Carl and Bab's place - 12 May

Modern Art
When I arrived at Carl's place, Lance had almost finished explaining Reef Encounter to Carl, John and Travis (Matt was watching rugby again). But Reef Encounter is a four player game and they graciously switched to a five player game -- Modern Art. This is one of my favourite game though one I don't generally do well at it. All artists got some exposure, painting by at least three artists being sold each turn and by the end of the third round all artists were on the board and worth at least $30. In other words in the fourth round any artist that finished in the top three would be worth between $40 and $70 a painting. I bought a Gitter at the start of the fourth round for quite a lot of money but as that was the only Gitter sold that round I had thrown away my money. To make matters worse I had thrown it at John who won, Carl second, Lance then me with Travis being the only one not to have $300+ at the end.

Reef Encounter
Matt returned and as we couldn't agree on a six player game, Carl and John played Aton while Lance taught the rest of us Reef Encounter. I have played this game once before but this is a tricky game and I feel you need to play several games in succession to get the hang of the consequences of the various actions. Travis got off to a good start followed by Lance, Matt saved lots of orange for a big finish (as did Lance to better effect) and I just bumbled along. Travis came second to Lance with Matt and I trailing well behind but third equal.

Meanwhile Carl and John played three games of Aton. John winning the second and Carl winning the other two. In the final game John was on 34 going into the second scoring round with Carl on less than 20. Carl played second and restricted John to 3 points while gaining well over 20 himself to win! They then played a game of Caesar and Cleopatra.

Light Speed
Light speed is a real-time Cheapass game where you place your spaceships (cards) on the table. The first to finish calls the end of the game. Then comes the scoring which takes much longer. Experience tells in this game as all the ships have different capacities. Where in the firing order they are. What lasers they have and what shields. I ended up on one point after shooting too many of my own ships. Carl won.