Carl's words:
10 DAYS IN AFRICA
Matt and Susan brought around this lightish game. It was a hit, and was played six times in the evening. Each of the four players has two racks on which to place tiles that they are trying to build a ten day trip though Africa on. There is a board, which shows a map of Africa. The boards only purpose is to let you know which counties are next to each other. A valid trip consists of a line of ten countries, with the second next to the first and the third next to the second etc. There are a couple of different kind of wild cards that make it a bit easier. There are two parts to the game. First each player draws ten tiles one at a time. They have to decide which slot on their rack they place a tile before drawing another one. There is a lot of good work you can do here towards building a legal finished trip. After each player has a rack to work with they take turns drawing a tile, from a face down stack or one of three face up discard piles, and replacing with a tile on you rack. When someone has a complete trip, they win. Matt Morris showed himself to be very good at this game winning all four of the games he played. Interestingly he is also very good at Elfenland, also a node to node trip game.
Matt M won versus Matt E, Qarl and Sharon
Matt M won versus Matt E, Qarl and Sharon
Matt E won versus Qarl, Sharon and Susan
Qarl won versus Babs, Matt E and Sharon
Matt M won versus Babs, Matt E and Sharon
Matt M won versus Ian, Sharon and Susan
ELASUND
This is the latest game based on Settlers of Catan. The players are building up the first city of Catan, and place buildings in the city. They can place buildings that replace the buildings of other players, so its a development game where you can end up going backwards. This made for quite along game apparently. I watched it for a few minutes, but it is one of those games where the look of the game gives you no clues as to what is happening if you aren't familiar with it. Susan defeated Sharon, Ian and Matt M
HAZIENDA
This is the latest big box Hans Im Gluck game, and the latest Wolfgang Kramer game. Lance brought it along (with Elasund, and a few other new games). You play Argentinean ranchers trying to build up the best holdings. The players play tiles onto a board of two types, land tiles on the highlands, and animal tiles on the plains. Victory points for carious achievements are earned at two scoring rounds, one in the middle of the game, and one at the end. There is money to managed, as well as card drafting, as cards are used to buy cards. There are a lot of mechanics, so I won't describe it intricately, but despite all the rules it plays quite quickly and intuitively.
Positional play on the bard is very important, which makes for some strong tactical play. The many paths to victory and the balance between earning money and victory points makes for good strategies elements too. I thought it was a very good game and enjoyed it a great deal. One of the scoring elements grew geometrically and I based my game going for those points, this worked very well. Matt E noticed that everything you score in the first scoring round remains and will score in the second scoring round, so went for quick early points. Both strategies worked well. A tactical blunder I made (that Matt had to point out to me) cost em the game. The other players played a more balanced game, which didn't seem as successful as a more extreme strategy. Lance and John immediately competed in the same are of the board, which seems to be a very bad idea.
The board is two sided. We played on the symmetrical side recommended for new players. The other side looked very interesting. There is also a program available for printing out random maps, which can be useful for a game where positional play is so important.
Matt E 104
Qarl 103
Leonie 97
Lance 82
John 58
HAZIENDA
Lance 122
Sharon 117
Ian 78
PALAZZO
A Reiner Knizia auction game about building tall buildings with lots of windows. Its theme is a bit thin at times, but that never stops Knizia from making a good game. At first blush it has a lot in common with Alhambra. There are a few currencies you use to buy parts of buildings. You either take money, or buy something, or reorganise your buildings in some way. However, when you take money, everyone else gets some too, and when you want to buy something it is usually in an auction, so someone else might get it instead. Building tiles are numbered from 1 to 5, are in a variety of building materials and have a number of windows. Building floors must be put i na building immediately, and to add to a building the floor mist have a higher number than the last. So if you get a 3 building and start a new building with it, it can at most be three high (without rearranging).. Height is the most important element in assessing a buildings score, so this makes for a very interesting part of the game. This time I got to pip Matt E, winning of the tie break. Again we had very different strategies, I was going for lots of buildings thrown together as they came. Matt had just two tall building with all the same building materials (worth a bonus) and lots of windows (also worth more points). Leonie and John were very close behind, making it a very pleasingly close finish.
Qarl 35 (winning tie break with 13 money of one type)
Matt 35 (6 money of one type)
Leonie 34
John 30
DON
Ian likes to collect odd little light bidding card games. This one is one of the odder ones. Players bid for cards in 6 suits. Having multiple in one suit is worth geometrically more the more you own. Suits have five cars, and also have a number from 0 to 9. When you own a card of a number, you may not make a bid ending with that number. So if I owned a 0 a 5, a 6 and a 7, I cannot bid $5, $6, $7, $10, $15, $16 etc. This can get quite limiting when you own a spread of numbers. Additionally when a card is won, the money is split between the players who own the most of the numeral of the ones of the bid. So if the bid is $15, and I am the only player with a 5, I get all $15. The card are drawn and auctioned in varying amounts, first one card, then two, and then three, then back to one card again. It is a weird game, only Ian seems to have a handle on how to play it, but it was a lot closer the second time.
Strictly speaking I didn't collect this game so much as constructed it, from descriptions and a review using cards from Sticheln and what ever counters are handy for money.
First game:
Ian 21
Matt E 17
Qarl 8
Sharon 6
Lance 2
Second game:
Ian 13
Sharon 10
Matt E 10
Qarl 10
Lance 8
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