As well as Will, Joe and Quentin also arrived, no doubt tempted by the school reunion flavour of the evening (didn’t they all go to school together or something? I wasn’t really listening). Sam, Adam and I made up the rest. At first Sam and Adam ate chips, and Will very kindly added to their feast with fried egg and baked beans. If he thought that might make them go easy on him, he was in for a rude awakening.
We began with Incan Gold, an amusing game of bluff and facing down Lady Fate with a steel-cold glare. All with a light-hearted theme of exploring Incan temples. I was a little disappointed in the lack of Zombie Ladies! since they are, after all, part of the fun of the game. This time we had to put up with a new foe: the fire/spider combo which repeatedly turned an otherwise safe and tranquil temple into a death trap. With devastating results. In this situation, Sam’s tactic of get-out-early paid off.
1. Sam 30
2. Joe 20
3= Andrew 15
3= Quentin 15
4. Adam 10
5. Will 6
Then we split up into two groups of three. Me, Joe and Quentin took one half of the table, and Will, Sam and Adam took the other. At our end, we chose San Juan since we all knew it. This Puerto Rico-esque game of card management is a lot of fun, but I found myself quickly out of the running between Joe and Quentin.
 |
| Quentin rearranges the options in San Juan. Glass, bottle. Bottle, glass. |
I’m sure Joe raises his game whenever there’s someone from school at the table. Maybe he thinks it’s payback time for when he got humiliated in double science or something. I don’t know. But whatever, tonight saw Joe in his pomp, chaining together purple buildings for maximum effect (except his Gold Mine, which was rubbish). Quentin played his part, though, and it remained close until the end. Joe squeaked it just because Quentin had mis-identified some cards as monuments, when they weren’t. His final plaintive cry of "I could've built a palace" will haunt me for years.
Joe 31
Quentin 30
Andrew 18
On the other half of the table, they’d chosen Tinners’ Trail. It was new to Will, and I suppose you have to start somewhere, but to go up against Adam and Sam in your first game is a tough proposition, and feeding them doesn’t help at all. A joke springs to mind: What’s the difference between Adam and Sam and a pack of hyenas? When hyenas are full, they stop eating.
However, it wasn't easy for the experienced players. Whenever I looked over at the board, the prices for copper and tin were pretty low. So much so that no one invested money in round two. Sam came first in a low-scoring game. I was, however, struck by the lack of yellow counters in front of Adam. It didn't seem right somehow.
 |
| Adam is... red?! The creeping ketchup? |
Sam 97
Adam 77
Will 60
After San Juan, we chose Ra as our third course of the evening. No need for an introduction for this beauty. However, it was more of the same for me, as I ended up a distant last to the two who clearly still have unresolved issues from the sixth form common room.
 |
| The exciting early stages of Ra |
Joe 55
Quentin 51
Andrew 28
Over on the other side of the table, they’d managed to squeeze in one more game. This time 6nimmt was brought into play, and Adam won again, making everyone suspicious that he had a strategy. He tried to explain it: something to do with “thinning out” and “spreading”. Or maybe he was describing his physique as he approaches middle age. Either way, he won.
Adam 15
Sam 38
Will 74
On the form table, Joe leaps to the top after a very productive evening. Quentin makes an appearance hot on my heels, and he's still got those red fives weighing him down! Thanks to Will for hosting and see (some of) you next week!
| Points | ||||||
| Joe | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Sam | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
| Adam | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 11 |
| Hannah | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 14 |
| Anja | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 15 |
| Steve | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 15 |
| Andrew | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 16 |
| Quentin | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
| Jon | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
| Will | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 21 |
Lovely evening, thanks Will. Helped by some healthy scores for me, of course.
ReplyDeleteSan Juan was great - I used to own it, never played it, and traded it away when I got Race for the Galaxy, which is essentially San Juan with a space-nerd makeover. That's simplifying things, but they do share a lot of the same mechanics. RftG has off-puttingly opaque icons instead of text telling you what you can do, so San Juan is a great introduction to Race; once you've got a feel for the general structure Race is much less daunting.
And Ra. Oh Ra - what can I say. Is it a coincidence that R and A are the first and last letters of Reiner Knizia? Einerknizi to his friends.
Quent and I went to school together, but I'm pretty sure Will didn't grow up in Bristol. The connection is that his house belonged, back then, to a schoolfriend of ours, who is currently staying with Quentin.
Thanks everyone but particularly Will for turning a snack into a feast - and hosting of course.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see Quent back at the table, proffering his now customary 'bad game'. I was intrigued until he said it took too long to play.
Really enjoyed playing Tinner's Trail again - it was much tighter than it looks as well, at least until the last round when Adam embarked on a building spree that gave him no time to extract everything. - I'll take the win, but it was most unHillmannesque, I must say.
More Hillmannesque was his wiping the floor with us at 6Nimmt. As Will said, it's a great game that one.
Have a good time next week you guys. I'll be thinking of you when I'm in France forcing Sally to play Biblios.
Extreme Biblios?
ReplyDeleteMange du merde!
ReplyDeleteLe Biblios de le périphérie
ReplyDelete