Session Report January 31 - Ra? Rah!

Ra (Beth, Bill, Dana Pete) - Winner Beth
Ra (Beth, Bill, Dana Pete) - Winner Pete

Pete had the good fortune to play Ra with Marc and Ernie (his dog) last weekend. Ra ranks very highly at Boardgame Geek. Number 11, in fact! There is a balance in the game that is so very typical of a Reiner Knizia design. Ra takes about 30 minutes to play. Perhaps less, once you are proficient playing.

In game one Pete floundered through getting every up to speed on the game, along with figuring out the BSW interface. As per the norm, it's not obvious how to play. "Where do I click?" is the phrase of the evening. One troublesome part of BSW's implementation is that the tile scoring is not directly at hand. We utilized a Ra pdf scoring sheet found at BGG. The Rules for Ra ar'nt bad either.

But we got it going! in the end, Beth pulled off the win in what might have been a close game? Who knows. Some of Knizia's games are always close.

-- kayakpete scores 0 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 3 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- fineltour scores 8 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 5 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores 5 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores -2 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- fineltour scores 0 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 9 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 18 (Total: 33) points.
-- Lamork scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 23 (Total: 34) points.
-- fineltour scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 26 (Total: 44) points.
-- magennis scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 22 (Total: 46) points.

-- 46 points let magennis grab the whole thing fantastically! (56:35 min.)

Next round up! In game 2 we were starting to see some of the subtle strategies of Ra come out. Bill managed, for example, to win the 3 highest sun tiles at auction leaving himself for what might be thought of as an excellent position for the next epoch. Pete, however, seemed to call Ra on him with little 3 and 4 tile auction blocks, making it seem a shame to spend his 11, 12 or 13. Tricky!

In the end Pete did well:

-- kayakpete scores 15 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- fineltour scores 3 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 4 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 2 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores 4 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- fineltour scores 1 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores -1 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 3 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 26 (Total: 55) points.
-- fineltour scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 10 (Total: 24) points.
-- Lamork scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 18 (Total: 31) points.
-- magennis scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 20 (Total: 35) points.

-- In an exemplary manner, kayakpete won the game with 55 points. (33:35 min.)

Everyone enjoyed this game, but thought that there might be some advantages to playing face-to-face over the table. Especially for beginners. And, perhaps, with any player interaction game, there's always something lost in the translation to the virtual world. Auction and bluffing games, however, may suffer more so than other games.

Add one more game to the VBGG shelf. Ra! Good fun!

See you next week!