February 2005 Gaming Sessions

February 5, 2005: Don had bought Struggle of Empires, Senator and Minotaur Lords from the Sentry Box on Thursday. He had sent me an e-mail asking for the body count, I replied we had five total and I mentioned that Martin Wallace's highly praised Struggle of Empires had recently arrived. I guess this prompted Don to buy the last copy of the game the same day. We both read the rules, so we were ready to go, with Jean, Trevor and Gary arriving at my place. Based on 18th century warfare in Europe, the novel mechanic in this game is that you bid to determine who your allies and enemies for that particular epoch, or 'war'. The game last three wars long, and your allies/enemies are fixed for each war. You can only attack your enemies. I'm not going to provide a synopsis, you can read the rules at boardgamegeek.com. I'll just point out a few of the Martin Wallace mechanics that we know and love. Combat is resolved by rolling two six sided dice, you take the difference, and compare that to your opponent. Eg if I roll a 5 and a 2, my value is 3, plus whatever modifiers I have in armies or tiles. Also if you roll a '7' on the dice, you lose an extra unit (loser always loses a unit). Another mechanic is movement: if you move outside your country, you roll a die: if you roll a '1', you roll the die again, and if it shows up 1 or 2, your unit is eliminated! A 3 or 4, the move is cancelled and a 5 or 6, the move goes through.

Don and I explained the rules to everyone and by 11:00 am we were rolling. Around the table, Jean was France, I was Russia, Trevor was Britian, Don was Prussia and Gary was Spain. Jean's initial seeding of control markers was 2 East Indies, I Mediterranean, 1 Ottoman, 1 Central Europe; Jean would place a fort in the East Indies, a fleet in Africa, army in S. America and 2 armies in Central Europe. My control markers were: 2 India, 2 Africa, 1 South America; my armies were fleet in Africa, fort in India, army in Central Europe, army in S. America, army in Germanic States. Trevor's control markers were 2 Mediterranean, 1 Germanic States, 1 Caribbean, 1 S. America and his troops were fleet, army and fort in Mediterranean, fleet in Africa and fort in Germanic States.. Don control markers were in Ottoman, Baltic, Caribbean, N. America, S. America and troops were army in Baltic, Ottoman, N. America, Caribbean and fleet in Africa. Gary's control markers were 3 in Caribbean, 1 Germany, 1 East Indies; troops were fort in Germany and Caribbean, armies in Mediterranean, S. America, Africa.

Jean went first and put himself in A, Gary in B with a bid of 0. Trevor put me in A, Don in B with a bid of 1. Jean paid 1 to put Trevor in A.

The first war: (In which Asian North Americans fight like the devil)

Jean: 1. bought diplomatic service, slaves in S. America. 2. bought Portugal?, attacked Don in S, America, winning. 3. bought fleet in S. America, bought banking. 4. bought militia, moved 2 units to Baltic. 5. Kicked Don out of Baltic.

Gary: 1. bought trained natives, took pop in S. America, used trained natives in S. America, 2. attacked Trevor in S. America. (I lost track of the rest of his actions)

Norbert: 1. bought mercenaries, slaves in N. America. 2. Put troops in Ottoman from mercenaries, put 3 units to Ottoman. 3. Bougt East Indies Company, attacked a 3 neutral in Ottoman, 4. built fleet and army in Ottoman. 5. ??

Don: 1. bought pressgangs, took pop in S. America. 2. Moved ship to N. America and attacked me unsucccessfully. 3.moved third army to Ottoman. 4. Attacked Jean in Ottoman, moved army to Baltic. 5. Moved armies to N. America to attack me again at +2 and lost again.

Trevor: 1. bought war office, took pop in Africa, used war office to take over strength 2 natives in Mediteranean. 2 Got first Levant company. 3. bought banking, built army in Africa. 4. bought slave revolt in N. America, used against Don successfully, put army in Germanic States. 5. Took second Levant company and got 3 gold.

Scores after first war: Jean 24, Norbert 20, Gary 20, Trevor 19, Don 10.

The second war: (In which Oriental Africans fight like wounded lions)

Trevor bid 0 to put A: Trevor, B: Norbert; Gary bid 1 to put A: Gary, B: Jean, I bid 1 gold to put Don in B.

Trevor 1. Took pop in India, bought army training. 2. Took over 2 unit strength troop in Germanic States.

Norbert: 1. Took slaves in Caribbean, attacked and won over strength 2 in Baltic. 2. Moved 2 units to Baltic and lost battle over 3 strength in Baltic.

Gary. 1. Attacked me at +3 in Africa, I rolled a 6/1, he rolled 3/2/ Undeterred, he attacked me at +2 again, rolled 2/2 and was demoralized, ready to quit the game. 2. Attacked Jean in Mediterranean and won.

Jean: 1. Built in central Europe, attacked strength 2 in Central Europe, winning.

Don. 1. Moved 2 units from N. America to Caribbean, attacked Trevor in Caribbean and won.

After Gary's turn, he got called by Jeanette saying she had to go to the emergency in the hospital. Gary had to leave so we aborted the game. Trevor had 8 gold coming into the second war and with a mass of troops in the Germanic States, looked poised to take the lead. Unrest tokens: Trevor 0, Norbert 3, Gary 4, Jean 4, Don 8. Too bad we couldn't finish, it was just starting to heat up. Gary, I hope everything is okay with Jeanette.

We played some partnership Fairy Tale, with Don and I against Trevor and Jean. I jokingly told Don that my back couldn't carry him anymore!

Next up was San Juan: I went first, followed by Trevor, Don and Jean. Jean was able to build a turn 4 guild hall and last turn palace for 36 pts. I built two coffees, couldn't find a '6' building to save my life but was able to use the black market to help me build a statue, victory column and hero for 30 pts. Don had an early guild hall and late city hall for 29 pts. Trevor couldn't find a '6' building, except the triumpahl arch so he earned 28 pts.

Don then put Senator on the table.

