board games & card games for all ages
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Thursday 10th April 2008
Nine of us in the shop this week ....
Players:
Darren, Dave F, Jonathan, Mel, Nick, Rachel, Steve P, Sue, Tim
Games Played:
The first five of us decided to try out this new one ....
Rachel:
(Claudius) Won by Eating & Drinking
Steve: (Caligula)
Darren: (Cassius)
Dave: (Agrippina)
Nick: (Vespasianus until he got poisoned, then
Septimus) All lost
This was a fun game, with a lot of laughs .... but how can you go wrong from the designer of Saboteur (one of the group's favourites). Steve was Caligula and a couple of daggers appeared very early in the game (three daggers and the conspirators win). Darren was pretty obviously one of the conspirators, as was I ... but only after some sneaky business forced me to poison my own food, and incapacitate my first character (who was just greedy). Dave was trying to get a bunch of gifts, but they refused to appear until it was too late. Meanwhile, Rachel was slowly eating, drinking and dancing her way to success! A lot of fun, this one.
While we were dining, some worms were cooking upstairs ....
Mel:
13
Tim:
2
Jonathan:
0+ 4 + 12 + 5 + 20 +
4) 116
I know nothing about this one .... Although that's a pretty one-sided score!
We were now already down to 8 players, as Jonathan had to leave quite early, so a couple of longer 4-player games were on the cards ...
(Points + Symbols + Tools + Huts + Farmers + Shamen + ???)
Dave:
(119 + 0 + 0 + 63 + 50 + 2) 234
Steve: (100 + 1 + 0 + 81 + 0 + 0 +
1) 183
Darren: (70 + 49 + 27 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 3) 149
Tim: (85 + 16 + 20 + 0 + 0 + 6 +
3) 130
This was quite a spread, having previously had a couple of quite close results in plays over the last week or so. It seems that Dave's concentrating on a couple of types of card paid off, added to the fact that he'd claimed more buildings than anyone else as well! Where he got all the resources from I have no idea .... The dice must have been working well for him! I have no idea what that last figure is in the scoring, but we have forgotten to count it in previous games! Luckily, it doesn't look all that important in determining the winner! I promise to check the rule book when I get home.
And the downstairs group tried another new arrival ....
Rachel:
9
Sue: 6
Mel: 4
Nick:
3
This is a very good game, which I am very much looking forward to playing again. It took a while for the way the game worked to sink in, as it is unusual to have all your resources represented on the board, rather than in front of you. I think it will also help when you know what all of the buildings do without having to check every few minutes! A very good game, though, and enjoyed by all.
After Neuland, we decided to try something that didn't need quite so much brain power ....
Rachel:
41
Sue:
24
Nick: 20
This is basically "Lost Cities - The Board Game", and in fact the American version is going to be exactly that. However, we all quite liked the Celtic theme that this game has, and enjoyed the little twists that make it different to just playing multi-player Lost Cities. However ... the "don't start all 5 columns" rule of thumb still applies - That's exactly what I did, and one of the reasons I came last!
The guys upstairs were off to space once more .....
Dave:
78
Darren: 37
Steve: 24
Tim: 23
This looks like it was even more one-sided than last week's trip into space .... Dave needs a handicap.
And finally downstairs, another new arrival ...
(Trendy + Metro - Archaeological + Card)
Sue:
(6 + 7 - 4 + 30) 39
Nick:
(0 + 2 - 0 + 24) 26
Rachel: (9 + 0 - 1 +
9) 17
This is a clever little game. Very simple, cut after a little while you realise there is a lot more to it than it first seemed. We played the family version, which we probably won't do again, as the "expert" version isn't a whole lot more complicated, and seems slightly better balanced. The "secret scoring" card that Rachel had seemed much harder to achieve than either Sue's or mine, but that seems to be resolved in the full version. A good win for Sue in the end, stopping Rachel getting a 100% evening!
And that was all we had time for this week. Thanks to those that came along.
