board games & card games for all ages
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
Monday 25th February 2008
Eight of us made it along to the pub this week ....
Players:
David F-F, Faye, Haydn, Neil C, Neil H, Nick, Rich, Sue
Games Played:
Pandemic (1)
The first four people decided on something quick, new and co-operative ....
Difficulty: Normal (5 Epidemic cards)
Neil
C: Operations Expert
Nick: Researcher
Rich: Medic
Sue:
Scientist: All
Lost
This was a pretty close one. We very quickly got our first cure, thanks to the Scientist, and - not long after - had completely eradicated the yellow disease. However, as we all went to fight diseases in Africa and Asia, the cards conspired against us and we let the Western blue disease get a little out of hand, finally succumbing to the 8th outbreak when we had cured three of the four diseases.
We were up to six players now, and knew we had two more on the way, so decided to spend 20 minutes in the mines ....
Sue:
26
Haydn:
23
Neil C: 17
Nick: 14
Rich: 14
Neil
H: 8
This was a load of fun, as always. Rich did much better than usual by actually collecting some gems. Sue was a little on the cautious side, but it seemed to pay off!
Pandemic (2)
We split into two groups of four, and three people who hadn't played the earlier game of this one were keen to give it a go .....
Difficulty: Easy (4 Epidemic cards)
David:
Medic
Faye: Researcher
Neil H: Scientist
Sue: Operations
Expert All
Won!
This looked like a very close game, as they managed to find the fourth cure while they were on 7 outbreaks and there was one card left in the player deck. Just about as close as you can get and still come out on top!
And the other four of us went Civ-building. Neil and I had played the short game in two-player mode, but decided that the Standard game was probably a better choice .....
Haydn:
71
Nick:
65
Rich: 62
Neil
C: 47
Neil and I both over-estimated how long this game was going to take: It basically took the four of us the rest of the evening to play, and the only way we managed to fit it in was - after realising how long Age I was taking to complete - deciding to "burn" cards from the card row at a rate of three per turn, instead of one. This meant that a few cards were not available to certain players, and possibly gives a false result ... but at least we got to the end of the game! I was concentrating on keeping my strength up, which was useful for winning a few good events along the way. Rich dropped his strength at one point, which meant he came under attack from Haydn on one or two occasions. Neil started well, pulling away from the pack by "buying" himself some points, but we soon hauled him back and went past him. This seems to be an excellent game (but not a short one), and we are definitely looking forward to a chance to play the whole thing from start to finish.
With Neil H having to leave us, the other three Pandemic players got to play a couple more games while we were toiling away building our Civilisations.
(Buildings + Chapels + 6's + Palace)
Faye:
(16 + 1 + 16 + 0) 33
David: (21 + 0 + 0 + 7) 28
Sue: (24 + 0 + 0 +
0) 24
Sadly, I don't know much about this one. I'm not sure if David or Faye had played the game before, but if they hadn't, then Sue is obviously a very good teacher!
And they still had time to get some practice in for this year's online tournament!
Sue:
107
David: 101
Faye: 93
It's nice to see Sue win this one - I'm relying on her to do well in the online tournament and save us some money!
And that was all we had time for. In fact, we were a little late leaving (thanks to Through the Ages!), but snuck out as they were locking the doors. See you all next week!
