[PB74] Tarkeel and civacs Game of the Year

[Tarkeel]

Turn 48 (2080 BC)
We're still in the calm before the storm, and the biggest discussions have been on how to transfer Augustus' worker south in a safe and efficient manner. If it takes a break to road the plainshill S-SE of Augustus, it will finish just in time for either the attacking chariots or warriors to cover when it traverses the floodplains.


Augustus spends the overflow on a workboat instead of finishing the chariot, and Cod/Carcassonne will grow on a monument that is then whipped into a worker.

I do have some thoughts on our overall position, but will save them for the T50 overview. I told civac last turn that we were likely to be first to four cities but not first to five, but Commodore proved med wrong by settling the fourth this turn. That's impressive, but from what we saw he has good lands to expand into. Commodore also has met someone else; he's spent 43 EP on pindi and 10 on us, and those are the only two contacts we know about. Unsure if this means there's more players in the deep south or there's been some workboat scouting.



Carcassonne is another of the classic gateway games, from the early naughts surge in euro-style boardgames. The gameplay itself is surprisingly simple: draw and place a tile, optionally place a meeple on said tile, and the score any feautures that are completed. The complexity comes from how (and when) features are scored, and a very limited supply of only 7 meeples in play and meeples can only be placed on a feature that doesn't already have any on it. The WikiPedia article has a very good overview of scoring, so I'm not going through that here.

Personally it's been ages since my copy of the game saw any play, and I don't think it's a good introductory game as the game appears deceptively simple but the hidden complexities will sink most newcomers.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 49 (2040 BC)
The moment we've all been waiting for is finally here, so let's just hope we don't roll a 1 (hit the 12% chance of losing a chariot) and get down to business:

C1 Shock Chariot vs Warrior, 96.9% + 0.3%: Win, down to 85 hp
C1 Shock Chariot vs Warrior, 96.9% + 0.3%: Flawless win
C1 Shock Chariot vs Warrior, 96.9% + 0.3%: Win, down to 55 hp
C1 Shock Chariot vs Warrior, 96.9% + 0.3%: Win, down to 85 hp

[Tarkeel]

Turn 50 (2000 BC)
Our scout met an old friend near Amica:


So Dreylin didn't delete the worker after all. It won't matter though, since were going to finish the job now. He managed to squeeze out a fresh warrior just in time, and dry-whipped the next one, so this better work.

C1 Shock Chariot vs Warrior, 95.9% + 0.4%: Win, down to 85 hp
C1 Shock Chariot (3.7) vs Warrior, 96.3% + 0.4%: Win, down to 62 hp


With that, the war is finally over and the final tally is 3 chariots lost to kill 13 warriors. The GG actually took the leadership promotion, since we want to unlock West Point with it.

State of the World
Let's take a quick look at our holdings. The economy is in surprisingly good shape, mainly thanks to the gold and ORG: Only 5 gpt in city maintenance. Foodhammers is not as good though.


Catan finally got it's wheat improved last turn, and is just now finishing our fourth worker. It will grow a bit next, and then spit out a settler for Surf-N-Turf.
Augustus is 8 turns away from border pops and being able to work a decent tile; thanks to the changed priority earlier it will have a workboat ready to hook the fish, and then we can start on improving the ivory and whipping out a granary.


Carcassonne will whip the monument to completion after growth, dumping overflow a granary.
Azul also needs a monument, but will have the worker at Augustus coming down to improve the corn and connect trade to Carcassonne ASAP.

The chariot SW of Azul is tasked by guarding the southern chokepoint, while two chariots go north to explore and escort the Surf-N-Turf settler, and the last will guard the eastern forests with a warrior.



Azul is one of my favorite introductory games, as it's quick to learn and play. The scoring can be complex at first, but you only need one player who is comfortable with that part to guide everyone else.

The core mechanic is drafting tiles from the market: each vendor stall has 4 tiles, and you get all of the same color, with any remaining going into a "free" market with no limit on how many tiles are available. Whomever picks from the free market first incurs a penalty, but manipulating this area to set up good drafts is the most important part. It also leads to the one flaw in the game as whomever is seated after the worst player is most likely to win, due to the need to deny the player after you the perfect draft.

All in all it's a game I heavily recommend.

[Dreylin]

Congrats on an effectively executed rush. Also curse you for executing it on me!

Turn 45 (2200 BC)
Not sure if it was desperation or a misclick, but Dreylin attacked out with a warrior at Anchovy:

It was intended; once I saw the reinforcement Chariots streaming in I knew I was on the way out, and after some testing showed I could trade 2-3 Warriors for a Chariot I thought that was better odds than I'd get just hunkering down on defense. Once the first Warrior died without getting a hit in, though, I knew it wasn't worth it.

[Dreylin]

Dreylin is something of an unknown to me. <...> I got the impression he's competent.

I'd have gone with "competent, but rusty" if you'd asked! 

[civac2]

The way our start played out and the fact the horse city had an automatic trade route made this rush extremely fast. That was maybe missed by mapmakers and lurkers. Not that I blame them with 19 starts. It still likely would have failed if the warrior in the city with your upgraded axe had 5% fortification. Then the warrior would have defended over the axe. I was also a bit shocked that your warriors actually started to get decent odds vs the the chariots with fortification and hill bonus and culture. Chariots are hella scary as a raiding party but lousy combat units.

[Qgqqqqq]

I definitely missed the instant connection, but I don't feel bad about that. Settling on the horse isn't costless.

[Rusten]

How many players? My partner and I are always on the lookout for good two player games, it's harder to get a group together.

 
I can relate to this. Have you looked into Watergate? It's a dedicated 2 player game that came very highly rated and lived up to expectations for me at least. Basing a game around an historical event like the Watergate scandal seemed really interesting to me beforehand and I loved the way it played out.

Wingspan is my personal favourite for two players these days, although that's easily played with more people too and possibly works best with three players.

[Qgqqqqq]

I have a faint inkling I might have played Watergate a long time ago, but I'll look into it! It's slightly embarrassing but I never feel I know what I'm doing with Wingspan - I've played it several times though not with two people.

To throw my own 2c in, Love Letter is a great game, which plays very differently at different numbers of players - my partner and I whizzed through three games on our wedding night. Lacks in strategy somewhat, but very fast and easy fun.

[Tarkeel]

Of the way too many Love Letter variants out there, Jabba's Palace is actually one of the better.

I hadn't even heard about the Watergate game, now I have to take a look.