Wildcatters or Drill Baby Drill

In a rather apt game for our troubling times, Richard, Russell, Stefan and I had a go with Wildcatters.

Richard is yellow, Russell red, Stafan blue and I'm green.

Final scores.

Scoring over so many categories makes it tricky to know who is in the lead at anyone point.

Richard has provided this excellent critic:

Thanks very much for playing today, particularly Stefan for stepping up on short notice (not to mention also for being the purveyor of fine fayre to enjoy!) so we had a full compliment. It is possible to play at 2 and 3 players, but 4 is definitely the best experience.

Given that some rules/procedures needed to be clarified and "coaching" time, we did well to get it done in 5 hours. I think this is a four-hour game if players are up to speed.

The game is conceptually very simple:

• Build Rigs
• Drill Wells/Develop Wells
• Transport to a Refinery

Complicating things are the limited number of area cards. Managing the choosing these cards is really one of the most important aspects of game play. I think it's important to feed off others as much as possible. Developing an area by yourself, like Stefan did in Canada, can be very limiting because there are only ever going to be 6 area cards that will ever come up. You really need to position yourself where there is at least one other player with drilling rigs.

I over committed to well drilling/development on turn 1 and then overbid for the Wildcatter so I had no shares of my own to move my oil in other players turns forcing me to feed my Asian oil to Mark. Also, as I was last to place a refinery, I think it was a mistake to place it in Asia as Mark had already placed one there already. Much better to have placed on a white continent like Australia, Africa or Europe.

A lot of oil was delivered to Mark in Asia. I feel it was a collective mistake to have continued to feed Mark's West Asian refinery as this enabled him to build up a big shareholding of his choice. Although how he managed to pay for all the oil going to his refinery without busting and needing a loan in the earlier turns is a bit of a mystery. I guess

he used his first lot of his own oil deliveries there to shore up his own shareholding (ed: correct). This was the decision which set up Mark for the future. Mark was able to purchase a consolidation token every turn and none of us came close to that. (Ed: I had 5 out of the maximum 7 you can potentially have)

Russell was plagued by indecision throughout the game (shocker), but had remarkable clarity and moved with alacrity when presented with the idea (thanks Stefan) and opportunity to completely screw me over by

commandeering my tanker. That was the fastest move he made in the game.... Just sayin'.

The dastardly deed.

Having more than one tanker is definitely a benefit due to global reach and end game workers can help with slapping down a refinery for bonus points.

This game is really excellent and will definitely be slated for replay in the near future.

Classical Indian versus New Kingdom Egyptian

Keen not to have three losses in a row against Karl's Egyptian, I turned to the Indians to redeem my honour.

The Egyptians out scouted the Indians who deployed between a lake and some broken ground.

Both sides advance.

The Egyptian chariots surge forward and were met by accurate bow fire.

They didn't expect that!

Regardless, the Egyptians press their attack on the Indian right 

and it immediately becomes messy.

On the left they try an unusual tactic of trying to run away.

On the right there is some very bloody mutual destruction.

While on the left the innovative Egyptian tactic failed.

The Indian left is redeploying while their right is now a fight between remnants.

The real action is in the centre, where the Indian general on his elephant

has engaged his opposite who does not have the same advantage.

Egyptian reinforcements have arrived on the right,

but in the centre the Indians are stomping through.

The Indians clean up the bulk of the Egyptian army in a decisive victory.

Nightfighter - Scenario 1: Cat's Eye

I've had this game for a while and finally I was able to give it a go (using the most basic scenario, even though it was described as Impossible).  Mark B took a Hurricane up to try and deter some Heinkel's on a nighttime bombing mission.  

The game's mechanics are straightforward and give a quick game.  It's not much to look at, which is why I made up the data cards for the aircraft involved.  The game has a lot of scope and hopefully we will get to try it out some more.   

Churchill

Roosevelt (Richard), Stalin (Russell) and Churchill (myself) set about determining the future of the world in a series of conferences.  An interesting game, simple in its mechanic (except for determining the winner), but complex in its moving parts: agendas, debates, influence, political control, not to mention the need to keep advancing the fronts to victory.

So, the US finished with the most VPs.  You think that would make them the winner.  No it didn't as poor USSR had so few.  But when you added the UK and USSR VPs together it still gave the US a lead within some margin and so they did win.

All the same, I look forward to playing again.

Later Seleucids versus New Kingdom Egyptians

Seleucia invades Egypt.  What could possibly go wrong? They have big sticks, nasty chariots, heavy cavalry and elephants.  They have the best general ever but maybe just a touch of hubris...

The Seleucids find the Egyptians around an oasis.

The Egyptians send their chariots out

as the whole Seleucid army advances.

The Egyptian chariots get ready to charge.

The Seleucid left flank evaporates,

but after some trouble their right prevails.

Then it's a rush for the main body of Seleucids to get to grips with the enemy

before the Egyptian chariots can return.

Well, it could have gone better...

The Seleucids keep attacking, 

but failing to get any knockout blows.

The Seleucids might have done alright on their right,

but the pikes fail to achieve a victory.

Another victory for Karl's Egyptians.

Will they be so lucky against the Classical Indians next week?

  

Settlers of Catan

Been meaning to try this game for a while.  Russell brought it along and after Big City and Tobago we had a go.  Needless to say, Russell won easily (his game and he knew the strategies etc).  But I would certainly play again, not that I cared for the robber as we threw an awful lot of 7s.

Tobago with Volcano

After Big City we went after treasure. Russell (red), Richard (yellow) and I (green) in trying to keep some continuity raced around the volcano as the island was gradually being filled up by lava.

My treasure on the lower left, Russell's on the lower right.

 Richard's lesser amount not captured by the image.