Ave Caesar (22nd)
Basari (15th)
City (8th)
Guillotine(1st & 15th & 22nd)
Halunken & Spelunken (1st)
High Society (22nd)
Honeybears (29th)
Hornochsen (29th)
Medieval Merchant / Pfeffersäcke (29th)
Members Only (15th)
Millionenspiel (29th)
Phantoms of the Ice (15th)
Samurai (29th)
Schäppchen Jagd (8th)
Stockers (15th)
Wettsreit der Baumeister (22nd)
Zankapfel (1st)
Bumper turnout. If I remember, Karl only had to take one game back with him of the boxful that he brought. The numbers varied during the evening as people came and went.
Two games of Guillotine to start with. This card game from Wizards of the Coast seems to have made a bit of a hit with the group. A fun game, fast paced and simple, with plenty of opportunities for interaction - as I found when I got stuffed in the second game from a potential first place to a dismal last... Grrr! Results: Game 1: JT, GL, SO+TC+GC, KB. Game 2: CD, SO+GC+JT, KB+GL, TC.
We followed this up with Zankapfel, an apple farming game. Seems like a good enough game, although Geoff and I obviously had the wrong idea somewhere (or just terrible luck). While the other three were busily buying and collecting apples, enabling them to move forward around the board, we seemed to be moving inexorably backwards and were both lapped at some stage. It seems that when your luck goes bad in this game, it goes really bad, and the interest starts to wane. Anyway we both managed to get back to about the start space before Gary won (it's his game by the way). Result: GL, CD, SO, TC, GC.
Gary had also brought in Halunken and Spelunken and I've been keen to try this for some time, having nearly bought it on more than one occasion. So we did. As I had hoped, it is an enjoyable game and moves along reasonably. And I don't just say that because I won. Result: TC, GC, SO, GL.
Back down to our minimum attendance again this week, with Chris turning up just as Steve and I were trying to figure out what we could play with two.
We started with Schäppchen Jagd, which the others hadn't tried before, so I was able to secure a victory despite two bad hands. Result: TC, SG, CD.
We then had a go at City, a great game. Due to poor placment of shops by me and some eccentric play from Steve, Chris secured a resounding victory. Result: CD, SG, TC.
For the last four weeks we have alternated between three and seven attendees. This was one of the latter..
We all stuck together for the first game: my first encounter of Phantoms of the Ice. This is a card game where you collect players in an ice hockey team and then attempt to beat the other players. The thing is you can either trade a player or play a match each turn. So if you spend too long trying to get a good team - as I did - you find someone else has got a good lead in the number of wins under their belt. I also reckon that I was unlucky in the cards I got, but I guess it would seem that way. Result: MH, GC, CD, KB+GL, TC+SO.
We split into two groups at this point. The first group played Basari, a popular game of the moment. Mick was obviously on a bit of a roll tonight and won that game as well. Result: MH, KB, GL, GC.
I had played Basari before, so I didn't jump at the chance to play and decided to see what the others fancied. We had a go at Stockers, a strange game of racing from Warfrog. None of us had played before and, at the start, we all found it difficult to choose what cards to play, and it was only as the race neared its end that we had a clearer idea of what we should be doing. Nevertheless, we stopped after the one race rather than the three required by the rules. Result: CD, TC, SO.
The Basari group (minus Karl, who had to leave) continued with Members Only: a game I have never played and know nothing about. At least Mick didn't win. Result: GL, MH, GC.
The rest of us finished off with that current standby, Guillotine. After a bad start, I was actually one point in the lead going into the 'third day'. I also had the card that ended the day after my go. So I played it - much to the annoyance of the others (hee hee). Some much needed points in the stats war for our leading game. Result: TC, CD, SO.
Like, it seems, about half the group, I succumbed to the lure and bought myself a copy of Guillotine and furthered my growing love of Doris and Frank games by getting Tante Tarantel as well.
It's Essen week and I think four of our regular members have headed off on the pilgimage to that Mecca. So I was expecting a low turn-out today. I wasn't even due to come myself, as I was due to attend the works quiz night with the winning team from last time. The quiz was cancelled, however, due to only nine teams signing up, so I came anyway and was surprised to find that we had seven again (two weeks running!). This was in large part due to Mick bringing along Paul Johns and Paul Oakes, who were visiting him at the time.
