We began the evening with the three of us – myself, Joe, and Sam – playing Mord im Arosa. We also played Adam's goes for him, as we were expecting him at any second. As it happened, we played quite well on his behalf so when he did arrive, he was in a comfortable first place. Of course, this unconventional way of playing meant the game wasn't leaderboard, but for the record: I was left in last, especially when Sam found three of my guilty cubes in one go, pushing me over the ten-cube limit. Joe and Adam ended as joint winners, with Sam in second.
There was a brief moment afterwards when we were waiting for Steve and Anja when we discussed squeezing in a quick game or if we should actually talk to each other. In the end, we compromised and talked about games until they arrived.
Once they were here, we played new favourite Incan Gold. As a game that works well (perhaps best) with many players, it's quickly gained a special place in our hearts. It was a tense affair, especially for Steve who would confidently place his card down and then, seconds later, pick it back up and reconsider. In the end Joe won it by a whisker, and by sheer fluke as he realised he put down the wrong card. But it was too late to take it back, so he regretfully left the temple and took what treasure he had. The next card finished the game completely, so he got out just in time.
Joe 32
Andrew 31
Adam 30
Anja 28
Steve 13
Sam 9
We then split into two groups of three. Steve, Anja and Sam played Wallenstein, a game whose pronunciation has gone from genteel middle England “Wallensteen” to full blooded Gothic “Vollenschtine” since we last played it. I shall leave it for them to clear up the story of what Gustav Adolph did next. The results ended...
Steve 28
Anja 25
Sam 25
Joe, Adam and I went for the bright lights and white lines of Sunset Strip as we chose Lords of Vegas. And I did feel a bit like I was living the high life, with one half of the table hunched over a map of Germany with cardboard squares and wooden blocks, while we had dice and poker chips and bad American accents. If only board games could be played in a convertible Chevy with the top down while speeding down Route 66, the image would be complete.
Adam scared us all with some remarkable luck regarding which plots of land he could build on and before long, we were looking at his brand new seven-square brown casino. (I should stress now that “brown casino” is not a euphemism for his bottom.) Joe and I started panicking. Joe used the last of the brown squares to stop Adam from expanding, and I went for silver.
Before long, I was suddenly in pole position. Adam's brown casino had completely seized up! And his dice skills had deserted him. Meanwhile, I was getting a steady income from my unused land and some lucky pay-outs from my casinos. But like some village idiot in a folk tale who inherits lots of money and gets greedy and ruins everything, I decided to go gambling.
There was a casino with five dice, only one of which belonged to Adam, the other four split evenly between me and Joe. I decided to re-organise – roll all of the five dice to make a new boss – thinking that if I didn't win then third-placed Joe would. As it turned out Adam defied the odds and won. To make things worse, the next card meant that that casino paid out, giving him Adam points which later were to prove instrumental.
Joe's tale, meanwhile, was a typical rags to riches story. He was the original boss of Adam's casino, but soon found himself reorganised out of his position. This happened to him a lot and towards the end, he had an unmatched collection of dice showing ones, which barely helped him when the casinos paid out.
When the final scores were added up, Adam was only one section ahead of me, and I think I would've beaten him on money, so that reorganising I'd done by accident gave him the game. I cursed my foolishness. Joe came in third, but with only a couple more goes, he would've been in a much stronger position. Possibly still third, though.
Adam 49
Andrew 44
Joe 32
The form table shows a new face on top of the pile. Yes, finally, your faithful reporter gets his day in the sun. Ooh, I feel a bit dizzy so far up.
| Points | ||||||
| Andrew | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Steve | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| Joe | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 14 |
| Hannah | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 15 |
| Adam | 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 16 |
| Sam | 2 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 16 |
| Anja | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 17 |
| Jonny | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
I think another go at Lords of Vegas didn't persuade Adam of its charms, as he said he felt he won by lucky card draws.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of luck, but clever play (not from me, clearly) can mitigate your own bad luck and your opponents lucky rolls/draws, and there is a fair amount of strategic scope for the agile-minded.
As for the gambling, as Andrew said last night "he who dares, wins."
Or in his case, comes a healthy second place against he who draws contiguous plots of land throughout the game, AKA the ubiquitous creeping custard. . .
I want to like Lords of Vegas, it's pretty and glitzy and high-rolly and has exciting dice-rolling antics. And a Brown casino. But I wasn't grabbed the first time I played it as I didn't feel like I'd had much effect on the game, with the cards coming out playing themselves and the only real choices you get - the colours of the casinos you build - evening themselves out over the course of the game. Also I came last.
ReplyDeleteBeing a shallow sort I thought winning would improve my opinion of it, but I didn't do much to justify rushing out into the lead, and I watched with powerless bemusement as Andrew overhauled me and then shot himself in the face with that re-roll - possibly the only decision any of us made that had an effect on the game...
But rolling the dice is fun. Maybe if I'd got to exclaim "Snake Eyes!" it would've been different.
While you guysh (sic) were making gravy in Nevada, we were making war in Valunshtiine. It's a great game that we left fallow for too long, resulting in rather a long setting-up time, resulting in rather a late start, resulting in me calling time on the game after the first year (there should be two).
ReplyDeleteI do like Vallinshtune. I like the canny play and potential for evil/fuck-ups of your own making, of which we all did both. Who knows how it would have ended had we played the whole game - we were all quite evenly spread on the board - but I'm sure we'll do that very soon. Perhaps next week? Meantime apologies again to Steve and Anja for going to bed just as Magdeburg's walls were crumbling...
oh, Anja and I were on 25pts each, not 23 by the way.
At the point in the game where I thought Sam was leading I cheerfully reminded him that 'you don't want to be in the lead after the first year because everyone else will gang up on you and it'll be curtains'. I can confidently predict then that, had we continued into year two, I would have been squeezed like a bratwurst between so much bread.
ReplyDeletePS: I have a photo but absolutely no idea how to upload it... help?
Upload to here? I'll make you an editor, so you can add them yourself.
ReplyDelete