Session Summary – 23 July 2008

Quite a collection this week with the school holidays on. Dave C was running Castles & Crusades upstairs, while Gordon, Matt & I gathered downstairs. I don't know if Dave is going to post a report of his session somewhere, but here is a rundown of our gaming.
First up was Pandemic, which was a new experience for me although I have been waiting to give it a try. We played 2 games with 5 epidemic cards and lost both times, the first due to reaching 8 outbreaks and the second when the yellow disease ran out of cubes. We were hampered in the first game by the lack of the medic and the scientist, while in the second I had the medic and we actually were able to eradicate the black disease, but it may have been a better idea in retrospect to head over to South America to deal with Yellow.
Opinion on the geek seems to be that the game is easier with fewer players and I don't know whether this is generally true, but I actually had a go with 4 players at Manorcon on Saturday and we won at the last possible moment, curing the black disease on the turn when the deck was empty so the need to draw cards would have ended the game. Anyway this is a game I like and will probably get when it is available again, although I guess from hints in Steve's Rosliston report that he may not be so keen.

Pandemic 30 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Gordon	1=	Lost
Matt	1=	Lost
Dave D	1=	Lost
Pandemic 30 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Gordon	1=	Lost
Matt	1=	Lost
Dave D	1=	Lost

Next up was Race for the Galaxy, Matt's first try and I think Gordon's second. I have played 14 times now and that is a fraction of the numbers for some and a fraction of the number I would like to play. This like the last few games I have played was a low scoring affair, which I won by virtue of military power combined with the New Galactic Order. There was hardly any consumption in the game and I think this was possibly due to the fact that this aspect is probably the hardest for new players to get their heads around, I think it may have been beneficial for Gordon and Matt to go for Consumption more, but I was happy to let it be as I had very little in the way of consume powers and no production worlds throughout the game, all my goods coming from windfalls as I settled them.

Race for the Galaxy 50 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Dave D	1	29
Gordon	2	23
Matt	3	20

We rounded off the evening with a quick game of Tsuro, which went down well with Gordon and Matt, both new to the game. To me this seems to play well throughout its 2 to 8 player range, although the character of the game probably does change with more. I played a 5 player game at Manorcon and someone passing our table asked whether we were playing "nice" or "nasty" Tsuro, now to me the game can be pretty vicious with the standard "nice" rules we were playing, but apparently what he meant was that in "nasty" Tsuro you are allowed to play a tile at the end of someone else's path, I dread to think how that would play.

Tsuro 15 mins
Player	Posn.
Matt	1
Gordon	2
Dave D	3