Game(s) Played:
Welcome back to this month's gaming session report on the SWAGamers, I decided against doing a session report of our last meet up as there were fewer of us and we basically only played one game of the spanking brand new Clans of Caledonia and we didn't finish it. Moreover, the video I recorded on my PowerShot only lasted 30 mins so it seemed a bit of a dud to put up a report of it. If my attempts at dissuading you have not succeeded, here is a link to the video for your viewing pleasure (be warned, there's a lot duolingo / trilingo / dialectlingo as we are a multicultural nation… I have added subtitles for clarification so please turn on captions when you watch):
One of the reasons why we met up at my house and had a smaller group was because our regular meeting place has stopped operating on Saturdays. We have found a temporary new spot but we will probably need to find a new place in 2018. Which brings us back to today, where we began with an appetizer of Sushi Go Party! before splitting into two groups of space farers colonizing Alien Frontiers and a group of Scottish clans colonizing the moors in Clans of Caledonia (fear not, this time we did finish the game).
Session – Sushi Go Party!
Game: Sushi Go Party!
Designer: Phil Walker-Harding
Players: 2 – 8 Players
Playing Time: 20 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Card Drafting, Set Collection
Some of us had already played its predecessor Sushi Go before so I set up the "Party Sampler" variant which showcases all things new to Sushi Go Party!.
Here's a picture of all the new stuff we had in our game
Tempura was the popular choice for today and a few of us got burned on too much Tofu but at the end, the real killer was Jimmy's Green Tea Ice Cream collection that pushed him all the way FTW.
I wish I had gotten more Wasabi
Results Of Game(s)
Winner – Jimmy (59 VPs) "The Matcha Man"
Second – Luke (44 VPs)
Third – Justin (41 VPs)
LAST – Joshua (37 VPs)
Session – Alien Frontiers
Game: Alien Frontiers
Designer: Tory Niemann
Players: 2 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 90 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Area Control, Dice Rolling, Worker Placement
For a lighter and shorter tone, I have either Alien Frontiers or King of New York which I did set up later but most of them already had to leave. I was a bit too absorbed in my own game table so unfortunately I don't have much to report on their game except for some pictures.
I still firmly believe that this is one of the better looking space games out there
Results Of Game(s)
With a clearly superior lead, the rose amongst the thorns… … Your WINNAH… …
Winner – JANE (11 VPs) "GIVE ME MY RELIC SHIP!"
Second – Luke (6 VPs)
LAST – Henry (5 VPs) "I don't know what's happening but somehow I'm never last"
LAST – Joshua (5 VPs)
Session – Clans of Caledonia
Game: Clans of Caledonia
Designer: Juma Al-JouJou
Players: 1 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 120 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Network Building, Commodity Speculation, Variable Player Powers
Player(s):
Clans of Caledonia puts the Player in control of a Scottish clan which has its own unique ability, trying to get a one-up over the next clan over the hill through the import of Cotton, Tobacco, Hops & Sugar, accomplishing feats on Scoring Tiles each round, having goods of every kind native to the moors, hoarding shiny coin and perhaps the most important & complicated component, having the most connected Settlements on the board.
Here I am representing Clan Buchanan, we like to think of ourselves as the Scottish Alibaba
I have not played enough of Clans of Caledonia to do a "Play Better" segment but a common theme I noticed in my two plays is that Players start worrying about their connected Settlements somewhere in the last round of the game because the points for first to third are 18 / 12 / 6 VPs which are not trivial by any means. Honestly, at this point it really is a little bit too late. Players need to be conscious of their expansion choices right from the start of the game because expansion decisions made in the earlier parts of the game can and WILL hamstring you. By the time you've reached the second to last round, you should know if you need to cut your losses and try to get more points through other means. In the above picture, I (in black) should have expanded faster towards the river on my right or left or towards the centre lake and cross over. At the end you can see I am totally cut off on all three sides and left to expand pointlessly on the land mass I'm currently sitting on.
Jimmy & Moses played the market very aggressively and timing was very crucial in this game
Jimmy's whopping 20 points decided the game and I knew it hence the picture
Jimmy was really building up to this, he may have won even had he not scored so many Glory points in this round but the difference would have been much closer. So there are instances in the game that when planned for, allow you to strike with the mighty force of a colossal kraken. It certainly helped that Jimmy comes from Clan Cunningham, a literal cash cow clan in the game that helped him hire the merchants necessary to pull this 20 point feat off.
Here we see the virus that is Jimmy who came very close to unifying three corners of the map
I think I made a few mistakes in this play of Clans of Caledonia. The first was the compatibility of my clan against Jimmy's clan. With Gideon & Moses busy tussling away on the other side of the map, I should have moved to stifle Jimmy in the early game so that he can't create his Cow fields cheaply to create his unending supply of 8 Gold Milk. Instead I opted to go for a strategy of filling out cheap Export Contracts by culling my Cow & Sheep fields, effectively making space for Jimmy to move in. Board presence is a very real thing in Clans of Caledonia. I also should have secured an alternate source of income like Whiskey earlier in the game to fund the growth of my clan. There's still so many things to learn in this game and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface.
Results Of Game(s)
Trust me I counted it at least three times
Winner – Jimmy (138 VPs) "Show Me The Money"
Second – Moses (111 VPs) "Stop Taking My Parking Spot"
Third – Gideon (110 VPs) "As Far As The Wind Takes Me"
LAST – Justin (107 VPs) "Sandwiched"
Moses really likes this game. I'd go so far as to say he loves it. Clans of Caledonia definitely has a home in my library mainly because of its accessibility to the people in my playgroup when compared to similar games like Terra Mystica & Gaia Project because of its theme and game length. There might be a lot of different actions you can take during a round but each action is short & simple. You don't have long resolution times after each action, you just take your turn and pass it to the next Player. Also I like that there are reminders on the board for the more quirky rules of the game which otherwise you would tend to forget. Given its reception so far, I'd say we can look forward to more plays of Clans of Caledonia.
I've been experimenting with using an old Canon PowerShot in my possession for taking videos with. At first the SD card could only record half an hour of video so I've upgraded that but now have run into a snag with the battery only lasting about 90 mins before running out and there's no easy way to overcome this problem for a 3-4 hour session. If you'd like to see our session, here's a video of it:
Even as I'm writing this, I'm expecting to pick up Gloomhaven any day now and will probably do an opening ("unboxing") video of that. Also look forward to the 2017 review which is coming up next.
Until next time, keep calm and play better.
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