Games Played 28 May 2014

End of the month and 15 people in attendance, 7 games were played and I notice that the total number of games recorded since April 2003 passes 2000, including the Saturday Games Day. Games played were Istanbul, Dominion, Caylus Magna Carta, Carcassonne, Power Grid, Guillotine and Vinhos.

Bob and Jonathan had got Power Grid out again as I arrived, proclaiming the game as like Crack and I'm happy to indulge this addiction at the moment. We were able to gather another 2 players in Lee & Rachael, it being half term, neither of whom had played before. Rather than use one of the original maps as we did last week, I pulled out the Benelux board as I think it is one of the best to use with new players and also having the advantage that the full board is used with five ( I confess that I always prefer any game where the entire board can be used).

There was not a lot of competition on the board itself as is not uncommon on this board which has a lot of cheap connections across most of its area. It was one of those games when some high plants dropped into the market early on and I picked up the number 25, which would probably have been alright had I not also grabbed the opportunity to grab 31 as well before I had managed to develop enough of a network to make full use of the 25, so my expansion in the early game was too slow in comparison to Bob, who expanded his capacity more slowly, but as a result was able to gain a monetary advantage over some of  the earlier turns, which paid off at the end when he could finish the game powering 15 cities. It was one of those games where I would have won had the game gone on a turn longer because Bob would have then have needed to buy another power plant to increase his capacity by 2, whereas I had no need for further capacity. That doesn't count of course.

Of the other players Jonathan suffered from slow build up of capacity while Lee made the beginner's mistake of buying too much fuel when it was not needed. Rachael seemed to be short of money towards the end of the game and I'm not entirely sure what caused this. Both Lee & Rachael expressed enjoyment of the game at its end.

Our other game, for the second week, was Guillotine which everyone had played. I don't think the game is at its best with higher player numbers, but it is short enough that its not too much of a problem. This was a close game with Rachael taking the win.

Elsewhere, Istanbul and Vinhos were new games to the club, although Vinhos had been played by this same group recently at Rosliston. The rest of the games could be put in the "usual suspects" class.

Full games details follow.

28/05/2014
Istanbul - 60 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Jaime	5
2	Steve W	5
3	Stan	4
4	Ian	3
Dominion - 60 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Jaime	16
2	Ian	14
3	Stan	5
4	Steve W	5
Caylus Magna Carta - 120 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mark W	0
1	Mike	0
3	Steve H	0
Carcassonne - 40 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mark W	144
2	Mike	129
3	Steve H	94
Power Grid - 130 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Bob	15
2	Dave D	14
3	Jonathan M	13
4	Lee	12
5	Rachael	10
Guillotine - 20 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Rachael	20
2	Lee	19
3	Dave D	18
4	Bob	12
5	Jonathan M	9
Vinhos - 180 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Scott	85
2	Dave F	83
3	Gordon	70

Full details for May 2014
Monthly list at BGG for May 2014