Billabong Boardgamers - 19th December, 2000
Present: Donna, Alan, David
David Coutts writes:
A quiet night at Billabong - a bit of a Christmas lull. Debbie & Tina are in Canada (hi guys!), Craig is away for a month. Old hands Roger, Doug & Steve are in gaming remission... and the remaining few are probably wrapping presents (or madly buying them!).
First up, a new Australian designed & produced game.
SEVEN DEADLY SINS (Be The first to meet your maker)
Playing: Alan & David
This is a new game from Pirahna Bros (they just sent me a review copy), so it was a first outing for both of us. The web page is very informative and nicely designed. The rules and an example of play, plus a small picture of the board, are available online: http://www.piranhabros.com.au/
I'm intending to write a review for publication (after several more playings), and allowing for the fact that this is my first game, I'll limit my comments to some initial impressions and a session report.
The game components are very well designed and, though the money and play tokens are thin, they are plastic coated and appear durable. The board is laminated and comes in a tube. The best bits are the metal player tokens (there is a cat, pentagon, wizards hat, witches cauldron... and a couple more, I think).
The theme of the game is to pass through 234 squarew divided up into seven incarnations (Killer, then Thief, Liar, Servant, Lover, Healer, and finally Prophet) and reach Nirvana. So, though the title comes from Christian theology, the underlying theme is inspired by the Budhist faith. Don't be put off by the heavy subject-matter, as witchcraft, mojo, time-warps, deja-vu, the 4 elements (plus "heart" as an unusual Fifth Element...) are all thrown together with a slightly weird sense of humour (the sort of humour you get from James Ernest of Cheapass Games) to give a very offbeat game. Alan wondered if some of the "scenario squares" might offend some people, but I think they'd have to be pretty sensitive (e.g. "You remain a virgin until marriage", or "You are born with indeterminate sex").
It's a roll-the-die-and-move game like Snakes And Ladders or Monopoly, but it has more going for it than either. As you progress through to Nirvana, you can take deja-vu (ladders) or time-warp (snakes) to leap ahead or drop back. Players accumulate money, mojo (life experience), element tokens and Life cards. To win, you must land exactly on Nirvana or bounce back off. You also need at least 50 mojo, or you have to move back down the track on your next turn. Scenario squares (see above)relate to your particluar incarnation, and earn/lose you money and mojo in various amounts. Money can buy you stuff like elements (useful for spells), or mojo (if you land on a holiday square). Spells do all sorts of useful and interesting things. Wicca (witchcraft) squares also get you elements. Good/Bad Karma squares earn/lose mojo (to the value of your dice roll) and a Good Attitude square doubles your mojo. Money is useless when the game ends.
Life cards are earned by landing on Life squares (drawing between 1 to 4 cards), and come in two basic flavours - play now, or play later. "Play now" are played on the turn you get them. For each, there is a variety of different cards. They really add flavour to the game, and also that necessary level of control required to make an otherwise random game more skilful. For example, Wisdom cards let you move the distance on the card (rather than roll the dice), and Protection cards might save you from a Spell, or Deja-vu square... Rolling doubles earns another turn, as do Roll Again squares.
Deadly Sin squares earn you a Deadly Sin token, and if you get 7 then you lose all your life cards (& discard your Deadly Sins). The Deadly Sin spell lets you offload a Deadly Sin on an opponent - nasty. Also, some "Play Now" Life cards earn you Deadly Sins.
So, how did it play? Well, things were fairly random & even for the first 2 or 3 incarnations. Alan lost all his mojo, then landed on several squares where he could have lost more but didn't. I earned stacks of money, and gained then lost a modest amount of mojo. We both were sinful, though I confess I sinned more (4 tokens to 2 at this point).
Then Alan, through a Haste spell, was able to triple a dice roll of 12 and race into the lead. With my steadier pace, I was able to accumulate more useful money and Life cards (largely Wisdom). Alan was then very sinful (through Life cards mainly) and I sinned a bit, so for good measure I cast a Deadly Sin spell on him putting him on 6, and me back to 4). One more sin and he'd lose his 2 Life cards.
