TableTop Night: Got a Ticket down to Africa to Build to look for Wonders and Build some Castles of Burgundy

So as I get off work and head over for TableTop night. I walk into a game of Ticket to Ride Vol. 3 The Heart of Africa. A rather heated game of Ticket to Ride haha. Sadly I didn’t get to play it myself, kinda come in on the tail end of it. Next time tho.

Game description from the publisher:

“Set in the vast wilderness of Africa at the height of its exploration by intrepid explorers, missionaries and adventurers, Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 3 – The Heart of Africa, a single-sided expansion map for Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride: Europe, focuses on the central and southern “heart” of the continent displayed in a vertical format.

This expansion introduces 45 new terrain cards, divided into three different terrain types. Each type is associated with different route colors: Desert/Savanna cards for yellow, orange and red routes; Jungle/Forest cards for green, blue and purple routes; and Mountain/Cliff cards for black, white and grey routes. Players can draw terrain cards just like train cards and they may use these to double the value of the routes they claim, under certain conditions.”

After that we started a game called Castles of Burgundy. This was the fist time I ever play this game and Imust say I rather enjoyed it! The game is set in the Burgundy region of High Medieval France. Each player takes on the role of an aristocrat, originally controlling a small princedom. While playing they aim to build settlements and powerful castles, practice trade along the river, exploit silver mines, and use the knowledge of travelers.

The game is about placing settlement tiles into the princedom. Every tile has a function that starts when the tile is placed. The princedom itself consists of several regions, each of which demands its own settlement tile.

The core game mechanism involves two dice. The pips show the kind of action the players are allowed to do (example: roll a 2 and a 5: using the 2 the player buys a watch tower and places it on a 5 city tile which triggers the function of the tower with additional advantages).

SO… In closing the night off. We amp things up a bit. We had 4 players and doubled up on the boards from 7 Wonders. So 4 players=8 players… Needless to say things got a little nutty haha. The game it’s self only lasted just under an hour and a half.

I finally broke my “Wil Wheaton” losing streak by winning the game with a 104 points!!

For those who don’t know what 7 Wonders is, you are the leader of one of the 7 great cities of the Ancient World. Gather resources, develop commercial routes and affirm your military supremacy. Build your city and erect an architectural wonder which will transcend future times.

Game description from the publisher:

“7 Wonders lasts three ages. In each age, players receive seven cards from a particular deck, choose one of those cards, then pass the remainder to an adjacent player, as in Fairy Tale or a Magic: the Gathering booster draft. Players reveal their cards simultaneously, paying resources if needed or collecting resources or interacting with other players in various ways. (Players have individual boards with special powers on which to organize their cards, and the boards are double-sided as in Bauza’s Ghost Stories.) Each player then chooses another card from the deck they were passed, and the process repeats until players have six cards in play from that age. After three ages, the game ends.

In essence 7 Wonders is a card development game along the lines of Race for the Galaxy or Dominion. Some cards have immediate effects, while others provide bonuses or upgrades later in the game. Some cards provide discounts on future purchases. Some provide military strength to overpower your neighbors and others give nothing but victory points. Unlike Magic or Fairy Tale, however, each card is played immediately after being drafted, so you’ll know which cards your neighbor is receiving and how his choices might affect what you’ve already built up. Cards are passed left-right-left over the three ages, so you need to keep an eye on the neighbors in both directions.”