The First Orgy:

Up for bid were 4 swords, 2 taxes, 1 public works, 1 rebellion, 1 trade. The random bugger event card was that the two consul tokens were not available for bid. Jean won the first tax for 6, Trevor won the trade agenda for 5 and took the extra public works. Don won the second tax (and veto) for 2. Knowing that our 5's were vulnerable, Don and I bid them for the next agenda, but Trevor used his assasin card to wipe those cards out. I used an assasin to kill a 2 of Trevor's and a 4 of Don's. Don then used his assasin, Jean paid 2 for a sword and Jean used his assasin to close out the bidding. Entering the second great period of Rome, Jean and Trevor had 2 agendas in front of them, Don had one and I had none.

The second coming of Julius Ceasar:

Up for bid were 2 consul, 2 trade, 1 rebellion, 2 public works, 2 swords, the random event card stipulated that imperial agendas could not be bid on.

Jean put the consul token up for bid (as he had 2 agendas in front) and Trevor used an assasin. I won a trade agenda for 8, and took another using that ability. A public works was put up and Jean used his assasin. The next consul was put up and Don used his assasin. Next, Don won a public works and I won a sword which I give to Trevor to reduce his agendas to one. Entering the final apocolyptic Senate chambers, Trevor had 1 agenda, I had 2, Jean had 2 and Don had 1.

The third time where everyone is shouting "Die Swine!"

Up for bid were 2 imperial, 4 swords, 2 public works and a trade. Random event card was only two cards could be played in a bid.

I put my 5 and 2 up for a trade, won it and took a public works with it. In retrospect, this was a huge mistake, since it put three barrels in front of me, and now I would become a huge target. Jean won a consul for 4, and put 2 agendas behind him. I had to use my assasin to ruin a sword auction; however, it was obvious I could not defend all the swords coming up for bid. Jean won the next sword bid with 5, gave it to me, and putting me over a literal barrel, wiping out my three trade agendas. Don won an imperial with 5, and later would sneak another imperial agenda behind him. Trevor got the last public works, used it to pull back a 5 and won the last bid (I think it was a sword), giving him 3 agendas. Don also had three agendas, so we had to go to the tiebreak. Apparently the tiebreaker is the person with the most imperial agendas, Don had 2, giving him the victory!

Scores: Don 3, Trevor 3, Jean 2, Norbert 1.

Well, it is a very unstable game. It looks like the game involves trying to pull a quick one over your opponents, but most times, everyone saves their assasin card for the consul bidding, though in the third round in this game, Jean did win a consul for 2 points, but he wasn't the perceived leader at the time. I would play again, but everyone else didn't like it. Trevor said that even though he tied for the win he would give it a rating of 3 out of 10. I guess it is just to easy to mess with other people's items they have acquired. It is a light bidding game.

What did I learn from this session report? There are two asses in "assassin".

We ended the day with Gang of Four: Jean had the multicolored 1 and began. In a tight defensive game, the tide turned in hand 8 when I got the lead and had a gang of four, catching Don and Jean with 15 cards each, and Trevor with 10.

February 12, 2005: At Don's place were a total of 7 people! Don was teaching Struggle of Empires to Greg and Jasen from 10:00 am to 11:00 am, while Trevor, Gary, Jean and myself were playing Tichu while waiting for the newbies to learn the game.

Tichu: The first three hands were wierd in that one team was able to shut out the other team. Things settled down after that, but we couldn't finish before we got called to the Struggle of Empires game. I think Jean declared a Tichu in the last hand to give us a 200 pt lead.

A detailed blow by blow account of a 7 player game of Struggle of Empires. In clockwise order around the table were the following players:

Gary (Austria): Control markers: 2 in East Indies, 1 Ottoman, 1 Germany, 1 Africa. Troops: fleet in Africa, S. America, 2 armies in East Indies, and army in S. America.

Trevor (France): Control markers in India, Europe, 2 Germany, S America: Troops: fort and army in Germany, army in Europe and India, fleet in S. America.

Jean (Spain): Control markers in Europe, Baltic, Meditteranean, Carribean, India. Troops: 2 armies in Europe, single armies in India, Baltic and Med.

Don (England): Control markers in Carribean, N. America, 2 in Germany, Ottoman; Troops: 3 armies in Germany, fort in N. America and Caribbean

Jasen (United Provinces): Control markers in N.America, S. America, Africa, E. Indies, Europe. Troops fleet and army in Baltic, fleet in Africa and N. America and army N. America.

Greg (Prussia): Control markers: 2 in Med, 1 in Car, 1 Germany, 1 Africa. Troops: fleet in Africa and Med, fort in Med, armies in Ottoman and Africa

Norbert (Russia): Control markers: 2 in Car., 1 India, 1 Med., 1 Europe: Troops: fleet Africa, fort Car., armies in Med, Europe and Baltic

I was going first and paid 1 to put myself going first. However, Gary won the bid with 2 putting himself in A and Jasen in B. Jasen put 1 in to put Trevor in A and Don in B. Jean paid 1 to have me in A and himself in B. Jean paid 1 for Greg to be in B to result in the following alliances:

A. Gary, Trevor, Norbert

B. Jasen, Don, Jean, Greg

Round by round turns: The first war (where Norbert the Russian is sent to Siberia)

Gary: 1. took slaves in Car, bought natives. 2. bought East Indies company, used trained natives to put troops in S. America to attack Jasen at +3 and won. 3. took 2 gold from E. Indies, company, bought Militia, put 2 armies in Ottoman. 4. put army in Ottoman, successfully attacked Don in Ottoman. 5. built fleet in Car, bought reserves.

Jasen 1. bought diplomacy, populated E. Indies 2. bought East Indies company, attacked neutral strength 2 Baltic army at +2 and won. 3. built fleet and fort in E. Indies. 4. bought army training, put army in Baltic. 5. bought tobacco.

