board games & card games for all ages

Thursday 15th February 2007

Half term week, and suddenly we're up to a (pretty full) seventeen gamers ...

Players:

Andy, Claire, Darren, Dave F, James, Jen, Jo, Jon, Mark H, Mark L, Nathan, Neil, Nick, Rachel, Simon, Sue, Tim R

Games Played:

Klunker

The first several people in disappeared upstairs with a big game of Starfarers planned (report later), so the next few in sat down to this quickie from the designer of Bohnanza ...

Nick:    14
Sue:    13
Jo:    11
Mark H:    8
Mark L:    6

This is a nice little game which definitely has some similarities with Bohnanza, but plays in a lot less time and causes fewer arguments!  I may have said something similar to that last week ... I must change my material.

Yspahan

Meanwhile, a few more wandered in and nipped off with a copy of this excellent Ystari game ...

Simon:    69
Andy:    68
Claire:    54

I don't know a whole lot about this one, although it was a pretty tight ending, with Simon choosing his last turn to push one of Andy's little guys onto the caravan, losing Andy the few points he needed to win.

Rat-a-Tat-Cat

In an effort to co-ordinate timings with the rest of the group, we downstairs people tried another quick (and rather silly) card game ...

Jo:    72
Nick:    85
Mark H:    105
Mark L:    107
Sue:    110

This was pretty much a two-way fight between Jo and I, but sadly I made a huge mistake with a couple of rounds to go by swapping a very bad card for a good one. Jo and I both then suffered equally in the final round, but Jo's memory proved a little better than mine and she hung on for the win.

Fagin's Gang (1)

The 8 players from the two games above now split into two groups of four and - after some squabbling about who was going to play what, we both decided to play this new arrival from UK-based Ludorum Games

Mark L:    3
Simon:    1
Andy:    0
Mark H:    0

Mark L taught this one to three guys who hadn't played it before, and the experience showed as he raced away (helped by a constable or two) to a comfortable victory.

Fagin's Gang (2)

Meanwhile, the other four of us played the same game downstairs.

Sue:    3
Nick:    2
Claire:    2
Jo:    1

Two of us had played this one before, and this game was a much closer affair. In fact, I had the perfect chance to win the game but forgot to trade some of my goods on my turn. What made it worse was I announced this fact, and at the same time reminded Sue to do exactly the thing I forgot, and she pipped me to the post on the very next turn!

Keythedral

Meanwhile, more gamers had come in out of the rain, and the four of them sat down to this excellent game ...

Neil:    48
Jen:    41
Jon:    29
James:    23

I know very little about this one, despite being sat right next to it! I'm pretty sure it was Neil and Jen's first games, which is something Jon and James would be happy for me not to mention. So I won't.

Diamant

The eight Fagin's Gangers were back together and looking for a quick game or two ...

Sue:    26
Andy:    15
Simon:    14
Jo:    9
Claire:    9
Mark L:    7
Nick:    4
Mark H:    0

Sue absolutely wiped the floor with us in this one, mainly by being cowardly and running away whenever possible. Not necessarily the most impressive way to win, but it worked!

Tsuro

And time for another 8-player game before a few people had to leave us ...

Nick:    Still on the board
Jo:    Last to leave the board (enforced suicide)
Claire:    3rd (also enforced suicide)
Mark L:    4th
Sue:    4th (both at the hands of Jo)
Mark H:    6th (killed by Nick)
Simon:    7th (killed by Claire)
Andy:    First to go (killed by Simon, but kind of walked into it)

This was a fun 10 minutes once again, and there was a point where four of us looked like we were all doomed at the hands of Jo, but she managed to find the one tile that kept us all alive, allowing me to escape to a far corner fo the board where I could hide like a big coward!

Nottingham

Meanwhile, the Keythedral players went off to Nottingham for some stealing from the rich ...

Jon:    84
James:    82
Jen:    74
Neil:    66

In an almost perfect reversal of their Keythedral result, Jon turned the tables and came out on top in this one.

Experiment

Two of us had to leave, but the remaining six were still looking for a quick game to keep them going until everyone was back together for the finale ...

Sue:    15 (from 7 tasks)
Andy:    15 (from 4 tasks)
Mark H:    13
Mark L:    13
Jo:    11
Nick:    9

This was another good win of the night for Sue, who was by far the most productive in rattling through her tasks cards. The more we play this game, the less people take risks! However, Sue's one risk that paid off could well have been the difference between coming first or second.

Starfarers of Catan

And finally, the five guys from upstairs were finished their game of Starfarers!

Darren:    15
Rachel:    14
Dave :    13
Tim:    13
Nathan:    9

Very little is known about this game, although it looks like it was a pretty close one!

Saboteur

And to end the night, a few other people had to leave us, and we were down to exactly ten for our end of the night tour to the mines:

Jo:    7
Darren:    7
Andy:    6
Rachel:    5
Nick:    4
Mark L:    4
Mark H:    4
Dave:    4
Jen:    3
Sue:    0
   
Another great fun game of this one, with Sue managing to be a Saboteur for all three rounds, proving that honesty is sometimes the best policy! In the third round, all four saboteurs were sitting one after the other and, had we known this from the beginning, we would have done a much better job than we did!

And that was the end of a very busy night. Don't forget ... there is NO Thursday night gamers next week, although we are back earlier in the week at The Famous Lion pub on Monday 19th February.