Games Played 1,8 October 2014

Just a quick catch up. On 1 October 15 people played 4 games being Concordia, Magnum Sal, Arctic Scavengers and a first play for Xia: Legends of a Drift System.

On  8 October 13 people played 7 games being The Palaces of Carrara, Saint Petersburg, Caverna, Coup, San Juan, Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar and a first play for Biblios.

Read on for more details.

1 October

This was one of the most one sided games of this that I have seen. Scott won essentially by virtue of having the most cards, which gave him more points at the end of the game of course, but during the game he also had more options. I think the foundation of this was laid early one by the fact that he seemed to benefit more than anyone else by other people's use of the Prefect. I know he did better than me in that respect as I think I only got anything once in that way and it's something I need to look at in future games I think.

Also played were Arctic Scavengers and Magnum Sal, both of which seemed to be incredibly long. Apparently AS rated time is 45 minutes and this one went 2 hours, this seems to be a very long time for a deck builder.

Xia, I don't know much  about but I have seen comparisons to Merchant of Venus, it certainly looks very pretty, but that seems increasingly to be par for the course.

8 October

Started off with a 3 player game of St. Petersburg. last time I played I was presented with a choice between Debtor's prison and Observatory in the first round and chose Debtor's prison, things went downhill from there. This game, starting the building phase both Debtor's Prison and Observatory came up again, but this time I was going third in the phase and both had gone before I had a turn so I didn't need to make that choice, the game seemed to go rather better after that.

I had the feeling that Gordon was going to win this one, he seemed to be making a lot of money during the game which I thought would get him ahead as the game went on. I was in the unusual (for me) position of pulling ahead quite well on buildings, but I was expecting that he would pull this back in the end as quite often happens when the aristocrat scoring takes place. In this case I was wrong in this, I had probably pulled out a better building lead than usual and as it turns out I ended up equal top with Steve on Aristocarts. I'm not actually sure what happened to Gordon as he was left with insufficient money to play one aristocrat card from his hand at the end meaning he suffered a penalty and also ahd one fewer of theose cards. A possible explanation was that the game ended a turn order than expected, both Worker and Building decks were left with one card and then the Aristocrat deck was just exhausted to end the game. That said I still can't quite understand what ahd happened to all Gordon's money.

Gordon got his revenge at San Juan (another great game from 2004) with a hefty advantage on the '6' buildings, Guild Hall, Triumphal Arch & Palace. Steve & I couldn't match this despite each having a Bank & Harbour. There is a new version of this due which includes all the expansion cards (and one new one), which I think I'll look at getting as there is a noticeable difference between the backs of the base and expansion cards in the Rio Grande version.

Other games played include 2 of the year's most played Tzolk'in and Caverna along with a second play for Palaces of Carrara. New to the club was Biblios which I was sure had been played before but there does not seem to be any record. Maybe it was brought along but not played.

All the results-

01/10/2014
Concordia - 120 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Scott	159
2	Gordon	107
3	Jonathan M	99
4	Dave D	94
5	Bob	72
Arctic Scavengers - 120 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mark W	45
2	Suzy	39
3	James S	35
Xia: Legends of a Drift System - 150 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Chris S	10
2	Ian	8
2	Dave F	8
4	Mark R	6
Magnum Sal - 150 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mike	123
2	Steve H	89
3	Steve W	78

08/10/2014
The Palaces of Carrara - 60 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Ian J	115
2	Chris S	89
3	Stan	43
Saint Petersburg - 90 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave D	143
2	Gordon	117
3	Steve H	99
Caverna: The Cave Farmers - 140 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Jaime	97
2	Mark R	66
3	Mark W	62
4	Isabel	52
Biblios - 30 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Chris S	6
2	Stan	5
3	Ian J	4
Coup - 35 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Stan	3
2	Chris S	2
3	Ian J	2
San Juan - 45 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Gordon	43
2	Dave D	29
3	Steve H	26
Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar - 150 Mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Scott	82
2	James S	69
3	Mike	35