Brian is hosting Game Night this Friday, presumably at Murray.

I shall be there!!

If we we end up with only four, I would push to give Vasco de Gama another go. . .

I'll be there, too! And, I won't be late, and that Visqueen Gomer game sounds good to me. I'll bring the usual defaults, and we'll see what ends up being played.

I shall be there.

Jon, Brian, Tom and I gathered at Murray for what seemed to be the first Game Night of Spring - certainly far better conditions than the previous Game Night.

Both Tom and I brought copies of Tammany Hall, and Tom's was on the table so we proceeded to play. It's a game of New York City politics where players fight for control of wards and influence over immigrant groups in hope of securing control over the city. The game is played in four rounds of four years each, and after each round an election is held that decides VP as well as who gets to be the mayor (and assign jobs).

After the first year, I became mayor while Tom chased the Irish vote. Jon held influence in the German community, while I had English and Italian friends. Brian was basically cheesed, never getting a foothold. When I assigned jobs as mayor, I gave Brian one that could be used to consolidate gains, so in a sense he was doubly cheesed. Jon, too, got off to a rough start, the victim of vicious slander.

After that Tom started to get things rolling with his Irish vote, I consolidated the lower wards, and Jon began to fight for the outliers. Brian still couldn't get traction, and Tom became mayor. I had Brian's old job for tow years, and locked down four of the lower wards while filling them with a decent size community. Jon kept the Germans in tow, and Tom the Irish. Brian, who was now chief of police, plucked immigrants from the board - especially those from Germany. I kept the slander rolling against Tom. In the final year I was able to make a few challenges in the second set of wards, while Jon and Brian fought Tom and each other in the third section.

It was never really clear who was in the lead - Tom had a good VP lead, but I had a good hold on everyone but the Irish as well as four of the lower wards. So we fought back and forth a little with each other. In the final election, Tom and Jon and I each won four wards (with several very close elections) so the mayor went to a tie breaker. I was able to win that with my popularity among the non-Irish, and became mayor, The points from that and the immigrant communities put me into a VP tie with Tom for the game, and the tie-breaker for that was the same. So I won the game with the narrowest of margins.

I enjoyed Tammany Hall - I like the political games - and will likely bring it back to the table if we have 3-5 players at the next Game Night.

We then moved onto Vasco da Gama, and played it mostly right this time. There were two turns where the start number was relatively high, making many actions expensive. One of these was the last turn, which precluded Tom from getting a final launch in. Since I had money, I was able to launch a 7 ship, which was just enough to overtake Jon for the win by one point. The game played somewhat differently than the first time, and I'm not sure I enjoyed it quite as much, but it should still see more play. There's enough variance to make things interesting and to make no to game alike; Tom suggested that the variance may be a bit much, as its hard to plan your turn when the cost of actions might be +/-3. It's a valid point, and the cost of actions was very important for two of the five rounds.

I really liked Tammany Hall; that game played very like a wargame - in that I'm pretty sure one needs to come in with a plan, and then pursue that plan with tenacity. In our game, I started out completely clueless, and remained mostly clueless as it progressed. I think that getting off to a slow start is not necessarily the kiss of death, since whoever does best in the first turn will win the office of Mayor, thus rendering them with less power in the next round - especially if the others get the long knives out for the front-runner. Winning the office of mayor DOES pay 3vp's and that ain't chicken feed, especially when our game was decided by one point. I think the importance of winning the mayor's seat is simply to keep any one player from winning it too often (and collecting up to 12 vp's that way). I don't think Jon ever won mayor, and yet he came as close as you can come to winning the game as one can, without actually winning it; whereas I think Mark won the mayor's office 75% of the time...

Coming into the game, I was expecting it to be a free-wheeling/let's-make-a-deal game (wherein players might horse-trade this or that), but it really isn't that at all. Instead, it is (ideally) one of incidental alliances and cross-purposed goals.


Vasco DaGama is a pleasing, fairly fast-moving game, with many interesting options and alternatives each turn, coupled with deceptively simple rules. Whereas we may have mis-played some rules that would make the game play very differently (the recycled captains leap to mind, as does the king power), still - we all played by the same rules, which is the key.

I look forward to seeing both of these games again.

Brian's probably right about the office of Mayor. Even though it feels weak when you hold it, you don't want to let someone else win it all the time, especially since assigning the other offices can be pretty important. But you probably do need to win it. Tom was Mayor twice and I was mayor twice, and we tied for the VP lead. Jon did come close - but was not as close as Tom. What is likely as important as the Mayor is the influence among the immigrants, which was reflected in the final game result. I controlled the English and Italians every turn as I recall, and the Germans once, while Tom controlled the Irish most (if not all) turns and Jon could count on the Germans three of four times. The third leg of the stool may be Tammany Hall, control of which game Tom 4 extra VP in the game.

The Mayor accounts for 12 VP alone
The Immigrants award 8 VP at the end of the game and influence throughout
The wards provide about 50 VP throughout the game, and elect the mayor
Tammany Hall adds another 4 VP by itself

It occurs to me that the VP pool is almost fixed (tied elections eliminate a few) at about 75 in a four player game.