Hi everyone, I should announce that the hiatus is technically over. My wife, the amazingly supportive person that she is, officially okayed my first session at home yesterday and whilst it won't be a weekly affair, hopefully I will be able to host monthly sessions (and as a result, posts) again. So who best to have my first session with but my siblings although one sister de-prioritized us... again... for other affairs.
Game(s) Played:
Seasons
Small World
Game #1 – Seasons
Player(s):
Hayen
Milo
Mo
I really wanted to give Seasons a try having heard both the good and bad from different quarters of the internet. The general consensus seems to be that Seasons is best with 2 Players and no more because it becomes a micro-management nightmare of powers and abilities. Another prevalent comment is that Seasons, the online version, is a far better joy to play since the programming takes care of all the nitty gritty fiddly-ness. In order to confirm / dispel these opinions, here's a report of the 2 rounds of Seasons that we played yesterday:
The game explanation didn't take very long as many aspects of the game already appear in other games that we have already played. We started with the recommended pre-set decks in the rulebook and Mo, being the youngest Player, got to go first. Considering this is our first game, we all drafted pretty well. Mo brought out his Staff of Spring & Yjang's Forgotten Vase early which gave him Crystals & Energy for summoning Power Cards (although it now looks like we played Yjang's Forgotten Vase wrong because we got free Energy Tokens for summons through other Power Cards as well). He used the Balance of Ishtar in the middle to late game to rack up his Crystals since he was never short of Energy Tokens. Milo on the other hand seemed on a summoning streak, having the Bespelled Grimoire (break the stored Energy limit) and Yjang's Forgotten Vase gave her enough to summon all the Power Cards she had plus whatever else she drew through the Dice & Amulet of Fire. I gave up my Amulet of Earth (9 Crystals) to her Sylass the Faithful (all opponents sacrifice a Power Card) but I don't remember Mo's Power Card although I think Mo took more damage from it.
Milo with her 8 Power Cards to my 6 and Mo's 4
I too had the Bespelled Grimoire and the Wondrous Chest (although I'm pretty sure there were a few times I forgot to gain my 3 Crystals). On top of that, I played Figrim the Avaricious & Hourglass of Time wrong! We wrongly interpreted a change of season as a change of year although we did get this right in the next game. My best card though was the Dice of Malice (re-roll the Dice you choose and gain 2 Crystals for your "trouble") which let me really screw with Mo's Dice choices since I could pick the Die he wanted and re-roll it if I didn't like the action plus gain Crystals at the same time. Mo however, still managed to use his Potion of Dreams (sacrifice all Energy Tokens for a free summon) to good effect by combining it to summon Runic Cube of Eolis for free (effectively gaining 30 Crystals for free). One common issue we all shared throughout the first half of the game was the limitation of the summoning gauge placed on us. Dice with Stars were really popular throughout the game, especially for Milo who really went for broke. Towards the end of the game, our Crystals stood as follows: (1) Mo - 86 Crystals (2) Hayen - 77 Crystals & (3) Milo - 66 Crystals.
Just before the end of the game, you can see the Power Card disparity here as well
However, the final tally showed Milo had 65 Points from her Power Cards alone pushing her right into the forefront to take the win.
Time Taken: 60 minutes
Results Of Game
Winna – Milo (151 Crystals)
Second – Hayen (149 Crystals)
Dead Last – Mo (143 Crystals)
Milo's game winning hand
Wishing I had interpreted Hourglass Of Time correctly
Game #2 – Seasons
Player(s):
Hayen
Milo
Mo
In the next game I decided to try the Archmage level (basically means you use all the Power Cards available) which includes a drafting stage similar to 7 Wonders. Point to note that if your Players are unfamiliar with the Power Cards, this stage is going to take a heck of a long time to get through (all eyes cast their blame on Mo). I suppose the general idea is that you want some Power Cards that give you freebies early on in the game to maximize their usefulness, some free summoning to take advantage of a high cost but powerful Power Card and some "take that" Power Cards to deter your opponents along the way. Strategy is important even at this stage, I managed to unknowingly throw a wrench into Mo's plan by passing him the Naria the Prophetess as his last draft Power Card which he couldn't summon in the end (5 Crystal Penalty) to take advantage of the Sealed Chest of Urm (20 Crystals if all you have are Magic Item Power Cards) which he managed to draft an entire deck of Magic Items unknowing to Milo and me except for that one Naria the Prophetess. I just laughed as if I had planned it all along.
