The Day of the Flood - 8 June 2016

I haven't written anything for some time, but I thought I'd post this about last night, I'm also writing something about our campaign of Pandemic Legacy which we finished last week, hopefully I won't take too long about that.

 In late afternoon, there was a torrential downpour with water running down the street, drains unable to cope. Just as well, thinks me, that we are fairly high up and don't have to worry about flooding, the water just flows down to lower lying land. Later on, I was to discover that maybe flooding could be a problem after all.

Arriving at the Stag, about twenty past seven, I thought it was a bit odd that there was a barrier blocking access to the rear car park and moving round to the front, that was almost deserted. Parking the car and heading to the front door there was a sign apologising that the pub was closed until further notice due to flooding, and the Stag is up even higher. Oh well no games tonight then, so I drove away, stopping when I saw Rob and letting him know the situation.

When I got home, I tried to catch Steve and Mike to let them know, and was of course too late,  but a couple of minutes later I got a call from Steve's wife Bridget to let me know that everyone was heading down to his house and gaming would happen down there. So it was that 10 of us gathered at Steve's and squeezed in 3 game groups round 2 tables.

The games played were partly chosen on the basis of a smallish footprint to fit the available space. We reckoned we probably got started about 8:30. I was with Steve, Mark R and Dave F playing St. Petersburg, while sharing the table with Mike, Rob and James who got through Caylus MC and Canyon. Mark W, Scott and Michael played Above and Below, a new game to the club out in the conservatory, followed by Love Letter.

We played St. Petersburg using the basic game with the expansion cards, I've come to the conclusion that although the trade section added into the advanced game, although interesting does not justify the extra length that it adds to the game. We got through 2 games and I had contrasting fortunes. In the first I did something that I quite often do, which is grab an expensive building into hand early on and then not get round to building it until late on, so it clogs up hand space that would be better used for something else. I don't know why I keep doing this, but my excuse this time was the need to get something off the track to guarantee me a noble going fourth in the order. Sometimes I can work round the error, but in this case things went downhill from there, as I was never able to get any kind of engine working and came in last on 67 behind Steve, Dave and Mark who won with 109 who seemed to be making money and points in all phases of the game by the end.

The second game was much better, as I made sure not to make the same mistake as in the first getting an early lead in workers by virtue of an early observatory, which also allowed me to do well with the nobles. The game ended rather unexpectedly when the track was completely empty before a worker phase when there were only 7 cards left in the deck. I won the game with 52 points, which is the lowest legitimate score we've seen at the club, I moved from last to first with 30 points from end fame scoring.

On the other tables Rob won CMC and James Canyon. Mark W had a good evening with wins in both the games on that table.

I will conclude by thanking Steve, or possibly more appropriately Bridget, for hosting at such short notice. I will check up on the status of the Stag (probably on Sunday) although I think they were hoping it will only take a day or two to sort things out. I hope there was nobody else who came and then went away again without realising we'd moved elsewhere.