Rob Askew – Page 8 – Sydney Board Games Association

Meeting 27 July 2020

Cold & Wet – but giggles nevertheless.

It was midwinter with a vast and terrible low pressure system hovering off the NSW coast wreaking havoc on the shoreline. Although cold and wet outside, we had a fairly uneventful meeting at Louise‘s with quite a lot of giggles from the sisters – first the teams event Articulate! followed by Uno Flip. The teams were Louise + Rob, Tara + Genelle, and Nicole + Wayne. Tara/Genelle led for most of the game (which was lengthened to two laps), chased by Louise/Rob with Nicole/Wayne bringing up the rear. Towards the last couple of turns, Tara/Genelle suffered a form slump with a simultaneous burst of knowledge from the Louise/Rob team who zipped past for the win. So everybody scored points, but the first two ladder leaders being on the same team meant that Louise’s lead over Rob was maintained, although slightly reduced. Rob scored a double whammy, while Louise managed a 1.5 whammy if you see what I mean – a win in the main game and a 2nd in the backup. Genelle may not make the August meet due to the impending birth of her next grandchild – we hope all goes well GG.

Meeting 29 June 2020

SBGA members exposed to Virus!

It was not the dreaded Covid-19, just El Presidente’s interpretation of it in a new board game entitled Danger Zone. Genelle was our host for this meet, and she chose the new game for its topicality. There were only five players due to a last minute car problem for Nicole. Being a new game, it was bound to have a couple of teething troubles, but they were not serious. The most obvious issue is that it is not a long game and all agreed that it would be better as a backup rather than a main game. The placings were Louise, Rob, Tara in that order. The backup was Five Crowns, the relatively recent game introduced by Genelle which is gaining in popularity. Placings were Louise, Genelle, Tara in a very close-fought game, there was a tie-break round to separate the first two placings finishing on 117 each with Tara only 5 points behind. I have a theory that females are genetically superior at the skill required to rapidly recognise the multitude of permutations and combinations of scoring patterns in Five Crowns – but I could be wrong. It is certainly true for our particular sample of humanity.

Note that Louise scored a double whammy; the 150 points added to her leading score has made it impossible for any player to catch up in July. She must be a favourite to win the competition at this rate. The rest of us can only hope for a form slump.

During the tea break in which El Prez had to retire to his residence to fill the jug (water supply was interrupted due to loo construction), Genelle introduced a quick round of Sequence so we could get the feel of it. Thanks Genelle. I think it’s not far off being chosen on someone’s programme soon.

Meeting 15 June 2020

Louise wins a Ticket to Ride, blokes WHP.

It was a cold midwinter night, approaching the shortest day of the year, but we were comfy at Nicole‘s playing a game new to most of us – Ticket to Ride. I had played it a few times, consistently and soundly beaten by my son, and Nicole’s husband had also played it a lot, mainly the computer screen version – thanks to him for coaching us through the game and being El Prez‘s “engineer”. To top it off, Nicole provided my favourite dip (French Onion) and favourite lollies, (Violet Crumble or Cadbury Crunchy, same thing). Tara won Ticket convincingly with Nicole and Louise in the placings. It was a late start for the backup Sherwood, an old El Prez original, so we had only two rounds, and it finished in a draw between Louise and Nicole which Louise won on a tie-break toss. Tara was 3rd. El Prez and El Trez both WHP.

So the 50 points Louise won in Sherwood makes her the new competition leader, breaking the tie with Rob. Genelle was absent – in Melbourne getting acquainted with her new granddaughter. That absence without points has cost her – both sisters Z have overtaken her and relegated her to 5th place (see graph on home page).

At the start of the meeting, El Prez previewed three new games he has produced. The Covid game Danger Zone is on Genelle’s programme for next meet, and you’ve also met Bond & Beyond here in the news items. He has also resurrected an old one about Egyptology called Expedition – one of his earliest creations re-manufactured. Here it is…

And Here’s Louise with Nicole’s Sherwood hat…

Louise almost wearing the “Sherwood” hat – She was claiming Covid restrictions disallowed hat sharing.

Meeting 25 May 2020

Louise catches up, El Prez off sick.

It was a cold, windy, rainy night for meeting 4 of season 2020, but it was cosy at Tara’s with a nice fire burning in the new fireplace. This was the meet that was scheduled for April but trashed by the Covid-19 isolation rules. There was one notable absence – El Prez himself was struck down by a gastric affliction and wasn’t well enough to attend, we hope you get better soon WT, immediately if not sooner!

