Cargo Noir - 9 March

A return to the black markets of Macau for a full house of Rivals and an initially asymmetric game of Cargo Noir.  Starting strategies included going for maximum ships versus maximum syndicates, there was the obligatory battle of Rotterdam (Andy versus David; Andy won) and an endgame that saw lots of random drawing from the bag.  Final scores were David 140, James 135, Stu 120, Andy 105 and Adrian 95.

Cargo Noir - 14 December

Another outing of Cargo Noir which is becoming more and more a favourite, but this time with guest gamer Otto and guest observer Betty (who drew all the family into the kitchen for dog therapy, giving the evening an additional social boost)...

David and Stu played for early expansionism, being able to buy extra fleets and syndicates early and then going for a spread betting tactic of putting fleets out with one coin only, hoping to get bumped for extra cash.  Adrian, Andy and Otto were thus confined to the more mixed economies of 4 fleets and earlier warehouses.  Perhaps inspired by Betty though, Otto and Andy engaged in a dogged (geddit?) struggle for supremacy in Rotterdam, with several turns of outbidding.  The Battle of Rotterdam ended with victory for Andy, and a higher placing because of its key cargo.  David capped his evening of good fortune on the tiles by drawing a wildcard on his last pick of the game from the bag, allowing him to buy the top 81/90 card.  (He then reported that on his journey home all the traffic lights turned green for him, so we're now expecting that he has only another 20 years to live before his soul is due in...).

Scores: David 160; Stu 155; Andy 95; Adrian 90; Otto 45

Cargo Noir - 2 November 2016

Another go at Cargo Noir, but this time without the (ahem, unnecessary) house rule of rotating the first player marker...  With much banter and Derrening, and the reappearance of James' bottle-top fleet, Andy managed to outfox everyone with a win based on highest single card.  Scores: Andy 130*; David 130; Stu 125; James 105; Adrian 75.

Cargo Noir - 13 July

Cargo Noir with an inadvertent house rule at Adrian's this week.  The host confused the existence of a first player counter with all the various games that use said counter to rotate the first player around the board (Stone Age, Puerto Rico etc).  Implementing this accidental variant had the effect of stalling David's game for 3 of the 9 rounds of play - or so he said anyway...  Despite the addition of this new rule the game still played well and makes for a fun evening.  The end result was very close - Andy stormed to victory on 135 points; Stu, James and Adrian all had 125; and David (plus extra rule) got 95.

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.