Virtual Games Night - 1 April 2020

After our successful test session last week, we had a full-on international games night this week using Zoom to chat whilst we played.  David, Kieron and James started with the quick and fun push-your-luck dice game Can't Stop, which dates back to 1980.  When Stuart and Adrian joined us we had a couple of games of 7 Wonders - which plays even more quickly when the implementation is highlighting which cards you can build for free, or which require spending and from whom.  And we finished with a game of Puerto Rico - which we have played about once every three years over the last decade or so, but I suspect we will play a bit more often now.  The plan for next week is to try Roll for the Galaxy.

We're learning how to use the Board Game Arena website - we had to expel non-Rival players who had joined before we reduced the numbers, and Kieron accidentally ended up playing Can't Stop (very slowly) with a completely different group at one point.  But apart with some oddities that David and James encountered playing Caylus at the weekend, the implementation of the games is extremely good, with lots of additional help provided.  It is inevitably a very busy site and took a while to log in, and we had some delays but nothing that messed up anyone's turn or the game itself.  Three of the Rivals are now Premium members (~£4 a month) which unlocks a wider range of games and guarantees you can log in even when the site is busy.

New Year Games Bonanza - 2 January 2020

A lot of players and a lot of games for the first session of 2020.  Lucas, Kieron and James started with Byzanz, a neat little card game with bidding and collections.  In a promising sign of a good game, the final scores were really close: 32, 34 and 36 points.

Andy was then subbed in for a game of St Petersburg.  Kieron went for buildings only leaving James and Andy to collect large numbers of nobles, with James winning with a set of nine.

After Adrian and Stuart arrived, we played James' new game Flash Point: Fire Rescue.  This cooperative fire-fighting game had a great theme, looked the part and modelled the spread of fire really well.  Perhaps we were lucky with some of the rolls but we rescued the target number of victims with ease, so we didn't really experience the peril.  Next time,we'll play in heroic mode with more initial explosions and hazards to make it more of a challenge.

Next up was Ra.  The usual shenanigans.  Another win for Andy.

Lastly, Lucas, Kieron, Andy and James played 7 Wonders - yet another win for Andy.

Century: Spice Road and 7 Wonders - 21 December 2017

A pre-Christmas games night saw us play the first of many Christmas gift games - Cenury: Spice Road. It's a fun game with clever mechanics as you collect and play action cards to trade spices from one type to another. When you own the right spice combinations you can claim victory point cards, so you have to pay attention to how many moves you are away from acquiring a card and whether someone else will get there first. You also have to decide whether to go quickly for cheaper cards and finish the game early or build up to the big scoring cards.

We played two rounds. In the first, no spice production cards appeared and we all made do with a small hand of cards each. In the second game we went for bigger hands of cards and a greater variety of actions as we figured out how to use them more effectively.

First game: David 66, James 62, Andy 56, Adrian 51
Second game: James 77, Andy 71, David 67, Adrian 65.

Adrian had to go home early so we finished off with a game of 7 Wonders. Exceptionally Andy didn't all out for blue buildings but had a lot of military success and bought a lot of guilds in the last round.

Final scores: Andy 67 (including 31 on guilds), James 54 and David 50.

7 Wonders - 9 November 2017

At David's for 3 more rounds of 7 Wonders. Two games were close. Adrian 47, Andy 49, James 52, David 54 and Andy 45, James 45, Adrian 47, David 51.

However the other game was an Andy masterclass. He scored well in all except science and thrashed the rest of us. James 40, Adrian 45, David 56, Andy 75!

Peloponnes and 7 Wonders - 25 May 2017

James and Andy at David's and we settled on old favourite Peloponnes to start the evening. A number of extreme strategies ensued as James (faced with the increasing population civ) went for high wheat producing tiles. David went all-in on wheat resulting in a peak of around 40 luxury goods. Andy approached things with more balance which is arguably an extreme strategy for him.

