board games & card games for all ages

board games & card games for all ages

Thursday 18th May 2006

A bit of a blustery night tonight, although we still managed to drag ten people out of their homes (or back from their hols) and over to our place for a game or two ...

Players:

Jen, Kev, Mark L, Mitch, Neil, Nick, Russ, Sam, Sue, Tim

Games Played:

John Silver

The usual threesome was the first in, and so we thought we'd try this nice little card game from Eggertspiele.

Sue:    18
Mark:    18
Nick:    5

This is a really good little game, although it's going to take a few plays to understand the best and worst plays. No-one was more surprised than Sue when she tied for the win, as she claimed to have no idea what she was doing for most of the game! That didn't make my score of 5 feel much better!

Ninja Galaxy

This is a game that was given to the group in order for us to do some play-testing and give some feedback.

Mark:    Sole Survivor
Sue:    Last one out
Nick:    First one out!

This game seemed a bit odd at first, but once the game got going properly and all our pieces were on the board, it actually became quite enjoyable. Until I got eliminated, that is.

King's Blood

With the arrival of Mitch, the four of us decided to trace some royal ancestry, Japanese-style...

Mitch:    0 cards left
Nick:    1 card left
Mark:    2 cards left
Sue:    3 cards left

Once we finally understood what we were doing, this became an interesting little game, although we think we could have prolonged it a little if we'd allowed Mark to play an event card that he'd just picked up!

Antike

By now we were up to nine players, and so we split into a five and a four, with the four disappearing upstairs to conquer the Mediterranean.

(Generals + Navigators + Civilians + Kings + Scientists)

Mark:    (2 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 2) = 9
Russ:    (0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 2) = 8
Neil:    (1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 1) = 6
Jen:    (0 + 0 + 1 + 3 + 1) = 5

A good win for Mark in this one, although by all accounts Russ was only a short distance behind, as he was about to spread his Navy over 14 seas to claim his 9th historical figure.

Fury of Dracula

Meanwhile downstairs, Van Helsing and his three little helpers went off in search of the elusive count.

Nick (Lord Godalming)
Kev (Dr Seward)
Sue (Van Helsing)
Sam (Mina Harker):    All triumphed
Mitch (Count Dracula): Died horribly

This was a great game, with Dracula played in a particularly sneaky fashion by Mitch. At times renamed "The Frustration of Dracula", as the hunters kept coming up with the right cards at the right time, he managed to hold us off and spread 4 new vampires across Europe before we finally tracked him down to somewhere in France. In a panic, Dracula then tried to drive his coach & horses down the train tracks to Paris, only to meet the 23.30 coming in the other direction! A near-dead Dracula then staggered straight into Mina Harker, who finished him off with a toothpick.

Bohnanza

Meanwhile, with the game of Antike finished upstairs and the arrival of Tim, a game of Bohnanza broke out...

Jen:    15 (3 cards in hand)
Mark:    15 (0 cards)
Neil:    13
Russ:    12 (4 cards)
Tim:    12 (3 cards)

This looks like it was a pretty close game, going to a tie-break for first and last place! The good news is Mark was denied a clean sweep for the evening by having fewer cards left. Well done Jen!

And that was it - a lot less games played this week than last, and yet equal amounts of fun for all!

Thanks to everyone for coming along.