1. Several
members were absent but we still had 9 in attendance so we split into 2 tables.
On table 1 the players were playing “THURN
UND TAXIS” which Freya and Jerry were playing for the first time. The game
has been reviewed before so is not repeated here. On his return to the club
after a few weeks absence Richard managed to collect enough cards to build an
impressive route of 8, which gained him
big VP’s and the early lead. However the others began to catch up as the game
progressed, although there were many cries of dismay as the cards they wanted
were taken by other players. In the end Richard won by just 1 point, this being
due to the fact that he was the player who forced the game end, for which you
receive a token worth…..1 point !!.
2. Table
2 saw Mike introduce Lucy and Tim to “NAVEGADOR”,
a game which Paul requested after giving it a bad review a few weeks ago. After
about 20 minutes of explanation from Mike the game commenced with all 4 players
gaining a navigation token early on. Paul embarked on a building programme of
churches which he funded with frequent visits to the market. Lucy was very
active in the market, gaining her plenty of money with which to build
factories. Tim decided to build shipyards to enable him to build cheaper ships
for later on with which to navigate the unexplored territories. Mike attempted
to gain more colonies and was successful but by also collecting privileges he
was always short of workers to increase his number of factories. The feature of
this game is the Rondel system and this led to turns being very quick. Towards
the end it was difficult to predict the winner but Paul looked to be favourite
with his numerous churches. As the end scoring progressed Mike and Lucy took
the early lead as they had plenty of ships on the board and cash in hand with
which to earn VP’s, which the others didn’t. Mike then took a temporary lead
when his 9 colonies were scored but Lucy soon overtook because of her numerous
buildings. Lucy and Tim scored well for their navigation tokens but Paul and
Mike lost ground here. Tim rushed from the back with his 60 points for his
shipyards and it turned out that Paul’s churches scoring 54 points were
actually not enough to win, leaving Tim as the victor. In a close finish the
final scores were Tim 105, Paul 103, Lucy 103, Mike 99. Paul graciously admitted that his second
outing was much more enjoyable than his first. Tim and Lucy really liked the
game, plus the fact that it played in under 2 hours for a first-time outing and
Mike also enjoyed it despite being last yet again. ( No change there then!!).
3. Table
1 played “ZOOLORETTO” which was
played last week. Again Freya and Jerry were playing it for the first time but
it seems as though everyone enjoyed it. Quite a few baby animals were being
born so no shortage of amorous encounters. In the end Freya was the winner,
much to her surprise, which sound similar to Mike’s experience of the week
before. A nice looking game, which is not to be taken too seriously but does
provide a fun experience for most players. Poppy particularly liked the look of
the game.
4. Table
2 had the pleasure (?) of Robert’s company for their final game, and the choice
was the card game “CITADELS”. In
this game players are trying to construct a city of 8 districts from the cards
in their hand, using gold to pay for the various constructions. The twist is
that every turn there are 8 roles available, from which 1 is displayed face-up
and 1 face down and then the current King looks at the remaining 6 roles and
chooses which one to play this round. He then hands the remaining cards around
the table for the other players to choose their role and pass the reducing pack
on. The King then calls for the roles to be executed in a predefined order and
players have a choice of more gold or more cards with which they build if they
can. Some of the roles are quite vicious, especially the Assassin who can call
for a particular role to be killed that turn. Also nasty is the Thief who can
nominate a role from which he will steal the gold and when that role is
revealed the gold (if any) is transferred, which the losing player probably had
earmarked for building purposes. The game ends when 1 player has constructed 8
districts and the one who does that gains 4 VP’s for doing so. The round is
completed and any other players achieving 8 districts score a lesser amount.
The values of the various buildings are then summed and there are bonus points
if players have built a least 1 building in all 5 colours in the game. In a
tense finish Robert and Paul ended on 26 points so they settled on a tie. Lucy
had 25 points and would have won had Paul not destroyed one of her buildings in
the final round. Tim was 4th on 21 points, with Mike yet another
last place on 14 points…poor Mike !! For ostensibly a card game this game
offers plenty of interaction, multiple chances to screw your opponents and if
played in the right spirit provides a load of fun.
Games played and
Winners were:
Thurn und Taxis
Richard Piesse;
Navegador Tim Havenith;
Zooloretto Freya
Freestone;
Citadels tie between Robert Piesse and Paul Bulpin.
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