Hansa Teutonica

Jun Yet actually bought this game after our Boardgame Retreat in June as all the games played during the retreat was entitled to 30% off as long as it was in stock.

Before I played the game, I had absolutely no idea what the game was about other than the fact that the first 4 alphabets spelt our boardgame buddy's name (Hans).

The first time I played this game was with Jun Yet at his home in Cheras after he unboxed it a few days back. This was during the holidays and since most of our boardgame buddies live quite far, (Puchong, TTDI, Klang) Jun Yet and I decided to play a 2 player version of the game using the 2-3 players board.

The game is slightly different from the other side of the board which is mean for 4-5 players but I enjoyed it nonetheless =D!

In the 2-3 player board, there are borders and there is a wooden figurine that you have to move around and you can only move it by 2 spaces at a time and you either place your people at the routes that the wooden figurine was touching or you move the figurine and place your workers.

What's the difference between the two boards you might ask?
After comparing both the sides,

• I notice that there are more "single storey"(?) or offices that only have one slot to place your workers as opposed to the 4-5 player board where you had more offices that could hold 2 or 3 workers.
• Another difference that I noticed was that there were much more trade routes for the 4-5 player board which makes perfect sense since there are more people so having more roads definitely helped.

Otherwise, the game procedes in a similar manner except you don't have borders or the wooden figurine in the 4-5 player version.


My opinions on the 4-5 player game
The latest game we played was extremely intense as everyone was blocking everyone else and you can see so many popular trade routes populated with various colours.

I still remember Jun Yet saying "This is the way we're suppose to play Hansa!" I definitely agree with that =D!

The 4-5 player game is definitely more fun and challenging both at the same time and the upgrades are really important depending on your strategy and with more competition, it is harder to be the first to complete a trade route to connect the middle left most office to the middle right more office to get you extra 7 victory points.

In conclusion
With regards to gameplay,

• The rules are easy to learn
• There are unlimited amount of tactics you can use depending on your competitors
• The game set up time is quick as each person just put cubes on their own personal board
• Replayability is awesome since no matter who you play with or how many people you play with, the game always changes and you'll never know what would happen next
• The game board is of great quality! Very nice and thick and I like the details on the board. Plus it's double sided! How often do you get an awesome game with a double sided board?
• It has seen a lot of plays and will definitely see more plays which makes it value for money =)!
• It can be both a gateway game or a moderate game depending on who you're playing with.
• In short, LOADS of FUN =D!!

Note: If you haven't tried it before, just ask a local boardgame store or any boardgame cafes if you'd like to test it out =). We definitely enjoy it =D!

Puerto Rico & Hansa Teutonica

Game #1: Puerto Rico

Players: Sarah, Nick, Jacelyn, Junyet

Sarah has been wanting to play boardgame with us (but she's always busy :P), and she's quite experienced in Puerto Rico.  After coming back from pasar ramadhan that day, we decided to finally play Puerto Rico with each other.

It was Nick's first game, but I was amazed at how fast he can pick up the rules. 

 Thats err, Jacelyn doing some funny face. But anyway, Rachel didn't want to play so the couple teamed up instead. I suppose she was traumatized by Year of the Dragon as her first game. Well that game can be quite depressing.

I went for coffee roaster straight, and this gave me a lot of money at the start, before everyone else starts producing coffee too.

I have 6 corn fields. Occupied. But ONLY produced 2 corns!! $#&##@

This happened for 3 craftsman phases sigh. I bought a wharf and thought I could produce corn and ship them every round....... But it failed...

Because Jacelyn was hoarding all the corn T.T
Keep in warehouse somemore!!

JC: *whistles innocently* Not my fault =P! Both you and Nick took the Wharf's so I had no choice but to take the Warehouse which was quite good hehehe!

The game was quite tight, I won with 51 pts, followed by Jacelyn 50 pts and Sarah 49pts. I like this - playing with other experienced gamer. Games can be quite competitive and you get to take a look at strategies your usual gaming group are not familiar with.

