An Evening with Rich The Fish

[Decar]

On Tuesday Rich the Fish was visiting Bristol, which is relatively close to where I live.  We arranged to meetup for some dinner in "Three Brothers Burgers" and then head to "Chance & Counters" near the Christmas Steps.  We visited when they first opened, so we knew what to expect.

I had Mega Burger, which was aptly named. 

We started with some Lanterns:




I lost both games, the second because I didn't use a pair of switchy tokens when I had the chance.  I honestly was confussled most of these games, wondering how I knew which colour was most important, because a bunch of random unknown tiles had been removed from the deck.  The games didn't feel long enough to get into.  I'll stick with Carcassonne.

Next up was Dominion.  Rich The Fish had never played before, so opened up the 'First Game' and did a terrible job of explaining the rules. 
I'm not a Dominion Expert, but I love the engine building aspects.  My engine was pretty cumbersome and I had several hands where all 3 of my Smithies were drawn at once.  Rich was very close behind, but I managed to pull through:


Rich showed me how to play Port Royale.  I really liked this game, I liked how the cards were also money.  I made a poor purchase during the mid-game and I felt like It could have gone on a little longer, but Rich was able to close a Trade Deal leaving me with 6 or 7 points:

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We finished our evening with 2 games of Arboretum.  Rich was able to explain the rules.  This one's a very tight hand management game.  You have to be very observant of the other player and count which cards you've seen.  Neither of those things I'm very good at.  I went all in on the last round and risked everything on an 'Oak' path.  It's safe to say I won't be winning the Chelsea Flower Show 2017 - that award goes to Rich!



Thanks again for finding time to catch up and play a few games Rich - I hope we get to do it again soon!

Merit to you for suggesting it!   

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3127.0

[Rich_The_Fish]

It was great to meet up with you Decar - thanks very much for travelling up to meet me , especially on a 'school' night.

I had a really enjoyable evening and am pleased that we managed to play a few games which I'd wanted to try for ages, although can't believe we didn't manage to play Carc! I agree with you about Lanterns, it did seem rather random and I wasn't sure which colours to prioritise and struggled to think a move or two ahead. I was somewhat disappointed with it to be honest, but maybe I expected too much. Dominion was the other game I'd not played before and I really enjoyed it once I got to grip with what I was supposed to be doing (nothing to do with your explanation of the rules I might add). I'm definitely looking forward to playing it again despite being thrashed - it wasn't very close in the end, but kind of you to say otherwise!

I was impressed with Chance & Counters (again) and thought the staff were approachable and very helpful eg. offering to explain rules.

Cheers for posting a write up of our evening (merit given), I hope we can schedule another one in a few months time.

[Decar]

Hope you're feeling a bit better too!

Glad you liked Dominion, that's a real can of worms you might be getting into 

They've just released a 2nd Edition, which changed some of the cards in the base game box; it's quite pricey at the moment, but the 1st editions may be cheap

[jungleboy]

Thanks for the report and it's great that you got to meet up.

About Lanterns, which I think is a nice little game:

I lost both games, the second because I didn't use a pair of switchy tokens when I had the chance.  I honestly was confused most of these games, wondering how I knew which colour was most important, because a bunch of random unknown tiles had been removed from the deck. The games didn't feel long enough to get into.  I'll stick with Carcassonne.

I agree with you about Lanterns, it did seem rather random and I wasn't sure which colours to prioritise and struggled to think a move or two ahead. I was somewhat disappointed with it to be honest, but maybe I expected too much.

It seems you both had trouble prioritising colours. I think the first thing you should do on your turn is see if you're able to match up a colour (any colour) to ensure that you get two cards (or more) instead of one, which is going to be the better play on most turns unless you're close to being able to make a dedication and you need one specific card to do it. I think you spend your first few turns of the game doing this and then see where you're at in terms of being close to dedications and then you decide which one to go for. Then you do what you need to do to make the dedication you chose, then you see what you have left and reload with double-card turns where possible to go for your second dedication, and so on. The three types of dedications are all pretty balanced because the ones that are worth more require more cards to achieve them, so I think at any given point in the game you just see what cards you already have, look at what your opponent(s) are going for, see which dedication tokens are being depleted, and this determines what colours you should go for. Plus, with a three-tile hand, you know what colours you're going to able to get in your next few turns should you need one in particular.

Meanwhile, there is an expansion for Lanterns that's coming out about now so maybe this could create the longer game Decar is looking for. Although there aren't any new/more tiles, just other features like pavilion pieces, a new type of token, and wild lantern cards.

[Rich_The_Fish]

Thanks for the explanation Jungleboy. I did try to prioritise getting multiple lanterns but whenever I planned a few moves ahead, Decar ruined it by playing a tile there instead! Just to be clear, I didn't dislike the game and would like to give it another few plays but I wasn't as keen on it as I thought I would be (having watched a few glowing reviews and I know you're a fan). If I'm honest, Lanterns is probably something that I'll play on a few occasions when visiting board game cafés rather than one to add to our collection - the missus isn't too happy with the number of games we've (I've) already got, so any new ones need to be favourites! I'm more likely to get the (android) app, particularly if they release a digital expansion.

