Peloponnes & Ra - 29 December 2017

Last games night of 2017 and a double win for Stuart.  First game was Peloponnes where Stuart got a very balanced score of Population 36 (with a 4x card) and Prestige 37.  Other scores were David 33/28, Kieron 27/34, Andy 33/24 and James 24/27.

The second game was Ra where Stuart managed to get through the first epoch with only one winning bid and still sitting on his 16 tile.  Despite this and thanks to an impressive collection of five Civilization tiles in the second epoch, and getting five extra points from James at the end due to having the highest sum of bidding counters, he won the game!  Final scores: Stuart 38, James 37, David 34, Andy 31 and Kieron 28.

Ra & Alea Iacta Est - 13 December 2017

A double celebration tonight - of David's achievement and Kieron's visit.  Since we had an old favourite with us again, we played an old favourite Ra, with the usual Derren-ing and hilarity over others' misfortune.  And we even let Kieron win.  Final scores: Kieron 35, Andy 34, David and James both 28, Stuart on 19.

Then a game of  Alea Iacta Est in which Stu had us in hysterics in the last turn of the game as he failed to roll a 2 ten times.  Final scores: James 47, Andy 44, David 42, Kieron 36 and Stuart 33.

And before I went to bed I got one more clue on the Christmas quiz.  I worked out what an uneducated burglar says to a policeman who has arrested him: "Let go" with a dropped "t" becomes "Lego".  I should have got that earlier ;-)

Peloponnes & Alea Iacta Est - 13 October 2017

Last games night before Andy heads off to Darkest Africa, so a play of a couple of trusted favourites, Peloponnes and Alea Iacta Est.  For I think the first time, we got to the verge of all five disasters before any single one occurred...

...so they came thick and fast in the second half of the game.  The final disaster of Plague was the decider as Andy and Adrian were decimated but James was protected.  Final scores: James population/prestige 30/32, Andy 24/25, Adrian 18/31.

We spotted a minor Rule 23 in Alea Iacta Est - fortuna tokens gained by players are supposed to be shown face-up.  Adrian made good use of these tokens, supported by a relevant SPQR card, and got the win, but the scores were close:  Adrian 46, James 44, Andy 40.

Alea Iacta Est & Colt Express - 31 August 2016

Another game of Alea Iacta Est where different strategies resulted in very close scores.  Andy initially resisted but soon succumbed to his usual Fortuna strategy, James went for SPQR cards, David all out on provinces and patricians, and Adrian with a balanced approach.  Final scores: David 42, James 40, Adrian 38, Andy 37.

This was followed by more fun with Colt Express.  We randomised the characters this time so we didn't get the character and special ability that just happened to match the usual colour we each play with.  Adrian made an early bold push to the loco and picked up the case of money.  Strangely, David and Andy also gravitated to the front of the train, allowing James to sit in the end car picking up the numerous items of loot there.  When the train reached the station, Adrian and James had collected the same value of loot but the shooting done by James and David (mostly at each other) earned them both an extra $1000 as top gunslingers.  Final scores: James $3250, Adrian $2250, David $2050, Andy $950.

Alea Iacta Est & Ra - 16 December 2015

A classic double act this evening with firm favourites Alea Iacta Est and Ra.  A solid cluster of scores for the dice game but James pulled ahead with valuable Senate and Fortuna Cards.  Final scores: James 51, David 38, Adrian 36 and Andy 35.

Ra provided the usual laughs and groans, and the unusual situation of both Adrian and David scoring 4 civilisations in the first round.  Final scores: Adrian 51, David 45, Andy 39 and James 29 (20 more than last time we played, so I was happy!).

Alea Iacta Est & Maori - 19 August 2015

The three player version of Alea Iacta Est dispenses with the Templum and Fortuna cards, removing on the options and strategies of the game.  This makes the Senate Cards even more important and James maxed out on cards which provided extra bonuses.  We all had about the same points based on the provinces and citizens, but the Senate Card bonuses gave the final scores of James 54, David 38 and Andy 33.

Time then for a game of Maori - the island exploration game.  Andy had a bit of bad luck with island opportunities at the beginning of the game and couldn't catch up, and the final scores were James 49, David 43 and Andy 18.

Peloponnes & Alea Iacta Est - 1 January 2015

First games night of 2015 (fifteen! how did that happen?) saw five us gathering for a couple of old favourites.  James got the remaining Peloponnes expansions for Christmas and so ran through the full set of options open to us, but it was all too much for some and we only played the Trade cards on top of what we usually play.  More next time...

We did play with a couple of new civilisations in the deck and David drew Antioch, which protected him from all disasters, but at the cost of losing one population each turn.  Kieron was the only one who took advantage of the Trade option, so not a very different game from usual.  Final scores saw David win (again!) with Prestige/Population scores on 34/30, then Adrian 33/27, James 24/24, Kieron 32/18 and Andy 17/12.