JC: Jun Yet definitely could've reached 60+ points only if there was more corn =P!
Lucky I prevented you from flying too far ahead hehe! Game ended with me taking the Mayor I think hehe.

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Game #2: Hansa Teutonica
Merchants: Junyet (Green), Jacelyn (Blue), Ali (Purple), Nick (Red), Hans (Yellow)

Ali picked up the rules pretty fast too.

You know that players are getting cerebral oedema when everybody are quiet while taking their actions.

JC: Haha! I think these random pictures are taken due to excess AP =P!

Patrik came late as usual, and was awarded the front seat for the battle for control.

JC: He choose to watch Rapunzel instead of playing boardgames with us =P! Too bad!

Green - me, Red - Nick. It seemed like we're the only people who bothered to connect cities :P

I kept trying the city chain strategy but it has not been working very well for me in the past few games. I thought if I dont fight for the upgrades early in the game I can sneakily build up my routes while upgrading the town keys. I was one city away to connect my 2 other cities in the end :O It's quite depressing to see everyone use their 5 actions per turn to claim a route straight!! I only had 3 actions throughout the game. 

Later, Nick not only established his route from east to west, he expanded to a few other cities as well! Too bad he didnt have enough time to max out his town keys. His well-placed office in the city with privilege upgrade scored him 10 pts in the game.

On the other hand, Hans freed his merchants and quickly gained control of the bonus points attached to this route.

Hans' and Jacelyn's upgrades were all cleared except town keys.

JC: I really should try using strategies other than maxing out all my upgrades =P!!
It's just a bad habit! I upgrade to 3 actions then I wanted to draw more then I wanted to move more and before I know it, I've upgraded everything =P!
I also enjoy placing random merchants at important places to reduce moves used to place people hehe.

Final score: Nick's score was a good 15pts ahead of me. :O

I like this game very much.  Very easy to learn but yet there's much strategy to it.  Timing is very important. All the games we played, it ended via depletion of bonus markers. I wonder if there's a way to force the game to come to an end early by quickly scoring 20 pts while everyone is still working on their upgrades.  Next tine I'll try building office in more strategic locations to score in-game points instead of building up the long chains.

5-day Boardgame Marathon

Exam's done. For this rotation, at least.
Exam's on thursday, and monday was a public holiday. So we decided to have a 5-day full of boardgaming! :P

Yeah. It's cool to be students hehe.

DAY 1

Game #1: Agricola

Players: Patrik (Red), Alina (Blue), Niyi (Purple), Junyet (Green)

It's Alina's first euro boardgaming experience after Fury of Dracula. Big steps for her! We're big bullies hehe.

My little farm (Green). I have one unused space, supposed to plow a field there but Alina blocked me! :O
Patrik was the winner. Pfft. Shame on him! His animal lives in small puny fences I'm so bitter hehehe. He had a whooping 43 points!! I was so proud when I scored 37 points, and that was my highest score in about 6 games. :(

Hope Alina's not traumatized :P

JC: While they were enjoying this game, I was just starting my exam since we had 3 circuits so I was the last
*sob sob* I was actually tempted to skip the exam just to play and enjoy with everyone else haha!

Game #2: Still Agricola

Players: Patrik (Cream), Junyet (Purple), Jacelyn (Blue), Cheryl + Hans (Red), Niyi (Green)

It's our favorite game currently. Thank you, Captain Obvious.
Can Patrik maintain his gay scoring streak?

JC: Initially, I was afraid that if we overplayed Agricola, then no one would want to play anymore =(..

But surprisingly, it has an awesome replayability thanks to the hundreds of Minor Improvements and Occupations =D!

I think I've played Agricola about 10-15times =P!

His farm looks pretty impressive. He had 40+ points again I think.

