Friday 14 September 2012

Monopoly Deal Card Game
Anne, Andrew P and I introduced this card game to Andrew H and Anna and Nigel. Anna ended up with most of the cash in the game! During the first time through the deck Anna, Anne and at one point Nigel had chances of winning. Second time through the deck we were only drawing action cards and I made an amazing come back to win. By the time we finished playing 5 more people had arrived and we split into three groups.

Tichu
In the latest in the ongoing series of matches between Andrew and Andrew versus Anna and Anne, the women reached 790 to 10 by the fourth hand. But by the twelfth hand the guys won 1055 to 445.

Through the Desert
This game doesn't get on the table often enough. Andrew, Andrew, Anne and Anna played.

King of Tokyo
I guess Paul suggested this game. Paul, Nigel and John R played, I'm not sure how things went.

Industrial Waste
John R brought along a game I hadn't heard of Industrial Waste. A game that Tom Vasel enthusiastically reviewed in 2003. It is a game of managing industrial production and the consequent pollution. It tapped into Paul's enthusiasm for environmental destruction! Paul, Nigel and John R played, I understand that John won. I think I need to play this game some time soon.

Age of Steam: 1830's Pennsylvania
On the folding table four of us played another Age of Steam expansion. This was Ceedee's second game of Age of Steam, which was tough on her as experience was an asset. We all started in the south east corner of the map. John closest to the coal, Sharon running along the bottom and up the eastern edge and Ceedee and I trapped between them. I got Loco on the first two turns and ended up on 9 income. But my starting position left me trapped and John started delivering coal.

By the end the competition for goods, especially coal, was fierce. Sharon managed to avoid ever paying any money in the auction to come second.

John B 140
Sharon 117
Ian    102
Ceedee  82

Friday 9th March 2012

We started one game at each end of the table and unfortunately all the games finished at different times so that they two groups didn't get to mingle. John R and Andrew H had good nights with 2 wins each.

Frank's Zoo
The scores speak for themselves.

Andrew H 4 10 17 18 24
Sharon   5  7  9 16 19
Anna     3  7 10  8  7
Anne    -1 -2 -4 -2  2

Lords of Scotland
I taught the others my new card game. The game is not too difficult, though the rules could have been written clearer. For instance referring to cards as clans did help anyone's understanding. A number of questions arose about how the special powers overrode the basic rules. That plus some time spent thinking through tricky decisions meant this 35 minute game took far too long. Basically the game is played in tricks (known as skirmishes). There are a number of cards worth points that are available to be won in each skirmish. There are 5 rounds of play per skirmish. In each round you either play a card or draw a card. After the 5 rounds you compare the total value of the cards in front of you (doubling the value if they are all in one suit). In descending order of value played the players each take a card from those to be won. If the card you play is the lowest in its suit (of the cards played so far) then its special power may be used.

John R 43
Ceedee 41
Ian    40
John B 38
Mark   33

Tichu
Anna was Queen of Tichu, calling 7 times and making 6 of them. Andrew and Sharon did it the hard way by winning points.

Hnd AH+SH AJ+AM
1.   100  T100
2.   110  T290
3.  T 90   310
4.   390T  310
5.   470  T430
6.   550  T550
7.   595  T505
8.   625  T675
9.   805T  695
10.  805   895
11.  850 T1070
12.  930   700

Edel, Stein & Reich
This is a game that seems like rock-paper-scissors, but because the value to each person of the various gems changes from round to round and the gems supply is not inexhaustible the action choice and the bargaining is quite challenging, and the game plays reasonably quickly.

John R 65
Ian    57
Ceedee 56
Mark   48
John B 36

Attika
Andrew got all his pieces down just before Sharon.

Andrew 1st
Sharon 2nd
Anna   3rd
Anne   4th

Friday 13th January 2012

Luke was early and we played TransEuropa while we waited for the others to arrive. On the third or fourth hand Anne and I went off the end to leave Luke to win with 3 points.

Frank's Zoo
We thought Mark might show up, so we played our usual starter to give him time to show up. Annie raced to 19 in 3 rounds, but it took 2 more for me to get there (and over take her).

Ian    4  7 13 18 28
John B 3  9 13 17 20
Andrew 1  5  2  8  7
Anne   8 14 19 23 26
Sharon 3  4  7  9 11
Luke   2  1  3  1  7

We split into two groups of three.

Brass
I burnt 5 cotton mills which was perhaps slightly too many. Arguably I burnt too many ports, and didn't build enough rail. Sharon had the most buildings left after the end of the canal phase than anyone else, and went on to win with plenty rail and cotton shipped to ports.

Sharon 188
Anne   170
Ian    162

Navegador
John was surprised by his win. I'm not sure what strategy each of them used, except that Andrew grabbed a lot of early Privilege tiles.

John B   151
Luke     137
Andrew P 134

Friday the 13th was lucky for me, Luke, John and Sharon.

Friday 6 January 2012

Hornochsen!
While we waited for the final people to arrived, we started a game of Hornochsen!. I started with a totally green hand, but other players had plenty of red cards which gradually came out during the game. Luke (who hasn't played for awhile) tried the get out early strategy, while most of the rest of us tried the waiting game. Anne and I ended up with 2 multipliers each but Anne made much better use of it.

Anne   48
Sharon 18
Ian    12
John R  9
Luke   -3

Patrician
Ceedee arrived bringing a German couple who were surprised to see so many German games that they hadn't seen before. John taught everyone this game of tower building. He must have taught well as he didn't do as well as he normally does.

Liz    43
Tobes  38
John B 33
Ceedee 27

No Thanks!
While the final towers were being completed at the other end of the table, we played a quick game of passing unwanted presents (cards) around the table. People quickly caught onto the idea of bleeding coins from other people. Remember low score is good.

Sharon 16
John R 24
Ian    27
Anne   33
Luke   48

After lots of games were suggested we settled on a couple of longer games.

Navegador
I taught this game of exploration and tried a strategy of starting by building a gold factory and later getting sugar plantations. My economy never kicked in and I faded badly. Liz started by exploring the coast of Africa, her expanding gold mining empire fuelled her ship building and colonizing enterprise. Ceedee was a keen but poor explorer who somehow managed to build churches. John had both gold mines and sugar plantations and made plenty of money, which is counter to our normal ideas of a good economy. Luke had both sugar plantations and sugar factories.

John B 85
Ceedee 82
Liz    80
Luke   69
Ian    63

Taj Mahal
John lost a big battle against Sharon and another one against Tobes, which . Tobes had a newbie tendency to stay in fights longer than was good for him. Sharon developed a well connected network of palaces but it wasn't enough to come back against Anne who won 8 markets. Perhaps there wasn't enough competition with the elephants.

Anne   60
Sharon 52
Tobes  42
John R 32

Around the World in 80 Days
John objects to the blue cards in this race game, so a house rule was played so that in addition to the normal effects of blue cards, the person drawing it gets to draw again. Sharon raced efficiently around the world and finished first. No one else managed to finish in fewer days.

Sharon 65
John R 68
Tobes  69
Anne   73

Coloretto
This game was new to Liz and Ceedee, but they caught on quickly. Ceedee was perhaps a little conservative, while Luke was very greedy. In this game greed paid off.

Luke   28 + 31 + 22 = 81
Liz    20 + 31 + 21 = 72
Ian    25 + 23 + 23 = 71
John B 23 + 19 + 26 = 68
Ceedee 15 + 24 + 17 = 56