Plenty of time left for Alea Iacta Est which James, with some strong Fortuna counters, won with 48 points, followed by David with 41, Kieron 38, Adrian 29 and Andy 28.

Peloponnes & Alea Iacta Est - 12 November 2014

Another play for a couple of firm favourites.  Lots of fun with Peloponnes as always.  Empires grew, and then most of them crashed and burned.  But David secured a strong win with 33 population and 32 prestige, followed by Andy with 15/21, Kieron with 12/25 and turning in a truly dismal performance going from 18 people to 1 in the final turn, James with 3/28.

However, dignity was preserved as James then won Alea Iacta Est with 56 points, followed by David on 48, Andy on 47 and Kieron on 44.

Village & Alea Iacta Est - 28 August 2014

A small but select gathering for games this week.  We first played Village without the beer & inn expansion.  Andy majored on the market, James went travelling, and Kieron joined the council, enabling him to later produce lots of free goods to sell in the market to compete with Andy.  Final scores Kieron 68, James 53, Andy 42.

Then Alea Iacta Est which plays without the Temple/Fortuna elements with only three players.  A very close result with Andy on 47 and Kieron on 48, but James' useful set of Senate cards gave him the win with 59.

Alea Iacta Est and Circus Flohcati - 25th June

We started the evening with a game of Alea Iacta Est. Lots of fun with the usual Derrening and helpful suggestions, combined with a couple of nya-ha-ha moments when a round was finished unexpectedly.

Final score was Adrian 49, James 43, David 36 and Kieron 33.

Burnt out by his victory, Adrian departed mumbling some excuse about early starts and important meeting tomorrow.

We then tried out Circus Flohcati (one of Reiner Knizia's two flea circus themed games), a game aimed at the whole family and one that plays extremely quickly. We ended up playing three hands and while it was fun, it didn't engage us as much as we'd hoped. Kieron ran away with the first two hands (luck or judgement???) but although James convincingly won the third it wasn't enough to catch up.

Final score: Kieron 171, James 162, David 140

Alea Iacta Est - 12 March 2014

Two very different games of "The Die Is Cast" - the first more steady as we built up provinces and collected patricians, the second felt more rapid as rounds ended quickly after sequences of six dice being placed in a single turn a couple of times.  Surprisingly though, the final scores in both games were almost identical.  The first game was James 42, Andy 39 (maximising on cornucopia again), David 37 and Kieron 32.  David won the second game with 43, followed by James on 41, Kieron 37 and Andy 33.

Alea Iacta Est & Ra - 17 July 2013

A couple of games played over a warm evening sat in Andy's summer house.  The first was the dice placement game Alea Iacta Est where Andy and James' initially promising strategy of pursuing Fortuna tiles didn't pay off against the main aim of securing province and patrician tiles, and Kieron's bonus cards took him well ahead of the pack at the end.  Final scores: Kieron 49, Orhan 39, David 38, Andy 32, James 30.

Then a quick game of old favourite Ra in which the first two Epochs had large number of Ra cards drawn very early (four in a row at one point) which put the pressure on trying to use all the bidding chits.  A couple of close results with David just pipping Andy, and James similarly Orhan.  Final scores: David 43, Andy 42, James 32, Orhan 31 and Kieron 24.

Ra, Alea Iacta Est - 1 May 2013

With no-one in the mood for church building this week, Hamburgum and Notre Dame were returned to the loft to be replaced by Ra, frequently played as the second game of the evening, but we hadn't played it as the main game for a while.  The usual Derren-ing and Russian Roulette antics.  Final scores Stuart 40, Andy and James both on 38, David 28 and Kieron on 24.

Then another outing for new-ish dice game Alea Iacta Est.  Good fun this one, although the rules are too long and not well written.  I found an excellent half-page summary on BGG that we can use next time to start playing sooner, plus a simpler explanation (in larger print for Andy) of what each SPQR Senate card does.

Final scores: David & James on 48, Kieron 39, Andy 35 and Stuart 34.  The rules state that a tie for first place is resolved by the points value of unallocated patricians.  David and James didn't have any, so according to the next bit of the rules, they "rejoiced in their shared victory".  But not for long... Kieron swiftly pointed out that "a victory shared is a victory halved"!

Alea Iacta Est - 13 March 2013

First play of David's Christmas present to James - Alea Iacta Est - a dice rolling game with an Ancient Rome theme, co-authored by Bernd Eisenstein, creator of one of our current favourites Pelopennes.  One review describes it as "Yahtzee for Eurogamers" which understates the game, but reveals its influences.

It took a while to get through the rules but the game itself is pretty quick, with a range of different ways to earn Fame points and good player interaction.  We played a game in about 1hr20m and then played again in about 40 minutes.  Scoring is done at the end so it's not clear who is ahead and the scores (particularly in the first game) were very close.

We were all pleased to see Adrian at games tonight, even though he took first place in both games ;-)

First game: Adrian 36, Orhan 35, Andy 34, James 32, David 31
Second game: Adrian 39, David 38, James 37, Andy 33, Orhan 32