Kuhhandel Master

My ponies! They won me the game.

Another interesting game that my friend Roy had bought back from his trip to Germany, this is a light-weight euro style game that is PURE auction. Everything involved in this game is some form of auction or another and at the end of the game players will score points for sets of 4 animals they have collected as well as what they term as pedigree animals which will give you bonus points. Whoever has the most points will win the game. How does it play though?

Schlacht Am Buffet: This is a Martin Wallace game?!?

Yes its a 2011 Martin Wallace game, no joke!

When Roy brought out this game which had pictures of cartoon rats and lots of food, I had though this was some kids or family game. When he mentioned its from Martin Wallace I did a double take and lo and behold, on the box it did indeed show that this game was designed by him! Wha....? Its also published in 2011! I had not heard about the game and I was eager to see what this game is about, hoping that its not a Dud like Dr Who the card game.

Augustus: BINGO!

It really is Bingo :)

After hearing, watching and reading reviews about Augustus, the overwhelming common theme is BINGO. This is BINGO the boardgame. This suggests to me that its light, not much decision to be had and possibly not for me. I managed to try it last night and yup pretty much a lot of my initial impressions were spot on.
Augustus is a light euro? (american? Jury is still out on this) style game where players are competing the score the most points completing symbols on objective cards and also fighting for a common set of achievements. The game will end when 1 player has completed 7 objectives and players count their end game scoring tiles and whoever has the most points will win the game.

Macao : More dice rolling!

Interesting windrose Mechanism

On a quest to play more of Stefan Feld's game since I have taken a great interest in him this year (due to his prolifict offering of games), I am trying out all the other Feld games which I have not try before.Luckily Dion had a copy of Macao and he was happy to bring it over for me to give it a go.
I won't go into much details as this is not a new game and there are quite a lot of reviews on it already. I will just go into my feelings about the game.

Edo

I need to win this more often!

After a few more games of Edo, I am not sure if there are any more paths to victory than just building. There is a Merchant for you to use but most of the time people are just building to win. The path seems all the same. Grab resources and then choose where to build your buildings and then score points and win. Essentially its to see if you can do it faster (or more efficient) than the other players to win the game. Most of the time we tend to shun the merchant. In this latest game, I did try to go just purely merchant way to see if I can score and win with it. But its often quite difficult to do so unless you have a lot of $. Because you can use it to buy the extra resources but more often than not, its probably more efficient to go to the resource areas and grab them than via merchant.
Edo is still quite an interesting game for me because I am often torn between buying MORE tiles and using the tiles efficiently to get an engine going. I should pay attention to getting more money though because I realise that most of the winners usually had a lot of income per round to enable them to build the fortresses for the win.

A Purchase Decision - Augustus

Due to some hazy situations, there was no Purchase Decision last week.
But it's back this week !   :)

The game in question for this week’s entry is…

Augustus

Augustus is designed by Paolo Mori and was recently nominated as one of the three challengers for the 2013 Spiel des Jahres Game of the Year award.

Other designs by Paolo Mori include Batman: Gotham City Strategy Game, Vasco da Game and – a game I very much enjoy – Libertalia.

Principato : Multiplayer solitaire ?

omg end game was so close! only 1 points apart

I had a small issue when shipping the game over to me previously and I was thinking about it but at a discount on the site I purchase from, I decided to give this game another go. My friend also mentioned that he had a copy and quite liked it so I got myself a copy.

CO2 : Awww the world ended....

we were quite close too!

So its been some time since I last played CO2 because I have quite a lot of new games but mostly because its quite tedious to explain the game again and those that played it are hesitant to start on something so meaty.

Palastgefluster : Much better this time

Quite a tight last move that enabled me to win

Previously when I brought this out, it did not really meet with great fanfare. This time in office though I had quite a good time playing it. Especially the last round where 2 of us were at 4 points each and either of us could win it. We were playing with 4 and ALL of us were down to our final card. Thus I could either cause someone else to win and we play 1 more round OR I pick my closest competitor's card and hope she loses and thus I win.
Which is what I did and she lost! It was quite an interesting last round as well because we used a lot of wizards to change cards and every time we swapped away same sets of cards. All in all, I will definitely want to try this more but probably not with the full complement of 5 players as it seems that is very hard to control and you may not even get to play a round but score points.

