GAME FIVE moved the pace up a notch with EL CAPITAN (formerly TYCOON), FRESCO and ACQUIRE seeing play-time while THEBES & CARSON CITY graced two other tables. Can Junyet climb back into Table #1 for the next & final GAME SIX? Let’s read on to find out which four gamers shall fight for the last battle in TROYES.

 

 

 

Five games (including game zero), one & a half day and as everyone stood poised to commence their Game Five – two more games to be played – Teddy now led the Retreat Table with 13 pts after claiming the top spot at K2 from Game Four.

 

 

 

His contenders were not too far behind; with Junyet also on 13 pts though he’s now at Table #2, Kareem at 11 pts (after sliding off K2), Emil crept in at 11 pts and Lester at 10 pts. Everyone’s just a win away from grabbing pole position (and this is what I luv about the scoring system here… you are always in for a shout even if you did not get to stay long at Table #1).

 

 

 

Table	Game Title	P1	P2	P3	P4
1st	El Capitan	teddy	Nurul /ainul	lee ching	emil
2nd	Fresco	junyet	kareem	ken yen	bgc waiyan
3rd	Acquire	jacelyn	lester	lc wong	sk wong
4th	Thebes	lee peng	swee wan	azmir	janette
5th	Carson City	daren	jonathan	junkeat	bk woo

 

The line-up of the gamers for GAME #5 are listed above; as the gamers enter the last stretch for this Retreat. With two more games to go, you start to see the “heavyweight games” being rolled out now, with El Capitan and the recent buzz Fresco making their appearances.

 

 

You may want to read Day One’s (Game 0-1, Game 2, Game 3) and Game 4‘s sessreps if you have missed them.

 

 

 

Table #1 featured a game I like very much… a re-implementation of an old game TYCOON (which I never had the chance to play). El Capitan was actually released back in 2007 but it was only until lately we imported this in from Zman. It’s not just a reprint but it incorporated some streamlined & adjusted rules which in my opinion made it played better than Tycoon.

 

 

The new edition also has all the expansions for the game in the base package (ala El Grande), not that you need to use the expansions as the base game itself is quite solid. Obviously the nicer artwork in this new reprint helps. If there’s one complaint, it has to be that Mike Doyle’s art does not make for easy reading.

 

 

Can’t remember why we broke into laughter… but that’s how the mood was at the Retreat… always ready to LAUGH LAUGH LAUGH.

 

 

This game is played over three seasons (or phases) and you are forgiven if you thought there’s nothing much to this game in the first season. It starts slow….. real slow, with not much happening in the 1st season as you basically move around the board building warehouses (and not likely fortress). Money is scarce. But the Lehman Bros is always around. And the visit to Cayman Island is inevitable for everyone!

 

 

Ainul wondering if that’s all there is to this game?

 

 

However as you get into Season 2, things start getting intense. The early investment in warehouses in the various ports are starting to pay recurring dividend as the port city grew more prosperous! A-ha! You start to see some “light”… and you thought you had “solved” the game and started to travel around the world just because you can.

 

Then you received the bad news. A new warehouse built by your opponents resulted in one of yours, an older warehouse being shut down? And another opponent has just claimed majority on yet another lucrative port, halving your profits there. Wait.. now your grand Proliferation Scheme is going to tatters.

 

 

Competition became fierce on every port cities! Alas you cannot afford the movement – and the cost (unless you visit Lehman again) – to be hopping to every other port to repair the damages dealt to you by unrelenting competitors. It’s a dog-eat-dog world.

 

You see someone who used to be deep in debt raking in a huge profit on Payday, not only clearing all his debt but arming him with good cashflow to take you heads-on in the next season. While you had just washed all your early profits “traveling” the world.

 

Oh.. dear. Now where did I put the Lehman Bro’s business card?

 

 

The game is a slow-boil but by the time you reached Season 3, you’ll be intensely into the game, trying to out-guess your opponent’s next move, wanting to ensure you retain your majority (control) on those lucrative ports, making sure you have your fortresses on the most prosperous cities – while at the same time you can bet your opponents are trying to do the same to bring your business down.

 

 

The fight to the end is not easy.. but then to be an El Capitan is a heavy burden to carry. Are you one?

 

 

In the end, it was Lee Ching who was named as El Capitan with Teddy coming in 2nd! This game saw her being re-united at Table #1 with hubby Teddy (they were in Table #1 for Game 3: Automobile). They both have the honour to remain at Table #1 and get to play TROYES, one of the most talked-about game from last year’s Essen. With a runner-up position, Teddy has also tighten his grip at the top but is it enough?

 

 

 

This game received lots of buzz from last year’s Essen and was nominated for a few awards – SDJ, Golden Geek, etc – but it was unassuming from the box cover; a painter looking up at a fresco (painting) on the ceiling of a church.

 

 

It probably got played early after its arrival in our local shores last Dec becoz its rule book was only 4-pages long for Hengy (above) to digest. J Read about our first play at OTK Cheras here. We did two sessions in our first play!

 

 

The four from Table #2 who got the chance to enjoy this colorful game…

 

 

This game has some unique mechanics for eg the “waking up” part.. where you decide how early you wish your workers to get up. The early birds get to go to the market first and therefore has first dibs on the paint raw material (and at lower price). However making your workers wake early morning loses morale.

