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Topics - jungleboy

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1
Reviews & Session Reports / Old enemies renew their fierce rivalry
« on: March 21, 2020, 04:47:55 AM »
Last night danisthirty and jungleboy renewed their ancient rivalry in an epic game that would have been played in front of a full house at JCloisterZone Arena if not for the international ban on mass gatherings.

The game was base + Besiegers + Mage & Witch + phantom. It was close all the way and in the end, I secured a 152-149 victory with the last tile of the game, a FFFR cloister which allowed me to tie up the main farm.

IIRC, we also played another game before this one but I don't remember who won. I'll just assume it was me!

2
General / First turn choices
« on: January 02, 2020, 01:56:06 AM »
Four-player game. I'm green and go last. Hmm...


3
General / 5-tile, 4-inn road
« on: December 20, 2019, 01:55:34 AM »
Too bad your score doesn’t increase for having multiple inns!


4
Other Games / Senet (Ancient Egyptian Board Game)
« on: December 07, 2019, 12:22:36 AM »
A couple of days ago at the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, I came across the game of Senet. The board and components were found in the tomb of Kha, one of the most famous displays in the museum.



According to Wikipedia, Senet dates from 3100 BC, but the complete rules aren't known.

5
Last night I met Chooselife in a Brazilian bar in Lisbon for some reciprocal postman action and a couple of games. It was a good night for Chooselife as he won both games we played (Raiders of the North Sea and Carcassonne: The Castle) as my tradition of loving the Castle but not being good at it continued!

It was his first game of the Castle but he picked it up pretty quickly! He managed to create and build a good court early on and was fortunate to get the wall tile giving him an extra point per market in his court. I started off well by picking up the first two wall tiles and getting the biggest keep but I lost my way a bit in the middle part of the game, opening too many features (which would not get completed) rather than trying to close existing ones to keep the scoreboard ticking over and potentially get more wall tiles. Chooselife moved ahead on points about halfway through the game and began to pick up wall tiles of his own. The final score was 87-72 in favour of Chooselife. Congratulations!


6
On Saturday we had a great four-person meetup at d20 Board Game Cafe in London. The meetup starred Decar (Tom), Rich_The_Fish (Rich), danisthirty (Danisactuallythirtyseven) and myself (Nick). None of us live in London so everyone had to trek a bit to get there. Decar and Rich had to drive pretty far in snowy conditions and at one point we weren't sure if Decar was going to make it. Their commitment to attending the event was much appreciated!

It was the first time any of us had been to d20. We chose it because it is in western London and was therefore easier to get to for the three non-jungleboy players who would have otherwise had to go through the centre of London to get to Draughts, where we've held previous meetups. I think we all thought d20 was a pretty good venue. Our table was only just big enough for Dice City which has a large table footprint, but otherwise we had enough space, enough games to choose from and enough food and drinks to keep us going for a mammoth eight-hour session.



Citadels (left to right): 'King' Tom, 'Why can't I still take my turn after being assassinated?' Rich, and warlordisthirty

So, onto the games!

We played eight games in all. We originally chose two each and Rich and Dan both got their two games to the table. Decar got one of his, and I made a last-minute change and chose a different game. We also played Carcassonne (of course!), so with seven games in the books with about 50 minutes to go in our session, we decided not to attempt either of the last two choices and go with 7 Wonders instead.

Flamme Rouge
Finishing order: Rich, Tom, Dan, Nick
I think we all thought the game had the potential to be pretty cool but we had some issues with a few aspects of gameplay and also some of the components which could have been more clearly defined.



Habitats
Finishing order: Nick, Tom, Rich, Dan
Fun tile-laying game where you're building a safari park and trying to 'score' your animals by surrounding them with the right types of landscapes. It's a bit fiddly flipping tiles upside down to change their state from incomplete to complete, but otherwise I thought it was a nice game. The tile draft is quite cool too.



Imhotep
Finishing order: Rich, Nick, Tom, Dan
This was probably my favourite game of the day. I've really enjoyed Imhotep the last few times I've played it. We played the A sides because no one else had played before, but we did add the private ship mini-expansion which was cool.



Citadels
Finishing order: Nick, Rich, Tom, Dan
I've wanted to play this for a while and I really enjoyed it. I think we had a good player count for it and a good group to play some 'take that' with the assassin and the thief.



