Heng’s Gaming Blog

… discussion continued…

jack208:

Well said. Most ppl actually forgot the "cost" of such transparency. And the convenience too. I bet most ppl "bribed" their way out of court coz more convenient, saves time, dun have to take leave to attend to the matter…. etc so they feed the hands that bite them.

Similarly in such developed countries, you are also EXPECTED to pay for all the software, games, songs and movies that you play/watch. No more cheapo CDs or disc at rm5 or rm8. You pay all original prices.

btw in Russia, it’s common practice "corruption" is actually parked as a tax-deductible business expenses.

Lostboyz:I’m surprise you guys can take this sittting down, and give excuses like "this is a problem with developing countries" or "We vote with our dollars. We either take the highway, or we don’t".
This has NOTHING to do with developing country, it has everything to do with GREED and SELFISHNESS. Even matured country like USA has financial scandals that become part of the text books as case studies (Enron?? Remember?).

"We vote with our dollars." Sound goods isn’t it? So, you’re suggesting we don’t take the highway, take the trunk road to escape the toll? That sound more like a workaround than and actual solution to the problem. As I said in my earlier posts, I don’t mind paying for the service, but I mind paying more for the same service. Did you read the link I posted, do you know WHY you’re paying more for the tolls? So by voting with your dollar, you can change all that? This is 30 years of toll hike that we’re talking about. There is no escape clause for the government.

With the increase in petrol and tolls, all other stuff will slowly go up eventually, is your personal finances on par with the inflation rate? Is your projected saving seeing a dip? Kiyosaki books will tell you a lot on this.

"confidence in our system of governmance", ugh. Malaysian cepat lupa, this is fact.  Remember 9th Malaysia Plan? The multi-billion $$ package that is suppose to be execute last year? Where is it? Some goverment sector is still waiting for their 8th MP package.

I do agree with ONE thing, the choice is ours. Vote with our heart and mind come election day (being political here, sorry) don’t bring $$$ into the picture.

Another interesting site for you to look into "the other side of the coin", an alternative news apart from the newspaper you’re been reading.

www.malaysia-today.net

… discussion continuing…

Normally, only gaming stuff goes here. But this was discussed in my boardgaming forum and this is the first time I thought long and hard about what I’m posting, so I would like to share:

jack208: tis topic started by a very frustrated Padawan from Klang. So is the toll hike affecting your gaming activities? I shud prob add is the petrol price increase affecting your gaming too!

Lostboyz: You guys are lucky I guess. I unfortunately stay in Klang and work in Sri Petaling, so Kesas is the only way there.

Used to be RM1.50 x 3 x 22 x 2 = RM198/Month

Now its RM2.2 x 3 x 22 x 2 = RM290/Month!!! A RM100/Month hike in Toll expenses. Does it affects my gaming? In a way I guess, now I potentially lose RM1200/year of budget in buying boardgames.
If the service level of Kesas increased in lieu of the hike, I might not complain so much, eg. paying so much more = travelling time reduced, why not? But unfortunately I still see the same jam EVERY other day.

Imagine, if a boardgame cost RM200 on the average, some boardgame seller just lost potential 6 boardgames sale due to the toll hike.

Some people might say, who cares, I’m don’t travel on Kesas, I’m not affected. Then I’d suggest you read this and weep :

http://www.jeffooi.com/2007/01/for_whom_the_tolls_toll_2.php#comments

I’m not being political mind you, just being an average joe working on an average job day dreaming about whether will he get an increment of RM1200 to cover such crazy expenses…… Imagine.

ayheng: This is the problem with developing countries… blatant corruption. I’m sure a lot of the highway cost is bloated due to the need to pay off certain factors. Even China with all its chinese people suffer from it.. and is even accepted practice there! It’s not fair to blame the public highway companies as the only people who benefits are the public who buys shares in that company. The board still have a corporate responsibility to their shareholders.

Another year another gaming. This year, for the first 2007 gaming event, Boardgamecafe have an outing at a nearby newly opened Cafe called Old Town Kopitiam! What better way to kick off the year’s activities by yumcha-ing while gaming.

