Sam and I arrived just in time to catch dessert since, apparently, part of Thursday's group involves sitting up at a table, eating a meal and talking like adults. Crazy. The desserts were very nice, and put our usual cheezy wotsits to shame.
But soon we got down to business, and chose our games. Me, Adam, Hannah and Jon chose Tinners' Trail. Sam, Steve and Anja went for League of Six. I'll leave it to them to explain the raised voices as they moaned about their lack of guards but in the meantime, the scores ended.
Steve 60+guards
Sam 60
Anja 58
On our table, it was Jon's first time playing Tinners' Trail and Adam explained the rules to him. Then we started to take chunks out of Cornwall like it was a lovely cheesecake made by Anja. Copper was at a premium and Tin was at its lowest price, but Jon bought a tin-rich mine for little money, hoping the market would pick up. I went for short-term gain, buying only mines with copper in. Hannah kept her mines close together, and Adam hid in the corner, down by Land's End.
It was close game, and Jon seemed to get a hang of it before too long and his long term thinking did pay off, despite Tin remaining rock bottom for much of the game. Adam had a curious method of buying bonds at the end of each round. He'd start with the smallest denomination before moving on to the largest, like someone at a restaurant telling everyone they're on a diet and they just want a small salad before caving in and ordering the banana boat chocolate sundae as well.
In the end, it was one of the closest games of Tinners' Trail we've had. At least, from second to fourth it was close.
Hannah 126
Adam 115
John 113
Andrew 108
Since we were still up to our knees in Cornish mines and pasties when they'd finished League of Six, Steve, Anja and Sam played Biblios. This ever-enigmatic game of zen cardship punishes those who think logically and rewards people who stumble haphazardly through a haze of confusion.
Steve 9
Sam 7
Anja 0
And here the evening ended. We said our goodbyes and gently pushed Molly the cat off Adam's stinky rucksack before heading home.
Steve jumps to the top of the form table, with fellow Eastonites hot on his tail. And we welcome two new names to the form table to make us look a little more popular and sociable.
| Points | ||||||
| Steve | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 9 |
| Adam | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Anja | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Sam | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 13 |
| Joe | 3 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 13 |
| Andrew | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 15 |
| Hannah | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 21 |
| Jon | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 23 |
Mmm, sounds good! Sorry to have missed it :-(
ReplyDeleteLeague of Six was a game of fine margins. I was determined to make the civic cards work for me so I picked up a couple of strong ones. Anja mainly concentrated on points scoring, and Steve mixed and matched. We only had one round where we really fought over the towns, and the person who lost out - Steve - was the eventual winner. We all ended feeling slightly like the optimal moves were the obvious ones, but I remain fond of this game anyway... it's kind of intriguing.
ReplyDeleteBiblios was much closer than it looked, as Steve picked up the green points without expecting to, beating Anja by virtue of the alphabet. Anja was left with no points at all and Steve catapulted into a three-dice win.
The highlight of the night though was definitely the desserts.