Small World & Cargo Noir - 25 January

Five of us for the first game of the evening - an outing of Adrian's copy of Small World (which was a 'first played' for Andy). Orhan's tactic of running the Berserker Elves for more or less the entire game didn't pay off given that he had a run of bad throws for conquest rolls. James' Wizards got an unfortunate pasting from three opponents which knocked him off balance in the middle game. Andy had a reasonably outing with Underworld Ghouls. David played a solid game, bringing on Ratmen for the last couple of turns. Adrian's Amazons had one turn and then declined but remarkably were able to survive for most of the game, with his Were-Sorcerors getting some good scores. The final analysis was a tie for top points between David and Adrian, but with David's dirty rats winning it on number of active units. Final scores: David 96*; Adrian 96; Andy 75; James 71; Orhan 62.

Andy had to dash off, leaving the remaining four of us to try out Cargo Noir, Adrian's Xmas present from Orhan. A very nicely produced game which, while looking deceptively simple, actually had a lot of calculation within it and some clever subtleties. The end result was a win for Adrian with 120; with David on 115; James on 110 and Orhan on 95. Worth further investigation.