board games & card games for all ages

Monday 16th April 2007

Back to the pub after the Easter break, and just the seven of us in tonight .... 

Players:

Andrea, David F-F, Lee, Neil C, Nick, Rich, Sue

Games Played:

Serengeti

The first three of us were looking for something quick and easy while we waited for anybody else to arrive and/or finish eating ...

Nick:    (22 + 3)    25
Neil:    18
Sue:    12

A fun little opener, as always. Neil got hit by a penalty once, and I almost made it too difficult for myself by buying a lot of cards early, but getting a set of three at a cost of 1 coin (when the others were broke) was a game-winner for me, I think.

Nottingham

We were now up to 6 players, but stuck with the shorter games in case anyone else was coming ...

Rich:    69
Neil:    62
Nick:    54
Sue:    52
Lee:    41
Andrea:    34

This one is always a lot of fun, as the cards get stolen and people complain about being picked on! Rich ended the game by grabbing the last "special" scoring card, while the Sheriff was still a couple of spaces from returning to Nottingham. 

Notre Dame

We were now up to seven players, and so split into a four and a three. This was the choice of the four:

Neil:    48
Rich:    44
Nick:    41
David:    38

Another excellent game of this new Alea game. I still think I concentrate too much on the rats, instead of grabbing as many points as I can, although this time I felt I had some pretty awful cards passed to me by Rich on a fairly regular basis! Neil got hit by the rats in the last few rounds, but had made good use of the park and Notre Dame, as well as some pretty timely bribes for points. David had more cubes on the board than I've seen before (he actually ran out!), although it didn't seem to help much! Rich and I tried to grab all the messages between us, again to no avail!

Pillars of the Earth

Meanwhile, on the table next door, the three remaining players were building a Cathedral ....

Sue:    52
Lee:    44
Andrea:    43

As is often seen with this game, a little bit of experience can help tremendously in judging the value of the cards. Sue was the only one who had played before, and just edged it in the end. A game which the three of them all enjoyed.

Wikinger

After Notre Dame, the same group of four just had time to squeeze one more game in, so it was off to Scandinavia ...

David:    42
Rich:    38
Neil:    38
Nick:    35

This was another game that looked like the experience of having played before was going to help, as I shot off to a huge lead in the first couple of major scoring rounds. However, I made one crucial mistake in the 5th round by grabbing a warrior who would score me a bunch of points, and then I watched as the last fishermen in the game were snapped up by everyone else, leaving my Vikings starving at the end of the game and me suffering a 12-point penalty. David's fishermen did their job, and his excess food was just enough for him to sneak ahead of the other two and claim a good win.

Blue Moon City

And finally, after building a Cathedral in medieval England, there was just time for this group to rebuild a whole city somewhere in another galaxy ....

Andrea:    5
Sue:    4
Lee:    4

As always with this one, a very close race to the finish and a tight-looking result. Although both Sue and Lee admitted that they weren't close enough to have finished in the next turn or two!

And that was the end of another fun evening in the pub! Thanks to all who came along.