Friday’s Game Night at OTK and tonight’s no exception as we saw a variety of games hitting the tables LAST NIGHT ON EARTH, CARGO NOIR, SURVIVE, TOK TOK WOODMAN, POWER STRUGGLE, 1960 MAKING OF PRESIDENT, TIKI TOPPLE, F.I.T.S, CITADELS, and FRESCO. 18TN was the R1 game for the table of veterans with Hiew getting his first toe-dip into the 18xx series and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA resurfaced as the R2 game to close out another fantastic gaming night! And special thanks to all the gamers who helped us set up the tables & chairs earlier!! You guys are the BEST!

Gamers: Desmond, Chee Ho & frens, Zharif, Jeremy, Hiew, Caleb, Ken, Joshua, Ethan, Teddy, Lee Ching, Ken Yen, Wong LC, Vick Nesh, Terry Kok, Ang XJ, Henry, Heng and CK Au.      

Games: Last Night on Earth, Cargo Noir, Survive, Tok Tok Woodman, Power Struggle, 1960 The Making of the President, Tiki Topple, FITS, Citadels, 18TN Tennessee, Fresco, Battlestar Galactica.

 

Location: OTK Cheras | Google Map | Lat-Long: N 03° 06.179′ E 101° 44.237′

Date/Time: 30 Sep 2011 (Fri) 8.00 PM – 5:00 AM

 

 

THE COMMUNITY SPIRIT OF OTK!

I was late today getting to OTK. Since waiyan was already there much earlier, I was expecting some gamers to have arrived and perhaps started a game or two. When I reached OTK, some gamers have indeed arrived. But instead of gaming, they were all busy… with fixing Ikea furnitures!! LOL

 

 

That was indeed an amazing sight and one that warmed my heart!

 

We’d ordered some furnitures from Ikea and they’d arrived on Weds. But our usual contractors were busy and only able to come on the weekend to help us set things up (the furniture plus other renovation touch-up to the place) so we just left the boxes there for the weekend. Ang was one of the early ones to arrive and he offered to help set up those boxes.

 

The rest I suppose just joined him and soon we’ve everyone busy with the Jokkmokk tables and Stefan chairs… and even those who came later joined in the “fun”. I saw the power of the BGC community here and it instantly validates all the hard work we’ve been done in growing and building up the local gaming community.

 

I actually had to “stop” everyone around 9:30 pm to thank them and also to remind them they are here to play games, and not just to set up Ikea tables & chairs. J

 

A BIG THANK YOU to those who helped us with the Ikea boxes!!

 

LAST NIGHT ON EARTH

 

With Terry around, half the time you’ll either be playing with Zombies or Ameritrash miniatures games, so was not surprised to see LAST NIGHT ON EARTH on the table for this group. In fact, I’ve not yet played a session of LNOE. Had wanted to, but didn’t get around to it. It’s a very enjoyable game especially with the right crowd.

 

 

Terry, Desmond, Wong, Ken and Vick Nesh in LNOE

 

 

This looked like the “right” group for this type of game – Vick Nesh (from Puchong group) and Ken Yen enjoying their LNOE!

 

 

POWER STRUGGLE

 

On the other table, Zharif, Jeremy and another fren promptly set up POWER STRUGGLE.

 

 

Hmm… not sure why the Tok Tok Woodman was on the Power Struggle board, and if you looked at the picture carefully – surrounded by yellow peeps. Some “sacrificial totem” for those who were ousted from the post of Chairman? LOL

 

 

TIKI TOPPLE & DWEEBIES

 

The Pang couple – Teddy & Lee Ching – arrived shortly but finding all tables already started their sessions, had a quiet game of TIKI TOPPLE between both of them. This game is part of the Boardgamekids Library but it’s equally fun as a light game for adult. It’s a 2008 Mensa Select Winner. J

 

 

 

Teddy & Lee Ching also did another card game, which I wrongly marked as Tiki Topple in the picture. It should be DWEEBIES. In a cute little tin box. 🙂

 

TOK TOK WOODMAN

 

Always a good game to bring out as a filler in-between the normal game sessions… this time the Zombies survivors from LNOE attempted some wood chopping in TOK TOK WOODMAN.

