board games & card games for all ages
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Monday 16th July 2007
We had five regulars away for one reason or another, so it was no real surprise when there was just the three of us in the pub! But we managed to rattle through a whole bunch of games ....
Players:
Nick, Rich, Sue
Games Played:
Rich had brought this one along, and Sue and I hadn't played it for a long time, and rarely with more than two players.
Nick:
120
Rich: 93
Sue: 83
Being the only person to get a Shopping Center onto the board helped me to the win here. While Sue and Rich were getting the two churches in position, I managed to use up the spaces near the City Hall, after I had made sure the tram was headed that way. After that, all I had to do was keep scoring the odd points to preserve the lead. Luckily for me, I drew both of the factories, which made it difficult for the other two to mess with my plans!
Ticket to Ride (with the USA 1910 Expansion)
Sue chose this old favourite, and we added all of the extra cards from the 1910 expansion for a mega-game.
Nick:
135
Sue: 118
Rich: 115
This was a lot of fun, and incredibly tight. I kept less tickets than the other two, but it soon turned out that their tickets were all on the East coast, while I had a cross-country route to complete. So, I got the New York route I needed early, then watched them fight over the routes while I slowly advanced across the country. Rich managed to complete the most tickets by some distance, giving him a 15-point bonus, while I beat Sue to the 10-point longest train bonus by a single point - If I hadn't got that 10 points, Sue would have won the game. Pretty close!
This is a game that Rich had been wanting to play for a few weeks, so it was an (almost) automatic choice for him.
Rich:
91
Nick: 55
Sue: 42
This was an interesting game, which turned out to be quite short, as Sue had an uncanny knack of pulling out the Epoch tiles which triggered the scoring and ultimately the end of the game. Rich was always a little ahead, and - right at the end of the game - managed to start a war which put a whole bunch of "cups" into a continent in which he had all of the followers. Of course, this meant that he got a final 8 points per follower at the end of the game, adding another 40 points to his score! Sue and I both made the mistake of not using all of our personal scorings, as we didn't expect the game to end quite so soon!
Sue's choice again, and it was camel time!
Nick:
98
Sue: 80
Rich: 75
All of my practice against the computer (!) paid off, as I managed to grab some early camels and start filling the caravan as soon as I could. It took Rich a little while to get the camels he needed, but pretty soon (thanks to the dice) we were all rolling in both money and beasts, which gave Rich and I the chance to build all of the buildings. I got some lucky dice near the end of the second week, giving me the whole of the vase region with extra points, and I then managed to hold onto that lead during the final week, as the top half of the board didn't come into play at all until the 7th day!
Another game that Rich had brought along, and another one that Sue and I hadn't played for quite some time ...
Nick:
162
Rich: 129
Sue: 121
This is always a good game, and probably at its best with four or less players. I managed to get a huge city wall going before the first scoring (14, I think it was), and by the end of the game that was up to about 23, probably netting me 40 bonus points, which seems to have been enough to swing the game. We all played the "don't buy anything unless it's for the exact amount" strategy, although I think we all broke that rule a little when we found something we really needed. A good game, and one that I was happy to play again after quite a while away form it.
And finally, we just had time for a little closer to end the night (and Saboteur with three didn't seem so appealing!)...
Rich:
(30 + 28 + 19) 77
Nick: (24 + 18 + 13) 55
Sue: (25 + 31 - 10)
46
Rich had control of this one from the start, even though Sue grabbed the 6-point bonus in the first round. In the second round, Rich grabbed the bonus but Sue scored the most to close the gap. As I had scored badly in the first two rounds, I finally got enough jokers in the final round to run one fireman all the way up the ladder, hoping to catch the others with a handful of minus points, as all the other firemen were still at -1. However, my plan backfired as Rich has a whole bunch of cards for my front guy! I did manage to make a big dent in Sue's score, which allowed me to jump past her and spend a rare night out of "the red"!
And that was it for a quiet week in the pub. Hopefully, the numbers will be back up next week.
