Robo Rally Recap

Attendance:  Dan, Greg, Kim, Mark, Scott M, Scott Mc
Games Played: Robo Rally, Niagara 

Robo Rally was the first game of the night.  Scott Mc picked the map tonight, "Maelstrom", little did he know this would mean death to one player, himself!  If you don't know the map, it is completely full of conveyor belts - fast and slow lined up in a whirlpool fashion, pushers, and on board lasers.  This was my first play with pushers, they add a neat addition to the game.  The pushers work when you land on the square with one.  At the end of the register  it will push you 1 space if it is "hot" on the current register. These pushers were 2,4 and 1,3,5.  So for example on an even register only the 2,4 pushers would activate, and on an odd register the 1,3,5 register would activate.

The players were constantly moved by the conveyors, there was a lot more damage from lasers than normal.  We had multiple people end up with registers locked because they were taking so much damage.  A few of us also used the conveyors to our advantage by powering down on a conveyor, getting repaired, and having the conveyors move you to the target.

Scott Mc of course had to start the first set of registers running right into a pit, he blames the conveyor belts.  Dan and Scott M got tangled early on the conveyor belts with Dan getting the losing end and ended up off the board. Mark was the first one to the 1st flag with everyone right behind him, and then the conveyors would operate and that statement wasn't true anymore.  I cannot stress how much the conveyors messed with everyone all night.  Scott Mc was the next one to the 1st Flag, but then he and Scott M tangled and Scott M ended pushed off the board.... but with Scott Mc's next register he moved off the board also.   We had never seen a Robo Rally game so brutal. Kim was the next one to the 1st Flag, and while Scott Mc was working his way to the 2nd flag he fell in the pit AGAIN!  Scott Mc died in Robo Rally!  

After Scott Mc died, the board seemed more open.  Greg was stuck at the top, Dan, Mark, Greg all had powered down rounds.  Mark was first to the 2nd flag, and was clearly in the lead with Kim closing the gap.  Dan was able to get to the 1st flag around the same time that Kim go to the 2nd flag.  Greg finally got the cards he needed and made a dash for the 1st flag and succeeded!

The race for the 2nd flag between Dan & Greg, and the dash for the 3rd flag by Kim and Mark was going strong.  We all saw if the player just got XYZ cards they could win the game this turn, but that didn't work out.  Both Mark and Kim tried to stay off the conveyors as they moved to the 3rd flag, but with bad cards and bad luck they were both struggling to get to the 3rd flag.

Dan was next to the 2nd flag, with Greg following and getting the 2nd flag also.  Mark finally had the moons and cards align for him and he was able to win the game! 

This map was very challenging but also a lot of fun.  With 6 players it felt crowed a lot and a lot of damage was taken by all the players.  The final standing were as follows:

1. Mark

2. Kim

3. Dan

4. Greg

5. Scott

6. Scott

Since I am the one writing the recap I think it would be fun to not tell which Scott got 5th place.  Is it Scott Mc who got to the 1st flag but died??  Or is it Scott M who didn't make it to the 1st flag, but lived through the carnage....   I will let you decide.

Battlestar Galactica Recap

My first game of Battlestar Galactica was with 5 players.  Only 1 of us knew anything about the game, but since all like the show we were all interested in learning and playing the game.  Most of the very beginning of the game was figuring out the mechanics and learning that even though the game had a lot of "bits", they were weren't used that often, so you didn't need to concern yourself with them.  The characters everyone chose were William Adama, Lee "Apollo" Adama, Galen Tyrol, Laura Roslin, and Gaius Baltar.  I was playing William Adama, and when I looked at my loyalty card..... I was also a Cylon.

One of the first crisis cards was "Thirty Three".  This caused the Galactica to have to face 2 Basestars and a lot of raiders, so we chose to jump early and accept the 3 population loss.  Since I was admiral, I choose where we jumped.  At this point in the game, I wasn't real sure what I needed to do, but I found quickly that picking the "best" destination for a jump was going to be a way I could use my Cylon influence.

