GAME FOUR in the 2nd Day brought out all the Super Heroes (and Heroines) as they started with an early morning trek up the treacherous K2 while some battled pirates in JAMAICA and a few were desperately trying to SURVIVE off a sinking island? No, it’s not LOST (TV).

 

 

 

Resuming where we stopped yesterday, everyone had an early breakfast and then proceeded to the gaming hall to continue Day Two where they’ll play & compete over three more games before we close out the Retreat. We tend to start with the “easier” game in the morning as we gather pace towards the afternoon. 😛

 

Boardgamecafe.net would like to thank our members for contributing some of the games in this session – K2 (emil), Jamaica (nurul/azmir), Havana (kareem) and Survive (emil). And of course for teaching the rules of the games to the Retreat gamers.

 

Table	Game Title	P1	P2	P3	P4
1st	K2	jun yet	teddy	kareem	nurul
2nd	Jamaica	jacelyn	lee ching	emil	lester
3rd	Havana	bgc ainul	swee wan	ken yen	lee peng
4th	Cafe International	daren	sk wong	jonathan	lc wong
5th	Survive: Escape from Atlantis	bk woo	junyeat	janette	azmir

 

The line-up of the gamers for GAME #4 are listed above; after a day of competing over various tables.       

 

 

Junyet and Teddy (left) have remained at Table 1 for three sessions now and deservedly in the top pack but Jacelyn and Lester (below) would have something to say about this too. J So let’s see how they fare over Game Four.

 

 

You may want to read Day One’s sessreps (Game 0-1, Game 2, Game 3) if you have missed them.

 

 

 

A game that has been making all the right noises in Europe but hardly here in M’sia because it has not been picked up by a major US distributor (yet) to make it readily accessible here. It’s published by a Polish publisher, Rebel Games and we only has a play copy courtesy of Emil who received it as part of his Secret Santa games. How lucky!

 

 

In this game (which can also be played solo), you are to conquer the peaks of K2, the 2nd highest mountain in the world. It’s not known as the 2nd deadliest for no reason. One out of four climbers who reached the summit will die. That’s a very high 25% hit rate. To put it in better perspective, would you dare sit down in a game where one of the four of you won’t make it out alive? 😛

 

 

Each player directs a team of two mountaineers, who compete with others to scale the peak of K2 within an 18-day period.

 

 

And so we started… with four of the most daring among all the Retreat participants attempting to conquer K2 – and trying to stay alive long enough to win the game! Well, I presume they are “daring” since they managed to remain in Table 1 until now. Tsk tsk.

 

 

Base camp… all’s rosy. Everyone’s spirit is high. Everything also can do!

 

 

The best “climber” in the Retreat, Kareem, who moved up from Table #4 to Table #1 yesterday, now testing all his skills in K2.

 

 

Various cards you can play to help your climbers… movement (with rope) and acclimitize

 

 

Blue’s leading the way up the peak…. however an early lead does not necessarily win you the game as you still need to last the gruelling 18-days.

 

 

The others are just a step behind, waiting for Blue to fall away. At certain altitude, they have to walk one-in-a-file. K2’s too narrow – and dangerous – for the climbers to be rushing up!

 

 

The player mat used to do acclimitization checks for each of your climbers. If the number drops below 1, your climber dies of exhaustion. Oops… I did mention one out of four climbers would die, right? 😛

 

 

Teddy’s climbers did the best in this session and claimed him top spot for this game, while Nurul (below) clinched second spot.

 

 

Teddy & Nurul shall remained in Table #1 and await a visit from El Capitan. Junyet’s finally de-throned from Table #1 after staying strong in this table for the last 3 games which was no small feat!

 

 

This game has received good reviews, and the feedback I gathered from the Retreat participants said so as well. Am sure everyone will be eagerly awaiting for this game to be finally imported into Malaysia. I’ve a colleague from Poland who comes to our shores quite often on project matters so I’ll most likely get him to bring over a copy on his next trip. 🙂

 

 

 

We’ve to thank Azmir for bringing this game to the Retreat. And when we were looking for a light-medium game that plays under 2 hrs fitting into the general theme for Game Four, there was no better match than JAMAICA. J

 

 

Azmir setting up Jamaica for Table #2. A future BGC Evangelist? 😛

 

 

Jamaica is one of those games where you’ll enjoy the experience in playing the game, the interaction with the other players, more than the game itself.

 

 

Lee Ching (she would make a great pirate queen) pointing at someone to loot as she prepared her boarding ships…. Nasty game this one.

 

 

Lester counting his spoils after a successful plundering on the other hapless merchant ships. Hey I know this Lester. He was up to no good at Cargo Noir smuggling all sort of contrabands.

 

 

Our local Elizabeth Swann? Be careful oh.. She won’t hesitate to walk you off the plank!

