I had also packed up Smallworld with me when I came to spend some Christmas time.
We had time to play two games, one with four players and one with five. Descriptions will be brief, because it's been quite a while since these games were played.
As there was a person who had not played Smallworld, first game was played with no extras.
I'm not quite sure what happened there. Mounted Skeletons/Fortified Wizards combo won the game. It's very rare to see someone triumph by going in decline only once, but here two such players got pretty decent points. If the race combos would have played other way around (Fortified Wizards/Mounted Skeleton and Diplomatic Sorcerers/Dragon Master Pygmies) I think both would have scored a lot more points.
Again I noticed how much the Kobolds suck as a secondary race. They pretty much need to be either first race or chosen when your In Decline race is all but destroyed.
Final scoreboard:
Mounted Skeletons/Fortified Wizards: 87
Wealthy Elves/Seafaring Kobolds/Merchant Leprechaun: 85
Dragon Master Pygmies/Diplomatic Sorcerers: 78
Peace-Loving Goblins/Forest Orcs/Mercenary Amazons: 71
Game2
Second game was played with full board just a day before Christmas. This time we had the Tales and Legends card deck with all the cards shuffled and drawn randomly.
For reference I'm writing down the cards and the turn where they were in effect:
2. Forbidden Forest
3. Flooded!
4. The Art of Combos
5. Gift from the Sky
6. Wizened and old
7. Necromantic Elixir
8. Forest Clump
Three first turns were quite interesting, because both turn 2 and turn 3 had effects that made certain regions unconquerable. For that reason Flying Trolls were a pretty damn good choice, and Heroic Sorcerers, too. Fortified Tritons could've been quite nice too, but they were pretty much beaten and mauled by other races in just one turn. They went in decline right on turn 2.
The Art of Combos on 4th turn was the Imperial special power. Were-Amazons switched to Goblins and they won the auction too. So we were looking at Corrupt Imperial Goblins with a huge fallen Were-Amazon empire to back them up. I believe other players should have already started to beat Amazons at this point, but everyone was busy wrecking Sorcerers and in-decline Trolls by then. Goblins reigned unopposed.
Once Sorcerers went in decline, Seafaring White Ladies tried to cleave four lenght unconquerable in decline empire, but their actions were thwarted, and Sorcerers were surrering pretty much by Barricade Gypsies (a horrible combo, by the way! Would be pretty succesful as a second race) and Mounted Wizards.
Wizened and Old cleared a lot of old races away from board. Last of trolls and sorcerers disappeared.
Corrupt Imperial Goblins won the auction for Necromantic Elixir and they went in decline right away.
Gypsies had finally started anew with Swamp Orcs, who finally started attacking the Amazons of old. But that was way too late. Barbarians had tried to kill some Amazons too, but they went in decline when they were still controlling 5 regions, and punishing Amazons stopped right there.
Mounted Wizards gave way to Catapult Pygmies, and Stout Barbarians picked Berserker Dwarves from the start of turn 6. Nobody really attacked the dwarves, so they could just build their lilliputian mining colony. Berserker Dwarves could've been pretty bad choice otherwise, but they had been skipped six or seven times already.
Anyway... once the goblins went in decline (still fully functional!) and emerged as Hill Ratmen, the game was pretty much over already. The player was getting 18-20 points per turn during turns 6-8.
After counting up there were no suprises - those damn goblins really won the game.
Final scoreboard:
Were-Amazons/Corrupt Imperial Goblins/Hill Ratmen: 103
Flying Trolls/Mounted Wizards/Catapult Pygmies: 91
Fortified Tritons/Stout Barbarians/Berserker Dwarves: 87
Barricade Gypsies/Swamp Orcs: 78
Heroic Sorcerers/Seafaring White Ladies/Historian Giants: 66
Showing posts with label tales_and_legends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tales_and_legends. Show all posts
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Sunday, March 24, 2013
... and on Wednesday gods totally flipped out! (Smallworld)
Next day we played two more Smallworlds with Tales & Legends expansion.
Game 1:
This time we played blindly drawn cards from deck with only cards that supposedly had completely game-changing(breaking?) impact. Lordly Legends or whatever they were called.
Cards that were drawn in turn order were:
2. Great Ride
3. Blue Genes
4. Golden Age
5. Wheel of Misfortune
6. Kobold God
7. Necromantic Elixir
8. Oldies but Goodies
9. Ungodly Bribe
10. Handle with Care
Starting combos were Hill Barbarians, Mounted Orcs and Catapult Amazons. Bloodshed was unavoidable with such militant races. And it really didn't take long until Mounted Orcs and Catapult Amazons went In Decline. Hill Barbarians played a little longer and they claimed Blue Genes. Hordes of Skeletons would be the next race, which was somewhat horrific thought.
Anyway, Mounted Orcs came out as Pillaging Giants, such brutishness. At least Catapult Amazons were followed by a lot more sophisticated race combo... the Berserk Wizards.
And soon after, Wheel of Misfortune came up from the event deck.
Pillaging Giants went to the Berserk Wizards player, Berserk Wizards to Hordes of Skeletons and skellies marched now on the side of former Pillaging Giants.
Pillaging Giants turned into Barricade Sorcerers and started to tease Skeletons. Berserk Wizards overextended themselves and went In Decline, becoming Stout Trolls. And started teasing Skeletons. So while they still held some land, they went In Decline too and emerged as Seafaring Homunculi.
All remaining skeletons were eradicated way too fast, so game now nearing end, they too went In Decline, last few rounds playing as Imperial Gypsies.
Two players made one final sweep by going In Decline during turn 9 and wreaking havoc on turn 10 with all new races, which were Ransacking Ratmen for Troll player, and Wealthy Halflings for Sorcerer player.
Final scoreboard for this match:
Mounted Orcs/Pillaging Giants -> Hordes of Skeletons/Seafaring Homunculi/Imperial Gypsies: 109
Catapult Amazons/Berserk Wizards -> Pillaging Giants/Barricade Sorcerers/Wealthy Halflings: 98
Hill Barbarians/Hordes of Skeletons -> Berserk Wizards/Stout Trolls/Ransacking Ratmen: 92
Game 2:
In this game we took away the already used Lordly Legends cards and took missing cards from the "medium" impact deck.