The WT game That’s Broadway was the main game which was won by Louise with Tara & Rob in the placings. The game suffered a bit from some rule amendments that had been hand written onto the official sheet, and had to be read several times to understand what was intended. We made it through, but are still unsure if we got it right.
Billionaire! was the backup won in fine style by Louise again, a double whammy for her that has put her in equal first place with Rob, overtaking both Nicole and Genelle in the process. Louise started the game by playing a 9-card hand with the Billionaire to double the score, then did it again on the very next hand! Tara also made a significant gain by coming 2nd in both games, also managing a 9-card plus billionaire hand. Sadly it was Nicole who WHP for this meet. The prize for Louise was a Bunnings gift voucher, the very first time we’ve delivered a prize by email – it should be in her inbox by the time she reads this.

Our next meeting (nominally the May meet) is scheduled for June 15 at Jannali. Nicole and Genelle having swapped hosting turns, it will be Genelle hosting the new WT game Danger Zone, a game based on an international pandemic. Sound familiar? The meeting after that one is scheduled for June 29 – the actual June meeting.

“Bond & Beyond”

Yet another new one from El Prez

I had another visit from Wayne yesterday – this time I let him come in for a cup of tea now that Covid restrictions allow 2 visitors. He has produced another new board game called Bond & Beyond. It is based on his earlier hit game Movie Maker with which you will be familiar. He says there are some simplifications compared to MM, for example Producers and Directors are amalgamated and both are on one card, and in their place one has to acquire a Bond song to put in the movie. Here is the picture…

El Prez shows off his latest game – Bond & Beyond

“Danger Zone”

Another new game from El Prez

With nothing to do but sit at home contemplating the state of the world, Wayne has made one of his famous board games based on an international pandemic. There are testing stations, hospitals, lockdowns, etc. The aim is to save as many lives and lose as few lives as possible – the score tally of lives saved and lost determines the winner. He’s quite pleased with it and can’t wait to give it a run – ironically, that won’t happen until the pandemic we are in has abated!

The picture below was taken without exceeding the maximum gathering size of 2 – me and him on my front porch, and although he didn’t come inside, he might have had a hard time convincing the authorities his trip to my house was essential.

Monopoly anyone?

After a month of home isolation in support of keeping away from Covid-19, I was flabbergasted when Christine suggested we try a game of Monopoly – this has never happened before! But wait, this isn’t the old Monopoly that is banned from SBGA for the reasons you know – too long, and players being ousted from the game with nothing to do. This is Monopoly Here & Now World Edition.
It retains many of the features of the old Monopoly, but there are quite significant differences – some of you might be familiar, but it was a surprise to me. Here is a summary of what it’s about:

– There the same number of squares around the board, but labelled with city names from around the world.
– There is a maximum of only 4 players (or teams)
– The familiar Monopoly money is still used, but only in $20, $100 and $500 denominations.
– Chance is still there with similar penalties and bonuses.
– Community Chest is replaced by Here & Now cards with different actions, and they’re kept till needed.
– There are no railway stations or utility squares, but there are a couple of airport squares that allow you (for a $100 fee) to fly direct to any other square and buy it.
– There are no real estate cards, instead there is one plastic token per property, the more valuable the property, the larger the token – and this counts in reaching the end game and winning.
– There are no houses or hotels.
– Each player has a “passport” which is a plastic holder for property tokens. As one buys properties, the tokens are slotted in order into one’s passport.
– As usual, landing on someone else’s property incurs a rent payment, and the rent is doubled if the owner also owns the rest of that colour group.
– There are 4 “first class” squares on which one can buy a first class stamp token for $100, these count in building up one’s passport.
– There are two dice, and one of them has its “1” dot replaced by a handshake symbol. If that symbol is rolled, one can elect not to move one’s piece, instead, one can swap the last token added to one’s passport with the last token of anyone else.
– Here’s the biggest difference: as one collects properties and first class stamps, adding their tokens to one’s passport, the first player to fill that passport is the winner – game over! …and much more quickly than classic Monopoly. Note that more valuable properties with larger tokens fill the passport more effectively than less valuable smaller tokens.

We played it as two players, and it finished far too quickly, a simple race to buy properties which are plentiful for just two players. We then tried it as doubled – two passports each and double the money at the start. That was much more interesting, as there are just enough properties to almost fill 4 passports, so more turns are needed to finish.

We could consider this as a backup teams game – I think it’s too short for a main game.

The Box. The four player pieces are visible through the windows on the right.

