boardgaming in photos

31 Dec 2010. Last day of 2010, and I played Race for the Galaxy, my most played game of 2010. This includes all 3 expansions. This was a nice tableau to be able to pull off, because of those two defense 9 worlds, which were worth 9pts each.

2 Jan 2011. Battlestar Galactica. A six-player game, and my second play. The first time was very long ago, so I had forgotten most of the rules details. This situation was bad, one Cylon revealed, and three humans in the brig or in sick bay. I couldn't finish the game and had to leave early, and Chee Wee took over. The humans (I was human) managed to win, but only barely. On of the Cylons was a new player, so that was a disadvantage for the Cylon team.

Wan, who was one of the Cylon players, isn't so enthusiastic about the game anymore now that he has played 4 times. I have the same feeling as him, that there is a bit too much chrome in the game - detailed rules to bring out the theme. It is quite overwhelming to me, to try to remember all the locations on the board and what they do, the strengths and weaknesses of the characters. I feel the game could be streamlined more. Or maybe I just need to invest more time to get familiar with the details in the game. At the moment I still think it's pretty alright, and I'd be willing to play again.

4 Jan 2011. Downfall of Pompeii. Allen did some game trading with Chong Sean, and I helped bring this game from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur. I did a two-player game with Michelle. This was still the first half of the game, i.e. placing your people to occupy the buildings.

This was the second half. Mount Vesuvius had erupted and lava was spreading in the city.

Half the city was destroyed by now. In this game I forgot to keep track of how quickly the game would end caused by the tiles running out. I had tried to position as many of my people as possible to escape the city, but because I had messed up the timing, I couldn't get enough of them out before time ran out. Michelle won 20 vs 17.

5 Jan 2011. 6 Nimmt (German version). My English version is Category 5. By now I've lost count of the versions of this game. I quite like this game. It's quite clever, and can be played by up to 10 people. It has a mix of skill and luck, and it's always funny to watch someone take a row of bad cards.

20 Jan 2011. Downfall of Pompeii again, this time at Old Town Kopitiam, Cheras, and with 4 players. I taught a rule wrong - you can bring in bonus people (i.e. relatives) only after the 79AD card comes out for the first time, not before. In this game I sufferred from being the apparent leader in the first half. I had brought many of my people onto the board. So I became the target of the rest of the players. I came in 3rd. So this is actually a negotiation and psycho-your-fellow-players game. You need to appear weak and convince others to do bad things to other people. Delicious!

That little red guy in the middle was our Indiana Jones. Just a few turns before this photo was taken, he was together with the yellow guy. The lava was closing in on both sides, and there was only one narrow corridor left. Was he going to make it? He sprinted down the narrow corridor, only to have the hand of god cast down a lava tile just before him. OK, I guess he wasn't Indiana Jones afterall.