Consolation Prize

Being an apprentice to an inventor is no easy matter. Not only do you have to collect all manner of resources for your master and proposition the city council for favours, but you have to be prepared to do a bit of hard grafting in the laboratory.

Leonardo da Vinci as the name suggests, is about creating inventions in renaissance Italy. You take on the role of a master inventor with a variable number of apprentices, resources and money (Florins) at your disposal. It’s your duty to develop requested inventions before your rivals, not only for the prestige and patent but also for the Florins awarded.

Using the basic setup at the beginning of the game you’re allocated one or two labs, a variable number of apprentices, resources, and Florins. The setup for each player is different adding a bit of variety and once you’re familiar with the game you can use the more advanced rules to customise your setup.

The game consists of nine turns, seven of which are split into distinct phases with the final two turns only allowing research and completion of developments:

Invention Phase: Inventions come in five different types, three levels of difficulty (easy, medium and hard) and all require differing resources. Easy inventions can be researched in seven weeks, medium in eleven, and finally hard inventions in fifteen weeks. However, the research time can be cut by two weeks for each invention of the same type you’ve already completed. Each player states whether or not they are going to research an invention, but they don’t openly declare what they’re aiming for. The resource cards for each invention will be secretly placed underneath the laboratory which is to undertake the work and will only be shown when the invention is finally complete.

Apprentice Deployment Phase: Players take it in turns to assign tasks to apprentices. They can be placed in the city to queue for various resources, laboratory upgrades, favours from the council, recruit additional apprentices or they can be assigned to work in a laboratory.
Queues work on a majority rule, so even if you’re first in the queue with one apprentices someone else would be prioritised if they joined the queue with just two apprentices. The master can also be assigned a specific task and for these purposes he is equivalent to two apprentices. Play keeps moving around until finally there are no more apprentices to place.

City Resolution: Once all the apprentices have been placed the resolution of the tasks is undertaken in order. Apart from council favours and laboratory work all the other tasks have a cost associated. The first player in the queue gets the item for free, second has to pay two Florins up to four Florins for fourth place. The final resolution is to advance your research in your laboratory by one week for each man, or by two for each mechanical man (bought via a lab upgrade) or for the master.

Invention Completion Phase: If an invention has been researched for the minimum number of weeks then it can be declared. If more than one player has invented the same thing then they must blind bid on whom will own the patent, each player however is still awarded the full amount of Florins. If you’re still working on an invention when it is declared then all is not lost, you can continue to work towards completion but you will only get a decreased number of Florins.

At the end of the game the winner is the player with the most money. However you do get bonus points for the number of types of inventions you’ve built as long as you have at least three types and these points can be invaluable.

Although the rules summary make this game sound fairly dull, it’s actually a fun game. You soon get drawn into deciding what inventions to research, managing your resources and apprentices and trying to be the first to complete inventions. I’m always a sucker for any game that has resource management but there are some particular standout mechanics that I like about the game. For starters I really like the queuing mechanism during the deployment phase. I tended to find that this led to lots of head scratching as I tried to second guess my opponents and decide upon the optimum number of apprentices to commit. There’s a great sense of satisfaction as you bully your way to the front of a queue when no one can counter your move. On the downside you’ll be cursing when you have to pay three or four Florins for a desperately needed resource.

I’m also keen on the hidden inventions, not knowing what your opponents are researching leads to some tense turns as you send “all hands to the pumps” hoping to beat or at least match your opponent to the declaration. It’s wise to try and keep an eye on the resources your rivals are buying to try guess what they may eventually research. This is however easier said then done and for all the games played so far I’ve always ended up researching the same inventions as my rival.

There’s virtually no luck to this game, in fact the only element really is the order that inventions are drawn, but even these are stacked in such a way that the more difficult inventions are more likely to appear towards the end. You really have to make your own luck with this game as all your decisions you make will have an impact on your chances of winning.

I wouldn’t say that this is a casual game, it can get quite intense and the game can last quite a long time. If you’re going to play the game with a four or five players make sure you’ve got at least a couple of hours set aside. If you’re after a game which is fairly easy to learn, but will make you scratch your head with some thought provoking decisions then I’d recommend giving this game a go.

Do you fancy playing the role of a railroad tycoon? Building connecting routes between major cities and claiming the most prestigious routes before your rivals foil your plans? Then give “Ticket to Ride” a go, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at just how much fun playing with trains can actually be.

As with most games the aim is to score more points than your rivals. To aid (or hinder) you are given a set of “tickets” at the beginning of the game that indicate a journey between two cities. These may vary in difficulty and length, for example on the European edition of the game a ticket may be from “Edinburgh” to “Lisbon”. Typically the longer the journey the greater the points awarded when completed. However, points will be deducted from the players final score for each uncompleted ticket.

Each turn players may perform one of three actions: These include taking train cards, placing a route or drawing additional ticket cards. Train cards come in different colours, including a wildcard and are used to claim routes between cities. To do this you need to use the correct number and colour for the route as indicated on the board. This tends to lead to a certain amount of hording as you try to build up enough cards to lay down your routes in quick succession. Points are also gained for routes, the more trains required to complete a route the more points you gain.

If you’re feeling particularly lucky, or you’re in the envious position that you’ve already completed your tickets, you have the option of randomly drawing additional ticket cards. You must keep at least one of the cards drawn and if fate is smiling you can easily branch off your network to reach new cities and secure the points. However you may also find that you’re left holding a ticket that you have no chance of finishing.

Competition for routes is fierce, and only when you are playing with four or five players are some routes doubled up. What I love about the game is the amount of brinkmanship that occurs during the game. The calm before the storm as players collect train cards and then soon enough someone will break and place a route. All hell then breaks loose as there’s a scramble to claim key strategic positions for your tickets. The anxiety builds as slowly routes disappear and you’re forced to rethink you’re strategy and take your travellers on a scenic route. There’s an immense amount of relief when you finally secure your most noteworthy tickets, and of course on the flipside panic if you know you cannot complete a ticket.

