1.
We had
only 7 players in total, so we split into 2 groups. On table 1 a group of 3 players started with “INNOVATIONS”, a new card game
about a journey through
innovations from the stone age through modern times. Each player builds a
civilization based on various technologies, ideas, and cultural advancements,
all represented by cards. Each of these cards has a unique power which will
allow further advancement, point scoring, or even attacking other
civilizations. Be careful though, as other civilizations may be able to benefit
from your ideas as well! To win, you must score achievements, which you can
attain by amassing points or by meeting certain criteria with the innovations
you have built. Paul soon established a good combination of cards and ran out
an easy winner.
2.
Table 2
saw 4 players engaged in “GOA”, a heavy
game about building plantations to cultivate various spices and then using them
to trade for improve shipping, harvesting, taxation and expedition benefits. To
add to your score you need to build Colonies to produce more goods and for that
you need Colonists as well as Spices and these are quite difficult to obtain. The game plays in a series of just 8 rounds, each round
consisting of an auction phase to obtain more plantations or bonus tiles,
followed by a series of 3 Actions, in which the player try to improve their
holdings with a view to gaining more victory points. The game
took about 2 hours to play but it contains some clever mechanisms which make
for a very tight game with the outcome in doubt until the end. Despite being
published in 2004 it is still highly rated in the hobby. Tony made late
progress on obtaining his colonies which gave him extra victory points and he
also had some lucky breaks with his expedition cards which added to his score.
He eventually won, with Chris a creditable second.
3.
On Table 1 the 3 players played 2 games of “GOCKELWOK”, a lightweight dice rolling
game in which players obtain sushi fish heads via certain rolls and fish bones
via other rolls. Each tile they collect has a value and they stack these in 2
piles, the object being to keep the piles level, as all the fish heads count as
positives and the fish tails count as negatives. During the game other players
will try to steal your tiles to improve their own score. At game end if the
pile of sushi heads exceeds the pile of fish tails the excess tiles are taken
away to make them level. However if the fish tail pile exceeds the sushi heads
pile they remain in play and are scored as negative! A fun game in which Lucy
came out on top in the first game and Paul won the second game.
4.
As table
2 were still playing Goa Table 1 finished
the session with “PUERTO RICO” , the
classic game about populating the island, founding plantations, constructing
buildings, creating products and shipping them back to the homeland. The game
has been reviewed before so will not be repeated here. Richard finally got his
first win of the evening.
5.
Table 2
finally played their second game of the evening, “AUF HELLER UNF PFENNIG”, a game in which players draw a tile from
a bag, the tile representing visitors to the marketplace. Some are good
customers which give positive points, whilst others are bad, and give negative
points. Players put the tiles on a grid of rows and columns and in later stages
they can build market stalls on the grid instead. At the end of a round all the
rows and columns are scored and the players receive money for their marketing efforts.
The game plays for 3 rounds, which means the game last for around 45 minutes.
Many chances to stuff your opponents by placing a big negative tile in a row in
which they will score, or by placing a nice positive tile in a row/column that
you will score. Tony, Mike and Chris were leaders after round 1, but at the end
of round 2 Mike and Chris were closely matched. Mike made a gaffe in round 3
which gave Chris the chance to score a large number of points so he was able to
claim his first victory since joining us.
Games played and Winners
were:
Innovation
Paul Gulpin;
Gockelwok
game 1 – Lucy Newbury;
Gockelwok
game 2 – Paul Gulpin;
Puerto
Rico Richard Piesse;
Goa
Tony Simons;
Auf
Heller und Pfennig Chris Knight.
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