board games & card games for all ages
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Thursday 24th September 2009
There was nine of us in the shop this week .....
Players:
Alex, Darren, Jahaan, Neil C, Nick, Rachel, Roj, Simon, Sue
Games Played:
We all pretty much appeared at the same time ....
Alex:
19
Rachel: 14
Jahaan:
12
Darren: 9
Simon: 5
Nick: 4
Roj: 3
This was possibly the least successful trip into the mines in all of the games we've ever played of this one. Most of the mines collapsed pretty easily. The one time the mine lasted a reasonable length of time, we'd all left early, although Alex managed to stay in for a little while longer than the rest of us, gathering enough gems to get well in front, before the mines returned to their usual dangerous state.
Then we were eight (Sue was still busy), and split into two groups ....
Kingsburg with some bits of Kingsburg Expansion
Rachel:
41
Simon: 33
Jahaan: 24
Alex: 23
I think the elements used from the expansion were the larger mats and King's Army tokens. The new characters and events were avoided to keep the game simpler for the new players. These scored are pretty spread out, so I think it's fairly safe to assume that Rachel got very, very, very lucky with the dice :-)
Meanwhile .....
Roj:
43
Nick: 43
Darren: 33
Neil: 27
This is always a fun and tricky game. We debated playing with the tougher "standard" rules, then wondered if maybe we should just use one or two of them, and then chickened out completely - Although we did use the tighter Northeast US side of the map. Early on in the game, Darren had neatly sectioned off a bit of the board for his own private use, and he threatened to run away with the game, but then Roj and I slowly clawed our way back into it. Darren suffered from not getting any longer connections going and keeping his train small, while Roj and I started to deliver a few 5-pointers. In the very final turn, I thought I was done for, then found the last 5-pointer on the board and caught Roj's score. We had to consult the rules, which stated the tie-breaker as the player with the highest income, but both of us were on 0! And so it went to the player who had taken the lowest-numbered tile that round, and Roj had taken the "5" to grow a city, while I had taken the "7" to upgrade a town! And Roj claims the narrowest of narrow wins.
We added Sue and re-shuffled a little ......
(Fields + Pastures + Grain + Veg + Sheeps + Piggies + Cows - Unused space + Stables + Rooms + Family + Cards + Bonuses)
Darren:
(2 +
4 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 3 - 0 + 1 + 10 + 15 + 4 + 0) 45
Simon: (4 + 3 - 1 + 4 + 2 + 1 - 1 - 1 + 0 +
6 + 12 + 4 + 3) 36
Alex: (1 + 3 + 1 + 2 - 1 + 4 + 4 - 2 + 0 + 0 + 9 +
7) 28
Jahaan: (-1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 - 1 + 1 -
4 + 0 + 4 + 6 + 1) 11
I don't know a whole lot about how this one went. I'm pretty sure it was Simon's first game, so that's not a bad performance there. I might also have been Jahaan's first game, but I have a sneaky feeling he may have played before once. I think the E-Deck of cards were used.
Sue:
75
Nick: 73
Neil:
72
Rachel: 61
Roj: 56
This game is a load of fun - although it maybe takes 15 minutes longer than it should really, although the rounds always feel like they are ending too fast. And to be honest, in this game, the "Revolution" card was always as late in the deck as it could be. A very tight ending, as usual with this one, and I hadn't paid enough attention during the game, thinking I was the only one with two Kings and an exclusive 16-point bonus, whereas in fact Neil and I shared it with 8 points each, leaving Sue a couple of points in front at the end of the game. I did spend the whole game hiring rubbish assassins (failing twice in a 3-in-4 chance), and I'm sure with any sort of competency with a dagger I'd have come out on top!
While this was ending, the others finished off with a couple of quickies ....
We Didn't Playtest This at All
Alex:
Won both games.
Darren:
Simon: Lost both games
Darren:
6
Simon: 20
Alex: 21
And they just managed one round of this before midnight.
And that was it for another week. Thanks to those who came along.