Trevor 1. bought war office, put army in Europe. 2. bought militia, used war office to attack Greg in Germany; Don helped defend Greg and Trevor lost. 3. used militia in Europe and with 4 units attacked Jasen in Europe, winning. 4. used 3 unrest to buy army training, moved army to Germany. 5. bought govt. reform

Don 1. bought banking, built army in Germany. 2. bought army training and attacked Gary in Germany, winning. 3. bought reserves, attack 2 strength neutral German states, winning. 4. Used slave revolt on me in Caribbean (to share in 3 VPs), but was unsuccessful, put fleet in India. 5. moved 2 armies to India and beat 1 neutral army in India.

Norbert 1. bought mercenaries, used them and put 4 armies in Baltic. 2. bought army training, attacked a strength 3 Baltic and won. 3. bought sugar, moved 2 armies to Germany 4. moved 2 units to Baltic and while Jasen was in the washroom, attacked Jean and won. Jasen came back and asked why he couldn't help defend Jean (since it was worth 2 VPs to him if I didn't win). So we had to rewrite history and I attacked Jasen at +1 and lost. I was quite frustrated at this point since I was attacked by everyone at least once when it was clear I was in last place and I didn't need Jasen to interfere with hurting Jean. But this is a wargame and you need a thick skin for these long games. However, I knew I was out of the running with only 3 control markers on the board and stil wondered why I was getting attacked. 5. bought army and fleet in Baltic.

Jean. 1. bought banking, built fleet in Med. 2. bought army training, put army in Ottoman. 3. Moved 2 units to have 4 total and attack me in Europe successfully. 4. Bought India alliance tile, attacked me in India, winning. 5. bought navigation, moved fleet to Africa.

Greg 1. bought mercenaries, put army in Ottoman and attacked me in the Med. (Why? I found out later that he wanted to have sole control so he could get more money from the Levant tile.) He was attacking at +2 but lost. 2. bought Levant, attacked Gary in Germany and won. 3. bought Levant, put army in Ottoman. 4. built army in Med, bought army training. 5. Attacked me at Med. and won.

War 1 Scores: Jean 23 (7 control markers/7 armies), Greg 19 (7/7), Gary 19 (7/10), Trevor 19 (6/7) Don 18 (7/6), Jasen 16 (5/8), Norbert 10 (3/7).

It was pretty clear I had to sit through another 3 hrs completely out of the game. So I had to smile and pretend to enjoy the game. I guess all my units just happened to be in the wrong spot (Greg wanted a piece of me so he could use his Levant tiles for maximum efficiency and Don wanted to use the slave revolt on me either before I used it (which I never even thought of using) and Jean attacked since he could, but when I attacked Jean back, his ally came to his defence, even though Jean was in the clear lead. I guess those are valid strategies, next time I will have to get my mind playing aggresively instead of playing nice.

The second war: (where Norbert the Russian has been rehabilitated after 20 yrs of hard labor and is ready to assume a useful life in Russian society)

Gary paid 2 to put himself in the A group and myself in B. I then paid 4 to put Jasen in A and Greg in B (I really wanted to attack Jasen and ruin his game,to see how he felt to be out of the game, but I had a change of heart halfway through since I asked Jasen to give me 4 gold and we would have a truce). Jean paid 2 to put Don in A, Jean in B. Jean paid 2 to put Trevor on B. I think there was only one country tile with a pop/slave on it this war.

A Gary, Jasen, Don

B: Norbert, Greg, Jean, Trevor.

Gary 1. took pop in Car, attacked neutral in E. Indies. 2. moved 2 armies to Car. 3. put fort in Ottoman 4. bought govt. reform. 5. bought navigation

Norbert: 1. attacked two strength 3 Baltic neutrals at +3, won one and lost one (this loss making me lose the majority to Jasen since as part of the agreement, he could attack Jean). 2. Attacked 2 strength neutral in Germany. 3. built army in Germany, attacked Don in Germany and won. 4./5 bought second last govt reform, put fort in Germany.

Jasen: 1. beat strength 3 Baltic at +3 odds, beat neutrals in N. America. 2. beat Jean in Baltic, bought Baltic gold tile. 3. put alliance in S. America 4/5. bought last govt. reform.

Greg. 1. got 8 gold from 2 Levant tiles (!)., attacked neutral Ottoman and won, 2. put 1 in Ottoman, attacked a strenght 5 neutral in Ottoman and won. 4/5. bought industry, moved 2 troops to Germany.

Don. 1. built/moved 2 units to India. 2.built twice to put 4 units in Germany (using militia tile). 3. attacked in Germany, lost and attacked successfully in India. 4/5/ attacked again in India.

Jean: 1. built/moved 2 fleets to India. 2. moved units to S. America, attacked in S. America. 3/4/5. put fort in S. America

Trevor: 1. attacked in Europe successfully. 2. bought govt reform, put army to S. America. 3. bought govt. reform, moved army to S.America. 4. slave revolt, pass. Trevor would pass a couple of actions in this war since he had nothing to do, and he didn't want to bring on more troops.

War 2 scores: Jean 39 (6/10), Greg 39 (9/10), Trevor 35 (6/7), Don 33 (9/10), Gary 33 (9/11), Jasen 30 (8/7), Norbert 24 (7/8)

The third war: (In which the neighbourhood dog offers it's opinion to Norbert the Russian on how well his strategy went and it too wants a piece of Norbert, nipping at Norbert's heels as he leaves Don's house with his head down and dragging a copy of this session report between his legs)

There were 5 slaves/ population counters in this last war. Trevor paid 3 to put himself in A and Jasen in B. Jean paid 2 to put himself in A, Gary in B. Don paid 1 to put himself in A, Greg in B. There was an actual bidding war for my allegiance, Greg eventually paying 4 to put me in B. I had decided I was not going to waste any gold on bidding, but that meant I would not get a population/slave counter.

A: Trevor, Jean, Don

B: Jasen, Gary, Greg, Norbert

Trevor: 1. took pop in S. America, attacked 3 strength neutral in S. America, winning. 2. moved fleet to Baltic, used his milita to put army in Euripe, and Germany. 3. bought industry, used militia again to put armies in Eruope/Germany 4. bought fighting withdrawl, built 1 army in Germany. 5. bought pirates, put on Gary in Africa (unscussesful, I think) nad moved fleet to S America/

Jasen: 1. took slaves in S. America, built fort in S. America, took 3 gold with his Baltic counter. 2. moved army to E. Indies. 3. bought logistics, attacked in E. Indies. 4. moved army + fleet to S, America, attacked Jean in S. America and was unsuccessful. 5. moved 3 armies into Germany and attacked Don successfully.