Yes, his farm looks impressive. But mine was way better! My card works nicely together hehe. I had a thatcher, which reduces my reed cost and clay framework.  I upgraded my house to stone and played mansion. Now each room is worth 4 points!!! I made pelt with animal skin. Now it's worth 5 points! It was lucky that my cards worked so well together.

My final score was 47 points! XD

JC: Jun Yet did a great job with his cards!

I couldn't believe that he had so many additional points because normally he goes for farming hehe.

Again, like Alina, Agricola was Cheryl's first game after Tikal. Another big step for her! Hans stayed to help her through her first game.

JC: Hehe! At first Hans was going to sleep or something then we asked if he could help Cheryl just for a while and guide her since we we're doing the drafting method (which was confusing at first =P)
When the game ended, Hans was still with us =P!

JC the animal killer :P

JC: Hey! I still had a lot of animals left even though I killed them initially =P!!
I had to kill them because I had the Cooking Hearth but I didn't have any fences.. More food for my family!

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DAY 2

Game #1: Space Alert

Space marines: Patrik, Niyi, Jo, Cheryl, Jacelyn

Cheryl came back for more boardgames muahahahaha. Looks like Agricola wasn't heavy enough to frighten this brave soul.  We decided to play all together in one team for once. A less competitive and depressing game.

JC: Credit to Hans for always letting us use his computer =D!

 

They did quite well under Captain Patrik's command. Passing simulated missions without any difficulties.


Bummer :P

Was hoping to see the ship explode hehe.

JC: The first time we played this game.. We lost horribly...

The second or third time we played this game, Jun Yet (who was ironically the caption =P) spammed all the energy playing with the Pulse Cannon which lead to everyone else having not enough energy to do anything =P.

Players: Junyet (Green), Jo (Purple), Jacelyn (Blue), Patrik (Red)

My personal favorite :)
Since all of us are quite experienced in the game, the game was quite tense. With a lot of blocking going on here and there. That's the way the game should play! Was quite happy with the game despite losing.

Purple owned us. Jo.
Her first 5-player game of Hansa.

JC: I think I was partly to blame for Jo's win =P!

I kept clearing things out for Jo because I was just before her and I love upgrading my skills so everytime I upgraded, I left the place opened for her =P!

Note: This is her first time really playing Hansa as she had just learnt the game a week back =P

Jacelyn trying to get a vantage point on Jo's unstoppable army of merchants and traders.

Jacelyn managed to upgrade all her skills, except for the keys.

Dont let her small size fool you. She's full of evil plans!!

JC: Jo was so powerful that she displaced 3 merchants in one round and still had enough to mobilize to claim the bonus marker to upgrade her skills =P!

Sigh. My skill upgrades. Not that impressive compared to others. On hindsight I shouldn't have maximized my action skill. Should have expanded more since I was going for the chain strategy. I upgraded my key mutiplier to max. But I didn't have enough city chains.

 




Patrik, on the other hand, has many city chains but not the multiplier lol.

Jo and Jacelyn went past the 70 points mark, leaving others far, far behind.

Game #3: Agricola

Players: Hans (Cream), Isuru (Blue), Cheryl (Green), Niyi (Red)

I have no idea how did the game go :P
Too busy trying to not get my ass kicked by Jo on the other table.

Game #4: More Agricola
Players: Junyet (Red), Jacelyn (Purple), Isuru (Blue), Hans/Jo (Cream), Patrik (Green)


Cheryl and Niyi were the only sane people who went to bed at 1am. The rest of us, we continue farming until wee hours. :)

 

We finally get to play drafting this time. Took us some time but I actually enjoyed it. I had occupation that gave me vegetable early game and a distill schnapps or sth like that, which allows me to turn 1 vege into 4 food! yay!

New personal record: 49 points woohoo! :)

JC: I helped Jun Yet arrange his animals =P!

Isuru and his sinister smile.

Hans/Jo, All they have is stone house and a couple of animals. Crazy bunch, but they scored 40 plus, believe it or not.

