Game(s) Played:
And so barely three days after the last session report, I am back at it once again to bring you news on the goodies that we played in this month's instalment of SWAGamers.
Session – Airlines Europe
Game: Airlines Europe
Designer: Alan R. Moon
Players: 2 – 5 Players
Playing Time: 75 minutes (This Play: 90 minutes)
Main Mechanisms: Route/Network Building, Stock Holding
Player(s):
There are some games that I find difficult to teach without demonstrating a few turns to my captive audience and Airlines Europe is one of those games. The premise of the game is quite simple, each Player is trying to be a Sir Richard Branson or a Tan Sri Tony Fernandes by investing in flight routes of 9 - 11 various airlines (gaining more shares by doing so) and of course, this being a eurogame, gaining VPs from your shares in each airline (the more investment in an airline, the more VPs you gain). It is just that somehow my standard rules explanation without any demonstration doesn't quite catch the imagination of a listener.
I tried to re-employ my old strategy of not taking cash as a turn, as I see this as a turn wasted not making any progress on the board. Given the results of my performance, it would appear that some rethinking on my preconceptions are in order. This leads me directly into my first "Play Better" tip:
TIP #1 – Robbing The Bank Is A Necessary Evil But Go Easy
To quote a favourite character... "Reach for the skyyyyy"
Yoong Fong and I went on the opposite ends of the spectrum. I used the "Take Money" action once whilst she robbed the bank like a modern day Bonnie without her Clyde. That we ended up being Third & Fourth respectively seems to indicate that there is a middle ground to be achieved here. The next time I play this I suspect that I will go discarding lower value shares for Abacus Shares and robbing the bank rather than cashing in on sub-optimal shares. The trick here is to try and always have cash in hand so that you can grab shares of airlines that you really want when they show up.
TIP #2 – You Need To Dip Your Hands Into The High Value Honeypots
Make sure you leave your mark everywhere
Whilst it is good to be able to get VPs from as many airlines as you can, I think the focus should be on the top 5 value airlines. The returns from the lower end airlines are mere pittances compared to the goldmine of latching on to other Players' focus airlines like a blood sucking leech. Let them invest whilst you reap the rewards of their hard work like a good old option trader.
TIP #3 – Abacus Airlines Can Determine The Winer
Abacus is incidentally a real airline ticketing system
Abacus Air when uncontested tends to give a Player a bit too much of an edge over their opponents. You really need to make Players discard more cards to earn majority in Abacus Air shares otherwise the value to cost ratio becomes ridiculously cheap.
Results Of Game(s)
Padawan Minigeek and her antics always assure me that she does indeed carry Oei blood in her veins
Winner – Jimmy (92 VPs)
Second – Elaine (77 VPs)
Third – Justin (67 VPs)
LAST – Yoon Fong (60 VPs)
Airlines Europe may not have the most exciting theme but it is a solid stock holding game that requires your constant attention at what's happening to each and every Player. Admittedly I am more of a strategist than a tactician which makes me rather poor at games like Airlines Europe.
Session – Legendary
Game: Legendary
Designer: Devin Low
Players: 1 – 5 Players
Playing Time: 45 minutes (This Play: 180 minutes)
Main Mechanisms: Deck Building
Player(s):
Edward has been harbouring a burning vengeance to beat Legendary as every Mastermind Villain has gotten the best of him thus far. And so, armed with the X-Men, our party of three embarked on their quest to lay the revenge smackdown on their opponent, Loki (who is by consensus one of the lower ranked Mastermind Villains).
Loki with the Scheme "Save Humanity"
I only checked in on them once throughout their game and it was when they were on the verge of losing, having already killed 10 hostages out of the 12 required to be considered a loss for our intrepid heroes. But the minute I sat back down, Sean manages to pull out a combo to bash Loki in the face one last time in order for Edward to claim his first victory against the "God of Lies and Mischief".
Results Of Game(s)
Winner – Edward, Gideon & Sean
LAST – Loki
Player(s):
Emboldened by their victory over Loki and with the addition of Jason to their party, our heroes decide that the Mastermind Villain, King Hyperion (who sounds like a character from a JRPG), needed knocking down a peg or two. And after defeating King Hyperion through cheating (they admitted it, not me), they decided a character like Immortal Emperor Zheng Zhu would be small fry to their combined might (as if a title like Immortal Emperor isn't enough foreshadowing).
Results Of Game(s)
Some Villains' names are really very badly conceived
Winner – Edward, Gideon, Jason & Sean (cheating)
LAST – King Hyperion
Winner – Immortal Emperor Zheng Zhu
LAST – Edward, Gideon, Jason & Sean
I apologize to the Legendary fans if my report is less than satisfactory. It can't really be helped as I was busy wondering how I was doing in my own game of Airlines Europe at the table next door.
Session – Yokohama
Game: Yokohama
Designer: Hisashi Hayashi
Players: 2 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 90 minutes (This Play: 90 minutes)
Main Mechanisms: Route Building, Set Collection, Modular Board
Player(s):
So today I got to experience firsthand my first game of Yokohama at last, and I got to experience it with some of the best mathematicians (APers) in our gaming group.
The fun started right off the bat at setup:
"Are we manufacturing tyres in this game?"
"These components are awesome!"
"Look at the metal coins! How much did this cost? RM300?!?! No wonder lahhhh"
"This is supposed to be Silk?"
"I think most of us will be standing up towards the end of the game"
Then when we got to rules explanation which had fewer questions resulting in the hilarity further below:
"There are so many things to do."
"So the shop gives us power and the trading house gives us money? Say that again?"
And finally during the game:
Some of them start to stand up at the start of the game. "See? See?"
"How do I get more workers? Oh, isn't this symbol to take Shops only?"
"I can't place my 3 workers in the same area? Why? 2 workers in 1 Area and 3 anywhere? They don't need to be connected?"
"I thought my President can only move 1 Area at a time!!"
"I need to pay him for every Worker I place there? Not just the first?"
"I need to pay him for passing through as well???"
A maybe not so relevant comic to this situation but the humour is good
Amidst all of the chaos I missed a situation where one of the other Players landed on an area with another President, paid the 1 yen and resolved the area's action. And so, like the nightmare of creating a legal precedent, it became legal for Presidents to all congregate around the same area for a cup of coffee and small talk.
And because we shortened the game by a whole lot (reminder to self: the 90 minutes gameplay on the box cover does not include setup and rules explanation), everybody but me were gang rushing the Church (oh the irony) to gain as much favour as possible for the highest short term gain on VPs. It is interesting that everybody at the table saw this except me (I was opting to go the way of fulfilling orders for VP), and thought I was some tactical savant who has played the game ten times more than they have.
I am no savant trust me, but I can take some nice pictures, like this one
Results Of Game(s)
Last but I have learned!
Winner – Moses (62 VPs)
Second – Jimmy (55 VPs)
Third – Teik Beng (50 VPs)
LAST – Justin (45 VPs)
Yokohama is mechanically a simple game, just like human life when broken down to the basics of eating, sleeping and pooping. But like adult human life, you need to set yourself a lot of reminders:
(1) Make sure you have money to spend
(2) Make sure you have enough workers to do your bidding
(3) Make sure you are always looking for the best deal (Mo snapped one 10 VP Tech Card right under all our collective noses)
And that's all for our meet up this month, a big shout out to all the boardgaming fathers out there to have a great Father's Day this weekend if you are celebrating it together with us here in Malaysia. May the luck of your draws increase and the roll of your dice be in your favour this weekend.
Until next time, keep calm and play better.
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