Carcassonne
Finishing order: Nick, Dan, Rich, Tom
The 'main event' of the day was a four-player base game. There was a very controversial ending, which will live on in infamy for eternity, when Decar convinced Rich not to join his incomplete city with Dan's at the death. This gave me the win by one point ahead of Dan and ended up costing Rich a spot. But it was extremely close - I think there were only five points separating 1st from 4th so it really was anyone's game.



NMBR 9
Finishing order: Rich, Nick, Tom, Dan
A light filler of the multi-player solitaire type. Rich won fairly handily by virtue of having both his number 9 tiles on upper levels IIRC.



Dice City
Finishing order: Dan, Nick, Rich/Tom (t-3rd)
I liked this game but I think we felt that there were a few too many things going on in terms of options on your turn, and not enough interaction between the players. It's an engine-builder which I don't usually do well at but I thought I played OK.



7 Wonders
Finishing order: Tom, Nick/Rich/Dan (t-2nd)
Very close game with Tom scoring 44 and everyone else scoring 41. Tom engaged in a massive arms race (that no one else was paying attention to) in the third age to pick up both 5-point military tokens which helped give him the win. It was interesting to see that we all went for a different strategy but ended up with almost the same score.



After eight hours of solid gaming we went out for a curry and a debrief of everything we'd played. Thanks to all participants for coming and hopefully we can do it again one of these days!

7
The Marketplace / Jungleboy’s Carcassonne Cleanout
« on: January 01, 2018, 01:46:46 AM »
Happy New Year! In the spirit of Decar’s cleanout and the holiday season, I’m doing one of my own. If you’d like to claim or buy any of these, reply in this thread - first come, first serve.

Update: all the free items have now been claimed. There are still items for sale.

Rule: only one item/bundle per person.

ITEMS FOR SALE

Basically Wooden Carcassonne Travel Box - €20 plus postage
(Product information at Basically Wooden)
Comes with trays and with 13 dividers (or as many as desired). Some dividers are blank and others have icons on them (one with the Carcassonne C, one for T&B, one for I&C, one for M&W, one for Besiegers, one for the 50/100 score tiles and two others). There’s a scoreboard on the bottom of the box. This is a beautiful box but I just don’t have any use for it as I already have two BW big boxes. In this thread there are more photos




 
Mini 5 - Mage and Witch - €10
Sold to SamoolSamosa

The Besiegers - €20
Sold to Xanderx12

ITEMS FOR FREE

Carcassonne Score Mat (That you can roll up for playing on the go - it comes from the old CarcassonneShoppe.)
Claimed by Rich_the_Fish

Carcassonne Coasters (Bundle of 19, including three abbeys. These are the non-shiny ones, I believe originally designed for Carcassonne for Adults, also from the Carcassonne Shoppe.)
Claimed by Willem

Carcassonne Coloured Meeple Bags (Set of eight. They have the colour name written on the back of the bag in Spanish.)
Claimed by Sinscerly (+ bonus Plague bag)

Carcassonne Tile Bag (2)
Claimed by thodekey and Mr Meeple

8
Other Games / Which games or expansions are you looking forward to in 2018?
« on: December 29, 2017, 06:29:50 AM »
Since 2018 is nearly upon us, I thought I'd get the ball rolling. Obviously a lot of 2018 games (especially Essen releases) haven't even been announced yet, but I thought people could post what they're looking forward to as of now, and then when new titles get announced throughout the year that sound interesting, we can add those to the thread too. I'll start with a few, all links and pics are from BGG.

Kashgar: Merchants of the Silk Road
This is a 2013 language-dependent twist on deck-building that's only been available in German until now, as Grail Games is releasing an English edition, which I've preordered. My interest in the game stems from several things: firstly, it's set in Kashgar, a Chinese merchant city in the Xinjian region at the northern end of the Karakoram Highway that I've been to, so that's the sort of thing that draws me in to check out a game in the first place. My limited experience of standard deck-builders (the 'play five cards on your turn' type) is that they don't interest me much, but I'm intrigued by variations of deck-building like Concordia and Century: Spice Road. In Kashgar, you have three open decks and you cycle through them, deciding which deck to play from on each turn based on the three cards available to you and the cards behind them that you're trying to get to. Finally, I've backed quite a few KS games by Grail Games and I've always been impressed with their games and production. They've significantly reduced the size of the Kashgar box from the German original, so that's already a good start in my book.



Century: Eastern Wonders
I just got Century: Spice Road for Christmas and haven't played it yet, so I'm probably getting ahead of myself here, but this is the second in this trilogy of games. It can be played as a stand-alone game or combined with Spice Road to create a new game. Eastern Wonders is set in Asia (Indonesia I think) as our spice merchants from the first game now have a new way to get their spices. The third game is coming in 2019 and I assume that by then the merchants will just go to their local supermarket for spices.



