headers
Greg J. Schloesser | 1 May 2008 06:03
Picon
Gravatar

ETG 04/03/08 Gaming Report: Goa, Andromeda

*ON THE TABLE:  Goa, Andromeda*

* *

*ROLL CALL:  Bo Link, Mark Sliwoski, Ryan Sliwoski, Scott Waisner, Greg
Schloesser*

GOA

 It has been quite some time since I played this enjoyable *Rudiger
Dorn*title.
As such, I'll reprint my report from way back in 2004 when I first played
the game.  I have updated the report to bring it up to date.

*Goa* is designed by *Rüdiger Dorn*, whose other efforts include *Traders of
Genoa, Emerald, Space Walk, Gargon, Ex und Hopp* and others. More recent
designs include *Jambo* and *Arkadia*.  Of these, his "deepest" game is
arguably *Traders of Genoa*. While most folks seem to delight in that
negotiation-heavy title, I found it to be too much of a good thing. The
constant series of negotiations wearied me, and I have long since left that
one behind.

*Goa*, however, immediately intrigued me. Although I generally perform
abysmally at auction games, the mixture of mechanisms, decisions, and
seemingly numerous strategic paths to follow are fascinating.  Numerous
sessions have done nothing to dampen my enthusiasm … although it certainly
confirms my status as a lousy auction-game player!

In *Goa*, players represent "Portuguese merchants involved in the spice
trade". Players acquire plantations, found and develop colonies, and attempt
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Peter Clinch | 1 May 2008 11:08
Picon
Favicon

Re: What ever Happend to ?

chriskovac2000 wrote:
>  If you watch much TV these days there a lot of programs now 
> about "What ever Happend To" various film and TV stars.  If you apply 
> this to gaming here are some interesting "What Ever Happend Tos"
> 
> 1.  What ever Happend to CCG's ?.  Once they roamed the gaming 
> landscape in great herds but now except for Magic and some Anime 
> related games they have more or less disappeard.

My local games shop still seems to do more business with Magic than
anything else

> 2.  What ever Happend to Clix's ?  Supposedly the next thing being 
> both collectible and minatures with the unique turnable base to show 
> damage. I think they are still making games on this system but they 
> do not have the impact they once did.

never heard of them, so you may have a point there!

> 3.  What ever Happend to Roleplaying ?  Does anybody play any Role 
> Playing games apart from D&D and Warhammer on a regular basis ?  

Again, the local games store has a good selection, and the new stock
lists from leisure Games (one of the UK's bigger specialist game stores)
is frequently dominated by RPG stuff, so I guess /someone/ is playing
with it all.

Now, what about pop-o-matic dice? ;-)

Pete.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
David Goldfarb | 1 May 2008 12:20
Picon

An unusual event playing Pandemic

Was playing Pandemic earlier tonight (I'm now 3 wins out of 4
on the Heroic level) and we managed to have a player take the
"Cure Disease" action twice in a single turn.

The player in question was the Scientist, obviously.  He had started
with four yellow cards and two black cards.  The Researcher was
in the same city, holding two black cards.  The Scientist cured yellow,
then took two black from the Researcher, then cured black.

I've never seen that before, and I wonder if I ever will again.

We won the game a few turns later, with only three Epidemic cards
having come out -- although with the Outbreak track at 6.

--

-- 
   David Goldfarb          |"The number of times I have been declared 
goldfarb@...  |dead is statistically insignificant,
goldfarb@... |although admittedly non-zero."  --
James Nicoll

------------------------------------

To unsubscribe: spielfrieks-unsubscribe@... 
To email the moderators: spielfrieks-owner@... 
Spielfrieks on the web -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks/

<*> Your email settings:
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 25 comments |
headers
Greg J. Schloesser | 1 May 2008 14:09
Picon
Gravatar

ETG website UPDATE

I've updated the East Tennessee Gamers website with several new session
reports and reviews.  Here are the changes:

Game Reviews:  Key Largo, Key Harvest, Goa

Gaming Session Reports:

March 6, 2008 Report:  Prophecy, Gumball Rally
March 13, 2008 Report:  Return of the Heroes, Key Largo
March 27, 2008 Report:  Rails of Europe
April 3, 2008 Report:  Goa, Andromeda

Mountain Market:  LOTS of games available for sale

Top 10 Lists:  Many lists have been revised, and there are some new
contributions.

Stop by for a visit!

--

-- 
Greg J. Schloesser
"Love talked about is easily turned aside; love demonstrated is
irresistible." -- Stan Mooneyham

East Tennessee Gamers: www.easttennesseegamers.com
International Gamers Awards: www.internationalgamersawards.net

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

------------------------------------
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Eric Burgess | 1 May 2008 17:04
Picon

Re: An unusual event playing Pandemic

3 of 4 on Heroic? That's an incredible number. I guess it's time for you
guys to order one of those seventh Epidemic cards to play at "Super-Heroic"
level <http://www.gateplay.com/pandemic-super-heroic-expansion-card.aspx>.

I've only seen one win on Heroic level in watching and playing about twelve
games on that level. What are we doing wrong?

...ERB
www.boardgamebabylon.com

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 3:20 AM, David Goldfarb <goldfarb@...>
wrote:

>   Was playing Pandemic earlier tonight (I'm now 3 wins out of 4
> on the Heroic level) and we managed to have a player take the
> "Cure Disease" action twice in a single turn.
>
> The player in question was the Scientist, obviously. He had started
> with four yellow cards and two black cards. The Researcher was
> in the same city, holding two black cards. The Scientist cured yellow,
> then took two black from the Researcher, then cured black.
>
> I've never seen that before, and I wonder if I ever will again.
>
> We won the game a few turns later, with only three Epidemic cards
> having come out -- although with the Outbreak track at 6.
>
> --
> David Goldfarb |"The number of times I have been declared
> goldfarb@... <goldfarb%40ocf.berkeley.edu> |dead is
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 24 comments |
headers
Jon Theys | 1 May 2008 17:45
Picon

Re: An unusual event playing Pandemic

How open do you guys play with regards to the information each player
has?  I've only played Pandemic once, and we tried to keep table talk
to a reasonably low level.  We allowed discussion of color of cards in
hand, but not the cities on them.  That seemed to work fairly well
(for a Normal game), but I'm just curious how everyone else handles
it.