Cards were:
2. Tabula Rasa
3. Tea Time
4. Philter of Forgetfulness
5. Puff of Smoke
6. White Queen
7. Decline and Fall
8. -whoops, forgot-
9. -forgot this one too-
10. Chicken Lake
A short summary here, as my notes are rather sub-par here. I guess I started to get a little bit tired of writing everything down.
Starting race combos were Forest Elves, Wealthy Wizards and Marauding Ratmen.
Marauding Ratmen were able to get maximum number of regions in just two turns, and were replaced by Diplomatic Giants. Not nice.
And I see a horrible thing here in my notes. I haven't written down which race combo Wealthy Wizards picked next. However, Elves went In Decline and picked Swamp Skeletons to bog around. That pun calls for an euthanasia.
Puff of Smoke took away plenty of ratmen.
On 5th turn some mystic race that came after Wizards went in Decline and were followed by Corrupt Halflings. That joy didn't last for long, when Decline and Fall forced everyone In Decline. Swamp Skeletons picked Imperial Barbarians, halflings took Dragon Master Trolls and giants took Flying Leprechauns.
Imperial Barbarians were a horrible race combo. They worked together perfectly.
Both Barbarian player and Leprechaun player decided to get a final push in last round, Barbarians switching to Hordes of Dwarves, gaining pretty much nothing. Leprechauns picked Commando Goblins that pretty much conquered every area with 1 race token, because there were so many decline tokens on map!
Final scoreboard was:
Forest Elves/Swamp Skeletons/Imperial Barbarians/Hordes of Dwarves: 98
Wealthy Wizards/???/Corrupt Halflings/Dragon Master Trolls: 84
Marauding Ratmen/Diplomatic Giants/Flying Leprechauns/Commando Goblins: 83
And that was it, phew.
Game 1:
This time we played blindly drawn cards from deck with only cards that supposedly had completely game-changing(breaking?) impact. Lordly Legends or whatever they were called.
Cards that were drawn in turn order were:
2. Great Ride
3. Blue Genes
4. Golden Age
5. Wheel of Misfortune
6. Kobold God
7. Necromantic Elixir
8. Oldies but Goodies
9. Ungodly Bribe
10. Handle with Care
Starting combos were Hill Barbarians, Mounted Orcs and Catapult Amazons. Bloodshed was unavoidable with such militant races. And it really didn't take long until Mounted Orcs and Catapult Amazons went In Decline. Hill Barbarians played a little longer and they claimed Blue Genes. Hordes of Skeletons would be the next race, which was somewhat horrific thought.
Anyway, Mounted Orcs came out as Pillaging Giants, such brutishness. At least Catapult Amazons were followed by a lot more sophisticated race combo... the Berserk Wizards.
And soon after, Wheel of Misfortune came up from the event deck.
Pillaging Giants went to the Berserk Wizards player, Berserk Wizards to Hordes of Skeletons and skellies marched now on the side of former Pillaging Giants.
Pillaging Giants turned into Barricade Sorcerers and started to tease Skeletons. Berserk Wizards overextended themselves and went In Decline, becoming Stout Trolls. And started teasing Skeletons. So while they still held some land, they went In Decline too and emerged as Seafaring Homunculi.
All remaining skeletons were eradicated way too fast, so game now nearing end, they too went In Decline, last few rounds playing as Imperial Gypsies.
Two players made one final sweep by going In Decline during turn 9 and wreaking havoc on turn 10 with all new races, which were Ransacking Ratmen for Troll player, and Wealthy Halflings for Sorcerer player.
Final scoreboard for this match:
Mounted Orcs/Pillaging Giants -> Hordes of Skeletons/Seafaring Homunculi/Imperial Gypsies: 109
Catapult Amazons/Berserk Wizards -> Pillaging Giants/Barricade Sorcerers/Wealthy Halflings: 98
Hill Barbarians/Hordes of Skeletons -> Berserk Wizards/Stout Trolls/Ransacking Ratmen: 92
Game 2:
In this game we took away the already used Lordly Legends cards and took missing cards from the "medium" impact deck.
Cards were:
2. Tabula Rasa
3. Tea Time
4. Philter of Forgetfulness
5. Puff of Smoke
6. White Queen
7. Decline and Fall
8. -whoops, forgot-
9. -forgot this one too-
10. Chicken Lake
A short summary here, as my notes are rather sub-par here. I guess I started to get a little bit tired of writing everything down.
Starting race combos were Forest Elves, Wealthy Wizards and Marauding Ratmen.
Marauding Ratmen were able to get maximum number of regions in just two turns, and were replaced by Diplomatic Giants. Not nice.
And I see a horrible thing here in my notes. I haven't written down which race combo Wealthy Wizards picked next. However, Elves went In Decline and picked Swamp Skeletons to bog around. That pun calls for an euthanasia.
Puff of Smoke took away plenty of ratmen.
On 5th turn some mystic race that came after Wizards went in Decline and were followed by Corrupt Halflings. That joy didn't last for long, when Decline and Fall forced everyone In Decline. Swamp Skeletons picked Imperial Barbarians, halflings took Dragon Master Trolls and giants took Flying Leprechauns.
Imperial Barbarians were a horrible race combo. They worked together perfectly.
Both Barbarian player and Leprechaun player decided to get a final push in last round, Barbarians switching to Hordes of Dwarves, gaining pretty much nothing. Leprechauns picked Commando Goblins that pretty much conquered every area with 1 race token, because there were so many decline tokens on map!
Final scoreboard was:
Forest Elves/Swamp Skeletons/Imperial Barbarians/Hordes of Dwarves: 98
Wealthy Wizards/???/Corrupt Halflings/Dragon Master Trolls: 84
Marauding Ratmen/Diplomatic Giants/Flying Leprechauns/Commando Goblins: 83
And that was it, phew.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Gods Have Gone Insane (Smallworld)
A grand total of four games of Smallworld were played in Salo.
Here are two of them. We used Tales and Legends card deck in every game with higher (= more random) stakes in every consecutive game.
