1.
With 13 players in attendance we split into 3
groups. On table 1 Jeremy led a group of 4 playing “ASSYRIA”, in which players expand their tribe from a starting
zuggerat by placing huts along adjacent hexes on the board, and which is
irrigated by 2 rivers. However for these to survive you need to have the
necessary foods cards in the right combinations to feed them, otherwise they
will be removed. For the surviving huts players receive ‘income’ in the form of
camels, and VP’s for the placement of their huts, plus additional VPs for the
number and height of their zuggerats. They will use the camels to pay for
actions on various parts of the board. These cover such things as building
another zuggerat, adding to the height of an existing zuggerat, constructing
wells, buying a feeding card, placing huts on some interim VP scoring tracks,
which also give benefits at certain stages in the game. As with similar games
of this nature you cannot do all you want, so you have to plan your moves
carefully, and be aware of what your opponents are doing to maximise your
score. The feed cards come in pairs and are selected in turn order but the
group you select indicates the turn order for the following turn, so the
sequence constantly changes. Being a new game to us all we made some decisions
which were maybe not the best but that is normal first time out. Alister
suffered by being trapped in a corner and unable to expand so he lagged for the
whole game. Mike led early on but Rob and Jeremy were racking up points on the
interim VP track and they broke away. Final positions were Jeremy, Rob, Mike,
Alister.
2.
On
table 2 a game of “DOMINION” took
place with Freya and Poppy joined by Paul and Roger. Freya chose the
combination of cards decks once again but for once she did not romp away to a
clear victory, this time only winning by a small margin.
3.
The group enjoyed it so much that they
played another game of “DOMINION” with
a different set up. This time Paul concentrated on getting lots of Garden cards
and a deck of over 50 cards and with this he was able to gain the required
scoring cards for an clear-cut victory.
4.
On table 3 a long game of “SMALLWORLD” was taking place with 5
players. The game has been reviewed before on 18 Aug 2011, so is not repeated
here. The eventual winner was Tim.
5.
We then re-organised the groups and on Table
1 Mike led 6 players in the lightweight game of “MONTGOLFIERE”. In this card-driven game players are trying to get their
balloons to as high an altitude as possible in each of 3 turns. They all have
an identical deck of 24 cards which they shuffle and draw 7 cards from the top.
They select a card simultaneously to play and the phase is resolved in a
defined sequence. The player who plays the highest unique ballast card goes
up 1 level. If other players one level below had played a hook card to this
player they will take a free ride. However if any weather cards have been
played, and the number of them is uneven, it is determined as ‘bad
weather’ and the player goes DOWN,
instead of up!. The hooked played simply remove their hooks. There is also a
Supermotor card which, if played, enable a player to go up 2 levels, but in
‘bad weather’ the movement is reduced to 1 level. Again players can hook to this player if they
are 1 level below. The real fun is caused by the Sleeping Gas cards, which can
be played on ALL balloons that are 1
level below the player and all their actions are ignored for this phase of
play…which can be very annoying. When all 24 cards have been played the final
positions are scored and a 2nd and 3rd rounds are played
to determine a winner. Newcomer John and Lucy scored most in the first round with
12. In round 2 John and Rob were the high achievers and round 3 saw John again a top scorer with
12, along with Tim. Final scores were John 35; Rob 29; Lucy 27; Tim 27; Alister
24; Mike 24. Well done John on your debut win !!
6.
We split up again and whilst we waited for
Table 2 to finish we introduced John to “SUSHIZOCK IM GOCKEKWOK” , at the
request of Rob. Needless to say he won the game, but only narrowly from John.
7.
Mike led 4 players in the game of “RAZZIA”, in which players play cards
from their hand of 5 cards to try and gain the loot held at one of the 6
gambling dens in the game. If they are alone at a den they gain all the money;
if they are there with another player a duel takes place to determine how the
money is split. However if another player plays a policeman for this den they
arrest the gamblers and take the money for themselves; if there is more than
one policeman played for the den once
again a duel takes place to split the proceeds. After all the money
chits have been gambled for the player with the most accumulated wealth is the
winner. A lightweight game which is good fun to play. Alsister came out on top
by a small margin, mainly as a result of winning a duel with Mike, in which Mike
had refused an offer of part of the proceeds and elected to fight for the
lot…who said “greed doesn’t pay” ???
8.
The remaining 4 players played the game of “TOURNAY”, the card version from the
designers of “TROYES” but a different game in itself. Due to time constraints
they were unable to complete the game but for the scoring that had taken place
Paul is credited with the victory as he was leading at the time. The players
thought it was a very good game and it will be reviewed in full when a complete
game has been achieved.
Games played
and Winners were:
Assyria – Jeremy
Hurault;
Dominion Game 1 – Freya Freestone;
Dominion Game 1 – Paul Bulpin;
Smallworld – Tim
Havenith;
Montgolfiere –
John Binmore;
Sushizock im
Gockelkwok – Rob Piesse;
Razzia – Alister
Gitten;
Tournay – Paul
Bulpin.
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