We split into two groups of four. My half (me, Sam, Adam, Anja) decided on Stone Age since Anja hadn’t played it before. The other half of the table (Steve, Hannah, Chris, Paul) decided on Sam’s still-in-its-wrapper Ascending Empires. This involved a lot of stickers being stuck, and a certain amount of searching under tables as pieces were knocked onto the floor with alarming regularity. I commend Sam’s calmness, since he didn’t suddenly yell “What are you doing to my beautiful new game!!” at any point during this farrago. Which is what I would have done. Hopefully someone from that end of the table can update this post or add a comment describing their adventures in Fingernail-Powered Space Exploration.
On my end of the table, Adam was talking Anja through the rules of Stone Age. She took most of it in, but seemed a little worried when she learnt that this was the most-played game of recent games nights. And perhaps it was a little unfair of her to compete against Adam and Sam who’d both proven their worth on as hunter-gatherers many times in the past. Especially as certain rules were still being explained to her as the game went on.
Four player Stone Age is a very different beast to the versions with fewer players. I spent most of the game thinking I hadn’t really made any progress and looking nervously at Sam’s pile of cards. Anja made the newbie mistake of trying to get a bit of everything, although she was the axe queen by the end of the game. Meanwhile, Adam kept forgetting he needed food and Sam kept insisting his cards weren’t that good.
When it came to adding up the scores, Sam did well on the civilazation cards, but missed out on the multipliers. I got some useful field multipliers and was boosted by my usual reliance on huts. Anja couldn’t turn her axe monolpoly into many points, and so ended in fourth, but hats off to Adam who showed a bit of his old flair with a multiplier that got him forty points, sending him to an easy win.
Adam 147
Andrew 117
Sam 112
Anja 89
After we finished, we watched the closing stages of Ascending Empires. It was clearly between Paul and Hannah, with their two piles of victory points sitting in front of them. Soon the game came to a close, and points were totted. Hannah ran out a much more comfortable winner than you may have thought at first glance, which made Paul consider the chilling thought that next time he’d start on warfare even earlier.
Hannah 40
Paul 23
Steve 22
Chris 19
So it’s the end of the season. As season that, in many ways, belonged to one man. Quentin. His visits to the table were few, but comprehensive enough that he takes most categories in the old style leader board. In the new Form Table, Sam takes top spot, as he does in the Leader Board. But Quentin shows how he is Mr Consistency with firsts in Points ratio, Absolute points ratio and Weighted points ratio. Five wins out of six is not a record to be scoffed at, and it also put him third in the Olympic-style leader board.
Other performances of note: Hannah, in her one appearance, scored the most overwhelming victory, stastically speaking, scoring almost twice as much as her nearest rival. Steve took highest points ratio according to the length of the game: he only played three times, but each time the game went on for ages. We at GNN salute that kind of stamina. The leader board will now be put in cryogenic suspension until the New Year. In the meantime, Happy Christmas!!
| Points | ||||||
| Sam | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 9 |
| Quentin | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 9* |
| Joe | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 12 |
| Adam | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 13 |
| Andrew | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 14 |
| Steve | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
| Dan | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Jonny | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Hannah | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 21 |
| Andy | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 21 |
| Paul | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 22 |
| Sally | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 22 |
| Anja | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 24 |
| Chris | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 24 |
The leaderboard...
