board games & card games for all ages

Thursday 8th February 2007

Thirteen seems to be our popular number at the moment ...

Players:

Andy, Claire, Darren, Jo, Mark H, Mark L, Mike, Nick, Rachel, Roj, Simon, Sue, Tim R

Games Played:

Pickomino

After several false starts (as more people kept coming while we were setting up games for less!), seven players sat down for a "quick" game of barbecued worms ...

Tim:    6
Mike:    4
Mark L:    3
Mark H:    1
Darren:    1
Jo:    0
Rachel:    0

This opener always goes down well, despite the maximum number of players making the game a little long to really be called a "quickie".

Klunker

Another five were in and raring to go, so while the worms were still being won and lost downstairs, we went trading jewellery ....

Nick:    16
Andy:    13
Simon:    10
Claire:    8
Sue:    4

This was a first game for everyone bar Sue and I, who had played once before with three. I like this one a lot ... it has all the feel of Bohnanza, without the "Why won't you ever trade with me?" conversations, and it plays in half the time! A very clever little game.  

Caylus

Both games finished at roughly the same time, Jo and Rachel left us, and the remaining 11 split into two groups. This one was the choice of the group of five ...

Roj:    75
Mark H:    71
Nick:    67
Darren:    65
Mike:    50

This was a first play for Mike of this excellent game, and - against four guys who had played before - he didn't really stand a chance! It's definitely a game you need one or two plays at to get in the running, although Roj pretty much had us all on the run from about halfway through!

Railroad Tycoon

Meanwhile, the group of six had the space upstairs to spread this enjoyable (and huge) game out on the three tables ...

(Points + Tycoon bonus - Shares)

Mark L:    (89 + 6 - 6)    89
Tim:    (79 + 8 - 10)    77
Sue:    (62 + 6 - 4)    64
Andy:    (63 + 0 - 4)    59
Simon:    (49 + 5 - 6)    48
Claire:    (32 + 0 - 7)    25

Quite a range of scores in this one, although I don't know much about the game other than that.  

Killer

And - after those two big games - time for another "quickie" to end the night with.

Sue:    Still alive
Roj:    Last to die
Mark H:    3rd
Mark L:    4th
Nick:    5th
Darren: 6th
Andy:    First to die!

This is an unpublished prototype game that Darren had brought along, designed by a friend of his. It actually provided a fair number of laughs, and is the sort of "take that" elimination game that would go down well with the Munchkin / Steve Jackson crowd. Also, this is another game where "quickie" doesn't really apply!

And that was all we managed to get in this week. A couple of big meaty games in the middle making the scorekeeper's job slightly easier for a change!

Checkout the slightly revised schedule for the next couple of weeks, and we'll see you all next Thursday.