1.
With
Mike absent for the first hour the players split into groups of 3 and 5. The
latter played “CANAL MANIA” on table 1, a game about the
building of the canal network in the 1800’s. Players select contracts to build
a canal and then by acquiring cards of certain type of construction they build
the route between the 2 cities mentioned on the contract and receive victory
points when they do so. Furthermore goods of various colours are ‘manufactured’
in certain cities and at the end of their turn players can deliver these goods
to other cities using their canals, plus sometimes the stretches of their
opponents and gain more VPs. Building is not straightforward as there are
mountains to overcome, and also the other players build into cities that you
need to connect, which is annoying. The game lasted around 2 hours and Robert
managed his network to good effect to score a relatively easy victory.
2. Table 2 saw 3 players engaged in “CITIES” whilst waiting for Mike to
arrive. Players are trying to build a city which is the most attractive to
tourists by making large parks and putting attractions close together. They
guide the tourists to their favourite spots to earn victory points. The tile
draw is random so players have to decide whether wait for the perfect tile to
increase their score or change their planning. The game played quickly enough
for 3 games to be completed and Roger, Lucy and Tony each won a game so honours
were even.
3. With Mike’s arrival Table 2 then played a
4-player version of “LE HAVRE”, a
game which was played a couple of week’s ago and Lucy scored a stunning
victory. This time things were a lot closer with Tony in attendance and fierce
competition broke out for the vital building or resources. Once again Lucy
positioned herself to receive regular income and built some useful buildings.
Tony was her closest pursuer, with Mike and Roger somewhat distant. In the
final turn Tony came close to catching Lucy but she was able to ship some goods
to earn enough coins to win, with the final scores being Lucy 110, Tony 98,
Mike 62 and Roger 48, so once again the “queen of the boards” came out on top!!
4.
Table 1 played “DIXIT”, to complete their session, and Robert gained an early lead
with Geoff a long way behind. However Robert then slowed down and Geoff and
Richard made up ground rapidly, with Richard just sneaking a win in the end.
5.
Table 2 played a strange Japanese card game to
finish with, called “FALLING WATER”.
Each player has a set of cards in 3 colours and different values. Each turn a
card is revealed which dictates the scoring values for all 6 rows
on a grid, in 2 colours. Players try to place their cards in columns
on a grid from the bottom upwards until the grid is complete in such a
way that they will win a row when it is scored. Now for the weird bit, each row
is examined from the top down and the player with the highest value wins
the card associated with that row. The card they played on the next row is
‘trumps’ for the next row and that is determined and so on until all 6 rows
have been resolved. Players then count the points value of the cards they have
won and subtract the lower value of one colour from the value of the other to
get their score for the round. So 3 points in Red minus 1 point in blue = 2
points scored. If a player is the sole one to score no points at all
they gain 3 points, if multiple players do this they score zero points. Mike
was dismayed to realise that having won all 6 tricks the total of the 2 colours
balance out so he scored zero!! In a game of 4 rounds the scoring was very low
and Tony won with 4 points, to Lucy’s 3 and Mike and Roger had 2 points each.
As I said a weird game.
Games played and Winners
were:
Cities
game 1 Roger Skull;
Cities
game 2 Tony Simons;
Cities
game 3 Lucy Newbury;
Canal
Mania Robert Piesse;
Le
Havre Lucy Newbury;
Dixit
Richard Piesse;
Falling
Water Tony Simons.
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