After Action Report – Strategic and Adventure Game Association @ El Toro Public Library, October 26, 2013

It was a good day for gaming with the Strategic and Adventure Association at the El Toro Public Library.  There was a wide selection of games available and a good number of gamers to play them.  The attendance for the event was 22 people and there were 5 games being played at any one time during the event.

I had a crayon rail day with all of the games that I played being part of the Empire Builder series.  This series of game is my most favorite game and even though I try other games all the time I will always go back to these even though based on my track record with them I should avoid them if a just want to win games.

For those that are unfamiliar with the Empire Builder games here is a brief description of how they are played.

The players own railroad companies that are competing to build rail lines and move freight from one city to another based on a set of demand cards that they have.  Once a demand on a demand card is completed the player discards it and draws a new one from the deck.  Included in the demand card deck are a number of disaster cards which include things like derailments and river floods which impede the player’s progress to victory.

The unique feature of the Empire Builder family of games is the free form building of track that it allows.  The player uses special crayons that are included with the game to draw their track on the board.  Between games the marking from the previous game are erased from the game so that in the next play of the game the players start with a fresh board.

The first game I played was India Rails.  India Rails is the version of the game that takes place in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.  The only added rule for this game is the ability for transporting pilgrims from one region to another for a minimal payment inside India.  I believe that this feature was added to help offset a couple of major disasters that can destroy a player’s game if they do not have the cash to build back track and they do not want to sacrifice their current hand.

I had a fairly good start to the game I was able to build from the northern part of the map to the center and get payouts that were able to help me extend my track  after another couple of sets I was able to get most of my track built and upgrade my train.  Unfortunately I started to get cards that would not work for me.  I discarded my cards a number of times losing my turn each time in hopes of getting a better set that would work with my track and had no luck.  As opposed to sitting in one place and losing more time I worked on a card that would work from the set I got in hopes that something would break loose if I moved to a different part of the board.  By the time that I started to get the synergy flowing again it was too late and I came in third.

The second game was Martian Rails.  Martian Rails takes the science fiction and fantasy elements from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury and other authors and brings them to the game.  There are canals with water and forest and jungle terrain on the board, cities are called thing like Barsoom and Hinkston Creek, and you even have loads like Roddenberries and Thoats.

Again I had a promising start and was able to set up some prime track early in the game I was slow in upgrading my train.  The main problem I had in the game was settling for poor cards thinking I could work my way out to them to turn my game around.  Again my strategy failed me and I to another third place in this game.

The next game of the day was the original game that the rest of the series sprung out of, Empire Builder.  Empire Builder takes place in North American and includes Mexico, the continental United States, and parts of Canada.

Unfortunately my game turned out just as badly as the first two games of the day.  The last few times I played Empire Builder I would force myself in to a southwestern route mostly because in my mind this route tends to be the most successful route.  This time my cards were leading me to a northern route so I figured I would give it s shot to see if my game improved.  At first it was working out well for me but then the cards started to turn on me.  It would happen at the worst possible time when I was in the middle of the board.  I was then need to find at least one card that would get me to one side of the board so that I could try to get a set of cards with a good payout.  My game started to get back on track and I was about to get to my next large pay out that would have got me close to the lead and the game ended with me in third place again.

The final game of the day was Nippon Rails.  Nippon Rails takes place in Japan.  It is the game that introduced the tunnel rules that were added later the Eurorails.

I did manage to fair a little better in this game.  I was able to get my track build out quickly but sacrificed upgrading my train until too late in the game and even though I was getting good cards during the entire game I was still behind by a few turns and took second place which while being a improvement over the rest of the day was not the victory I had hoped for.

My stats for the event were:

Game	No. of Plays	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	Avg.
India Rails	1	-	-	1	-	-	-	-		3.00
Martian Rails	1	-	-	1	-	-	-			3.00
Empire Builder	1	-	-	1	-	-	-			3.00
Nippon Rails	1	-	1	-	-	-	-			2.00
Totals	4	-	1	3	-	-	-		-	2.75

If you are Interested in Purchasing Any of These Games:

                              

Green Ronin Publishing Press Release - Welcome to Emerald City

From the Green Ronin Publishing Website

The Emerald City Tourism Board proudly presents its latest brochure, "A Visitor's Guide to Emerald City." On Monday we'll open up pre-ordering and PDF sales for Emerald City, the first big setting product for the third edition of Mutants & Masterminds. Emerald City will include a Player's Guide, Secrets of Emerald City, and Emerald City Knights, an adventure series.

