4 games at Peter's place - 3 May

Hey! That's My Fish!

While people were arriving we played this cute filler of moving penguins and eating fish. The penguins were Peter, Nigel, Andrew and myself. This is one of those games where it is easy to see what you should have done once the next player or two have played!

I won despite letting one of my penguins get unnecessarily isolated.

Great Wall of China

Peter, Eugene, Andrew and Nigel went off to play at being archiologists. So the rest of us tried to find a five-player game that we all wanted to play. Some people were feeling a bit picky so it too awhile! Card games don't often get played at Peter's place but with John, Luke and I in favour of this game it got played.

Luke started with a power play that won him 3 tiles early on but left him short of cards in hand for the rest of the game. I wasted a lot of cards early on in battles where I came second or third and tried in the second half to use my cards more wisely. I was not alone in wasting cards, there were a couple of expensive battles. At the end I was left in a guessing game with Jarratt and Luke was left in a king maker position.

This is another game where you see the move you should have done once the next player or two have played! Jarratt is "off" Reiner Knizia at the moment and was feeling in the mood for something more baroque so didn't enjoy himself (not that there are any games that fit his requirements and his time limitations!).

Lance and I won with 30 each and the rest were close behind.

California

Jarratt left and with the other table still playing we brought out California to fill in time. Lance got off to a lead by getting the first present and the first bonus tile. The rest of us tried to play catch up. For the last three days Lance was looking for a green piece of furnature and John was looking for some green floor. Much to the amusement of the rest of us.

Lance won. Luke and I came second.

Hacienda

People left in droves and we were down to six people. Again Peter, Luke and Eugene grabed a game (The Ark) and headed for the other table. Lance, Nigel and I were left to choose a three player. We finally settled on Hacienda. This was my second playing of this game and Nigel's first. We played the 'random' side of the board in this game of claiming land and taking herds to market. It is a deceptive tile laying, hand management, money management type game with multiple ways of scoring points. I thought I played a lot better than previously but didn't reach enough markets.

Lance won by a substantial margin.