Wellycon Warm Down (23 January 2010)

It was a wet windy day at the end of January in the Metropolys of Wellington and the citizens were wondering when summer would arrive, so what better to do than go to the Wellycon Warm Down at Thistle Hall on Cuba St. When I got there Tony and Shem were looking for a game and agreed to my suggestion of Metropolys. Part way through the rules explanation Gynn joined us.

Shem played his top pieces early against advice from Tony and I -- and paid the price. Gynn got the difficult statue goal, which I think should be worth more points.

Ian  43
Gynn 26
Tony 23
Shem 16

In my humble opinion Caylus is a deep, tough game, where experience and planning pay off. It's been a number of years since I last played so I needed Gynn's excellent rule explanation as much as the people who hadn't played before. Gynn led until the final turn by building more buildings than other players. Andrew burst past him in the final turn by building the only blue building of the game for 25 points. Your's truly came last through dismal planning, especially were castle building was concerned.

Andrew 72
Gynn   63
Anna   55
Tony   45
Ian    43

Anna and Andrew were so taken by Caylus they did a trade for a copy.

Friends Nathan and Roland were looking for a game so I taught them Nexus Ops. There was a bit of wasteland between Roland and I so we tended to attack Nathan more. Roland was doing well and looked threatening with his dragons but I had a good last turn.

Ian    12
Roland  9
Nathan  4

Martin and Felicity were looking for a quick game before leaving and Stephen and John were at a loose end so I taught No Thanks! My prior experience paid off in the first game.

Ian      19
John     25
Stephen  27
Felicity 33
Martin   38

(Remember low scores are good)

One game is not enough. John grabbed a lot of cards (as an experiment) and it showed in his score!

Felicity 21
Martin   25
Stephen  26
Ian      30
John     39

Game 3 wasn't my game! But look at Martin's improvement!

Martin    2
Stephen   8
Felicity 27
John     28
Ian      40

Then John pulled out his New Zealand map of Ticket to Ride. It involved lots of tunnels and also some road links which involved playing wild cards. The South Island players did better than the North Island players for what it is worth. Personally I prefer the passengers of Märklin to the tunnels of Europe but I guess it is better to base an expansion on the cards available in the base game.

When we got back from dinner Anna and Andrew taught me this light dice rolling, push your luck game (Pickomino). It's all skill I tell you

Ian    12
Andrew  9
Anna    3

Valdora was by far the pettiest game of the day. A straight forward pick-up and deliver game. I didn't recognise it as a Michael Schacht game! Optimization is the order of the day. Andrew's prior experience paid off, having unboxed it and learnt it earlier in the day he was ready to teach it in the evening. He was doing 2 or 3 things a turn while we were doing one.

Andrew R 122
Anna     105
Ian       94
Andrew H  88

It probably wasn't a good idea to try and teach Andrew Rea a game during the last 45 minutes of a Wellycon event. It probably didn't help that Anna is not a fan of Chicago Express! But Tony nobly took over from Andrew when he got distracted by administrative tasks.

Though none of the above is an excuse for my score!

Red dead ended once its shares were held 3 ways. Green had the most enthusiastic builders and Black only other railroad to reach Chicago.

Andrew Hubbard  $62
Andrew and Tony $52
Ian             $41
Anna            $24