board games & card games for all ages
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Monday 28th May 2007
Another Bank Holiday Monday in the pub, and another 9 gamers in to enjoy it!
Players:
David F-F, Faye, Mark L, Mark P, Mel, Neil C, Nick, Rich, Sue
Games Played:
There were five of us in nice and early, but then Rich had to nip home for 5 minutes. When you've only got 5 minutes, there's really only one game that you can play ....
Nick
Mark P: Both Tied first
Sue: Fell off
next
Mel:
First to fall off the board
This was a fun, quick game. We all managed to die at our own hands, by painting ourselves into corners, although Mark really went at my hands, as I had the choice of going out alone, or taking him with me!
All of a sudden we were six players, and this great auction game got another outing ....
Nick:
38
Mark P: 37
Neil: 34
Sue: 30
Rich: 25
Mel: 25
Again, this was a fun & tricky little game of guessing how much to bid and when. Mark managed to win four auctions in the first round, with Sue only getting the two. We all thought Mark had the game in his control, actually, as he also had a couple of vetoes which he used at the end to manipulate the third round. Mel and I discovered that having your hand exposed could cause you some problems, and we were involved in a couple of battles in the third round which - luckily for me - I managed to come out on top of. Neil had the full 27-point Magellan bonus, but his remaining cards weren't enough to overtake Mark and I. We were all still surprised when I managed to pip Mark by a single point, thanks to the 20 points from Cook.
While Pizarro was finishing, David and Faye arrived and played a few games of Fluxx to keep themselves busy ...
Faye:
2
David:
1
That's pretty much all I know about these games. Faye won two of them, and David only won one!
The eight of us split into two groups of four, and this Spiel des Jahres nominee was one of the choices ...
Rich:
4
David: 3
Faye: 2
Nick: 2
This was a first play for most people; I had played before a couple of times (a long time ago), but it obviously didn't help! Rich grabbed a pretty impressive win by stealing two chests in his final turn, after we all had our eyes on David as the leader!
The other four players grabbed this new game of Neil's and gave it its first playing ....
(Castle + Buildings + Stuff)
Mel:
(17 + 19 + 2) 38
Sue: (11 + 23
+ 2) 36
Neil: (26 + 6 + 1) 33
Mark P: (11 + 19 +
1) 31
This looks like a pretty close game, which appeared to be enjoyed by all those playing. Sue had played once before, and was given the task of explaining, which took a while, as Mark was new to Caylus (and it certainly helps if you're already familiar with it when learning this one). Neil looks like he spent most of the game building in the castle, whereas the others all seem to have gone for buildings along the road to grab a few extra points. A seven point spread between first and last is a much closer score than you get from the full Caylus, so that might make things interesting in the future and I imagine this one is going to become quite a regular game for the group.
Meanwhile, the Thief of Baghdad game was over and the four of us decided we hadn't played this one for a while ....
David:
(26 + 3 + 4) 33
Faye: 24
Nick: 22
Rich: (15 + 3) 18
Actually, I guess it was me that decided we hadn't played this for a while, as I was the only one who'd played before! Faye spent the first three turns being assassinated, which makes her second place look pretty impressive. It was mainly my fault really, as I was passing cards that I hoped David would take, only for Faye to take it before he got them! David went for a very Bishop-heavy strategy, which meant I wasn't able to knock any of his buildings down when I tried. Rich managed to get a building of each colour, but it sadly wasn't quite enough to drag him off the bottom!
The group of five became six, with the arrival of Mark L. So this fun little game was chosen, to try and get both groups to finish at the same time.
Mark L: (0 + 0 +
7) 7
Mel: (2 + 10 + 2) 14
Mark P: (0 + 9 + 6) 15
Neil: (8 + 7 + 7) 22
Sue: (16 + 0 + 9) 25
I don't know much about this one, although I did steal a glance over at the end of round one, where Sue seemed to have tried to get the most cards in all of the colours, and missed out by one each time! A score of 16 in the first round is very tricky to come back from! Mark L on the other hand didn't seem to have any trouble in the first couple of rounds, giving him the luxury of scoring a few in the final round and it making no difference at all!
An evening at the pub wouldn't be complete without our usual closer, and this time we had almost the full number!
David:
7
Faye: 6
Nick: 5
Mark L: 4
Mark P: 4
Neil: 3
Sue: 3
Rich: 2
Mel: 1
We played three rounds, and for once managed a clear winner (as well as a clear last place!). David and Faye, despite being a long way from the action, managed to seal a pretty good 1-2 (not that there were any team orders or anything - this isn't Formula 1!), while I failed to collect anything in the last round, as the honest dwarves connected all three times, despite the fact that we tweaked the rules slightly to make it harder for them!
And that brought us to closing time and the end of another fun evening. Thanks to all for coming along.
