Naturelich Games

Yesterday, it was time for another gaming session with Shelak and Raven. Equipped with a big box containing nothing but games I arrived in the afternoon. Before we starting the games we had an interesting discussion on Shelak's driving skills. It was Raven's impression that he was playing Need for Speed: Most Wanted a little bit too much. And although she might be correct, the two men agreed that any kind of pimp-your-car game on Xbox 360 is just amazingly cool. But that is a different story...

Entdecker

After the usual warming-up we put Entdecker to the table. I actually had never played this 1996 Klaus Teuber design, before. Can you believe it? In Entdecker players have to discover islands by ship. During their turn, players have to decide how many tiles they would potentially like to discover and pay an equivalent amount in money (to the crew of the ship). Then, in a Carcassonne-like fashion, the player has to turn up the first tile and see if it fits next to the ship's current position. If it does, the player will discover this tile and have the opportunity to place an explorer, a fortress or a settlement onto the piece of land. When an island is completely discovered, players will have a chance to score victory points and get additional bonuses. During the first rounds of play, I made some really stupid mistakes. I decided to start exploration in bad places. For example, the corner is a bad place, as you need to uncover a tile that has two connecting lines. But the game seems to be forgiving (or I was extremely lucky). While Raven and Shelak scored numerous times and some pretty large islands, I was getting along all too well. However, with a lucky move, I was able to become the best explorer on a mega-monster-huge-island. This got me closer to the lead. A second, potentially huge looking island showed up and was totally occupied by my co-players. I therefore decided to try my luck again in another area of the Carribean. And, again, the luck seemed to be on my side. Their island actually turned out to be two islands, while mine was bigger than originally anticipated. During endgame, we had an interesting discussion as to when one should be permitted to undo an action and maybe we were a little bit too harsh. However, it probably would not have changed that much. Therefore, the final result in Entdecker saw me "a little bit" ahead of Shelak who was himself "a little bit" ahead of Raven.

Alhambra

While Entdecker was a premiere for me, Alhambra was a premiere for Raven and Shelak. I used to play Alhambra quite often after it had won the Spiel des Jahres award. But in the last 18 months I have probably played it only once. The rules were quickly explained and we got the game going quickly. Both Raven and Shelak had an extremely good understanding of the game. The first scoring card appeared pretty early. While Shelak had focused on the higher value Garden and Naturelich on the Towers it was Raven who took the lead with low- to medium-value tiles. I seem to be doing the same mistakes over and over again. Raven had a streak and was able to get a lot of "double turns" (by paying the exact amount required). During the middle-game she took hold of many many medium to small value buildings and totally ignored the towers. This paid off and after the second scoring card showed up she was already ahead by a little bit. Her Alhambra was full of walls in the middle and it all somehow seemed to fit. The boys seemed to be in favor of a more rectangular solution. And Alhambra ends as it always ends: the girl wins. Hell, my sister regularly beats me at this and with the exact same tactics as Raven did. This game is not something I will ever expect to master. But I still like the game - and I think the others did too.

Aqua Romana

Aqua Romana was nominated for Spiel des Jahres 2006. Although Martin Schlegel's design did not win I am starting to really like the game. So far, I have probably played it four times and it seems to get better every time we play. As Raven proposed the game, she also seems to like it a lot. I was thinking about the reasons for my increased appreciation of the game . I think Aqua Romana uses a complicated mechanism. The required math and logical thinking needs a little bit of training. But once you get the hang of that, the whole game falls into place. Perhaps, we will start to play the game a little bit more often.
This game was extremely close. Shelak had his aqueducts closed pretty early in the game. But Raven and Naturelich started an interesting fight for the lead. During middle-game I was not doing too well. Raven had really gained a considerable advantage. All her aqueducts seemed considerably better than mine. As the endgame approached it might have become a little bit closer. But it was not until the very last turn that we gained clarity. Raven missed to close one of her longer aqueducts. Due to the game's unique scoring mechanism she only score four points, instead of the seven points she would have deserved. But my worker was sitting in the right spot and made the closest Aqua Romana game, I have ever seen Naturelich 37, Raven 36, Shelak 28.

St. Petersburg

Last but not least we tried St. Petersburg. Being another novelty for Shelak and Raven, I was probably doomed from the beginning. While I had not played this birthday present for quite some time, I really enjoyed a couple of sessions in 2005. While I was explaining the game the game's biggest problem came back to me - and that is the bad rules. I really should have read-ahead on those a couple of hours before the game. The game really is not that difficult but the rules are a small disaster. As it was already pretty late the attention of my co-players was not at peak. We just started and I gave a good hint: you have to concentrate on the green cards in the beginning of the game (as the workers give you a lot of money that is required to get victory points). And Shelak followed this advice. He got his workers out quickly and bought an Observatory. The second Observatory went directly to Raven leaving me behind without this powerful building. I was unable to get into the game. Raven was concentrating on collecting a bunch of Nobles which made her score big in the end and almost got her past Shelak. Almost. In the end, Shelak delivered a really strong game and I had to suffer from yet another devastating defeat. I hate losing the last game of the evening. This makes my drive home all the more unpleasant...

Raven had a major strength in nobility...

...while Shelak was strong with workers. This enabled him to buy plenty of buildings and nobles later on.