It's been a while since I did a <a href="/posts/wed-jan-25-2023-8th-dec-2022-tournament" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">write-up of the tournament</a>, on account of not really having featured in the last couple of years'. Last time I did that, we were acclaiming Ed on managing to join the exclusive <a href="/tournament/rollofhonour" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">list of multiple winners</a>. Since then, well, that list has not got any less exclusive.But regardless of all these individual interests, we've had a completely different format of tournament - now known as the League - this year, so let's start with that. In the past, we used to elect 5 games which became <a href="/2024/rules" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">the 5 "rounds"</a> of the tournament. Do well in those 5 rounds, and you're in the final. But not any more. As you've probably noticed, we <a href="/leagues-info" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">now count all "main" games</a> that people play.So if you only play Garphill games with the same group every week, or whatever, this can still work for you. Or if you didn't like the concept of "practice" games one week for the tournament game the next week, this can work for you. And it's based on averages, not sum-totals, so if you can only make it to the club 15 times a year, this can work for you too. (Less than 15, it can't, but that's another story.)There are pros and cons. It's clearly more inclusive and less intrusive, as above, which is great. But how many games do we all play a year? Based on the final Grand Prix league table, the average for regulars is well over 30. Of course you'll all remember the Central Limit Theorem from your school maths, which broadly says that the more games you have in a league, the more predictable it becomes. So yes, you all know who topped the table. And so the new league is not so much a tournament in the traditional sense, as in a sporting contest that everyone can win - it's more like a thorough record of how well we all do at board games generally. How do you feel about knowing that? And will it be a different result next year?For me, I did better in the <a href="/leagues/2025" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">league table this year</a> than I've ever done before. But I don't like it as a competition - for me the competition should always have an element of jeopardy and uncertainty. I don't think the likes of Sky Sports have ever paid multi-billion pound TV rights deals for the results of a census.Thankfully (or so it seemed) we did retain one element of uncertainty from the old format: the winner overall still had to win the Final, which - as before - was for the top 4 in the league. The old rule - that the final was chosen by the league winner from one of the games played in this year's league - would have been somewhat unwieldy, with more than 170 different games having been counted towards the final league table. So this time we just said that the game played the most had to be played again as the final. Either way, it was always possible that someone would come to the final to play a game that they had never played before: and this year, that was me.So yes, I think it was in April or May this year that you were all getting your copies of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/391137/galactic-cruise" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Galactic Cruise</a> and playing them? Not my thing - or at least, it didn't particularly jump out at me as something to try. So I never did, until this week.I won't bore you with too much about Galactic Cruise on the basis that, as the most-played game at the club this year, you probably all know it better than I do. I did quite like it, particularly the art-deco artwork making a nice blend between the glitz of science fiction and the tat of cruise ships. I think it was best summarised by both Dan and Ian, who agreed that it was "like a Vital Lacerda game, just not by Vital Lacerda."Certainly, like so many of these heavy euros, the trick is to find ways of getting the most out of your limited actions. But in this one, that was because the game is limited by the total number of achievements by all players, so it really is a race. It did feel a bit procedural, but I'm glad I tried it, and I'd be interested to try it again I think. Might not ever be my favourite game, but good fun.Now, I'd like to be the bearer of some news, but no - Ed won. Well done Ed, again. I didn't come last, though apparently I should credit that more to Ian than to me. I wasn't sufficiently aware of what was going on to notice, but apparently he screwed himself over early on somehow. Dan and I hadn't played much (/ever) before, and Ian self-destructed - that's the excuse for what was surely <a href="/leagues-info2025" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">the most landslide final score</a> in the history of NPBGC tournament finals. We'll try better next year...... Or indeed, maybe someone will prove me wrong! Maybe the league table isn't just a data record, and maybe the top 4 will be different next year. Maybe some new Ed will emerge from our extensive set of new joiners. We're doing mostly the same format again next year, so see what you can do. I'd be delighted to see someone else get in the final next year, but I remain convinced that it'll most likely be the same 4 again. Central Limit Theorem: look it up. If you knock me out of the top 4, I'll buy you a drink. Or Ian or Dan. If you can knock Ed out of it, I'll buy you a brewery.

