August 18, 2004 |
Out of curiosity I went to the Madison Board Gamers group on Wednesday. At one point there were around 10-12 people there, playing a few different games: Hare and Tortoise, Acquire, Streetcar, and Carcassonne, among others. The folks were nice and Todd was the M.C., directing games at other tables that had questions and offering a lot of advice when people were unsure of what they wanted to play. He did a damn fine job of explaining Fifth Avenue, though there were a couple things that came up.
Overall, it was cool not to have to be boss, as I am on the normal Game Night. Todd ran the show and I was able to focus on playing. I never realized how much effort it took to be the "gamemaster" until last night.
| Coloretto |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Sara | 49 | 1 | |
| Joel | 44 | 2 | |
| Mike | 34 | 3 | |
Notes: While Todd and John and another guy whose name I didn't catch finished up a game of Hare and Tortoise, I killed time with Joel and Sara, a couple which seems to go to the MBG group a lot. They seemed to know how to play most of the games, and only needed a quick re-cap to play Coloretto. We only played one round. Joel went for the "few cards, no extra colors" strategy, I went for a greed strategy (which worked until I got saddled with a big minus score in the last hand), and Sara gathered big points and tried not to worry about extra colors. She had a ton of 3 colors in grabbing the 1-round win.
| Power Grid |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| John | 17 | 1 | * |
| Scott | 16 | 2 | * |
| Joel | 15 | 3 (Tie) | |
| Mike | 15 | 3 (Tie) | |
| Todd | 14 | 5 | |
| Sara | 13 | 6 | |
Notes: Next up was a game of Power Grid, and Todd worked overtime trying to help everyone out. Scott (not our Scott, a different Scott), after buying his first power plant (which could power a max of 1), wanted to buy about 3 or 4 cities in the first turn. This would have been an atrocious idea, and we finally convinced him not to do it. Although he was in the "cheap seat" section of Germany and could have prevented Todd from buying up a lot of cities, there was no way to get money back early and he would have been going last for the next 2 or 3 turns at least.
I went with a small power plant and started in south central Germany. Scott and Todd were in the cheap, far western portion of the map. Joel took the area in East Germany (NE Germany was closed off), Sara started in Bavaria, and John, much to my chagrin, opted to build just south of me, not more than 2 cities away. I thought the north would have been a better choice, but he proved me wrong.
In turn two, strategies became more apparent. Scott, after having restrained himself from buying a bunch of cities he couldn't power in the first round, now bought 3 (though he could only power two). Todd expanded moderately in an attempt to get maximum cash. Joel expanded slowly in the east, and Sara just as slowly in the south. John and I were already bumping into each other, as he expanded north while I was expanding west. There was a city with an "8" connector nearby that we were going to battle over by next turn and so I tried to aim myself to get it.
Soon, everyone was bumping into everyone, although Sara was last to battle for terrain, as John and I were slow to expand into Bavaria. Scott and Todd were battling for all the western and northern territory, and Joel was forced to go west and bump into John's expanding power grid. John squeezed me out of the central area and I was forced to go west - I needed to make a very demanding connection fee (19) to get into the western cheap area (which was hoarded by Todd and Scott anyway). When John connected to his 6th and 7th cities, I was stuck on 4 along with Sara and Todd. Scott and Joel each had 5.
By Step 2, my strategy was to stay in last (so that resources would be cheaper and I'd get first shot at city connections) and get good power plants early - ones that could power 4 cities at the minimum. It worked okay, but one turn I neglected to count my cash and ended up being just short of the connection I wanted - which would have at least slowed John down. Sara had the same idea as me, but she collected nuclear plants almost exclusively. Uranium was pretty expensive early on, though, and she was kind of short on cash in mid-game. Joel had a nice mixture of plants - one oil, one garbage, one coal - and they all had nice power capabilities. Scott had a TON of cities but couldn't power them all, relying on a 1 wind, a 3 wind, and a 3 coal. John had good power plants, including a 2 wind and 5 coal.
For a little while, resources got expensive, so I was careful to be efficient with my resources. At one point I had a 1 and 4 plants, and rather than expend the 2 garbage to power both my cities, I just powered one. I was therefore short on cash in the early game.
Everyone, then, had a nice set of problems to deal with. I was low on cash with only expensive expanse areas to go to, Sara had expensive resources (still), Todd was hampered by Scott's overbuying of cities, Scott couldn't power all his cities, and John and Joel - who had the nicest balance, I thought - had no cheap space to buy, though John had some slightly cheaper territory down in Bavaria, if he wanted to go there.
