board games & card games for all ages
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Thursday 25th September 2008
Another chaotic night at the shop, with thirteen of us squashed in this week ....
Players:
Barrie,
Darren, Dave F,
Dave H, Mike, Nick, Rachel, Rich, Roj, Simone, Steve, Sue, Tim
Games Played:
The first six of us went mining .....
Rachel:
28
Dave
H: 26
Mike: 22
Darren: 19
Nick: 16
Simone: 3
Now, this may look like one person did particularly badly, but in fact that is not the case. Simone and I both got a little behind the pack after a couple of mines, and then spent the last three mines playing catch-up (which basically means staying in as long as possible, until we died). However, in the final mine I chickened out (in a desperate cowardly attempt not to come last) while Simone stayed in and collected 19 gems in front of her. One more decent gem card and she'd have won the game ... but sadly the mine collapsed and she lost the lot.
We were suddenly up into double figures, and this game had been pre-arranged .... So five went off to Caylus
Mike:
67
Nick:
64
Roj: 58
Rachel: 54
Darren: 50
This was a very tight game. At some time or other, all of us were accused of being well in front! I paid to accelerate the end of the game, but I thought Mike and Darren were going to gang up and drag the Provost back, allowing for an extra round. As it turned out, I had miscalculated and couldn't build the Cathedral that I wanted to, and Mike - who decided to help end the game - had also miscalculated by making one of the classic Caylus errors of trying to build 2 blue buildings when he only had one residence. However, after Mike and I built the blues that we could, Mike's remaining stash of gold and resources was enough to keep him a couple of steps ahead of me. A very good game, and pretty close throughout.
Six others went upstairs with a couple of quick games while we waited to see if anyone else was coming along ...
(Animals + Bonuses)
Dave
H: (11 + 18) 29
Simone:
(13 + 15) 28
Barrie: (6 + 10) 16
Steve: (9 + 6) 15
Rich: (10 + 3) 13
Dave F: (3 + 0) 3
This
looks like it was a very tight contest between the Aussies
Kiwis. The less said about Dave F's attempt the better, I think.
There's not a lot of info on this one:
Barrie:
Dave F:
Dave H:
Rich:
Simone:
Steve: All lost to the Zombies.
And that's all I know.
The upstairs gang gained another player and went off hunting shadows ....
Rich:
(Emi - Hunter) Alive
Steve: (George - Hunter) Alive
Tim: (Daniel - Neutral) Alive
Simone: (Unknown -
Shadow) Last to die
Dave
F:
(Charles - Neutral) Third to die
Barrie: (Allie - Neutral) Second dead
Dave H: (Vampire - Shadow) First to die.
There was a lot of noise coming from upstairs while this was going on, so I think it was enjoyed by all. This one is proving to be one of the more popular recent releases, with it making very regular appearances whenever we have 6 or more players looking for a quick game.
All games finished at the same time, Sue joined in, and so we now split into three groups ....
This was the (final) choice of the group of five .....
Darren:
39
Rachel:
34
Dave F: 28
Roj: 28
Mike: 23
Another game I know very little about. I think Darren and Rachel both triggered the end game early by building the full 18 walls around their little settlements.
This was the choice of the other upstairs group ....
(Points + Resources + Symbols + Tools + Builders + Farms + Shamen)
Tim:
(89 + 1 + 16 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0) 106
Steve:
(49 + 6 + 0 + 0 + 9 + 21 + 0) 85
Rich: (46 + 8 + 4 + 10 + 4 + 8 + 0) 80
Barrie: (47 + 4 + 0 + 5 + 0 + 0 +
9) 65
This looks like it was over very quickly, judging by the low scores (compared to some games we've seen). According to these scores, only 6 cards with green symbols were taken in the whole game! My suspicion is that Tim built his way down a single stack of buildings and grabbed the win from having the most points on the board.
And the other four of us were down at the farm once more ....
(Fields + Pastures + Grain + Vegetables + Sheep + Pigs + Cows - Unused Spaces + Stables + Rooms + Family + Cards + Bonuses)
Nick:
(2 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 2 - 0 + 2 + 0 + 15 + 4 + 5) 43
Simone:
(2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 1 - 4 + 1 + 8 + 15 + 4 + 2) 36
Sue:
(2 + 1 + 3 + 4 + 1 - 1 + 3 - 2 + 0 + 4 + 15 + 4 + 0) 34
Dave H: (1 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 - 1 + 1 -
6 + 0 + 5 + 12 + 10 + 3) 31
Well .... I think that's the best losing score we've seen. I can't remember a game where everyone was over 30 points, so that shows how well Dave and Simone did in their first ever game (and with the E-Deck thrown in as well). I felt like I'd done my usual trick of playing way too many cards and not doing enough farming, but it turned out that I actually played sensible cards this time! I kept my house wooden (as I had a bonus for doing so) and built all of my fences, which made wood scarce for everyone else, and Dave and Sue seemed to suffer most from that. Dave went clay-mad, and ended up with several major improvements, giving him a pretty impressive 13 points off the cards. Simone was first to expand her family, and also the only one who upgraded to a stone house. Another great game of this one .... It's always a sign of a good game when you spend a while analyzing the thing (even if it's past midnight).
And finally, the remaining four players were upstairs with a bag of frogs .....
Roj:
Connected a group of 10 frogs
Darren: Connected
9 out of 10
Dave
F: Connected
9 out of 10
Rachel: Connected 9 out of 10
All frogs on the board, this one became a race to see who could get their army together.
And that was everything for another week. Thanks to those that came out, and we'll see you all next time.
