Session Summary – 16 July 2008

4 this week, nice to see Gordon at the club again, when I saw him at expo he was saying he had lost some of his enthusiasm, but maybe this has been rekindled by the recent Rosliston weekend.
We played a couple of games which have not seen the table for some time (first time this year for both. First was Acquire, which I think I actually prefer with 3 although 4 is OK. I had a good start being able to pick up a set of tiles to form 2 chains and then merge them all in successive turns. This enable me to take the majority bonus for Continental with Mike second. We both kept our shares and Mike reformed the chain and again was able to merge it into my other original chain (Festival), this time with him getting the majority over me in second. By virtue of this neither of us was short of cash for most of the rest of the game.
After that Gordon and Steve were also able to get into some of the merger action and I started having difficulty because I went through a spell when I had 4 or 5 tiles that could form a chain, but there were none to form. Every time a merger happened it seemed that someone else had the chance to restart the chain before me, leaving me quite constrained in my choice of plays. Eventually I was able to form Imperial at size 3 and I hoped to have it take over American, which I had the majority in the following turn, which would have put me in a strong position having exchanged my American shares for Imperial. Unfortunately I had had to form Imperial close to Worldwide, which was the same size (and I had no holding) and Mike was able to have Imperial take over that. I was still able to take over American, but now there were not enough Imperial shares available having fulfilled the demands of the Worldwide shareholders and I was left with 3^rd place in the Imperial chain at the end after Mike and Gordon tied for first. This seems to have been the decisive play as if I could have gained the Imperial majority I should have won.

Acquire 90 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Mike	1	53800
Dave D	2	47000
Gordon	3	46900
Steve H	4	39800

Next was San Juan, which I have not played with other people since I got Race for the Galaxy, although I have played against my PC. I have to say that I was well served by the cards in this one, drawing a City Hall at the beginning of the game and then getting a Guild Hall from the Gold Mine. I had a bit a problem wondering whether to go production or violet, but eventually ended up playing both cards having 6 production and 6 violet buildings, much helped by getting a Library as (I think) my 4^th building.
The notable thing about the game to my mind was Steve's early chapel, under which he was able to put 11 cards, including both the other prefectures after he had built the first. He also had a place but, perhaps partly due to all the cards he put under the chapel, he only had 6 (or 7) buildings at the end. Mike had a City Hall, which got him second, while Gordon never found anything of note (other than a late chapel).

San Juan 40 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Dave D	1	40
Mike	2	33
Steve H	3	27
Gordon	4	25