Five Points The Gangs of New York : OMG what a close game!

Can't believe how close it was! Last careless mistake i made cost me the game

So I was eager to bring this to the table again because of a few errors in rules in the previous game and also to try out the different buildings. I must say this was an excellent 2nd game. I was the only one that played this before so I had a slight advantage but the buildings were new. 2 of the new players were doing quite well and they were in the lead in terms of bosses on the board. While the other 3 tried to tackle them both to prevent from winning, the 2 leaders decided to gang up against the rest of us.

PULP Episode 12 is now LIVE!

Episode 12 is now LIVE! Click on the link on the right column to access it.

In this episode, we talk about games we last played that are of interest to us. Namely, Principato, Lost Legacy, Brass and Firenze.

Also take note our First every CONTEST is still ongoing and you have up to 30 June to enter! We will announce the winner in Episode 13.

Five Points : The gangs of New York

I sneaked in for the WIN! 

I heard of this game and wasn't too keen on it because it did not look particularly unique until I heard Donald Dennis of OnBoardgames rave about this. So when it arrived in my local Online boardgame shop, i decided to give it a go and see what it is all about.
In essence, this game is all about area control. Its an abstract light-medium weight euro-style game and reminds me a lot like a tammany hall light but without the negotiations.

Council of Verona – First Impressions / Thoughts

*played copy was a print & play version*

~played 3 games. each game with 4 players. each play with a different group~

The Truckers - Come lets deliver goods or steal each other's!

Cute art but slightly below average components

The Truckers is a light-weight euro-style game from Japan where players are choosing from a set of cards and simultaneously choosing 1 card to move their truck around a track OR load goods. After 3 rounds, the game ends and players count up points for their trucks that have been loaded with goods. Majority of each goods will score points. Then there are points for fully loaded trucks. Finally count all the penalties (i.e. empty truck or left over goods not yet loaded) and whoever has the most points will win the game.

La Venise Du Nord: a 2 player session

Dice rolling and selecting type of game

La Venise Du Nord is a light-medium weight Euro style game where players are trying to complete contracts by transforming raw goods into final products and selling them into markets or fulfilling contracts. Players are also trying to build up an engine of sorts which will provide some points. All of this is done by means of rolling 2 dice. 1 dice will be selected as the distance a player's pawn will move and the other the number of actions that can be done by the player at the final location. At the end, the player with the most points will win the game.

The Scepter of Zavandor - Improved version of Outpost

Lots and lots of Calculation! OMG...

Sceptre of Zavandor is a medium weight euro where players are trying to build up an engine of sorts to generate enough Dust (currency in the game) so as to be able to purchase Artefacts and Sentinels with which to score points in. The game also ends when 5 of 9 Sentinels have been purchased and then the player with the most points will win the game.

Cinque Terre : Santiago de Light?

I think its way too light for me...

Recent release Cinque Terre is a light euro about playing cards to pick up goods and then transporting these goods to one of 5 cities to sell them either for points indicated on the dice (Randomly rolled at the start of the game and doesn't change for the rest of the game) or for 1 point if the die corresponding to the good does not appear. Players try to fulfill secret objective cards or the open objective cards to score extra points. Goods sold will be placed onto your player card and if you are the first to fill up one entire row you get extra points as the Most Valuable Merchant for that town. When game ends, player with the most points will win the game.

Dragon Valley: Er... whats the point?

We never even reached the forts!

Tried something new. Dragon Valley is a euro-style light-medium weight game where players are humans defending against orcs, battering rams and dragons and in the end, hopefully bringing the fight to their own fortresses all in the name of scoring points. The player who first reaches 30 points will win the game.

A Purchase Decision - Xia: Legends of a Drift System

The game in question for this week’s entry is…

Xia: Legends of a Drift System

Xia: Legends of a Drift System ( Xia ) is designed by Cody Miller.

He is currently trying to raise funds on Kickstarter so that the game may be published some time next year.

This is Cody’s first foray into game design and he has been designing Xia during his free time for the past 7 years.

Brass: Predecessor of Age of Industry



I'm Green!

So since Dion's been raving about Brass as one of his 10-point games, I decided to ask him to bring it along to try. I have tried Age of Industry before, twice on the base map and twice on the Japan map and I wasn't too thrilled by the game. I remember the first game I had no idea what I was doing and I don't believe I really got around to understanding whats required of me to win the game. I do know I only did the 1 turn flip all my cotton factories to ship and score points ONCE in my 4 games. That was kinda fun to do.