------------------------------------

To unsubscribe: spielfrieks-unsubscribe@... 
To email the moderators: spielfrieks-owner@... 
Spielfrieks on the web -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:spielfrieks-digest@... 
    mailto:spielfrieks-fullfeatured@...

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    spielfrieks-unsubscribe@...
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 23 comments |
headers
Chris Lemon | 1 May 2008 17:57
Picon

RE: An unusual event playing Pandemic

We basically dispense with the bulls*** and play with our hands sitting open
on the table. The whole idea of "yeah, you can talk about it, but not TOO
much!" is just moronic when it's not rigidly defined by the rules as to
where that line is.

Chris Lemon
clemon79@...
http://fredsmythe.com
ICQ, MSN, Yahoo: FredSmythe

> -----Original Message-----
> From: spielfrieks@...
[mailto:spielfrieks@...] On
> Behalf Of Jon Theys
> Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 8:45 AM
> To: spielfrieks@...
> Subject: Re: [spielfrieks] An unusual event playing Pandemic
> 
> How open do you guys play with regards to the information each player
> has?  I've only played Pandemic once, and we tried to keep table talk
> to a reasonably low level.  We allowed discussion of color of cards in
> hand, but not the cities on them.  That seemed to work fairly well
> (for a Normal game), but I'm just curious how everyone else handles
> it.
> 
> ------------------------------------
> 
> To unsubscribe: spielfrieks-unsubscribe@...
> To email the moderators: spielfrieks-owner@...
> Spielfrieks on the web -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks Yahoo!
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 20 comments |
headers
Eric Burgess | 1 May 2008 17:59
Picon

Re: An unusual event playing Pandemic

The rules seem pretty open about table-talk, although you are restricted
from showing people cards. Here are some guidelines that I teach when I show
the game to players:

   - We assume communication is radio style - say a line or two and
   that's it.
   - We make suggestions about 'meet me in a certain city' without
   spelling out, say, how you can get there most efficiently or how many
   actions I need for you to have when you get there.
   - We definitely say, "I'm working to cure yellow" or the like but
   don't specify how far we are.
   - We do not share details about special cards - we encourage people to
   play them when they feel like it is time and keep suggestions (for, say,
   placing a 'freebie' research station) to, again, the one or two line rule
   ("Man, we could sure use one in Chennai!")
   - We brow-beat players for picking up Epidemic cards because obviously
   that player has no idea how to draw cards! (okay, that's a joke)

The first time we play with new people, we are a little more lax and will
help them out. But this is the kind of game that once you get it, you get it
so the second game and on - let people do what they want. I think this helps
keep people from feeling they are being constantly 'directed'.

In my experience, "Directing" a co-op game increases your chances of winning
at roughly the same rate that it decreases the other players' enjoyment of
the game. YMMV if you have passive players that take joy in sitting there
watching another player play a solo game and if that works for you, cool.
Doesn't work for me.

...ERB
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 1 comment |
headers
David Brain | 1 May 2008 18:20
Picon

Re: An unusual event playing Pandemic

Eric Burgess wrote:
> In my experience, "Directing" a co-op game increases your chances of winning
> at roughly the same rate that it decreases the other players' enjoyment of
> the game. YMMV if you have passive players that take joy in sitting there
> watching another player play a solo game and if that works for you, cool.
> Doesn't work for me.

That's why I suspect that the Knizia Lord of the Rings doesn't work with 
certain groups as well.   It took me a long time to learn how to walk 
the line between "directing" and "suggesting" depending upon the 
experience of the other players.

I imagine I'm going to quite enjoy Pandemic when I get to play it. 
(LotR is my only 10 game on the 'Geek.)

-- David Brain

------------------------------------

To unsubscribe: spielfrieks-unsubscribe@... 
To email the moderators: spielfrieks-owner@... 
Spielfrieks on the web -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Paul Sauberer | 1 May 2008 18:47
Picon

Re: An unusual event playing Pandemic

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 11:57 AM, Chris Lemon <clemon79@...> wrote:
> We basically dispense with the bulls*** and play with our hands sitting open
> on the table. The whole idea of "yeah, you can talk about it, but not TOO
> much!" is just moronic when it's not rigidly defined by the rules as to
> where that line is.

The line is clearly drawn. You may not show your cards to other
players. Anything else is fair game. Those that impose further limits
do so in an attempt to, I am sure, increase their enjoyment of the
game. They probably think that it would be too easy otherwise. My
guess is that they probably also are veterans of Shadows Over Camelot
and are bringing an attitude over from that game. What they may be
forgetting is that part of the reason for limiting communication in
SOC is to give more cover for the traitor. The less specifically a
traitor has to lie, the easier it will be for that player to pull off
their treachery.

Pandemic doesn't really need further limits on discussion in order to
accomplish the purpose of keeping hands hidden, a rule that most
definitely is not BS.

If all players have perfect memories and every player announces which
cards they acquire when they acquire them, then there will be no
difference between playing with hands open and closed.

However, most groups do not fulfill those conditions, so there is a difference.

First, players will be looking at their cards and form plans on how to
use them. This can cause them to describe their hands with a certain
bias. Some cards may be missed or underemphasized and the group can
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 18 comments |

Gmane