A welcome return for Ticket To Ride. Scoring in the building phase was pretty well-balanced but the variety of success in satisfying the Destination Tickets saw quite a spread in the final reckoning, with Kieron going backwards to 54, Adrian and David jumping forward to 113 and 118 respectively, and James taking first place with four fortuitously close routes and 145 points.
Four players meant a chance to get out the cowboy game Gnadenlos. Usually quite quick, this somehow ended up taking 90 mins as well and despite never managing to rustle up a proper posse, Adrian won the game with his succession of winning cowpokes.
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
Friday, 22 May 2009
Dominion - 20 May 2009
(James writes) I hadn't played this before and was really taken with the unique game mechanism. The two games we played felt quite different as we changed the stacks of cards, so I'm sure this has plenty of mileage. Very clever and fun.
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Vinci - 13 May 2009
(David writes) We hadn't played Vinci for a while, but the rules are pretty straightforward and it was easy to remember. The game started quietly with us all keeping to the same pace until about 3 turns in when both James and David stalled and Kieron and Stu started to break away.
Halfway through the game - disaster - we realised that Andy's unstoppable nation was actually using far more armies than permitted. (To be fair it was easily done - especially when people were killing your men and tossing them back into your stack.)
A hasty discussion followed in an attempt to restore balance - and then we proceeded to watch as Kieron shot away from the rest of us. In spite of Orhan's best efforts to get the rest of us to attack Kieron in the final round and leave the way open for him - such blatent acts of kingmaking were resisted and Kieron earned yet another victory.
The surprise was James moving from near last to second in the final turn. I finished a disappointing last - but I consider getting through the rules reading without killing anyone a minor victory.
Vinci just about plays 6 although the board is extremely cramped and it's difficult to get the ebb and flow feel you get with with 3-5 players.
Final score: Kieron 102, James 93, Andy 92, Orhan 92, Stu 89, David 83
Halfway through the game - disaster - we realised that Andy's unstoppable nation was actually using far more armies than permitted. (To be fair it was easily done - especially when people were killing your men and tossing them back into your stack.)
A hasty discussion followed in an attempt to restore balance - and then we proceeded to watch as Kieron shot away from the rest of us. In spite of Orhan's best efforts to get the rest of us to attack Kieron in the final round and leave the way open for him - such blatent acts of kingmaking were resisted and Kieron earned yet another victory.
The surprise was James moving from near last to second in the final turn. I finished a disappointing last - but I consider getting through the rules reading without killing anyone a minor victory.
Vinci just about plays 6 although the board is extremely cramped and it's difficult to get the ebb and flow feel you get with with 3-5 players.
Final score: Kieron 102, James 93, Andy 92, Orhan 92, Stu 89, David 83
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Agricola - 6 May 2009
(James writes) I like this game but still don't think it deserves it's BGG #1 slot. Because the interaction between players is limited, I think we need to play it at a quicker pace to keep the momentum and fun going.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Puerto Rico - 29 April 2009
A return of a classic game, especially pleasing as games nights these days are often attended by more than the 5 player maximum for Puerto Rico.
The Rivals employed a range of contrasting strategies with duplicate tactics being enforced by the fact that most of the buildings come in pairs. Thus James and Adrian started on the Construction Hut gambit, allowing them, plus Stu to acquire 2 Quarries (with Deej and Kieron only getting one apiece). Stu and Kieron were able to gain Factories. Deej maintained a tobacco monopoly for most of the game. Adrian had no Warehouses but was the only one to enjoy the use of an imaginary ship (via his very own Wharf).
Each of the players acquired a large building, and the bonus points we acquired from them (7 for everyone except Kieron who got 6) showed that they were much of a muchness.
The final scores were close: Kieron winning on 51; Adrian on 48; Stu on 47; Deej on 45; and James, who finished the game by his acquisition of a 12th building, last on 43. Our post-mortem on tactics suggested that Haciendas were not much cop; Hospices and Factories were however dead good.
So, a Smith victory then. But this, Kieron's second win in a row, was a 'Lucky Win' (see tag). Once again Stu helped spoon him onto the winner's podium by a crucial error of judgement which, had he noticed, would have allowed a different move and a joint victory for him and Adrian. Kieron's win then, not so much 'standing on the shoulders of giants' as 'getting a leg up on the back of a distracted fellow schoolteacher'. It can't continue like this...
:-)
The Rivals employed a range of contrasting strategies with duplicate tactics being enforced by the fact that most of the buildings come in pairs. Thus James and Adrian started on the Construction Hut gambit, allowing them, plus Stu to acquire 2 Quarries (with Deej and Kieron only getting one apiece). Stu and Kieron were able to gain Factories. Deej maintained a tobacco monopoly for most of the game. Adrian had no Warehouses but was the only one to enjoy the use of an imaginary ship (via his very own Wharf).
