board games & card games for all ages

board games & card games for all ages

Thursday 15th December 2005

Our last get together before Christmas, and we managed to get thirteen people in the shop. For some reason, not that many games were played, but I guess that's just the way it is sometimes!

Players:

Anthony, Cat, James, Jamie, Jon, Kev, Mark, Mitch, Nick, Philippa, Rowenna, Sam, Sue

Games Played:

Kuhhandel

The first five were in, and so we got things underway with this fun little auction game. It still takes a little longer than a normal "opener", but it is a lot of fun, although I got a nasty kick from Sue when I paid her a total of zero for a pig!

Mark:    1650 x 2 = 3300
Mitch:    1150 x = 2300
Jamie:    510 x 2 = 1020
Sue:    340 x 2 = 680
Nick:    200 x 2 = 400

Oh boy, did I make a mess of this one! At the end of the game, it came down to Mark and I in a cattle battle. Mark bid for my only dog, and I managed to make a slightly better counter bid, getting the whole set. That left one more animal not resolved ... I had one, Mark had three, but I had all the cash! I slapped my whole hand down onto the table expecting to win the game, and all I managed to do was buy one of them! Oops! Mark then bought the pair back off me, as I was skint. I won't be making that mistake again (for a while)!

Blokus

While we were busy trading cattle, Philippa, Jon and James appeared and grabbed Blokus.

Jon:    -11
James:    -23
Philippa:    -24

Don't know much about this game, but James was back downstairs well before the other two, and yet he managed to come second!

Cloud 9

We were now up to twelve people. Six of us disappeared upstairs with Antike, while another six played something quick, as Cat and Anthony couldn't stay too long. Sue decided to sit out and do some paperwork!

Cat:    52
Jon:    35
Philippa:    33
Mitch:    33
James:    28
Anthony:    12

Cat has started to win far too many games .... she may have to be barred!

Antike

This was a first playing for all of us at this new Civilisation-building game from Eggertspiele, but the rules are pretty clear and the downtime is amazingly minimal considering the number of options available.

Mark:    7
Jamie:    5
Nick:    5
Kev:    4
Rowenna:    3
Sam:    2

Sam started as grey (in the middle of the board) and was bullied on three sides by myself, Kev and Jamie. Interestingly, Mark, Jamie and I started in the corners and came out best, which made us wonder if you need to adopt a slightly different strategy depending on your starting nation. Still, everyone really enjoyed the game, which brought on a fair bit of discussion afterwards, and I am really looking forward to playing it again.

Princes of Florence

With the departure of Cat and Anthony, five people were left downstairs, and so Princes of Florence reappeared, a game which all apart from Mitch had played before.

Mitch:    58
Sue:    51 with 100 more Florins than...
Jon:    51
Philippa:    45
James:    44

Mitch pulled off a good win on his very first game (beginner's luck, I reckon), with a couple of rather nice Prestige cards to fly ahead of the pack.

Cloud 9

With the two large games taking a lot longer than planned, all we had time for was another Cloud 9 to close the evening ...

Mark:    58
Nick:    35
Mitch:    35
Sue:    33
Sam:    20

 Mark completes a winning evening with the weirdest card distribution we've seen at this game. Everyone's hands were only one or two colours, and nearly every flight crashed early, apart from Wild Card usage.

And that's it until 2006! Thanks all for coming out again ... Sue and I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!