Fields of Green
I enjoyed a rare week off from work last week and luckily my wife was off work too, here’s a little bit of what I got up to. I was joined by my best men (I decided that it would be better to have two at my wedding), Matt and Chris for a couple of games on Wednesday afternoon. When I first learned about Fields of Green, the game was described as a reimplementation of Among the Stars; which piqued my interest because Among the Stars is in my top 10 games of all time. Today was my first time playing it, and although many of the rules were the same it doesn’t feel much like a reimplementation. The addition of a harvest phase to the game means that players have to have a working engine at the end of every round, taking into account food, water and money supplies. In addition the game punishes you for not being able to afford harvest costs by turning the cards face down and making you spend a card later on to turn back face up. This was our first play of the game and it made a great first impression with everyone at the table. Matt had a lot of Constructions on the table and had found ways of gaining points for them, Chris had a little engine going throughout the game that was churning out victory points, and I focussed on getting cash then adding buildings towards the end game managing a fairly narrow victory by the end. This is definitely one that I’d like to play again very soon.
1st - Allen 54
2nd - Matt 51
3rd - Chris 30
Photosynthesis
Next up we played the amazing looking Photosynthesis by Blue Orange Games, which has to be one of the most interesting eurogames on the market. I would go as far to say that with the absence of random chance the game feels more like an abstract game, especially when played as a two player game. Players each have a colour of tree, and must grow their trees to their full height and harvest them to score points. The trees on the board collect sunlight which can be spent to take the various actions in the game, and as play continues players will have an opportunity to grow their trees to collect more light. The trees cast shadows around the game board and can prevent other trees from collecting light. Players will get the majority of their points from growing their trees to the maximum size and harvesting them for points; so they must strike a balance between having trees on the board to gather light, and removing them to gain points. It was a tight game, with everyone trying to block the light from each other’s trees, but in the end I managed to score some late points to win the game. This has been a great addition to my collection this year.
1st - Allen 97
2nd - Chris 77
3rd - Matt 57
NMBR 9
We decided to finish Wednesday afternoon off with something simple, and NMBR9 is about as simple as it gets. Players must stack a set of pixelated shapes representing the numbers one through nine in the order dictated by a set of cards. At the end of the game the shapes are worth their numerical value multiplied by their level on the stack. The shapes are awkward to stack, but really satisfying when you manage to do it effectively. I love these kinds of shape and geometry games where you have to conceptualise abstract shapes in your head, but I did pretty badly in this one never quite getting the pieces to fit. Matt on the other hand played very well, getting some of the higher numbers several levels up in the stack winning by a big margin in the end. A great afternoon with two great chaps, always nice to see these two dapper gents.
1st - Matt 160
2nd - Chris 144
3rd - Allen 135
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Five Tribes
Friday now, and my wife and I sat down to a game of Five Tribes, one of my favourite Bruno Cathala games. This takes the central mechanism from Mancala and adds some eurogame elements, such as set collection, end game bonuses and the ability to set up elaborate combos. This is a great game, though it it can suffer from a bit of analysis paralysis due to the amount of moves available to players each turn. I think that the game plays well with two, though it’s probably at its best with three or four. Annabelle found a way to make her yellow meeple worth extra points and finished the game with loads of spices. I tried to focus on keeping hold of money and picked up a genie that increased the value of my white meeple. In the end Annabelle won her first game of five tribes with a pretty comfortable margin. I should really invest in some of the expansions to this game.
Annabelle 257 - 219 Allen
Rhombo Continuo
Next up, one of my favourite games from the Continuo series, Rhombo Continuo. Our dinner was almost cooked so we thought that this would be a good way to fill the time. Players take turns in adding one of the games tiles to the tableau, and score points for each coloured region that is extended equal to the number of triangles in that region. It’s one of those simple and relaxing games that you can play in any situation. The rhombuses can make the shape of the playing area quite bizarre and disorientating, but this only adds to the enjoyment of the game for me. My wife and I were neck and neck all the way through, but she pulled off some big moves late in the game to win her second game of the evening.
Annabelle 410 - 399 Allen
7 Wonders Duel
For the last game of the evening, I finally got my wife to try my favourite game. I was always reluctant to get her to play 7 Wonders Duel, because the game doesn’t really accommodate different skill and experience levels very well; it’s quite easy for a new player to be beaten and feel quite disheartened by the game. Annabelle decided to try and go for a science victory, which is an approach that you don’t often see in this game because it can be quite difficult to pull off. She ended up being one science symbol away from winning, but I held her off until the last card had been played and the game went to points. Even then I only won by five points. I think that given a few more games Annabelle might pull me apart in this game at some point in the future. Hopefully we’ll play the game again soon.
Allen 57 - 52 Annabelle
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The Mind
On Saturday we ended up relaxing in my parents garden with a glass of bubbly after watching the Grand National (a famous annual horse race here in the UK). We ended up trying The Mind for the first time, which I was eager to player after seeing it on both Stuart and Steph’s blog here on the Geek. Essentially this is small a cooperative card game in which players all have cards in their hand and must collaboratively play them in the correct order without verbally communication what is on their cards. The deck is made up of the numbers one through one hundred, and players get cards equal to the number of rounds they have played. So players have one cards in the first round, two in the second and so on. The game sounds simple, but there is a nuance to timing your moves and reading each other’s body language that makes The Mind a really entertaining game. We ended up playing two rounds, getting to round five in both games. The game had some funny moments when a few players had cards that were close to each other and started to panic play them at speed. We ended up playing two games and getting no further than level five each time. A great way to end a great week off. Thanks for reading!