There are different versions of the game available, all offer the same core game play but each offer a different gameboard and slight variations in the rules. The first game, named simply “Ticket to Ride” is based in North America. The “European” edition introduces tunnels, stations and ferries and the “Marklin” edition, which is based in Germany, introduces passengers and merchandise.

All three versions are enjoyable in their own right but my favourite is the “European” edition. It still maintains the core game play that makes the game so great, but I like the additional elements and the gameboard. The stations allow you to use another players route, allowing you a bit of leeway, but they are limited in number and when used reduce your score by a slight amount. The tunnels add some uncertainty as you’re not guaranteed to complete the route.

Ticket to ride is extremely quick to learn and would appeal to non gamers looking for a fun boardgame. It’s a simple but rewarding game in a nicely presented package.

Blokus Duo is an abstract strategy game designed by Bernard Tavitian and is the two player variant of the award winning game “Blokus”.

Each player starts with twenty one unique pieces, made up of squares (think Tetris) and take turns placing one of their own pieces onto the 14 x 14 square game board. However there are a few caveats to placement:
1) The first piece a player places must touch a certain starting position on their half of the board.
2) It cannot be placed adjacent to one of their own pieces on the game board, although placing adjacent to an opponents pieces is perfectly acceptable.
3) It must be placed touching at least a corner of one of their own pieces (corner to corner).

Play continues until one player cannot place. The opponent may then place as many pieces as possible. The winner is the player with the least number of unplaced “squares” totalled up from their un-played pieces.

What soon becomes apparent when playing is that each piece has its own role to play. Some pieces are excellent for attacks and counter-attacks, whilst other pieces are better held in a defensive reserve. As a piece is unique to that player some thought must be put into deciding what piece to use and where to play it. Once that piece is used there’s no going back, play it in a bad position and you will find yourself in a compromised position. Be careful however when reserving pieces, you may find that you’ve held onto a piece too long and it is now unplayable. The canny player will not only keep track of their own pieces, but also their opponents.

The game can be over fairly quickly (30 mins) and you could therefore play a number of games in an evening if you so desired.

Although I’m not a huge fan of abstract games I found that I enjoyed this game. It achieves the right level of complexity for a quick two player game. The rules are simple but the strategy requires some forethought. It leaves you with the satisfaction that you’ve given your brain a quick workout, but not feeling exhausted from the effort.

The Settlers of Catan is one of my favourite board games. I first played the game a number of years ago and immediatley thought the game was one of the best I’ve played. The game soon became a favourite of the weekly sessions but unfortunately we overdosed on it’s gaming goodness and after a while it got replaced by newer kids on the block. Luckily, it was recently dusted off and brought back into the fold once more.

It’s a simple game (in a nutshell): The island of Catan (game board) consists of randomly placed tiles representing different landscapes: moutains, fields, pastures, forests and hills and each kind produces a different resource: ore, wheat, sheep, wood or brick respectively. In addition each tile will have a number (2 - 12 excluding 7) placed upon it.

At the start of the game each player has two settlements and two pieces of road that are placed on the game board. Your settlement placement is critical as some resources will have a higher probability of being generated. With a bad placement you will soon find that your expansion slows to a snails pace while your opponents race ahead.

Players take turns to throw a pair of six sided dice, the result determines which tiles will produce that turn. Every player that has a settlement adjacent to the producing tile will recieve a resource for each (or two if the settlement is a town). During their turn players may build, trade resources, buy or play an action card. Resources are used to purchase new settlements, pieces of road, action cards or you may upgrade an existing settlement to a town.

Whenever a 7 is rolled that player must discard down to 7 resource cards, however on the upside they get to move the “robber baron” onto another tile and steal a resource card at random from any player adjacent to that tile. For as long as the baron occupies the tile then it will never produce a resource.

Points are awarded for each settlement, town or “points” card. In addition players can score points if they own the longest road or have played the most “knight” action cards. The first player to 10 victory points is declared the winner.

It’s exciting to see that Settlers of Catan is coming to the Xbox 360 arcade this summer (rumoured May release). Although there have already been PC online versions of the game, this iteration should fit perfectly into the “live” environment. It’s nice to see the game getting a shiney coat with some pretty graphics to help further the experience.

So far it looks as if the game is staying true to its boardgaming roots, and the designer Klaus Teuber looks to be involved to some degree. I have high hopes for the finished game. Am I looking forward to this game? You bet I am!

Catan Live: Official Site

As-well as being a console geek I’ve also been playing board games for many years. Luckily I’ve got a great friend who’s a collector of board games and supplies us with some of the finest games on offer.

Last Thursday we tried out a new game:
Palazzo. The premise of the game is to build one or more palaces from a number of available “floor” tiles on offer. Each palace will be a minimum of one floor up to a maximum of five and can be made up of all the same material (brick, marble or sandstone) or a mixture thereof. Floor levels are purchased with money, either direct from the quarry or from an auction site.

At the end of the game victory points are awarded for each door and window in the palace as long as it has at least three floors. Additional bonus points are also awarded for palaces with four or five floors and if the palace is made of all the same material.

We were only playing the two player version of the game and I would like to see how it works with three or four players. With an increase in competition for the floor levels on offer you may not have the luxury of waiting for a perfect tile to suit your palace, thus leading to a more dynamic approach to your palace building.

Although I lost (it seems to be the trend these days) I found the game to be thoroughly enjoyable. It’s a fairly light hearted game, easy to learn and doesn’t strain the grey matter too much. It’s perfect for those evenings after a hard day at work when a more sociable game is in order.