board games & card games for all ages

board games & card games for all ages

Thursday 20th April 2006

Another 12 players this week, although yet again a different mix of regulars and some welcome first-timers.

Players:

Darren, Gordon, Jen, Jo, Jon, Mark H, Mark L, Nathan, Nick, Russ, Sue, Tim

Games Played:

Cloud 9

A few people turned up early, at fairly regular intervals, and so after setting up and packing away a couple of games, we settled on a quick opener so that we could wait and see who else was coming...

Jen:    57
Russ:    54
Nick:    50
Nathan:    50
Gordon:    40
Tim:    34

A good start for our new arrivals, Jen and Russ. Jen was few points ahead of Russ and left of him at the table, which meant that she just had to jump as soon as he did to stay ahead. Nathan and I were way back, but managed to stay in the balloon all the way in the last trip to double our score!

Vom Kap bis Kairo

Sue, Jon and Mark L decided to nip upstairs and build some train routes all the way from the Cape to Cairo, as the name of the game would suggest ...

Sue:    8
Mark L:    7
Jon:    7

In what looks like a pretty close game, Sue managed to cross all 8 terrain types, while the others were not all that far behind!

Formula Motor Racing

As the balloon racing finished before the rail-making, we had time downstairs for a (very) quick series of races from this fun little game that Gordon brought along. As it turned out, the series only lasted a single race, as the upstairs crowd finished sooner than expected.

Nathan:    10
Jen:    6
Russ:    4
Tim:    3
Nick:    2
Gordon:    1

Surprisingly, the race ended with each player managing to get one of his two cars in the points. Of the other six, I think only two of them survived the race, as everyone took a few gambles as the finish-line approached.

Robo Rally

We were now up to 12, and split into two groups of six. This was the choice for upstairs, choosing a simple (in theory) single-board set up from the rulebook.

Tim:    3 flags
Nathan:    2 flags
Nick:    1 flag
Sue:    1 flag
Darren:    1 flag (just!)
Jen:    0 flags.

A fun game yet again, with plenty of forehead-slapping and falling into pits. Tim and Nathan were way ahead of the group, with Tim just making it to the line before Nathan, and only shortly after Darren decided to join in and get to the first flag! Jen was off in a different direction for a lot of the game, and actually finished on the starting board! I did promise not to mention that, but it kind of slipped out.

Royal Turf

Continuing a completely accidental "racing" theme for the evening, the downstairs crowd went off to Ascot for some gambling.

Mark L:    £2,350
Jo:    £1,700
Gordon:    £1,500
Russ:    £1,200
Mark H:    £1,050
Jon:    £850

Another win for Mark L at this one. He just can't wait for Winner's Circle to come out, so he can beat us whenever he feels like it!

The Bucket King

As expected, Royal Turf finished before Robo Rally, although not by as much as expected. Just enough time for some pyramid building and destroying at the farmyard!

Jon:    1st
Mark L:    2nd
Jon:    3rd
Mark H:    4th
Russ:    5th
Gordon:    Last

I don't know a lot about this one, although I did see the second half of it. Gordon took a massive hit early on in the game, which proved impossible to recover from. After that, it looked pretty close.

Beowulf

The numbers dropped to 10, which gave us the chance to squeeze in two more games before we called it a night. This was one of them, which I foolishly announced I was unbeaten at before it started....

Russ:    27 + 5 = 32
Jen:    21 + 5 = 26
Nick:    22 - 2 = 20
Tim:    21 - 2 = 19
Sue:    19

Another fun game of Beowulf, which really only seems to shine with 5 players. This one seemed to have a little bit less direct confrontation than other games we've played, with the only big battle being the last one, which got up to a score of 12 before my final risk failed me! A good win for Russ, with a very high score, and both Jen and Russ getting through the whole adventure with no wounds!

Vegas Showdown

And it was casino building upstairs ....

Jon:    55
Mark L:    48
Jo:    43
Darren:    43
Mark H:    39

I know nothing about this one sadly, although I did catch a glimpse of Jon's rather lounge-heavy hotel that he'd managed to build. I think there was one place for his punters to eat, one place to gamble, and about 50 sofas to choose from for sitting on.

And that took us to the end of the night. Thanks to everyone for coming along.