board games & card games for all ages
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Thursday 30th April 2009
Nine of us in the shop this week.
Players:
Barrie, Dave F, David H, Nick, Rachel, Richard, Roj, Simone, Sue
Games Played:
Bizarrely, we all pretty much appeared at the same time, which meant no little openers, and an immediate split into two groups ....
Simone:
42
Richard: 41
Dave F: 34
David H: 23
This was new to everyone involved, and no one really seemed all that impressed with it. I had read the rules, and thought it sounded ok for a two-player game, but it seems like it's not as much fun as it sounds! Sue and I will have to give it a try this weekend ....
Nick:
152
Rachel:
129
Sue: 126
Roj: 104
Another "new to everybody" game, but this one went down much better. A fun tile-laying element, with attacking and defensive possibilities thanks to the fact that you're laying tiles in three dimensions, and then there's also the choice of where you score your points: Do you grab loads and hope to win that way, or race your markers in the barn to try and grab some animals and claim regular points with your farms. A lot of fun.
Barrie joined us, and we mixed up the groups a little ....
David
H:
16
Rachel: 14
Barrie: 6
Simone: 3
I don't know a lot about this one, but I do know that the Black market was definitely involved. I believe Rachel was the only witch (if you see what I mean) and managed to get three curses in before the game was ended rather abruptly.
Dave
F: 85
Nick:
80
Richard: 77
Sue: 74
Roj: 73
This was a lot of fun as well. It was the first game for Sue and I, as well as Dave, although he'd played Vinci in the past, which may not really have helped! I really liked the mix of different characteristics and abilities that could come up, and - to be honest - thought I was in with a good shout. Dave had masses of point chips but claimed they were all single pointers! He lied. My Sorcerers caused a lot of damage, but right at the end, Dave's Giants ran amuck in the mountains.
David
H: 154 (larger farms)
Rachel:
154
Simone: 151
Barrie: 124
And this new one got another outing. This game was a lot closer than the first one, with the result going down to a tie-breaker. Simone followed the strategy of just gathering loads of VPs and not bothering with the barns, which crossed my mind while we were playing our game, but despite a massive early lead, I think the points started to dry up as the farms moved onto the fields and regions.
Roj:
21
Dave
F: 20
Nick: 14
Richard: 9
Sue: 5
This was the first time we'd played this with the optional "X-X on the 1st roll" rule, and I can't see us playing without it any more, as it was a load of fun, and actually came up three or four times during the game! Sue spent the whole game getting as far as 3 and then reversing, but the battle between Roj and Dave became a battle of the doubles to see who could finish those last few steps. Dave had the opportunity on his last turn to knock Roj off the board and take a "0", but opted to try and grab a couple of steps next time round, but Roj then managed to finish it with his opening "2-2" roll.
Simone:
19
David
H: 14
Barrie: 13
Rachel: 7
Another game that didn't seem to go down all that well with the upstairs crowd, I'm afraid. Other than that, I know nothing about this one!
And finally .....
Richard:
9
Roj:
4
Sue: 4
Barrie: 3
Dave F: 3
Nick: 3
David H: 0
Rachel: 0
As always, this one was a great way to close the evening. A good night for the Saboteurs actually, with them taking two out of the three rounds. Richard benefitted from being evil at the right time, helped out occasionally by Dave and Roj, whereas a few of us were honest every round, but suffered a fair amount of broken equipment, mainly caused by petty feuds between ourselves!
And that was it for another week. Thanks to those that came out. And don't forget: Monday's a Bank Holiday, so we'll be back in a week's time.