 

 

Yes it has dice…

 

 

Stuff that you plunder from others .. . Or to be plundered by others!

 

 

The nice game components help obviously… and as a light pirate’s game, this works very well as you can see from all the happy faces in this table.

 

 

This game has the highest “laugh-o-meter” from all the five tables in play (though SURVIVE comes a close second)… and it’s not hard to see why everyone’s enjoying their JAMAICA. 🙂

 

 

Lee Ching (right) and Emil (below) won this round to move up to Table #1 as El Capitan visits that table next. But I think no one really cared about their scores.. They were having too much fun playing to be bothered with keeping scores. Hehe.

 

 

This is why we all play boardgames, right? 😛

 

 

Yup, watch out for a restock of this game in our webstore soon.

 

 

 

Another game that was brought to the table courtesy of another BGC Inner Circle member. This time Kareem brought HAVANA, a card driven game that everyone assumed is a card game version of Puerto Rico. Yeah, the artwork does evoke that feeling of similarity.

 

 

Kareem (who brought this game to the Retreat) laying down the rules for everyone…

 

 

Game is about getting resources to build these buildings which yield VP and also sets up your engine to get more resources.

 

 

You set up your action with one of these roles. I suppose this is where you see similarity with the roles in Puerto Rico. However I like the way the game makes you set up your roles (you can choose two roles) and how it uses that to affect turn order which is important since the early mover can get their choice of resources or buildings.

 

 

More pictures of buildings. Game ends when a certain number of these buildings are laid down.

 

 

This session was quite tight… with the winner being decided by just one building. Ken (above) managed to rush his last building to close the game!

 

 

Havana, another game you might see restocked in our webstore soon.

 

 

 

In keeping with the theme for this round, we decided to bring CAFE INTERNATIONAL to the table even though we no longer stock this game. In this game, you are waiter (or waitress) working in a café patronized by various nationalities. And you need to sit the customers according to their nationalities. Sounds simple.

 

 

Waiyan teaching Cafe International…

 

 

It’s an educational game as well with all the various national flags being shown.

 

 

Your basic objective is to sit guests of the same nationality in the same table, scoring points based on how well you group each nationality on each table and at the same time trying to prevent setting up for your next opponent to score big!

 

 

SK Wong (above) winning on this table and together with LC Wong, the two Wongs moved up to Table #3 next to wheel & deal in hotel shares (Acquire).

 

 

Sadly we do not import this game into M’sia as it’s no longer available from our regular publishers. However I know the game is being published by Mattel now so you might just be able to find it in your local Toy-R-Us stores.

 

 

 

How should I start with this?

 

Let’s just say when I heard another 20-year old game (and from Parkers Bro) was being re-published albeit with expansions added, I was not exactly jumping around. But there have been gamers asking for this so we did import a batch in.

 

 

To my surprise, demand exceeds supply, we quickly sold our stock and I’ve to eat humble pie. The game is GOOD! (Pie is tasty too, sic)

 

 

For this game, we got our very own Super-man to teach! Well, he has to be since he was whizzing from Table #1 (where he was teaching K2) to Table #5 at such speed the gamers hardly noticed he was at two tables.

 

I was tempted to upload the photos showing Super-man at two tables simultaneously (yeah, my Canon lens ran at slower speed that him) but then again, that could cause the entire FBI to descend on us.

 

 

People laughed when I tell them this is a “cooperative” game. It is, isn’t it? 😛

 

Look at the boat with the two green meeples onboard. With no other colors in that board, you bet the other three players are just waiting for the right dice roll to sink that boat! If you get another player’s meeple(s) on board, he’ll be less inclined to sink it. Now, isn’t that “cooperative”? Hehe

 

 

Four players battled it out in Tiara Island for survival. Janette & BK Woo (above) and Azmir & Junkeat (below).

 

 

What surprised us was BK’s brave gambit of placing his meeples (yellow) to surround the sea demon (see below)… perhaps he thinks intimidation works best here. 😛

 

 

 

The two eventual winners of this table – Azmir (left) and Janette – who would be going treasure hunting in the next game as archaeologists in Thebes.

 

 

… while BK’s (left) initimidation strategy didn’t work out as he wanted. Ah well.. But at least everyone had FUN at this table. The laugh-factor from this table is second only to Table #2’s JAMAICA so you have to say these two games were the FUN-nest games for this round!

 

 

A good start to DAY TWO!

 

For GAME FIVE, we’ll be bringing back some old faves ACQUIRE and EL CAPITAN, while showcasing more newer arrivals such as FRESCO, THEBES and CARSON CITY. Stay with us while we return with the sessrep for Game Five soon.

 

 

BGC Boardgame Retreat 2011 Announcement (click here)

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

BGC Boardgame Retreat 2011 Sesseps – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 (this report)