Time is getting short before the new baby comes, so I was ready to get into a game as soon as I could on Tuesday night.  Thankfully, Tom, Alton and Keith were available to join me in a play of...

Goa [BGG]

I've heard a lot about Goa ever since I've been into modern boardgames, mostly because it's often compared or linked with The Princes of Florence (one of my favorite games) as being quite similar in depth and feel.  It's out of print, however, so I hadn't actually seen it in person until I completed a trade for it just a couple of weeks ago.  It didn't fit into my evening last week, but we got it to the table first thing this time.  I was mostly prepared to teach it from just reading the rules, but Sceadeau has a lot experience with it and was available to teach it to all of us.   

The core of Goa is the auction, and like all auction games, things can be a little wonky early on when it comes to figuring out what everything's worth.  Thankfully, I probably made out the best in the early rounds, mostly in picking up the flag for a pittance on several rounds.  I tried to concentrate early on getting my colonist track advanced, making sure to get it pretty high before actually establishing colonies (which just seemed most efficient to me).  In the late game, I worked on maximizing my expedition card track, and spent my last few actions of the game discarding and drawing to try and put together a nice set of cards. 

Alton ran ahead on the ship track and looked good early, but things just never seemed to come together for him in the late game.  Tom seemed a little lost in finding a strategy early, but then came on really strong in the second half of the game.  Keith... well, he'll do better next time.  When we totalled up the score, we declared Tom the winner!  And then I looked back at the totals, and realized that I didn't add in my 10 points for colonies, so I dashed his spirits and claimed the victory for myself.


Time: 160 minutes
Score: Me* 49, Tom* 41, Alton* 34, Keith* 26
Ratings: Me 8.5, Tom 8.5, Alton 8.5, Keith 8.5

The game was a little longer than it probably should have been, but as you can see, we all really liked it anyway.  On Twitter, I mentioned how Goa was (as I perceived it) sort of a mix of The Princes of Florence (for the auction + action organization of the turns), Endeavor (for the multiple development tracks which can each be advanced for extra options and victory points), and a little bit of Metropolys (for the spatial aspect to the auction), all of which I love, of course.  It's got a similar feel to Princes as well, having a lot of variety in strategy and the classic "multiple paths to victory" thing going on.

In our game, someone compared it to Macao as well, but I don't know if I really agree with that.  There are a couple of similarities, both in how deep/long they are and in having similar themes, but the games don't really play or feel the same at all.  Macao is about building combinations of cards and finding an emergent strategy on the fly, and is filled with lots of tension and risk.  Goa feels a lot more open and strategic, where you can come in with a plan that can mostly survive intact with a few twists that are thrown at you by the other players (mostly through the auction).

I enjoyed Goa a lot, but I especially liked the auction process.  If you're not familiar with it, you start with this grid of tiles laid out on the board.  The start player chooses where to start and places the "flag" next to one tile.  Other players then, in turn, place one of their markers on a tile that is connected either orthogonally or diagonally to the flag and then the previously chosen tile.  So at the end, you have this chain of connected tiles that will be auctioned, in order, starting with the flag.  And the really brilliant thing is that the person who orignially chose the tile is its "auctioneer" and will get any money paid for it.  However, if they want it for themselves, they have to outbid the last bidder (in a once-around auction) and pay their money to the bank.  It creates this incredibly cool, semi-closed economy that forces a lot of tough decisions on the auctioneer each turn.  Heck, even choosing which tile to auction is full of decisions!

But anyway, Goa is also a game that is really hard to get your head around until it's almost too late, so I can't wait to get it to the table again and try out some new strategies!   

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer [BGG]

Ascension is definitely the new hotness in our group right now.  I missed all of the 4 other games played of it while I was tied up in Goa, so I pulled out my shiny new copy and got three newbies to join me as well.  I kept trying to refer to Dominion in my rules teach, but that didn't help too much since none of them had a lot of experience with it either.  

When we finally got started, Matt actually fell into a really solid strategy from the get-go.  He started picking up Mechana constructs early on, and by midgame had 4 or 5 of them all synergizing with each other and earning him a lot of points.  Thankfully, someone else killed the demon that makes you discard all but 1 of your constructs, and he never got the engine rolling quite that well again.

In this, still only my second play, I focused more on card drawing and the Enlightened heroes that do it so well.  It took me a little while to get going, but then had few huge turns later on when I drew 2/3 or more of my deck and did absolutely ridiculous things.  Everyone else did pretty well for their first play, but my experience with the game helped push me to the win.     

