Notre Dame & Colt Express - 8 January 2020

Another game in rat-infested Paris with worker placement and card game Notre Dame.  Andy's 4 block strategy gave him lots of double coins or rat removal but didn't generate the prestige points needed.  Stuart stayed out of Notre Dame itself, collecting plenty of prestige points from the character cards.  David, James and Andy visited Notre Dame each turn but James' extra cash enabled the larger donations, ultimately pipping Stu to first place by just two points.

We then played Colt Express with the Horses & Stagecoach expansion that David got James for Christmas.

As well as the obvious, this also adds hostages who can be ransomed (but cramp your style during the game), whisky flasks that give bonuses with the cards, and an extra strongbox defended by a shotgun-wielding character.  That sounds a lot but it all complements the original game really well, giving more variety and opportunities to shoot James.  Stuart and David got the strongboxes but a later punch-up saw Stuart take them both and climb to the roof in the last move to avoid sharing any booty.

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.

Colt Express - 11 August

James brought round a couple of new games this week. First up was Colt Express, a clever mash up of a skirmish game with some elements of a card builder like Dominion and advance planning like Robo Rally. It follows the same theme as one of James' figures games, with the players controlling wild west train robbers.

The game uses a clever game mechanic of having the player pre-program their moves from a limited selection. You can choose to shoot, fight, steal goods, move and so on, but have to plan it out in advance. Some of your choices are made openly, others secretly so you have an idea what your opponents are planning, but not the complete picture.

Our first game resulted in James getting stuck in and shooting up the other robbers, especially Andy and Kieron. Andy nipped around collecting a lot of low value items off James and Kieron. David ended up at the other end of the train being hunted by the Marshall until he was able to get him out of the way (with the unwilling help of James) and grab the big prize.

End result: David 2250, Andy 2150, James 1500 (including sharpshooter bonus), Kieron 800.