board games & card games for all ages
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Thursday 28th May 2009
Another easy-to-divide eight of us in the shop again this week.
Players:
Darren, Mark P, Mel, Neil C, Nick, Rachel, Rich, Sue
Games Played:
The first four of us cracked open this new arrival ....
Sue:
(2 + 2 + 11 + 4) 19
Rachel:
(4 + 4 - 3 + 4) 9
Nick: (6 + 1 + 1 + 0) 8
Darren:
(2 + 4 - 4 + 0) 2
This is an excellent little game. Yes, it's basically just Tetris - The Board Game, but it's just a whole lot of fun. Sue had a great third round, when everything seemed to come out in the right order for her, but apart from that, we all struggled to score points! I was better in the first round, when it's pretty much just "normal" Tetris, but after that - when you have to deliberately leave little gaps - I struggled. This game may get renamed as "the swearing game", as it managed to bring out more bad language than any direct-conflict game in our collection!
We were now up to six, and so another popular little filler hit the table ....
Neil:
21
Nick:
20
Rachel: 12
Darren: 8
Rich: 8
Sue:
3
This was a load of fun, as always, and involved the usual amount of changes of fortune! Sue and Darren were the early leaders, but Neil and I slowly worked our way through the pack. Neil stuttered a little near the end, and I had just edged in front, onto the 20 space with a decent roll on the "1" step, when Neil went and rolled a double-2, jumping past me for the win! Grrr. Rich spent almost the whole game on the zero space, and then right near the end went for a sprint round the board with four consecutive doubles!
We were now eight, and so split into two groups ....
(Nuggets + Cash + Sheriff + Store Cards + Property)
Nick:
(3 + 10 + 0 + 13 + 15) 41
Sue:
(11 + 4 + 0 + 10 + 15) 40
Rich: (10 + 0 + 5 + 0 + 11) 26
Rachel:
(6 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 17) 23
We all enjoyed this one, although it took a turn or two to get "into" the way the poker-hand-building was done. Pretty soon, we were all throwing cash in the bank, trying to build a hand quickly and mess up the other players. The cards change hands at an alarming pace, which makes it an interesting game to try and keep track of the big scorers. In the final round, Rich stole a card from me that let him remain the Sheriff, and I picked up a card that let me visit the Doc - even though I'd already claimed something - and the $2 dollars that I then stole from Rachel and Sue swung the game in my favour! Very close, and a lot of fun.
Darren:
39 (2 coins)
Mark:
39 (0 coins)
Neil: 32
Mel:
31
I did catch the tail-end of this one, and again everyone seemed to be enjoying it. A close game, in which everyone still seemed to have a chance as the last round played out, although Mark and Darren seemed to have a slight edge. And so it finished - the last boat sailed, giving Darren enough points to catch Mark, and then a quick check of the tie-break rules gave Darren the win thanks to a couple of coins!
We mixed the groups up a little .....
Neil:
23
Rich:
22 (3)
Mel: 22 (2)
Mark: 19
I know less about this one, as it finished before I had the chance to see how it was going. In fact, it finished before any of them were ready for it to finish! But that can be a good thing ... A short game that everyone is enjoying playing, but one that leaves you wanting more. And another really close one! Only four points between first and last place.
Meanwhile downstairs ....
Nick:
138
Darren:
128
Sue: 123
Rachel: 89
I do like this game. The more I play it, the more I like the way it works. In fact, we all enjoyed this one. Well ... Three of us anyway - It really wasn't Rachel's cup of tea. But the rest of us had a great time! And we really weren't quite sure who'd won it until we added up the scores - I thought Darren had pipped me after he had a huge third round, but I managed to mine a bunch of free tin in the last round which pushed me back in front.
The Bombay crowd were done first, and just happened to be the four people who didn't get to play this one earlier ....
Neil:
(2 + 3 + 7 + 5) 17
Rich:
(1 + 5 + 0 + 4) 10
Mark: (-5 - 2 + 12 + 2) 7
Mel: (-7 - 1 + 2 -
5) -11
More bad language, and yet they all really liked this one! Perhaps games should be rated on how much they make you curse ..... ?
And finally, because we're like that .....
Rachel:
0
Sue: 2
Nick: 18
Mark: 21
Darren: 31
Neil: 38
Mel: 45
Always very funny, always completely random, and yet Rachel always manages to do quite well. Hmmm. Anyway ... this ridiculously silly game was a great way to end a fun night.
And that was that for another week. We just about managed to get home for midnight, and I stayed up to watch Sussex throw away the cricket, which was quite depressing.