Time: 54 minutes
Score: Me 82, Matt* 64, Tom* 59, Brad* 48
Ratings: Me 8, Matt 9, Tom 8, Brad 7

The biggest complaint that I've heard about Ascension is the randomness inherent in the cards that are available for purchase each turn.  I can appreciate that, and wonder in the long run if replayability will become a concern, but a couple of things make it okay for me right now.  FIrst of all, I think that the randomness in Ascension is a design choice that helps keep both its play time and overall weight a lot more appropriate than something like Dominion (which can get long and unnecessarily laborious at times).  It also adds in more excitement, variability, and need for flexibility, because while a lot of turns in Dominion are just automatic (you know what you're going to do as soon as you draw your cards), you always have to evaluate the cards available in Ascension against each other, as well as possibly taking the chance of buying or banishing a card just so that the next one pulled might be the one you need.

I've also recently read about a couple of variants that can add in more predictability to Ascension.  In the 6x2 variant, two rows of six cards each are dealt out into the central area.  Players buy from the bottom row, and the card above slides down into the empty spot, which is then replaced from the deck.  This way, you know which cards will be made available next, both in case you want to get to them, keep them there, or banish them depending on what you and your opponents may need.  The 4x3 variant is similar, except that you have 3 rows of 4 cards each, and you can buy any card in the whole grid.  However, cards in the second row are at +1 cost, and the third row is +2 cost.  Cards in rows 1 and 2 are still replaced from above, and only the 3rd row is replaced from the deck.  Both of these add some extra fiddliness to setup and maintenace, but they could also add in significantly more room for crafty tactical play.

Right now, though, I'm happy with the rules as written.  Despite being less strategic (but possibly due to the lack of a buy limit), you seem to be able to put together combos of cards quicker and more consistently than in Dominion, and the lack of boring or useless cards being in your deck (VP cards, I'm looking at you), it just feels more interesting. We'll see, though, if my initial excitement for it continues.     

Pandemic [BGG]

It was getting really late, but I desperately wanted to get in another game.  It had been a little while since I played Pandemic (my favorite game, of course), so I pulled it out and was joined by Keith, Tom, and Sceadeau.  Especially with experienced players, there's always this cool meta-game you have to play when you determine how difficult you should make it.  We decided to go with 5 virulent strain epidemics and also included the mutation challenge.

With the synergy of having both the Medic and Containment Specialist in the same game with the Dispatcher, we did pretty well.  I said the fateful words, "I think we've got this under control" early on, just to see if the game would get offended and make it tougher on us.  It tried pretty hard, giving us back-to-back epidemics in the late game and forcing us up to 6 outbreaks and only a few black cubes left, but we weathered the storm and won on the next turn.

Time: 42 minutes
Score: Valiant Humans (Keith the Containment Specialist, Sceadeau the Medic, Tom the Troubleshooter & GamerChris the Dispatcher) - Win!, Virulent, Mutating Pandemic - Lose
Ratings: Keith 9, Sceadeau 7.5, Tom 9, Me 10

It's Pandemic.  I love it.  'Nuff said.


I hate that I didn't get in a game of Cyclades this week, but I also don't regret playing Goa.  So maybe I'll get lucky and make it into the "championship game" next week, or I'll just play it anyway.

Other Games Played

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer
Time: ??
Game 1: Sceadeau 118, Cody 62
Game 2: Sceadeau 67, Michelle 62
Game 3: Chris 82, Kenny 63, Chip 54, David* 50
Ratings: Sceadeau 9, Cody 9, Michelle 7, Chris 9.5, Kenny 9, Chip 7.5, David 8

Cycyades
Time: 73 minutes
Score: Kenny - Win; Chip, Chris & Shawn - Lose
Ratings: Kenny 7, Chip 7, Chris 8, Shawn 8

Another game was played, but I didn't end up with the report sheet.  Any details about it, David?

Egizia
Time: 80
Score: Sceadeau 106, Michelle 93, Adam* 87, Alton 83
Ratings: Sceadeau 9, Michelle 8, Adam 7, Alton 8

Galaxy Trucker (with the Big Expansion)
Time: ??
Score: Michelle* 76, Sceadeau 31, Adam -15
Ratings: Michelle 8, Sceadeau 9, Adam 8

Polarity
Time: ?? (short)
Session 1: Sceadeau - 2 wins, Cody - 0 wins
Session 2: Sceadeau - 3 wins, Michelle* - 0 wins
Session 3: Michelle -1 win, David* - 0 wins
Ratings: Sceadeau 7, Michelle 7, Cody 10, David 7

Road Kill Rally
Time: 62 minutes
Score: John the Z-Man Guy 220, Shawn* 160, Chip* 120, Chris* 10 
Ratings: Shawn 8, Chip 7, Chris 5

Space Hulk
Time: 55 and 44 minutes
Game 1: Kenny - Win, Matt* - Lose
Game 2: Matt - Win, Brad - Lose
Ratings: Kenny 9, Matt 10, Brad 7

Thurn and Taxis
Time: ??
Score: Kenny 20, Chip 19, Keith 17, Alton 15
Ratings: Kenny 10, Chip 8.5, Keith 8, Alton 8.5

* First play for that Person