board games & card games for all ages
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
Thursday 12th November 2009
Nine of us in this week for the last Thursday night of the year.
Apologies for no results on Monday 9th, but I understand that there were only two of them in (Sue and I arrived just after they'd left) and I haven't heard what they got up to ....
Players:
Darren, Dave F, Jahaan, James, Mike, Nick, Rachel, Roj, Sue
Games Played:
Five of us were in nice and early, so we went mining ....
Rachel:
15
Jahaan:
13
Darren: 12
Nick:
5
Sue: 5
This was a disaster-filled game, with several mines collapsing within half a dozen cards. In fact, I have a feeling none of them lasted longer than that! Darren and I got behind at the very beginning, so decided we needed to push our luck to catch up. He succeeded (a little), and I failed miserably.
We were no up to nine players. Four of us had pre-arranged a game, and the other four played this:
Dave:
€274
Mike:
€270
Rachel: €257
Jahaan:
€200
James: €200
I don' t know much about how this game played out (as per usual, really) but it took a lot longer than the 60 minutes mentioned on the side of the box. I think this game needs to be played in a "what can I do for myself" kind of way, rather than a "what is everyone else doing, so what can I do that helps me but hinders them more" kind of fashion. Having said all that, I have no idea how it was played really, so I am wildly speculating based purely on the elongated 60 minutes. They all enjoyed the game though, which is the main thing.
Meanwhile downstairs .....
Darren:
17 (14 cash)
Roj:
17 (11 cash)
Nick: 17 (6 cash)
Sue:
15
This was the first game for Darren and Roj, and the first game with more than two players for Sue and I. Having explained the whole thing, I then made a big mistake in the second round, cheating slightly at the same time, and had to re-do my turn, which was a bit of a bonus as I had mistaken a bean for a leek on one of my cards at the same time! Sue also then made a mistake in the following round, by trading something she needed, which she decided not to undo, and which seemed to put her a step or two off the pace. I took a loan mid-game, which meant I had to get ahead of everyone else to win, and - although I managed to get in front around the 9/10/11 point mark, I didn't have enough when it came down to the final tie-breaker. Darren played the game with a lot of Helpers ... one time having so many that he chose not to buy his two cards (although he'd started the round with 2 extra thanks to a Helper, so it evened itself out I guess), and it seems that all those helpers gave him a little edge at the end of the game, despite Roj finishing his last turn looking like he was going to pip the pair of us to the top spot, but ending a few coins short. An excellent game which we all enjoyed.
Upstairs they opted for a quickie while waiting for us to be done ....
Aladdin's Dragons - The Card Game
James:
4 (3 lamps)
Mike: 4
Rachel: 3
Dave: 3
Jahaan: 3
All I know about this one is that they played it wrong for a couple of rounds, by having the treasure cards face-down instead of face-up. This was discovered when Rachel cast a spell which meant that the treasure cards were to be face-down in this round! This was new to all of them, and - again - I think everyone enjoyed it for the quick filler that it is.
A quick change-round of groups after a couple of departures .....
Game 1
Rachel:
37
Dave: 34
Sue: 22
Game 2
Rachel:
47
Dave: 24
Sue: 20
Two good wins for Rachel in these games which, I believe, were played with five cards from the original box and five for the expansion.
James:
55
Darren: 43
Nick: 42
Roj: 34
This was the first game for everyone apart from me - I'd played a two-player game before, although the four-player game is much different! I rushed the explanation a little, which I don't like to do, as it meant I had to make a couple of clarifications in the first round or two of the game. Actually, I shot off to a head start as I was the only one who bought points in the first round (at $2 a point) and grabbed more in the second. However, everyone else soon got the hang of it and started catching me quite easily. Roj - despite amassing as much firepower as he could - turned out to be a terrible shot, and lost a couple of duels early on where the odds were very heavily in his favour! I had gone all-out for Drugstores and Ranches, hoping to grab the Grocer in the final round (which Roj nabbed before I had the chance). So I went for attacking a couple of buildings to grab some extra cash, but Roj successfully defended his, keeping all of his doubled money for himself. James did well in the final placement round, as the rest of us (foolishly) let him have the three point-scoring spaces - perhaps not realising how much more powerful they had become by this point - and he shot off round the scoring track while we all squabbled over a few dollars! Another great game, and one I'm very much looking forward to playing with four or five when we have a little more time.
And that was it for this week. Thanks to those who came along, and we'll see you all in the pub on Mondays between now and the New Year.