Each of the players acquired a large building, and the bonus points we acquired from them (7 for everyone except Kieron who got 6) showed that they were much of a muchness.
The final scores were close: Kieron winning on 51; Adrian on 48; Stu on 47; Deej on 45; and James, who finished the game by his acquisition of a 12th building, last on 43. Our post-mortem on tactics suggested that Haciendas were not much cop; Hospices and Factories were however dead good.
So, a Smith victory then. But this, Kieron's second win in a row, was a 'Lucky Win' (see tag). Once again Stu helped spoon him onto the winner's podium by a crucial error of judgement which, had he noticed, would have allowed a different move and a joint victory for him and Adrian. Kieron's win then, not so much 'standing on the shoulders of giants' as 'getting a leg up on the back of a distracted fellow schoolteacher'. It can't continue like this...
:-)
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Power Grid - 22 April 2009
Ni Hao!
This game never fails to impress and this week was no exception as the rivals, numbering 6, took on the Chinese Challenge. The Chinese map also comes with an altered set of rules meaning that power stations come out in strict order and players can only bid on what is there as power stations in the market only become replenished once the bidding round is over.
There were no chinks in Adrian's plan as he spotted the need to keep his options open by only buying power stations with duel fuel. Andy, however, went crackers and decided on a rubbish option. Orhan was determined not get egg fried rice on his face (no room, what with the beard, chicken sticks and Mr Kipling's pies) as he carefully avoided becoming trapped by setting up in the middle of the country and mixing his fuel options. James' sweet option of waiting for the best power plants went sour as he was continually outbid for these by richer opponents. You can always canton Deej to come up with the best optimisation of the 18 or so variables in front of him and this week was no exception. But, just for a bit of fooyung, this week he also decided to get involved in every bid just to make everyone pay a premium for their power stations. Kieron chopped and changed his plans suey was behind at first, but being cut off in the north meant that he just saved his money and could take away cheap power stations and buy resources cheaply. This left him able to (by keeping out of the red) book his place on the podium. Was this win from Kieron a sino things to come next week?
15 Kieron
14 Ade
13 Deej
12 James/Orhan and
9 for Andy
This game never fails to impress and this week was no exception as the rivals, numbering 6, took on the Chinese Challenge. The Chinese map also comes with an altered set of rules meaning that power stations come out in strict order and players can only bid on what is there as power stations in the market only become replenished once the bidding round is over.
There were no chinks in Adrian's plan as he spotted the need to keep his options open by only buying power stations with duel fuel. Andy, however, went crackers and decided on a rubbish option. Orhan was determined not get egg fried rice on his face (no room, what with the beard, chicken sticks and Mr Kipling's pies) as he carefully avoided becoming trapped by setting up in the middle of the country and mixing his fuel options. James' sweet option of waiting for the best power plants went sour as he was continually outbid for these by richer opponents. You can always canton Deej to come up with the best optimisation of the 18 or so variables in front of him and this week was no exception. But, just for a bit of fooyung, this week he also decided to get involved in every bid just to make everyone pay a premium for their power stations. Kieron chopped and changed his plans suey was behind at first, but being cut off in the north meant that he just saved his money and could take away cheap power stations and buy resources cheaply. This left him able to (by keeping out of the red) book his place on the podium. Was this win from Kieron a sino things to come next week?
15 Kieron
14 Ade
13 Deej
12 James/Orhan and
9 for Andy
Monday, 13 April 2009
El Capitan - 1 April 2009
Over to Andy's for the four April fools and a quick return to El Capitan. It's good to get a chance to replay a game soon after the first outing as there's less rules learning and a chance to remember what worked and what didn't from the previous game.
Andy played a very loan-heavy game and started to sink under the debt mid-game. Orhan played to concentrate his influence in a small number of high paying cities, but lost out on the diversity scores and probably wasted resources intimidating others out of attempting take-overs. Kieron played a balanced game, but found a number of his warehouses vulnerable towards the endgame. I played cheaply in the first phase, raced for proliferation in the second and spent the third phase shoring up my position.
According to Kieron this is a deejious game. I don't have a clue what that means but I guess his theory is at least partially supported by the scores: David - 283, Kieron - 226, Orhan - 211, Andy - 198.
Andy played a very loan-heavy game and started to sink under the debt mid-game. Orhan played to concentrate his influence in a small number of high paying cities, but lost out on the diversity scores and probably wasted resources intimidating others out of attempting take-overs. Kieron played a balanced game, but found a number of his warehouses vulnerable towards the endgame. I played cheaply in the first phase, raced for proliferation in the second and spent the third phase shoring up my position.
According to Kieron this is a deejious game. I don't have a clue what that means but I guess his theory is at least partially supported by the scores: David - 283, Kieron - 226, Orhan - 211, Andy - 198.
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