(Ipoh White Coffee!)

At 8.00pm the gamers start to assemble themselves at the cafe. Most of them start themselves on dinner while waiting for late comers.

(Heng eating)

(Alan - left and Marcus - right, eating)

After a lite dinner, the gamers continue to the next item on the menu: El Grande!

This medium weight Euro-strategy game is currently one of the top ten game on boardgamegeek.com. It has an impressive background, coming from renown designer Wolfgang Kramer, who along with Richard Ulrich created this game which won the German 1996 boardgaming awards: Spiel Des Jahres and Deutscher Spiele Preis.

The game itself is an interesting Area-majority game. Players win points by having the most caballeros (knights) in the various regions of Spain circa medieval times. The main draw of the game comes from two interlocking mechanics:

(turn order bidding cards)

1. Players each have a limited set of 13 cards numbered 1 to 13 from which they use to bid each turn. The card determines turn order as well as the no. of caballeros they can bring from the reserve to the frontline that particular turn. Here, players have to balance between being first in turn and bringing enough caballeros out in readiness to control the regions. Being first in turn is important because:

(action cards)

2. Players, according to turn order, gets to pick from a set of 5 action cards. These action cards determine the no. of caballeros a player can send from their frontline onto the regions on the board. These action cards also have different special abilities, ranging from messing with your opponents’ pieces to scoring additional points. Here, players have to balance between choosing a powerful ability and sending enough caballeros out to control the regions.

The interplay between these two mechanics provide lots of choices and agonising decisions for the players each turn. The game plays out in nine turns, during which there is a scoring round after the 3rd, 6th and final turn. And here’s where the fun part begins. In addition to the regions of Spain, the players can opt to influence the King, by tossing their caballeros into this massive tower on one side of the board.

(ze castille to drop caballeros into)

In addition to scoring valuable points, these caballeros are then sent out by their players onto one of the regions on the board! There’ll be plenty of screwage happening as players secretly send their caballeros to usurp regions which their opponents thought was safe! Evil, evil moves galore…

<secret region selection wheel>

In this game, almost all are newbies as Jeff Au sat out. The players are Lai Wah, Marcus, Henry, Alan and myself (Heng). Marcus focused on bringing out lots of caballeros by using the lower turn order cards. However his strategy did him no avail as he can’t get enough caballeros out to gain majority control of the most regions on the board. Henry fared no better as he seemed to run into opposition everywhere he send his caballeros. Alan did a slow buildup and despite making a few mistakes, still managed a respectable second towards the end. Heng pulled out to an early lead only to suffer consecutive attacks which dropped him to 3rd place. Lai Wah, snagging the points heavy Castille region early, pulled away from the pack as she picked scoring cards one after the other to rack up huge points. Good choice of strategy for Lai Wah as she thumps the guys with an unassailable lead despite a late attempt to sabotage her regions.

(intense concentration!)

<no one bothers Marcus (yellow), it’s good to go for the low scoring regions sometimes!>

<aha! i have more caballeros in the castille than you, senor!>

By the time we finished El Grande, Old Town Kopitiam is packed to the brim! Sure is a hip and happening place!

<old town photo>

Some curious customers also came over and see what the bunch of people poring over boards and wooden bits is doing… By this time, Wai Yan has joined us and marcus brought out his game of Saboteur for a seven player extravaganza.

This is an interesting role game a-la Bang!. Players are secretly assigned the role of Dwarf miners or saboteurs and given a handful of cards. The interesting part of the game is that players play cards onto the table to build a mining shaft towards the gold card. Miners will try to reach the gold while the saboteurs have to ensure that the miners do not get there. The winning team gets a certain amount of gold and then the roles are assigned randomly again. The game is played to three rounds and it’s quick and easy. Players, depending on their cards, can help build shaft, sabotage another player’s equipment, destroy tunnet shafts, etc. A quick and dirty game!

