Game Report: Andy S, Andy T, Jenn, Fiona & Adam

View Gallery
(16 Images)

A five player game and everyone's got at least one game under their belt, so it looks like it's going to be quite a fight... Especially when Fiona announces 'I was far too nice last time' before she's even laid her first villages.

Setup goes well, Adam starts to curse his placement of both his village in South America as the board soon fills up and he's feeling a little trapped. Andy S splits between Australia and Africa, Andy T tries a Asia and Nowhere split. Jenn Asia and North America and Fiona is left with Europe. Within a round the axis of evil is being spun and everyone soon gets a turn with the balaclava.

There's a peaceful air about the game and comments such as 'it's going to hot up soon' are mumbled with each passing turn. A few notes go back and forth, the two Andys make a pact that isn't worth the paper it's written on, Adam and Fiona start what turns out to be a healthy correspondence.Then, blam! Jenn gets nasty and strikes out, making several enemies in a single turn.

Although Andy S has a healthy empire and wads of cash, he covers the world with terrorists and joins Jenn on the dark side.Andy T repays the favour and goes all out against Jenn to try and push her out of Asia. He leaves for a cigarette break and comes back to find former ally,Andy S, ready to launch an attack. NUKE! And Andy T suddenly doesn't own Nowhere any more, terrorists are popping up all over the shop and the peace of the early game is a distant memory.

Then things get really nasty, political kidnaps, regime change, suicide bombers... a usual game of War on Terror. Adam takes a nuke in Brazil, seriously weakening his Empire, Andy T keeps laying into Jenn and then a pincer movement from Adam and Fiona against Jenn in North America forces her to turn terrorist.

Jenn knows Andy S is holding the Global Terrorism card and keeps on the pressure to get him to turn, before long it works and although Andy S has a healthy empire and wads of cash, he covers the world with terrorists using the Global Terrorism card and joins Jenn on the dark side.

In turn, the three remaining empires stop fighting each other and concentrate on the all powerful enemy of democracy. Several turns pass and it could go either way, all the time anarchic terrorist propaganda is being hurled at the empires.

It's getting risky, both Andy T and Fiona are looking like they could pull off an empire victory, but neither attacks the other, instead they try and keep up the false pretence of 'working together'. Andy T regrets this when Fiona manages to take Europe and build enough cities to win! A four hour game which had it all, fun, laughter and extreme pain.

Game report: Andy S, Jenn, Rob, Andy H & Joe

View Gallery
(15 Images)

War on Terror on tour! The game comes to London for a weekend special. It's the morning after a heavy night and that's why we don't get started until 6 in the evening when heads are just beginning to clear. And what better way to beat a hangover than intensely plot against your friends, whilst trying to take over the world?

Jenn starts and takes Australia and Madagascar. Andy H turns up two blanks in North America leaving him with a guaranteed oil revenue of absolutely nothing for at least one round - definitely the worst start on record. Rob is in Asia and Africa. Joe goes for South America and Europe and Andy S finds himself displaced between Siberia and Nowhere, but pulls a lucky Explorers card in his first turn and ventures into North America too.

Andy H suddenly realises "Hey, this is a really nasty game!"Development is uncharacteristically slow with no one rolling any high development numbers, meaning after a few rounds, there's still plenty of space and even land undiscovered at the end of the game (Cuba and Japan both escape colonisation) - which is virtually unheard of.

Maybe we were too busy fighting the poisons inside us to fight each other, but the opening game is both peaceful and hesitant. Tensions only begin to rise when notes start getting passed around with messages such as "show this note to everyone except Andy H" and Andy H suddenly realises "Hey, this is a really nasty game!"

The axis of evil gets spun and it's Andy S who's labelled a baddie, so he tries to kickstart events by nuking Andy H, thinking he can take N.America for himself and force Andy H to turn terrorist in one fell swoop. This mastermind move is only thwarted by Andy H having a nuclear bunker. The most Andy S pulls off is a bit of WMD action in the Western States.

Suddenly everyone starts picking on Rob. Even Andy H, who stands nothing to gain from it. Forlornly, Rob reminds us all that it's his birthday but his plea for special treatment is met with more aggression if anything. Still, he bears the brunt of the attacks with weary stoicism. Only Andy S, who shares a border with Rob, tries to keep him onside in his own interests.

Meanwhile, recent WoT winner, Jenn, is sending a flurry of propaganda and notes around the entire table, offering "helpful advice" and making everyone think that she's a friend. Of course there's no such thing in a world of fear, but she gets away with it and quietly builds her empire, free of suspicion.

Meanwhile, Andy H steals the Kyoto Protocol card from Andy S and has his revenge, playing it against him instantly. Despite a decent pot of cash, Andy S is virtually bankrupted by the card. A blow, to say the least. Then Andy H turns terrorist after playing the Global Terrorism card, although being completely skint, he can only get about 5 vanguards on the board. It's a pathetic display and about the only sniff of terrorism we have all game.

