October 2010 Games played

4 meetings in October summarised as follows.

6 October

We welcomed another Donald to the club, also from Scotland to create more confusion, he is also a regular at Telford like several of this group. It surprises me a little how we get so many duplicated names in what is really a fairly small group.

We split into 2 groups of 4, with Dave F, Steve, Donald S and myself forming one. The first game played was Notre Dame I felt I was doing better that in my last game of this, which was true but still not enough to overcome Steve.

Notre Dame 60 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve H	61
2	Dave D	56
3	Dave F	39
4	Donald S	20

We followed with Thurn and Taxis. Dave remembered that it only the highest value carriage that scores, which he forgot in his last game and took a good win. Building postal routes is not of course a theme that would be one of Steve's favourites, although whether this had anything to do with his reversal of fortune over the Notre Dame game, I don't know.

Thurn & Taxis 60 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave F	27
2	Dave D	24
3	Donald S	14
4	Steve H	11

On the other table Mike introduced some others to the joys of 18XX, the game of choice being 18GA, although the game was not completed. Interest was expressed in arranging a time to play a full game. I also wonder if we should be able to get a game like the new Poseidon on the table, which should play in an evening.

18GA 150 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mike	N/A
1	Andrew S	N/A
1	Andy	N/A
1	Donald	N/A

13 October

Another 8 split 4 & 4.

The main game on our table was Glory to Rome, which I have had in an earlier version for some years, having picked it up on a bring & buy at a convention. Despite not having played the first copy I then picked up the new version, which has recently become available again, which has a few change.

We played 2 games, the first as suggested by the rules, ignoring the card powers and using a truncated deck.

Glory to Rome 45 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave F	7
2	Andy	6
3	Dave D	5
4	Donald	3

We then played a second game using the full rules set. This is a game like Race for the Galaxy that will reward knowledge of the cards and their combinations and will take several plays to really get into, although I am not sure whether we get enough plays in to get to the stage where anyone could claim to be anything like good at it.

In this game Andy managed to form which seemed like a broken combination because no one had any cards to do anything about it, but looking at the other cards there are others in the deck that would have rendered the combo ineffective if they could have been played.

Glory to Rome 75 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Andy	26
2	Dave F	14
3	Donald	13
4	Dave D	9

We finished off with a couple of games of Guillotine.

Guillotine 15 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Donald	15
2	Dave D	14
3	Andy	13
3	Dave F	13
Guillotine 15 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave F	12
2	Dave D	11
3	Andy	8
4	Donald	6

Over on the other table A Brief History of the World got another run out, Steve having bought the game following the previous play. This is of course a theme that he can get his teeth into.

A Brief History of the World 160 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mike	164
2	Donald S	159
3	Andrew S	141
4	Steve H	125

20,27 October

Just to finish off. On the last week of the month Claire joined us for the first time

20-Oct			27-Oct
Arkham Horror 150 mins.			Thurn & Taxis 60 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score	Posn.	Player	Score
NR	Dave D	0	1	Donald	25
NR	Donald S	0	2	Dave D	24
NR	Andrew S	0	3	Claire	24
NR	Andy	0	4	Andy	22
Louis XIV 90 mins.			Santiago 60 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score	Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mike	41	1	Donald	129
2	Dave F	40	2	Andy	115
3	Donald	37	3	Dave D	103
4	Steve H	29	4	Claire	92
Musketeers 30 mins.			Magnum Sal 130 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score	Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave F	30	1	Steve H	113
2	Mike	15	2	Mike	109
3	Steve H	12	3	Steve Pe	99
4	Donald	9
Musketeers 30 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve H	32
2	Donald	15
3	Mike	13
3	Dave F	13

October 2010 Meetings 4, Games 12, Average Attendance 7.75

September 22, 29 2010 – Catch Up

Just a quick catch up, with few comments as I have let things get rather behind.

22 September

We only had 5 this week and for the main event of the evening we had Power Grid, played on the Spain/Portugal map, although in this case Portugal was out of play. I made a stupid mistake on the last turn by not anticipating the game end and so did not build an extra house, which I think would have got me second rather fourth place (definitely third). Dave's first win at this game.

Now eagerly awaiting the new Russia and Japan boards released at Essen.

Power Grid 120 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave F	13
2	Steve H	10
3	Donald	9
4	Dave D	9
5	Mike	9

This was followed by a couple of games of Guillotine.

Guillotine 15 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mike	17
2	Donald	11
2	Steve H	11
4	Dave F	7
5	Dave D	6
Guillotine 15 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mike	21
2	Steve H	17
3	Dave F	17
4	Dave D	16
5	Donald	12

29 September

11 this week with Steve and Paul down from Telford and first time visitor Donald also along from that way.

Donald S played On the Underground with Steve Perkins and myself. As is the way with this game, it was close throughout. I got caught out when the game was ended on Steve's turn so I got one fewer passenger move than the others. Also Donald, unfamiliar with the game didn't realise that the end was so close and might have sacrificed immediate points trying to build passenger movement opportunities for the next turn that he never had.

On the Underground 60 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve Pe	53
2	Dave D	51
2	Donald S	51

Next up was Notre Dame, this being the first play of this since 2007.

Notre Dame 75 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve Pe	55
2	Donald S	45
3	Dave D	40

On another table Andy S, Mike, Paul and the first Donald played first Vasco Da Gama.

With the caveat that I've never played it, everything I've read about this game suggests that it is just the sort of game that I am really unlikely to like. Opinions among those who played seemed somewhat mixed.

Vasco da Gama 120 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave F	79
2	Andrew S	72
3	Paul	64
4	Donald	61

Andy left after that and Paul introduced a prototype of Braggart, which his company Spiral Galaxy is producing.

Braggart 30 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Donald	120
2	Paul	114
3	Dave F	108

Finally there was A Brief History of the World. I like most Ragnar games, but the original History of the World (in its original and Gibson versions) is one that I got fed up of quite a few years ago. This revised version apparently fixes at least some of the issues I had with the original. I really must try this one some time.

A Brief History of the World 160 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve H	149
2	Ben C	144
3	Mike	143
4	Dave C	140

August 2010, Meetings 5, Games 18, Average Attendance 7.6