<fun fun sabotage game! (from left - Lai Wah, Marcus, Henry, Alan, Heng)>

After that, we went back to Bang! for a quick fun game of sheriff and 2 deputies versus 3 outlaws and one renegade. The outlaws in this game tried very hard to disguise themselves as one of the deputies… so much so that they gunned each other down! Another easy job for the sheriff as Wai Yan mops up the last outlaw and renegade with lots of cards and ammos to spare (she even can afford to jail her own deputy twice!) Advice for the outlaws: next time, just gun hard and fast for the sheriff, take one for the team!

<bang! bang! a 7 player favourite!>

At 12pm midnite, the girls bid the guys goodnite as the guys continue gaming back in Boardgamecafe with Marcus’ favourite - 18GA. After a quick refresher for Alan and an explanation of the rules for Henry, the gamers are good to go. The private companies are bidded up separately by different players and Marcus triggered the purchase by going for the cheapest company. His strategy seems to be going for the public companies. The stock round sees four different companies startup by four different players while Heng opt to sit out and become an investor instead.

Marcus’ ACL and Jeff’s W&A got off to a flying start with a little boost from Heng’s investments. Alan’s Central and Henry’s Georgia however did not acquire enough market capitalisation to startup. With W&A in the North and ACL in the south, both companies operated freely and the earnings start to come in. However, both CEO Jeff and Marcus were quite prudent with their earnings, resulting in non declaration of dividends a few times in a row. Investor Heng got frustrated and started investing in Central.

Pretty Soon, Alan’s Central was up and running, playing with the big boys W&A and ACL. Investors this time were kept happy and CEO Alan declared dividends one after another. Henry’s Georgia was another story as investors declined to invest due to its dimming prospects from the gradual hemming in by ACL and W&A.

As the railroads expand, so did the towns and suddenly, Georgia was back in the game. Georgia was allowed to run unchecked through the upgraded towns as ACL and W&A assessed each other as the greatest threat and started sabotaging each other. Central started facing problems from its dividend declaring ways when it found that it hit an expansion block and needed to save money to upgrade its trains. Sensing the end is near, investors unanimously dumped its stocks in favour of stocks managed by more prudent CEOs.

ACL and W&A continued to expand their horizons as their CEOs took the plunge and invest in another company each. Jeff started GA while Marcus brought up SAL. Both companies, however, were to experience different fortunes as it becomes clear that SAL was a fake front for CEO Marcus to make money! SAL sold all its assets to its sister company ACL and the company became a dead company. Marcus tried to offload his president’s share certificate as part of his operation:hotsun campaign to bankrupt his rival CEOs. Unfortunately, the securities commission got wind of his dirty tactics and slapped him with a share selling restriction, much to the relief of Henry. Muttering about pansy securities commission, Marcus lost wind as he thought that his career was over.

Jeff’s GA was managed more prudently and he managed to work it up to a respectable position, much to the delight of its investors. By this time however, Henry’s Georgia was making loads of money, drawing attention from investor Heng, who snapped up half of the shares. Central stocks was plunging to a new low as CEO Alan again declared no dividends in a desperate attempt to keep up with the train upgrades. ACL, W&A and GA now focused on the new Georgia threat and attempted to shut out Georgia’s lucrative routes.

By now, the game was reaching a climax and one CEO after another started declaring dividends to buff up their own personal fortunes. CEO Henry has the last laugh as his company pushed him to the top as the richest person in 18GA, followed by Jeff with his twin investment machines W&A and GA. Heng narrowly missed second and had to settle for third with his investment strategies. Marcus got burned by his own hot sun, but still finished a respectable fourth. Alan did not recover from his early frivolous spending ways and finished last.

Overall, this was an interesting game in which the ‘vets’ (Henry) crushed the ‘noobs’ (Jeff and Marcus). However, it was a close race to the finish as the ‘noobs’ were close in overtaking the ‘vets’ as the money in the bank ran out, signalling the game end.

