board games & card games for all ages
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Thursday 22nd May 2008
There were eight of us in this week .....
Players:
Darren, Dave F, James, Mike, Nick, Rachel, Roj, Sue
Games Played:
The first four in were keen to try and save the World .....
Game 1
Dave:
(Medic)
James: (Ops Expert)
Mike: (Researcher)
Roj:
(Dispatcher):
All lost due to too many outbreaks (?)
Game 2
Dave:
(Ops Expert)
James: (Researcher)
Mike: (Dispatcher)
Roj:
(Scientist):
All lost again, overrun by one of the diseases (?)
I can't exactly remember how the two games were lost, but it was like listening to the Three Stooges trying to save the World. Except there were four of them. Both games were played on a "medium" difficulty level (five Epidemics).
While all that was going on, the other four of us nipped off to try and complete some train journeys ...
(Round 1 + Round 2 - Incompletes + Bonuses)
Darren:
(46 + 44 - 0 + 40) 130
Rachel:
(30 + 52 - 0 + 37) 119
Sue: (42 + 48 - 5 + 15) 100
Nick: (30 + 30 - 11 +
27) 76
I think I am destined to always come last at this one. I think it was the first time any of us had played with four players, and it is - yet again - a very different experience than playing with two or three, thanks to the fact that you can complete some tickets half way through. Sadly, you then have to dump any trains you haven't used (which lost me a joker, amongst others!). A good win by Darren, in what was really a two-horse race. Well ... It was his new copy of the game, so Sue and I decided not to try very hard. Yeah, that was it.
We mixed the groups up a little, and four went off constructing buildings in the rather colourful city of Metropolys ....
(Highest + Colours + Bonuses + Trendies + Metro - Archaeology
Rachel:
(5 + 12 + 12 + 12 + 1 - 0) 42
Dave:
(10 + 10 + 15 + 9 + 1 - 5) 40
Sue: (5 + 10 + 4 + 3 + 5 - 0) 27
Mike: (5 + 8 + 7 + 3 + 2 -
1) 24
This one looks a little like a two-horse race as well, with Rachel and Dave having a pretty tight battle for top spot. Dave managed to get the two highest-building bonuses and a fait number of his other tasks completed, but in doing so had to pick up a few too many Archaeology markers, and that minus five points proved critical, as Rachel grabbed the win by two points, thanks to spreading her buildings around the different districts pretty successfully.
And while the other group were otherwise occupied, the same four were off to Pompeii ....
Mike:
9 (8 in Volcano)
Sue: 9 (8 in Volcano)
Dave:
8
Rachel: 7
I think this is the first time we've had a tie in this one, and there doesn't seem to be a second tiebreaker beyond the amount of little Neapolitans in Vesuvius. Quite surprising, really, as this is always a close game, and this one looks like no exception. And it was quite a noisy game too, as we could hear Rachel protesting loudly while we were upstairs playing ....
... with the "I" deck of cards, for a change ....
(Fields + Pastures + Wheat + Veg + Sheep + Pigs + Cows - Unused Space + Stables + Rooms + Family + Cards + Bonus)
James:
(-1 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 3 - 0 + 0 + 10
+ 15 + 8 + 0) 44
Darren:
(2 + 2 + 2 + 3 - 1 + 3 + 2 - 4 + 0 + 6 + 15 + 7 + 0) 37
Nick: (4 - 1 + 4 + 4 + 1 - 1 + 1 - 4 + 0 + 6 + 12 + 5 +
4) 35
Roj (1 + 2 + 1 - 1 + 2 + 1 - 1
- 3 + 1 + 4 + 12 + 4 + 0) 23
Once again, James comes out on top, despite the rest of us trying our best to have anyone but him win the stupid thing! The "I" deck brings about some interesting hands: Darren's hand seemed to have a lot of cards that could screw over the other players, bring him a few bits and pieces as other players chose certain actions. My hand was heavily biased towards ploughing and sowing wheat and vegetables; although it took me until about the 11th round to get things going, I still managed to have ridiculous numbers of crops by the end of the game (but sadly, no pastures and very few animals). James' hand was very food-heavy, and by the time we got to the 8th round or so, he was earning 6+ food every round, meaning that he could concentrate on building, farming and having children, without having to worry about feeding his workers. And Roj's hand is probably not worth talking about, as nothing in there seemed to go well with anything else!
As we were finishing up farming, the guys downstairs had time for this quickie ....
Dave:
225
Rachel:
168
Sue: 149
Mike: 142
I don't know much about this one, as we arrived just as it was finishing up. A pretty convincing win for Dave, though!
mike had to leave us, so we thought we'd have time for a quick game of this one before our traditional closer ..... How wrong we were!
Darren:
(Sheriff)
Rachel:
(Deputy)
Sue:
(Deputy) All
win
James:
(Renegade) Last to die.
Roj: (Outlaw) Third to die.
Dave: (Outlaw) Second to die.
Nick: (Outlaw) First to die.
This game was made a little easier for the good guys, thanks to the bad guys knocking themselves out of the game. James was kind of on the right track, getting rid of all the outlaws (those that didn't get rid of each other) while trying to pass himself of as a Deputy, and then turning on the good guys. The outlaws nearly had a moment of glory when the dynamite exploded while the Sheriff was holding it, but he unfortunately recovered!
And that was all there was time for, as our trip to the Wild West took a little longer than expected.
Don't forget: There's no pub night on Monday (Bank Holiday), so the next one is Thursday 29th May. See you then.
