Yspahan - 26 April 2017

Another two player game of Yspahan.  David has a very high scoring first round and James outscored him in the subsequent two rounds but not quite enough to close the gap.  Final scores David 104 and James 95.

Samurai DBA Army

Adrian gifted Andy a beautifully painted Samurai army for his birthday.  He had kindly offered to paint one for me as well - and presented me with it yesterday too, so we don't have to wait until August to fight some civil wars!

Mine is the Hojo clan.  Here's the general with the clan's crest of Mitsuuroko (“three scales”) in the background.

The Hojo are known for fostering Zen Buddhism and for leading the successful opposition to the Mongol invasions of Japan, which means that I could use my Mongol Conquest army as an opponent, even though it's not listed in the DBA rulebook.

The army comprises a General and mounted Samurai, which can be double-based with foot.

Four Samurai (blades):

Nobushi and Ashigaru bowmen:

The remaining four elements of the army are either followers with naginata (auxilia):

or Sohei (Buddhist warrior monks) blades:

The army has a statue of Buddha to protect as its camp:

Altogether, this makes a very impressive army:

Even more impressive close-up... Thanks Adrian!

St Petersburg - 29 March 2017

A great games night to celebrate Andy's birthday - starting with fizz and cake (and jelly!) - and then gifts of books and figures (of 1:32 and 15mm variety - photos to come).  We had a full house including a Messenger chat with Kieron.

With an early start for Adrian the next day, he spectated whilst the rest of us played Andy's favourite, St Petersburg.  Which Andy won.  Again.

Final scores: Andy 52, James 47, Stuart 41, David 37

Village - 22 March 2017

We hadn't played Village for a while but we still remembered and played exactly the same strategies as usual: Andy in the market, James travelling, and David a bit of everything.  James ended the game the turn after visiting the last of the six towns, a little too early for Andy to clear up at the market, although his final visit there enabled David to pick up another couple of sales and win the game.

Final scores: David 54, James 51, Andy 44

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.

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

Peloponnes - 22 February 2017

A couple of games of Peloponnes this week.  The first a pretty close run thing until the last plague and feeding which hit all players except James.  Final scores population/prestige James 27/28, Andy 21/25, David 18/32, Stuart 12/33.

The second game had the rare occurrence of an earthquake in the second round, destroying James and Andy's brand new builds.  Andy then played the most almighty project backstep, prompting James to do similarly, so a rather more erratic game.  Final scores population/prestige David 40/28, James 18/30, Andy 30/15, Stuart 15/21.