Friday 23 April 2010

Take It Easy!
I was on the phone when Andrew and Anna arrived so they played this quick tile laying game with Anne while they waited for me and other people. It is essentially a multi-player solitaire game where each player has their own set of tiles and layout, and they all add tiles to their layouts in the same order. Each line of tiles that all have the same number (colour) score the sum of the numbers.

The game was finishing when Nigel arrived and I finished my phone call.

Anna   174
Andrew 134
Anne   104

California
Its been a long time since I last played this game, but it is easy to teach and it didn't take long to bring Andrew and Anna up to speed. Some people had a bit of trouble with the coins (in this game silvers are $1 and gold/bronze are $5). Nigel initially collected money (having $10-15 at one point) but still managed to buy as much floor as everyone else. He also decided that the characters should have names, calling one of the women Jane, Anne named the brown guy ??? and the blonde guy became Brad. Anna's house was party central and she was collecting a pile of presents (and other bonuses). A steady stream of people were arriving at my house but very few bought presents, but I got some bonuses. Nigel and Andrew were similarly short of presents. Only Anne stayed out of debt. Anna demonstrated her ability to pick-up new games by winning.

Anna   19
Ian    14
Anne   12
Nigel  11
Andrew  9

Frank's Zoo
Nigel was keen to make up for his previous bad showing and Anna and Andrew rarely need persuading to play this game.

Nigel started badly but recovered and got into his stride. Anna started well but dropped off the pace until her comeback at the end. Anne played a steady game. Andrew lead for most of the game but couldn't hold off Anna in the last hand. I started OK but it then fell apart.

Anna   6  5  9 11 17 25
Andrew 4 10 12 15 19 22
Anne   4 10 12 14 16 21
Nigel -1  3  7 12 14 13
Ian    3  4  6  8  7 10

Everyone, except me, wanted to play again. I vetoed and suggested...

Rheinländer
... a game where I wanted to make up for my previous bad showing.

I went after castles in a big way (as dictated by my initial hand). Nigel and Anna also grabbed a castle each. The churches remained evenly divided for much of the game so the Archbishop was out of play for most of the game and never converted anyone. I was a bit aggressive but with only one success (crossing the river and grabbing a castle off Nigel). Anne and Anna also fought over the central island (Anna won) and Anne took the other island off Nigel. People seemed to think I was winning despite Andrew having more dukes and cities than anyone else, so efforts to stop Andrew were too little too late.

Andrew 39
Anna   36
Anne   33
Ian    26
Nigel  18

It was Anna's night with 3 wins and a second place. While Anne specialised in coming third. There was a consensus that next week Frank's Zoo and Rheinländer must be played again.

Friday 16 April 2010

Lots of games were suggested and after some discussion we split into two city building games, four people playing Metropolys and three playing Attika.

Attika
Again it was a close game between Anne and Anna with Anna winning and Nigel a long way behind.

Metropolys
This was possibly the slowest game of Metropolys ever. I got my first three pieces down and everyone (correctly) thought I was after statues. Andrew then got 6 pieces down in a rush and appeared to be after gold neighbourhoods. Finally John got some pieces down, I got one more, and still Carl hadn't played anything but seemed to favour red. Once Carl got under way he got all his small pieces down and scared John into taking back the lead. Andrew and I were in weak positions at this point and Carl and John pretty much dictated the rest of the game. The scores were close though.

John B 27
Ian    25
Andrew 23
Carl   23

Scotland Yard
John went home and we were 6. Unable to decide on 3 player games we tried this as a six player game.

I was Mr X. I made a mistake on my first move that I didn't notice until after the game but I don't think it made any difference as I was easily cornered after my second reveal and was caught just before the 3rd reveal.

Anne was bored because she was in the wrong part of the board and was accidentally blocked by Nigel from getting back into the play. Andrew and Carl who grew up with the game were in their element.

Psychologically it is an interesting game. The person playing Mr X feels claustrophobic seeing how close the detectives are to catching him, while the detectives seeing heaps of empty space see their task as impossible.

Frank's Zoo
Andrew warned us against 6 player Frank's Zoo and while it is OK the fewer cards and more players playing before your turn mean less control. The bigger range of scoring favours getting out early above getting lions and hedgehogs.

Anna dominated each hand which probably means there is still skill in the 6 player game.

Anna   7 14 19 25
Anne   5  8 13 19
Andrew 2  7 11 18
Carl   4  6  7  9
Ian    4  2  5  4
Nigel -1  1  0  1

Friday 9 April 2010

Seven of us split into a group of three and a group of four. Our first two games of the evening were Sylla and Attika.

Sylla
It's been a few months since we last played Sylla but we picked it up easily enough. Nigel ignored the events (including Legionnaires and Vestal Virgins) and concentrated on building and collecting money. Travis and Nigel were Console twice each. Travis ignored money while he and I concentrated on collecting tokens and controlling the events to our advantage and to hurt Nigel (we managed to close all 3 or 4 of his market booths). Nigel collected slaves for building and Christians by accident and ended up with 4 freed slaves and 6 Christians for 24 points, but had very few tokens! Equally accidentally I had very few Christians.

Travis 69
Nigel  64
Ian    63

Attika
There was a remarkably close finished despite Andrew having fewer tiles on the board at half time. Everyone finished in the same round by getting all their tile built. Anna first then John B then Andrew and Anne. Anne was one card short of winning.

Sylla was only about halfway through at this stage, so Attila was followed by "On the Underground"

On the Underground
John successfully emulated Nigel's strategy of locking up the North West corner of the board, while Anna built a loop. Anne's initial lead failed to put her among the place getters.

John B 53
Anna   50
Andrew 42
Anne   33

Then Travis and John went home and we pulled out a couple of card games

Hornochsen
By half way through the game most of the piles were looking depressingly red, but in fact only Nigel ended up negative.

Anna   12
Ian    10
Andrew  7
Anne    4
Nigel -12

No Thanks!
The deck wasn't very shuffled, which was a great advantage to Anna, she would have won except she got cold feet and took a 27 she didn't need to.

Nigel  11
Anne   18
Anna   21
Ian    23
Andrew 31

(remember low scores are good)