Jean. 1. fleet to Africa, took slaves in S. America. 2. put army into Africa, put alliance tile in Africa. 3. built army to Africa, successfully attacked Gary in Africa. 4. built fort in S. America, moved 2 armies to Europe. 5. successfully attacked Jasen in N. America

Gary: 1. took pop (or is it poop?) in N. America, fleet to S. America. 2. bought industry, moved 2 units to Germany. 3. moved 2 more armies to Germany, attacked Trevor in Germany (Greg, Gary and I agreed to ally on all of our attacks on Don and Trevor in Germany). 4?? 5. successfully attacked Jean in Africa.

Don.1. took pop in N. America, used slave revolt to attack me in Car. 2. built surprise attack, attacked Greg in Baltic using it and won. 3/4/5. attacked Jasen in Baltic and won.

Greg: 1. attacked Jean in Med . 2. moved 4 units to Germany. 3. attacked Don in Germany. 4. attacked Don twice in Germany, 5. attacked in Baltic after moving 2 units there and won.

Norbert: 1. moved 2 units to Med and attacked strength 2 neutral winning. 2. attacked Don in Germany winning. built 1 army to Europe. 3. built to put 3 more armies to Europe 4. moved army to central Europe, attacked 4 neutral at +2 and won. 4. Attacked Jean at even odds and lost, attacked Don in Baltic and won.

Final Scores: Gary 55 (11 control, 12 armies, 4 unrest), Trevor 52 (7/13/0), Greg 52 (had 56 but lost 4 VPs due to his unrest: 11/7/11), Jasen 49 (10/10/8), Jean 47 (had 51 but lost 4 VPs due to his 11 unrest: 7/10/11), Norbert 46 (9/10/10), Don 38 (had 45 but lost 7 VPs due to his 16 unrest: 7/4/16)

Game took 5 hrs; we started at 11:15 am, and ended at 4:15 pm , with a twenty minute break for pizza. Sure, maybe we should have ordered food that was more thematic with the game, I'm open to suggestions.

Some observations on the game:

1. The strategy hints suggest players buy pressgangs, trained natives, diplomacy, war office and mercenaries. However, there are only 6 of these tiles total, and with 7 players, I was concerned the 7th player going last would not get one of these tiles. I was deathly afraid of going last and wondered if the bidding would have gone very high. As it turns out in this game, Don and Jean, who went ahead of me, bought banking. Going fifth, I was able to get the mercenary tile which I wanted all along.

2. The alliance mechanic is quite novel. The drawback I see is that when there are three or four people in an area, you have to ask for allies, then the defender asks for support for allies, then there is a negotiation phase where one player promises another player gold, help in future attacks, sexual favors, etc. I found these negotiations bogged the game down a bit and added to the length. It's also a bit destabilizing when there are allies togeher in a country and you don't know if they will ally against you or not. I would prefer the defender and attacker are on their own, it's more deterministic and it cuts down on all the negotiations.

3. When you are getting your rear end kicked, like I was in this game, just smile, and ask for a soft cushion from your host to put on your chair.

4. As an area control wargame, perception does play a huge role. Having the VPs face up also leads to some people counting the current points. This also leads to downtime as well. But like all other area control games, there's not much you can do about the perception, but perhaps try to deflect it on to someone else. This would reward players being influential rather than playing a system.

5. The use of two dice to determine combat does cut down on the big swings a bit, but we still saw a lot of lucky rolls go lots of ways. I guess the reserve tiles can help you reduce the luck that way.

6. If you are not a wargamer (like I am), try not take things personally when people attack you or gang up on you. You have to play the system, and that's something I vow to do next time I play.

7. When there are an odd number of players, it is certainly worth a few gold to get that odd person on your alliance to outnumber the other alliance. This will mean less conflict with other players and more help to gang up on the other side.

8. It is a very thought provoking game, about which tile to buy and what strategy to use. All of your strategy can be reduced to nothing when you are being ripped apart, so it's important to try and be on the side of the bigger alliance or protect all your holdings.

Jasen, Trevor and Jean left so Don and I took on Gary and Greg in a final game of Tichu. Not much to report here. Gary and Greg had all the cards and shut us out in three consecutive hands. One hand they both had bombs. One time Don had a bomb of Kings, and Greg took that with a bomb of aces. It was that kind of day.

February 19, 2005:

A shredded copy of an unsolicited screenplay found in a garbage can outside George Lucas's Skywalker ranch:

Star Wars: The Queen's Gambit

The Trade

Federation had tightened its

grip on Naboo. The Gungan army was

meeting the droid threat on the plains of Naboo. The

Queen and her entourage of palace guards were planning to take

the Theed Palace away from the two viceroys who stood impassively on the

third floor. Young Anakin Skywalker was holed up in a fighter plane. Meanwhile, the two Jedi, Qui

Gon and Obi-Trevor, were to meet their deadliest foe yet in the form of Darth Norbert, a Sith lord who used a double bladed sword to cut his croissants in the mornings...

"Stay here, Ani and don't move", shouted Qui Gon.

"Yes, Sir", replied Anakin and he crawled into the cockpit of the fighter.

"Dreep du tweet" beeped the R2 unit.

"Yes, Artoo, you heard the man, he told me to stay put."

"Breep, breuooooooooooooo".

"You're asking me to take the initiative Artoo. What next? Soon I will be empowered to be a Jedi knight! Nope, I think I'll play it safe and hide in this cockpit. Obi-Trevor had a plan to focus all of our collective energy in defeating that Sith Lord."