Game 1 (Tuesday):
First, we just shuffled whole deck and had upcoming event revealed.
Cards for every round were:
2. Wizened and Old
3. Barbarian Invasions
4. Wheel of Misfortune
5. Baby Boom
6. Forbidden Forest
7. Tremors
8. Going Down
9. Handle With Care
10. Philter of Forgetfulness
Races and combos that started game were: Mercenary Giants, Flying Gypsies and Bivouacking Tritons.
All races were pretty good starting races, especially Flying Gypsies got to make nice use out of their special ability.
Mercenary Giants were the first to go in decline, mostly because of upcoming Barbarian Invasions.
And truth be told, Merchant Barbarians that followed were atrocious combo. (Heh... barbarians emerged in barbarian invasions? How fitting...)
Bivouacking Tritons went In Decline next, and then came the ultimate mess-up even: Wheel of Misfortune. Merchant Barbarians continued to conquer in the name of Triton player, Gypsy player got to pick a new race, and barbarian player got Flying Gypsies.
Gypsy player took Fortifired Pygmies.
Next Merchant Barbarians decided to go In Decline, and no Gypsies had died, so only player who got anything out of Baby Boom was Pygmies.
Barbarians switched to Ransacking Orcs, but we played Ransacking wrong. The symbol made us think it was Pillaging, which would essentially mean it was double Orc bonus. I guess proper term is to talk about Pillaging Orcs in this case, then. However, one of the largest points score happened I have seen for a while, a horrible amount of 20 victory points for Merchants/Orcs.
Slowly Mercenary Giants were eradicated from the face of current world, so Flying Gypsies lost their wings and finally settled down. Catapult Wizards invaded in their place.
Pygmies found their time had come, too, and their crumbling society gave way for Diplomatic Sorcerers.
And the original Triton player made one final fell swoop in last round with Hill Amazons.
Final scoreboard:
Bivouacking Tritons -> Merchant Barbarians/Pillaging Orcs/Hill Amazons: 108 victory points.
Flying Gypsies/Fortified Pygmies/Diplomatic Sorcerers: 99 points.
Mercenary Giants/Merchant Barbarians -> Flying Gypsies/Catapult Wizards: 99 points.
Game 2 (Tuesday):
For this game we were drawing cards blindly from Tales & Legends deck so that the upcoming even was unknown.
Starting race combos were: Forest Ghouls, Heroic Orcs and Peace-Loving Kobolds.
Cards that shaped the world were:
2. Lost Treasures
3. My Land
4. Decline and Fall
5. Plague
6. Art of Combos
7. Gift from the Sky
8. Small Time Coup
9. Oldies but Goodies
10. Wealth Redistribution
Decline and Fall made all active races go in decline, but Forest Ghouls had already gone In Decline the round before. That was somewhat nice, because Historian Ratmen were able to score 3 points just because of that.
However, Historian Ratmen were not so happy when Berserk Trolls and Fortified Pixies started wreaking havoc all over. Especially Trolls were on a horrible berserk spree, giving bonuses on almost every region they attacked.
Pixies did what pixies do - vanished quickly from the face of the continent. However, next combo they picked was a nasty one. Alchemist Skeletons - that extra two points per turn really combines well with Skeletons' survival power!
Historian Ratmen finally died too, and Barricade Pygmies tried to carve an empire instead.
After Trolls had been raging long enough, there was very short-lived empire of Wealthy Gypsies, who in just few rounds were replaced by the very same race & special power combo that proved so superior in last game - the Merchant Barbarians.
Final scoreboard was:
Peace-Loving Kobolds/Fortified Pixies/Alchemist Skeletons: 106
Heroic Orcs/Berserk Trolls/Wealthy Gypsies/Merchant Barbarians: 103
Forest Ghouls/Historian Ratmen/Barricade Pygmies: 95
Only 11 point differece between highest and lowest points. Pretty even game then, especially when events were completely random and impossible to try to plan ahead.
Here are two of them. We used Tales and Legends card deck in every game with higher (= more random) stakes in every consecutive game.
Game 1 (Tuesday):
First, we just shuffled whole deck and had upcoming event revealed.
Cards for every round were:
2. Wizened and Old
3. Barbarian Invasions
4. Wheel of Misfortune
5. Baby Boom
6. Forbidden Forest
7. Tremors
8. Going Down
9. Handle With Care
10. Philter of Forgetfulness
Races and combos that started game were: Mercenary Giants, Flying Gypsies and Bivouacking Tritons.
All races were pretty good starting races, especially Flying Gypsies got to make nice use out of their special ability.
Mercenary Giants were the first to go in decline, mostly because of upcoming Barbarian Invasions.
And truth be told, Merchant Barbarians that followed were atrocious combo. (Heh... barbarians emerged in barbarian invasions? How fitting...)
Bivouacking Tritons went In Decline next, and then came the ultimate mess-up even: Wheel of Misfortune. Merchant Barbarians continued to conquer in the name of Triton player, Gypsy player got to pick a new race, and barbarian player got Flying Gypsies.
Gypsy player took Fortifired Pygmies.
Next Merchant Barbarians decided to go In Decline, and no Gypsies had died, so only player who got anything out of Baby Boom was Pygmies.
Barbarians switched to Ransacking Orcs, but we played Ransacking wrong. The symbol made us think it was Pillaging, which would essentially mean it was double Orc bonus. I guess proper term is to talk about Pillaging Orcs in this case, then. However, one of the largest points score happened I have seen for a while, a horrible amount of 20 victory points for Merchants/Orcs.
Slowly Mercenary Giants were eradicated from the face of current world, so Flying Gypsies lost their wings and finally settled down. Catapult Wizards invaded in their place.
Pygmies found their time had come, too, and their crumbling society gave way for Diplomatic Sorcerers.
And the original Triton player made one final fell swoop in last round with Hill Amazons.
Final scoreboard:
Bivouacking Tritons -> Merchant Barbarians/Pillaging Orcs/Hill Amazons: 108 victory points.
Flying Gypsies/Fortified Pygmies/Diplomatic Sorcerers: 99 points.
Mercenary Giants/Merchant Barbarians -> Flying Gypsies/Catapult Wizards: 99 points.