James found it hard to keep his population fed and expand his empire at the same time. Andy was able to pick up a final round tile to boost the points for his low population bringing him into contention, but David's massive luxury goods stockpile enabled him to weather the disasters and just edge ahead.

Final score (Pop/Prestige): David 36/31, Andy 28/36, James 27/22


With some time to spare we played a round of 7 Wonders. James played extreme again, ending up as the only person collecting science cards. David tried to do a bit of everything else, but didn't get much traction. Andy went for military and prestige buildings and managed to secure victory.

Final score: Andy 55, James 52, David 51

7 Wonders - 1 May 2017

David, James and Adrian went over to Andy's for a rare Monday night of games with special guest Kieron on a flying visit back to Blighty.

Much talking and catching up was broken up by three games of 7 Wonders. Kieron will never quite be sure if we let him win two games because we miss him...

Scores:
Andy 52, James 44, Kieron 42, Adrian 42, David 40
Kieron 55, Adrian 54, James 53, Andy 51, David 50
Kieron 68(!), James 49, David 47, Andy 40

7 Wonders - 15 March

After a long absence we returned to 7 Wonders. Special guest Adam acting as an observer and giving David advice about getting as many military cards as possible.

I suspect this is the first time the phrase "Get in there Daddy" has been used at games night.

We rattled through 3 games.

Scores:
David 54, Andy 53, James 44, Stu 41
David 53, Stu 52, James 49, Andy 47
Stu 57 (on tie break), James 57, David 43 (on tie break) Andy 43

7 Wonders - 16th January 2013

As Lancaster played so quickly we were able to finish off the even with a quick game of Seven Wonders. I'm not sure we've played it as a four player game before and it played well, maybe a bit better than with seven as you influence more of the players with your choices.

I was clearly having a good night - final score was David 60, Orhan and Kieron 46, Adrian 45.

Rivals Weekend - 7-9 December 2012

Another in the irregular "Camping it up" weekends at the Bungalow ("Bunging it up?") at Whitemead in the Forest.  Games played included: Poker, Japanese monster mayhem with King of Tokyo (great with two players but didn't really work with 6), A Brief History of the World, the Mafia-inspired Resistance and (about 8 times) the marvellous 7 Wonders.

Andy and his Advocaat:

Andy getting some fishing tips from Bert & Ernie:

Parkend Station on our walk to the pub:

Slightly surreal life-size nativity on the roof of the leisure centre:

Donner and Blizten:

A small snack from Al's Plaice:

7 Wonders & Loot - 4 May 2011

Another play of Orhan's 7 Wonders, which again proved a lot of fun with the variety of strategies that can be attempted.  A close game with the final scores of Orhan 62, James 61 (yes, I did double-check the sums ;-) Adrian 58, David 55, Stuart 52, Kieron 41 and Andy 37 (but with an incredible collection of monuments).

Then a quick first play of Reiner Knizia's Loot - a plundering pirate game.  Simple yet clever, this saw us in teams of two (Orhan doubling up) to attack merchant ships with our pirates.  Kieron & James were the Captains with 25, Andy & David the First Mates on 22, Stuart & Adrian the salty old sea dogs on 18, and Orhan the cabin boy on 4.

7 Wonders - 7 April 2011

Orhan brought along 7 Wonders which, as the name suggests, involves the building of the 7 wonders of the world and is playable by up to 7 players.  After some confusion with the rules, we realised we were listening to the rules summary and the rules booklet was missing, but happily the internet provided, and we could then get stuck into getting even more confused with the full ruleset.

As we started to suspect, this was one of those games that is a lot simpler to play than the rules imply.  It's a civilization-type game but with some neat mechanisms to insert rivalry with your nearest neighbours, including utilising their resources, military conflict and the hands of cards rotating around the players every turn.

There are several different strategies to get points - military strength, scientific discoveries, civic buildings - but you can't rely on just one to win you the game.  Final scores Adrian 70, Orhan 59, David 58, James 53, Stuart 47, Kieron 41 and Andy 34 (my sums all checked out!).