JC's occupations and farm.

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DAY 3

Game #1: Agricola Solo by Hans (Blue =D) Solo

Yup he played Agricola by himself. He got 54 points o.o
Respect.

Game #2: Tikal

Players: Ali (Red), Hans (Red), Jacelyn (Orange), Junyet (Black)

We're playing the auction version of the game. I actually like it this way :)

Jacelyn was quick to "chup" the 9-point sites.

Ali kicked our asses. It's his first time playing this. I see a trend here... Hmmm.

JC: I ended the game with 20 points more to auction =P! I really should've actively auctioned more....
Ali said I was Chinese that's why I didn't spend any of my auction points =P!

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Day 4

Game#1: World of Warcraft

Awesome players: Isuru, Ali, Junyet, Jacelyn

We finally brought out the big guns -WoW. WOW.  They have been wanting to play this for some time. Actually come to think of it, it was the first game I brought to Uni last year. It's the boardgame that started it all hehe. I was coerced by my brothers to contribute to the purchase of the game back then actually. :O

The initial setup took us some time. Place the quests, pick your cards etc. Quite tedious.

It's me and Jacelyn versus Isuru and Ali. We played the Alliance while they side with the Horde.

Isuru and Ali were questing together most all the time.  There were a bunch of nasty-looking neutral creatures next to their quest.

Eventually the game track came to an end. The Alliance engaged in the battle with Nefarian and destroyed him hehehe. It was boring for Ali and Isuru, cos they had to watch the slow process. On an empty stomach.

The two factions engaged in a final PvP battle after the overlord has fallen.
The fight took 45 minutes.

My Paladin - keep healing, keep keep healing health.

Jacelyn's awesome warrior. She tanked for my team.

JC: Haha! I was only so powerful because Jun yet was my tactician plus he gave me the awesome armour you can see up there =D!
Also, Jun Yet just kept healing me and since I had 14 health.. He just kept healing every round =P!

Ali's assasin has cool combo moves!

Yup, can see that they were bored when we were fighting the overlord.
Took us 5 hours for the whole game.

Ali: Now I can cross this game out on my bucket list.

JC: These boys were trying to traumatize me even before we started the game!!

I knew that it took ages to finish the game and that they've never finished it before but

they just kept saying how I'd be traumatized and what not..

To be honest, I actually loved the game =D!! I loved the leveling up, the quests and also the events that came every few rounds =D!! I love the awesome items and the skills to choose from even more!

I am actually looking forward to playing this game another time, maybe during a public holiday =D?

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Day 5

Game: In the Year of the Dragon
Players: Junyet (Green), Jacelyn (Red), Cheryl (Yellow), Patrik (Blue), Terence (Purple)

   JC: My birthday present (2011) from Jun Yet =D!

Yay! Terence's first game with us :)
I'm not sure he's really puzzled with the rules or just posing.

Of course, he won later. :O

Stupid Patrik from the other side of the table. Copied my strategy!!!!!!!!
I wanted to have many bankers so that I can pay to get whatever action I wanted.

Very convincing, Terence. Very convincing, you sneaky fellow.

Happy and depressed.

Seriously, why do I always get my ass kicked by newbies!!! :(
And I have absolutely no idea how they did it!
I was second last lol. This was my third game of Year of Dragon.

JC: I was first/second or tied with Terence =P!
This is bad... Experienced players like Jun Yet and I kept getting our asses kicked even though we've played the game more =S...
I think Terence had a head start literally! He's wayyy taller than us plus he kept being the first one on the turn order =P!

JC: Patrik killed many people and only had 5 people surviving after the 12 months =P!

So many good people have to die because of famine and mongol invasion into my provinces :O

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It's time to come back to reality. Work awaits us.


But it has been a really satisfying long weekend. It feels good to see so many games being played!
Thanks everyone who participated in the 5-day marathon! :)


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