Alan soon had about 6 shots at Nirvana, though he never had enough mojo (50) to win. I thought he'd get there anyway (the enlightment scenario square is in the home run to Nirvana, aand earns 25 mojo, plus there was a holiday square and 2 or 3 Life squares), but he never did. Having got there so fast, he had to rely on luck to got him home and Lady Luck let him down. Shades of Hare & Tortoise (less haste, more speed)?
Whilst Alan struggled to finish I had a lucky Time-warp, and soon found myself heading for Nirvana. My Wisdom cards allowed me to control my movement a little, allowing me to holiday and cash in $150 for 30 mojo, then I got lucky and scored the Enlightment scenario square for 25 more mojo. I also cashed in my Deja-vu protection and avoided a really nasty slide back about 3 whole incarnations from nirvana. Unfortunately for Alan, he landed on this exact same square with no protection. Suddenly I was way ahead, and I had suffient mojo. A prudent Wisdom card put me 6 away from Nirvana - my very next roll was a 6!!! Nirvana!!!
It took around 45 minutes. Some wild swings of fortune, but light & fun.
Remaining "Assets":
David : $50, 74 mojo, 4 elements, 4 Life cards, 5 Deadly Sins
Alan : $203, 48 mojo, 4 elements, 2 Life cards, 6 Deadly Sins
SETTLERS OF CATAN
Playing: Donna, Alan & David
During the setup Donna went first and set up shop in the centre of the board with access to most resources and her second placement close to a 3 for 1 port. Alan set up on one side of Donna, dominating wood & brick production (& short on wheat & stone)and access to a 2 for 1 brick port. I'd set up on the opposite side of Donna, dominating wheat, sheep and stone (& short on woods & brick).
We decided to play to 12 points, and allowed a house rule for negotiated offerings when robbed (though, as it turned out, this has no effect in our game).
The early running was taken up by Donna with a couple of early cities, then she was overtaken by the "build a road" strategy of Alan who soon got the longest road. Donna suffered dreadfully from being hit by the robber with more than 7 cards (thus losing half her hand)- 4 times in all, and then she usually had a card stolen which preventing her building the next elusive city. Donna's position in the centre of the board was soon surrounded by Alan and I, which meant that Donna ran out of sites for settlement building.
Alan used up all his roads, but did have 1 branch. In theory then I could have taken longest road - I still had space to expand. In fact, early in the game I drew 2 roadbuilding cards. As it turned out this was very useful as I was otherwise very slow (due to lack of wood / brick) in building roads. I'd hoped to go with a city building strategy from the start, but ended up buying lots of cards, including 3 VPs and 3 Knights (gaining largest army).
For a while it was close - we were all on around 9 points. But Alan couldn't build cities, Donna was surrounded so couldn't build settlements (and had that really bad run of luck). I was the only one with any real options, and the luck also went my way (a disproportionate number of 3's were rolled and I had settlements on both!). It was going to be my game...
Scores
David: 2 Cities, 4 Settlements, 3 VPs and Largest Army - 13 points
Alan: 1 City, 5 Settlements and Longest Road - 9 points
Donna: 3 cities, 3 settlements - 9 points
6 BILLION
Playing: Donna, Alan & David
With less than an hour to go I asked Donna & Alan if they'd try a short-game variant for 6 Billion that I'm trying out, which they were happy to do. Both were familiar with the game (I think Alan has the rules committed to memory!), though Donna was a bit rusty. I designed it, so no excuses for me (even so, we did make 1 error - see below).
We used a combination of Variant 14 ("A Token Gesture") and an old suggestion of Doug Adams' to only use 1 Neutral (it should be 2 for a 3 player game): http://www.bnbg.com.au/~bnbgames/6billionVar.htm
Alan raised the question of whether the limited number of tokens includes or excludes the tokens required for the turn order track and scoring track. They are included, so playing with 10 tokens gives you only 8 tokens for population tracks and discovery tracks. At my suggestion, we opted for 11 tokens each which gave us 9 playable tokens each.
