Unusual for us these days to only have four players but it does open up the options and after a bit of discussion - the four of us plus the ghost of 'Michael' - we broke Stone Age out of the box, with which everyone but Hannah was familiar. And despite Joe's absence we managed to explain it reasonably well and got cracking fairly quickly.
Adam began and immediately embarked on a campaign of field-building that served him well throughout the game. I started collecting cards - and axes when I could - and as Hannah diversified Andrew chose his well-trodden path of huts and hut-multipliers - reassuring Hannah as he sped off along the scoring track that it meant nothing. And he was right - but it was a close-run thing. After Adam had turned his Ticket to Ride trick of sitting apparently fallow only to burst along the score track like some kind of demented steam train/neanderthal, it looked like he wouldn't be caught. Sat back in fourth place on the track at the end, I was feeling a little forlorn about my chances to be honest - but I'd underestimated my own hand and a combination of axes and axe multipliers - plus a wedge of other cards - bumped me into first, with newbie Hannah squeezing out Andrew by a mere three points:
Sam 177
Adam 153
Hannah 140
Andrew 137
Interesting fact : I only took a sixth follower on the final round, so effectively played the whole game with the initial 5 followers.
I was almost too surprised to be pleased, but any thoughts of leaderboard glory were nipped in the bud when I foolishly went to the loo and let the others decide what to play next. Tragically they opted for my bête noir, Trans-America. I'm about as good at this as Stephen Hawking is at darts, and my fourth place was inevitable. Hannah took the glory after a tight third round was won by Andrew, although Adam beat him into second place after Andrew suffered a hefty penalty from round one.
I didn't write down the scores I'm afraid, only the positions:
Hannah (3?)
Adam (6?)
Andrew (10?)
Sam (15?)
Nice to get a couple of games played - next week at Joes?
The leaderboard...
|
| Played | Points | Ratio |
| Adam | 16 | 81.5 | 5.09 |
| Sam | 17 | 71.5 | 4.21 |
| Andrew | 18 | 57.5 | 3.19 |
| Joe | 12 | 47.5 | 3.96 |
| Hannah | 7 | 31 | 4.43 |
| Jonny | 7 | 28 | 4 |
| Steve | 6 | 21.5 | 3.58 |
| Quentin | 4 | 17.5 | 4.38 |
| Paul | 2 | 6.5 | 3.25 |
| Chris | 2 | 5.5 | 2.75 |
| Sally | 1 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| Matilda | 1 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
Thanks for hosting, Sam. I still can't get my head around how to win at Stone Age. Whatever plan I have at the beginning is quickly forgotten as I get distracted by other options. And commiserations to Adam as Lady Luck deserted him, with some terrible dice rolls when trying to collect wood.
ReplyDeleteAdam hasn't come first all month, by the way. Is the world coming to an end?
I've worked how to stop Adam. Pretend his arm is a cat and steal his last Minstrel. He'll be confused.
ReplyDeleteAs for winning at Stone Age - might I be simplifying if I said the cards are the key? I built the fewest huts and had the fewest followers and won with multipliers. But on the other hand where Adam had bad luck with the dice, I had good luck in that no-one else was focussed on axes. If they were I might have tanked.
It was the minstrel that did it...
ReplyDeleteI'd like to imagine that if I'd had any resources to pay with I'd have bought a lot more cards, but who knows?
You would have, yeah. There is a wide seam of chance running through the game that definitely didn't favour you last night.
ReplyDeleteWho am I kidding? I'd have blown all the logs on failing to invent fire and rolling them down hills while balancing on them...
ReplyDeleteBy my count Andrew you've won two out of five games of Stone Age and come second once. So whatever you were doing was good, you just need to believe!
By the way I don't remember the ghost of 'Michael' - who's that?
Ah, Michael. We call him Michael but the voice is the voice of Michael's friend, a slightly ghoulish man with a plain white carrier bag and a baggy coat. As Michael was talking me through the options in Leisure Games, Finchley, many years ago, this man edged closer and closer.
ReplyDeleteAs it became apparent I wasn't a complete gaming novice and might have some actual use, his deep, dark voice floated into the conversation unbidden: "Maybe we should invite him to the club, Michael". That unconfirmed invitation spoke of black robes, ceremonial knives of dubious purpose, secret handshakes and many, many dice.