11th Dec 2025 - The League and Galactic Cruise

I've never done a write-up for <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4098/age-of-steam" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Age Of Steam</a>. It's an old game, there's a contingent of train-game aficionados at the club who are far more into this stuff than I am; and after its third appearance in the <a href="/tournament/2024/round2" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Tournament</a> this year, I don't imagine there's much I could tell anyone about it anyway.But this week Andrew-M brought along the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/64119/age-of-steam-expansion-1890-berlin" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Berlin 1890 map</a>, which is from <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/362227/age-of-steam-deluxe-expansion-volume-ii" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">expansion volume 2</a>: so - unless you happened to buy a particular edition of FairPlay magazine in 2010, in which it first appeared as an insert - you'll only have come across this one in that 2023 map set. So you might not have played it before... So I'll do a review of it, hopefully using all the right jargon to satisfy the aficionado contingent as well.I guess the thematic interpretation of "Berlin 1890" is the building of the urban railways / U-Bahns. So more "Age Of Electricity", and the cubes represent passengers rather than goods types, and the coloured destinations are the type of place they want to go to. The USP of this one is that we're in a busy city, so there are always people wanting to go places, but they're queued up. You have to clear the front cube to its destination before you can move the second cube to its. So typically you find you could get 5 points for moving a purple cube from a place, but to get at it you need to move a red cube first, which would only give you 1 point - and maybe give other points to someone else. And the map is really small - it was on 1 quarter of a 4-fold board that had a bigger map on the other side - so you inevitably use others' tracks a lot.Now for the controversial bit: I found this to be a nice challenge and really enjoyed it. The others were more ambivalent, to put it mildly. I could see their point: for one thing, the small map meant that, with at least 2 rounds to go, there was nowhere left to build. So it ended up a bit "1830", in that all you were doing in the last part of the game was moving stuff, which never ran out, so you could have probably run the last couple of rounds with a spreadsheet.That said, the queuing mechanism meant that moving things was always a bit of an art - there were almost always multiple things to move, and the challenge was to move something that benefitted you while not helping someone else by unlocking a good movement for them. But the lack of building at the end was a killer, as it just exacerbated <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4098/age-of-steam" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Age Of Steam</a>'s existing problem with a lack of catch-up mechanism. In the later rounds, money was only useful for the turn-order auction: as the first one to turn a positive net income, I found myself able to utterly rule that auction. So what started off as a marginal advantage over the others quickly snowballed into a vast difference by the end. No wonder I enjoyed it more than the others 🙂So I would play it again, but probably only until I lose, and then I'm sure I'll get bored with it like the others already did. But then I'm not one of the train-game aficionados - I'd recommend it to them at least. It is, after all, a train game.What else was going on this week? We had <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/387515/kavango" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Kavango</a> again, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/167791/terraforming-mars" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Terraforming Mars</a>, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/387515/kavango" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Sol: Last Days Of A Star</a> - which I'd not seen before. And then there were the two final Tournament games of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/310873/carnegie" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Carnegie</a>.As those of you on the WhatsApp group will have heard, <a href="/tournament/2024/round4" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">the result</a> was that Ian finished in 2nd place in his game, which means he has finished in the <a href="/tournament/2024/table" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">top 4 overall</a>, so got into the final! Though by the look of it, it was a close-run thing, with him pipping David-K to 2nd by just 1 point. One less, and it would have been a different story. As it is, Ian now has the unprecedented opportunity to finish last in <a href="/tournament/rollofhonour" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">3 consecutive Tournament finals</a>. And Ed has the equally unprecedented opportunity to finish first in 3 consecutive finals. We wish them both well in their respective endeavours.