Game 2 (Tuesday):
For this game we were drawing cards blindly from Tales & Legends deck so that the upcoming even was unknown.
Starting race combos were: Forest Ghouls, Heroic Orcs and Peace-Loving Kobolds.
Cards that shaped the world were:
2. Lost Treasures
3. My Land
4. Decline and Fall
5. Plague
6. Art of Combos
7. Gift from the Sky
8. Small Time Coup
9. Oldies but Goodies
10. Wealth Redistribution
Decline and Fall made all active races go in decline, but Forest Ghouls had already gone In Decline the round before. That was somewhat nice, because Historian Ratmen were able to score 3 points just because of that.
However, Historian Ratmen were not so happy when Berserk Trolls and Fortified Pixies started wreaking havoc all over. Especially Trolls were on a horrible berserk spree, giving bonuses on almost every region they attacked.
Pixies did what pixies do - vanished quickly from the face of the continent. However, next combo they picked was a nasty one. Alchemist Skeletons - that extra two points per turn really combines well with Skeletons' survival power!
Historian Ratmen finally died too, and Barricade Pygmies tried to carve an empire instead.
After Trolls had been raging long enough, there was very short-lived empire of Wealthy Gypsies, who in just few rounds were replaced by the very same race & special power combo that proved so superior in last game - the Merchant Barbarians.
Final scoreboard was:
Peace-Loving Kobolds/Fortified Pixies/Alchemist Skeletons: 106
Heroic Orcs/Berserk Trolls/Wealthy Gypsies/Merchant Barbarians: 103
Forest Ghouls/Historian Ratmen/Barricade Pygmies: 95
Only 11 point differece between highest and lowest points. Pretty even game then, especially when events were completely random and impossible to try to plan ahead.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Small world too big for two players?
My sister came to visit me today, so what's the best thing you can do with vague things called "sisters"?
Board games, of course!
At first I was hesitant to try Smallworld with only two players, as I felt the game mechanics wouldn't fit too well for only two. I thought you would be able to calculate things too well, and some special powers and races could actually be too powerful and difficult to harm.
But then I thought the Tales & Legends expansion could be the answer, bringing a lot more chaos into the board. So we played actually two games with only two players, using the Tales & Legends card set with only "current event" showing up.
First game started with Diplomatic Dwarves and Mercenary Wizards duking it out.
Mercenary wizards, being second player, killed as many dwarves as possible on their first turn before dwarves' diplomacy started having effect.
Round 2 card: Decline & Fall. All races go into decline.
So, that's what dwarves and wizards did.
Round 3 card: Wheel of Misfortune.
Well, this card didn't actually have any effect at all, as earlier card had forced us to go in decline. Dwarves continued with Wealthy Amazons, who beat up as much in decline wizards as possible.
Wizards chose Seafaring Kobolds, which were pretty nasty for amazons. They erased whatever was left from the dwarves.
Round 4 card: Plague.
Plague took heavier toll on Kobolds, but both active races were spread thin this turn.
Round 5 card: Puffs of Smoke.
As it happened, both players thought it was best to go in decline with their current race. Kobolds still had one decline wizard token on board but it was on top of a mountain that could erupt because of the card drawn. Both races left a good number of decline tokens and kobolds had conquered one lake and one ocean square.
Round 6 card: Drakkars from afar.
Both races in decline at the start of turn, so this card had no effect at all.
Amazons turned into another aggressive race combo: Mounted barbarians. They took a heavy toll on kobolds, though obviously they couldn't invade to water spaces.
Kobolds chose Imperial Homunculi that had been skipped 3 times, meaning 11 race tokens. They started far away from barbarians, deep in amazon territyory, so they had plenty of time to make their imperium...
Round 7 card: Forbidden forest.
Not being able to conquer forests actually had a little effect, as it blocked the bloodthirsty homunculi from getting too many barbarians into their teeth.
First time seeing barbarians in action the barbarians weakness became apparent. If you don't have a keen eye when you ready your troops to war, you will forever defend that particular area with only one race token.
Round 8 card: Magic is in the air.
Barbarians had a huge empire by now so they went in decline. Homunculi, however, continued their imperial schemes and started scoring like crazy. Seventeen points in one round!
Round 9 card: Art of combos.
Special power for auction was Barricade (if you control 4 or less regions you get 3 extra points).
Well, for homunculi it was really no other interest, except for not giving it to the barbarian player, who had yet to choose a new race. Barbarians offered 2, homunculi 3.
New race for barbarians was destined to be Ransacking Gypsies, who conquered 3 regions from homunculi, causing them to go in decline.
Round 10 card: War is sexy.
Every region conquered would bring 1 more point. So it was kind of a cool ending card.
Homunculi player, as this was the last round, chose Fortified Whie Ladies as a new race. The combo had a whopping 5 race tokens, so it had gained quite a few victory coins when people had skipped over it.
Well then, the final scoreboard:
Mercenary Wizards/Seafaring Kobolds/Imperial Homunculi/Fortified White Ladies: 71
Diplomatic Dwarves/Wealthy Amazons/Mounted Barbarians/Ransacking Gypsies: 68
So... A three point difference. Could almost say that neither player dominated the other. Could it actually be that Smallworld was playable with only two players, despite my prejudice?
Well, another game to find it out!
Game 2:
This time it was Pillaging Giants versus Hordes of Ratmen.
Pretty strong combos, both of them and both had a good start.
Round 2 card: Tremor.
So, all conquests were one race token steeper in price. Harsh for both, but more to the giants, because there were such a huge number of rats around. Giants conquered one region, rats two. So not exactly awesome progress there...
Round 3 card: Philter of Forgetfulness.
This rounds card caused giants to lose the optimum time to go in decline, as the effect was bad. In decline races wouldn't give any victory points. So both races were forced to strain their empires a round longer.
Round 4 card: Great Ride.
Great Ride didn't actually have any effect, as both giants and ratmen had next to no army to ride with... both races went in decline.
Round 5 card: Flooded.
Giants got a horrible race combo in regards to the massive, decline ratmen empire. Mounted Goblins. So, they stroke straight into heart of ratmens most populated area, conquering 4 regions with only one race tokens per region. All in all, seven ratmen and one lost tribe tokens were removed from board by the goblins.