 

 

 

Haha… look at the way these peeps hold the axe! No wonder they couldn’t survive the zombies… 😛

 

 

Was Wong chopping the tree or trying to tickle some ants on the bark? Hehe.

 

Caleb’s “Can’t Stop” gang arriving in the background. I think they call themselves “Caleb & The Can’t Stop Band”… Hey it rhymes with “KC & The Sunshine Band”. LOL

 

 

And wolfx? Aiyoh…. so genteel…. afraid your axe will hurt the tree? Kekeke.

 

SURVIVE

 

Caleb’s group started with SURVIVE.

 

 

Hi welcome back Ethan!

 

F.I.T.S.

 

Teddy & Lee Ching joined up with Chee Ho who had just arrived, to do a few rounds of F.I.T.S. – Knizia’s Tetris on board. 🙂

 

 

CARGO NOIR

 

After done with Tok Tok, this group moved on to their next game CARGO NOIR. Wong’s a veteran of this game after his stint in the recent BGC Boardgame Retreat. 😛

 

 

Wong came up to me at the end of the game and said, “I still hate bidding game.” Hmm.. I take it to mean he lost that game? 😛

 

1960 THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT

 

After completing their Power Struggle (not sure who won), Zharif and Jeremy continued with another power-themed game. This time it’s the fight for the Presidency title of US of A in 1960 THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT.

 

 

This is a lite-version of TWILIGHT STRUGGLE and it gives you a good idea of how the CDG mechanic works for this series of game.

 

 

This has to be Mr. Jeremy Kennedy? 😛

 

 

A CDG (card-driven game) of the USA election campaign, that swings back and forth between the two parties…

 

At about the same time that Nixon was battling out with Kennedy, Ang was considering budget cuts on his cigarette spending while he worked out the cost of a brand new 8-train for his railroad company.

 

 

CITADELS

 

 

More of Chee Ho’s friends arrive and what do you do when you have more than 6 gamers? CITADELS of course! And I presumed they were playing with the Malaysian edition of the game? 😛

 

 

Was planning to teach them BANG! after Citadels but a few of their frens have to leave around midnite. Next time then.

 

18TN TENNESSEE

The 18xx group got a buzz when Hiew wrote on our Facebook wall saying he’s interested to give this game a try! We quickly gathered up a few 18xx regulars and planned for an intro via the 18TN map which covers the Tennessee and Kentucky area.

 

18TN is by Mark Derrick who also designed the two PNP 18xx maps – 18AL and 18GA – which were long regarded as the best maps to intro people to the 18xx system. IMHO 18TN now makes a good intro map, as good as 18AL and 18GA with the advantage of being equally interesting for 18xx veterans (if played as 5-player).

 

 

Heng did the rules briefing to Hiew (above) but I suppose he has already seen a walk-thru of the game from Scott’s videoblog, and being a seasoned gamer, he was quick to pick up the rules.

 

The initial stock round went pretty quick, with players picking up the next available privates on their turn except me who dropped a $180 bid on the L&N private (which gives you the Prez cert to the L&N and also allows the L&N to operate even if two shares are floated) but Heng put a spanner in the works by putting in another bid on the same privates.

 

No one seemed interested to pick up the $100 private to trigger the L&N bidding phase. Aiyoh. Not a good start for  me. 😦

 

 

This was not good for me – and for Ang as well since he’s the only other player beside me who has no private and thus no operating revenue in the OR – as the rest all had a private and will be getting some revenue in the OR.

 

I decided to pass and let one OR ran to see if someone will pick up the $100 private on the next SR. No one. Duh.

 

So I’d no choice but to pick up the $100 private but chose not to fight with Heng for the L&N private. He kinda got it cheap for $185. 😛 But with Henry only picking up a cheap $20 private and Ang’s cashpile untouched, he’ll face a tough fight holding on to L&N.