Meeting 9 March 2020

Tie Broken, GG was the Tea Lady

A nice cool early autumn evening with a little rain saw us at the El Prez gaming facility playing the venerable Wembley Cup, followed by Scattergories. Both of these are games in which El Trez rarely does well, but after a shaky start he had only one team left in the semi finals and it went all the way to win the Grand Final. Wayne’s history books should confirm that it is quite a long time since Rob won Wembley (if at all). Genelle and Rob were tied in the lead after the February meet, but that tie is now broken by 75 points. Genelle was knocked out of the Wembley competition well before the semi-finals, so volunteered to make the tea for interval, even supplying the materials and some cake – thank you Mother Theresa! …and commiserations on the impending demise of your ailing teen aged pussycat.
Nicole scored 100 points by coming second in Wembley then winning Scattergories – this was enough to bump her into third place on the ladder – overtaking Louise who was the only WHP of the evening. It was only a roll-off tie breaker that decided whether Louise or Tara came 3rd in Scattergories, and whether Louise or Tara WHP.
Wayne’s 3rd place in Wembley has at least got him started on the road to success by lifting him off the dreaded zero points.
I wish you all well at the April meeting, I don’t know yet where I’ll be, hopefully not in Corona quarantine!

And finally some sad news – some of you will remember Aubrey Smith. He passed away recently. Member number 16, always a cheerful, keen gamer. Our condolences to Marina and his family.

Competition scoring – food for thought.

El Trez proposes an update…

The current competition table with tied leaders (Feb 2020) reminds me I have been thinking for some time that our competition scoring system has a weakness – actually a couple of weaknesses. Just to remind you, the system is this:
Main game – 100 for 1st, 50 for 2nd, 25 for 3rd.
Backup game – 50 for 1st, 25 for 2nd, 10 for 3rd.
This makes tied scores quite common, in that the winner of the backup game gets the same points as the runner-up in the main game, and so on.
It also devalues the so called “backup” game – I believe the second game is worth more than half the main game. It is called the “backup” only for historical reasons, it was initially there to provide a backup in case the main game finished early. The number of times in club history that the main game went so long as to prevent the backup from being played is minuscule, you could probably count them on the fingers of one hand, and there have been over 360 meetings.

I propose that we change the competition point scores so that the winner of the backup game (keeping the traditional label) gets more points than the main game runner-up, and the backup runner-up gets more points than the main game 3rd place. Since the scores are calculated by a computer, it would be trivially easy to implement such a change, so I would be very interested in all of your thoughts on this proposal, especially if I’ve overlooked something critical that would make it unworkable.

If there is general agreement that we should make this change, we then need to decide when, and what numbers to use. To give you an example, if we use the numbers 120, 80,40 for the main game, and 100, 60, 20 for the backup, the current competition ladder would be:
Genelle: 260
Rob: 220
Louise: 160
Nicole: 120
Tara: 80
Note that I would be disadvantaged by this scheme, the leadership being no longer tied, but I still like it!
We could also opt for a more radical scheme, more like a Formula 1 table or a football comp table, for example:
Main game: 1st = 6, 2nd = 4, 3rd = 2
Backup game: 1st = 5, 2nd = 3, 3rd = 1

So, give me your ideas, and just to preempt the argument that “we shouldn’t change it because we’ve always done it this way” – if that was valid, then women would still not have the vote, gay people would still be prosecuted, etc, etc.

Meeting 3 February 2020

El trez gets double whammy, catches the leader – new game goes missing.

On a cool but somewhat windy evening at Como, we had a pleasant evening of gaming despite the absence of the chosen main game. It was to have been Readers Digest Word Power which we think was last seen at Nicole‘s where there was a discussion in which El Prez thought it had previously been written off as unsuitable for our requirements, but El Trez had no recollection of that fact, so I elected to inspect the rules to find out what it was about. Those rules are still on my desk, have been scanned into my computer, and have been published here on the SBGA website. Meanwhile, the game itself has vanished! It seems that Nicole, not realising that it was under serious consideration for our club, may have donated it somewhere. Whoever has it now will be wondering what the rules are.

The replacement on the night was the original old version of Word Power which Rob won in a close finish just ahead of Genelle, followed a couple of moves later by Louise. The backup game was Uno Flip, also won by El Trez by sheer luck rather than talent, the cards were kind, unlike poor Louise who at one point had to pick up about a quarter of the pack in one of those “dark side” flip penalties. So Rob has now made up for his WHP in January, but sadly Wayne has yet to overcome his WHP demon, scoring the second one for the year. Tara has now had three third placings out of four games for 2020, and in this competition, that’s only enough to get you just ahead of the Wooden Spooner on zero. Remember – it is early days, too early for anyone to lose hope, and too early for anyone to think the trophy is already in the bag.