Ratmen didn't do any worse, as they were exchanged for Bivouacking Kobolds, who in turn punished the goblins for their wicked deeds.
Round 6 card: Tough love.
Tough love was auctioned to kobolds for 3 victory coins. However, all it gained for them were the maximum number of regions they could conquer any more.
Mounted goblins were busy with the declined ratmen.
Round 7 card: Famine.
Famine caused all the races to go in decline, as it affected only active races, though rather harshly.
Round 8 card: Going down!
Underground trolls started popping up all over, continuing the story of mounted goblins. Mostly they just tried to dispatch as many kobolds as possible.
Then there was a nice row of 3 unconquered regions for Merchant Elves and they managed to conquer one more with remaining 2 race tokens and reinforcement die.
The current card saw some effect, one kobold token managed to conquer one goblin region.
Round 9 card: A gift from the sky.
Card really didn't affect game much when it came this late. Both could keep their extra point area for the rest of the game.
However, at this point the elves started to be a real annoying pests, setting up their market stalls everywhere. They had 6 regions under them, which meant 12 victory points.
Round 10 card: Small time coup.
And last rounds card had absolutely NO effect, as neither player really wanted to auction off for the first player's position in the last round...
Trolls trolled and elves were pansies. Round 10 was almost similar to round 9. It was time to count the points.
Scoreboard:
Hordes of Ratmen/Bivouacking Kobolds/Merchant Elves: 98
Pillaging Giants/Mounted Goblins/Underworld Trolls: 90
So... all in all, these two 2-player games were quite entertaining after all. Random card draw with only current event shown worked pretty fine, bringing some uncertainty and chaos to the game. And at least in both of these games the point difference wasn't too big.
Board games, of course!
At first I was hesitant to try Smallworld with only two players, as I felt the game mechanics wouldn't fit too well for only two. I thought you would be able to calculate things too well, and some special powers and races could actually be too powerful and difficult to harm.
But then I thought the Tales & Legends expansion could be the answer, bringing a lot more chaos into the board. So we played actually two games with only two players, using the Tales & Legends card set with only "current event" showing up.
First game started with Diplomatic Dwarves and Mercenary Wizards duking it out.
Mercenary wizards, being second player, killed as many dwarves as possible on their first turn before dwarves' diplomacy started having effect.
Round 2 card: Decline & Fall. All races go into decline.
So, that's what dwarves and wizards did.
Round 3 card: Wheel of Misfortune.
Well, this card didn't actually have any effect at all, as earlier card had forced us to go in decline. Dwarves continued with Wealthy Amazons, who beat up as much in decline wizards as possible.
Wizards chose Seafaring Kobolds, which were pretty nasty for amazons. They erased whatever was left from the dwarves.
Round 4 card: Plague.
Plague took heavier toll on Kobolds, but both active races were spread thin this turn.
Round 5 card: Puffs of Smoke.
As it happened, both players thought it was best to go in decline with their current race. Kobolds still had one decline wizard token on board but it was on top of a mountain that could erupt because of the card drawn. Both races left a good number of decline tokens and kobolds had conquered one lake and one ocean square.
Round 6 card: Drakkars from afar.
Both races in decline at the start of turn, so this card had no effect at all.
Amazons turned into another aggressive race combo: Mounted barbarians. They took a heavy toll on kobolds, though obviously they couldn't invade to water spaces.
Kobolds chose Imperial Homunculi that had been skipped 3 times, meaning 11 race tokens. They started far away from barbarians, deep in amazon territyory, so they had plenty of time to make their imperium...
Round 7 card: Forbidden forest.
Not being able to conquer forests actually had a little effect, as it blocked the bloodthirsty homunculi from getting too many barbarians into their teeth.
First time seeing barbarians in action the barbarians weakness became apparent. If you don't have a keen eye when you ready your troops to war, you will forever defend that particular area with only one race token.
Round 8 card: Magic is in the air.
Barbarians had a huge empire by now so they went in decline. Homunculi, however, continued their imperial schemes and started scoring like crazy. Seventeen points in one round!
Round 9 card: Art of combos.
Special power for auction was Barricade (if you control 4 or less regions you get 3 extra points).
Well, for homunculi it was really no other interest, except for not giving it to the barbarian player, who had yet to choose a new race. Barbarians offered 2, homunculi 3.
New race for barbarians was destined to be Ransacking Gypsies, who conquered 3 regions from homunculi, causing them to go in decline.
Round 10 card: War is sexy.
Every region conquered would bring 1 more point. So it was kind of a cool ending card.
Homunculi player, as this was the last round, chose Fortified Whie Ladies as a new race. The combo had a whopping 5 race tokens, so it had gained quite a few victory coins when people had skipped over it.
Well then, the final scoreboard:
Mercenary Wizards/Seafaring Kobolds/Imperial Homunculi/Fortified White Ladies: 71
Diplomatic Dwarves/Wealthy Amazons/Mounted Barbarians/Ransacking Gypsies: 68
So... A three point difference. Could almost say that neither player dominated the other. Could it actually be that Smallworld was playable with only two players, despite my prejudice?
Well, another game to find it out!
Game 2:
This time it was Pillaging Giants versus Hordes of Ratmen.
Pretty strong combos, both of them and both had a good start.
Round 2 card: Tremor.
So, all conquests were one race token steeper in price. Harsh for both, but more to the giants, because there were such a huge number of rats around. Giants conquered one region, rats two. So not exactly awesome progress there...
Round 3 card: Philter of Forgetfulness.
This rounds card caused giants to lose the optimum time to go in decline, as the effect was bad. In decline races wouldn't give any victory points. So both races were forced to strain their empires a round longer.
Round 4 card: Great Ride.
Great Ride didn't actually have any effect, as both giants and ratmen had next to no army to ride with... both races went in decline.
Round 5 card: Flooded.
Giants got a horrible race combo in regards to the massive, decline ratmen empire. Mounted Goblins. So, they stroke straight into heart of ratmens most populated area, conquering 4 regions with only one race tokens per region. All in all, seven ratmen and one lost tribe tokens were removed from board by the goblins.
