board games & card games for all ages
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
Monday 30th July 2007
Nine gamers in the pub this week ....
Players:
Andy, Darren, David F-F, Jon, Mark L, Nick, Rachel, Rich, Sue
Games Played:
Oddly, seven of us all turned up at pretty much the same time, so our opener was one that could handle that many ....
Sue:
25
Mark: 17
Darren: 13
Rachel: 13
Andy: 12
Nick: 4
Rich: 0
Rich and I shouldn't be allowed to play push-yer-luck games, as we just keep pushing! Sue ducked out of the first couple of mines quite early, grabbing a few gems on her way out of both. This left everyone else playing catch-up and staying in the mines much longer than they really should. Rich and I stayed in a few far too long, as neither of us would let the other one stay in on his own! One mine collapsed before we'd even got inside, which also helped Sue a little!
While waiting to see if there were going to be any more arrivals, we split into two little groups for a couple of quickies ...
Nick:
9
Rachel: 8
Sue: 5
Always a fun little filler. I actually had five tiles to score my nine points, while Rachel got her 8 from just three! Sue paid the penalty for winning the first game!
The other four went off to Egypt to run through some pyramids ....
Rich:
Won
Darren: 1
Quest behind
Mark: 1 Quest behind
Andy: 2 Quests behind.
(Write-up stolen from Andy's web page):
Mark took an early lead, followed
closely by Darren, who then took the lead spectacularly using a scarab to
complete a second quest on the same turn... Rich however soon caught up, leaving
Andy firmly in last place, always with the wrong pieces of equipment. Darren
approached the kings chamber first, however it was Rich that finally finished
the quest first and was the victor. Darren and Mark were tied one quest behind,
though Darren had more equipment in play. Andy was two quests behind.
Thebes (1)
We were now up to eight players, and we all wanted to play this one, so it was lucky we had two copies!
(Artifacts + Exhibitions + Congress + Knowledge)
Mark:
(44 + 5 + 6 + 8) 63
Andy: (31 + 9
+ 0 + 11) 51
Darren: (21 + 0 + 21 + 8) 50
Rich: (33 + 0 + 0 +
0) 33
Mark looks like he was the best digger in this one. It seems that Darren went all-out for Congress points, but possibly could have spent a little longer actually being an archaeologist rather than talking about it!
Thebes (2)
And in the other game ....
(Artifacts + Exhibitions + Congress + Knowledge)
Nick:
(37 + 0 + 3 + 15) 55
David: (39 + 4
+ 3 + 3) 49
Rachel: (28 + 8 + 0 + 5) 41
Sue: (22 + 0 + 6 +
3) 31
Sue was the unluckiest digger in our game, with a couple of major blanks. Rachel and David went exhibiting, but David possibly used all his best digs a little too early. Having said that, it was my amazing knowledge that won me the game, with a huge 15 bonus points from three categories.
Another reshuffle was made, with five players off to Notre Dame ...
Mark:
67
Darren: 63
Rich: 63
David: 46
Rachel: 43
Sadly, I don't know a whole lot about
this one. It looks like it was a pretty tight contest, with four points
separating the top three guys. David and Rachel must have been on the dodgy end
of some passed cards.
From Mark:
Notre Dame was quite a close run game. Game started with the usual flourish
of coaches travelling through Paris. Darren and I seemed to be getting roughly
the same points from the bribing. Nobody was affected by rats in the entire game
although we had some pretty scary moments. 7 rats in one turn. I had 7 cubes in
the hospital. Rich got maximum points from the Beggar King having his rat
population at zero at the time. He also managed to get a round where only he was
in Notre Dame for a huge 12 points all to himself.
Meanwhile somewhere else in France, the other four gamers went helping to build the castle ...
Nick:
90
Andy: 71
Jon: 63
Sue: 59
This is always an excellent game, if you want my opinion. Especially when I win it, which doesn't happen often! Andy went racing ahead at the start of the game by building in the castle and using the points favours. Jon meanwhile went along the building track, trying to get some cheap buildings; however, whenever he tried he always had the wrong (if any) cubes which definitely restricted his bonuses. I was in the pub for pretty much the whole game, which definitely did me some favours a couple of times. In the final round I managed to build the blue building that gives you two extra favours when built, which gave me the spring I needed to stay in front. Jon came from miles behind in the final couple of rounds and managed to nick third place from Sue.
And finally, the other five guys had a try of this little version of Ra.
David:
(11 + 7 + 11 + 4) 33
Mark: (5 + 7 -
2 + 10) - 5 15
Rachel: (1 + 1 + 1 + 1) + 5 9
Rich: (0 - 5 + 7 + 5) 7
Darren: (0 + 5 - 2 +
3) 6
Again, not a lot known about this one,
as I was busy playing Caylus! David looks like he completely ran away with it,
but I'm sure that wasn't the case ... they wouldn't let him do something like
that. I am impressed with the consistency of Rachel's scoring though!
From Mark:
Razzia saw David get off to a flyer getting the most bodyguards for a five
point bonus that he was to keep throughout the game for all three rounds. He
also managed to find Drivers for his cars in two of the 3 rounds and always had
a trinket to lock in his safe so he didn't lose five points. Darren managed to
get three different trinkets to gain five points in round two where I had
horrible cheques meaning I had to wait until everyone had bought their fill for
me to risk finding a copper and ending the round. I got six useful tiles
including a trinket which I was looking for. I had the full 7 businesses for 10
points at the end where others had only a few but I did suffer at the hands of
having the least money at the end, losing me a valuable five points.
And that was all we had time for. Thanks to those who came along, and we'll see you all next week.