One thing which I learned in the game was to pick the proper investment but don’t let go until the company was sure to go bust. The last part of the game came down to a frenzied dividend declaring session where the stock prices experienced a long and continuous bull run, which unfortunately I was unable to take part fully due to some ill-advised disposal of ‘apparently’ non-performing stocks.

Marcus still lamented about his attempt to bankrupt another player foiled by the rulebook while winner Henry was still bewildered about how he won as he was still reeling from the myriad of options offered in the game.

<18GA madness with stocks dumping and route blockings!>

After the game, Jeff took out his copy of 7ages and Antiquity to wow us, which they do since both the games are stuffed chock full of bits… real gamers’ galore. And after a bit of chit-chatting, the gamers then headed home… at 4.30am in the morning. Phew, a real eventful nite for all! Next stop, Antiquity!

Ok, being the lazy bugger that I am, I’m going to just cut and paste the link to Alvin’s report: http://niched.blogspot.com/2007/01/camland-new-year.html

Pretty much summarise the whole trip. I would just like to add that the Bang! game and That’s Life! game was the star of the trip, getting repeat plays through out the trip. Sounds of "I’m your vice! I’m your vice!" as well as "That’s Life! That’s Life!" still sounding through my ears….

First of all, let me thank each and everyone who came to play that day as it was one of the fun-nest game evar! The day started badly as the original group of 6 players whittled down to 3 due to various other incomprehensible commitments (why would anyone miss a game of TI3 is beyond the comprehension of this fan-atical writer :P) Even the shop conspired against the TI3 players as they were shut out in the beginning due to a misunderstanding over the early morning schedule. By late morning, the three stooges - Ken (wolfx), Chang (aanemesis’ friend) and myself (ayheng) finally assembled @ Outpost, The Curve to start the game. A desperate last call for reinforcements was then sent out to solicit for more space faring players.

The shop owner, Richard, helped by getting Zach in. Donald, totally surprised everyone by walking-in himself unannounced to contend for galactic supremacy, apparently after hearing the good word spread by Edwin. Ainul (aanemesis) finally managed to extricate himself from the clutches of his dentist to join us for a FULL SIX PLAYER game of INTERGALACTIC SPACE MEGA BATTLE!!!

(clockwise from bottom: Donald, Ainul, Chang, Zach, Ken and Heng)

As Donald was a newbie to TI3, Ainul and myself took some time to explain the rules to him while the others setup.

Race selection is done randomly and the players are thus:

Donald: Emirates of Hacan - a feline space faring trader race

Aanemesis: Universities of Jol Nar - a peaceful race rich with technologies

Chang: Yssaril Tribe - backstabbing assassins of the galaxy

Zach: Sol - living breeding humans

Wolfx: Lizix Mindnet - Survivors of the ancient Lazax with powerful dreadnaught fleets and techs

Ayheng: Xxcha - Diplomatic Tortoises

The galaxy setup saw some rich resources stacked towards Jol-Nar (green) and Hacan (yellow). Yssaril (purple) got hit with the supernova while Sol (black) got hemmed in on the other side by Lizix (blue). Xxcha (red) rounded up the galaxy with barren twin asteriods guarding its planet’s approach.

The early game saw a peaceful excursions from the Jol-Nar and Hacan carving up the nearby resource rich planets between themselves, while Xxcha and Lizix similiarly divvy up their poor harvest. Fearing Jol-Nar’s Deep Space Cannons, Yssaril made an early incursion into Sol space, forcing Zach to divert his attention towards Lizix territory. A Deep Space Cannon retort from Lizix sealed Sol’s and Lizix’s fate for further animosity in the future.

The galactic senate was convened several times and several laws were passed by the eager races. The first law was a Trade War, which causes players to eliminate one of their opponent’s trade goods every time trade goods are received. This inexplicably caused the Trade action strategy card to be under utilized. Perhaps everyone is being friendly?

The second law passed was a technology discount law. This again causes the Tech action strategy card to be passed up during choosing… what’s up with that? Everyone is being too friendly.