On the plains of Naboo, the Gungan army stood behind their shield generator awaiting developments. With the shield up, the Gungan army was safe from the armored attack tanks (ATT) and multi troop transports (MTTs). Their three catapults were at the rear, the Kaadu riders were ready and the moral was high among the Gungans: Jar Jar Binks was leading the western group of Gungans. In front of the shield, were the battle droids and destroyer droids. The war began with two groups of battle droids attacking and wiping out the exposed eastern group of Kaadu riders.

Tony, the Fambaa, groaned when the first lasers started firing. Tony was a trained beast of war, a slow moving minature brontosaurus, did what he was told and was fed regularly. Tony had a really bad morning. Normally, a keeper would wash his cage for him, but this morning, there was a great commotion about mustering for a war, and as a result, Tony had a peaceful morning bowel movement rudely interrupted with the keepers tying the power supply of the shield generator on his back. Tony had growled in defiance, but the Gungans were quite nasty in making him ready for travel. That was then. Now he was carrying the hopes of a Gungan nation on his back, a task he really wasn't sure he could handle. Now he was staring at two groups of destroyer droids and they were firing repeatedly at him. As the lasers pelted into his large frame, Tony roared in pain. The only think keeping him standing was knowing that if the droids got through him, they would get to Terry, the other Fambaa on the western side.

Qui Gon was in front of Obi-Trevor facing Darth Norbert. There was no need for words. They had met before and Qui Gon was ready. He decided to rush Darth Norbert right away. Forget this stuff about his Jedi training, about letting Obi-Trevor into the fight so they could outnumber the Sith Lord. Gui Gon wanted a piece of the Sith Lord and he wanted it bad. Darth Norbert was calm, as calm as a Sith could possible be. He knew Qui Gon and he looked forward to the anticipation of eliminating him. Darth Norbert had not seen Gui Gon's Padwan before, he looked like some young punk with a braided pony tail. Darth Norbert was ready to quote to both of them about the power of the dark side, or words to that effect; Darth Norbert knew such words always threw his opponent(s) off when he was so smug. But he did not get a chance to get in a word edgewise in this encounter.

Qui Gon was on top of him quickly and Darth Norbert was worried. He seemed to have taken more damage than Qui Gon, yet Qui Gon looked like he was half spent. Things were looking very bad indeed. Qui Gon actually seemed to recover some of his damage, the old trick of kneeling down whith his eyes closed as the core generator doors randomly opened and closed. Qui Gon actually went into a fury. Darth Norbert was grievously wounded, but something inside him snapped. He went ballistic. He went into a rage. No mediocore Jedi knight was going to best him in battle. He got off two quick attacks and Qui Gon was staggering now.

Meanwhile on the first floor of Theed palace, laser fire was being exchanged between the palace guards and the droids. The droids appeared to be concentrating their fire on Captain Panaka since he was exposed.

As Qui Gon stumbled for balance, Darth Norbert's light saber pierced Qui Gon's heart. Qui Gon gasped out in shock and fell to the ground.He never expected to die this way, on a foreign planet, in some strange generator core, fighting some Sith lord with a double sided light saber and horns on his head. Only earlier in the week, he had tried to use a Jedi mind trick on Anakin's owner, a blue flying creature with a big nose. That blue creature had made fun of Qui Gon and asked him seriously, "Who do you think you are, some kind of Jedi?" Qui Gon smiled at the memory. At least he wasn't going to die bitterly. He had done his best for Yoda. Yoda knew everything. Maybe Yoda had forseen this. But Yoda didn't speak English properly.

Darth Norbert had his eyes on the Padwan as Qui Gon fell to the ground. Darth Norbert felt at ease, and recovered some of his health. With one hand on his light saber, Darth Norbert used his other hand to motion the Padwan towards him. He was going to give this Padwan a good paddling.

Obi-Trevor watched in shock as his Master fell to the ground. Obi-Trevor cried out. "Nooooooooooooooo!". Obi Trevor forgot about the calmness a Jedi knight needs in battle. He was furious. Obi-Trevor felt the anger flow through him and he rushed Darth Norbert getting off two quick attacks before the Sith Lord could respond. Darth Norbert responded valiantly, it even looked like this Padwan was half spent. But two Jedi were too much for the Sith Lord. Obi-Trevor got in one more attack, cutting the Sith Lord before the Sith Lord tumbled down the generator core. Before he died, Darth Norbert only hoped that he had wounded that Padwan enough so that the droids could take care of him.

Obi-Trevor lifted up Qui Gon. Qui Gon's breathing was shallow now. There were tears in Obi-Trevor's eyes.

"Cry, you must not", said Qui Gon. He was starting to talk like Yoda now, almost hallucinating. "Promise me one thing."

"What is it master?"

"Ani. You must train Ani. Now go out there and kick some droid butt. The Queen needs you.." and Qui Gon died.

Obi-Trevor got up and rushed out of the generator core and into Theed Palace. "Make way. Coming through. Coming through. Jedi knight, coming through." Obi-Trevor had to gently nudge some of the palace guards out of the way before he could make it to the front lines.

The two viceroys saw this and ordered all the droids to concentrate their attacks on Obi-Trevor.

"Are you sure you want us to attack the Jedi Knight, sir?" droned one droid helplessly as he was cut down by Obi-Trevor's light saber.

"Are you really really sure, sir?" as another droid fell. The destroyer droid, slinking in the corner and guarding a stair well fell quickly as Obi-Trevor was on top of him. Obi-Trevor rushed up the stairs to the second level. "Intruder alert, intruder alert" droned the droids and all eight droids on the second floor fired away at Obi-Trevor. As Obi-Trevor cleared the second floor, he felt like he was almost out of gas. These scond floor droids had wounded him, he felt like he was at 20% health. So he did something un-Jedi like. He stayed on the second floor and occasionally rushed up to the third floor, only to retreat back down to the stairwell.

Anakin was sensing that there were too many droids and sprung into action.

"Breep, breep" protested the R2 unit.

"That's right Artoo, fire up the engines. I don't care what Qui Gon told me."

As the fighter blasted out into space, Anakin looked at all the starfighters. Anakin's jaw dropped. "Can you believe there are that many starfighters, Artoo?"

