board games & card games for all ages

Monday 19th March 2007

Snow on the ground again, but a pretty cold wind brought 13 gamers into the warmth of the pub!

Players:

Darren, David F-F, Jen, Jo, Mark H, Mark L, Mitch, Mo, Nick, Rachel, Rich, Russ, Sue

Games Played:

Serengeti

The same three were first through the door again, and this time we went for this fun little bidding game.

Mark L:    23
Nick:    19
Sue:    15

This is a tricky game with just three players! By the end of it, Mark and I had only two numbers that we were still allowed to bid, while Sue had a couple more options, but only because she's been outbid a couple of times. The three bonus points for leftover cash went to Sue, but it wasn't enough to pull her out of last place. I thought I was getting it, but even if I had I'd have still been one point behind Mark's excellent score.

Portobello Market

While other arrivals grabbed some of the excellent food on offer at the pub, the three of us nipped off to old London town to set up some market stalls:

Nick:    138
Mark L:    127
Sue:    120

A very tight game this one. My timing on placing the final customer, and then the lord, was the difference between first and last in this excellent game, which grows on me a little more with each play.

Ticket to Ride: Europe

All of a sudden we were up to eleven players, and so we split into a five and a six to play a couple of games. This was the choice of the five:

Jen:    138
Mark H:    134
Jo:    123
Russ:    98
Mo:    62

This was a new game to Mo, but I think everyone else had played before (or at least played one version of Ticket to Ride before). It doesn't look like they went very easy on him! I would guess from the score that he got blocked out of his long route, and suffered a bit of a penalty at the end of the game. A close fight between Jen and Mark for first place though!

Lifeboats

And the remaining six players grabbed this evil little game to see who we could throw off the boats!

Rachel:    22
Mark:    18
David:    18
Nick:    15
Sue:    13
Darren:    12

Ask Darren whether it's worth taking an early lead in this game! As soon as we had a target, we all picked on him until he was struggling, when we finally turned our attentions to a few people who had quietly snuck onto an island or two. However, we were too late at spotting how good a position Rachel was in, and we couldn't stop her claiming the win. This game was a load of fun, possibly more so than last time we played, and also the game played much faster than we all remembered it, which was another bonus!

Ark of the Covenant

The groups shuffled around again, and this was the choice of four players ...

Nick:    129
Rich:    122
Sue:    116
Rachel:    101

This was another very close game. As we were working out the scoring at the end, there was one large farm which we were all in apart from Rachel. Had she managed to jump in as well, it would have taken her from last to first place! This is a great adaptation of Carcassonne, with some interesting twists.

Cloud 9

The five guys from Ticket to Ride were finished their game, and went ballooning ...

Jo:    59
Mo:    53
Jen:    39
Russ:    31
Mark H:    28

Not much is known about this game, although it looks like a pretty close one between Jo and Mo, with both of them passing the 50-point mark in the last flight.

Yspahan

The group of four then went off to collect some camels...

Nick:    70
Rich:    59
Rachel:    57
Sue:    42

Another great and quick game of this one, which must surely be a contender for the Game of the Year 2007. Sue never seemed to get going in this one, with the dice scheming against her from the start. Rachel made a potential game-winning roll when she got three of her guys in the most expensive district but, sadly for her, she had no camels to defend herself with when Rich decided to boot her out!

Struggle for Rome

Meanwhile, another group of four was off conquering Rome, Settlers-style!

Darren:    12
Mark L:    9
David:    8
Mitch:    6

This game seemed to be well received by all. When I glanced over, David seemed to be leading the way in bonus points, but obviously his wandering and plundering without bothering to actually conquer anywhere cost him dearly by the end. Mark and Darren pretty much conquered the whole of Spain between them, which put them in good both in a pretty strong position.

Coloretto

And to close the night, the remaining three players decided to end with this fun set-collecting card game.

Nick:    (29 + 33 + 49)    111
Rachel:    (33 + 33 + 44)    110
Sue:    (20 + 49 + 36)    105

A remarkably close playing of this fun little card game. A very strong final round gave me a single point victory over Rachel!

And that took us neatly to 11 o'clock and closing time at the pub. Thanks to all for coming along.