24th Oct 2024 - Age Of Steam Berlin 1890

Hi allAs always we want your feedback on how the yearly tournament is run. We understand many people will have very different ideas and things they like and don't like.&nbsp; As a result it is impossible to cater for all.For 2025 however, we want to look at a very different option and want your feedback on if we should try this new option or stick with "as is" with a few tweaks. Regardless of if you participated this year or not, we would like your feedback on this please.New Format IdeaThe proposal for next year is to have a more open tournament (league), in which there are no set categories and thus no set games. We have successfully trialled a league concept whereby everyone simply plays the games they want to play, the outcome is logged, like many of us do, on BGG Stats and for each person you beat, you gain a point.&nbsp; So, the winner of a 4 player game gets 3 points, 3rd would score a point etc...&nbsp; Total points accumulated is then divided by the number of games played, to give an average.&nbsp;There would be quarterly prizes, and an overall end of year award to say the top 4 players, or perhaps a one off game between them,&nbsp;chosen by someone else (so that Ed might not win!) and possibly even be blind, so no one gets a practice.Why have we chosen to make such a radical change?Firstly, this addresses one of the biggest complaints that it's limiting in the games that are played,&nbsp;and takes away the controversy of the choices of theme, and the voting system for the games.&nbsp; Assuming two practices, plus the tournament round, just 4 games means 12 Thursdays taken up.&nbsp; Assuming a high level of attendance over the year of 48 Thursdays, it would mean 25% of them are spread across just these 4 games.&nbsp; Given you may also be playing games that you aren't fond&nbsp;of (Mr Hughes and Mr Dent really don't like Barrage!!), this league eliminates this, and means we can just play what we want, including the new stuff, old stuff, whatever.It will also be more inclusive, since everyone in theory will participate, and those who don't want their scores to be included, simply don't have them&nbsp;published.&nbsp; Slayer Dan will admin the league, and update the results periodically..Obviously there will be some rules to govern this, otherwise Mr Dent will just play Brass Birmingham every week. Games will need to be substantial, and the winner/placings determinable, so it probably rules out cooperative games; but we play very few of these, typically. A club member needs to be attending regularly, so we'll probably set a minimum&nbsp;number of games to be played over the year (20?), so that the average isn't skewed, and checks will be in place to make sure no one fudges things (eyes on you Mr Dent!). End of evening filler games won't count, and, in a somewhat 'big brother' diktat, Admin will make the call on whether a game qualifies, or not.Please cast your vote!This new approach aims to include everyone, even those who do not play in the current tournament - so by default everyone will be in, with the option to opt-out. So we want the views of everyone at the club, not just those who play in the tournament. The link below asks for you to vote on new format or old, and for any other thoughts or ideas you have on the subject. Please let us know! <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe3H5vnOFfsJaUsZ7cbr4FxAMhKWPI4SQ0qJX2O2bniqFU8lg/viewform?usp=sf_link" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe3H5vnOFfsJaUsZ7cbr4FxAMhKWPI4SQ0qJX2O2bniqFU8lg/viewform?usp=sf_link</a>

Looks good. So would someone just put up a game and just declare that it would be a tournament game ?

I think the idea is that all games are “tournament games” by default. Not sure you can choose to opt individual games in or out. Paul correct me if I’m wrong.

Tournament Feedback and Proposed Changes

Please reply to this post to let us know which of the above games you own (if any); this is to help people find copies when arranging <a href="/tournament/2024" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">tournament games next year</a>. Thank you!Merry Christmas from NPBGC admin 🙂.

And Age of Steam. Which map where you thinking of playing?


Thanks David. We normally play base game configs for tournament games so it would be the Rust Belt map.

Barrage - Ian, David E, David K
Mosaic - Ian and Karen
Carnegie - David K
Age of Steam - David E

I have Age of Steam - original USA central map

Update:

Barrage - Ian, David E, David K
Mosaic - Paul T, Ian and Karen
Carnegie - David K
Age of Steam - DavidM, David E

Let us know if you own a copy of Barrage, Age Of Steam, Mosaic or Carnegie

Hi all - just a reminder, if you haven't already, to vote for which games will feature in the 2024 NPBGC Tournament.Those not entering the tournament are still encouraged to vote - we will all have the chance to play/discover these games when they feature during the lead-up to their tournament round.<a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScUhWcVn7Sf-xzhP9viEuLqUWOiYcp6U_AGKoaOKQ_kzD5Uhw/viewform" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Use this link to cast your votes</a> - and let us know if you own any of the nominated games.

