board games & card games for all ages

Monday 26th March 2007

Spring is here and a dozen gamers were out and about this week ....

Players:

Darren, David F-F, Gordon, Mark H, Mark L, Mitch, Mo, Nick, Rachel, Rich, Sue, Tim

Games Played:

Poison

The first six were ready to go, and this fun little opener seemed to fit the bill perfectly:

Darren:    (0 + 4 + 4 + 6 + 2 + 0)    16
Nick:    (2 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2)    16
Mark H:    (2 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 2 + 5)    23
Rachel:    (7 + 0 + 4 + 8 + 3 + 2)    24
Sue:    (9 + 7 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 15)    33
Mo:    (11 + 3 + 6 + 10 + 13 + 5)    48

This is a great little opener, although it took a lot longer when playing with the full six players than it had done previously. The trick seems to be to focus on a colour, but try and be as quiet as possible about it, so that all the poison isn't immediately thrown in your direction!

Loco!

While we were doing that, Gordon and Rich arrived and decided to find novel ways to amuse themselves ...

Gordon:    43
Rich:    23

This was the first little game that occupied them for all of five minutes. It didn't seem to go down very well, which makes me think it may be better with more players.

Dragon Parade

The pair of them picked this one up next, and decided to carry on playing until the game of poison was finished.

Gordon:    30
Rich:    27

In all, they played six rounds of this one (as opposed to "one for each player", as per the instructions), so it must have been an improvement on the previous one! Again, not at its best with just two, as we had a lot of fun with this one last week with four players.

Guatemala Café

We were suddenly up to 10 players, and so we split into a four and a six, so that a few people could try this excellent new arrival.

Sue:    32
Nick:    29
Gordon:    24
Rachel:    17

This was the first time we'd played the game as a four-player, and it worked extremely well. You don't actually need a whole lot of points to win the game, and perhaps we all should have blocked a few more scorings than we did, assuming that they weren't worth blocking if they were for only a few points. I went very big in one colour, which meant that I was going to have to wait for people to run out of coffee sacks of that colour before I could cash in, but it was (almost) worth the gamble. Rachel gambled on Sue's hand when calling the final scoring, but Sue managed to block it with the right sack, leaving her the only person who had passed the coffee on the scoring track (in fact, the coffee passed her!). A good game, enjoyed by all.

Metro

The six other players were off to create the Parisian underground system  ...

Mark H:    52
Darren:    38
David:    32
Rich:    28
Mark L:    25
Mo:    14

I don't know a whole lot about this one, although - as I understand it - Mark H was way ahead by the halfway stage and looking fairly unstoppable, which proved completely accurate!

Traumfabrik

After the coffee growing, it was time to nip over to Hollywood to create some movies ...

(Films + Oscars + Contracts)

Gordon:    (57 + 25 + 9)    91
Nick:    (47 + 25 + 14)    86
Sue:    (40 + 25 + 21)    86 
Rachel:    (35 + 5 + 4)    44

This was another fun and tense auction game, with Gordon just edging Sue and I out of contention. Rachel suffered a little by always getting last choice at the parties, and my second choice in the very last party was enough for me to complete one final film, and at the same time stop Rachel completing a particularly terrible movie, which would have stolen my "worst film" Oscar away from me!

Santiago

Two more arrivals had joined the group of six, causing another split into a five and a three. This is where the five players went ...

Darren:    100
Mark H:    98
Rich:    90
Mo:    66
David:    56

This one looks like it was a pretty tight three-way battle. It always amazes me how the result of this game can come down to adding one extra cash to a bribe halfway through the game, and that being the one point that swings it by the end.

For Sale

The groups all shuffled around again, with some people deciding it was time to go, and others keen for another game or two ...

(Cheques + Cash)

Darren:    (44 + 8)    52
Nick:    (41 + 6)    47
Rich:    (45 + 1)    46
Sue:    (43 + 2)    45
Rachel:    (38 + 1)    39
David:    (27 + 7)    34

I was surprised how many hadn't played this great little filler before, but it didn't stop Darren claiming the win first time out! David went for buying a couple of  cheap properties, saving his cash and hoping to sell them for a lot, which I thought was quite a smart tactic until we added the scores up!

Gloria Mundi

Meanwhile, the remaining three players were all trying to flee from the Goths ...

Mitch:    12 steps from Carthage
Mark L:    14 steps from Carthage
Tim:    22 steps from Carthage

This was the first time I've seen this game end by the Goths reaching Rome before anyone had got (even slightly close) to Carthage. There was a lot of sabotage and back-stabbing in this one, and it seems like as soon as the opportunity was there to destroy a building, it was taken. A good win for Mitch, who came out victorious by the dubious method of being a little over halfway to safety!

Saboteur

And finally .... I was wondering how many weeks it would take before our favourite Thursday night closer made the transition to Mondays!

Rachel:    8
David:    8
Rich:    7
Sue:    5
Darren:    3
Nick:    2

I feel like I spent the whole of this game with broken equipment, despite the fact that I was trying to be as honest as possible (at least for the first two turns). No one managed to pick up gold in all three rounds, although Rachel scored big in the first round by finding the lion's share of the treasure. 

And once more, 11 o'clock came round and we packed our bags and left. Thanks everyone for turning up again! Same time next week ... bring a bag of games!