Mick was a little late, so the rest of us kicked off with yet another game of Guillotine, pushing down my scoring average again... Geoff, however, moved up to second place in the ratings for this game, ahead of Chris. Result: GC, JT, SO, TC.
The others had arrived by this point and were well into a game of High Society. I have never played this so I won't attempt to describe it. They had three games in all, so it can't take too long to play. Results: Game 1: PJ, MH, PO. Game 2: MH, PO, PJ. Game 3: MH, PO, PJ.
Meantime, the rest of us continued with a game of Wettsreit der Baumeister, the game of bidding for buildings to build the best city. I was doing rather badly for most of the game, but two turns of luck at the end meant I was able to recover a lot of ground. Result: JT, TC, SO, GC.
We finally all got together, as Jake left, to play Ave Caesar. This was the first time I had played this and I have to say that it is probably the best race game that I have played. The theme is of 'Ben Hur' type chariot races and makes the most of blocking the other chariots. The problem I have found with most racing games is that, using dice, it is difficult to catch players who get a bit of a lead, making for a bit of a procession. This game doesn't use a die. Instead, each player has a pack of cards with numbers from one to six and holds three of these cards at a time. This allows some choice in the move to be made and ensures that each players will get the same number of sixes, etc during a race. Things are further evened up by aggregating scores over four races, although we only had time for three. A game I have added to my 'buy list'. 'Player of the day' award must go to Paul Johns who had never managed to score a point in this game before, yet finished second. Result: GC, PJ, PO, TC, SO, MH.
So, Essen has been and gone. Bursting with frustration at all the news I was reading on the web, I headed off to see Karl on his return to get a pick of the loot before all the goodies were gone. I got copies of Keydom, Nanuuk, Kahuna, Hornochsen and Samurai, as well as second hand copies of Ave Caesar (see what I said about this last week) and Heimlich & Co, and a set of the Elf Wizard cards for Elfenland. Looks like I'll have to sell one of the children to pay for it all, though. As if that wasn't enough, I added a copy of Samarkand when Karl arrived at the club with a boxful of new stuff.
Anyway, back to the club. We had five adults and, because it was half-term at school, two children. That makes three weeks on the run with seven players.
We kicked off with one of the new Essen games, Hornochsen. This is a card game based on 6 Nimmt. The main difference is that, in Hornochsen, players play cards in turn rather than all at once face down, there are also plus points as well as minus. This leads to more strategy than in 6 Nimmt and most players felt it was a better game. It certainly went down well. Things can change radically if you can just hold off from picking up a bad set long enough for someone else to get it. This certainly made the difference for Steve and me. By the way, the pack only works for up to six players, so we had to get extra 'special cards' from a second set to play with seven. Result: SO, TC, GL, LN, KB, JO, CD.
Mick had turned up at this point, so we split into two groups. I played Samurai with Karl and the kids. This is the latest from Reiner Knizia and involves gaining possession of three types of figure on the board by having a majority of influence token surrounding those pieces. The details are covered extensively on the web, so I won't go into detail here. I did rather well (sitting to the left of the youngest player was an advantage), collecting more pieces than anyone else. However, I had miscalculated the number of Buddha figures that Karl had and consequently failed to get the lead in any of the three categories, meaning I could not score - arrrrgh! l, Results: KB, TC+LN+JO.
The others were playing another of the new games, Medieval Merchant (Pfeffersäcke). This is a game of trading and empire building, but I haven't played it, so cannot say much more than that. Result: GL, SO, CD, MH.
After Samurai, we went to the other end of the Knizia scale to play Honeybears. I have been interested in playing this since I first heard of it and almost bought a copy from Karl on his return from Essen. I left it for the time, though, when Karl told me that another of his customers had been waiting or it - I'll get one when he gets some more. It is a simple enough game moving the bears along the track from low scoring spaces to high scoring spaces. As soon as one bear reaches the end of the track, each player gets points for the cards they have left, based on the position of the relevant bears. The trouble is that the bears can only be moved along the track by using these cards - so the more you move a bear to increase its points, the less cards you have left to cash in for that bear. Tactics were developing during the game and would obviously progress in further games. Result: TC, KB, LN, JO.
The other group finished off with Millionenspiel, another game I know nothing about. Result: SO, GL, MH, CD.
By the way folks, a lot of us are heading to Birmingham next week for MidCon. So, if you're going too, be sure to say hello.