Ratmen didn't do any worse, as they were exchanged for Bivouacking Kobolds, who in turn punished the goblins for their wicked deeds.
Round 6 card: Tough love.
Tough love was auctioned to kobolds for 3 victory coins. However, all it gained for them were the maximum number of regions they could conquer any more.
Mounted goblins were busy with the declined ratmen.
Round 7 card: Famine.
Famine caused all the races to go in decline, as it affected only active races, though rather harshly.
Round 8 card: Going down!
Underground trolls started popping up all over, continuing the story of mounted goblins. Mostly they just tried to dispatch as many kobolds as possible.
Then there was a nice row of 3 unconquered regions for Merchant Elves and they managed to conquer one more with remaining 2 race tokens and reinforcement die.
The current card saw some effect, one kobold token managed to conquer one goblin region.
Round 9 card: A gift from the sky.
Card really didn't affect game much when it came this late. Both could keep their extra point area for the rest of the game.
However, at this point the elves started to be a real annoying pests, setting up their market stalls everywhere. They had 6 regions under them, which meant 12 victory points.
Round 10 card: Small time coup.
And last rounds card had absolutely NO effect, as neither player really wanted to auction off for the first player's position in the last round...
Trolls trolled and elves were pansies. Round 10 was almost similar to round 9. It was time to count the points.
Scoreboard:
Hordes of Ratmen/Bivouacking Kobolds/Merchant Elves: 98
Pillaging Giants/Mounted Goblins/Underworld Trolls: 90
So... all in all, these two 2-player games were quite entertaining after all. Random card draw with only current event shown worked pretty fine, bringing some uncertainty and chaos to the game. And at least in both of these games the point difference wasn't too big.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
25.12. Smallworld in Kuhmo
Probably last game of Smallworld here in Kuhmo finished now unless we find enough time in tomorrows hurries.
Anyway, we used Tales and Legends again.
The cards that were in effect through the game were:
2. White Queen (obviously not affecting anything at turn 2...)
3. Puff of Smoke
4. Philter of Forgetfulness
5. Wealth Redistribution
6. Tough Love
7. Youth Powder
8. Necromantic Elixir
9. Mercenaries
10. The Great Curse
Game began with Commando Orcs butchering up some Lost Tribes, scoring 7 points for first round which was quite unusual.
I managed to pick Flying Amazons and was that combo horrible... Sure! But did it leave other players feeling I was "winning" the game? Yeah, I think so too.
Dragonmaster Wizards attacked the orcs and left the ugly guys in decline pretty much there and then.
Orcs were replaced by Diplomatic Elves.
Philter of Forgetfulness caused races in decline not to score points on round 4.
That caused Flying Amazons to go to decline too, replaced by Fortified Trolls. That trend was followed by the wizards too, who in turn got Peace-Loving Ghouls around.
Trolls wreaked havoc on the remains of wizards and ghouls were feasting on amazons. The Elves were pretty much left on their own because, well, you can't do much to them.
Wealth Redistribution didn't affect anyone because all the races - Ghouls, Trolls and Elves went in decline that turn. Obviously the upcoming card, "Tough Love" that gave commando ability looked like a promising aspect to all the players...
Well, on round 6 there were Stout Sorcerers (previously Fortified Trolls), Marauding Goblins (Elves earlier) and Bivouacking Humans (ghouls) bidding for some tough love.
Some love fell for the Sorcerers.
Goblins killed all the trolls, though. Sorcerers dealt a payback: 4 elves killed and 5 regions conquered.
Ghouls shuffled away from farmlands they had been roaming in and there was a disgusting alliance of humans and in decline ghouls.
Well, next was Youth Powder in effect. I had my Stout Sorcerers who could go in decline after their full turn of activations. And Youth Powder gave extra points if you went in decline that turn, so the choice was easy.
Other players started scoring about 10 and over points at that point.
I chose Alchemist Tritons as my next weapon.
Necromantic Elixir was auctioned to goblins who went in decline instantly at that turn. Heroic Dwarves was another chosen race.
Mercenaries made it possible for Tritons to beat the humans' teeth in even when they had their camps around in there. Same went for humans too, though. The one and only farm I managed to get was conquered easily back. Also, a collaboration of necromantic goblins and heroic dwarves with mercenaries caused me to lose 4 of my 6 in decline tokens.
Last turn had the Great Curse in effect.
It meant that no-one could use their special power badges, though racial bonuses still applied.
Not much happened, dwarves continued to expand and humans and tritons bickered themselves. In the end the scoreboard was:
Dragonmaster Wizards/Peace-Loving Ghouls/Bivouacking Humans: 83
Commando Orcs/Diplomatic Elves/Marauding Goblins/Heroic Dwarves: 80
Flying Amazons/Fortified Trolls/Stout Sorcerers/Alchemist Tritons 69
Anyway, we used Tales and Legends again.
The cards that were in effect through the game were:
2. White Queen (obviously not affecting anything at turn 2...)
3. Puff of Smoke
4. Philter of Forgetfulness
5. Wealth Redistribution
6. Tough Love
7. Youth Powder
8. Necromantic Elixir
9. Mercenaries
10. The Great Curse
Game began with Commando Orcs butchering up some Lost Tribes, scoring 7 points for first round which was quite unusual.
I managed to pick Flying Amazons and was that combo horrible... Sure! But did it leave other players feeling I was "winning" the game? Yeah, I think so too.
Dragonmaster Wizards attacked the orcs and left the ugly guys in decline pretty much there and then.
Orcs were replaced by Diplomatic Elves.
Philter of Forgetfulness caused races in decline not to score points on round 4.
That caused Flying Amazons to go to decline too, replaced by Fortified Trolls. That trend was followed by the wizards too, who in turn got Peace-Loving Ghouls around.
Trolls wreaked havoc on the remains of wizards and ghouls were feasting on amazons. The Elves were pretty much left on their own because, well, you can't do much to them.
Wealth Redistribution didn't affect anyone because all the races - Ghouls, Trolls and Elves went in decline that turn. Obviously the upcoming card, "Tough Love" that gave commando ability looked like a promising aspect to all the players...