"Drrrpp, wooooooooo", beeped the R2 unit. The last beep sounded more like a pathetic wail. Indeed, the mother ship's full complement of starfighers had been deployed. But Anakin gamely continued on. He knew all of the energy of the Force was concentrated on him, and him alone. In fact, Anakin thought he saw a vision of Mace Windu, muttering "The Force is With You." Energized, Anakin rushed at the starfighters like there was no tomorrow.

"Sector 1, cleared! Sector 2 cleared. Arrgghhh, I'm stalling in Sector 3. More power to shields, Artoo! Apparently there is no luck involved here!" shouted Anakin.

"Sector 4, cleared! That was the tough one. One more sector to go Artoo!" But Anakin stalled at Sector 5, the last sector before entering the mother ship.

On the Naboo battlefield, with the shields down, the eastern ATT moved in and began blasting away. "Run for your lives", cried the Gungans. The Gungan catapults put up a valiant defense, but it was to no avail. Soon there was nothing left of the Gungan forces. Not even a small trace of Jar Jar Binks could be seen. The effervescent Gungan was either hiding or running away with something between his legs back to Theed Palace. The MTT's put out more droids, and the droids transferred over to Theed Palace where a raging battle was taking place.

Viceroy Nobby decided to change tactics. "All units, avoid the Jedi! All units, get rid of all palace guards, we must not be outnumbered in the throne room!" With that order, all the laser fire began to be concentrated on the helpless palace guards. Indeed, a vison of Darth Sidious appeared and he too muttered, "The force is with you." Captain Panaka fell defending the Queen. Queen Amidala decided a new plan was in order. She ordered her guards to use the window ledges to scale up to the palace. In this way, the Red Queen and two palace guards surprised the two viceroys in the throne room. The third floor droid units came in through the soliltary door and began firing away. A destroyer droid rolled in and began a face to face exchange of fire with the Red Queen.

More droid units rolled in from the battlefield and the palace guards scattered. Soon, there was not a single palace guard to be found on the first floor. Where there were almost 20 of them, now it was down to Obi-Trevor, the Red Queen, the Purple Queen and a solitary palace guard in the throne room on the third floor. A droid entered the throne room and took care of the last palace guard. The destroyer droid was getting the better of the Red Queen and she was grieviously wounded. Obi-Trevor sprung into action and raced into the throne room, blocking the door and eliminating the destroyer droid.

"Oooohhhh, a Jedi knight", said viceroy Nobby. The viceroy had never been so close to a Jedi Knight before.

But it was too late. The last droid in the room wheeled behind the Red Queen, got off a lucky laser strike and the Red Queen crumpled to the ground. The only good forces left in the whole palace were Obi-Trevor and Queen Amidala, who was unhurt. Now the forces of good could never outnumber the forces of evil.

Viceroy Nobby and Viceroy Norb looked at each other, then they looked at Queen Amidala. They decided to allow themselves the luxury of an evil laugh. "Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha." Viceroy Nobby was inscrutable as his nose was flat. "Now, my Queen Amidala" said viceroy Nobby with an evil leer. "I believe you were going to sign this document of surrender. Ah, ha ha, ha, ha, hee hee."

After that long game, Trevor chose to play The Settlers of Catan Card game. I told Trevor that there were an uneven number of settlements, and I mentioned that whoever got more would probably get the advantage due to having more resources. In the first game, Trevor let me run away with the settlement advantage, I got 6 settlements to his 3. He was trying a strategy where he got the knight and windmill token and buildings, but it was not enough. Score: Norbert 12, Trevor 9

Game 2 of Settlers: Trevor got the first settlement. On turn 3, I played a merchant (take 2 resources from your opponent and give him 1) and a brigand (take 2 resources from your opponent on a roll of 1-5). I took Trevor's ore and built a city of my own, denying him a city. The city then put my windmills in play, giving me the commerce token and Trevor proceeded to roll windmills continuously on his turn, allowing me to take one of his resources (usually ore) each turn and keeping him on the ground where he couldn't get up. Trevor mentioned that the windmill advantage was a 2 resource swing, while the red knight only gives a resource to that person who had more red knight points, which Trevor did have. It was over quickly. Score: Norbert 12, Trevor 6.

February 23, 2005: Normally I am in a tennis clinic on Wednesdays, but the tennis coach was out coaching the university women's team in a tournament, and I knew Steve Zanini's group liked to game on Wednesdays. So I sent Steve an e-mail; he was busy, but Brent Lloyd and Steve Lloyd were up for a game. So I showed up at Brent's place at 7:00 pm. Brent had wanted to play a game of Goa. He had only played it the one time when he was over at my place in July 2004 and won by advancing down the expedition card track. So I was looking forward to a tough game. Steve had never played before. So going on memory, I explained the game to Steve in about half an hour. Steve got the flag and placed it away from the clump of red special tiles. Seating order was Brent, Steve and myself.

Phase 1, Round 1: I bid 3 for the flag, Steve bid 3 for the 3 ship/3 colonist tile (taking 3 ships), Steve bid 2 for double pepper, Brent paid for 4 for double cloves. I had thought I could "steal" the double cloves with a bid of 3, but now I was left with no spices doing the actions. (Moral of the story? Try not to get shut out of cheap spice production). I tried to form the colony Quinlon, but failed the first time, wheras Brent and Steve were successful in forming their Quinlon colonies. I got it the second time around and took a red/black spice production eyeing my expedition track. I pulled my expedition track down 1, then used my extra action to draw a card, it was the card that gave 3 gold for a spice (Darn!).

Round 2: I bid 3 to keep the flag, Steve bid 2 for a single pepper, Brent bid 3 for double black, Steve paid 5 for 1 colonist/action/ship tile. So I was the one short on spices, so I decided to generate a black spice, advance down one on the colony track, got another expedition card (it was the use 3 cards to from a colony, (Yeah!), so I used my extra action to form the Cochin colony. I need 5 colonists, since I had a base of 2 and 1 in my hand, but drew out a 1, 1 and a 2 card! Arrh! Now a couple turns earlier, Brent was feeling extra confident, and he needed 6 colonists to form the Cochin colony, and seeing the bad cards already pulled, he decided to gamble, and drew a 3 and 3 card! So he was off to the races.

