Hari Raya is a good time to rest & play some boardgames (relaxing usually does not figure into the boardgames that I play). This year, the Oei family went on a retreat to Ulu Yam (a mere hour from the haze & noise of the city), something we haven’t done as a family in the last 4-5 years or so.
Game(s) Played:
Airlines Europe
Caverna
Session – Airlines Europe
For the first day of our retreat, I pulled out Airlines Europe since it plays well with 5 Players. This turned out to be an all Oei event which included our dad, Oei Senior, playing his first eurogame ever! Here’s how things panned out.
Player(s):
Oei Senior
Da Panda
Justin
Milo
Mo
As a general consensus, the siblings actually have a love hate relationship with Airlines Europe. We really hate the fact that "leeching" (having shares in airlines you didn’t invest in) is a key strategy to this game but love the bickering part about it that inevitably ensues.
Right at the get go, we have 2 Players vying for & investing in the White Winds Airline (white) whilst I single-handedly invested in FF Flys (green)
Two things you end up learning from playing Airlines Europe, the first is that cooperatively or uncooperatively, it is in your interest to "leech" or co-invest in airlines with other Players. Rambo through this game at the cost of your loss. A certain amount of diplomacy is therefore required and this game was no different with Da Panda, Milo & Mo the biggest threateners, name callers, intimidators & shameless eyeballers of them all.
And despite all of that, we’re still family, albeit a wacky dysfunctional one
We finished the game having managed to accomplish all the bonuses connections on the map. Another unusual event we accomplished was depleting the Air ABACUS shares in a real street fight between the siblings towards the end of the game.
Dad seemed very particular in not taking money as an action, preferring to make small investments & getting returns from placing shares. I suspect that if he had a better share draw he would have done much better. Mo’s luck was actually ridiculous & he more or less piggy backed Da Panda’s investments all the way to victory. She’d invest in an airline & then the airline’s share card would open in the market just in time for him to scoop it for majority interest. Like Dad, my opening hand was in airlines the others were not invested in & although I tried to generate some interest, doing it in Air Amigos (yellow) the lowest starting ranking airline was probably a mistake since the other siblings were trading those shares for Air ABACUS shares instead.
I really spent too much on FF Flys (green) & everyone else more or less leeched me
Time Taken: 120 minutes
Results Of Game(s)
Winna – Mo (89 VPs)
Second – Da Panda (82 VPs)
Third – Milo (81 VPs)
Fourth – Dad (78 VPs)
Dead Last – Justin (72 VPs)
Rating: 7/10
When I first played Airlines Europe, I thought that this game was really made for those who could lie between their teeth and I maintain that stand by suggesting you play this game with those who have questionable loyalty for maximum enjoyment.
Session – Caverna
Ah Caverna, otherwise known as Agricola 2. Milo wanted to play Agricola so I proposed Caverna instead to see what the reaction would be. Explaining the actions available wasn't too difficult, it was going through the harvest sequence & rules for housing animals that was difficult to stick in the minds of the new Players.
Player(s):
Justin C (Orange)
Justin O (Green)
Milo (Turquoise)
Mo (Red)
So we have a new Player, who through coincidence has the same name as me, so he shall be referred to as Justin C until further notice. I stole the "Blacksmithing" action from under Mo's nose to be the first to have an armed dwarf. I never got a dwarf with a weapon value of over 10 unlike Milo & Mo, the weaponized dwarf was just a means to an end to secure crop seed for my fields since everyone kept stealing the "Sustenance" action.
Mo took the lead in dwarf birthing, being the only Player at the end to have all 5 dwarves in play. He maintained his strategy from the previous game in being the big zookeeper to complement his "Fodder Chamber" (1VP per 3 Farm Animals). Am not sure why he ended up having so many cows, especially since having "Slaughtering Cave" (+1 Food per Animal Slaughtered) meant he need only kill his pigs.
We forgot to take pictures of the start game, this game saw a LOT of adventuring going on though
Here's my dwarf fortress & I was more of a crop farmer than an animal one
Milo was quietly amassing truckloads of rubies whilst using her crop & animal farm to meet the minimum requirements of food and non-negative scoring. She ended up having 12 rubies AND the "Treasure Chamber" (1VP per Ruby) resulting in 24 whopping points there in itself.
Boardgames, bringing relationships closer, except when playing Cosmic Encounter
Justin C did pretty well for a first timer. He took a really good early room in "Working Cave" (Feed 1 Dwarf with 1 Wood / 1 Stone / 2 Ore) that Mo & I were eyeing. He was concerned with making sure he had enough food every turn to feed his dwarves & with the "Working Cave", honestly it wasn't too hard. The really good thing about Caverna (and we actually mentioned it in-game) is that Justin C could go into crop farming two thirds of the way in and that's okay for Caverna. Such a thing would never work in Agricola.
Here we are at game's end
I kinda made a boo boo (which Mo pointed out as well). I had "Food Chamber" (2VP per pair of Vege & Wheat) which was good for my crop farming but I also had "Cooking Cave" (5 Food per pair of Vege & Wheat) which I should have used much less often & sacrificed more of my animals for food instead. This difference may sound trivial but wait till you see the scores.
I attribute my mistake to my bleary eyes. Maybe we should have settled for Lords of Vegas instead
Milo was really proud of her "Cuddle Room", which IMO isn't all that great but cheap for 1 Wood
Time Taken: 165 minutes
Results Of Game(s)
Winna x 3 – Justin O, Milo & Mo (68 VPs)
Dead Last – Justin C (52 VPs)
Uh... We win?
Rating: 9/10
3 Players tied for first place, how unlikely is that? I actually counted each score 4 times, top to bottom then bottom to top. 3 Players using three altogether different strategies can come up with an exact equal score. Honestly, that's what so great about Caverna. A Player doesn't get shut out even though the action spaces available are still limited as ever & Player turn sequence does not create unbalanced situations. We need to play this with the full set of rooms available.
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