Tournament 2024 - reminder to vote!

We are now inviting entrants for the 2024 tournament. Entry is free for all club members. If you'd like to enter, please join the game entitled <a href="/games?game=clmyrlpzl01570fjlrw3rs579" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">2024 tournament sign-up</a> on <a href="/games" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Looking To Play</a>.The tournament is played over the course of the year. You will be drawn with different players in each of the 4 games, arranged within each group on a Thursday night that suits everyone in the group.For full details, please see the <a href="/tournament/2024" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">2024 tournament page here</a>.To nominate a game for the tournament, please use the <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdxjZSxVdik_5XGmTeHW4l6yW2RjILiZkuwpxz6YzK8qWjOmA/viewform" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">form here</a>.

Tournament 2024 - sign up and nominate games

We played Bus at the expo and established that various games have got one or another of the rules wrong. So just to clarify ahead of the tournament games...You are allowed to have two buildings of the same type at the same intersection (this rule was played incorrectly in the game taught by me a few weeks ago).With the "extend line" action, you may only extend your line from one end or the other, not both (this rule was played incorrectly in at least one of the other games in the last few weeks).

Clarifications on the rules of Bus

The time has come for me to write about Mombasa, which my group played in the tournament this week. If we focus purely on the mechanics, this is a nice game, with some interesting bits like the resting decks; and the mix of ways to get points including things exclusive to you like the diamonds and books, and things that others can influence - namely the share prices.So far so good, but I felt it was let down - just like Alexander Pfister's other high-flyer (Great Western Trail) - by not being that well balanced. There are some ways to get points that are consistently better than others. In GWT, the best way to win is with the cows; in Mombasa, the best way to win is by [Ed's strategy]*. The rest of us knew this beforehand, I think, but failed to stop Ed doing it, so he won. These not-perfectly-balanced games are fine to play once in isolation, but they don't hold up so well when subjected to the practice they get for the tournament.My two games of Mombasa have established it alongside Vinhos as a game that I always finish second at. But unlike Vinhos, which I can happily play over and over regardless of the outcome, two goes at Mombasa is enough for me. That's partly because Mombasa is on the theme of European merchants exploiting Africa, which is not a role that I've ever fancied having a go at. But maybe in due course I'd try its sister game, Skymines, which uses similar mechanics in the (hopefully) less controversial setting of the Moon.Elsewhere, it was good to see the founding fathers at the next table, playing A Brief History Of The World; while around them the club was going from strength to strength, with its own tables and gaming mats, a refurbished upstairs room, the tournament in full swing, new members joining, and 7 full tables in play. When they first set up the club, way back when Brass was just a twinkle in Martin Wallace's eye, I guess they would have been happy with this outcome.With all the other tables I'm not sure I can give a full run-down, but other games I'm aware of were Darwin's Journey, Amerigo, Impression and Through The Desert - plus side-orders of Tsuro and Perudo.And there was a second game of Mombasa, which may or may not have been a tournament game, according to whether or not Karen knew it was happening. Ian is hoping it was the tournament game, having won. So Karen if you're around any time between now and August I'm sure the others will be glad to reschedule 🙂* Top-secret till the other tournament games are finished.

Well now that the tournament round is done, I'm guessing Ed's strategy was go heavy on diamonds. Andrew H did it too. Myself and Andrew T tried it, but less successfully, so we resorted to max out shares in one company and a bit of books respectively.

Yep. Mombasa aka. "Get Diamonds". Complicated rules with a very simple, single way to win. With Bus hopefully we will see the reverse.

