October 25th, 2005 |
We eventually got to 8 folks tonight, so I made us split up into two groups. First we squeezed in a quick round of Saboteur, which I limited to two rounds so that we could include Kaveh, who waits too patiently for his own good.
Aside from Kaveh, there were Mike, Karla, Jim, Dan, Scott, Annie, and Brian.
| Saboteur |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Jim | 4 | 1 (Tie) | |
| Dan | 4 | 1 (Tie) | |
| Scott | 4 | 1 (Tie) | |
| Annie | 1 | 4 (Tie) | |
| Brian | 1 | 4 (Tie) | * |
| Mike | 0 | 6 (Tie) | |
| Karla | 0 | 6 (Tie) | |
Notes: The loyal dwarves won the first round, though it was pretty close, as Karla and Mike were outnumbered and beaten, and so they joined the winning side for the second round only to be defeated again, this time by an evil crew of Scott and Dan. Annie's plays were odd in both the first and second game, and Mike had good cards in the first round and crappy ones in the second game.
We cut it short after 2 rounds so that we could include Kaveh.
| Pueblo |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Jim | ~29 | 1 | * |
| Mike | ~34 | 2 | |
| Brian | ~40 | 3 | * |
| Annie | ~60 | 4 | * |
Notes: We broke up into groups dictated by the smoking breakers, with Dan, Kaveh, Karla, and Scott eventually settling down to play Pirate's Cove. I dragged out Pueblo, a game both easy to teach and quite strategic.
I don't remember the scores and lost my sheet, but I've got the order right. Jim played very well, and I did pretty well, too. I was hit with about 8 points in a row about 2/3 of the way through the game, and if I had been able to avoid that, I would have been fine.
Annie left herself exposed on the top level (4) on about 3 sides, which ran her score up pretty quickly. Jim had one piece exposed up there, but was able to get it covered up on 3 of 4 sides and wasn't injured by it very much. Brian was in pretty good shape except for the back stretch and was usually in last before the final tally.
Everyone seemed to like this game, though Annie lamented her spatial skills.
| Pirate's Cove |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 30 | 1 | |
| Scott | 25 | 2 | |
| Kaveh | 20 | 3 | * |
| Karla | 18 | 4 | |
Notes: Again, I have no exact knowledge of the scores, I'm going by what Scott and Dan told me. When I checked up on them when their game was about halfway done, Karla was furious. Apparently the island chaos and fighting was too cruel for her. The rest of the game must have been similar. She was so snarky to me that Brian started chanting "DIVORCE! DIVORCE!"
Dan, who was "in charge" skipped Treasure Island for round 6, moving him back to 1. Scott got a bit hosed on this, as he was planning to go to Treasure Island the next round. Since he would have to fight Blackbeard, he went somewhere else, Dan found him, and blew him and his special, "Take all the treasure you want" parrot out of the water. Had Scott made the trip to treasure island, it sounds like he would have won.
Not sure what Kaveh thought of it, as I didn't get a chance to ask him.
| Bohnanza - High Bohn |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Brian | 24 | 1 | * |
| Jim | 23 | 2 | * |
| Mike | 21 | 3 | * |
| Annie | 19 | 4 | * |
Notes: This was the first time we played with the special building cards added in the High Bohn expansion. I explained the cards in detail, which made sense, and we got going.
I went for buildings pretty quickly and managed to get the Chili ones, which make further Chili bean fields more prosperous. Jim and Brian both went for Blue beans and Annie went for stink beans. I can't remember too many details, but I remember that Brian and I each managed 6 buildings and Jim managed 4, so we all got some bonus coins at the end. Annie only went for 2 buildings and never really warmed up to them.
We were running over. The thing with this expansion is that it takes longer to get through the deck, as people aren't keeping their coins, they're spending them on the buildings. So we only went through the deck twice. I enjoyed the strategy the buildings added, but I felt that the winner would have been the same had we played the regular way. I wonder if it's all just new cards for the sake of new cards. Well, I kind of fell for it. I think I'll have to play the expansion only going through the deck twice, though, otherwise this 45 minute game could stretch into an hour plus.
| Villa Paletti |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Kaveh | Master Architect | 1 | * |
| Dan, Karla, Scott | Not Master Architects | 2 | |
Notes: Not sure who knocked the tower over, but it seems like the game didn't go very long. That's not surprising, as they played on a wobbly card table.
| Pounce |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Kaveh | Master Cat | 1 | * |
| Dan, Karla, Scott | Not Master Cats | 2 | |
Notes: I heard a lot of laughing and complaining over this "game." The true tragedy of it is that there are so many variables and the rules don't cover any of them. For instance, How high must the cat be held while the dice are rolled? How do you make sure everyone can see the dice? Who gets to be the cat if the cat cheats too much? None of these questions are really answered, and it makes the game hard to enjoy for me.