I'd drawn the Earth hidden agenda and, as it turned out, so had Alan. This became obvious when he used a total of 3 Double cards to reach the free doubling limit. Not good for me. Donna's hidden agenda also became obvious when she quiclky colonised Mars, then killed off some Neutral migrants and also used a Double card on herself to take a commanding lead.
Both Alan & I toyed with the idea of not expanding from Earth. This is a difficult strategy to win with, requiring dominance of all 3 discovery tracks and lots of VP cards played. If the other players see what's going on it's fairly easy to stop. So, we both colonised The Asteroid Belt.The Asteroid Belt was a much more interesting and closely contested location. Donna took an early lead, then I slowed her with a Famine. Stupidly for me, when Donna later played a Pestlince on my Asteroid Belt colony, I reponded with a War. Donna retaliated with her own War, and I only had 2 colonies to choose from - Earth & The Asteroid Belt. Donna was too close on Earth, and there was no free doubling there, so I had to let The Asteroid Belt suffer the war. Donna, by this time, had more colonies than Alan & I put together. So, she was able to suffer minor casualties on Saturn (where she had no competitors) for my War on her.
Another fun play on the Asteroid Belt was when I played a Colony (for Another Player) and Migrants (for Another player) on Alan's colony there. Because it was on the 16 space it had to drop back to 8 and I scored 6 points. The colony went to Mercury, the Migrants to Jupiter (Alan wwould be behind Donna, me & the Neutrals!).
A key play from Donna (see later), much to Alan's annoyance, was when she took control of the Dollar discovery track from Alan (who had the Discovery card for it). On the discovery tracks, I quickly put tokens on all 3. Alan tried to dominate Dollar, and also stopped my dominance of Smiley. The discovery tracks, apart from earning you victory points at the end of game (doubled or quadrupled if you have the appropriate Discovery cards), also allow the leading player to alter the turn order after it is drawn. Note that the game normally ends immediately (denying other players a turn!) a token reaches a 1024 space, or all population tracks are occupied. Using the variant, the game now also ends when a faction (player or neutral) runs out of tokens. So, control over the turn order is crucial as the game reaches a conclusion...
As the end approached, Alan revealed his Discovery card for Mercury and placed a further 2 tokens in the Colonists half of the Mercury holding box (making 3 in total). This is actually against the 2nd edition rules which limit each half (Colonists / Migrants) of any holding box to 2 billion each. (See 6.2 Holding Boxes) http://www.bnbg.com.au/~bnbgames/6BillionRules.htm
As it turned out, not only did Donna take control of the Alan's prized Dollar track, but she also equalled me on the Leaf track (meaning that nobody can use the Leaf power to adjust turn order). Cleverly, she did this at the end of 1 turn, whilst in a position to place her last token on the Smiley discovery track. Ideally, she'd want to go first so that Alan and I missed out on a turn...
The turn order for what was to be the last turn was drawn: David, Donna, Alan, Neutral. Well, by spending just 1 VP, Donna was able to move up the turn order to first spot. Neither Alan nor I could do anything about it.
By this point, Donna was looking in a good position, but it's always a gamble ending the game (scores can be doubled by Hidden Agendas, or doubled / quadrupled for Discovery cards). On the VP track, I was ahead by about 5 points on about 15, then Donna, then Alan (who'd only scored a 4 or 5 points).
Well, going first gave Donna control of the Asteroid Belt over Alan (for a net 8 point gain over Alan), and Venus (for a net 6 point gain over me). Plus, Alan's Mercury colony was still in its holding box, so didn't score (a sure 8 points for Alan). Then, of course, both Alan or I would have played cards to score more points for ourselves, or deny others points.
We thought Alan was also in this position, but he would have got tokens (which should only really have been 1) back when he colonised Mercury. Both Pluto & Mercury have a 2 for 1 "exchange rate" which always means you get a token back when you go there.
Scores:
Donna - 51
David - 36
Alan - 29
Alan finished the evening by generously giving Donna and I a chocolate Yowie (a Yowie is a mythical Australian beast).