The game continued on with most Crisis cards  being successful.  I had difficulties influencing the cards enough.  When the “Requested Resignation” crisis card came up, I was quick to grab the Presidency, but really didn't not do a good job of being both Admiral and President.  I just didn't know how to use the Quorum cards at this point.

Around the midgame, 2 jumps had been made, with 3 destination points. There was still 10 Population, 10 Morale, 5 Food, and 6 Fuel.  The Cylons were still unknown at this time, but that was about to change.

I decided to announce that I was a Cylon because I felt I could do some damage.  Now, after seeing the game play out, I know I revealed myself to soon.  When I revealed myself as a Cylon, I was the enemy then.  So I was no longer a part of the fun conversations about what to do and how to do it.  So it made the game a little boring just waiting for my turn.  The Galactica lost a food and I damaged the FTL drives when I showed everyone I was a Cylon.

The game was progressing, the humans had completed 5 distances and had 10 Population, 6 Morale, 3 Food, and 5 Fuel left.  I decided it was time to use my Super Crisis card "Inbound Nukes".  A total of 15 cards were played to try and win.  I had played 4 cards and when the totals were completed, someone else had also helped the Cylon win.  The humans only ended up with a +2, when they needed a 15 to win.

So as the game comes to a close the humans were at a distance of 7 with 6 Population, 3 Morale, 1 Food, 1 Fuel and they choose to jump.  Bad news for them.  Both of the destinations caused a loss of fuel!  The Cylons win!

When the game was over we finally found out who the other Cylon was.  Gaius Baltar had done a good job of causing confusion amongst the other players always leaving a little bit of doubt if he was truly a Cylon.  Well, played.

The game was enjoyed by all the players and since we had a couple of people play that normally do not play board games, it proved to us that "theme" in a game can really matter.  Everyone who played the game watched Battlestar Galactica so we could make jokes, and the tasks made sense to the non-gamers, FTL drives, Cylons, etc. 

Robo Rally Recap

Challengers: Dan, Greg, Kim, Scott M, Scott Mc

Robo Rally was the first game of the night. Dan and Scott Mc picked the map and they chose "Island Hop". Island Hop is a pretty interesting map because it had good placement of the flags, and plenty of pits and walls to mess your registers up. There was multiple times when people didn't see a wall and their turn was going to be a mess because of it. 

On to the game. Kim was the first victim of the night, a mess up with calculating the conveyer belt meant a move directly into the pit... oops. Greg decided to start off shooting Scott Mc on every turn, and since that wasn't killing him fast enough he eventually was able to get into position to push him off the board. Scott Mc probably would have complained, except for the fact he had 5 damage in the first couple of turns and it saved him a power down. Dan and Scott M chose to go straight for the #1 flag, who would have thought that was a good strategy! Dan was the first person to the #1 flag, but on his next turn he had some register issues and drove himself into the pit, this was one of the few opportunities to catch Dan because he brought his Robo Rally "A" game this month and was on a mission to win. 

After Dan was on his way to the #2 flag, the rest of the crew were bunching up on the #1 flag, there were a lot of laser shots and bots getting pushed around. Greg did some fine register programming and was able to archive at the #1 flag next. Scott M had a very lucky moment and after getting pushed around like a pinball bumper, he received the very helpful push from Kim to the #1 flag! But Scott M's luck would end there as Greg committed suicide and pushed both himself and Scott M off the board which left a clear path for Kim to archive on the #1 flag. This caused a pause in the game as we went back to the rules to determine what happens when someone is on the #1 flag and their are two bots that need to use that archive marker to get back in the game. 

After the rules were cleared up, everyone started their progression to the #2 flag, which Dan had already touched and was moving to the final #3 flag. Scott Mc who had had the very rough start showed up late to the action and had an easier time getting the #1 flag...finally. Greg, Kim and Scott M had been charging to the #2 flag and pushing and fighting all the way. Scott M and Greg finally had some pushes and registers not go well for them, and Kim charged in and got to the #2 flag. 

