We had a full group over at the Madden's for Tuesday gaming. They had friends who are visiting from Michigan and came down for Gulf Games who decided to join us -- Chris and Elaine Lohroff and their two children. Tamara also brought her son David over so we had several new faces which is always great.
I arrived early and saw that Warren and Sharon had recently acquired a copy of Tempus and I was anxious to try it out. So I brought it down and began learning the rules in anticipation of playing it. I recruited Steve and Andy and after learning the basics we got Adam and Eileen to join us.
Tempus is an interesting civilization themed game. It is not extremely complicated but it has a very incremental feel to the turns. The game has a variable map so each game will have a different feel. Each round you have a certain number of actions you can perform and your 5 choices for each action are: Move, Have Babies, Have Ideas, Build Cities, and Have a Fight. Each of these choices can be impacted by your position on the progress chart. For example, at the start of the game moving allows you to move 1 piece-1 space, but by the end of the game you can move 3 pieces-up to 5 spaces each. A brief look at the actions:Move: you can move x number of people, y spaces based on your progress level. Also, you can move from one space that is next to a lake to another space also next to a lake. Later in the game when you have shipbuilding you can move from a space adjacent to the sea to another space adjacent to the sea. This water movement counts for that pieces entire move for the action.
Have Babies: the phrasing of this action is humorous on its own. It allows you to place 1 or 2 (depending on progress level) new units in Grassland spaces where you have existing units so long as they don't exceed the stacking limit. Stacking limit starts at 2 and progresses up to 4.
Have Ideas: Draw 1 or 2 cards (depending on progress level). Your hand limit is initially 5 but eventually it will increase to 7 (again based on progress level). Cards can be played using their text during a player's turn or using the terrain on the card for combat and advancing progress so they are important.
Build cities: you can convert a pile of units into a city with a rating of 2-4 depending on the number of units in the stack being converted. Cities cannot be place in Mountain spaces and must not be built adjacent to another city. Cities are more defensible and allow for benefits on progress and VP's at the end of the game.
Have a Fight: This is an attack from one space into another space. Combat is resolved by the defender playing a number of cards face down and then the attacker playing some cards face up. Each unit in the battle counts as a point. Each card played by either player that matches the terrain of the defender counts as a point for that player. Each weapons card played adds 1 point and each fortification card played by the defender counts as 2 points. Highest total wins with the defender winning ties. The defender of a city gets the city number + his cards played AND he gets to determine the terrain before anyone plays cards which is a huge advantage. If the attacker wins then the defender loses all units there but if the defender wins then the attacker only loses 1 unit.After everyone takes their turns then their is an opportunity for players to advance on the progress chart. The first thing done during this step is to move all players up to the lead player's position on the chart (so they "catch up" to the current technology). Then, starting with the start player, each player plays a number of cards face down. These are revealed simultaneously and each player totals their progress points with the highest player(s) advancing to the next level. Progress points are: 1 pt for each unit on a space that matches the terrain of the next level on the progress chart, 1 pt for each city (regardless of the number on it), 1 pt for each Education card played, and 1 pt for each card played that matches the terrain of the next progress level.
The progress level determines: how many units you can move, how far they can move, how many babies you can have, how many units you can stack in a space, how many idea cards you can draw, how many cards you can hold in your hand, whether you have sea movement or not, and how many actions you can take during your turn. Each step offers slight benefits in one or more areas so that leading players have a slight advantage for that round. It's nice to have the advantage but I don't think that they are all crucial to winning the game.
Play continues until someone advances to flight. At that point victory points are determined by adding up: 1 pt for all non-mountain spaces occupied by units, pts equal to the value for each city, and 3 pts for any player who achieved flight.
I am surprised that progress levels do not improve your ability to win battles (except indirectly by increasing your hand size or allowing you to draw more cards). Also, there is a rule that disallows attacking a player with units in only 3 spaces (not counting cities). I understand the logic in not allowing a player to be eliminated but this seems like an arbitrary way to do that. I would recommend a house rule that allows you to ALWAYS attack a player's cities and only attack their units if they occupy more than 3 spaces. This should limit the Turtling strategies.
The game ran a little long since we were all learning it (and I think we could reduce the time significantly if everyone knew the game). Adam proved the winner by holding onto his "peninsula" and racking up the victory points. Final: Adam (24), Andy (18), Michael (18), Steve (17), and Eileen (12). Overall, I enjoyed the game but I think it needs to last about 90 min instead of 180 min (hopefully it will be closer to the 90 min mark next time). I would like to try it again but it didn't hit the mark as much as I was hoping.
Qwirkle
Chris won this one with 175, Elaine finished next with 173, followed by Sharon with 133.
Chris won this one with 175, Elaine finished next with 173, followed by Sharon with 133.
Chris and Aaron won this one with 56 pts while Danielle and Elaine tied for second with Sharon and Barbara at 35 pts.
Troy proved the most successful explorer tonight. Final scores: Troy (108), Warren (93), Tamara (90), and David (87).
Danielle won this tile collection game with 14 pts followed by Sharon (11), Aaron (8), Elaine (8), Chris (7), and Barbara (5).(the picture looks like a fight for the +7 tile! but it also shows too many pieces for a 5 player game -- I'm guessing this one lasted a while ;-)
Jambo
Troy (69) proved the astute trader in Jambo against Warren (52)
Troy (69) proved the astute trader in Jambo against Warren (52)
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