I finally made my foray into the cheap western areas, and I figured to expand quickly and then win. I was progressing slowly, but making good steps - staying behind and getting cash, making cheap expansions. I had by now bought a 5 coal plant, and had (once again) overspent on resources and wasted a turn not expanding a city into what would have been a cheap town (19 electros - I only had 17). Scott was in dire need of a better power plant, as he was trundling along with about 10 cities but capability of powering only 7 (still!). Everyone else had good plants, as Todd, John, and Joel upgraded their obsolete plants in favor of better ones. John also saw that the market was going to be atrocious for coal late in the game (only 6 coal are replaced in Step 3) and he bought 9 at once at one point - a brilliant move that ended up costing Scott especially, late in the game.
At this point, we arrived in Step 3, and Scott was desperate for a high-powered plant, and he settled on a coal plant. Everyone knew he wanted it and bid up the price. I had done this early on (and got people to pay a little more each time) and it worked pretty well so long as you were conservative. John tended to get a bit flustered when someone raised a bid by more than 1. Finally, paying a good amount of electros, Scott got his big plant. Then, with just John and I left, the fission-powered 50 plant appeared, which powers 6 cities with no resources. We got into a bidding war, and I paid too much for it, when the little man inside me told me to stop when John got to 70. I went to 73 (71 might have worked), and I crippled myself for the turn. I was now stuck at 7 cities, and while everyone else would be pulling in over 100 electros, I was stuck on 82. My bid was extra stupid because I could have had a 6 garbage plant for about 35, and garbage had gotten cheap. Did I also mention I would have been the last bidder remaining? This overbid killed me and probably gave the game to John. (Todd spent a chunk of Step 3 yelling end game conditions to the folks playing Acquire at the next table.)
I then had to scramble as Scott now expanded to 13 cities and Joel was right behind him with 12. Sara, Todd, and I were way in back, biding our time - though Sara's possible expansion areas had gotten big time expensive. John sat at 12, too, but he now had the best plants, the most resources, and a good place to expand.
The next round, which I thought might be the last, I was finally able to make my move. I expanded from 7 to 11, mostly by focusing on the areas in the west with the cheap connection fees. Scott only expanded to 14 (game ends at 15), because he could only power 13 cities, and Joel could power 14 - and Joel expanded to 14 that turn (he couldn't quite get to 15). John put himself in excellent position with 12 cities. Todd and Sara were back with me at 11 or 12.
In the final round Scott had to buy another big plant (his capability was only at 13, so he upgraded to 16). No one else bought one, and resources weren't expensive enough to prevent Scott from getting everything he needed. His only competition at this point were Joel and John.
In the last round, I picked up 4 more cities and got to 15, triggering the end of the game. I had the ability to power 16, so I felt like I was in as good of shape as I could manage. Todd and Sara only made it to 14 and 13 cities, respectively. Scott made it to 16 cities - and powered 16, putting me out of contention, and John made the huge expansion in Bavaria and was able to build 5 cities, despite the fact that I got in his way a little bit. He had some great plants and was able to power all 17 cities, getting him the win. Joel was hoping he could tie Scott for 2nd, but his expansion efforts were thwarted by filled cities (cities filled by me). My 15 is a guess for him, as he never actually finished his turn.
It was a cool game, and although I liked my strategy, one big overbid certainly did me in. It was an impulse buy, after all. I also learned my lesson early on to count my money and calculate (and re-calculate) exactly how much you want to save up for city expansion. It's kind of like the "gambling demon". Sometimes you just get so wrapped up in the game that you have to do something you want rather than what you should.
| Fifth Avenue |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 34 | 1 | * |
| Mike O. | 32 | 2 (Tie) | * |
| Todd | 32 | 2 (Tie) | * |
| Scott | 21 | 4 | * |
Notes: A lot of folks headed out at this point, and there were about 7 of us left. Todd wanted to try out the brand-spanking new Fifth Avenue, and the other group wanted to play Ticket to Ride. I really wanted to play the new game, so I hung out at Todd's table, hoping not to get bumped. I didn't, and was able to learn this fine game. The Ticket to Ride folk opted for a game of Streetcar, another game I haven't ever played.
This game has been getting hammered on the Boardgamegeek, garnering such comments as "Boring and uninventive", "Nothing original, nothing exciting, even the components don't seem to be up to par", and "Fifth Avenue offers nothing IMHO that is remarkable or new." There are also some complaints about the Central Park auction, which I will try to explain below.
