Timeline of Flashy Rats in the Biblios of Belfort
Last week I played a really cool array of games, most of which were new to me. Here's how it went...
Timeline [BGG]
This is a very simple party game where every player is dealt a number of cards each featuring an invention from some point in history. Another card is played into the center of the table and turned over to reveal the year in which it was invented. Then, on your turn, you place one of your cards into the timeline growing on the table. If you're right about where it fits, it stays there, but otherwise, you discard it and draw another card. And of course, the first player to get rid of all their cards is the winner.
We played 3 quick games with 3 different winners, and I think pretty much everyone had a good time with it.
Time: 24 minutes (for 3 games)
Score: Norton* - 1 win, Mark* - 1 win, Shawn* - 1 win, Chris* & Ian - no wins
Ratings: Norton 7, Mark 7, Shawn 7, Chris 6.5, Ian 7
I had heard about Timeline on The Dice Tower or some other podcast, but was really surprised when I saw it on the Barnes & Noble shelf that next week. It's really cheap, but the art looks great, and the game couldn't be simpler. What's also cool is that this was just the "Inventions" set, and they're also releasing 4 or 5 other sets (for things like Discoveries, Events, Music, etc.) which can either be played separately or all mixed together for one huge timeline extravaganza.
It really seems to be a very good, light game that would appeal to a lot of people. It's sort of akin to a trivia game, but at the same time, it doesn't necessarily require you to specifically know when something was discovered/invented/happened because you can make some educated guesses most of the time. There's a nice mix of really obvious things (like the invention of fire) and also really obscure or unintuitive ones. I plan on introducing it to a few different groups over the holidays, and if it goes well, it'll probably show up on next year's Gift Guide!
Belfort [BGG]
From there, I managed to jump into my first play of Belfort. I had watched this game and just barely restrained myself from Kickstarting it, but was sort of put off a little by its silly fantasy theme. After playing it now, however, I think that the theme is really cute and is so well executed in every detail of the game and components, which are just absolutely gorgeous.
The game itself is a big ole' mashup of lots of different mechanics. You start each turn with a worker-placement phase, then collect resources that you have to manage, take a series of actions and spend the resorces to build certain buildings that give you special powers, and the ultimate goal is to claim influence in the 5 areas of the city to get points through area-majority scoring. But as Frankenstein-ey as it may sound, Belfort actually manages to pull it off and create a relatively smooth and interesting play experience.
Since I was trying to make heads or tails of the game most of the time, I don't remember a lot about what actually happened in our game. I managed to score a good number of points early (which isn't all that great, since you have to pay more taxes), and then concentrated on getting more of my little houses on the board and kept close to the leaders. In fact, in the end, we were all really close, and Keith actually managed to pull out the win despite it being his first game as well!
Time: 115 minutes
Score: Keith* 39, Chris 35, Norton* 34, Ian 32
Ratings: Keith 8, Chris 8.5, Norton 8, Ian 9
Belfort is really good. I'm now regretting not Kickstarting it, but at least Christmas is coming up and maybe I'll get it as a present. There seems to be so much potential for strategy in the game, and I really can't wait to play it again and do all kinds of stuff with it.
Rattus [BGG]
As I mentioned a week or two ago, my BGG Secret Santa sent me a couple of games for Christmas! Rattus was one that I've wanted for a while, mostly because I've heard really good things about it, and because it's supposed to be so short. Well, I managed to get it to the table last week, and I even won!
Time: 25 minutes
Score: Norton* 11+, Sceadeau* 11, Chip* 7, Alton* 5
Ratings: Norton 7.5, Sceadeau ?, Chip 7.5, Alton 7
Basically, you're putting cubes (your people) on a map of Europe divided into different regions. The number of cubes you can place is limited by the number of Rat tokens there, but when the Plague is moved into that region, the rat tokens are flipped over and may kill some of the cubes there. There are also 6 roles that give you various special powers, but also make it more likely for you to lose cubes to the plague when you're holding them.
Sceadeau commmented after the game that he thinks we played it wrong, because we were triggering the plague to fire off before there were enough cubes or rat tokens to really make it dangerous. He's probably right, but I still beat him, so he can just suck it!
Seriously, though, Rattus definitely packed a lot of thought into a minimal 25 minutes, and I can see this getting a lot of play as a medium-weight filler. I'll definitely be bringing it along to game night for the forseeable future.
