board games & card games for all ages

Thursday 15th March 2007

With Sue away, we had just a half dozen in this week. 

Players:

Claire, Mark L, Nick, Roj, Simon, Tim

Games Played:

Poison

Three of us were in first and tried this fun little opener from Reiner Knizia ....

Mark:    (7 + 7 + 0)    14
Nick:    (6 + 2 + 9)    17
Roj:    (7 + 7 + 8)    22

Low score wins, obviously! I had a pretty strong lead after two rounds, but then seemed to become the victim of bullying in the third, which saw me pick up the most points of anyone. Mark played an excellent thrid round to score nothing at all, turning round a six-point deficit to win by three points. This game was fun, but I think would be better with four or five, as with three each player picks a colour to collect, and the others then avoid it.

Dragon Parade

We were now up to four players, and broke out another fun little opener: Same designer as well!

Roj:    21
Mark:    21
Nick:    11
Tim:    10

This was a two-horse race from the first round, as Tim and I just couldn't get the hang of having the dragon end his march where we wanted him to. Mark managed to end one round early, and the points he gained from that helped him tie his score with Roj.

Winner's Circle 

We now had six players, and decided to stick together for a little while to see if anyone else was going to wander along.

Claire:    $2,050
Tim:    $1,550
Mark:    $1,400
Simon:    $1,300
Nick:    $1,250
Roj:    $1,100

This one was a lot of fun, as always. I made the mistake of doing very well in the first two races, then had to sit and watch my horses walk round the track during the third race in the last four positions, while my five opponents ran off with the race. I learned two lessons from this: One, don't take a big lead in the first two races and two, if you do - make sure you back the popular ones in the third race! A good win for Claire, who was the only one amongst us to be playing for the first time!

Princes of Florence

We finally decided to split into two groups of three, and this was the choice of the upstairs guys:

Tim:    61
Roj:    58    (500 florins)
Simon:    58    (200 florins)

By all accounts, this was an incredibly close and tense game, with everyone in with a shout until the very end. A good win for Tim, and a tie-break for second, with both players only a few points behind the winner!

Guatemala Café

And the other three of us decided to try this new aromatic game from Eggertspiele

Nick:    35
Claire:    33
Mark:    22

This was pretty much a learning game for the three of us. I had played it once before (two players, with Sue) but the game was so different in three-player mode, that I'm not counting that! The three of us had a good time with it, and it can be much trickier than you first think as money is incredibly tight throughout the game. You are often put in a position of having to score a colour that isn't that beneficial to you, just to get more cash! The ships didn't seem to get used as much as the other stuff ..... I definitely think this is a game which will get more interesting with a fourth player, and once we have a few more games under our belts. When Claire chose the last scoring, I thought she was going to pip me to the post on a tie-break, until we realised that there was no ship in the harbour for the last type fo coffee, which stopped her scoring as many as we thought she was going to! My handful of one colour of coffee sacks (Mark's strongest colour) made it tricky for him to grab the points he needed.

Tsuro

The six of us got back together for a quick closer before Simon and Claire had to leave us ...

Nick:    Still on the board
Roj:    Last to drop out (forced to steer himself off the board)
Tim:    3rd (killed by Roj)
Mark:    4th (killed by Roj)
Simon:    5th= (forced into a crash by Nick)
Claire:    5th= (forced into a crash by Nick)

This is always a fun and quick little game for half a dozen or more. I got a lucky break early on when I could force Simon and Claire to crash together, leaving my side of the board fairly empty, while the other guys battled it out for second.

Urland

We now dropped down to three players, and so had a quick game of this fun title.

Mark:    31
Roj:    29
Nick:    27

This was a pretty close game all the way through. I kept forgetting that I had an extra action with three players, and so I would plan my two moves very carefully, do them and them be reminded I had a third, which messed up my plans! Mark grabbed the Symbiote gene and gained a vital couple of extra points in the scorings. My ears gene proved completely useless, as I wasn't on the island when panic broke out! Roj was pushing Mark all the way, but couldn't get those extra couple of points, despite having the most guys on the board at the end.

And that was it for another Thursday. Don't forget - we're not here next week! (29th March)