Game(s) Played:
Airlines Europe
Small World
Today is Election Day in the country I live in. I'm typing this session report even as the results of the elections are coming through on the internet and all Malaysians await in anticipation of what the tomorrow of Malaysia would look like. A session report at this point in time might seem frivolous and it probably is but I might as well do something productive whilst waiting for the final results to be released. Having gone out to perform my civic duty to vote, my siblings then came over to play some boardgames seeing as we hardly get to play as a group anymore what with Padawan Minigeek going through her teething phase and Milo having moved out to live on her own.
I put Suburbia on the table but Da Panda's first question was "Is this complicated?". Having never played Suburbia before I thought it was a fairly complicated game so fished around my TV cabinet for Airlines Europe instead. Guess Suburbia will have to wait for next round, just a teensy weensy bit disappointed about that but it's okay. I planned to play a solo game to get a feel of it before bringing it to the table anyway.
A teensy weensy bit
Game #1 – Airlines Europe
Player(s):
Da Panda
Hayen
Milo
Mo
The explanation of Airlines Europe's game play drew an unexpected exclamation of "It sounds just like Ticket To Ride!". I've never played Ticket To Ride but I don't think it is quite the same game. Airlines Europe is essentially a stock holding game coupled with a little "diplomacy" in the mix. To wrap it up in a nutshell, you're trying to "persuade" other Players to invest and boost the value of the airlines you have a shareholding in without having to come up with any capital yourself. If Players start calling you a leech, you're probably playing the game right and if you have to resort to D-I-Y, then you need to work on your persuasion skills.
Mo and I tried to kickstart Jolly Roger Airships (brown) and Rio Grande Southern Europe (blue) to little avail although Mo persisted far too long in trying to imitate Tan Sri Tony Fernandez's famous AirAsia (too much of reality not fitting into the strategy of the game world). It's Funagain To Fly (orange or more like gold) was mostly funded by Da Panda and successfully leeched by Milo and Mo much to Da Panda's anguish. I gave Days Of Flying Wonders (red) a little push to see who would take the bait and Da Panda bit the hardest with Mo brilliantly latching onto some shares with no financial commitment whatsoever.
Here's a look at how the early game fleshed out
You can see Milo starting to push Flying Is Simply Fun (gray)
My efforts in FF Flys (green) went totally unrewarded although I was majority shareholder (1 share) for a long time courtesy of poorly shuffled share cards (a natural occurrence during first plays). I did make a boo boo with the scoring round cards by forgetting to turn them over in the deck, so we played the scoring round the minute the card becomes visible instead of when the person draws it. Mo will kill me for this but it's only a slight difference and wouldn't change his outcome in the slightest.
This is Milo's elation after completing her goal routes for BOTH Flying is Simply Fun (gray) and White Winds (white) and having majority in both airlines
The UK portion of the map was fairly crowded whilst Russia remained fairly sparse of investment
Those who enjoyed the game
And those who clearly didn't, see results for reason
The final look of the board
Time Taken: 150 minutes
Results Of Game
Winna - Hayen (73 Victory Coins)
2nd - Milo (66 Victory Coins)
3rd - Da Panda (63 Victory Coins)
Dead Last - Mo (48 Victory Coins)
I've played Airlines Europe a couple of times now, mostly at BGN Puchong, and whilst I'm not head over heels over it, it is one of the better 4-5 Player games I've played in a while. Airlines Europe rewards Players who are good at reading other Players' tendencies and if you're playing with family or close friends, you get the added bonus of being able to psycho them into making the investments you're interest in, all in good fun (for the winner of course).
Quote of the game:
Upon announcing the scoring of one of the airlines,
Da Panda: "Yes. No thanks to you bunch of leeches, please learn to contribute to our investment!"
Not having much time left, I suggested Small World to which Mo declared that Da Panda would enjoy it as she likes to "attack and conquer" apparently. This turned out to be an understatement.
Game #2 – Small World
Player(s):
Da Panda
Hayen
Milo
Mo
Mo opted to go first and quickly picked up the Seafaring Amazons and proceeded to carve out an entire quarter of the map for himself with 15 Amazonian Archers with minimal clothing. This would prove to give him a virtually unassailable lead. Da Panda led with the Berserker Orcs which was not really altogether that great in the end as the temptation to earn bonus Victory Coins from occupied territories is a waste of Orcs really and gave her 6 territories tops in the end. Milo chose to lead with the Bivouacking Elves and used her Encampments to throw up a Helm's Deep on the right side of the board. It may have been a mistake but I decided on the Wealthy Dwarves for the 4 Victory Coins sitting on it on top of the 7 Victory Coins Wealthy gives and just smashed and grabbed two mines before going into decline.
The Amazonians have taken over
By this point, Mo was running rampant with his Dragon Master Sorcerors although I now have checked (think I need to rewrite my short notes to remember all of this) and confirmed that the Sorceror power has been wrongly used by Mo as it only affects active races and not those in decline or the Lost Tribe. Unchecked, the Sorcerors run rampant, turning single token territories over to their side.
Da Panda's Underworld Halflings held all the underworld entrances but didn't expand much from there whilst Milo's Stout Wizards came and went in the blink of an eye. I tried to use the Merchant Ratmen to halt Mo's unending viral expansion but 10 Ratmen were just too few to make a difference. Having achieved his goal, Mo shifted to the Hill Tritons (a really strange combo) to take coastal territories cheap. Da Panda went with Spirit Giants but it was a bit unfortunate that they didn't see much action as we had to end the game early at 7 rounds due to dinner commitments but managed to smash my Flying Skeletons so badly it kinda ended the fight in them. Milo's Fortified Humans were trailblazers that took ground and never gave back and gave her that final boost she needed at the end.
Go Merchant Ratmen! Always keep profit not cheese in mind!
Time Taken: 75 minutes
Results Of Game
Winna – Mo (92 Victory Coins)
2nd – Hayen (79 Victory Coins)
3rd - Da Panda (76 Victory Coins)
Dead Last - Milo (73 Victory Coins)
Editor's note: Da Panda & Milo, is this correct?
Mo's artistic rendering of WIN. He won't win any more next time
I've said it before and I really need to comb through the forums for all the errata of Small World in order to make this game a lot more balanced.
Well, I've finished my session report and it's already the next day and results of the polls are still trickling in. Let's hope for peace and a results that are for a better Malaysia.
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