Sol stuck to their primary strategy of picking Logistics over and over again to breed more and more ground troops. Politics was a surprising popular draw as races took advantage of the 3 action card draw to fill their hand with devious action cards. Initiative was picked often, and sometimes not as a prelude to grab Imperial. Warfare was fairly popular in the beginning as races raced to secure planets ahead of their neighbours as well as to score an extra command token.

In mid game, Sol made a grab for Mecatol Rex, centre of the galaxy, and infested the planet with his breeding humans. This oddly did not made them public enemy no#1. Sol’s neighbour, Yssaril, wisely held back from direct involvement in the ensuing fray when only Lizix made known of his displeasure by building up his forces. However, it did not stop Yssaril from launching a few covert strikes of his own by inciting civil unrest and destroying Lizix’s spacedocks to make the Lizix-Sol war interesting.

Across the galaxy, Hacans and Jol-Nars strike up a peaceful relationship as Jol-Nars exchanged newbie-advice-favors for Hacan trade resources.

(Donald and Ainul - both left - getting chummy in intergalactic relationship) (Chang - wearing hat - deciding against risking Ainul’s DSC network)

Their prosperity did not go unnoticed but Yssaril did not risk moving against the Jol-Nar DSC defensive network while the Xxcha turtles and their puny cruisers was not enough to make a sizable assault against Hacan’s dreadnaughts.

By this time, the game was heating up and the pace was getting to a steady clip. Suddenly, the lights went out and the game was plunged into darkness.

(Hardcore gamers playing the dark with only one torchlight!)

Twilight Christmas seems like the fate befalling the players as the whole of Cineleisure mall experienced power outage. However, the players are not deterred. Aided by Chang’s torchlight, the game goes on. Jeff (jack208) joined us at this time to find to his surprise, six TI3 players soldiering on fanatically in the dark. Some curious passer-bys wondering about the flashlight at the back of the cafe also joined in well-wishing these intrepid group of gamers in their quest for galactic conquest.

Just before the electricity was turned back on, the galaxy heated up with a deep space strike by Xxcha cruisers. Aided by flanking speed, the cruisers flew into an underdefended Hacan space.

(left: Donald - eeiii, why you attack me? right: Heng - for the tech resource to fulfil the public objective lar… dun disturb me, can’t you see I’m planning your next demise? middle: Chang - ahahahaha, war, war, WAR!)

(disclaimer: the above exchange certainly did not happen but just happens to fit the photo :P)

The lone Hacan carrier was taken out with minimal casualties, but Xxcha landing parties were wiped out by horrendous dice-rolls.

(Donald seen here holding the torchlight of enlightenment and contemplating his next move… against the traitorous Xxchas!)

Sol, heating up with the occasion also launched their whole fleet of dreadnaughts against the might of the Lizix battlegroup.

(Lizix space (blue units), seen here being activated and attacked by a big fleet of Sol Dreadnaughts (black units))

Encountering fierce DSC fire, dreadnaught assault and destroyer barrage, the Sol fleet took some heavy damage before joining battle. Some horrendous dice-rolls sealed Sol’s fate as their fleet was destroyed outright. Sensing opportunity, Lizix counterattacked and mopped up the rest of Sol’s space fleet. Sol started breeding more ground troops on their planet in ancipation of the impending invasion.

The invasion came but Lizix failed to dislodge the humans from their planets. As it was getting late, the game was called. A final grasp by Jol-Nar on an imperial objective on the final turn gave them the win with three other races hot on their heels with just 1VP less.

Overall, the game session was a success and we manage to train up a new player, Donald, for our next TI3 session!

While doing a bit of research online for the upcoming Cameron trip, I found some interesting facts about jungle trekking in Cameron:

1. Apparently the ‘best’ trail in Cameron is the Gunung Irau trail. Highlights of the trail is the unique ‘mossy’ trail, so called because of the moss and lichen growing all over the track and trees.

