- \n
- <\/a>T-Rex<\/a><\/b>
![\"T-Rex](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen\/trex_t.jpg\")
\n
\nAfter some debate about the first game of the evening Peter finally succeeded in
\nconvincing us to agree to T-Rex. Peter had played the game several time before and
\nenjoyed it a lot whereas especially Moritz didn’t like it too much on his first try.<\/p>\nT-Rex is a card game where all players use an identical set of 17 cards and try to win
\ndinosaur eggs. These eggs come in 4 different colors and each egg is worth the total
\nnumber of eggs a player owns of that color at the end of the game, resulting in a
\npossible exponential growth of victory points.<\/p>\nThe player cards come in five colors with 3 cards of each color numbered from 1 to 15
\nplus 2 special cards. Before the first (of a total of 12) round of the game commences
\neach player shuffles his\/her deck and draws 7 hand cards to start with. Additionally, 2
\ndino eggs are revealed from the dino egg draw pile and two color cards are placed on the
\ntable to indicate the highest and lowest ranking card color for this round.<\/p>\nPlayers in sequence play one of their hand cards placing it in front of them – there is
\nno need to follow suit. Each card carries a symbol (cards or a comet) which either
\nenables the player to draw additional cards from the draw pile or it signals the
\nbeginning of the “end sequence” of that round. When the first comet card has
\nbeen played the round immediately ends once that player has played another turn and no
\nother player has played a higher ranking comet card. Card ranking goes by the card’s
\ncolor followed by the number on the card.<\/p>\nWhoever has the highest ranking card in front of him\/her selects one of the two dino
\neggs; the second egg goes to the player with the second highest card. As a small, but
\nimportant, bonus the player having the lowest ranking card may replace one of the two
\ncolor cards that indicate the color rank for the next round. Then each player permanently
\ndiscards either the top card from his\/her draw pile or the card last played in this
\nround. Then the remainder of the cards played this round are placed under the draw pile.<\/p>\n![\"T-Rex\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen\/trex_b.jpg\")
The first two or three rounds of T-Rex are usually heavily luck based as it
\nis completely unknown which cards are held by the other players. After a while most
\nplayers have gone through their draw pile at least once and usually have collected a set
\nof cards that suits their tactics. Especially players with a good memory now have an
\nadvantage if they remember which cards are permanently out of the game and which cards or
\nat the bottom of the draw piles.<\/p>\nOnce a comet card is played in a round this type of information can be vital for winning
\na dino egg because at that point it is important to be able to judge which player is able
\nto play higher ranking comet cards thereby extending the round. Exact timing is what make
\nwinners here as it is important to play the highest ranking card in the last turn of a
\nround and in fact it can be very annoying if a round is extended by another comet card
\nand one has to play another card, which more often than not is a lower ranking card,
\ndestroying any hope for winning an egg.<\/p>\nFor my liking T-Rex rewards good memory too much (old age, I guess). This combined with
\nthe usual uncertainties of what tactic another player will apply provides me with too
\nmany unpredictability. Interestingly, Moritz, who said he didn’t like the game
\nbecause of the strong memory effect won the game by far and Walter, our Bridge playing
\ncard game wizard came in last.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- <\/a>Linie 1<\/a><\/b>
![\"Linie](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen\/line1_t.jpg\")
\n
\nLinie 1 – or Streetcars as the English version published by Mayfair is called – was our
\nsecond game of the evening. We played this already once a couple of years ago with not
\ntoo enthusiastic memories and we wanted to give it another try.<\/p>\nThe task of the (up to five) players is to connect the terminal stops of their streetcar
\nline which are located at opposite borders of the game board by building tracks between
\nthem, a principle which was employed already by Twixt may years ago. To make things not
\ntoo easy players get their streetcar line dealt secretly out of the six available lines
\nand additionally they have to include two (or three in games with less than 4 players) of
\nthe many intermediate stops that are placed throughout the board. Also these stops are
\ndealt secretly.<\/p>\nThe game is played in two phases. During the track building phase a player places two
\nnew track tiles anywhere on the board or upgrades already existing tiles. Tiles may only
\nbe placed if they legally connect to tiles already placed and can only be upgraded if
\nexisting track is maintained. As soon as a track tile is placed next to a stop location a
\nstop sign is placed on that tile. No additional stops are possible at this location.<\/p>\nPlayers therefore are faced with the difficult task of making sure that the stops they
\nmust pass are located in such a way that they caneasily be integrated into their own
\nnetwork and on the other hand they must try and avoid revealing their intentions and line
\nidentity too early. Line 1 allows all sorts of nasty track laying making it possible to
\ncreate long detours for other players once one knows their intentions. Even endless loops
\nare possible (see the left terminal of line 4 on the photo) making it impossible to use a
\npiece of track in both directions.<\/p>\n![\"Linie](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen\/line1_b.jpg\")
The second phase of the game begins once a player has completed the
\nrequired route. The player announces this to the other players and indicates the route on
\nthe board. The rules state that this must be done so that all players are able to verify
\nthat a valid route exists. And in fact, it happened twice during our game that a player
\nannounced a valid route which in fact did not exist! Once the route has been verified the
\nplayer starts travelling with a streetcar starting at one terminal, along the two (three)
\nintermediate stops to the terminal at the opposite side of the board. The
\n“motor” of the streetcar is a die with numbers 1 to 4 and two “H”
\nsigns. The player rolls the die once per turn and moves the streetcar the number of track
\ntiles indicated on the die or to the next stop if an “H” has been rolled. Here
\nit becomes obvious why a short route is so important.<\/p>\nWhile some players have already started their streetcar other players may still be
\nbuilding their route. The point in time when to start the streetcar needs to be carefully
\njudged because sometimes it can pay to optimize a route further rather than starting the
\ncar on a hopelessly long route.<\/p>\nMoritz came in first closely followed by Walter, who in fact had the shortest route of
\nall players. My chances of winning came to an abrupt end when Andrea
\n(“unintentionally”, as she said, believe it or not) blocked my intended
\nstarting location by a loop construction.<\/p>\nLine 1 in my opinion is a strange mixture of a game: on the one hand there is the rather
\ncomplex track building race amongst the players followed by a dice rolling war in the
\nsecond phase. My feeling is that the players who like the track building will not be too
\nhappy with the second phase and vice versa.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- <\/a>Bluff<\/a><\/b>
\n
\nThis evening we had sufficient time left to try some experiments with our usual final
\ngame of the evening: Bluff. After Moritz had won the first game of Bluff (making this a
\nvery good evening for him) we decided to change player position at the table to find out
\nif that has any influence on the game results. Doing so we managed to achieve a clear win
\nfor each player – a result we never had before. Which leaves us with the question: does
\nthe seating order really have in influence on the Bluff results? If so, what exactly is
\nthe cause of this influence?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Session Report 15.01.2003 Author: Aaron at the table: Walter, Peter, Moritz, Andrea, Aaron on the table: T-Rex, Linie 1, Bluff T-Rex After some debate about the first game of the evening Peter finally succeeded in convincing us to agree to T-Rex. Peter had played the game several time before and enjoyed it a lot whereas … Session Report 15.01.2003<\/span> weiterlesen
- <\/a>Linie 1<\/a><\/b>