Rocketville: A really OLD game in my collection

One of the first few boardgames from Richard Garfield

So this is one of those boardgames that I have had in my collection since i started serious boardgaming. I think it was a present and I did give it a few good plays in before I got hooked on Cult of the New. At that time, it was pretty fun playing this light game. That was when I was in the initial phases of my new .... obsession :P I preferred light hearted short games that did not burn my brains out and had dry/bland art work.

Fix'it for Dummies - Takenoko

Fix'it for Dummies is a new series that I have decided to start.
It is a series of very simple posts about the variants that I use for some of the games that I own.

Disclaimer:
Although it is called "Fix'it for Dummies", it is by no means me saying that:
1) the game is broken, or
2) you are a dummy
It is neither of the above. It is just house rule(s) that i use when i play the game as i find that it increases my enjoyment of the game, or makes it a whole lot more interesting. :)

Caylus Magna Carta: Card version of Caylus!

All that's missing is the board! lol...

Now I have Caylus the iOS version and had a difficult time trying to understand what's happening and how to play the game. Besides, the game takes quite a bit of time to finish even for the iOS version which is surprising since many of the iOS versions cut down the time to play. AI is also quite good I think so I wasn't too keen on Caylus. However, since my friend brought over the card version, I was ok to give it a try more so to finally learn how to play the game properly.

Lost Legacy: Love Letter version 2!

2 for the price of one! Way cool :P

What? Seiji Kanai of Love Letter fame has a new release and its like Love Letter? Why is it called Lost Legacy? Does it play better? How come there's so many cards now? Why is the Art like this? So when I heard about it, I manage to grab myself a copy via online sources and I was eager to bring it to the table.

Episode 11 is now LIVE!

Our Ep11 is now LIVE! We talk about our TOP 7 iOS boardgames and also some games we played. 

Remember our contest is still ongoing!! Enter to win great prizes!


http://s3.amazonaws.com/PushUrLuckPodcast/PULP+Ep+11.mp3

Bora Bora Review

Designer: Stefan Feld

No. of Players: 2-4

Playing Time: 90-120mins

Mechanics: Dice Rolling Worker Placement / Set Collection / Open Goals

A Purchase Decision - Cinque Terre

The game in question for this week’s entry is…

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre ( pronounced as chin-kweh-tar-air ) is designed by Chris Handy and has been described by some as the pick up & deliver version of Ticket to Ride. Or some have also said that it’s the slightly heavier / meatier version of Ticket to Ride.

Chris Handy’s other designs include Long Shot and Handy.

Nieuw Amsterdam - A game session report

there's a lot of things to like about this game

Managed to get this to the table again because Jon has never played it and I think we had fun. Even though we AP quite a bit during our own turns and as Jon mentioned, this is an easy game, I found the game still moved on quite smoothly.

Viticulture: My fake visitor's center did not bring in enough customers!

Amazingly tight game with 6!

Finally, a 6 player session of Viticulture! I have been wanting to try out a 6 player and also to try to win the game without fulfilling much or any wine orders. 6 players certainly makes the game tighter (not many things you can do) and reminds me of multiplayer (more than 3) Le Havre where you have to wait several rounds before you can actually do the things you wanted to.

Hansa Teutonica : Ignore me at your own risk!

i'm purple btw! 

Our last game of the night to round off a almost 9 hours of gaming session was Hansa and we had 1 new player with us. Now in this game I have always ignored the action track (to get more actions) and did all sorts of other ways to score points. Mostly though I went with occupying cities because I can force the game to end faster before the others get their "engines" running and still score respectably.

Bora Bora: Ignore the temple and you will be screwed!

Wasn't as successful as I was previously

So I played another 4 player game of Bora Bora and I was going to try out the same tactics again with the 12 tiles final bonus but its way more difficult with 4 players. I ended up completing the 6 construction tiles and occupying the whole space for 12 points. I also managed to finish all of my objectives and get that bonus as well. Still I was squeezed out of about 10 points from the fishes at the end when players decided I was the bigger threat. I also ignored the temple track and Jon won by about 10+ points, scoring on both the temple tracks and the man/woman tiles that provided points.