board games & card games for all ages
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Monday 4th February 2008
Seven of us in the pub this week ....
Players:
Alex, David F-F, Faye, Gordon, Nick, Rich, Sue, Tim
OK ... so that's eight people. I can't count.
Games Played:
Sue nipped off to the shops, so the other three of us early arrivers jumped into this quickie while we were waiting for any others to turn up ....
Gordon:
105
Nick:
84
Rich:
80
This is a great little opener, taking about 20 minutes for the three of us. Gordon made it pretty tricky to keep him blocked, and he has the largest caravan group of each half, securing a fairly comfortable win. Rich and I spent a little too much effort looking for fish.
We were up to five by now, and decided on another quickie while we were waiting for anyone else ...
(Cats + Mice)
Gordon:
(41 + 18) 59
Alex:
(50 + 0) 50
Sue: (23 + 20) 43
Nick: (8 + 24) 32
Rich:
(-3 + 13) 10
Gordon only bought one lot of cards, but it was probably the strongest of the game! Rich pretty much assured us all he was going to claim last place, and didn't let us down - the victim of being the start player, ,and everyone but him passing the first couple of auctions! Alex stole a good lot of cards from me at one point, as we both (unknowingly) had 18 mice, and I made a bid of 17 which was overbid by one - Of course, had I bid 18 I'd have won them!
We were now up to 7 players, and split into two groups. This game had been in the bag for the last few games nights, so it as about time it actually got played ....
Gordon:
31
Nick:
21
Rich: 20
Alex:
17
This was a bit of a learning game. After a few turns, we realised that everyone (apart from me, of course) had forgotten that when placing two walls, they had to go in different provinces. This meant that everyone (except me, of course) had already cheated a little in the early stages. And then it only dawned on us - about three quarters of the way through the game - exactly how the Mongol scoring was going to kick in when it did. We were just assuming that the owner of each province was going to take the hit, but then we all realised - a little too late - that it was going to be the owners of the walls on the Mongol side. Definitely a learning experience, and the second game will be a lot different.
And the other three decided to get some sneaky practice in for this year's online tournament ....
David:
115
Sue:
114
Faye:
100
This was the first game for David and Faye, so those scores are pretty impressive. A very close finish ... Looks like the game may have been decided by how much cash was left over.
Chang Cheng finished a little before St Pete, and so the four of us nipped off to Egypt for some auction-based entertainment:
Gordon:
44
Rich:
39
Nick: 32
Alex:
14
Yet again, Ra plays completely differently to any game I've played before (and - according to BGG - I've played it over 50 times). We didn't see many Ra tiles at all in the first round, but plenty of Civilisations and Floods, which meant that hard times were to come later on! Alex ended round one with the 1, 2 and 4 suns, which meant she never actually managed to buy a single tile in round two! At the end, it looked like it was going to be close between Rich and Gordon, but Gordon's highest suns and my lowest took five points away from me and gave them to him, giving him a nice five-point victory.
Alex had to leave us as Tim arrived, and so we mixed the groups up a little, and three players went off to Catan ....
Sue:
10
Gordon: 8
Faye: 5
A good win for Sue in this one, although there was a little underhand trading going on!
And the final game for the other four was this excellent new game in the Alea series ....
Rich:
79
Nick: 77 (49, on top)
Tim: 77 (49, below)
David: 70
David was constantly reminded how many people died at his hands the last time he attempted this one, but still he persevered! In fact, this turned out to be the best and closest game of this one that we had played, with everyone in with a shout as the game drew to a close. I managed to stay in touch, despite never building a third palace. Rich was a bit stuck early on, as he missed out on a doctor as we faced two early plagues, however he realised that he'd employed all the people he needed by the 8th month, allowing him to buy as many points as he could between then and the end of the game ... and it turned out to be just enough! An excellent game this one - gets better with every play.
And that was the lot for this week. Thanks to those who came along.