 

 

True enough, he did lose control of L&N to Henry (middle) who managed to buy 4 shares to get himself appointed as the CEO. Hiew (right) started the GM&O after I pledged my support to help him float GM&O by picking up 3 shares.

 

18TN is set up very similarly to 1830 where players won’t have enough cash to float their own company in the first SR and would have to depend on some form of cooperation with the other players to get companies started.

 

… consisted mainly of Henry (with Heng’s input) building up north-south tracks for L&N while Hiew was busy with setting up the network for GM&O in west.

 

 

Hiew’s first 18xx railway company, the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad otherwise known as”GM&O”

 

Peace, stability and tranquility don’t exist in the 18xx world. But the chaos came earlier than I thought. In one SR, I was ahead in the Priority Lane and while I’d enough cash to start a new company (albeit at low par value), I was thinking of holding one more round before I pulled the trigger. Was also hoping Heng’s thinking of the same.

 

 

He wasn’t. Bummer.

 

He quickly dumped all his L&N shares and floated TC at $80 par. Ang appeared stupefied by Heng’s move. Hehe. When the turn order came back to me, I’d no option then but to dump my GM&O shares and floated Illinois Central (IC) but at the lowest par of $65.

  

 

 

Both TC and IC were floated to leverage on the networks already laid down by L&N and GM&O respectively.

  

  

Hiew’s GM&O was running the most profitable route and paying the highest dividend with his three trains… I did re-invest back in GM&O shares as the dividend yield was very good.

 

Competing networks were now converging and everyone’s jostling for the best mid-game position.

 

 

I was lucky as I managed to save up enough funds to kickstart my 2nd company, the NCSI which piggybacked on to the routes laid by L&N and TC even though my southern track lays for NCSI would be across expensive terrains in the Appalachian Mountains.

 

 

With the NCSI formed, there’s only the SR railway remaining (was Ang going to pick this one up?) and  the imminent arrival of the dreaded 6-trains; the first rusting the 3-trains and the 2nd obsoleting the 4-trains. At OTK, we play without the “delay obsolescence” rule. 4-trains rust immediately. 😛

 

 

Hiew has his first experience of Hotsun ™ when my NCSI was traded away to Ang (fortunately for Hiew, this was an observant experience and not as first-party :P)

 

  

While me & Heng were contemplating the fallout of the NCSI Hotsun maneuver, …

  

  

…Hiew was wondering why NCSI went over to Ang and a new company SR appeared in my portfolio instead, while Heng was laughing at Ang’s misfortune. LOL

 

 

And then viola! Light bulb moment as Hiew now sees the beauty of the Sun that’s Hot! J

 

 

With the NCSI now suddenly in his tender loving care, and the 6-train coming very soon and the treasury only containing less than $100, Ang has a burning issue on his hands.

 

 

Shares dumped at this stage where companies were at their “weakest”.

 

 

A quick shuffle allowed me to get the right trains into the right companies and prepare them for a home run. I still have a lot of work to build up the network for SR in order for it to complement IC’s revenue stream.. but that’ll come hopefully on time before the game ends.

 

 

SR (right) in a rather isolated network as it started late and with the Appalachian Mountains surrounding it, the other railway companies did not venture this far east yet.

 

 

Hiew’s GM&O has all the trains obsoleted by the new spunky 6-trains rolled out by SR and Henry’s L&N. But he did have some heads-up when he observed Heng & Henry withholding dividends to store up enough cashpile for their TC and L&N in anticipation of this train rush. He did the same for GM&O and while the cashpile was still short, it won’t cause any major dent to his pocket.

 

 

CEO of NCSI contemplating budget cuts as he worked out the cost of forking out for a 8-train now (instead of the planned 6-train). He was badly wounded but survived this train rush and eventually built up NCSI to have one of the more profitable routes in the history of Tennessee! 😛

 

With all railway companies owning permanent trains, everyone’s pushing their company towards a home run… maxing out the route and improving their dividend yield. All the jostling and maneuvering were a;ready done by this time and it’s all a matter of breaking the bank.