 

 

In the game above, Yellow’s workers were almost at the bottom of their morale! LOL

 

 

Colorful cubes indicating the paint raw material. You get to blend the colors to produce other color (needed to grab higher score at the cathedral).

 

 

The gameboard representing the unpainted fresco… as the game progresses along, more of the fresco shall be painted and the board is uncovered to reveal a nice painting.

 

If you wish to find out more about the game, the Dec 2010 first play @ OTK Cheras has a well written review of the game. J

 

 

Junyet (left) won this table, while waiyan – who also developed an instant liking for this game – took 2nd spot.

 

 

Ken didn’t do too well in this game (coming in last). I guess he’s too refined for such a cultured game. The roughness of Mecatol Rex suits him more… tsk tsk

 

 

 

Next up in Table #3 is one of CK’s old fave… share dealing & wheeling in ACQUIRE.

 

 

This Sid Sackson classic is almost 50 yrs old but it stood the test of time against other games that may have faded away. It’s charm may have somewhat lost some of its shine against newer Euro games but the joy of confirming you got the better of your opponents by claiming majority share in the newly merged chain of hotels always warms your heart.

 

 

My first version was not the 3D Avalon-Hill 1999 edition (as seen above) but it’s predecessor version, the Avalon Hill 1995 edition (below) that comes with some interesting power variants. I fondly recollect the hours of gaming we’ve had with this version with the Pudu Gamers.

 

 

Sadly, Hasbro (which took over Avalon-Hill) messed up completely the current 50th Anniversary Edition (2008) of this fine classic. Saying they messed it up is being underwhelmingly polite and kind. Haiz.

 

 

CK teaching his one of his fave games at Table #3. Wong LC (top right) gave us the “look” that suggested, “This does not look like Starcraft.”

 

 

Jacelyn doing the look-up-the-sky motion as she did memory counting of stockholdings.

 

 

Lester in deep thought…. probably trying to remember who bought the last share of Zeta.

 

 

The Pirate Princess struck again winning this game, proving she’s as adept in dealing with mergers and acquisitions as she’s with marauding and plundering… hohoho.

 

 

ACQUIRE, the half-century game that’ll always have a special place in my boardgaming collection!

 

 

 

Why is it archaeologists get to travel around the world… collecting dust? 😛

 

 

That’s exactly what you’ll get to do in this game. A reprint of Jenseits von Theben, the game employs a very interesting time-based mechanic as you travel around Europe, Africa and the Middle East, acquiring knowledge of the ancient civilization and using that knowledge to search historical sites for treasures. But more often than not, finding dust (or dirt). 😛

 

 

The gamers for this table were honored to have Superman teaching them the rules of Thebes

 

 

Books of knowledge for each ancient civilization. The more knowledge you acquired of a civilization, the more chances you’ve of uncovering valuable artifacts from the historical sites.

 

 

Azmir has to leave as he has an urgent appointment to meet, and instead of playing the game to completion we simply distribute the points evenly among the remaining three players. 🙂

 

 

 

A worker placement game set in the Wild Wild West? You betcha… and placing your worker to an action space first does not necessarily guarantee you the choice of that action. Others can place their workers there.. and a duel (or if there’s more than 2 parties, a wild wild orgy bang) ensues and the last man standing gets to take that action!

 

 

 

Kareem going thru the paces of Carson City with very attentive fellow gamers.

 

 

Take the opportunity to build up Carson City; claim lands, erect buildings, construct roads… and if you are game for a fight or two, send in your boys to rough up the neighbours and claim their riches. 😛

 

 

Daren checking the rules before sending in his thugs to shake up Jonathan’s town.

 

 

The eventual Mayor of Carson City… well done!

 

 

Five (semi-competitive) games and almost 2 days, we are one game short of concluding the Retreat. Let’s see who’s leading the table now. J

 

 

Teddy’s loss in Game Five: El Capitan to Lee Ching allowed Junyet (17 pts) to catch-up to Teddy’s 16 pts. These two remained the top faves to close out the Retreat as winners even though Lee Ching (13), Kareem (13) and Daren (13) were all one win away from grabbing top spot from these two.

 

 

Teddy (left), Lee Ching and Junyet (right) – all still in with a shout to be the BGC Retreat Champion!

 

 

Obviously Kareem (left) and Daren would want to have a say too…

 

Teddy & Junyet would get a chance to duke it out as both of them shall be at Table #1 in the battle for Troyes! Mind you, Lee Ching’s in the same table and a win by her will allow her to draw level to Junyet and win by virtual of tie-breaker (winner of recent match-up). Two other dark horses Kareem and Daren shall be in Table #3 and Table #4 respectively and a win for them (with a loss by the two leaders) could also swing the game around. So looks like a very exciting finale being set up in Game Six. J

 

 

For GAME SIX, we present to you TROYES, easily the most talked about game from last year’s Essen and available for an early play at BGC Retreat courtesy of Damien (leoskyangel) of the McD Taipan Meetup group. The other tables shall see two of the MASK trilogy – TIKAL and MEXICA – while GIANTS, a game we played at last year’s Retreat making a popular comeback to the table!

 

Read Game Six’s sessrep to see how the Retreat concluded!

 

 

BGC Boardgame Retreat 2011 Announcement (click here)

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

BGC Boardgame Retreat 2011 Sesseps – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 (this report)