2. Some people call the ‘mossy’ trail fantasy-like, Lord-of-the-Rings-like and fairy-tale like. Well, I’ve been to a trail in Camerons before where a small section of the trail was like that, and I tell you, it’s really beautiful, like being in Hobbiton in Lord of the Rings. For those poor unfortunate souls never got to experience the mossy forest, here are some fantastic pictures found on the net:

3. The Gunung Irau trail is extremely challenging, takes about 3-4 hours trek to reach the summit. From online descriptions of climbing over tree roots, climbing up 70 degrees slope(!) and that many people turned back before reaching the top means that this trail is NOT for the weak and faint hearted. However, from the descriptions, I can surmise that the Gunung Irau trail is half as difficult as Gunung Kinabalu, but twice as difficult as Gunung Datuk.

5. There are warnings by online bloggers of getting lost in the forest ‘loops’. I think it means that there are false trails that look like real trails but goes in a circle. This is quite dangerous for first timers if it is true.

6. There is another ‘mossy’ trail nearby called the Coral Hill, which takes only an hour to trek. This is more beginner friendly, but the directions found online to the trail is kinda vague. Not sure if I can find it at Cameron.

7. There are many many more trails in Cameron.

But given the choice, I’ll try for the Gunung Irau or the Coral Hill Trail. Mossy trails, here I come!

Gaming has been low for a while since Raya, but I aim to rectify that in the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays, starting with The Intergalactic Space Mega Battle TM (Twilight Imperium III) this saturday, most likely at the Outpost @the Curve.

In the mean time, enjoy the following outdoor adventuring report!

Early morning: Wake up early to have Bah-kut-teh at the Emporium (which serves midnight-dawn BKT)

Mid morning: Speeding our way to destination Gunung Datuk, located between Rembau and Tampin. Reportedly the training ground for KK wannabe climbers. Passed by two separate accidents, an overturned truck and an overturned car. Nearly become an accident myself, damn stupid F1 driver wannabes.

Late morning: Reached Gunung Datuk after a slight detour (landslide on the road) Hiking up after registering with the rangers. We are late according to our schedule.

Early noon: A fellow climber becomes dizzy, fainted and vomited after 45 mins climbing. This mountain is no joke. The climber and a volunteer have to beat a hasty retreat. The rest soldier on. Large tree roots and vertical steps make the going interesting:

Noon: We reached the top! Spectacular view. You gotta see it for yourself… that is if you can make it! Can you make it? These guys can:

Another shot, this time all girls, on a different angle:

If they can make it, you can too! Enquire for details how to challenge yourself to a quarter of KK’s difficulty.

Just for everybody’s info, a soft toy pig named Bubbles made it to the top of KK and I have a picture to prove it. So challenge yourself, start climbing and don’t lose to the pig, oink, oink!

Calling all boardgame enthusiasts, a little piece of news found off the web, which I may be going for:

At Toybox, we can never get enough of games, so what better way to mingle with our customers than a gaming event that will set to stretch your physical and mental limits. Toybox will be organising our first annual game fiesta in January 2007.

Date: 20 - 21 January 2007
Time: Beginning at 7pm until 7am (That’s 12 hours of gaming!)
Fee: RM40 inclusive of dinner and unlimited drinks (while stock last of course)

There will also be lucky draws and you can expect really good stuff up for grabs. Well, maybe once in a while, we will give you our favourite "magic pen". As for what games can be played? Anything and everything from trading card games to board games and even miniatures! Registration close January 8th.

Please make your payment at Toybox by January 8th.

Register at http://www.toybox.com.my/forum/viewtopic.php?t=89

In tradition of the past Hari Raya Haji, this Deepa-Raya we got together for not one, not two, but three boardgame sessions!

Battlestations! Battlestations! Green Fleet reporting!

Green army ready! Let’s get it on!

(Both pictures above courtesy of Alvin, displaying an abnormal interest in green things :P)

21st October

The first day of Deeparaya sees four intrepid boardgamers sit down for a game of Twilight Imperium 3rd Ed, or as I would like to call it, a game of INTERGALACTIC SPACE MEGA BATTLE!!!

