1. We
had 2 visitors this week, making a total attendance of 14, so we split into 3
tables. On table 1 Geoff led a session of “EUPHRATES
& TIGRIS”, a game about gaining territory but not always by aggression.
Players have 4 types of leaders which they can place on the board and they can
co-exist with other players in an area until there are 2 leaders of the same
type, and that is when conflict breaks out. They also play tiles in one of the
4 leader types to gain cubes of the appropriate leader colour. The cubes won
are kept secret behind the players screen for scoring is the key aspect of this
game, as is described later. Players
continue to expand their empire and eventually they might have enough adjacent
territories on the board to construct a temple, and this brings them in more
cubes each turn they have control of the temple. Once this starts to happen it
fuels the conflict issue and other players start to gather their forces to try
and take over the temples. As a result of conflict more cubes are won and
placed behind the screen. The reason cubes are kept secret is that scoring in
this game is measured by the LOWEST number of cubes in a colour
that each player has. So a final holding in 4 colours of 20, 12, 7, and 3
scores just 3 points, whereas a holding of12,8,7,and 6 scores 6 points. So
players are trying to keep their holding level if they can and not have a
‘straggler’. A highly strategic game which plays differently every time. The
final scoring was Geoff 8, Paul, 7, Roger 6 and Kevin 5, so Geoff was the
victor.
2.
Table 2 played
a 6-player version of “SEAFARERS
SETTLERS”, which some of the players hadn’t played before. Using the normal
Settlers resource generator some players forged ahead whilst others just got no
resources at all as their numbers weren’t rolled. Robert gained a lot of
resources due to the high frequency of an 8 being rolled and he used this to
build the longest road early on. Jerry the visitor and his daughter Poppy
bought several Development cards and started to expand rapidly. They were the
first to construct ships and start to explore the sea to find new land. Poppy
was particularly unlucky to keep turning over sea tiles so she never got the
chance to land on an island. Alister gained plenty of Knight cards so he took
the Largest Army. Mike managed to get 3 settlements on the coast to gain the
Harbourmaster card but Jerry soon took it over from him. Lucy got very little
resource but did manage to briefly snatch the Longest Road before it was taken
from her. The last hour was spent watching Jerry and Robert battle it out for
the final points to give them victory, and it was Jerry who eventually reached
the magic 13 required in this version . As 6 players were taking part in the
game it took well over 2 hours to play and time had passed by, so much so that
4 players decided to go home early rather than play another game. I believe
that any Settlers game should be restricted to 4 players to keep the game much
shorter.
3.
With the
early departures Table 1 then played a 4-player version of “THURN UND TAXIS”, a club favourite. The
game is about building routes of Post Offices across Germany and employs some
neat mechanisms. It has been reviewed before so this report will not elaborate
further except to say that the winner was Kevin Shaw, his first since joining
the club last week, so well done Kevin !!.
4.
Table 2 reduced
to 3 players so they played “SCREAM
MACHINE”, a lightweight card game about building an Amusement Park with
several rides and Food stalls and attracting the public to visit your park in
preference to others. They do this by making the rides of a particular type a
higher total value than their opponents but players have only 4 action points
to spend each turn on performing improvements, so this has to be considered
carefully. Robert stormed into an early
lead as he attracted all the Cheapskates to his park because he had the
cheapest prices. Luke and Mike struggled closely at the back and made a slight
challenge in turn 5 but Robert pulled away again in turn 6 for an easy victory.
5.
Table 3
consisted of just Tony and Richard playing the 2-player game of “TWILIGHT STRUGGLE”, a game that is
based upon the Cold War conflict between the USA and the USSR from 1945 to
1989. Lots of cards and counters in the game, representing real characters from
history, and the conflicts that took place. Plenty of meaty decision making on
how to make the best use of the cards you receive, as they are multi-purpose. To
an onlooker the game looked good and the players certainly enjoyed it but it
did take the whole of the session to play. Richard was the eventual winner in a
close contest.
Games played and Winners were:
Euphrates
& Tigris Geoff Williams;
Seafarers
Settlers Jerry the visitor ;
Thurn
und Taxis Kevin Shaw;
Scream
Machine Robert Piesse;
Twilight
Struggle Richard Piesse.
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