Well, on round 6 there were Stout Sorcerers (previously Fortified Trolls), Marauding Goblins (Elves earlier) and Bivouacking Humans (ghouls) bidding for some tough love.
Some love fell for the Sorcerers.
Goblins killed all the trolls, though. Sorcerers dealt a payback: 4 elves killed and 5 regions conquered.
Ghouls shuffled away from farmlands they had been roaming in and there was a disgusting alliance of humans and in decline ghouls.
Well, next was Youth Powder in effect. I had my Stout Sorcerers who could go in decline after their full turn of activations. And Youth Powder gave extra points if you went in decline that turn, so the choice was easy.
Other players started scoring about 10 and over points at that point.
I chose Alchemist Tritons as my next weapon.
Necromantic Elixir was auctioned to goblins who went in decline instantly at that turn. Heroic Dwarves was another chosen race.
Mercenaries made it possible for Tritons to beat the humans' teeth in even when they had their camps around in there. Same went for humans too, though. The one and only farm I managed to get was conquered easily back. Also, a collaboration of necromantic goblins and heroic dwarves with mercenaries caused me to lose 4 of my 6 in decline tokens.
Last turn had the Great Curse in effect.
It meant that no-one could use their special power badges, though racial bonuses still applied.
Not much happened, dwarves continued to expand and humans and tritons bickered themselves. In the end the scoreboard was:
Dragonmaster Wizards/Peace-Loving Ghouls/Bivouacking Humans: 83
Commando Orcs/Diplomatic Elves/Marauding Goblins/Heroic Dwarves: 80
Flying Amazons/Fortified Trolls/Stout Sorcerers/Alchemist Tritons 69
Decline and Fall
Two games of Smallworld just played, now we're having a pause of sorts (which I obviously used to write things up!)
Both were three player games.
Game 1:
First races used were Diplomatic Skeletons, Forest Wizards and Heroic Amazons.
Amazons and Skeletons were kinda paired up, though diplomacy prevented amazons from attacking the skeletons and the heroes were blocking skeletons attacks against them.
I with my Wizards tried to stay as far away from such killer combos but sad thing was that the skeletons and amazons had both taken the side of the board with most forests and magic sources.
Skeletons played for long. No-one could really challenge them. Amazons didn't have to fight them, they could just spread wide and go in decline.
Poor Wizards were soon seized by the incoming skeletons and were put in decline too. I chose Historian Dwarves as my next race, thought of getting few mines and going in decline with them too real soon.
Amazons went in decline too and chose Swamp Tritons next.
Swamp Tritons carved a rather nice spot in to the middle of the Skeleton empire. Skeletons lost 4 regions and 4 tokens but still they had as many tokens as they had when they started the game... So that meant a bit of a weird thing happened. Skeletons were as strong as ever so they didn't go in decline after such a staggering blow. They just continued to kill stuff. And made an alliance with the Tritons, meaning the only way for Tritons to expand was to conquer their own in decline regions.
Skeletons had pretty much devoured my in decline wizards so I decided to go to decline with Dwarves too. To get rid of those horrible skeletons I picked Mounted Kobolds.
However, Tritons had been mauled to near extinction and they went in decline too. Alchemist Orcs came next.
And then when there were two fresh races coming up real soon the Skeletons were finally put to decline too. New race combo was Fortified Goblins.
Goblins destroyed all of my Dwarves in one fell swoop.
Kobolds conquered around 7 regions in one turn.
After all, it's a world of slaughter?
Game was nearing end and I put my kobolds in decline so I could play the last round with Merchant Priestesses, which was rather nice as I was the last player.
Final scoreboard for game 1 was:
Heroic Amazons/Swamp Tritons/Alchemist Orcs: 89
Diplomatic Skeletons/Fortified Goblins: 87
Forest Wizards/Historian Dwarves/Mounted Kobolds/Merchant Priestesses: 86
Pretty close.
Then it was time for:
Game 2:
Now we decided to use the Tales and Legends expansion.
Tales and Legends cards that were in effect were:
2. Baby Bloom
3. Greedy Gob
4. Tremors
5. Decline and Fall
6. Tabula Rasa
7. Handle With Care
8. Flooded!
9. Wealth Redistribution
10. White Queen
I won the starting roll and opted for Hill Sorcerers.
I thought that it would be a good choice but I guess I didn't take the other options into account that were available. I did check other choices that much that I saw that other options wouldn't benefit from upcoming Baby Bloom.
Well, other races that came up were Heroic Priestesses and Bivouacking Wizard.
So, both had easy access to immunities to my racial power.
Also, Wizards were far far away from the Priestesses and Priestesses were able to block my advance to them so they were building up a pretty damn impressive tower there though they didn't score many points.
Greedy Gob made it quite a race between Sorcerers and Wizards. In the end both scored 10 points so no-one gained anything from that card. Both Sorcerers and Wizards were spreading quite thin so entering decline was drawing near.
Priestesses did enter decline though and built up a 6 priestess tower.
And the new race chosen was Hordes of Elves. It was then when I realised how horrible that combination was.
But then the upcoming event was realised: Decline and Fall. It meant that all active races would go into decline at the start of round 5. It was a nasty turn for Sorcerers and Wizards who had spread themselves all over the board. This would have been the optimal turn to enter decline.
Also it wasn't too awesome for the priestesses either... that awesome tower, only to vanish next turn because Elves with only a few regions were to decline.
Well, the joy only escalates!
When every race went to decline next upcoming event was revealed... Tabula Rasa. I had the effect that all In Decline race tokens would be discarded.
Not. Nice.
New races chosen that round was transition of Sorcerers into Alchemist Goblins, Elves into Berserk Orcs and Wizards into Seafaring Humans.
Handle with care didn't have that big impact. It decided that I would go in decline with my goblins too because they got hit pretty hard in the head by both orcs and humans.
Goblins were left alone in the big small world and a new race of Fortified Ghouls came up.
During the course of floods that shaked the area an evil race of Swamp Ratmen emerged and Humans were put out of their misery.
Also Berserk Orcs had conquered something like 7 regions even when they hadn't succeeded in almost any of their berserk rolls. So away went the orcs too and Underworld Amazons came around, just in time for round 9 and Wealth Redistribution.