Here we are setting up the game. As it was quite awhile since we last played, I took the oppurtunity to re-read the rules the night before. This turned out to be a life saver as Ivan forgot to read the rules and I was able to help clear up some snags and speed up the game… at the very least, speed up the setup time :P.

Race selection is chosen randomly and the players are thus:

Heng: Sardakk N’orr - an aggressive race with overall combat prowess

Hooi Teng: Universities of Jol Nar - a peaceful race rich with technologies

Ivan: The Barony of Letnev - a rich race with large fleets and ability to upgrade combat status by spending money

Alvin: The Naalu Collective - a mind reader race that is always one step ahead of their opponents

The game setup saw some imbalance as the Sardakk (blue) and the Universities (purple) were able to monopoly the rich planets to their side of the board and left the Barony (red) and Naalus (green) with slim pickings. The players also promptly forgot the rules and lined up a supernova, an asteroid field and a nebula side by side between the Sardakk and the Barony.

The Sardakk and the Universities quickly expanded outwards, while the Naalu chugged out slowly. The Barony was forced to make an early grab for Mecatol Rex, the centre of the universe. This made the Barony quickly the public enemy no#1.

However, the planned attack on the Barony never came and the Barony quickly made use of their superior fleet size to invade the Sardakk! Even a nebula and supernova turn out to be no deterrent to long standing enmity between the Barony and Sardakk.

Just as the Barony planned to sneak into the Sardakk homeworld and the Universities massing their armies to the critical size for an assault on Mecatol Rex, the Naalu declared that they have won the game! Turns out the Naalu have been quietly fulfilling Imperial objectives and proved themselves to be an objective race for the imperial throne.

As we began putting away the game, grumblings can be heard from the Universities as they rue their failed chance at unleashing their mighty fleet… Next time, Hooi Teng, attack earlier!

As a side note, four player TI3 is probably the best setup so far. With players choosing 2 strategy cards a turn, all the strategy cards are fully utilised and the game advances at a decent clip. We managed to finish our game in 4 hours!

For the next game, we sit down for a light filler of Citadels. Ivan did the honors of introducing this game. Jun Hao arrived just in time to start a five players game.

As expected, the room is full of devious characters and the sounds of uncontrollable laughter can be heard often. Even when choosing the role cards, a person can even snigger to himself repeatedly. Really unnerving and uncomfortable playing with a bunch of self-sniggering crooks. Needless to say, everyone got whacked pretty hard from the Assassin and Thief. Really devious game!

23rd October

The third day of Deeparaya sees the gamers back for a game of Settlers of Catan (Travel Edition). Alvin, Ivan and myself sat down for a game of settlement building in the mythical island of Catan. It’s the first time for Ivan and myself playing the game, so it’s quite interesting. Alvin, however, was quite sick of the game. Jun Hao joined us as we were finishing up the game and tadaa! I brought out my newly bought Caylus for playing.

It was a runaway victory for Jun Hao, who managed to bring out a prestige building for massive points. I, on the other hand, was sabotaged heavily until I can’t make an optimal move. Alvin expressed his interest in the game and he did played it again in another meetup at Comics Corner DJ.

We finish the session again with Citadels. This game is becoming quite the filler for us, a great way to wind down sessions with light fast card play.

25th October

The fifth day of Deeparaya sees the much awaited Klang gaming session at Villa Long. (Actually Long’s house, but it was a boardgame villa for a day :P) This is a rather social meetup as I introduced my friends Ivan and Alvin to fellow gamers Long, Jeff and Wai Yan. As we arrived, they were playing Coloretto with Long’s son.

After their game finished, I requested Jeff to teach us Bang! I got it awhile back but still did not know how to play it.

His explanation was really good and I kow-tow to his method of laying all the cards out first and did a blitz explanation, even highlighting things a beginner should look out for. A master of the art.

  Long, our host seen here with his son.

  Alvin, Ivan and myself… it does not pay to sit next to Ivan in a game! I got off-ed by Ivan the sheriff as his first action just because he can! (and he did guess correctly that i’m the outlaw… darn)

Next up, is Antike, Jeff’s favourite game and again, he did the teaching honors.

