board games & card games for all ages
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Monday 28th September 2009
More awkward numbers once again this week, with eleven of us in the pub ....
Players:
Darren, David F-F, Haydn, Mark P, Martin, Mel, Nick, Rachel, Sue, Suzanne, Tracey,
Games Played:
The first three in beat Sue and I to the best chairs ....
(Paths + Stones + Bonus)
Darren:
(28 + 10 + 8) 46
David:
(17 + 2 + 10) 29
Rachel:
(-1 + 2 + 2) 3
I only caught the end of this game, but that was enough time to see how badly Rachel had done. Darren and David had done quite well path-wise, but Darren had been busy collecting all the stones for extra points. David hadn't realised that paths had a maximum value at six stones, and could possibly have grabbed a few more points, but not enough to affect the outcome.
The five o us went to mow ...
Rachel:
35
David:
57
Nick: 76
Sue: 97
Darren:
105
This is always a fun little game. With three rounds gone, it was between Rachel and I, as we were tied for first and 30+ points ahead of the rest. Sadly, I got hammered in the fourth round, picking up about half the flies in the deck, and Rachel carried on avoiding the things, eventually winning quite comfortably as Darren picked up a bunch in the fifth round and ended the game.
We were now up to eleven, and split into two groups ....
Mark:
2
Mel:
1
Sue: 1
Tracey: 1
Haydn:
0
Rachel: 0
Sadly, I don't know a whole lot about this one, although there was a fair amount of cheers and groans coming from the table. I did lean over at one point and clarify a rule completely wrongly, but that was about my only contribution. After that, I decided to keep my head down.
Suzanne:
84
Darren: 78
Nick: 75
David: 67
Martin: 46
This was an excellent game of this one, which has been my favourite game for the last four years since it was released. It was a very tough game, as resources seemed to be very few and far between - mainly because the stone resource building didn't get built until too late into the game. Overall though, there were more buildings in this game than I've seen before, with every wooden building on the board. I thought I would be the only one to build a prestige building, as I had the King's favour to allow me to do so, but in the final round not only did David make it to the Architect ahead of me, but he then built the Cathedral, which was the one I was planning on! Having stolen my 25 points, I had to settle for 16, but I think the extra wouldn't have been enough to challenge Suzanne for the win, who had got nicely ahead building other buildings and earning the entry fees. An excellent game.
Game 1
Rachel:
36
Haydn:
27
Sue: 27
Mel: 25
Mark: 24
Tracey:
17
All I know about this one is that everyone apart from Tracey had played before.
Game 2
Haydn:
36
Rachel:
30
Mark: 28
Mel: 27
Tracey: 22
Sue:
21
Haydn and Rachel switch places, with the bottom four from the first game staying at the bottom!
A few had to leave, and we were down to eight players .....
Sue:
30
Tracey:
25
Martin: 23
Rachel:
19
Another one I know very little about, sadly. I'm pretty sure that this was Martin & Tracey's first game of this one, but I'm not sure if Rachel had played before. Let's face it ... It doesn't look like it :)
Nick:
45 (4)
Haydn:
45 (2)
Darren: 45 (0)
David:
38
This was new to everyone apart from me, as Sue and I had had a quick practice at the weekend, although there were more elements when played with more than two players. And we had a three-way tie (!) which sent me reaching for the rule book to find out what the tie-breaker was. If I remember correctly (unlikely, I know) it turned out to be "value of unused patricians" or something like that, which I won more by luck than any sort of planning. A fun game, and one that looks like it'll always be better with 4 or 5 players than it was with just a couple.
And that was all we managed this week. Thanks to those who came along, and we'll see you all again in October!