The components really aren't that bad. First, the board is two-sided, so it can be played with 6 sites per district instead of 5. We played with 5 in a 4-player game, which may have been incorrect. With 6 it would have made for a slightly less expensive game, but a longer one. The board's colors are kind of ugly, though. Pinks and weak oranges and grays and purples. The plastic skyscrapers are fine - of higher sturdiness but less detail than the Taj Mahal towers - and the cards are a nice sturdy Taj Mahal-like stock. And they have a nice dark blue design on the back. The artwork is excellent, though uninspired. There are also some "cheat cards" which detail possible actions and list how scoring takes place. The shop markers are, again, Taj Mahal-like, of about the same quality as the bonus chips in Taj Mahal, but, once again, an ugly gray. The artwork on the shop markers is also dull.
There is a LOT to do and keep track of in this game. Todd almost got overwhelmed trying to teach it. Essentially, each
player tries to get the most points. Points are received by scoring a district and all districts are scored at the end
of the game. The more shops that are near your skyscrapers, the more points you receive. You place skyscrapers by
winning auctions, and auctions are performed roughly every 4 turns - more on that below. Shops are placed as one of a
player's actions. Essentially, there are 4 actions:
As in El Grande, where there are caballeros in the provinces and in your court, in Fifth Avenue, there are two places for skyscrapers: the "general supply" and the "ready to build" area in front of you (on your card, actually). If you run out of skyscrapers from your "ready to build" area, you cannot place any more on a site until you get more from the general supply.
When an auction takes place, you need at least one colored card and then you can use any number of black cards. The auction cards are numbered from 4-6, and whoever has the highest bid (bids go around the table until everyone drops out except one person) gets to place from 0-3 skyscrapers into the site matching the color. If a player already has skyscrapers in a district, he can only play auction cards matching that color. It is usually best to bid on a site that is next to a shop in order to accumulate more points.
Each turn, a commissioner moves across the board. When he reaches Central Park, he then moves one more time to return to city hall. At the moment he returns (even mid-turn), an auction is held. The player who moved the commissioner to city hall starts the auctions. There are (usually) 4 auctions - one for each district the commissioner visited. Players then bid to put their skyscrapers in the respective districts with the design of getting the most future points. It is optimal to bid on a site that is close to some pre-existing shops. There are other various rules in bidding which I won't go into.
Once a player wins an auction, he places 0-3 skyscrapers down. Then there is an auction in the next district. And so on. Central Park auctions are a tad different. Rather than each player bidding on any color they want, everyone must follow the suit of the starting bidder. So if I'm the first bidder, and I bid 4 yellow, everyone has to bid using yellow cards. Central Park is not scored during the game, but gives each skyscraper in Central Park a random number of points from 2-5 at game end only. I'll explain this below.
In sum, each player has a limited set of actions. It's typically very difficult to score your region, because players preceding you tend to leave the commissioner in districts where scoring the region isn't optimal for you. If you win too many auctions, you may be out of skyscrapers (an event that happened to Mike O. a couple times in our game). If you place a shop, you risk giving someone else points and you bring the game closer to the end. There is a hell of a lot to balance in this game and it can be overwhelming. The fact that 4 auctions happen in a row can be a bit much to keep track of, too. Do I want to bid a lot in this first area? Or do I want to save up for a later one? Do I have the cards for this one or the later one? Should I try to get skyscrapers in Central Park? It's quite a bit to think about.
I should note that every 3 shop placements result in a possible bonus score. If a player has been in a set number of districts by the time some shops are taken, each player who is in that number of districts gets bonus points. Each player starts in 2, but tries to expand into several, if possible. So, after 3 shops are taken, if anyone has gotten into a third district, that player (or players) gets 4 bonus points. After 6 total shops are taken, anyone in 4 districts gets 6 bonus points. This is just one more thing to keep track of. The game ends when all the shops are taken or 2 areas are closed. I'll describe a closed area when we get to it in our game.
With all this in mind, we began to play. The order was Todd, Scott, Mike O. and me. Everyone in front of me picked a shop and placed it. This resulted in the +4 bonus being allocated, but as the commissioners hadn't moved very far, no one received the bonus. I wanted to do something different, so I scored a region one of the commissioners was in, giving me 2 points and some more black cards. This was a great move, though it wasn't to become clear until later.
Then we had some auctions. Everyone won some skyscrapers in a region. Mike O. joined me in the 1st district, Scott expanded in the 2nd, and Todd gained some skyscrapers in the third. I managed to get a skyscraper in Central Park. We then had another auction very soon, but I was unable to expand anywhere - I was biding my time for the auction that was about to happen. Mike O. got into a fifth, and Todd also managed to get into a fourth. Mike O. seriously overbid in Central Park and although he could have placed 3 skyscrapers, he actually ran out and could only place one.
With Mike O. out of skyscrapers I evilly started another auction. I added 3 skyscrapers to my first region, which now was looking pretty healthy. I added another 'scraper to Times Square in order to get in on some more points, and in the last two auctions I managed to get two more 'scrapers in another region and then Todd put some skyscrapers of his own in Central Park.
