Boardgamecafe.net Meetup Report @ OTK Cheras 28/6/2013 – River Dragons, King of Tokyo, Ricochet Robots, Pandemic, Tzolkin, Tiki Topple, Settlers of Catan, Last Night on Earth, Roll Through the Ages, RA, Top Secret Spies, Ninjato

By jack208

EXCERPT
No theme, just free-n-easy and more than 10 different games hit the tables from the oldies like SETTLERS OF CATAN to Knizia’s RA, the chaotic TOP SECRET SPIES, and some newer games like TZOLKIN and RIVER DRAGONS. Hmm.. Maybe we should let things go more free-n-easy in future.

Gamers: UPM, Boon Khim, Ivan, Sinbad, Ian Tan, Heng, Waiyan, & others.

Games:  River Dragons, King of Tokyo, Ricochet Robots, Pandemic, Tzolkin, Tiki Topple, Settlers of Catan, Last Night on Earth, Roll Through the Ages, RA, Top Secret Spies, Ninjato.

Location: OTK Cheras | Google Map | Lat-Long: N 03° 06.179′ E 101° 44.237′
Date/Time: 28 June 2013 (Fri) 8.30 PM – (Sat) 5:00 AM

No theme plans for tonight so we just let the crowd go free-n-easy. It was a packed night though with 3-4 tables in play during R1. Obviously that saw a good variety of games hitting the tables… and some old faves like Ricochet Robots, Roll through the Ages, RA and Ninjato.

The first game to hit the tables while waiting for the rest of the gamers to arrive was RIVER DRAGONS. We’d seen a giant sized version at Asmodee’s booth last Essen and their retail version while smaller in size, still packs the same cute factor (ala Takenoko).

This is a light game that borrows the pre-programmed hidden movement from RoboRally and more recently Himalaya (which we played a few weeks back, read our sessrep here). Both are heavier games.

In this game, your aim is to maneuver your figure from one end to another end in the shortest possible time.

Plays light. Plays fast.

This game has been coming back to the tables very frequently recently. Tonight the UPM group was the first to take this for a spin….

… and later the Cheras group also did a session.

Not sure if we should classify this game as a “puzzle” or a “mind” game. Plays fast. Plays any number of players.

We actually lost the timer but that didn’t affect our gameplay in any way. Most of the target destinations in our session were in the double-digit ranges… lots of fast brain burning to map out the shortest fastest.

These guys’ brain are too “heavy” to be troubled by this game. 😛

One of the many coop games and one of the better ones. PANDEMIC plays 4 to 5 (you need the expansion to play 5) and while it has it’s detraction in that a dominant player will literally “direct” the entire game leaving the rest as passive observers, the game blooms when you have gamers who like to collaborate.

PANDEMIC was again on the tabel with another group. The games were simply moving from one table to the next.

I considered this one of last year’s better Essen crops. Glad to see this on the table again. It only plays four so I skipped myself out of this and just did the teaching duty. J

Nope, I haven’t had my set of Tzolkin gears painted yet… (below)

If there’s one regret about this game, it’s that I do not get to play it often enough to appreciate it’s strategic nuances, which one can only discover when one went beyond the obvious on-the-surface options.

In this session, no one seemed keen on the Crystal Skull strategy… two of the skulls dropped on the low scoring boxes? Did the player got his timing wrong and were forced to place the skulls prematurely?

My Tzolkin first-play sessrep is still long overdue. 😦

Ah… an oldie but still a crowd favorite. There’s a reason why games like these are called “gateway games”. Everyone (or well, mostly everyone) loves to play SETTLERS OF CATAN.

Been a really long while since we saw RA (the first of the ALEA family box) in play… and we got on a 5-player session of one of Knizia’s finest games (during his heydays).

Table was set up for four. I joined them for a more chaotic 5-player RA session.

Invoke the Sun God at your risk.

Below: A nice player board (available from Boardgamegeek) solves the problem of trying to remember how the tiles are scored.

Hmm, perhaps a theme for Knizia’s Egyptian games are not such a bad idea.

Was doing games-talk with Ian and we went from VivaJava to Through the Ages to debating the merits of card version of successful board games, and elaborating whether VivaJava the Dice Game (now on Kickstarter) is worth the money to a quick 2-player game of ROLL THROUGH THE AGES (a dice version of Through the Ages? Not at all).

It’s fun though and this game even plays solo!

Let’s see what else were played in last Friday’s busy session….

TIKI TOPPLE
This game is aimed for young children but we find adults enjoy it as much. J

LAST NIGHT ON EARTH
Zombies not to be outdone, made their own appearance as well.

CASH N GUNS
Another game that’s popular with the recent crowd.

TOP SECRET SPIES
Chaotic. Screwage. Plays 7. What’s not to like?

SERIOUS TABLE
While the other tables were mostly doing lighter fares, the end table doing TZOLKIN were all dead-serious face…. Obviously when you are moving the gears of the world’s end, that’s not the time to joke around.

Beautiful game board, decorated with large size wooden shurikens. Does NINJATO play as good as it look?

Below: The dojo where your ninjas get their training (or draw combat cards).

Combat cards are essential yet you only get to draw 2-3 cards per action, and with only 21 actions in total, you can’t afford to spend all your time at the dojo.

Raiding one of the clan houses for their treasures… you need dojo cards. 😛

And it’s sayonara at 5 am.

Alrite, hope everyone enjoyed the busy sessions last Friday. Let’s see if we are putting on a theme for this coming Friday? 😛

If you are looking to buy any of these games in-play last Friday, there’s a 20% sessrep promo on them (valid until next Friday 12/7 (or while stock lasts). Get three or more and you can get an additional 5% off.

And if you are okay with the 1st edition of PANDEMIC (see box cover above), call us for a special price (too hot to mention here!)

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