| Played | Points | Ratio | Absolute | Abs ratio | Weight | Wt. ratio | Length | Lth. ratio | |
| Sam | 28 | 125 | 4.46 | 1500 | 53.57 | 91.5 | 4.16 | 95.84 | 3.42 |
| Adam | 26 | 113.5 | 4.37 | 1423 | 54.73 | 82 | 3.9 | 96.68 | 3.72 |
| Andrew | 29 | 106.5 | 3.67 | 1346 | 46.41 | 75.5 | 3.15 | 85.85 | 2.96 |
| Joe | 19 | 72 | 3.79 | 1003 | 52.79 | 84 | 4.94 | 70 | 3.35 |
| Quentin | 6 | 31 | 5.17 | 367 | 61.17 | 32 | 5.33 | 23 | 3.83 |
| Steve | 3 | 11 | 3.67 | 156 | 52 | 9 | 3 | 18.75 | 6.25 |
| Jonny | 3 | 10.5 | 3.5 | 284 | 40.57 | 25 | 5 | 9.8 | 3.13 |
| Dan | 2 | 8 | 4 | 21 | 10.5 | 5 | N/A | 6.5 | 3.25 |
| Andy | 2 | 7 | 3.5 | 68 | 34 | 3 | N/A | 4 | 2 |
| Hannah | 1 | 5.5 | N/A | 40 | N/A | 5.5 | N/A | 8.25 | N/A |
| Paul | 1 | 4.5 | N/A | 23 | N/A | 4.5 | N/A | 6.75 | N/A |
| Sally | 1 | 4.5 | N/A | 26 | N/A | 4.5 | N/A | 1.49 | N/A |
| Anja | 1 | 2.5 | N/A | 89 | N/A | 2.5 | N/A | 2.5 | N/A |
| Chris | 1 | 2.5 | N/A | 19 | N/A | 3.5 | N/A | 3.75 | N/A |
The Olympic leaderboard...
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | |
| Sam | 11 | 9 | 7 |
| Adam | 10 | 7 | 5 |
| Quentin | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| Joe | 3 | 6 | 5 |
| Andrew | 2 | 9 | 14 |
| Dan | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Hannah | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Steve | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Jonny | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Andy | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Paul | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Sally | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Note re scoring methods: Absolute points/ratio refers to the number of points scored in a game. This is obviously a very silly criteria, since your success depends on how generous the game is with giving out points. Weighted points: this is your points adjusted to how well you did last season, so people who did well are penalised and those who did badly get a boost. Weighted for length: your points are multiplied according to how long the game goes on for.
A very nice evening, thanks everyone. Nice to see so many faces... hope we can see you all again soon. Thanks to Andrew for an obscene amount of maths and attention to detail. Three tables! It's almost nerdy. Almost.
ReplyDeleteVery quick run down of Ascending Empires:
ReplyDeleteChris got points through mining. Paul went for an attack strategy. Steve started strong, going for all 4 planets in the centre of the board and different quadrants, but then something went wrong. Perhaps it was because he was too busy repeatedly counting up ships and troops to work out if he'd been restocking from the wrong pile. He'd also lost a research station to the floor after I'd knocked his bowl off the table, so couldn't increase his tech levels any further. Basically I cheated.
In Stone Age I was my own worst enemy - stacking up piles of wood in preparation for civ cards but too often not using them; hoping that my precious farm multipliers would come up next round. But there was an element of misrepresentation - the massive stack of wood, allied to my many farms, seem to make everyone perceive me as potential winner even though neither, of course, actually get you any points by themselves.
ReplyDeleteIn the end I did ok out of the cards but at the point everyone started worrying about them I actually had 3 cards, worth 14 points. Curse my lumberyard braggadocio!
I think I assumed that you had loads of cards because you're Sam... I was surprised when you held up your 3 cards. By that time you'd normally have about ten...
ReplyDeleteI like the way that concentrating on different multipliers brings different benefits - huts you get points, hammers are easier to rack up huge numbers of, fields save time and more meeples make light work...
I think it's the sign of a good game when you still don't 'know it' after multiple plays. Or the sign of something else involving my brain; I'm not sure. Either way, bring on Constab!
ReplyDeleteSorry to miss the festivities. I do love a bit of Stone Age. And Ascending Empires for that matter. Mind you, if I had come along, one of those games wouldn't have been played, as they're both four-player max., and I don't think even Sam's whopper of a table could hold three games simultaneously . . .
ReplyDeleteI have been playing a lot of Mr Jack with Bea and Matilda, and even once with Charlotte. It's a brilliant 2 player deduction game, very clever but still accessible; Matilda outwitted me for the first time this afternoon, escaping on turn 5, which made me very proud.
Happy CHristmas GNN-ers! Next stop — STOCKPORT!!!
Happy Christmas one and all; shame you couldn't be there Joe - but now of course games nirvana draws near. Shall we have games night as per normal on Tuesday 3rd?
ReplyDelete