board games & card games for all ages
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Thursday 31st July 2008
Another warm and muggy evening, and it was unsurprisingly low numbers in the shop again ....
Players:
Darren,
Nick, Rachel, Steve, Sue
Games Played:
We decided to give this brand new filler a run out .....
Nick:
(8 - 3) 5
Rachel: (9 - 5) 4
Steve: (7 - 3) 4
Darren:
(9 - 6) 3
Sue: (8 - 6)
2
This is a whole load of fun. It's the sequel to Pickomino (aka Heckmeck im Bratwurmeck), but only plays to a maximum of 5 players (which you shouldn't really exceed when playing Pickomino, despite what it says on the box!). The turns are shorter, snappier, and the whole game is done in 15 minutes, yet it's just a great fun little dice-roller. We were all trying to collect sushi and bones in equal numbers, but thanks to a little bit of timely stealing, I managed to come out on top of a pretty close count!
While we were in the mood for new releases ....
Darren:
Nick:
Rachel:
Sue: All victorious as the Austrian
guards.
Steve:
Captured on turn 17.
We drew lots between three of us for the Garibaldi player, and Steve drew what seems to be the short straw, as this game appears to be really tough for the Garibaldi player. To add to the difficulty, Steve drew starting position number 1, which is the furthest point on the map from where he could escape. I'd love to say that we found him by a mix of skill and deduction, but it wouldn't be true ... We actually stumbled across him by blind luck (almost). There were three traces of him on the board by turn 17, but they had all been placed by Garibaldi, as not one of the Austrian patrols had actually found any traces of him themselves. However, we had kind of decided whereabouts he might be, and as Darren and I decided to head into the marshes to try and find him, Darren's patrol walked straight into him! A lucky win for the Austrians, but I think this will always be tough for Gazza.
Sue decided to nip off and do some work, so four of us went off to London ....
Rachel:
55
Nick:
50
Darren: 45
Steve: 45
This was actually a pretty tight game. Rachel managed to grab 8 points for completing part of the circle line, and I grabbed a smaller loop for 5 points and without those, it would have been very close indeed. There was a lot of all-slow train turns, which messed everyone up at some point, but Rachel managed to stay a little bit in front (despite our efforts) and grabbed a good win.
While we were four, how could we resist Steve's new purchase ......
(Points + Resources + Symbols + Tools + Builders + Shamen + Farmers)
Nick:
(63 + 3 + 9 + 55 + 6 + 21 + 8) 165
Steve: (76 + 1 + 1 + 0 + 48 + 18 +
2) 146
Rachel:
(72 + 11 + 36 + 12 + 0 + 0 + 0) 131
Darren:
(48 + 7 + 25 + 0 + 0 + 9 + 40) 129
I think this is the first time I've gone all-out for tools and toolmakers, but I was going third in the first round, and that was what was left! Darren was expanding his family and getting loads of fields, but he couldn't get enough Shamen and Farmers for his efforts to make enough difference. Steve decided to start starving his people about halfway through, but it was too little food a little too late, and he relented and fed them in the final round! Steve ended up building 8 huts, which was pretty impressive, but needed a couple more builders to really boost his score. A good game (as always), and my second consecutive win at this one, so I must be getting better!
And then we decided to end the game where we started ....
Nick:
(6 - 2) 4
Sue: (7 - 3) 4
Rachel: (6 - 4) 2
Darren: (6 - 7) -1
Steve: (6 - 7) -1
This is a fun game. There was a lot more screwage and stealing of tiles in this one, as the red row ended up with all the high numbers in it, and after all the fun and games, Sue and I tied for the win while Darren and Steve tied for last.
And that was all we had time for on this warm night. Thanks to all for coming along.
