Session Report – 8 April 2009

We had 6 upstairs this week, while Dave C was running a holiday role playing session of Corporation downstairs in the bar. We welcomed back Jeremy, who came once last year and played Pillars of the Earth. We split into 2 groups of 3.
Steve H, Jeremy & I played 2 games of Small World, which I discussed in some detail in my last post. I have now played 6 times including a couple of games on Saturday and Dave's house, 5 out of 6 games being with only 3 players, I really would like to try it some more with 4 or 5. Anyway, Steve & I greatly enjoyed both games, which were both very close, with us each winning one, although as Steve pointed out, on aggregate points I was one ahead.
All that said, I can't remember very many details and the only thing really sticking in the mind were the Pillaging Skeletons, which made an appearance in both games, first in my hands and then in those of Jeremy. The skeletons do appear to be a powerful race with their ability to add extra units by capturing occupied areas and in this case they were combined with a powerful ability that complements them. Pillaging giving extra VP for capturing occupied areas.

Small World 70 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave D	99
2	Steve H	96
3	Jeremy	87
Small World 60 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve H	100
2	Dave D	98
3	Jeremy	76

Over on the other table, Mike, Gordon & Andy first played Chicago Express, another game coming back for a second week. The following comments are Mikes

Chicago Express game played totally differently to last week's - an auction frenzy rather than an engineer's paradise with no sign of the Wabash arriving.  This game has some real depth to it - trying to pitch a fair price, whilst trying to maintain or eliminate majorities, is a real challenge and something I'm nowhere near mastering yet.  Andy and I just shouldn't have allowed Gordon to dominate the two companies with the lowest shares, hopefully we'll learn the lesson.  After 2 plays I am still very enthusiastic, should have plenty of replayability, but I'd definitely like to go back to 4 players for the next try.

Chicago Express 60 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Gordon	67
2	Andy	52
3	Mike	45

Next they played Caylus Magna Carta, which we played twice back in 2007, when I felt it less offensive than Caylus, but still way too long to want to play again. It was shorter this time, but 70 minutes for this game is still longer than I'd like. Mike wrote

This was played with the 'quick start' variant - you add one extra card to the recommended start number, and make sure that the 2 deniers cash card is used.  For me the game length then felt about right, so I'll certainly suggest it for future plays.

Caylus Magna Carta 70 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mike	48
2	Gordon	35
3	Andy	34