Five Go Mad in Vegas

There were five of us at this week’s games night: myself, Sam (the host), Joe, Martin, and Gonz. Adam is still on parental leave and everyone else was busy. This turned out to be perfect, since Martin had brought a game that was best with five.

And to compliment it, Joe had brought his latest piece of treasure found in a Bristol charity shop: a wooden box, with handle, designed to hold poker chips, cards dice and other gaming paraphernalia. Admittedly, it weighs more than twice as much as if you just carried those things in a plastic bag, but style overrides convenience in our world.

The game in question was Vegas Showdown. This game involves bidding on various rooms that you put in your casinos in such a way that they fill spaces or connect areas and such like. The bidding is fierce and often influenced by cards that effect what is or isn’t available, and how much money you get.

Gonz quickly invested in slot machines and raised his income levels. Sam went for lounges. In fact, he built the most laid-back casino in the world, with only three rooms for slot machines, and then just endless lounges. This tactic paid dividends when a card giving two points per lounge was revealed. He shot off into the lead.

Martin found himself with a bunch of rooms that didn’t seem to fit together, but for all his cursing, he was never out of the running like me and Joe. An interesting game, and one that I’d like to return to soon. If nothing else, there was no end of double entendres, as we complimented each others’ Fancy Slots.

Sam 70
Martin 64
Gonz 60
Andrew 48
Joe 46

After this we chose 7Wonders. Gonz had brought it along, as usual. And, also as usual, he’d brought it in the box of a different game. We played the vanilla version, without expansions. Sam got the wonder that rewarded sciences, and then told everyone he hated sciences. I was sitting next to Gonz, and I remembered his fondness for sciences, so whenever possible I either built them myself or used them to build my wonder.

Joe was largely resource-less, relying on my handsome array of materials. Martin, Joe and Sam went for blue buildings, which brought them varying levels of success. Gonz turned warmonger in the final round, and copied a neighbour’s guild to get enough points to tie for first.

Gonz 57
Martin 57
Joe 51
Andrew 48
Sam 47

After this, it was almost time to leave but for one final important piece of official business: to decide the next game of the month! How exciting. Russian Railroads had been retired by its nominee, Joe, after three weeks, so now it was time for the successor. This time, names of people were put into a hat, and they got to nominate two games that we could vote on. My name came out! Oh, the pressure. I nominated Pergamon and El Grande, and Pergamon won the vote due to it being good with 3 or 4 players.

So, see you all next week down at the archaeological site! Last one to dirty their trowel is a rotten egg!

						Points
Martin	1	2	1	1	4	9
Gonz	1	3	1	1	3	9
Sam	4	1	2	1	1	9
Andrew	3	4	1	2	2	12
Joe	2	5	3	3	1	14
Ian	3	3	3	3	3	15
Matt	2	2	1	5	5	15
Will	2	4	2	3	5	16