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From: "Michael Ward" <mward258@charterNOSPAM.net>
Newsgroups: dfw.games
Subject: Fort Worth Gamers: gaming session 06/24/17
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2017 03:36:24 -0500
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Saturday, 06/24/17 2 to 8 PM at Y2Komics, in southwest Fort Worth, TX.

This was another of our irregularly scheduled weekend sessions. We had two gamers at one table this afternoon.

First, Duane’s Starship Catan. Since my strategy in my one previous game
(last year) worked, I used it again. So I chose the sensor module to begin with to help me avoid pirates. It allowed me to look at the first two cards
in a stack and reject them if I wanted. Duane also did the same this he did last time, taking the Logistics module, to allow him to carry up to 3 of
each goods type (as opposed to 2 max). He also used the same overall
strategy - kill all the pirates! The major flaw to that is, after you've killed a certain amount and gained the Hero of the people card (1 VP),
killing more is a complete waste of time *if* the other player doesn't
compete with you. And I didn't. In the whole game I only encountered one
weak pirate early on, and I bribed him instead of fighting. Duane should
have given up on that tack after killing his fourth pirate. Instead he pert near killed every pirate in the game (about 11). In effect he got them out
of my way, making the game easier for me. While he was doing that I was overtaking him in victory points in other ways.

At the 2//3 mark we both had 5 VPs (it takes 10 to win). Duane then seemed
to go into static mode, except of upgrading his boosters and weapons (which
I mostly ignored). Meanwhile I kept rising in VPs. In my last two turns I earned 3 more. Game over. As to upgrading to advanced modules. I had
advanced Sensors (look at 3 cards) and Logistics (store up to 4 of each resource), while Duane had advanced Command (4 actions per turn).

Scores: Michael W 10 (5 colonies, 2 VPs from "adventure" planets, 1 VP for
the Friend of the People card, 2 VPs for two advanced modules), Duane 5 (3 colonies, 1 VP for the Hero of the People card, 1 VP for one advanced
module). Duration: two hours and 58 minutes.
We had played once before, last October. That game took 2.8 hours. So I
hoped today's outing would take less time. Nope! It took 2.9 hours.
Afterwards I perused over 400 ratings comments on BGG. I saw a goodly number that mentioned their games took 2 hours, therefore they rated the game
rather low. Well, we must be *really* doing something wrong (either strategy-wise or rules-wise) if our games are taking 3 hours. I wish I knew what it was. My best guess is this is the only Catan-ish game of the 20+
I've played that doesn't allow trading with the bank at either 3:1 or 4:1.
In the other Catan games this is necessary to alleviate occurrences of a player almost never receiving production on certain resources And/or the inability/unwillingness of their opponent to trade with them. Today there
were many turns where I was at an impasse due to a lack of a resource (today usually fuel or grain).



Next, my Aton, twice. The game was new to Duane.

Game #1 - Often one's inial strategy must be radically changed during the game; sometimes 3-4 times. This game I was able to mostly stay on track. My first thought was to occupy all 12 spaces in temple 1. When Duane thwarted
me there I switched to temple 2. I'm not sure Duane had a strategy as the
game was new to him. He seemed to be merely duplicating my moves the first half of the game. If I occupied black squares, then so did he. Ditto, blue squares, bonus squares, etc. Eventually I did solidify temple 2 with my red Aton priests, kickign out his blue Amon priests.

Victory to Michael W by occupying all of temple 2. Duration: 24 minutes. At game end both our (now irrelevant) scores were both 21.

Game #2 - My initial strategy this game was to occupy all the yellow
squares. Duane soon put the kibosh on that. When we had a general scoring about the 10 minute mark. I went second that turn and was able to undo
almost everything Duane did just before scoring. The scores then stood at about 25 for me and about 12 for Duane. I then decided to change strategies and try to "nickel and dime" my way to victory by always playing a "3" or
"4" card in cartouche 1. That worked much better than I'd hoped, for Duane kept playing 1's and 2's there, giving me 2 to 6 points each turn. Just
before the next general scoring, which I was loathing, for I feared Duane might catch up and then pass me, I had 36 points, and Duane about 14. I had hoped to win the next turn. But general scoring put a monkey wrench in that. And from it Duane made a great many points. But then, I only needed 4 more
to win. I made 5. One more than I needed to win.

Scores: Michael W 41, Duane 32. Duration: 18 minutes. My impression was
Duane was somewhat cool to Aton.



Then, my Hellas. Duane had played once before, in May 2016. We voyaged 2-3 times each early in the game. Yet I was the one that found a temple. I was able to use its +1 action in Burst of Strength at least five times before Duane found a temple and nullified my ability. Then on his next turn he voyaged and found a second temple. Now Duane had the Burst of Strength advantage. Yet he didn't have it long. For by this time I'd whittled down
his empire, taking his cities, one by one, via combat. At the beginning of
my last turn I had 9 of the 10 cities I required for victory, while Duane
had 3. I then made a successful voyage. Game over.

Scores: Michael W 10, Duane 3. Duration: 45 minutes.


See BoardgameGeek http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ for more information on the games mentioned above. And if you're in the area on a Tuesday night feel
free to join us for a game.

--
Michael Ward
Fort Worth Gamers
And check out our MeetUp page http://www.meetup.com/FortWorthGamers/ .

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