Curio: The Lost Temple
The rulebook for this was just placed on BGG today, so I'll have a proper look at it soon. From what I know, it's a real-time temple escape game set in ancient Mesopotamia, where players solve puzzles that change each game based on modules. It sounds fun and good for non-gamers and with the modules and the various difficulty levels, it looks like there's lots of replayability. I was at the fabulous Pergamon Museum in Berlin a couple of days ago and after seeing the Ishtar Gate and the other great pieces there, I have ancient Mesopotamia on my mind.



Museum
The only Kickstarter game I'm currently waiting on (except for a very delayed game about dwarves that I probably shouldn't have backed), which just wrapped up its campaign a couple of weeks ago. With the archeology theme and Vincent Dutrait art, I was in on this one straight away even though in general I'm getting away from KS. The gameplay looks great too, and there are already a bunch of expansions although so far I've only pledged for the base game.


9
JCloisterZone FAQ, Suggestions & Bug Reports / Farm scoring
« on: November 30, 2017, 02:47:15 PM »
This farm looks like it should be worth nine points (three cities). But it only scored six points. Am I missing something or is this a bug?

10
Other Games / What's on your Shelf of Shame?
« on: May 04, 2017, 05:07:13 AM »
A shelf of shame contains games that you bought but haven't played.

My list is longer than I wish it was. My excuse is that I bought a bunch of games at Essen last year and online just before moving to Portugal as a 'final splurge' and I just haven't found the time to play them yet (also I was without my collection for nearly two months after moving). Now that I've seen how long this list is, I will make a rule to bring an unplayed game to the weekly board game meet-up in Lisbon every time I go. Also, since I've now implemented a 'no more than one new game per two months' rule, this list should get shorter before it gets longer.

Anyway, here's my list:

Pandemic Iberia - I decided this would be my entry point into the Pandemic universe because I like the historical aspect, the Iberia aspect and the artwork. Then I got into a Pandemic Legacy group, so playing that a lot has meant that Pandemic Iberia hasn't been played.

Colosseum - I got this about a year ago (the original DoW version, not the kickstarted cartoon version by TMG). I was super happy to find it and I'm still glad I have it, but I just didn't get much of a chance to play it in Geneva because it needs 3+ players.

Colt Express - I played it at Draughts in London and enjoyed it, so I grabbed a copy but haven't played my own copy yet.

Saloon Tycoon - Great looking tile-laying game from Kickstarter. Happy I got it but just haven't been able to get it to the table.

Dungeon Keeper - One of my early Kickstarters, a multi-layer dungeon crawl. Perhaps a mistake.

Fresco - An Essen buy that I'd wanted for a while. I just haven't made the effort to go through the rules and get to know the game so that I can easily bring it out without much advance notice.

Ulm - Impulse buy at Essen. I still think it looks cool, just haven't gotten around to playing it.

Back to the Future: An Adventure Through Time - Love the movies which was my main motivation for getting it. But I regret it now. I'd only ever suggest it to another big fan of the movies, so the opportunity rarely presents itself.

7 Wonders - I've played Duel a couple of times (though technically never with my own copy), but not the full game.

House of Borgia - A social deduction, papal enclave game that I got from Kickstarter. I was set to play with a couple of friends who are/were also Roman tour guides in February, but we never got around to it.

Biergarten - A little card/tile-laying Kickstarter game that features me and jungle girl, as well as Dan and Decar, on the artwork.

Touria - Another impulse buy that probably wasn't a great idea. It's still in shrink wrap so I might try to sell it.

And some that are very recent purchases that haven't been played yet but that I don't need to feel ashamed of ... yet:

Navegador
Sagrada (Played with Chooselife on 5/5/17)
Splendor
Ticket to Ride: Europe
Onitama
Cottage Garden
Pack o Games 2 (saving for the Camino de Santiago)

11
General / The 10th expansion (Under the Big Top) - poll
« on: March 09, 2017, 09:40:05 AM »
This is a poll to determine how people feel about, and whether they will buy, the upcoming Under the Big Top (Circus) expansion for Carcassonne in the new artwork.

I probably left out some obvious option like I always do, but don't you worry about that. Instead:


12
Anything Else / I love unexpected finds
« on: March 09, 2017, 01:34:18 AM »
In the spirit of the rest of the 'I love...' threads, here's a new one about finding Carcassonne or other games in places you didn't expect to (i.e. non-games shops). Here are three quick stories from my early days in Lisbon to get things going.