27th Apr 2023 - Mombasa

We were treading the grapes in Portugal with Vital this week, for the richly thematic game of Vinhos. I'm not always a fan of the really heavy games, but in this case I find it works well: the game goes into enough detail to transplant you into the theme, mulling over your use of wineries, staff and barrels. You devote yourself to producing the finest wine in the heat of the September sun, and your brain gets utterly frazzled...I can't think of another game where the turn time increases as exponentially as this one. We rattled through the first "half" in no time, whereas by the last round I could have gone into the other room, joined a game there, finished it and been back in time for my next turn in Vinhos. But the other room had all gone home by then anyway. It's ironic that the choice of good options is so much larger in the first few rounds, and you can make the biggest impact on your ultimate score at that point; yet we all devote so much more time and effort to deciding between option A and option B at the end to gain an extra point or two. I've played this game many times and still not taught myself to do it the other way round.Vinhos has long been one of my favourite games, basically because I approach it the way I would approach actual wine making: sitting back while the sun sets on the Douro terraces, enjoying the ambience. So playing it in the tournament has come as a bit of a shock, as we end up scrutinising all the actions for the best possible way to score points, rather than just feeling good about producing top-quality wine. Even in very well-balanced games like this one, there is a best strategy, which the tournament manages to tease out. I was too distracted by the thematic immersion to focus on that, and I didn't win - but I did manage to produce two successive port wines of the highest possible quality at the end, which was more fun.I'm not sure if there's a record for most games played in a night at the club, but Table 4 surely broke it last night. They were up to 6 when I last checked, and may have got even further? Either way, The Resistance, Parade, Tsuro and an old favourite of mine - Cash &amp; Guns - were all ticked off while we edged through a couple of rounds of Vinhos. At the other table in the side room they also managed to get in 2 games: one was Barrage with the new Nile Affair expansion. I was curious to know how that went, but instead I was briefed in great detail on the numerous variants of Sudoku that Ed was playing on his phone during the downtime.Elsewhere in our room they were playing Faiyum, which is a game set in Ancient Egypt with crocodiles. Sounds fun, and possibly explains why there are no longer any crocodiles in the Sahara(?), as they get built over as the game progresses. And the last table were playing Paris, followed by a game called Garum that I'd never seen before. It's by a Portuguese designer who is not Vital Lacerda, about a fermented Portuguese export that is not wine. Garum is, or was, a celebrated fish sauce which the game blurb claims was a motivation for the Romans to conquer Lusitania. So long and thanks for all the fish. Anyway, the game itself is a nice little pattern-building / area-control combo about getting all the right fish. Personally I prefer wine, but I would like to try this one too.

Barrage - Nile Affair was a good game although that is mainly the Barrage bit and not really the expansion.  All of us probably preferred though game without this expansion although the change of map was nice.

Its main issue seems to step from the excessive points you can get from the irrigation tiles making it a necessity to try to either win a late one or come 2nd in a couple.

I do like Barrage the main game and want to play the original expansion again but not in a rush to do the Nile expansion.  That said I would not turn it down.

2nd Mar 2023 - Vinhos

Following a couple of drop-outs from this year's entry list, there are now 12 players in the tournament. So we have had to revise the draw to feature 3 groups per round, rather than 4.We have preserved the draw for Round 1 as far as possible: all groups who had already chosen a date to play have been preserved, and the players from the remaining group have been redistributed to fill the empty spaces in those groups. This has been done as randomly as possible given people's availability.The remaining rounds have been re-drawn, using the assignment to groups in Round 1 as the initial seed. The new draw covers Rounds 1-4, so no-one will be eliminated from the league until after Round 4. This rearrangement also means that the random "Space Available" slots are no longer available.The Tournament pages have been updated to reflect the new draw. The draw for Round 1 is below. These tournament games are also now in the In Queue section of the games page.Group I - 2nd March David K Robin Andrew H KarenGroup II - 23rd Feb Andrew T David A Paul T Dan MGroup III - 23rd Feb Ian Paul D Ed David H

Tournament Update

Hi - can anyone lend my group a copy of Vinhos for our tournament game on 2nd March please?

I think the two owners are Pedro and Dan M.  Although more did vote to say they had it

Hi,
I lent the club my copy for the tournment. My copy, I believe, is with Paul. If no one else uses my copy that day, you are free to use it. If you need any of my games (  Vital Lacerda or otherwise ;) )  , let me know and I'll gladly lend them to you.
Pedro Freitas

Thanks very much all - sounds like there should be one available at least!