board games & card games for all ages

Thursday 28th January 2010

There were a rather awkward eleven of us in the shop this week. Awkward because it was eleven, not eleven awkward gamers.

There were probably only about five of those.

Players:

Alex, Andy B, Darren, Mark P, Mary, Mel, Nick, Rachel, Steve P, Sue, Tim

Games Played:  

Excape

There were six of us in at pretty much the same time, so this fun little dice game got another outing ....

Sue:    21
Alex:    14
Darren:    12
Steve:    11
Nick:    7
Rachel:    5

This is always a fun game.  We got stuck a little in the middle of the game; in fact, I'm sure we were all at some point leading the game with thirteen points, only for all of us to fall back and let someone else take over.  During this spell, Sue sat on zero, and only really started moving towards the end, but then sprinted past all of us and won quite easily in the end!

We were up to eight now, but still expecting a couple more, decided on another quickie ....

Tsuro

Mark:    1st =
Steve:    1st =
Sue:    1st =
Darren:    4th
Mel:    5th
Rachel:    6th
Nick:    7th
Alex:    Last

This went all the way to the last tile, when all three remaining stones fell off the board at the same time. Alex saved my blushes by disappearing first, and then I neatly walked straight off the board. Rachel and Mel quickly followed, while Darren held on until just before the last tile. 

Tim arrived, and four of them disappeared upstairs.  The other five of us played yet another starter:

Piece o' Cake

(Cake + Cream)

Alex:    (17 + 10)    27
Rachel:    (10 + 15)    25
Sue:    (11 + 10)    21
Mel:    (9 + 10)    19
Nick:    (13 + 6)    19

A quick and fun game. Oddly, I'm not sure how much benefit there is to going for the majorities in the cakes, as is seems to be not much different score-wise if you eat everything! A good win by Alex here.

And finally everyone was here, and so the last seven split into two groups as well ....

World Without End

Mark:    52.5
Tim:    44.5
Steve:    43.5
Tim:    42.5

I was playing on the next table to this one, so saw a little of what went on. It sounded like they had a few tough events show up (judging by the language and general moaning that was going on), but on the plus-side they also seemed to get most (if not all) of the building projects on the board by the end of it, which kept the scores ticking along. Going into the last turn, it seemed remarkably tight, but then Mark managed to pull away a little in that turn and get a little ahead of the rest of the pack.

Thunderstone

Nick:    38
Rachel:    27
Mel:    23

This was new to all of us, and the rulebook was a little clunky to read through.  But when we actually started playing the game, it all became pretty straightforward and we all really enjoyed it. It's obviously quite like Dominion, although some of it is more complicated (earning the points) but some of it at the same time is a bit simpler - If you're not going after points, you just lay your whole hand out and see how much you have to spend. A good game, and one we'll play again I'm sure.

Dungeon Lords

Andy:    23
Alex:    19
Sue:    12
Mary:    11

These are the scores.  I know nothing about the game, but if I remember I'll copy & paste Andy's session report from his website when he's not looking!  Once he's done it, that is ... He seems to be a little behind!

Alcazar

Steve:    40
Darren:    35
Mel:    32
Nick:    31
Mark:    28

This was another game that was new to all of us.  The player aids are in German, so everyone did pretty well at keeping the rules in their heads as we played.  As the game progressed, we all had a few "aha!" moments as we saw what we should have been doing from the start ... Things like getting all your dudes of the board while they're cheap, keeping more of an eye on which cards were showing, and not placing people on spaces where you can get ousted! An excellent game, although the castles were a bit wobbly, and another one we'll be playing again.

Meanwhile downstairs .....

Shadow Hunters & Shadow Hunters Expansion