by Karl Bown
It’s been a few weeks since I posted an update so here’s the edited highlights (basically what I can remember at my age) and I’ll try and keep more up to date in future.Saturday we started, as usual, with Walk the Plank. This is an ideal filler game to play while waiting for the rest of the crew to turn up. It’s an excellent game in its own right, I’ve introduced lots of gamers to it and everyone loves it. The combination of screwing other people, with the occasional screwing of yourself when you Charge! into the sea is a lot of fun, and not long enough for people to get upset about, as there’s always another game.
The main feature was Cuba Libre. This is one of GMT’s COIN series about counter-insurgency. The others released so far are Andean Abyss - about Colombia in the 1990s - and A Distant Plain - about Afghanistan in the 21st Century. Cuba Libre covers the Cuban revolution of 1957-58, with such well known figures as Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Bautista and Meyer Lansky and probably most known to people in Europe for its appearance in the Godfather series of films.
The four players (each of these games features four sides, which seems a little odd to me) represent the Government, the 26 July Guerillas (Castro’s mob), The Directorio (more moderate guerrillas) and the Syndicate (ie Mobster casino owners). Each side has its own selection of operations it can perform, such as Training troops, Marching, Kidnap, Air Strikes and more. Each turn a card is revealed which shows who is eligible to play that turn, if you're eligible first you can perform an Op, play the Event on the card, or Pass. Only two players get to play each turn, and usually, if you do anything, you aren’t eligible to play on the next card. As you can see the next card coming up there’s a lot of anguish about whether to go this turn or wait and use the next card. Not only does each side have its own Operation, but they each have a different victory condition. The Government and 26 July want everyone to love them, The Directorio want to control areas, and the Syndicate just want to open Casinos and get rich. There are four Propaganda cards distributed through the deck. when one of these becomes active the first thing that happens is everyone checks to see if someone has won, so you can’t afford to hang around, and have to make sure no one else is doing too well.
We’d had a practice game on Friday night just to learn the rules, but for this one I ended up as the Government, Gareth was the Syndicate, Rob was the 26 July and Colin the Directorio. As the Government you have an uneasy alliance with the Syndicate, but for the most part you feel very paranoid. I started off well but every time it looked like I might have a chance of winning, I got pulled back, to the point where I didn’t really think I had a chance of winning. The first three Propaganda cards came and went without a winner, then there was quite a long gap before the fourth card came up by which time I had managed to get back into it. One the turn before the last Propaganda card became active the Directorio marched in and captured Havana, although the people still loved me, and when we went to the victory check, the Syndicate, Directorio and Government had all got exactly what they need to win, with the 26 July just two points of their victory conditions. The Syndicate won on tie break, with the Directorio second, me third and 26 July fourth. What an incredibly tight and exciting game! The system takes a little while to get used to, but its well worth it, its fun and iterating to play an asymmetrical game that appears to be so well balanced. Highly Recommended.
After that we had a three handed game of Terra Mystica. This is still a firm favourite and played pretty much every week. I raced into an early lead with the Swarmlings, however I’d pretty much neglected the Cult tracks so I knew I was vulnerable. I managed to hold onto second largest town which meant at the end of the game I just managed to hang onto the win by two points. Another excellent game and the variety of factions gives it great replayability.
Other games played on Saturday include Small World Underground, DC Deckbuilding, Magic, Cardfight and Weiss Schwarz.
On Tuesday we’d played Lords of Waterdeep again, with the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion for the first time. This is another one of our favourites, and the expansion (still hard to get) makes the game even better I feel. I suffered from the player to my right having one of the same bonus quest types as me, but I managed a reasonable third, probably as good as I’ve managed in this game (I’ve still not beat the iPad version!)
The previous Saturday we played Battlestar Galactica with the Pegasus and Exodus expansions. This is a very atmospheric game if you like the TV show, although quite long, and we played it with the full six players, For the first time I wasn’t a Cylon - I don’t think anyone believed it, every previous game I’ve started Human and become a Cylon halfway through - and we went for New Caprica. The game was very close but the Cylons just managed the win on the very last chance before the Humans would have escaped!
The previous Tuesday we’d played A Game of Thrones boardgame. I have a love-hate relationship with this game. I love the system, but hate getting screwed over by an erstwhile ally. we tried to random combat cards this time, but I’m not a fan. The Starks lost four combats in a row against the Greyjoys getting 4 x 0 against the Greyjoys 2 x 3s and 2 x 2s. I was the Baratheons and my combats turned out fairly even so it didn’t affect me much, apart from one combat late in the game where my combat card being higher than the Tyrells stopped them getting the auto win. Like I say, a great system, but try not to bear a grudge if you play it, and never, ever take the lead before the last turn!
That’s all I can remember really. I’ll try and be more timely in future!