board games & card games for all ages
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Thursday 13th September 2007
A much more sensible number in the shop this week, with nine of us meeting up to play some games ....
Players:
Andy, Mark L, Mel, Mike, Neil, Nick, Phil, Roj, Sue
Games Played:
We were rapidly up to seven players, which just happens to be the perfect number for this fun party game. And as it was (almost) Mel's birthday, how could we refuse a party game ?
Nick:
100
Mel: 85
Sue: 70
Roj: 60
Mark: 5
Mike: 0
Phil: 0
This was a fun game, and the first time I'd played it with the full 7 players. I was helped a little by correctly guessing when the Gettysburg Address was, although Mel made a good attempt to catch up in the final round by going "all in" on her correct answer (although I forget what the question was!).
We were now at 8 players, so we went for a couple of short(ish) games to see if anyone else was coming along. This was the choice upstairs ....
(Temples, Towers, Huts)
Andy:
3 (0, 17)
Mike:
2 (1, 19)
Phil: 2 (1,14)
Sue: 2 (0,14)
Don't know a lot about this one, although I'm pretty sure that Andy has played a lot more of this game than the rest of them, so - with that in mind - this looks like a pretty close one! Not that I'm taking anything away from Andy's victory, of course.
Alright ... yes I am. :-)
And the four guys downstairs went off to Venice ....
Mark:
81
Roj: 74
Mel: 64
Nick: 56
This was another excellent game of this one. Every time I play it, I forget how good it is until the game is halfway through and people are starting to be a little more guarded about which cards get played and passed on. It turned into a bit of a battle between Mark and Roj, with each of them trying to end the game while they were in front, but getting overtaken at the same time. Eventually Mark used the Spy to nab the game-ending card from Mel.
We were now up to nine, and we split again into two groups. This was the upstairs choice ....
Mel:
44
Mark: 39
Mike: 37 (9)
Sue: 37 (8)
Roj: 37 (5)
This was enjoyed by all, judging by the reaction when they came downstairs again afterwards. All I know a learnt third hand, really, and that was that Mark and Roj were going for some huge game-winning tactic, but the game came to an end a little before they could make their grand move, and left Mel as the winner. I really must play this one again soon, so I know what the heck I'm talking about.
And the other four of us went buying gems ....
Nick:
89
Neil: 84
Andy: 83
Phil: 82
This was a great game, again enjoyed by everyone who played, and coming down to a very tight finish. Phil took an early lead, and basically slowly extended it throughout the game by concentrating all of his brokers in the city, grabbing points, gems and characters wherever he could. That left three of us mucking around in the market, but only really Neil and Andy going to the black market, as I stopped competing with them after I'd got a few black gems. The ranking of the gems was a little odd, because the same colours moved in the first two rounds, pretty much securing them in position for the rest of the game. After the last few vital white gems were collected, we did the gem scores, which put Phil miles ahead, followed by me, Neil and Andy. However, the black gems were the opposite of that, which meant that the scores now P82, Ni80, Ne80, A74. Then finally we revealed the King's chamber, where just two broker points was the difference between first and last! Andy and I shared the most, giving us 9 each, while Neil picked up 4 for third place. And that's how it finished. Phil dropped from first to last right at the end, and - in an odd way - this was only caused because he had the "wins all ties" character in the last round, so his choices for the king's chamber were very limited. An excellent game.
The downstairs guys were done first, and grabbed this little dice game to give their brains a rest ....
Neil:
(38 + 7 + 7 + 9) 61
Phil: (36 - 6
- 5 + 20) 45
Andy: (35 + 7 - 2) 40
Nick: (32 + 7 - 13)
26
Well, Neil took us apart in this one. The cards came out in a very odd pattern, with all but one of the black sheep turning up at the same time, and me collecting the lot! There's a lit going on in this fun little game, and the components are great, yet there's also plenty of things to think about. Neil managed to grab just the one dog, as well as having exactly the right number of the special sheep. Andy lost two cards because he was dog less, while Phil got the most dogs, along with the bone which was a big bonus, but not enough to catch Neil.
The three remaining from the Puerto Rico game grabbed this quickie ...
Sue:
45
Roj: 42
Mark: 41
I don't know a lot about this one, as I was busy making a mess of the sheep game, and it's a hard game to overhear what's going on, as no one knows who anyone is until the end of the game!
And now we were down to four players. And the only thing we really had time for was another fun little dice game ....
Mark:
5 Stamina left.
Sue: Last to drop
Roj: 3rd to drop.
Nick:
1st= to drop
Andy: 1st= to drop
This is always a silly bit of fun, but sadly I could not roll a single good thing. Andy was in pretty much the same boat, and the pair of us dropped almost as early as we could! Roj and Sue eventually followed , leaving "rocking" Mark with five lives left.
And that was the last action of the night. Thanks to all for coming along.