Smarting from the bankruptcy, Andy S contemplates giving it all up for the dark side of borderless freedom that the terrorists are offering him. Andy H certainly looks like he could do with the company.

Joe and Rob keep having skirmishes over Europe, their attention fully diverted from a devious Jenn who grabs the 10 point victory before the terrorists even get a chance to rip into the board.

A two-and-a-half hour game - unnervingly quick for a 5 player and we've all learnt this is what happens when you hold back: Jenn wins.

Game Report: Andy S, Jenn & Fiona - part 1

A simple three-player game with a new recruit. Fiona is lured with the promise of free booze and is indoctrinated to a world of pain, anger and paranoia. Except, it turns out to be a very reasonable and rational game, with barely a scratch being sustained. What's happening?

For some reason or other, everyone is incredibly - suspiciously - polite and far too involved in concentrating on the building of their own empires, rather than the wanton destruction of others'.

Not Andy S though - he tries to nuke Jenn. Twice in a row... only to find she has both the nuclear bunkers. Bugger. Then the Axis of Evil gets spun and it's Jenn, fated to be evil. But despite the obvious provocation and the extra resource of terrorist cards, she goes easy on Andy S and builds more cities instead.

Fiona is visibly feeling her way through the game and tries a tentative terrorist strike, but worries too much about the repercussions to sustain the fight. Plus she's having some of the worst dice-rolling luck in the history of the game and every attack fails embarrassingly. She decides war is too expensive for her and tries grabbing the remaining land instead, which is - again, unluckily for Fiona - worryingly barren of oil.

It's all over in under two hours and was so sudden, we decide to play again...With Jenn having a TONNE of money and cards, Andy S can see where this is heading and continues to lay into Jenn, inciting terrorist attacks in her cities and even resorting to WMDs. However, being the only aggressive player, Andy S just looks like a nasty piece of work.

And it's all for nothing anyway. On her next go, Jenn storms into Africa, takes the whole continent and wins with a healthy slice of the globe and many cities.

It's all over in under two hours and was so sudden, we decide to play again...

Game Report: Andy S, Jenn & Fiona - part 2

Just when Fiona thought she got off lightly, we start again. The first time in the history of WoT that two games have been attempted back-to-back. The last time two games were played within a 24 hour period, we considered placing a Surgeon General's health warning on the box, so it's with some trepidation on Andy S's behalf that we all dive back into it.

This game seems a reversal of the previous one. Fiona realises she was far too passive in the previous game and is also rolling like she's sold her soul to the devil in exchange for oil... which could be the case because she's stinking rich within a very short space of time.

Andy S seeks the relative sanctuary of the southern hemisphere - Australasia, nowhere and South America, while Fiona's spread through Asia is frighteningly rapid, leaving Jenn sandwiched in Europe and Africa. This time, Jenn has much less cash and little luck finding the oil. She desperately wants a double-win, though, and starts sending Andy S messages which list the various benefits of prolonging the game (for her benefit).

It's a rapid, dirty game from there on in. Developments shoot up. There's a bit of a tussle between Fiona and Andy S. It looks like Fiona could take it this time and she stays later than her own imposed curfew purely on the strength of this promise. However, despite her triggering a well-timed regime change in the Falklands, Andy S just sneaks in there and takes it in one hour and forty-five minutes.

And we're all still standing at the end of it. That wasn't so bad really.

Game Report: Andy S, Adam & Jenn

We have fresh meat! Adam is new to WoT. He also isn't too keen on boardgames and would rather be playing Championship Manager. He's going to be a tough nut to crack.

Right from the off, however, Adam reveals his capitalistic, global-dominating side as his nicely-placed cities keep turning up vast amounts of oil. Each note passed from the bank to his grubby hands makes him chuckle and before long, thanks to a jammy treble-weighted oil gush, he's rich enough to buy the planet if he so wanted.

To cap it all, the Axis of Evil decides Adam is evil and he adds a handy complement of terrorist cards to his hand. Because Jenn isn't doing too badly either and doesn't want to fire Adam's evil wrath, they both decide to pick on Andy S, who tries to retaliate with a nuke in Adam's "heartland" of Africa, almost wiping out all four cities - but then Jenn steps in and sells Adam a nuclear bunker at the last second. Nuclear war thwarted and a couple more pops sees Andy S turn terrorist, no longer able to run with the super-powers. In fact, in a final twist of irony, it's a nuke in North America which hammers the final nail in the coffin for Andy S's ailing empire.

Not having much money, Andy S isn't a very effective terrorist player and has little effect on the Jenn-Adam race for glory. In the end, it's tight up to the finish line, but Adam snags it building one more city than he needs even to prove his dominance over the globe.

The Championship Manager addict wins in just over two hours. Incidentally, it's bad form to play someone else's game for the first time and win it. Just so you know, Adam, ok?