Charterstone Chronicle, Game 10

Contrary to what I thought would happen, this game was not the shortest, and indeed was one of the longer games of Charterstone we've played. I thought that everyone's influence would evaporate quickly in questing for minions. However, everyone did a pretty good job managing theirs and the game dragged to about 2 1/2 hours.

Relying on workers alone really opened up the board and invited people to visit other people's charters in a way they hadn't in quite some time. With basically everything built or Charterstoned (I think Dani, Daniel, and I each built once and Amanda Charterstoned once and built twice), the scoring in this game came down to scoring objectives and creating VP loops.

My goal from the start for this game was to score the guidepost, which I went to tremendous lengths to do. I placed an influence on my minion income building to grab the last minion, in addition to picking up the two on my charter and a third procured through the tremendous noble sacrifice of Danielle. However, Caralee was able to pick up a third off the board in addition to the fourth she started the game with from her capacity. We ended up tying for it, but I had the rare pleasure of scratching off the card due to having more influence.

I pretty quickly realized this was going to be a long game, and Swananoa's strategy revolved around guests and income buildings as a result. After setting this up (and building the chocolatier), I settled into a consistent pattern of selling resources at my casino for money and turning that money into VP at Amanda's resort. I finished above 100 for the first time, in 4th place if I recall correctly behind Caralee at ~110, Daniel at 120, and Megan at ~140. Caralee had undoubtedly the best persona for this game, allowing her to pick up both her workers after placing them. However, the ending of the game caught her off guard and she ended with a host of unused treasure in her hand. Megan put her "bumper" persona to good use as well.

Daniel and Megan are now approaching having every star on their box filled. I think they are tied iirc, or very close in total glory. Caralee and I are similarly tied in total glory, so these last few games will be critical to determining the final standings within each pair.

The Forever King remains happy with us...much to my dismay. I'm ready for the rug yank. Game 11 will be a bit delayed, but hopefully we'll be wrapping this campaign up before May.

3/3/19 - Root Postgame Report

We finally did it! We played a game of Root without any major rule misunderstandings!

Although we learned that the Woodland Alliance crafts by activating sympathy as opposed to spending it. This came alongside further clarifications on the Vagabond (aiding an ally gets you 2 VP per card and the warrior which makes you go hostile is not scored if killed), and a reminder of the control rules and how it impacts movement between clearings (more relevant with otters and lizards in the game).

But other than that, we knew what we were doing! XD

No though, this game was notable in that we finally had a group of people who more or less knew what they were doing and the result was a very tight game where everybody had a good chance to win right up until the end.

I played the Marquise, and I have to say their point earning potential right off the bat is explosive. I got out to 10 points by turn 2, but once you run out of building slots and have to fight for them things slow down really quickly. Critically, having the lizards and the otters in the game reduces the number of eligible clearings to be built in turn 1 by 5. Your first three buildings should almost always go on the two river slots to the west of your keep, I've decided; to take advantage of the slots before the lizards or otters place there. As always, you want to prioritize possessing the mill town in the center of the board. My very first turn I had to spend a bird card to build a second building in the mill town because Fish's otters chose to start there.

This is the first game we've seen in awhile where the Eeyrie didn't get hopelessly put behind from the start, and Hubert remained competitive right up to the end. Him and I fought a grinding battle over one of the southern river clearings, both of us using otter mercenaries, before both turning around to do better things. In Hubert's case, it was stopping the southward advance of the lizards. Daniel played another very "guns" heavy game with the lizards, and notably in the late game double-sanctified a clearing that had two of my recruiters in it just south of my keep. At the same time, Fish had stored up 12 funds as otters, inducing me to attack him to destroy the funds. The burning of the trading post was accomplished, but at the cost of having my southernmost garrison (fought over so hard with the birds) assaulted and destroyed by the vengeful otters.

While I was fighting the otters and lizards, Daniel finally turned on Danielle after she reached allied status with him and threatened to end the game in a turn or two. We narrowly averted a fifth Vagabond win in a row when Fish was able to marshal his Otter and go on the warpath the last turn, laying waste to all my buildings in the mill town for the win. I scored my own goal here a bit, along with Daniel, we both made too much use of the otters on the last turn trying to fill our depleted hands but at the cost of giving Fish 10 funds.

In sum, it was a hard fought back and forth game. And I'm now very curious to see the Woodland Alliance in action knowing what we know now. I thought not having them in would significantly benefit the cats, but honestly it's hard to tell. With the board as crowded as it was, I'm pretty sure their presence would have hurt the lizards, birds, and otters just about as much. The Otters feel really strong now that we understand the spend/commit distinction, although the fragility of their ability to earn dividends remained very much on display this game.