1. There are many wonderful bookshops in Lisbon. One of them is the Bertrand bookstore in Chiado which has been open since 1732 and claims to be the oldest bookstore in the world. A month or so ago I spent some time browsing books there. At the back they have a section with kids' books, and hiding on the top shelf in the most remote corner of the bookstore are a handful of modern board games, including Carcassonne!

2. A few days ago junglegirl and I were at a big electronics store called Warten to buy a microwave. While we were at the counter, we remembered that we also wanted to look at printers. I left junglegirl at the counter and went to see if I could find the printer section. En route, I discovered (to my surprise) an aisle with board games. The even bigger surprise was that there were three shrink-wrapped English-language copies of The Mystery of the Abbey (the 2007 DoW version with expansion, I believe). When I first started expanding out of board games, MotA was one of the games I came across and was interested in (it's a Clue-type game). I never got it and probably still won't, but it was pretty crazy to see it in an electronics shop nevertheless.   

3. Back at the same mall a couple of days ago, we walked past a tobacconist and there were a handful of modern board games in the window, including - boom! - Kingdomino. A month or so ago I had visited a board game shop and hoped to find Kingdomino there but they didn't have it. To see it so randomly in a tobacco shop was very unexpected, so I grabbed it!

13
The Marketplace / WTS: Cathars and Tunnel (separately)
« on: March 03, 2017, 06:51:37 AM »
For sale: one copy of the Cathars and one copy of the Tunnel, to be sold separately. Both items are new and in shrink wrap. The Tunnel comes with the magazine (Spielbox 2009/6), which is itself in shrink wrap.

After some thinking and discussion with a trusted member (who shall remain nameless and ageless), this is how the sale will work:

The items will be sold in two separate single blind bid auctions. That means potential buyers can submit one bid for either item or one bid each for both items to me via PM. The highest bid for each item wins. Hopefully this method will help us avoid the nasty outbidding that can come with standard auctions. I think it might even be fun!

Rules:

- The starting price is €20 for each item. Bids under €20 will not be considered. For reference, as I am typing this, the lowest current price for these items on the BGG marketplace is €38 (£33) for the Tunnel and €45 for the Cathars, so if you are thinking of bidding more than that, just buy it there instead.  :(y)
- Bids from people who registered for Carcassonne Central after this post was made will not be considered.
- Only one bid per person, per item, is allowed. In case of a tie, the tied parties will have an opportunity to make a second blind bid.
- You can bid on both items but you cannot win both bids. If the same person has the high bid on both items, that person will be asked which item they prefer and they will get that item. The other item will go to the next highest bidder.
- To bid, send me a PM with your bid in euros (in whole euros and cents if you like, e.g. €31.45), specifying which item(s) you want. Do not bid in this thread, but feel free to ask questions etc in this thread.
- Payment is by PayPal or bank transfer.
- Shipping is extra and the approximate costs are: Tunnel - €4 Europe, €6.50 USA/world; Cathars - €1.40 Europe, €2 USA/world.
- The deadline for bids is Tuesday, 7 March 2017 at 9pm CET (8pm UK/Portugal, 3pm US EST). The winners will be announced in this thread shortly thereafter.
- Play fair and in the spirit of Carcassonne Central. The point of this is so that two members get something they have been looking for to complete or nearly complete their collections, not for someone to buy it and then try to resell it at a higher price.

Good luck to the bidders!  :green-meeple:




14
Anything Else / You should never go to IKEA
« on: February 06, 2017, 02:29:23 AM »
I exchanged messages with Khalid but unfortunatly my weekend went from slow to crazy in one trip to IKEA, so I missed his availability.
We should be able to arrange something during the week.

The lesson, as always, is that you should never go to IKEA.

15
General / Ask KJW your questions about Carcassonne components!
« on: January 19, 2017, 09:06:52 AM »
In another thread I mentioned a new blog called Board Game Components and how the first game featured was Carcassonne: Winter Edition.

The people behind the blog, Markus and Sandra, have secured an interview with Klaus-Jürgen Wrede about Carcassonne components. I talked with them about it and we all thought it would be fun to create a thread where people can post their questions for KJW (about components only, please, otherwise it might get out of control!). Markus and Sandra will pick out the questions they like for their interview.

I'll start with a question of my own, since we've been voting on this question this week:
What's your favourite piece of wood from Carcassonne and its expansions?

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