Wednesday 21 September 2016

You know where you are with a one

Tuesday’s at Sam’s brought a collection of gamers in from the balmy September evening. We were eventually seven, but while we waited for Hollie, six of us bashed out a game of For Sale.

During the opening round I only got a bunch of middling cards to use in round two, so I can’t complain about my middling position. Even the iconic 1 card in my hand didn’t help. Ian had the 30 card, and used it immediately to nab $15,000. He wondered if he might have overpaid for it, as everyone else went low that round.

Andy $55,000
Matt $49,000
Joe $42,000
Andrew $41,000
Sam $37,000
Ian $33,000

By the end of this, Hollie had arrived and while she and Sam talked about animation, everyone else decided what they wanted to play. As it was, Joe, Andy, Ian and Matt chose Isle of Skye, while I joined up with Hollie and Sam.

We looked at the games cupboard, although games section-of-wall might be more appropriate now. When asked, Hollie said she felt like something sci-fi-ish, which left our choices a bit limited. If only she’d said “engine-building with a vague medieval European theme pasted over the top” we’d have had no end of possibilities.

In the end I pushed for Quantum as being shorter than Eclipse or Ascending Empires, and longer than Cosmic Run and less silly that Galaxy Truckers. However, I’d forgotten how complicated it can seem on its first play. Hollie was more or less guided through her first two moves by Sam. He even suggested that she attack him if he thought it was the right move.


But there’s no denying Sam mastery at the game as he suddenly won the game by putting down one cube, getting a card that increased dominance enough that he was able to put a second (and his last cube) down.


Sam 5
Hollie 3
Andrew 3

Isle of Skye remains a mystery to me, and I was aware of people complaining about tiles and money, but little else. The game ended:


Ian 78
Joe 74
Matt 73
Andy 72

At our end of the table, we began a game of Cosmic Run. More dice, but less confrontation, with fate being the meanest opponent. It was all about avoiding the minus points at the bottom of the planet tracks, mostly. Other than that, Hollie and I used the previously untried crystal method. It works pretty well.


Andrew 72
Sam 66
Hollie 66

While we played Cosmic Run, the other four played Money, the cunning Knizia game. Was Andy distracted by his overwhelming sense of deja-vu? He kept mentioning a niggling memory that he’d played it before. The scores were fascinating. Ian was pleased with his 500 points (more than twice his previous score) but was in for a rude awakening.

Joe 810
Matt 530
Andy 520
Ian 500

All except Joe had a full set of a currency, while Joe had most of one, and some scoring sets from others. Last time we played, there were five players. I suppose with one less, there’s more opportunity to diversify.

Now, we were all together for a rousing game of 6nimmt. Andy set off home and Hollie preferred to watch. The remaining five suffered through a tough first round, followed by a second round in which Joe manfully took all the hits for the rest of us. In the third and final round, Matt picked up a cornucopia of cows, while Ian’s clear round almost saw him steal the win.


Sam 30
Ian 33
Andrew 35
Matt 53
Joe 76

And as we head toward the last week of this sparsely populated season, I top the table in points, Adam has points ratio and Katy still has the medal table, even though she’s not been here in weeks.


Oh, and the title’s a bit tenuous, but I did notice that in tonight’s games, several had an important (if sometimes illusory) role for the one: For Sale, Quantum, Cosmic Run and (sort of) 6nimmt. One: it’s a number you can trust.

1 comment:

  1. Fun night. Great to play Quantum again, even if explaining the rules is like trying to explain mathematical data rather than a space-themed punch up.

    And Cosmic Run is cool beans.

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