I still kind of want to try a seven player match, but concede that may be too much happening on the board. I definitely can't wait to get another game together though since now we have the rules more or less completely figured out (TM) and everyone has a good understanding of the dynamics of play. I want to give the cats another try, or the otters, hopefully the Woodland Alliance being there won't make things too difficult.

Charterstone Chronicle, Game 9

Alas dear reader, these entries will probably continue to get shorter and shorter. Not because of waning interest in the game, but as we are quickly approaching the conclusion of the campaign and with no major new mechanics introduced in quite awhile, to pontificate would be to repeat myself. At this point I pretty much know how I feel about Charterstone; its strengths, weaknesses, overall quality of game design, and who I would recommend it to. But, these will all wait for the post campaign post.

We also have all but set the final placement order at this point, at least by pairs with the possibility moving around within the three subsets. 1st and 2nd place will go to Daniel and Megan, 3rd and 4th to me and Caralee, and 5th and 6th to Danielle and Amanda. I would be shocked if anyone is able to rise or sink out of their grouping.

This game was played with the candle on the table. As campy as it was, I love random little Legacy game mechanics like this. We managed to finish before the candle burnt out, although the last few turns were played in a rush as people feared it was getting close. Either way, the game ended in something of an occupation of the little town of Faulkner.  Next game will be somewhat close to the first game in feel, with everyone reduced to two workers. It will also probably be fast given that you have to give up influence to grab minions, and I expect the payoff will be fairly substantial given the importance of minions in this game thus far. I'm a little annoyed that as the owner of the Charter that specializes in influence reclamation, I can't charge people for it this game with my own minion placements.

Daniel was pretty hamstrung during game 9, with fuel shortages covering two of his buildings. Megan by comparison had none, and using her persona that allowed her to pick up a worker when bumping an opponent's worker, I think was able to complete the game without ever having to pick up. In any event, it was a pretty solid game for almost everyone. Megan finished in first, and everyone except Amanda wrapped up this game in the 50-79 point range. I came in second again myself.

The defining characteristic of this game was persona usage. Caralee spammed out her shoemaker and I think got almost all of her personas in play by the end of the game. Basically everyone else decided to fill out a second persona on their box's glory track recently and had at least the two in play. It was really fun to see the interplay of them all, and for my part I feel like I didn't appreciate the power of certain personas early enough. Rapidly Charterstoning in this game isn't a good strategy for building access (indeed, it seems to end with other people snatching your 20 point buildings which has happened to me, Daniel, Dani, and Amanda). However, early access to the strong late game personas has made a big difference for players able to leverage them. I had my Gambler out as one of my personas this game, and he netted me a whopping total of 8 VP (I think expected was ~5 based on game length and my placement). I got lucky this game, we'll see if that luck holds next time.

I was able to get out two of my twenty point buildings, but abroad Caralee built the 20 point version of my income building and Megan built the 20 point version of my Peril building. This blew but those were lower priority buildings. This was the first game I made extensive use of my "Buy friends! -> Trade them in for VP!" set up, and it worked quite nicely You really need the final versions of these buildings to make it work efficiently though. Each charter has a unique card they combo off of, but some seem better than others. In particular, comboing off of building, assistant, item, and friend cards seems weaker than comboing off of treasure and visitors. I think I prioritized general supply buildings too much early at the expense of cramming out my 20 point building. Well...kinda. The Junkyard has been amazing combined with robots. The portal though....I don't think I've used once. Although I'm sure if I put it out for a game I would see some trolly uses of it. The windmill was great when I built it but then I acquired lots of other ways to regain influence and it has since idled.

I have one twenty point building left in the general deck, which I intend to acquire next game and build over one of my cheaper ones. I don't know if I will be able to get more than that though, save swiping one of Amanda's twenty point buildings whenever she puts them out. For fun comparison, I have 109 points in buildings currently and Danielle has 108. In contrast Megan has 164, with eight of the twenty-point buildings in her charter. Megan is also sitting on Daniel's twenty-point statue to build in one of our last games so she doesn't lose access to her market in the interim, and so she will end at 181 points. It's hard to see anyone beating her on that front.

At this point though, I'm ready for the big reveal or twist. The Forever King has been made foreboding and ominous this entire campaign, so when do we rise up against him? Will he begin to overtly terrorize our pleasant little town? Only time will tell.