John, Sean and I arrived just as Matt, Carl and Babs were worried that no-one else was going to arrive. While Carl and Babs put the boys to bed we put games on the table. Oasis was chosen
Oasis
The first player token moved between Matt, Carl and Sean, while John concentrated on the green and yellow grass. Carl picked up a big pile of multipliers and built lots of stone. I seemed to get stuck with 3 cards or less and didn't get much of anything until I started to collect camels, and ended up with ten. Matt started off with a good camel herd before diversifying into just about everything. Sean got the biggest camel herd but like me not much of anything else.
John 120
Carl 108
Matt 103
Sean 69
Ian 63
California
Matt left to watch rugby and the remaining four chose California over Mexica merely because Carl hadn't played it before. John reversed his luck of comming last in his previous games by jumping out to a lead, and Sean followed both grabbing various bonuses. Sean kept the brown visitor for most of the game which meant a present each time he got a different visitor. John had a perpetual party with two or three visitors. Carl and I made much heavier work of it, both of us choosing to go after a bonus tile that John was two moves closer to winning with the obvious result. Unlike the rest of us Carl managed to stay out of debt.
Sean 21 + $3
John 21 + $1
Carl 13 + $2
Ian 13 + $1
Hornochsen
We finished California at half time and then looked for another 45 minute game to play during the second half. I suggested Hornochsen and Carl was enthusiastic. I made a slight omission when explaining the rules by not explaining that you could only put one +5 and one x2 on each pile. This game takes a couple of playings to appreciate the tactical options and I was at an advantage with three beginners. I ran out of cards first but made the mistake of keeping my +5 and x2 until the end so had to rid of them where other people could use them. Carl ended up picking up a fair bit of red stuff.
Sean 20 (4x5)
Ian 9
John 8
Carl -ve (I forget how much)
You're Bluffing
Sean left and the rest us wanted to play a short game. I suggested "You're Bluffing" which Carl and co. have been put off before by the children's picture book style artwork. This time I stress its similarity to "For Sale" (which might be dubious) and got it onto the table. We were all scared of the bluffing aspect and there was little trading before all the animals were auctioned. I only had three sets in front of me and kicked off the major trading by spending big to get a pair of donkeys from John. My next trade in dogs was unsuccesful and I lost my dog. I finally got the last pig to give me two sets and take me out of the game. At this point John had the most money and a pair of horses, with Carl holding the other pair. Gradually Matt worked up to two sets. Everyone had at least one goat and goats became the most traded commodity causing the fourth goat to rotate around the table with money moving from hand to hand in the opposite direction. No-one getting a significant money advantage over the others. Finally the sets sorted themselves out with the game taking considerably longer than advertised.
John won (Carl could provide the scores)
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