Round 3: Brent bid 3 for the flag, I bid 4 for the double nutmeg (red spices), Steve bid 4 for 4 colonists, Brent bid 5 for the red tile which gives 1 ship per round. The double nutmeg allowed me to advance down the expedition card track one more time. Brent was advancing down the taxation track, while Steve was advancing down the harvest spice track. I guess since Brent had won previously with the expedition strategy so he was going to try the taxation strategy.

Round 4: Brent bid 4 for the flag, Steve bid 4 for 3 colonists, I bid 7 for the red tile that gives 4 ducats a round. Brent also won another tile, I think it was a double spice tile, I couldn't remember. Brent would advance down the colonist track in addition to his taxation track, so it was clear where he was going to earn his VPs. Steve would try a balanced approach, which is usually death in Goa, but this was his first game, but I did tell him at the beginning that he would have to specialize. Because I was so short on spice, the second track I concentrated on was progressing down the harvest track up to the produce 6 spice level; I eventually was able to found the Cochin colony.

Phase 2, round 1: Steve bid 4 for the flag, Steve bid 7 for the duty, Brent bid 5 for 3 colonists, I bid 5 for 3 ships. By now Brent was up to the 8 level in taxation and used 2 actions to pull out 16 gold. I had advanced down to level 4 of expedition cards and was able to draw a couple cards that allowed me to advance without ships, which really helped me. Thus I was going down the harvest spice track to get enough to use these cards. Brent had formed the Madras colony this round. Feeling extremely confident, needing 6 colonists for the last colony, he decided to gamble, and drew a 3 then a 2, which meant he was only off by 1 colonist. I jokingly told him it served him right.

Round 2: I recovered the flag here for 5, and got 3 colonists as well, but I couldn't remember what else was bought. I think there was some triple spices.

Round 3: Steve bid 6 for the flag, I bid 4 for double cloves, I bid 6 for the extra harvest tile and Brent's tile wasn't that memorable.

Round 4: Steve bid 7 for the flag, Brent bid 13 for 3 expediton cards(!) I bid 10 for espionage, Steve bid 16 for the swap (later taking the 2 action tiles at the end of the game) and I bid 8 to take the one each of colonist/action/ship. So at the end of the game, I had advanced fully on the expediton track, I was missing two colonies and I was one away on the harvest spice track. So I used the expediton card that lets you advance without using ships to drill down to the final level of the harvest spice track. I had 6 colonists now and was on the third level of colonists (worth a base of 3). So I founded the third colony easily, drawing a 3 and 2, so I paid 2 colonists out of my hand. I then used the espionage tile this round, using Brent's full ability on the colonist track (where he had advanced down to the end) and founded my last colony. I still had 3 ships and the extra harvest tile in my hand, plus 4 expedition cards (all singles). I could have advanced down the colonist track for a 3 VP gain, but I decided to use my extra action to pull 3 expedition cards. I pulled a pair that matched one of my singletons(!) and I got another one to match another singleton, giving me a triple and double. That turned out to be the margin of victory. Scores:

Norbert 42 (0 ships, 10 harvest, 0 tax, 10 expedition , 3 colonists, 10 found colonists, 9 from expedition cards)

Brent 41 (1 ship, 3 harvest, 10 tax, 1 expedition , 10 colonists, 10 found colonies, 6 from expediton cards)

Steve 37 (6 ships, 10 harvest, 6 tax, 1 expedition, 1 colonists, 6 found colonies, 3 from expedition cards, 3 most money, 1 for single plantation)

I only realize now that there are two rules for the expedition cards. Printed in the RioGrande rules, you would be allowed to do what I did - draw cards then discard down to your limit. I only found out about the designer's intent by reading the postings on BGG. The designer's intent was that you must discard first, then you can draw up to your limit, and this makes a critical difference. Also, we were playing that the espionage tile used up an action (so I lost an action), when in fact the blue tiles do not cost you an action. Either way, it could be argued it was a tainted victory for me. Sorry, Brent and Steve, at least I think we know all the rules now.

Now I know the scores aren't very high. I still haven't played a game where multiple people are trying to go down on the expedition track and have a contest at the end of the game to see how many matching cards they can get. It would be neat to see how that plays out (or maybe it just becomes a luck draw, but I don't know). I think I was able to survive the other two player's tax strategy by getting the 4 gold per round tile, but the bids were quite fierce at the end. Perhaps if I were to try to play the tax strategy, I would advance down the expedition track as well. I've only played Goa five times or so, and I haven't had the guts to try the tax strategy. If I remember correctly, the last time I played, near the end of the game, I did manage to get a couple pulls out of the expedition card deck to try and maximize my card points. I didn't get that opportunity this game, probably due to the two times I missed founding a colony. I was very fortunate to win by 1 point, and that maybe because Brent and Steve only advanced one level down the expedition track. In the first round, Steve got the 2 peppers for cheap, which I regret. I think you always want to get some early spices to give you more flexibility.

I think I know why this game doesn't get brought out too often. It does tend to be a bit long for our group, just topping the two hour mark. You can also argue there is a bit of solitarire element in it during the action rounds. There's luck in pulling the colonists and the cards you draw. In terms of bang for the buck, I think my gaming group prefers other games. The rules can be a bit tricky to get right in a couple games as well. Having said that, I do like Goa and would happily play again if it is brought out on the table.

I had brought over San Juan so we finished up the night with that. Player order was Brent, Steve, Norbert. Brent had a guild hall and five production buildings (and he regrets building cheap violet buildings instead of more production buildings). Steve buiilt an early chapel and was able to slip 10 cards under it. I went violet strategy, but never saw a city hall or palace the whole game (but I did throw away a turn 1 guild hall to build my prefecture). I built library for my fourth building, followed by statue, hero and triumphal arch. I also had a chapel with 6 pts under it to give me the 'W': Scores: Norbert 35 (23 building, 6 chapel, 6 triumphal arch), Steve 28 (13 building, 10 chapel, 5 palace), Brent 27 (17 building, 10 guild hall).

