board games & card games for all ages
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Thursday 28th August 2008
A nice round 10 people in the shop this week ....
Players:
Alex,
Barrie,
Darren, Dave H, Nick, Rachel, Rich, Roj, Simone, Sue
Games Played:
As expected, this was the opener of choice for the first seven of us .....
Alex:
(Unknown -- Shadow)
Roj: (Werewolf -- Shadow) Both won because the Hunters
were dead
Nick: (Daniel -- Neutral) Still
alive
Darren: (Charles -- Neutral) Still alive
Rich: (Allie -- Neutral)
First to die.
Rachel: (Franklin -- Hunter) Died 2nd
Sue: (George -- Hunter) Last to die.
This was a lot of fun, although we are still busy attacking people before we know exactly who they are! I was well on my way to dying first when I accidentally hit Rich a little too hard while I was trying to make another enemy, and eliminated him from the game! He hadn't used his "reset life" ability, as he was still four points away from trouble when I attacked him! Roj and Alex did a pretty good job of ganging up on the hunters, and Rachel also failed to get her special attack in before she popped her clogs. And then Sue followed pretty quickly!
Meanwhile, the other three turned up and took this little dice game upstairs ....
Simone:
(14 - 7) 7
Dave:
(10 - 4) 6
Barrie: (12 - 12) 0
This looks like pretty good scoring on the part of the two who hadn't played before, while Barrie achieved the magnificent score of zero.
The ten of us now split into two groups of five, and this was the upstairs choice ....
Barrie:
Rich:
Simon:
Sue: (Austrians)
Caught Garibaldi after 26 turns
Rachel:
(Garibaldi) Got caught.
This sounded like it was a pretty tense game. Garibaldi was always a little bit trapped and fought the whole way, but just as an escape route opened up and garibaldi moved onto it, it was closed down by Simone's Austrian troops and the game was up. There are rumours of some pretty underhand tactics from the Austrian patrols, but we'll not go into those .....
Meanwhile downstairs ... we were being far more serious ....
Dave:
90
Darren:
84
Roj: 83
Nick: 80
Alex:
70
This was a very interesting mix of strategies. The initial deal looked pretty cruel, with taxes appearing as both of the first two events (after a couple of rounds of peace, that is). After that, everything was spread out a little, although the plague was coming 5th and last, which meant doctors had to be held onto for a pretty long time! Dave happily sacrificed several employees early on, but kept his points ticking along with his four palaces and a bonus point or two per round. Darren meanwhile was happily killing everyone, except his librarians which he used to earn around 40 points throughout the game. Roj and I were doing our best to keep everyone alive, although Roj was earning points from some Privileges on top of his palaces. And Alex was out to mess other people up, by taking extra money and doctors just before the tax and plague rounds! In the end, I was trailing badly, but my 18 point bonus for having 9 people alive at the end brought me right up to the back of the pack. A good win by Dave, who was playing for the first time.
We shuffled the groups a little, and the upstairs game became this new Carcassonne offering .....
Alex:
73
Barrie:
70
Rachel: 66
Dave: 57
Simone:
55
I don't know a lot about how this went, and haven't actually played the game myself yet, but the scores look pretty close. I think - from the reaction - that this one is quite similar to the original Carcassonne game, only with the added pressure of the Surveyors.
And the other five were off to Florence .....
Sue:
53 (Fl700)
Darren:
53 (Fl200)
Roj: 50
Rich: 49
Nick:
48
This ended up being a pretty close game, although for most of it Darren and I were trailing a little behind. Darren was planning to put on two works in the final round, which he did, whereas I had a couple of decent Prestige cards to grab some points at the death. Sue and Roj were ahead of the game going into the final round, but Roj made a bid on a prestige card which he instantly regretted, as Sue then got to buy a recruitment card pretty cheaply, giving her a work in the final round and enough points to keep up with Darren's pair. A good game, enjoyed by all, including Rich .. who had to sit through our rules-less explanation!
And to end the evening, eight of us were able to stay for the traditional closer ....
Darren:
8
Rachel: 7
Simone: 7
Nick: 5
Alex: 3
Roj: 3
Sue: 3
Dave: 2
A fun game as always. I think the good guys connected to the gold all three times, although in the second one, there were only three dwarves still digging, and they shared a fair amount of gold between them. The last round was a bit of a shambles from a Saboteur's point of view, as we connected to the gold using only about 8 cards!
And that took us to the end of the night. Thanks to all who came along, and we'll see you all next week.