Dan who had dominated the game reached the #3 flag on the same register that Scott Mc sneaked in and got to the #2 flag. Good job Dan!

The final standings were: Dan, Kim, Scott Mc, Greg, Scott M

19 & 1
Village Commons Suites
2070 E 54th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46220

http://www.19and1.com
yahoo group: nineteen_one

Aerodrome Recap

Pilots: Scott Mc, Scott M, Stan, Tim
Planes: Sopwith Camel, Siemens-Schuckert D.IV

We had some challenges getting started this month. I grabbed the wrong stack of information and so we did not have the rules, control panels, or critical charts. Luckily I did bring the 3x5 cards for the planes so we knew the plane info, and since we have played a lot we more or less have the rules down. We were unable to play with Critical hits because no one knew that chart by heart, and then any rules we had questions about we just "wing'd" it.

The first game was the "Love's vs Scott's". The Love's were the Camels and the Scott's were the Schuckerts. Scott M was not real happy to be with Scott Mc, after Scott Mc was quickly shot down, both Stan and Tim charged after Scott M and Tim was able to get both the kills.

The next game both Tim and Scott Mc got shot down, and then it was the long dance of trained WWI fighter pilots that ended with both Stan and Scott M out of ammo and breaking the engagement. I swear as I watched those planes move across the hex grid they were trying to see how many times they could wave at each other!

The next round once again Scott Mc was shot down by both Stan and Tim this time, they are still arguing who got the kill first , and after that Scott M safely ran for the comfort of home.

The final round Scott Mc was determined he was not going to get shot down, but once again everyone had his number and he was shot down by Tim. Scott M did the final blow on Stan for the kill. After the kill Scott M decided that he had had enough and charged for home with Tim spending the last of his ammo to try and get Scott M shot down, but he made it to safety.


Next month I promise I will have all the stuff, but, I was impressed how well our log sheets worked. Next month we will be adding AAA and possbily Ballon busting for real since we will have the rules... really I promise to bring the rules! I am also thinking it is time to open up the planes to any Aerodrome plane we have, so we will see how that will work.


19 & 1
Village Commons Suites
2070 E 54th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46220

http://www.19and1.com
yahoo group: nineteen_one

Catan: Seafarers Recap

Players: Dan, Kevin, Lori, Scott

Dan started us off by giving a rules refresh and we decided to play scenerio 1. The wood hexes were on really bad numbers in this game. Wood hexes had the numbers 2,4,11,12 and one island was a 5 so everyone was always hurting for wood in the early game. Dan jumped to an early lead by getting to the Gold island that had the nine. By the mid game Dan had had the robber on the gold island so much he was only able to get a resource of his choice 1 or 2 times. At roughly the mid game it was clear that Lori was in the lead, Dan was next and Scott & Kevin were way behind.

After the mid game things got a little different. Lori was able to secure 2 Cities on a Wheat 10 and an Ore 6, and she had a 3:1 port and 2:1 Wheat port. She was clearly running away with the game. Kevin and Scott finally started getting some traction and moving forward with building, Kevin became known as the Development card guy and sheep guy, he had 2 soldiers showing and 3 development cards not yet revealed. Dan's progress had started slowing at this time and he was fighting with the pack.

At the end of the game Kevin's progress quickly increased and he was able to get a run to 10 points showing on the board and then he flipped his 3 development cards for the WIN! This caught us all of guard, Lori was most disappointed because she felt she was going to win on her next turn. Dan, Scott and Kevin all got to an island, Lori stayed on the mainland. 

In the end the final score was:

13 Kevin 
12 Lori
08 Scott
07 Dan


19 & 1
Village Commons Suites
2070 E 54th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46220

http://www.19and1.com
yahoo group: nineteen_one