February 26, 2005: Trevor, Jasen, Don and I showed up at Jean's house. The initial plans called for us to meet at Jasen's place, but Jean had to go to a bank in the midafternoon, so Don ended up picking up Jasen (since he had no vehicle) and driving over to Jean's place. Jasen had bought over Sleuth, a reprinted 1967 game designed by the late designer Sid Sackson. There are 36 gem cards in the game, and depending on the number of players, a number of them are dealt out to each player and one gem is hidden from all players. The gems are either diamonds, opals or pearls. Each gem can be a solitaire, pair or cluster. Finally, each gem can be colored red, green, blue and yellow. The gem type, color and number represent the 36 different gems. In this deduction game, you are supposed to guess the identity of the hidden gem. There is another deck of cards, called the search deck. Each player is dealt four cards. The cards from the search deck allows you to ask any one player a question about their gem holdings (eg, How many blue cards do you have? How many pearl clusters do you have? How many diamond solitares do you have? etc etc). Each player has a piece of paper with the table of 36 gems. It is up to you to keep track of all the information that is being asked and by a process of elimination, come up with the hidden gem.

In our game, Don went first (followed by Trevor, Jasen, Jean and myself). I'm going to display all the results of questioning by each player, and for those who are keen, know the rules and want to see if they can solve this puzzle. The clues were written from my perspective and I sincerely hope there are no errors. I'm also assuming that is solvable from my perspective.

Don: 1 blue diamond, no single diamond, 1 single opal, 1 diamond cluster, 1 blue opal, no green diamonds, no yellow solitares, 1 pearl cluster, 1 solitarire pearl, 2 solitaires, 4 pearls, opal solitaire, 2 pearl pairs, no green pearls, 1 red pearl pair, no yellow pearls, single yellow opal.

Trevor: 1 opal, no pearl clusters, 2 yellow, no green solitaires, no blue clusters, 1 solitaire blue pearl, 2 diamond pairs, 2 blue solitaires, 1 red diamond pair, 2 red diamonds, 1 yellow pearl, no pearl pairs, 2 solitaire blue, 1 solitaire blue opal, 2 reds, 1 solitaire diamond

Jasen: 1 opal cluster, 2 pearls, 1 single pearl, 1 yellow pearl, no solitare pearl, 1 yellow diamond, no blue cards, 1 yellow pair, no green opals, 2 clusters, 1 green solitarire, 1 yellow opal cluster, no red pearls, 2 opal cards, 1 red diamond, 1 red opal, 1 double pearl

Jean: 2 solitaires, 1 opal pair, no yellow diamond, 1 pearl pair, 1 green opal, no red opals, no blue pairs, 2 green cards, no red solitaire, no red clusters, 1 blue pearl cluster, 1 blue opal cluster, 1 diamond solitaire, no yellow solitarires.

My starting gems were green diamond pair, yellow diamond cluster, red opal solitaire, yellow opal pair, green opal cluster, red opal cluster and green pearl cluster.

The answer? If you want to play along and solve it yourself, please do not read further...

Jasen's starting gems were green diamond solitaire, red diamond solitaire, yellow diamond pair, red opal pair, yellow opal cluster, green pearl pair and yellow pearl cluster.

Don's gems were: blue diamond cluster, green opal solitaire, blue opal pair, red pearl solitaire, blue pearl pair, red pearl pair and red pearl cluster.

Trevor's gems were yellow diamond solitaire, blue diamond pair, red diamond pair, red diamond cluster, blue opal solitaire, blue pearl solitaire and yellow pearl solitaire.

The answer (do not read further if you wish to solve this puzzle on your own): yellow opal solitaire.

In our game, Sherlock Jean made a guess, claiming he had a 2/3 chance and guessed wrong. I knew something was fishy when Jean was boasting of a good game, then asked someone a question that we already knew the answer to. Jean made a guess, was wrong, so Jean was out for a round or two, and when it came around to Don's turn, he made the correct guess. I don't want to admit this, but I couldn't process all the information and was missing information on14 of the gems! Trevor and Jasen were missing information on about 4 of the gems. I guess it really depends on your system of keeping track of the information. I tend to write everything down, so it takes a long time to process everything. Don writes (scrawls is the better word) right on the supplied table, so that worked well for him. At the beginning of the game, Don and I made some errors in that we showed our opponents the wrong cards when we were asked for information. The gem cards are a bit misleading in that the outline have all three types of gems on them and you have to get used to that.

After lunch at Quizno's we came back for a game of Ra. Jean didn't collect a tile in the first epoch holding dearly to his 16 tile, got the 15 and 14 tile and did nothing the rest of the game. Jasen and I tied for the pharoh lead for the first two epochs. On the final auction, Jasen got the 4th and 5th occurrence of a monument that he had to seal the win. Trevor was contending in the pharoh lead but was probably thrown off by Jean's non participation. Scores: Jasen 53, Norbert 45, Don 39, Trevor 34, Jean -2.

Next was Die Sieben Siegal. Don dealt first, and Trevor declined the first opportunity to be saboteur, which set the tone for the game as he got no penalty points.

When Jean went to the back, Jasen and I paired up against Don and Trevor in a game of Tichu. It was quite a game of back and forth. I blew a Tichu call on hand 2. Then I think both sides were quite aggressive in calling Tichu, resulting in a lot of 200 pt swings each way. After hand 8, I thought we had it in the bag when they missed a Tichu and when Jasen and I went out first. But Don/Trevor mounted quite a comeback in the next 2 hands when they called Tichu and went out first before we did to score 600 pts in two hands!

Last game of the day was Atlantic Star. Jasen went first, followed by Jean, myself, Don and Trevor. Scores: Don 46, Jean 38, Norbert 35, Jasen 31, Trevor 31, Neutral 29.