The Four Step Program

As usual when Monday rolls around my fingers start twitching. Andrew, post-life drawing, was amenable to getting a couple of games in early so I don't arrive at Adam and Hannah's house tonight panting like a dog with the DT's.

With little discussion we went for Cube Quest as an opener. And having seen it so effective in a previous game, I plumped for the Peppa Defence, where the king is surrounded by cubes packed so tightly they resemble a Roman phalanx. Peppa saw off her dad Mark with this as the King was rendered inaccessible.

the Peppa Defence

And the tactic proved successful twice in a row. Is Cube Quest broken??!

We moved on to a Castle For All Seasons. This hasn't really caught fire with GNN yet but I think it has potential. Maybe not enough people have played it, and with more than two players I guess it's a little longer that the action-packed 55 minutes we played it in. But still - trying to build the castle for victory points (or money) and second-guess the card your opponent will play in order to take advantage? Collect resources for a big payout or go for smaller buildings and get more workers on the board (who bring you end game bonuses)? Time your master-builder to cash in on other player's activities? It's a gem.

In this instance Andrew engineered a multiplier that saw him score lots of points for all his houses - only jumping in the the not-quite-as-good multiplier did I manage to see him off:

Sam 91
Andrew 85

Then we played 7 Wonders. Interestingly both of us played Dirk slightly differently - rather than a card dump for opponents wants or a customer for your own resources, Dirk was played quite aggressively, building armies and expanding both his sciences and a number of guilds. That's the great thing about 7 Wonders - it's always very different due to the make-up of the hands.

Sam 64
Andrew 52
Dirk 38

We'd blasted through four games in an hour and a half and, as I had to see my sponsor, it was time to leave.