Sunday 16 February 2014

Love games.

Friday was Valentines day and what better way to spend it than with your old mate playing board games. And before everyone out there thinks that maybe I'm some sort of prehistoric oaf I'll have it be known that Jacquie was cordially invited to join in but declined. For some reason.

As the wind howled away outside Paul took advantage of his opportunity to choose all the games for the evening.  For the second time in a week it was Lords of Waterdeep. Even so I very happy to see it brought out again. Early activity saw both players establish bonus producing Plot Quests, helpful buildings and a few Mandatory Quests. On two player Lords you receive 4 agents to start with therefore you are pretty much completing a quest if not two every round. If 4 and 5 player is a resource restricted marathon 2 player is a abundant riches sprint. The rounds turned over quickly and even though most choices are obvious it's still fun to do.

For the second time in a week I managed to screw up the final scoring and this time we both stood staring at the board pouring over it discussing Paul's nice win and impressive 10 completed quests when I noticed that my three plot quests tucked under my tavern hadn't been counted. Paul met this with a typically understated "Ah well" and I managed to pip him.

Chris - 204
Paul - 196

Still in resource grabbing mode Paul selected Mini Agricola next. Paul's balanced approach meant that I was almost forced into producing the gaming worlds largest sheep farm, complete with petting zoo. Both our farms layout would've given Feng Shui masters a serious headache. Totting up the scores showed that maxing out on sheep out weighed the negative bonus points for not getting enough horses and cattle. The game seems a little unfairly balanced in this aspect. It is only possible to get a maximum 14 of each (Allowing for breeding) if you picked them up from the first round and then you need your opponent not to keep nicking them. So my 23 sheep was something of a strong tactic.

Chris - 49
Paul - 40

Finally, to reflect current affairs, we shuffled the cards to Nile where each turn is prompted by a flood card which forces a harvest. Somerset should have piles of Flax, Wheat, Papyrus, Lettuce and Castor when this season is all finished. I struggled to get any Flax in this game and Paul knew this making sure I had to rip out the crop each opportunity he got. In the count up my solitary Flax card fell short of the required 2 needed to even push the scoring to the next highest crop. Paul won in all areas.

Paul - 2
Chris - 1

2 comments:

  1. Valentines Day at our house was a gamey affair too, if I can use that expression. Little Joe and I played Fresco, then Sally and I watched some Scandinavian death. Probably not as romantic as down your way - what did Jacs do instead? Solitaire Agricola?

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  2. She set about creating a Kickstarter for a new worker placement game on a space pirate theme that she's been developing.

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