Wednesday 2 July 2014

Longcordia

First, there there two. Then there were three. Today, there were five! I’m talking about Concordia players, of course. Since there were five of us around Joe’s kitchen table, we decided on a big five player that we could all join in with.

We chose Concordia, Sam’s newish game that has already had two trips to the table with fewer players with decent success. How would it fare, pushed to its maximum five players? Well, the game needed a bit of patching together, since the blue player was missing his three ships. Joe got some plastic blue trains from Railways of the World, and so Ian was blessed with some Roman Sea Trains to get his game started.


Sam explained the rules and then Explainer’s Curse struck early as he proceeded to forget most of them. Joe, Matt and Ian were all new to the game, and there was a lot of lengthy deliberating right from the start. We all used our architects at first, except Joe who postponed building in favour of some extra cards. He later expressed dissatisfaction with this choice, and he more than made up for it by building everywhere. In fact, he triggered the end of the game, by building his fifteenth settlement.

During the game, there was a moment of ghastly realisation when we discovered we were an hour into the game, and all the end game criteria seemed like impossible dreams. For most of the second half of the game, Joe would encourage other players to buy up cards to finish the game sooner, whilst never actually buying any himself. Did his cunning plan work? Only the final count could say.

As we totted up our multipliers, I had a distinct sinking feeling. Having put my all into meeple multipliers, everyone else shot off without me. But then my 6x8 score put me right back in contention. Not enough to overhaul the final winner: Matt’s focus on silk was to be his saving grace, keeping his head above water. Sam, though, ended the game cursing his lack of progress in the final two rounds.

Matt 95
Andrew 84
Joe 83
Ian 79
Sam 74

After that epic, lasting almost two hours, we went for something that we thought would be light and enjoyable to end the evening. We chose 6nimmt. You’d have thought, after four years, we’d know better. Igloo Pop, maybe. Or Dixit. But 6nimmt is fun only a certain amount of the time. Otherwise it’s hell.


But we chose it. Matt started well, while Sam flopped to 25 points in round one. Then we all took turns in doing badly. It was the best of games, it was the worst of games, but in this high-scoring 6nimmt, Matt took first place by a comfortable margin.

1. Matt 44
2. Ian 63
3. Joe 74
4= Sam 80
4= Andrew 80

And that was that: the opening day of the season had opened! Matt takes an early lead.








Points
Matt 1 1 5 5 5 5 17
Ian 2 4 5 5 5 5 21
Joe 3 3 5 5 5 5 21
Andrew 4 2 5 5 5 5 21
Sam 4 5 5 5 5 5 24

6 comments:

  1. I liked Concordia a lot, but seems like 3 would be the optimal number of players.
    I completely ignored the multipliers on the cards, and in fact took only 2 new cards the whole game, on my first turn. Had I not closed out the game when I did I would probably have come last - and Andrew might have squeaked ahead of Matt. Strategic losing, perhaps. Great night, thanks chaps.

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  2. Yeah, Concordia for five added epic length to the general brain-burny feel. I agree that 3 is probably where it feels best - maybe four. I'm not sure if I was too tired/drunk/stupid or a combination of all three on those last two turns but I definitely sacrificed 7 points; possibly 11. But despite the insanity I enjoyed it. And well done to Matt who never seemed as fazed as the rest of us by the game. Can we give him his GNN nickname now? I suggest Dark Horse.

    6Nimmt, holy cow. That was almost even more brutal!

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  3. Those GNN nicknames in full:

    Adam: The Creeping Custard
    Joe: The Knowledge

    - it's not a big list

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  4. I enjoyed Concordia but like Joe I completely ignored the multipliers, at least until late in the game. I was indeed fortunate he ended it when he did as that final card I bought, if I remember correctly, got me 12 points. Or maybe it was 10. I forget. At least my grand strategy of "um... cloth" paid off.

    I am honoured by the GNN nickname Sam. I have no objections to Dark Horse, although Unlit Mule may be more accurate.

    I propose we stop playing games for several weeks so I can enjoy that top spot on the form table. It gets me in to VIP areas and double nectar points right?

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  5. Matt I'm sorry I love the Unlit Mule but for accuracy's sake I must insist on the completely unoriginal Dark Horse. It's not that we don't expect you to win - it's that you give nothing away. Like a horse. Or a mule, admittedly.

    The VIP area is the table near the toilet at Roll for the Soul.

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  6. Addendedendum: Andrew and I played Concordia again last night and we finished it in 60 minutes.

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