board games & card games for all ages

Monday 12th November 2007

Despite the cold weather, we had ten of us in the pub this week. 

Players:

Gordon, Haydn, Lesley, Mark H, Mark L, Mark P, Mel, Nick, Rich, Sue

Games Played:

Drakon

Three of us, and a tradition Shire Gamers opener ....

A quick and fun start to the evening, as I set up a nice little income system with Mark stealing Sue's coins so that I could steal them from him.

Felix - The Cat in the Sack

(Cats + Cash)

Sue:    (30 + 20)    50
Mark L:    (35 + 13)    48
Nick:    (1 + 25)    26
Rich:    (14 + 0)    14

This really is a lot of fun, although a bad take early on can put you completely out of the running. Which is what happened to both Rich and I! However, it's still a fun game to play, trying to bluff the others into buying some rubbish.

Kingsburg

There were seven of us in now, so we split into a couple of groups for some longer games. This was the choice of the gang of four ...

Mel:    36
Nick:    32
Sue:    31
Rich:    27

We're all still enjoying this one, although I think we taught Mel a little too well, as we couldn't catch her once she started to get away. I kept trying to keep up, but my four dice just weren't performing! A fun game, enjoyed by all four of us.

Key Harvest

And the group of three were off building fields ...

Gordon:    40
Mark L:    37
Mark P:    28

This was thoroughly enjoyed by the three involved, although I don't know a whole lot about the game. It sounded like there was a fair amount of screwage going on, with people buying each other's field tiles despite the high prices being set to try and reserve them. A game that I have only played once, but really must try again soon. And a winning return to Shire Gamers for Gordon, who is still alive, despite all the rumours.

San Juan

While those two larger games were taking place, three more had arrived and played a couple of shorter ones while they were waiting for the rest of us. This was the first ...

Haydn:    31
Mark H:    27
Lesley:    27

Another one I know nothing about, as it was taking place in a different part of the pub, but a nice (narrow) win for Haydn.

Metro

And this was the other ....

Mark H:    70
Lesley:    63
Haydn:    54

And then Mark and Lesley got their revenge for the previous game, beating Haydn into third in this fun rail/puzzle game set in Paris.

We were down to nine players now, and opted for two more bigger games to end the evening ...

In the Year of the Dragon

This was the choice of the group of five ...

Mark H:    90 
Mark L:    77
Sue:    73
Mark P:    65
Lesley:    52

A good win for Mark H in this rather punishing game of desperately trying to avoid plague, famine, taxes, and various other misfortunes! 

Galaxy Trucker

And the remaining four decided to boldly go off into space ...

Nick:    77
Rich:    76
Mel:    30
Haydn:    19

This seems to be a good example of a game that helps if you've played it before! Rich and I were the experienced ship builders (although that didn't completely excuse us from some very dodgy connections), while Mel and Haydn were new to the game. After a very friendly first mission (which gave Rich a pretty nice start), we should have realised that things were going to get worse! Haydn's ship took a real beating in the second mission, with most of it flying off into space before he limped home. In the third mission, two consecutive epidemics wiped out almost everyone's crews, but - luckily for me - I managed to save four crew members, and then - with a single flying day remaining - I sold three of them an abandoned ship for 3 space credits, which turned out to be just enough for me to overtake Rich in money at the final count. This one is always a load of fun!

And that was all we had time for. Thanks for coming along.