May 23, 2006 |
On Mike’s Birthday eve, we had 8 folks, many of us giddy over the birth of Sam and Jill’s baby boy Benjamin. Two of us were new: Brian, who lives just around the corner and is an old friend of Jill, and Peter, whom I personally converted into a boardgame geek by bringing a few games over to Rakesh’s parties.
| Circus Flohcati |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Lee | 77 | 1 | |
| Peter | 62 | 2 | * |
| Mike | 60 | 3 | |
Notes: Peter had brought a couple games. One was Inkognito, a game he didn’t know how to play and had yet to be punched. Plus, as he said, it was best with four. He also brought Dragon’s Gold, which sounds like a group negotiation game.
As Karla wasn’t ready to play, and many folks about to stop by, I pulled out Circus Flohcati, which Lee loves, is very quick, and would help break the ice. As we played, just about everyone showed up.
Lee kept flipping and drawing 6s and 7s. Peter collected a lot of 4s and 5s after being hosed early a couple times on drawing doubles. I later was crushed by drawing doubles in unlikely spots (like when there were only 1 or 2 cards out there).
At one point, I had the “take a card” card, and I took one of Lee’s 7’s away from him. As the game went on, I tried to get a lower version of that color (to protect it from the inevitable “give me a certain color” card), but that never happened, and Lee (of course) eventually got the orange 7 back, then completed the grand display, and dusted Peter and me. He only had one set while Peter and I had three each, and Peter had better cards, so I took the loss.
| Around the World in 80 Days |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Brian | 69 Days | 1 | * |
| Peter | 77 Days | 2 | * |
| Rakesh | 77 Days | 3 | * |
| Mike | 80+ Days | 4 | |
| Amanda | DNF | 5 (Tie) | * |
| Lee | DNF | 5 (Tie) | * |
Notes: This Ticket to Ride type game always struck me as fun, and I had been mulling over getting it ever since I first played it. I explained the rules pretty quickly, which were pretty well understood, I felt, and things got off the ground in a hurry.
Peter and Rakesh raced out early, zipping along and collecting all the beige chips. I think Peter ended up getting all of them except 1 or 2. In the next wave were Brian and I, and Lee and Amanda brought up the rear. That’s how things remained pretty much throughout the game.
Peter and Rakesh were very close, and Brian, though behind them, was doing phenomenally. He was usually the first player, and kept taking event cards. Amanda kept going last and was generally forced to take cruddy cards. It seemed like whenever Lee or I got an event card, it was a storm or a delay, forcing us to delay for a couple days and not get a card. Meanwhile, Brian was getting the Submarine, the Connections card, and the Distraction one. Peter had some, too, and they were effective.
I was in good shape until near the end. I was hampered by the detective at one point (forced to because I didn’t want to slip into 5th place), then ran out of cards. Rakesh kept making odd selections of the cards, generally taking the thing I wanted. By the end it caught up with me. Amanda was stuck with cruddy cards, and Brian kept pulling awesome stuff out of his magic hat. Lee had worse cards than I did, spending 15 days crossing the Pacific Ocean (leaving him at 76 days with two more trips to make!).
Peter finished first at 77 days, and Rakesh, who could choose to tie him and lose the tiebreaker – assuring himself of 2nd place at best – took it rather than attempt to beat Peter. It looked like Brian was going to win anyway, as he was very close to the end and probably had enough cards to get there.
We were all penalized a day (due to there being people in London), then penalized again when I drew one final Delay card. Brian zipped to London in 69 days, and I ended the game that round, using all my remaining cruddy cards to arrive over 80 days. (81, to be precise.) Amanda and Lee were eliminated.
Brian said he liked the game, as it had luck, but he felt like he was making decisions. Welcome to the world of Euro games, my good man! I think everyone else liked it, too, but Lee thought the game should go more quickly. It does with fewer people. What I like is how each person’s turn is interesting – how are they moving? Wow, he did that?!? Why? Etc. The game had a distinct pressure feel, as Peter and Rakesh moved with alacrity, and the rest of us bunched up, especially at the end.
| Balloon Cup |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | 3 Trophies | 1 | |
| Scott | 1 Trophy | 2 | * |
Notes: While we played Around the World, Karla and Scott played Balloon Cup, which Scott said he lost, 3 to 1. Karla had to ask me a couple of rules early on, but they seemed fine after that. They had to wait a bit for us to finish.
| 6 Nimmt! |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Rakesh | 14 | 1 | |
| Amanda | 15 | 2 | |
| Peter | 17 | 3 | * |
| Mike | 20 | 4 | |
| Lee | 23 | 5 | |
| Karla | 38 | 6 | |
| Scott | 72 | 7 | |
Notes: Brian took off after getting some quick bird instructions. So, with about half an hour or so to play, we had ap few options for 7 player games. Three people volunteered to sit out so we could play Dragon’s Gold, but I vetoed that and made us all sit together. It came down to Citadels, 6 Nimmt!, or Midnight Party, and the vast majority was for 6 Nimmt! (which Peter named “sex nymphs” this morning via email in a suggested nickname).
I explained the rules to Peter, who paid attention pretty well despite learning his third straight new game, and we were off. Though he took the very first row of cards, he did excellently after that. Scott hit some bad luck, as did Lee and Karla, and Rakesh (mirabile dictu!) played very well, coming in second after another excellent round (ho-hum!) by Mike. First round scores:
Mike: 1
Rakesh: 6
Peter: 7
Amanda: 13
Lee: 21
Scott: 26
Karla: 28
For the second round, Lee and Scott decided to try the random approach made famous by Dan last time we played. It started off well for them, as they only took one card between them (Lee) over the first five hands. Other than that, I took a nasty row. Everyone else was doing okay.
Then disaster struck, as Scott took full rows with his next 5 draws, blowing his whole game to pieces. Lee only took one more card. I made a last second switch on one card, as I suspected that Lee would flip a card lower than all those out there, saving my tush. He didn’t, though – his random flip generated the perfect card again – and I picked up 8 more points, which ended up costing me the game.
Amanda and Lee each had the best round (with 2 cards each), and Scott blew past the 66 point barrier with 72 points, upsetting Amanda, who wanted to play one more round (she ended up in second, one point behind Rakesh, something I don’t think any of us could comprehend), and Karla, who had called “Random!” for the third round.
After the game, Peter and I talked about PBEM GoT, which will only mean anything to the super-geeks out there. Much fun was had by all, and we'll be looking for a guest host for next Tuesday...