[Decar]

Thanks jungleboy - I also seemed to struggle with losing a good spot to Rich the Fish.  I also quickly realized that playing to make L-shapes gave more opportunities to Rich completing a pair (or two) and getting an extra token; much like in Cacao.  I wouldn't turn down a game, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to play again!

[Decar]

Last week, Rich the Fish was visiting Bristol once again, so we had an opportunity to catch up and play a few games (and go for another burger  ).

Rules of Play recently opened their doors in Bristol, so we met there to see what they had to offer.  Rules of Play have been located in Cardiff for many years now and have a vast library of games to pull from.  They're very good at hosting gaming events in the city too, so wish them the best of luck with their new venture.  I do find their prices somewhat expensive, but they were offering 10% off and was recommended Taluva, so will give this a shot in the coming weeks (hopefully).  Rich was unable to find any Christmas bargains, so we got some dinner and then headed over to Chance & Counters.

Disaster: it turned out they were fully booked, and we'd only have 90-minutes at the table.

We decided on Takenoko, a classic game that neither of us had played before.  We both struggled with the turn sequencing to begin with.  Roll the Dice, mess about with something we're not sure on yet, choose an action that you've not done yet... does the Bambo always double-grow.  Regardless, after a few turns it was straight-forward and there was little chance of any AP.  I have to say it reminded me very much of Lanterns, except you actually had some tactical decisions to make (those of you who read about our last encounter will know my feelings on the randomness of the set collection in Lanterns).  I took a couple of photos:




It was a close game, we both found that there was a lot of tall bamboo at the end of the game, and thus it was easy to win points simply by drawing a gardener-tile; chances were the combination would be present.  In fact that's pretty much how I managed to win the game, a lucky draw on the last turn.  I probably won't go out and buy this one, but glad I had the chance to play it, far superior set-collecting game to Lanterns, imho!

We had about 15-minutes left, so Rich the Fish showed me Odin's Ravens.  I'm quite disappointed I didn't buy this when I had the chance, it's already out of print.  The production is standard Osprey: very high quality velvety-cards and excellent artwork (mostly) Rich the Fish has a copy, so was able to confirm the rules nice a quickly.  The game is a pretty simple race and the iconography was excellent. I only had to look at the rule book once or twice, very intuitive.

We headed back to Rich The Fish's Hotel and sat in the lobby for one of my favourite portable games:  Mint Works (not Mink Worts, that's another game entirely).  We managed to play 4 of so games, and I'm always struck at how hard it is to determine the best order to execute certain actions.  Even determining when to end the round is difficult.  But at any one time, there aren't many options to choose from.  Some of the Buildings score large multipliers and these can end a game quickly, but thankfully all the games are quick enough to just start again.  I'd like to experiment with 3mints = 1 star and first to 9-11 stars too.  I'm looking forward to Mint Delivery sometime next year.



We decided to venture out for some coffee at 10pm... If you're in Bristol at 10pm and want coffee...my advice would be...don't.  The McDonalds Coffee Machine was out of order and we ended up traipsing around for 15minutes hoping to find somewhere.  We ultimately ended up in KFC where RichTheFish was presented with 1/2 a cup of coffee.  Thankfully, the company was significantly better than the service.  RichTheFish had a sneaky packet of travel-cards in his pocket and proceeded to kick-my-ass at a variant of patience.  Deep down I knew it was one of those games you either had to avoid, or force an event to happen based on the number of options available to a player...but by 10pm my brain was having none of it.

Thanks again for taking the time out of your busy schedule to catch-up and play some boardgames RichTheFish!  I'm looking forward to your next romp down-south so we can book at table at C&C next time 

[Rich_The_Fish]

Hi Decar. Thanks for popping over to Bristol to meet up. I had a very enjoyable evening despite the limited table time at C&C which meant we couldn't try out Clank in Space as originally planned. Now we know tables are rather limited, we'll definitely have to book for next time.

I'm pleased you brought Mint Works with you, as despite getting thrashed virtually each game we played I really enjoyed it. I agree a higher point count would be definitely worth trying and a few extra cards wouldn't probably go amiss. Still, I can't wait for my copy to arrive with Mint Delivery when the Kickstarter is fulfilled, as it'll be an ideal travel game.

Spoke with a chap at work yesterday, who mentioned there's a couple of other board game shops in Bristol (which I wasn't aware of). There's Excelsior on Bond St (incidentally opposite where it was staying) and Area51 on Gloucester Rd a bit further out. Think they'll be worth paying a visit next time I'm down, particularly if I've managed to play a few of the games I'd consider buying but want to try first (such as Azul, Sagrada and maybe Down Force as recommended by Rules Bristol).

Thanks once again and look forward to seeing you (and others) for a meet up sometime in the New Year. Have a great Christmas and hope Santa brings you lots of goodies!