Flash Point: Fire Rescue [BGG]
Also being a pretty big coop game fan, Chip was very interested in seeing how Flash Point: Fire Rescue plays. Four other people joined us as well, and we dove headlong into the blistering inferno. Unfortunately, the house collapsed and killed most of us and many of the victims, so it didn't go too well.
Time: 36 minutes
Score: Flash Point - Win (house collapse); Firefighters (Alton, Chip*, Norton, Ian*, and Sceadeau*) - Lose
Ratings: Alton 7, Chip 7, Norton 7, Ian 7, Sceadeau 6ish
After 4 games now, I'm ready to admit that I'm definitely feeling a bit disappointed with Flash Point. The theme is great and the components are awesome, but it feels really fiddly and maybe even sort of boring right now. I definitely think that 6 is way too many people for it, and doubt that I'll play it that way again. Maybe once the whole process of setup and board management gets a little more natural for me, things will improve. But as of right now, all the dice rolling and placement of tokens at the end of each turn really interrupts the game for me and disrupts my immersion in the theme.
I own it and will keep playing for now, but it's definitely not the raging success for me and my group that I'd hoped for, especially since so many of us love cooperative games as much as we do.
Biblios [BGG]
The other game I got from my Secret Santa was Biblios, and even though it was late, a few of us tried it out as well last week. The game is played in 2 phases, where you start by taking turns distributing cards to one of 3 locations (yourself, the auction pile, and a common area where the other players get to pick up a card). Then, once all the cards are distributed, you auction off the cards from the auction pile one at a time. All the while, some of the cards distributed and auctioned let you manipulate the value of the 3 different colors, and your score at the end is the value of all the colors in which you have the majority value in your hand.
Okay, that didn't sound very clear, but I'm not gonna rewrite it now. Suffice it to say that the game is, like Rattus, very quick and interesting.
Time: 27 minutes
Score: Alton* 6, Norton* 5, Chip* 5, Ian* 0
Ratings: Alton 8.5, Norton 7.5, Chip 7.5, Ian 8
Other Games Played
Belfort
Time: 100 minutes
Score: Sceadeau 39, Ian 35, Shawn* 21, Alton* 20, Rory* 20
Ratings: Sceadeau 8, Ian 8, Shawn 7, Alton 7, Rory 8
Elder Sign
Time: 35 minutes
Score: Humans (Mark*, Matt, & Kenny) - Win; Elder god - Lose
Ratings: Mark 7, Matt 7.5, Kenny 7.5
Eminent Domain
Time: 55 minutes
Score: Ian 25, Mark* 24, Chris 24, Shawn 20
Ratings: Ian 9, Mark 8.5, Chris 8, Shawn 9
Homesteaders
Time: ??
Score: Sceadeau* 71, Alton 66, Chip 61, Rory 43
Ratings: Sceadeau ?, Alton 10, Chip 9, Rory 8
Kingdom Builder
Time: 17 minutes
Score: Chris 60, Mark* 54
Ratings: Chris 7.5, Mark 7.5
No Thanks!
Time: 25 minutes (for 3 hands)
Score: Sceadeau 42, Kenny 106, Matt 114, Chip 158, Rory* 260
Ratings: Sceadeau ?, Kenny 8, Matt 7, Chip ?, Rory 7
Pandemic
Time: 100 minutes for 2 games
Game 1: Pandemic - Win; Humans (Keith, Rory*, & Kenny) - Lose
Game 2: Humans (Keith, Rory, & Kenny) - Win; Pandemic - Lose
Ratings: Keith 9, Rory ?, Kenny 9
Space Hulk
Time: 115 minutes for 2 games
Game 1: Rory* (Genestealers) - Win; Keith (Space Marines) - Lose (concede)
Game 2: Kenny (Genestealers) - Win; Rory (Space Marines) - Lose (concede)
Ratings: Ratings
* First play for that Person
Posted by Chris Norwood at 12/12/2011 12:25 AM 
Categories: Gaming Weblog, Hypermind BoardGamers
Tags: Party Games Belfort Rattus Flash Point Fire Rescue
Categories: Gaming Weblog, Hypermind BoardGamers
Tags: Party Games Belfort Rattus Flash Point Fire Rescue
Wow, Im jealous. You got to play a lot of games.
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Not as many as I'd like. But a regular, weekly game night is definitely a huge advantage to actually getting games to the table.
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