Sometimes if your plans were really good, it does feel like this picture
Again we all encountered a similar problem in this round, partly because of my selfishness. I may be wrong but if I'm right, the draft for our first 3 Power Cards all contained the Blue Energy Token as cost and by not taking the 3 pip Die as my action like a good last Player should, I changed the season to green within 1 turn of starting the game. In actual fact I screwed myself over more than Milo and Mo since they still managed to get some Power Cards to the table at the end of the first year whilst I had summoned zero Power Cards.
Mo had a lot more control over his strategy this round, using the Beggar's Horn (Gain 1 Energy Token if you only have 1 Energy or less) & Hourglass of Time (with correct interpretation of rules) in the early game to great effect by trading away the extra Energy Tokens he received from these two cards, particularly with the Balance of Ishtar which made his Crystal accumulation unstoppable. With the extra 20 Crystals from Sealed Chest of Urm, he got 63 Points from his Power Cards, giving him a more than comfortable 48 Crystal margin over Milo & me. Milo really liked the Dice of Malice from my earlier game and used it to try and get actions she wanted although that didn't really work out for her. She too had the Sealed Chest of Urm strategy which worked out for her but her 2 copies of Ragfield's Helm (20 Crystals if you have the most Power Cards) and Lantern of Xidit (3 Crystals per Energy Token) didn't really work out for her else she might have gotten the win instead.
Hopefully you have a Plan B
I did awfully as I mentioned, not summoning anything until the second year and then my major transmuting strategy with Lewis Greyface (gain Energy Tokens of the same type of another Player) & Sid Nightshade (I misread this card to mean Energy Tokens instead of Crystals thinking I could steal 10 Crystals and transmute them) simply fell through the cracks due to misinterpretation of Sid Nightshade as well as Wondrous Chest (which I mistook for Bespelled Grimoire otherwise how would I hold 10 Energy Tokens). I'm surprised I did as well as I did in the round considering the epic fail in my planned strategy.
Poor planning begets poor results
Time Taken: 60 minutes
Results Of Game
Winna – Mo (181 Crystals)
Tied for Dead Last – Hayen & Milo (133 Crystals)
Mo's winning hand well executed
Rating: 8/10
Comments:
On the overall we enjoyed playing Seasons. It was a relatively fast 2 games for us although the speed of the game is actually controlled by the Players. Technically the game can be as short as 12 turns per Player or as long as 36 turns per Player. The economy in the game is something refreshing for us as I don't have any other game where the value of a good changes from season to season so if you've played a lot of train games then this may be a bit stale for you. And yes, true enough there is a fair bit of micro-management and there is a tendency to forget that you have this ability or that power simply because they take place at different times: some powers take place during summoning, others at the end of each turn, and some others at the change of each season which can get especially difficult if you're trying to monitor everybody's powers & abilities at the same time.
Here's where being a veteran of Through The Ages helps. Just make a conscious effort to remember to check through all your Power Cards during those three times and do it just for yourself. We house rule that if you forget your own ability and power, it is considered that you forfeit its usage for that turn and cannot demand it back, although we are lenient if you beg hard enough, or at least some of us are lenient.
I personally don't see this as a problem although I understand that having complicated rules and many things happening at once is the limitation of board games which is why computer adaptations are preferred. Could this be the limit of board game design that cannot be hurdled? In any case, that's a topic of discussion for another day.
My only gripe (and I believe others have mentioned this) is the randomness of the Dice which limits the actions you can take, particularly if you're going last that turn. The Dice are really important in the early game as the only source of Summoning Power and Energy Tokens before your Power Cards come into play and there appears to be no way to circumvent crappy rolls in the early game unless you consider using the Bonus Gauge Powers (Incrementally -5 Crystals per use) as a viable strategy. This really slows the game down a lot, which actually happened in our second game where Players kept taking actions by passing their turn immediately simply because they cannot do anything. Again I can only see using the Bonus Gauge Powers as a way to circumvent this but am not sure if it is worth losing 5 Crystals or more over, I will have to try it out in subsequent plays to see if it is so.
