board games & card games for all ages
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Monday 31st March 2008
After a week off for Easter, we had seven gamers in this week.
Players:
David F-F, Haydn, Lesley, Neil C, Nick, Rich, Sue
Games Played:
Neil and Rich were first in, and went for some track-building in the States ...
Rich:
5
Neil: 2
When we arrived, Rich had won the first four rounds of the game to gain a massive lead, but after we got back from the bar things had closed up considerably and both were tied on 5. The next round was declared the last, so that we could all join in, and Rich grabbed the win by three points.
All at once we were up to seven players, and so split into a 3 and a 4. This was the choice of the three ....
Haydn:
42
Lesley: 36
Rich:
27
This is a fairly large spread for a game of SJ, so we can assume that Haydn pretty much had things under control from the start!
Meanwhile, the other four of us were in Spain ....
David:
106
Nick: 89
Sue: 82
Neil: 77
El Grande is always a fun game to play, as long as you don't mind getting done over by your opponents fairly regularly! Before the first scoring (thanks to the cards) I was over 10 points behind everybody, so I was quite pleased with my final showing. Sue was leading the way for the first few rounds, but thanks to a nice play in round 3 David took a pretty healthy lead after the first scores were added up, and after that we just followed him round the scoring track, but never really getting any closer. A great game, and very well played by David.
Meanwhile, the three San Juan players had time to fit this one in ....
Lesley:
85
Rich:
83
Haydn: 74
This was the first game for Haydn & Lesley, and it looks like Lesley picked it up pretty quickly! Of course, Rich was teaching and so can use the excuse that he was too busy making sure everyone knew what they were doing to concentrate on his own game (which is what happens to me whenever you see my name not at the top!).
To fill in some time, the other four of us had a quick two rounds of this one ....
Neil:
(55 + 41) 96
David:
(50 + 41) 91
Sue: (41 + 43) 84
Nick:
(45 + 25) 70
This is a fun little filler, which - because everyone is using the same results from the dice - doesn't rely on as much luck as you would expect. However, I was very unlucky! Actually, we were all waiting on someone rolling an 8 in the second round, but obviously I was relying on it a little more than the others, as I got a whole bunch of zeroes when the 8's didn't show. Take away my score, and it was a pretty close game. Of course, you're meant to play three rounds, and if we had played the third, I had a plan which couldn't fail to come flying through the pack.
We changed the groups a little, and this was the choice of the smaller group this time ...
Neil:
5
Lesley:
4
Rich:
2
A good win for Neil in a game which is (almost) always won by a single point. Rich seems a little way back, so I'm not sure what happened there. My guess would be that he went off in one direction while the other two were at the same half of the city, helping each other build.
Meanwhile, the other four were off to Paris.
Haydn:
55
David:
53
Sue: 52
Nick: 48
This was a very close game. Oddly, we were all in rat trouble as early as the second round, thanks to the doctor turning up at the most inappropriate times; but as the game went on, we all recovered the situation. Haydn took a couple of hits, as did David, so it obviously didn't affect them too badly! I made a couple of mistakes with the cards I kept and the cubes I moved (as well as forgetting my own plan at one point), which meant I was pretty sure I was out of the running, despite having the largest points stack (mainly 1s). Another strange thing was the lack of interest in going to Notre Dame itself, with both Haydn and I earning the maximum 10 points from it in rounds two and three.
And finally .... why break with tradition ?
Sue:
11
Rich:
5
David: 4
Haydn: 3
Lesley: 3
Neil: 3
Nick: 1
A fun closer, as always, with a master class in acting from Sue, sealing a win that she was possibly already on course for. In the first round, the four good guys came out on top, but as Sue connected to the gold, I was the only player to get a singe gold card, while everyone else got a pair! In round two, the three Saboteurs had it easy, giving Sue, Rich and David a few more points. And then in the final round, Sue accidentally let it slip that she was a saboteur, immediately getting broken tools. Then, as the end approached and Neil and I had done an excellent job of keeping the good guys away from the gold, Neil fixed Sue's tools, only to allow her to connect to the gold and win it for the good guys! Excellent stuff .... even though it left me in last place again!
And that was it for another week. Thanks to those that came along, and we'll see you next week.