Only my poor Ghouls were alone in the map at the start of round 9 so I couldn't attack any active tokens. In the hindsight I should have probably went in decline, don't actually know why I didn't... I wanted to build castles I think.
Well, Ratmen carved an empire of 4 regions that included 2 swamps.
Amazons conquered two of my regions and destroyed one of my beautiful castles.
Last turn there was an auction at White Queen.
It was bought for the once-berserk orcs. That meant the ratmen could only get only few empty regions and amazons could only tease ghouls. Ghouls could do nothing.
Scoreboard:
Bivouacking Wizards/Seafaring Humans/Swamp Ratmen 101
Heroic Priestesses/Hordes of Elves/Berserk Orcs/Underworld Amazons 80
Hill Sorcerers/Alchemist Goblins/Fortified Ghouls 80
Both were three player games.
Game 1:
First races used were Diplomatic Skeletons, Forest Wizards and Heroic Amazons.
Amazons and Skeletons were kinda paired up, though diplomacy prevented amazons from attacking the skeletons and the heroes were blocking skeletons attacks against them.
I with my Wizards tried to stay as far away from such killer combos but sad thing was that the skeletons and amazons had both taken the side of the board with most forests and magic sources.
Skeletons played for long. No-one could really challenge them. Amazons didn't have to fight them, they could just spread wide and go in decline.
Poor Wizards were soon seized by the incoming skeletons and were put in decline too. I chose Historian Dwarves as my next race, thought of getting few mines and going in decline with them too real soon.
Amazons went in decline too and chose Swamp Tritons next.
Swamp Tritons carved a rather nice spot in to the middle of the Skeleton empire. Skeletons lost 4 regions and 4 tokens but still they had as many tokens as they had when they started the game... So that meant a bit of a weird thing happened. Skeletons were as strong as ever so they didn't go in decline after such a staggering blow. They just continued to kill stuff. And made an alliance with the Tritons, meaning the only way for Tritons to expand was to conquer their own in decline regions.
Skeletons had pretty much devoured my in decline wizards so I decided to go to decline with Dwarves too. To get rid of those horrible skeletons I picked Mounted Kobolds.
However, Tritons had been mauled to near extinction and they went in decline too. Alchemist Orcs came next.
And then when there were two fresh races coming up real soon the Skeletons were finally put to decline too. New race combo was Fortified Goblins.
Goblins destroyed all of my Dwarves in one fell swoop.
Kobolds conquered around 7 regions in one turn.
After all, it's a world of slaughter?
Game was nearing end and I put my kobolds in decline so I could play the last round with Merchant Priestesses, which was rather nice as I was the last player.
Final scoreboard for game 1 was:
Heroic Amazons/Swamp Tritons/Alchemist Orcs: 89
Diplomatic Skeletons/Fortified Goblins: 87
Forest Wizards/Historian Dwarves/Mounted Kobolds/Merchant Priestesses: 86
Pretty close.
Then it was time for:
Game 2:
Now we decided to use the Tales and Legends expansion.
Tales and Legends cards that were in effect were:
2. Baby Bloom
3. Greedy Gob
4. Tremors
5. Decline and Fall
6. Tabula Rasa
7. Handle With Care
8. Flooded!
9. Wealth Redistribution
10. White Queen
I won the starting roll and opted for Hill Sorcerers.
I thought that it would be a good choice but I guess I didn't take the other options into account that were available. I did check other choices that much that I saw that other options wouldn't benefit from upcoming Baby Bloom.
Well, other races that came up were Heroic Priestesses and Bivouacking Wizard.
So, both had easy access to immunities to my racial power.
Also, Wizards were far far away from the Priestesses and Priestesses were able to block my advance to them so they were building up a pretty damn impressive tower there though they didn't score many points.
Greedy Gob made it quite a race between Sorcerers and Wizards. In the end both scored 10 points so no-one gained anything from that card. Both Sorcerers and Wizards were spreading quite thin so entering decline was drawing near.
Priestesses did enter decline though and built up a 6 priestess tower.
And the new race chosen was Hordes of Elves. It was then when I realised how horrible that combination was.
But then the upcoming event was realised: Decline and Fall. It meant that all active races would go into decline at the start of round 5. It was a nasty turn for Sorcerers and Wizards who had spread themselves all over the board. This would have been the optimal turn to enter decline.
Also it wasn't too awesome for the priestesses either... that awesome tower, only to vanish next turn because Elves with only a few regions were to decline.
Well, the joy only escalates!
When every race went to decline next upcoming event was revealed... Tabula Rasa. I had the effect that all In Decline race tokens would be discarded.
Not. Nice.
New races chosen that round was transition of Sorcerers into Alchemist Goblins, Elves into Berserk Orcs and Wizards into Seafaring Humans.
Handle with care didn't have that big impact. It decided that I would go in decline with my goblins too because they got hit pretty hard in the head by both orcs and humans.
Goblins were left alone in the big small world and a new race of Fortified Ghouls came up.
During the course of floods that shaked the area an evil race of Swamp Ratmen emerged and Humans were put out of their misery.
Also Berserk Orcs had conquered something like 7 regions even when they hadn't succeeded in almost any of their berserk rolls. So away went the orcs too and Underworld Amazons came around, just in time for round 9 and Wealth Redistribution.
Only my poor Ghouls were alone in the map at the start of round 9 so I couldn't attack any active tokens. In the hindsight I should have probably went in decline, don't actually know why I didn't... I wanted to build castles I think.
Well, Ratmen carved an empire of 4 regions that included 2 swamps.
Amazons conquered two of my regions and destroyed one of my beautiful castles.
Last turn there was an auction at White Queen.
It was bought for the once-berserk orcs. That meant the ratmen could only get only few empty regions and amazons could only tease ghouls. Ghouls could do nothing.
Scoreboard:
Bivouacking Wizards/Seafaring Humans/Swamp Ratmen 101
Heroic Priestesses/Hordes of Elves/Berserk Orcs/Underworld Amazons 80
Hill Sorcerers/Alchemist Goblins/Fortified Ghouls 80
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