I got to a better start this time and diversified my strategy into technology instead of armies like the first time round. This time, an unchecked Wai Yan spread out well and got lots of territories due to weak neighbours more interested in other conflicts. Despite a late onslaught into her provinces, she still managed to get her last victory point for her civilisation for the win, dooming the rest of the civilisations to obscurity.

  mid-Antike-game. It’s well into the night and coffee mugs are out. Stories of galactic battlecruisers start to invade our game of Antike!

Next up, Viktory II from Morrison Games.

This is a home production by a regular guy who is passionate about gaming. The game itself is an interesting war-type game which encourages you to attack continuously. Long took over the rules explanation for this game. Since we started by agreeing to play till the first capital falls, our game finished early. This is due to Jeff, who managed to sneak an amphibious assault on my capital when the bulk of my forces were distracted elsewhere. It’ll be interesting to see how the full game plays out the next time round.

The games keep coming, next up is the game That’s Life!

Long continues with his explanation duties and did a good job of it. The game is an interesting abstract game which somehow tries to teach us that there are negative and positive points in life… Ok, UPS and DOWNS in life, and when you get a magical clover, your downs becomes your ups… Ok, ok, there’s no theme to this game, but it is a good light filler where you get to roll a dice and make a light decision of moving one of your three pawns. The decision can get excrutiating at times but the game still gets along at a very good pace. After the last two war-themed boardgames, this was a welcoming distraction and overwhelmingly gets a thumbs up around the table. Alvin even got his own copy the week after.

Doing his duty again, Long introduced to us Hey That’s My Fish! (Hmmm… somehow rather most of our games got an !exclamation! mark after their titles this evening!)

  Setting up… This game has the distinction of being slow to setup but fast to play. The rules are simple but the moves are brain burning. A game full of contradictions.

Players play as penguins moving from ice floes to ice floes picking up their fishes. The player with most fishes win! Damn simple rule but it still takes awhile for the brain to process the board before making an optimised move.

  cute penguin on fish tiles.

The gaming session ended at the break of dawn. I took the oppurtunity to give a brief overview of Twilight Imperium III to Jeff, Wai Yan and Long. As everyone’s engine started to wind down, Jeff and Wai Yan departed for their BKT fix while the rest of us went home for our precious ZZZzzzZZzzz.

It was a fun session, thanks to Long for hosting and Jeff and Wai Yan for coming down from yonder Cheras to join us. Hope more of my friends can join in and meet new friends the next time!

For an alternative narative on the above activities, I invite you to check out Alvin’s excellent report @ http://niched.blogspot.com/2006/10/deeparaya-in-klang.html

We now take a break from our regular game reporting, to report on our Langkawi  trip!TM

Yeah, yeah, Langkawi, everyone knows the place, been there, done that, let’s move on…

Wait, why not do an UNconventional reporting instead?

That’s right, dudes and dudettes, say NO! to Dataran Lang. Instead, say hello to:

Getting trapped in cable car… on land? Nope, don’t know the guy in the cable car, I don’t recognise Soon Tiong…

Mixing liquor and coke in hotel’s kettle for a:

Indoor picnic in the hotel room!…

Feed our legs to the fishies (also known as fish feet-massage)…

See monkeys mating/scratching each other…

Watch the REAL heLANG in LANGkawi…

Zounds! Getting attacked by lotsa heLANG…

Re-enacting Brokeback mountain (malaysian edition) TM. The names of the actors shall be witheld to protect the innocent, so dun worry, Soon Tiong and Teck How…

Sea-synchronize swimming…

Beach breakdancing…

Levitating meditation…

Oh, and boardgaming

On the way back, we stop by Ipoh to eat chicken rice. And we saw this sight:

Delicious looking pig, mouse, cat, dog, frog biscuits

Interesting, right?

Join us next time then. Wish you were here (From left): me, li li, june, vincent, jun hao, edward, randall (squatting).