On the next turn, Todd took a shop, which triggered the +6 bonus, which we all were able to net except Scott, who had only made it to 3 districts. Todd then moved the commissioner to Times Square, which gave Scott 9 points, putting him into contention. By now people were short on cards. Mike O. focused on a balanced card attack, trying to get the cards to enable him to contend for any color. Since I was going last, I felt like I would always be short, especially since I had (I felt) put all my eggs in one basket by winning those three expensive auctions. So I went for two colors only. Todd seemed to go for the same strategy, and I'm unsure what Scott was aiming for. He had a lot of cards, but after the first round of auctions seemed to bid very conservatively.
Over the next couple of rounds, I made my 4 skyscraper lot on South 34th street as lucrative as I could by adding a shop nearby, and Mike O. built 5 skyscrapers in Central Park. Todd always moved the commissioner away from his north central region, and it was never auctioned off. He ended up being the only one to build there the entire game. Scott added a skyscraper that was worth a couple points, but never added one to Central Park and it was pretty obvious he was out of the running. He did manage to close a region though. To close a region, it has to be full (all sites have skyscrapers or shops) and you have to win the auction with any shop-colored card. So, in this case, I had purple, Mike O. had yellow skyscrapers, and Todd had gray. Scott won the auction with green cards. The closer gets points = the number of skyscrapers, and everyone who had 'scrapers in there gets half their normal allotment. So I got 1 point instead of 2.
I then tried to put a third shop in a site, but Todd told me that was impossible. Drat! So, as everyone felt I was in the lead (and so I thought, too), I made to end the game by holding one more auction and closing out north 52nd street. Once two districts are closed the game immediately ends. As I had a ton of orange cards I was able to close it with minimal opposition, as Todd didn't have the cards he wanted there and Mike O. was also short. Game over.
I had a big 12-point region, which rocketed me into a good lead. I had 31 points to Todd's 27, Scott's 21, and Mike O. had 17. Mike O. had 5 skyscrapers in Central Park, Todd had 2, and I had 1. Scott had none. Central Park is scored by multiplying the number of skyscrapers there times the point value of the shops. During the game, 2/3 of the time when a shop is placed, a second shop is placed in Central Park. At the end of the game, these shops are flipped upside down and 3 are randomly flipped over. If all three match, each skyscraper in Central Park is worth 2, if 2 match, they are worth 3, and if all three are unique, they are worth 5 points each. Thus, there is a certain amount of luck involved, which tends to upset some of the folk at the 'geek. Still, it pays to hedge your bets there, and you can affect the odds for or against yourself by selecting duplicate shops or unique ones.
This being the case, I knew I'd win if there were at least 2 shops matching. The odds were with me, as there were only 6 shops there. 3 were perfumeries, 2 were jewellers, and 1 was a purse shop. The first flip was perfume. The second was a ring. I was nervous now. I had a 3/4 chance of winning, though. God bless Scott, when he flipped over the last one it was a perfumery. My scant little lead held up and I beat both Mike O. and Todd by 2.
The game was a very interesting one, and I don't quite get how it's lambasted so much on the 'geek. There are a lot of mechanisms taken from other games: there are sort of Taj Mahal-like auctions (except you get your cards back if you don't win), skyscraper general & personal supplies (like El Grande), auction card choosings like Taj Mahal, and scoring dependent on where your pieces are like in El Grande. The amount of choices can be overwhelming, as in Taj Mahal, but it feels more controlled. I think this game is easier to "get" than Taj Mahal, which sometimes turns into a runaway, partly due to a lucky streak. In Fifth Avenue, there are more auctions, but rather than keeping track of 6 things (or more, including the bonus cards) per district in Taj Mahal, there are really only 2 things - which region am I going to bid on, and which cards do I want to save for a later district?
There is a bit of a sense of déjà vu in Fifth Avenue, but it's a perfectly fine game with a pretty nice flow to it (though Scott sometimes took an interminably long time to choose what to do).
Summary: The Madison Board Gamers group was a lot of fun. They bring a lot of games and they seem to focus on newer ones. It's also nice not to be the target of the "make sure Mike doesn't win" contingent, and it was really cool not to be the one everyone relies on to keep the game going. When Scott took too long to do something, Todd was incredibly courteous to him - as opposed to my "Go Karla!", Todd said, in a very kind voice, "Do you know what you want to do, Scott?" and then listed the various possibilities. The group is far more focused than our group. They come to play games and not socialize, and there was rarely any non-gaming discussion. I am actually eager to go again.