PDF Preview: A Visitor's Guide to Emerald City

After Action Report – Thursday Night Gaming @ Paradise Perks, October 24, 2013

Thursday Night Gaming at Paradise Perks was a good time for everyone.  There were 20 -25 people in attendance and 6 games were being played at any given time.  The weather is starting to turn a little cooler finally.  So light jackets were needed later in the evening in the enclosed patio where the game night is held, but it was still an enjoyable evening.

I was able to get two games in during the event, which has been the norm of late.

The first game I played was an old game called Viva Pamplona.  Viva Pamplona is a game about the famous running of the bulls in Pamplona.  The players control three runners that they need to try to keep in front of the bulls yet keep close enough to the bull to show their courage.  In addition the runners must get to the arena ahead of the bull to add to their courage.  There are also obstacles on the board that reduce a runner’s courage or move them back spaces on the board if they land on them.

Movement is determined by rolling two dice they dice have number 2 – 5 on one plus two arrows and 2 – 4 plus 3 arrows.  The player moves two runners one with one of the dice.  The amount of movement is determined by the number that comes up on the die.  If an arrow comes up the player and mover the runner 0 – 6 spaces forward.  In addition the player may use groups of his own runners to push another player’s runners out of a space that they occupy. The player takes a courage point from the player that whose runner he pushes.

Victory is determined by the number of courage points that they player has.  A player starts the game with 30 courage points.  They lose courage points to other players for being pushed out of the way.  They lose points if their runner lands one of the hideaway spaces.  The way that players gain more courage is during the scoring rounds when one of them comes up on the bull’s movement phase they the players score based on how close they are to the bull.  If a runner is in the same space as the bull, the player gets 3 courage points, if their runner is one space ahead they get 2 courage points, and if their  runner is are two spaces the player gets one courage point.  The player loses a point for each space a runner is behind the bull.  There is a bonus for reaching the arena before the bull as well.

The game started out like clockwork all of the players were doing a good job at keeping around the bull and pushing each other to different spaces where possible.  The first scoring came up and I was positioned well enough to get more than enough courage to replenish what I had lost.  Then the bull kept moving forward quickly passing the runners so that we were all trying to catch up to it. I was using my dices to try to get one runner in front of the bull and keep the others from falling too far behind by moving the runner furthest behind forward.  We were all expecting the next scoring card to come up but continued to be disappointed when it did not. 

I was finally able to pass the bull on the turn that was going into the arena and the second scoring card had not come up yet.  There was only one other player that got into the arena at the same time I did.  All the other players’ runners were still far behind the bull.  It turned out that all the players besides me ended the game with negative points because they were so far behind the bull giving me the victory in the game.

The other game I played was Helvetia.  Helvetia is a worker placement game where the players are managing the output of farming towns.  The players gain victory points by delivering goods to the market and developing their town.  In order to get access to the goods to delivery they will need to marry some of their own villagers into the villages of other players. 

There are five possible actions that they player may take each turn.  They may build a building, deliver goods to the market, reset their villagers, marry a villager into another village, or produce a new child.  The number of times they can do this depends on the number of action discs they spend on an action.  The more action disc they spend the more times they can perform an action.  The game ends when one of the players reaches twenty victory points.

My game started off well enough.  I was able to start delivering resources to the market in the first turn.  Then for some reason I became obsessed with capturing bonus points instead of doing the most important thing in the game and delivering goods.  As I kept on with this obsession I fell farther and farther behind.  Then in the final round of the game I corrected my focus on the game and was able to gain five victory points in the one turn, but it was not enough to dig myself out of the hole I was in and I ended up in last place.

My stats for this event:

Game	No. of Plays	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	Avg.
Viva Pamplona	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-		1.00
Helvetia	1	-	-	-	1	-	-			4.00
Totals	2	1	-	-	1	-	-		-	2.50

If you are Interested in Purchasing These Games: