board games & card games for all ages
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Monday 27th April 2009
A very nice, easy-to-split eight gamers made it to the pub this week .....
Players:
Darren, David H, Nick, Rachel, Rich, Simone, Sue, Suzanne
Games Played:
The first game was underway when Sue and I arrived ....
Darren:
33
Rich: 27
Rachel: 23
David
H: 21
Don't know a whole lot about this one, as we only caught the tail-end of it. It looked to me like Rachel was grabbing more tiles than everyone else, but Darren managed to get pairs in the two expensive sets (12 and 15, I think), which was pretty much all of his points, but it was enough!
And we were now up to eight already .....
(Fruit Tiles + Bonuses + Remaining action tiles)
Rich:
(26 + 22 + 4) 52
Rachel: (28 +
11 + 4) 43
David H: (26 + 5 + 2) 33
Simone:
(29 + 0 + 0) 29
As happened the first time we played this one, everyone pretty much grabbed a similar number of points in the fruit tiles, but the bonuses decided it: In this case, Rich had a massive 22 in bonuses (a 7 and three 5s, my guess), while the other 5-pointers went one each to David and Rachel, with Rach also picking up a 6-pointer for the "one of each" bonus. I assume the other one was tied and went back in the box. I really enjoyed this game on Thursday, but the reaction tonight seemed to be a little more luke-warm.
(Fields + Pastures + Grain + Veg + Sheep + Pigs + Cows - Unused Spaces + Stables + House + Family + Cards + Bonuses)
Darren:
(0 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 - 2 + 0 + 8 + 15 + 12 + 3) 39
Nick: (1 + 4 +
1 + 3 + 2 + 2 - 1 + 0 + 2 + 10 + 12 + 2 + 0) 38
Suzanne: (4 + 1 + 3 + 3 - 1 - 1 + 2 - 1 + 0 + 6 + 9 + 4 +
1) 30
Sue: (1 + 2 - 1 - 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 - 5 +
1 + 3 + 9 + 6 + 0) 21
This was played at the request of Suzanne, and - as per usual - was enjoyed by all of us. I think it's pretty fair to say that I had the best-looking farm at the end, being one cow short of a complete all-rounder. Darren, on the other hand, declared himself a Yeoman Farmer pretty early on, which meant he could almost completely ignore the farming aspect of the game (apart from building himself one massive pasture) and bought as much stuff as he possibly could, grabbing all but one of his points from card, his house and family. Suzanne did very well for her first game, but Sue struggled a little with crops.
(Artefacts + Exhibitions + Congress + Knowledge)
Simone:
(68 + 0 + 1 + 5) 74
Rich: (30 + 9
+ 6 + 5) 50
Rachel: (28 + 4 + 3 + 5) 40
David H: (20 + 0 + 1 +
10) 31
There can be a little luck in this game, and not all of it good. While Simone seemed unable to miss when it came to digging, almost stumbling over artefacts as she wandered around the desert, David spent weeks and weeks looking for stuff, and hardly ever found anything at all! No one really went down the congress route, and only Rich decided to put on and exhibitions of note, but Simone's expert digging had gained her more points in treasure than anyone else could even hope to find.
Nick:
21
Suzanne: 9
Darren: 5
Sue:
0
We played this quickie to catch up with the other group and, to be perfectly honest, it was a little one-sided! Thanks to my great ability of being able to roll doubles and avoid the dreaded "x", I raced around the track while the others struggled to get going.
And to end the evening ....
Rachel:
(22 + 3 + 4) 29
David H: 21
Darren: 20 (4)
Sue: 20 (0)
Nick:
16
This was well played by Rachel, who spent a lot of the game as King. I was robbed a couple of times, and Sue and Darren were definitely targets of the assassin at least once. Rachel rushed the end of the game, which was pretty smart as she was obviously in front. I destroyed a building of David's (because it was free) which cost him the 3-point bonus, but it wouldn't have affected the standings any.
And that was all we had time for this week. Thanks to those who came along. There won't be one next Monday (Bank Holiday again!), but Thursdays are continuing as normal.
