board games & card games for all ages
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Monday 21st July 2008
There were nine of us in this week .....
Players:
David
F-F, Gordon, Haydn, Jonathan, Lesley, Neil C, Nick, Rich, Sue
Games Played:
The first three of us decided to play this quickie while we were waiting ....
Jonathan:
86
Sue:
80
Nick: 75
A pretty close game, this one was all about blocking the next player and less about trying to get a big score yourself. The one time Jonathan decided to let Sue in a little and pass, he obviously chose correctly, as this move ultimately got him the large area he needed to edge ahead of the two of us.
We were now up to 5 players, but were still expecting more, so we decided to play a few rounds of this until someone else came along ....
Nick:
23
Rich:
21
Sue: 19
Jonathan: 18
Gordon:
16
As it turns out, one round was all we had time for! Luckily, I was ahead at this point, and decided it would be unfair on the newcomers if we started a second round.
We were now up to 9 players, so we split into two groups. But after that, it turned out to be one of those nights when the timing was never right for the groups to get mixed up a little ....
This was the first choice of the group of four .....
Neil:
98
Sue:
88
Gordon: 87 (£3)
Nick: 87 (£1)
This is an interesting little game. The rules sound a little complicated at first, but it's actually all very simple when you play the game. We ran out of water cubes at one point (a fairly common problem, I believe), but Neil had more than enough blue cubes to spare, as he only really needed them at the end of the game! Neil had played half a game before, but that little experience seemed to help. He beat the rest of us (who were pretty closely matched) thanks to mining a couple of mines for free in the middle of the game, something the rest of us didn't manage until the final round (and one of us never at all!). My mines were all exhausted by the last round, so what looked like a lead vanished in the final investment phase!
And the other five gamers were off to India ....
Haydn:
39
Jonathan:
34
David: 32
Lesley: 22
Rich:
21
I have no idea what happened during this one and - to be honest - it's quite a while since I last played this, so I can't remember if those are high scores, low scores, or what ..... Still, a pretty good win for Haydn by the look of it!
The group of four decided to try this quickie to see if we could time it's ending with the other group ....
Nick:
12
Neil:
10 (8)
Gordon: 10 (7)
Sue: 10 (7)
This was a pretty close game, and an unusual one as well (based on my limited playings of this clever little card game). Almost every time a boat reached Carthage, two boats got there at the same time, meaning that the pirates were much less of a threat and merchandise was sold a lot quicker, leading to Neil and I both getting 8 tokens after only maybe five paydays.
The Taj Mahal game finished much quicker than we thought it would, so the group of five needed to find a 45-minute game to play ....
Lesley:
Winner
Rich: Sheriff
Haydn:
David:
2nd to die (Deputy)
Jonathan: First to die (Outlaw)
I really don't know a lot about this one, including the result, as there's nothing on the score sheet. I know Jonathan was first to go, although there may have been an element of "Shoot me, I have a bus to catch" in that. Rich managed to go on a killing spree to get rid of his deputy, but I have no idea if Lesley won as the Renegade or as an Outlaw! There was a very loud moment when Lesley was celebrating getting out of jail; having never seen anyone quite so happy for that to happen before, a quick check revealed that she had been in jail for about 5 turns, rather than the 1 turn stated in the rules! No wonder she was happy .... although I have a feeling that sitting in jail stopped her getting attacked by anyone else!
As Bang! still had a little while to go, the gang of four went off to Puerto Rico ....
(VP + Buildings + Bonus)
Sue:
(29 + 14 + 0) 43
Neil:
(16 + 18 + 6) 40
Nick: (18 + 12 + 7) 37
Gordon:
(20 + 16 + 0) 36
Another excellent game of this one (although I was pretty sure Gordon was winning, which shows I need to play this game a lot more!), and a good win by Sue, who made very good use of the Captain, filling a boat with coffee at one point before the rest of us could get a look in!
And the other group (now also four players) were off to fight the zombies ....
David:
7
Haydn:
5
Lesley: 5
Rich: 5
All I know about this one is that David managed to save his cheerleader, which apparently is not that easy to do and fairly heroic (ha ha). Apart from that, I know absolutely nothing about this one!
And finally, the remaining three from the other group had a quick game of this one ....
Neil:
(20 + 3) 23
Sue:
(16 + 0) 16
Nick:
(14 + 0) 14
This is always a fun and tricky little game. I spread myself too thin, and ended up having a few of every suit along with not being able to bid very much! Neil was also a bit stuck on what he could bid, and so started saving coins once he'd got a couple of decent sets in front of him.
And that was it for this week .... It's a shame that the timing never sorted itself out well, as we ended being in two groups throughout the evening, but still we all enjoyed ourselves!
