ME AGAIN.
My friends like to play some games after our badminton session, but one wasn't coming this week (he joins after the sports bit), which meant there was 4 of us. Not that I dislike the guy, but I'm more fond of the games that seem to have a maximum of 4 players (and I think Firefly would work better with 4, which is how it was originally released) as opposed to what we have to play to accomodate 5. Anyway, I usually pass on the invitation, but not this week. So I tried a couple more new (to me) games.
Relic Expedition is a game that my friend kickstarted, so I think he also had some expansions but opted not to use them in case things got too complicated. It's a fun little game where you explore a jungle that is laid out as you move, via hexagonal tiles that you randomly lay in place everytime you reach a border piece, and the aim is to collect 4 relics either with the same symbol on them or the same background colour and then 'get to tha choppa' via extraction tiles marked with an H. Along the way, though, you'll need different equipment and items to traverse certain terrain and there are animals that can cause different detrimental effects. To combat these, you can use supplies you draw blindly from a bag or there will be items that also pop up (bananas stop monkeys stealing things from your backpack, a tranquiliser dart can stop a panther or a boar). However, you are limited to a maximum of 8 items in your backpack (though you're free to drop things at your current location if need be without using up an action), so you can see how things might get tricky when you start loading up with relics.
A turn usually consists of rolling a die that governs how many actions you get, and is made up of (I think) four 3s, a 2 and a 4. So, obviously, most of the time you will get 3 actions and considering how close our game was, they can be quite critical (to use the helipad for teleporting between H tiles or when you have all the relics requires at least 3 actions, for example). When animals start appearing, then another die is rolled at the same time to determine what, if any, of those is moved. An animal is moved 1 or 2 tiles, but cannot go over quicksand (or a player can ditch them in the quicksand to get them off the board) The player whose turn it is, gets to start but then it goes round the board as to who gets to move any others (each only moving once per turn), so sometimes you'll have to try and clear them from your path rather than setting them on others.
Things started a bit shaky as a couple of critical animal placements were missed in the early stages, but we soon got it in hand and everyone went their separate ways through the jungle. Some of the others got fortunate with finding the special areas (there's a cave, a mountain and a river, all of full of relics, that can only be accessed when the special starter tile gets placed and a player has the right gear) whereas I managed to build what can only be described as 'donkey kong country'. Fortunately, it earned this name through an abundance of monkeys and bananas so I got through. It could've been worse though. The owner of the game placed 3 new tiles in one turn, all of them panthers, and then panther came up on the die the next turn so the rest of us set them on him so that he had no chance of fending them off (it was hi-larious).
A boar did get me early on, but no one was around to capitalise and I managed to continue on with only the loss of a turn setting me back. I had a bit of luck as I uncovered more matching relics and stayed well stocked up on the necessary supplies, even managing a cool vine-swing over quicksand. I was poised to win the game on my next turn when one of the other players spotted an H on the mountain section where he could see the relic he needed and so he was set up for victory. Unfortunately, a roll of 2 set me back the space I desperately needed and my friend got the victory right before I could.
Overall, though, I enjoyed it. A fun little game to break out every now and then, and in terms of balance, I think 3 of us were pretty much even (until panther-time right towards the end that is).
Then we played Black Gold, with I think only me not having played it before. To be honest, I was apprehensive about this. It looked like a sort of oil version of Power Grid (I guess 'resource management' is a genre?) which I am not too fond of. A few of the subtleties of the rules went over my head early on, but I think I really got the hang of it about halfway.
To try and explain it, well...umm, there's a train track where you have a train along with a black, big oil company one that keeps moving forward every turn (game ends when it reaches the end). Early on, moving the train forward a space only requires 1 movement action, but further up you need 2 and then 3. The reason you want to keep moving forward is because to the right of that is all the terrain where you're driving a truck around and building oil derricks and you need your train further ahead or at least parallel in order to transport your oil ready for the auction phase. In some cases, you can always pay the leading player to transport it for you if they're far enough ahead when you aren't (a rookie mistake I made a couple of times).
The truck stuff shares your movement actions, so you have to be wise about your driving around to find suitable places to drill for oil and getting your train to keep up. At the same time, there are different types of spots for oil and they can yield different numbers of 'oil spurts' (little plastic geyser things that represent the units and can all clip together in the top of your derricks). Most you can sneak a peek at when you're adjacent, these can be cheaper for 2/3/4 (I think) or the most expensive for 4/5/6 and then one inbetween is a gamble with either 2 or 5. The idea is to try and get set up with many because even though you only take 1 spurt from each derrick at the end of each turn, that means a lot less having to move around and paying to build them, and when they're dry they're gone (and there are bonuses for how many you have at game's end).
With the oil you produce you then move over to different markets where the value for each fluctuates and you use 'sales licences' which are cards with a value of 1 or 2 to bid in order to win the ability to sell your oil there instead of everyone else. This where people can find that if they don't win and have more than 2 spurts in that market then they get sold for the base $1k each.
What governs the number of moves and sales licences and other things you can get (bonus spurts, for example) are cards drawn at the start of each turn with varying attributes. One may give you 6 sales licences and 6 moves, another could give you 5 sales licences and 8 moves, or 2 and 14, it really can vary. They are all laid out and then the player whose turn it is, gets first pick, with it going round the board after that. (Before that they also would've rolled the die to determine which way the markets move).
In terms of gameplay, it took a little while to click but I managed to put together some sort of seat-of-the-pants strategy which involved hoarding sales licences while allowing just enough moves to maintain 3 derricks simulatenously supplying oil each turn, weighing up who was going to try and win what auction and never putting more than 2 spurts into a market that I had no intention of winning (but ready for when things took an upswing). What was a real kick though, for a long time, is that whenever I peeked at a derrick spot or gambled on one, I always got the lowest value.
Fortunately, there was a major upset for one player, who could've started getting a comfortable lead, as he got called on a bluff during an auction and couldn't foot the bill with his sales licences (meaning he lost a lot of oil and half of his sales licences) whereas I always played it very shrewdly. When it got to the last auction, when people were spending something like 15 sales licences to earn $21k, I netted a whopping $37.5k with 7 sales licences.
And this clever on/off bidding strategy effectively won me the game by a few thousand dollars (I think I got $82.5k and the next closest, the owner of the game, was on $79k). Though, I will admit that I had some advice at certain points, but I think I did pretty well off my own tactics once I got my head round it.
Overall, though, I can't say I particularly 'enjoyed' the actual playing. I mean, I think it is cleverly designed and the theme all fits, but like Power Grid, it can be pretty exhausting. It took a few hours to get through (admittedly, a lot was probably me weighing up everything as a first-timer, but there was plenty of the necessary 'mechanics process' each turn) and as much as I cleaned up at the auctions, they were a little too tense and serious for my liking. I mean, there's being a dick to other people when you get the opportunity handed to you, and would be a fool not to take it, but to be so calculating and devious...I feel wrong.
