But I'm getting ahead of myself. Without Joe, we were four in number: Sam, Quentin, Adam and myself. We chose Stone Age again – very much the jeu de jour – since Sam had gone crazy in a games shop that day and bought it along with Tigres and Euphrates.
Quentin hadn't played Stone Age before, so he was given a quick course on the rules. I started building huts, Quentin and Sam got into the love-making business (not with each other) to gain more meeples while Adam played a quiet game. He was the last the register any points on the board, and at one point we joked that he'd be lapped if he wasn't careful. But this is Adam we're talking about. He had carefully been picking off the civilisation cards while everyone else scrabbled after multipliers.
Despite his uncanny knack of rolling fifteens, Quentin seemed convinced for most of the game that I was winning, but as a newcomer he was unaware of how deceptive appearances can be. I may have had plenty of huts and multipliers, but little else. He swept into a first place thanks to a large family and, if I remember right, some farms along with the relevant multipliers. Adam's big reveal of a hand full of civilisations was dramatic but not enough to close the gap on the leading two. Sam's duties as a father had had a knock-on effect as he ended the evening in last place.
Quentin 170
Andrew 160
Adam 152
Sam 124
Meanwhile, only one week after I said not much was going to change on the Leaderboard, I'm now within one point of Joe, and Quentin's points ratio has overtaken Sam's, putting him in second.
The leaderboard...
| Played | Points | Ratio | |
| Adam | 15 | 75 | 5 |
| Joe | 17 | 66.5 | 3.91 |
| Andrew | 19 | 65.5 | 3.45 |
| Sam | 14 | 57.5 | 4.11 |
| Quentin | 10 | 41.5 | 4.15 |
| Hannah | 3 | 11.5 | 3.8 |
| Jonny | 1 | 2 | 2 |
Much as I love this game - and I do - it's not been kind to me on the leaderboard. Though that's been more down to (little) Joe than anything else I think! It occurred to me last night that it makes sense to go for the farm multipliers because getting as many farms as possible makes the feeding easier to manage, whereas axes/huts don't and workers quite the opposite.
ReplyDeleteMind you, I saw the look of revelation when Quentin realised that huts score points both during and at the end of the game. And if I hadn't blocked that axe multiplier, then Adam would've come second with his civ cards. This game's deep, man.
ReplyDeleteHow on earth did you manage to play Stone Age without a dice arena?
ReplyDelete