Vasco Da Gama - 25th March 2015

4 rivals came tonight for the very last night at Kieron's before he moves out. This one game is one of Deej and Kieron's favourites and is the last game to be packed!

Kieron took an early lead as very few ships were sailed. Andy decided to go for the money grab to restrict options which worked early on. However, due to lucky minus money cards coming out, the costs of actions were not too prohibitive until the very last turn when, poised to slot his ship into the last vacant top row slot, Andy found himself having to pay to sail because a positive card finally appeared and he was one coin short! This left Kieron free to put a 3rd ship in the top row and he sailed to victory for an unprecedented 4th win in a row (although he is claiming a 5th due to a win for the French in Sunday's Napoleonics)

Final scores: Kieron 74, Deej 64, Adrian 56, Andy 42

St Petersburg - 18 March 2015

First play of David's present to Andy, the second edition of St Petersburg.  This introduces an extra phase and a market, and allows a fifth player.  Kieron went straight into the market and developed a healthy lead.  Others joined the market later, and Andy and James pursued the original strategy of collecting nobles, slightly hampered by a lack of shuffling that left all the noble upgrade cards at the bottom of the pile, and consequently unplayed!

Final scores Kieron 73 (another win!), James 67, David 58, Stuart 55 and Andy 42.

Cleopatra and Ra - 4 March 2015

Egyptian night at Adrian's, starting with a game of Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, the Days of Wonder 3D crocodile-fest which Andy and David had never played.  Cards representing building materials and special characters are collected and then exchanged for building extensions to Cleo's palace.  Employing corrupt practices allows the players to build more and faster, but the most corrupt ends up being fed to the crocodiles.  The philosophy of going all out to build was taken to heart by James who ended up on 62 points, but was the most corrupt by a significant margin so was consumed by the crocs.  Kieron was thus the winner on 49, David on 41, Adrian on 37 and Andy on 36.  A fun game, which we should play more regularly than the 5 or so years between this game and its last outing.

We then had the obligatory go at Ra, David triumphing on 41, followed by Kieron on 39, James on 36 and Andy and Adrian equal last on 32.  Nefertititastic.