Roads and Boats

Adam wanted to play a meaty game after disc golf and Jon was the only other person interested. We decided upon Roads & Boats. Surprisingly, it was Jon’s first play of it. He did come prepared though having read the rules and printed out a player aid. We decided on this 3 player map (Atlantis) but did not use it like it was designed (where the desert hexes irrigate and the light green hexes go under water).

Adam was his usual goose-thieving self and took some of Jon’s mine output (an iron and a gold). Fortunately, Adam left me alone during the game. During this game, we were all rock poor. And I did not want to spend any of it building walls which could have been easily torn down (everyone was wood rich). I purposely did not extend towards Adam’s section and did not build any more roads than I needed. When I built my stock market, Adam worked his way down to use it. There was really no point in trying to stop him (lots of wood can tare down walls easily). I was trying my best to speed the game up and end it soon. Unfortunately I could not end it one turn earlier and Adam was able to build some stock certificates. However in the end, we were tied in gold/coins/certificates and I out scored him in wonder points. A close game!

We tried some mini-bridge hands after that. But my brain was used up from all the previous meatiness. Adam tried to teach scoring to us but I was retaining none of it…

Today we had five people for gaming and Mike showed up in his Cult Of the New persona with Gheos. While we listened to him read the rules, I played around with taking Doug’s picture with the 85mm lens. Doug did his best to ignore me.

Gheos

This is a tile laying game with a twist. The world is composed of triangular tiles. Civilizations can be placed on the land as long as it is bigger than an island (covering more than two tiles which is called a continent) and as long as no other civilizations exist on that continent. You have three types of scoring opportunities during the game: if an epoch tile is drawn, of if you place a tile that has a temple, or if you decide to use one of your three scoring markers. In the first and last cases, you score by having shares of ownership in a civilization. If an epoch tile is drawn, then you score one point for each share of a civilization that touches a pyramid. If you place a tile that has a temple, then you score points for the corresponding type of symbols on that continent. I believe these types of scoring to be relatively minor. The last type of scoring should get you the most points compared to the others. When you choose to score, you get one point for each share in the civilization that you own. Each of those civilizations score the number of wealth symbols on the continent.

During your turn, you place a tile on the board. It is either placed as a new tile on the map, or it replaces an existing tile. Then you can either start a new civilization or take a share in an existing civilization. Finally, you can choose to play one of your three scoring markers.

Tiles can have a number of features on them. They can have one or two symbols on them. The symbols are wheat, gold cups, or swords. They may have a pyramid. Or they may have a temple that corresponds to a symbol. The land can either be shaped so that it splits continents with a river running through it or it can join continents with all land on two or three sides.

Starting new civilizations can be good. If that action is allowable, then you get a number of shares based on the amount of wheat symbols on the continent. Remember, that this action is instead of taking a share in an existing civilization. Playing a new tile on the map is free. If you replace a tile, then it will cost you a share in any of your civilizations. By replacing a tile, you can cause a couple of things to happen. You can split a civilization up. The civilization marker will go to the side with the most wheat symbols (with ties, you choose). This will weaken a civilization you may not have shares in and hurt your opponents. The other possibility is to join two civilizations. There can be only one civilization in the end though. The civilization with the most swords will win that battle. The loosing civilization is put back off the board and everyone discards their shares in that civilization.

Doug was able to split up my large civilization rather effectively and score many points in the process.

Rheinlander

Next up on the table was an older Knizia game, Rheinlander. For some reason, the group was not groking the rules when I read them. The rules were quite simple, but this translation tended to be rather verbose. And I guess that is what confused them. What was frustrating was when they would ask a question and I would answer it, they would not believe my answer. So I just handed them the rules and let them read it for themselves.

I chose to try and go after the most churches and therefore the archbishop. Unfortunately, the turn I got it, I was attacked and it was taken away. I was too spread out to try and fight for it again. The group seemed turned off this game after it was finished. So I suspect that it will be a year or more before this game comes back to the table.

Forum Romanum

To finish off the night, John was successful in convincing the group to play Forum Romanum. This is a game with simple rules but with meaty consequences. Mike was amusing during this game. At the point of the picture, his yellow senator was not in the lead but rather laying down because it was negative. So I tried to convince him to help me close out a section so that he would not score more negative points. But, towards the end, other people helped him score a number of sections and he eventually came in second (Doug and I were tied for first).