rated NAVEGADOR and HANSA TEUTONICA. Be back soon for Game Three of Day One (read sessrep here).

 

     

 

BGC Boardgame Retreat 2011 Announcement (click here)

BGC Boardgame Retreat 2011 Photo Albums – Game Zero, Game One, Game Two

BGC Boardgame Retreat 2011 Sesseps – Part 1, Part 2 (this report), Part 3