On a blustery Wednesday all focus once again turned to the little Tesco bicarbonate of soda container which holds the names of the remaining unplayed games. First out of the pot was quickly returned by Jacquie. Whilst I was upstairs reading the children's stories James had pleaded with her not to pull out Agricola due to his lack of sleep affected fatigue. Next out was Thurn and Taxis. Then Alhambra after a few miss draws.
It had been a while since the game about the 16th century swiss and german postal system had some table time therefore we decided against adding the expansion. A brief recap for all and then it was to the roads, as we began to create meandering routes across the board. Being one of those games where you can only get a feeling of the points total due to the closed scoring rule it was difficult to truly perceive who was ahead. However, it was evident that although James and I had been playing a steady game, Paul had been taking a few more first place tiles than us.
The game has an interesting risk reward mechanism where you need to assess how likely it will be that you will be able to add to your route next turn. Failure to do so means you lose your route and have to start again. In a game where the difference in points is in ones and two's it was vital this didn't happen.
However, I did manage to create a totally unnecessary route and have to start all over again. Not a clever tactic although the way Paul was motoring it made little impact to the final result.
Paul - 39
James - 30
Chris - 26
What should have been next was some palace and wall building in the form of Alhambra. A glance at the time showed that we wouldn't make it for Paul's train so instead we plumped for a non "leaderboard" game of Medici. This game will be remembered (if at all) for the gold cargo that appeared in every round causing havoc and the brutal bidding which saw a lot of cargo tossed into the sea, deemed so inferior that it was better to have nothing in it's place! My small leads in the first two rounds was eroded by some astute cheap purchasing by Paul. Greatly overpaying to be first in the boats saw my lead disappear as the goods were totalled. Another win for Paul!
Paul - 135
Chris - 115
James - 89
The Table so far:
Chris - 3
James - 2
Paul -1
Blimey, those look like huge scores in Thurn & Taxis! Did you forget to subtract one for each unplaced house, or am I just rubbish at it? :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should try this game again. I was underwhelemed with it and traded with Joe for Tinner's Trail (not something I could ever regret though)
ReplyDeleteYes we did forget. I bought a german version of the game and have downloaded English rules. I may have missed this bit. It wouldn't have changed the placings though Paul only had 2 post offices left and James and I had roughly the same amount.
ReplyDeleteSam, it's ok - there's something about it where I'm happy to play it but there's nothing in it that makes it stand out above other similar standard games. At any one time you could probably think of 2 other games that you would rather play.
That's exactly how I feel about it Chris. It stays in my collection because my wife likes it. I think that *might* be because she always beats me.
ReplyDeleteI did indeed do some mock pleading with Jacquie not to pull out Agricola (I'd had 3 hours sleep), but it was Thurn und Taxis that came out first. She pulled out Agricola for the follow-up game, then swapped that for the much more possible Alhambra. Which then wasn't possible after all. Thurn und Taxis makes me groan at the thought of it. But then once the game is afoot, I really enjoy it. So being forced to play it by the bicarbonate of soda container is no bad thing.
ReplyDelete