On the whole, I'd play Seasons again if you ever ventured to ask me so I count it as a positively positive experience. Look forward to more plays of this one.
Game #3 – Small World
Player(s):
Hayen
Milo
Mo
Mo wanted another round of Seasons (he must have liked it a lot) but got outvoted by Milo and me to play Small World instead. Small World is a pretty old game and I must confess that I was partly influenced by Wil Wheaton's Table Top episode and partly influenced by the 30% discount I got on it to include it in my collection.
Again, there has been a major complaint of fiddly-ness and the game being a bit too simplistic. Let's see if any of this rings true:
Milo being the most pointy-eared amongst us was given the right to be first Player (I think first Player advantage is my biggest gripe in board game design) and astutely picked the Pillaging Ratmen (+1 VC for conquering occupied Regions) and proceeded to 10 Regions right from the get go. Mo's Commando Dwarves were sadly decimated quite early by my Swamp Skeletons and Mo went into decline once he saw that the Stout Orcs can circumvent the penalties of going into decline. Mo's Orcs didn't last long either and he finally decided on the lily eared Bivouacking Elves and took foothold in the lower left quadrant of Mountains and Encampments against the onslaught on Milo's Dragon Master Ghouls. With the Skeleton Army's reign coming to an end against the onslaught of Orcs, Elves and Ratmen, I picked up the Underworld Humans (strange match) to take over the now declined Regions held by the Ratmen. Seeing this, Milo declined her Ghouls (who continue to attack in undeath) and picked up the Diplomatic Halflings to decimate the Humans and order a peace with the Elves.
It's a very, very small world after all
Mo's Elves continued to hold the high ground through immortality and terrain bonuses whilst I brought in the Merchant Trolls (I have a penchant for unorthodox Races & Powers) to occupy the Regions which are caught between the Elves and the now declined Halflings and the new Heroic Amazons who proceeded to mop up whatever was left of the Human Race.
After the dust had settled, it came as a fairly big surprise to all of us that I had won. However, after writing this report I've come to realize a few things. I never actually "paid" to use any particular Race because the Race I picked usually had enough coins on it to more than offset the coins I put down to pick it. I also managed an average of 10 Victory Coins a turn although my lowest was about 5 Victory Coins and I think most importantly, I went into decline at the right times whilst Mel overdid it and Mo underdid it. Timing in this game is absolutely key and I want to investigate some of the interpretations of the Race Powers that we may have wrongly interpreted this time such as the Bivouacking Power and the Trolls' Race Power.
Time Taken: 90 minutes
Results Of Game
Winna – Hayen (105 Victory Coins)
Second – Milo (102 Victory Coins
Dead Last – Mo (95 Victory Coins)
My Victory Coins
Milo's Coins on the board
Mo's poor Elves
Rating: 7/10
Comments:
Small World is an easy game to teach and learn (although I seem to recall having to repeat "to conquer you must use 2 tokens + whatever is in the Region" a fair number of times, isn't it easy to understand?) which may lead to the misconception that the game is a bit too simplistic. I on the other hand think that the game scales with the ability of the Players and can just imagine the intensity of a game of Small World played by master APists (as well as the incredibly long time they will take), each calculating the maximum VC they can get from declining or attacking.
Small World got mixed responses from Milo and Mo with Milo enjoying it for its simplicity whilst Mo disliked it for its Ameritrash roots I believe. In the end, Mo is a Euro gamer at heart who loves building engines of mass VP collection. I actually enjoyed my first play of Small World although I have some concern about the balance of the Races seeing as everyone will pick Ratmen in all our subsequent games.
I do have to admit that it is actually quite fiddly, largely due to the design of the insert. I think I may have commented before that Small World has an insert that fits everything near perfectly and that, I realize, is a problem in itself because it fits too perfectly and is a major pain to extract, particularly in a game that requires you to move pieces and make change for Victory Coins A LOT. Fortunately, this is easily remedied, just like most other games, by simply throwing the insert out and figuring out your optimum storage solution. Strangely enough, this very act appears to be a baptism of board game owners of some sorts as many new board game owners I know view this act as equivalent to committing sacrilege. To those of you out there with this "problem", all I have to say is that it gets easier with practice.
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