1. 11
in attendance at the start so we split into 2 tables initially, and then 3
tables. On table 1 a group of 6 players played “SCREAM MACHINE”, the card game about building a theme park with
various attractions and getting the public to visit your park rather than
someone else’s. Paul gained lots of
points by being the one with the lowest value rides and thereby attracting the
Cheapskate punters. The other player could not compete with this so he was the
eventual winner.
2. On
Table 2 Mike led a group of 3 other players in “TROYES”, in an attempt to get other opinions on this game, which
has received a mixed reception. There’s much to explain at the start and some
players found it slightly bewildering but eventually after a couple of rounds
of play the mechanisms became clearer. Roger had plenty of money and placed
workers at different sites in the city, giving him variable dice to roll. Mike
concentrated on the religious aspect by obtaining white dice and built several
levels of the cathedral. Rob and Kevin went down the Civic and Military route,
using the powers of their workers to convert yellow dice to red and with those
they chose to try and combat the event cards and place cubes on them. This
gained them a hoard of Victory Points. In round 5 Mike placed several workers
in the principal buildings so that he could roll more dice than any other
players, and that meant that Roger was ejected, leaving him with no dice to
roll at all!. In the next round, the final one, Mike failed to roll the high
numbers he wanted to complete his planned move and this blew his chance. Roger
used his money to place a worker so that he gained 6 VPs, which moved him ahead
a bit. Rob and Kevin continued with their militarist strategy and gained a few
more VPs. At Game End scoring almost every player had enough money to gain
maximum of 6 VPs so Mike’s secret agenda meant very little. Roger’s worker
placement gained him more VPs than anyone else but Rob and Kevin also scored
well with their secret agendas so the final scores were Kevin 41; Rob 38, Roger
35; Mike 28. All 3 players said they would play again as they now knew the
mechanisms well enough, so that will be arranged for the near future, after
which a better opinion of the game can be gleaned.
3. Table
1 played “OREGON”, a game of worker
placement to gain VPs as the territory gets settled by stores, ports , railways
and churches. Alister thought he had done enough to win
until Paul had a fantastic last move to gain 14 points and snatch a victory.
4. Table
3 saw 3 players in a game of the club favourite “TICKET TO RIDE”. As the mechanisms are well-known the game
progressed quickly and Jerry emerged the victor.
5. With
some departures we were left with 6 players and Mike volunteered to drop out to
explain the quick filler game “FELIX”
to the other players. This is a card-based auction game of 9 rounds of play in
which cards containing picture of cats and dogs are secretly placed under cards
for auctions and then players either bid to stay in, or drop out and take the
money on offer at the current auction. The card under this auction is then
revealed so the remaining players have a better idea of what the final set of
cards will be worth. This continues until all players but one have passed and
they pay their final bid to the bank and receive all the 5 cards placed. The
twist is that some cats are valued positive and some are negative. Furthermore
there are Big dogs and Small dogs to be played. If a Big Dog is present they
chase away the highest positive cat, reducing the value of the final set. If
just a Small dog is present they chase away the highest negative cat. Just to
complicate it more, if more than one dog card is played they chase each other
and no cats are chased at all ! Some spirited bidding took place and Kevin was
unfortunate to pay a large bid, only to find a Big dog under the last card
which drove away a positive cat worth 15 VPs. A good quick filler game, easy to
play and the eventual winner was Rob
Games played and
Winners were:
Scream Machine
Paul Bulpin;
Troyes Kevin
Ward;
Ticket To Ride
Jerry Jabelman;
Oregon Paul
Bulpin;
Felix Rob
Piesse.
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