Four of us were there at the start and we spent most of the evening playing Keytown.  This is the latest limited edition 'Key...' game from Richard Breese.  The game was enjoyable but did take most of the evening and is perhaps not the winner that Keydom was.  Victory seemed to boil down to the last couple of moves, or perhaps we need to play more often to learn the subtleties.   Result: SO, TC, GL, GC.

As we finished that, we were joined by a late-arriving first-timer, Don Clarke - a man who sounds like he's from good stock.  We rounded off the evening with a game of 6 Nimmt and Don immediately endeared himself to the group by finishing last.  Result: SO, TC, GL, GC, DC.

Garry provided the following report on the games:

Keytown:   I had only yesterday received this brand new release from Richard Breese and so was itching to see if it measured up to Keydom, which I really enjoy. I was not disappointed as it is another of those games where you always want to do one more thing than you are able to. Basically, you control a family of townsfolk living in Keytown. You need to advance the esteem of your townsfolk at the expense of your opponents, so that your family have the greatest total esteem at the end of the game. The game is played over 4 rounds, each having six phases. First, you deploy your 6 townsfolk (initially) to (a) gather resources, (b) attempt to increase their esteem, or (c) attempt to expand your family of townsfolk. The resource gatherers collect the fruits of their labours. Then these resources can be used to influence the success or otherwise of those seeking to increase their esteem or expand their family. Fourth, those townsfolk wishing to increase their esteem are assessed. Those with lower esteem are more likely to be successful, but any influence used up in the previous phase will determine the final result. Successful townsfolk have their esteem raised by one level (everyone starts at level one). Fifth, those wishing to start a family are assessed in a similar but not identical way to those seeking higher esteem. If successful, your family gain an additional one or two (level one) townsfolk to be used in later rounds. Finally, your townsfolk regroup with any resources they may have acquired during the round, ready to start the next round. After four rounds, each of your townsfolk brings victory points equal to the square of their esteem level ( a level 3 person scores 9 VPs) - the highest total score wins. There are some interesting mechanics involved here. For instance, the start player has a distinct advantage, but anyone, at any point in the game, can surrender future VPs to change the start player to their advantage.  I also like the way the game builds in complexity from turn to turn.  This is because resources gained are recycled in subsequent turns and added to by the resource gatherers. It takes a while to understand how best to progress, but the rules are pretty straightforward and after you've played once, it should move along at a fair pace providing you don't allow players to over-analyse their positions. One warning though, this is not a game to attempt after a night out at the pub. Keeping track of players influence involves a fair bit of concentration. I liked the game a lot, even though it took me too long to work out the importance of having sufficient resource counters to influence phases 4 and 5. However, the final result was fairly close, although we all thought Steve O had enough influence in round 4 to guarantee victory. So it was with Steve just pipping Trev into second, and Geoff falling behind me after a disastrous last round. For those interested in getting a copy, the components are of a similar quality to Keydom, but as it's a limited run of 500, unless you are going to Essen you will need to contact Richard Breese before he disappears to the fair in the last week of October. 6 Nimmt has its critics but I'm not one of them. It's one of those great games where you can't play a wrong or right card because you never know who is going to stitch you up by doing just what you're not expecting. Although I usually do reasonably well at this, tonight was not to be one of those nights. I just seemed to get lumbered with the wrong cards at the wrong moment. However, only Steve seemed to be avoiding the same fate. It was certainly his night as he wrapped another victory up quite easily. Don started out ok but he soon joined the rest of us in amassing large numbers of points. I hope he enjoyed the experience enough though to come back again soon.

I arrived tonight to find a bunch playing Liars' Dice.   Result: GL, CD, JO+MH, GC, SO.

With the arrival of Don (crikey, he came back!) we split into fours.  Our group played La Cittá.  This was my first try of this city building game and it has certainly interested me enough to want to play it some more - if I ever get the time...  Result: GL, MH, TC, DC.

Meantime, the other table got out Keytown again from last week - being won by the player who had played before - probably a very useful thing in this game.  Result: SO, CD+JO, GC.

Next up, they had two games of Dragon Delta.  This is a game where you have to get your playing piece across the board by placing stones, then placing planks onto the stones, and then 'walking' across the planks.  Control is by a method similar to Robo Rally: you play five cards face down which determine you next five actions.  A big difference is that you always have the same choices of cards on offer to you and are not dependent on the luck of the draw.  Another difference is that the cards denote the type of action you want to perform - with the details being worked out when you play them.  Possible actions are: place one or two stones or planks; move your playing piece one or two spaces; jump over another piece; remove a plank or stone; or cancel one of the other players card for that 'phase'.  If you choose to move a piece, you must do so, even if it means moving it backwards - if you are unable to do so, you're piece returns to its start space.  The game is quick, fun and tactical.   Result 1: SO, CD+JO+GC.  Result 2: JO, CD+GC+SO.

Garry provided this report:

Eight turned up this week and I was glad to see that Don had enjoyed his first session with us last week enough to return for more punishment. Trev and Don were a bit late arriving, so the rest of us piled into a quick game of Liar's Dice. Everyone except Chris really enjoys Liar's Dice. He doesn't dislike it, but is never as keen as the rest of us to play. Probably, he will use that as his excuse for not doing terribly well. I can't remember the minor positions but notch up another win for Garry. It must be my innocent looks that persuade people I can't be lying. [Errr.....yeah...... - TC] La Cittá.  This is my second game of this excellent new release from Gerd Fenchel, published by Kosmos. It is probably my favourite of the Nuremberg releases this year. I was the only one who had played before but the others picked it up pretty quickly. I think everyone suggested at some point during the game that five actions per turn wasn't enough - we would have liked just one more, and it is this tension of trying to choose the best out of several possibilities while keeping an eye on who is potentially going to lure your population away that keeps you constantly involved. Mick managed to get a pretty strong position, with one major village behind which he managed to establish an extremely safe third village.  Don was the only one to suffer from not being able to feed his population (at the end of turn 2, I think).  Only receiving 4 actions the next turn put him at a distinct disadvantage, and he was playing catch-up all the time after that.  Trev managed to maintain a pretty strong two village presence on the board, but his lack of a third village probably eased him out of the reckoning at the end.  I tried to keep my population steadily increasing, while slowly building up the attractions in both of my major cities.  The bonuses for having all 3 attractions in two cities enabled me to (just)overtake Mick's dominant population, as he only had one city attraction bonus.