The air was hot and humid, almost suffocating, and the three of us sweated and drank our way through three games.
First was Quantum. It’s been a while since the space epic got to the table, but Ian’s lost none of his touch. He researched early, picked up Stubborn, and suddenly was almost impossible to beat. It wasn’t just his tactics, though. Lady Luck showed no mercy to Sam and I, as one battle after another went Ian’s way and his dominance rose.
Near the end, we all had to get one cube down. Sam was one move away from a win, and I told Ian to stop him, even though he’d just taken his go. Sam graciously allowed him to take his move again. Later I stopped Ian by warping a three dice and knocking out an all-important five dice.
But with Ian’s Stubborn-ness impossible to defeat, he got to a position where we had to attack him to save the game, but if we lost, he’d win the game with his dominance going up to six, allowing him to place his last cube. We attacked! We lost.
1. Ian, all cubes down
2= Sam and Andrew, one cube left
Then we went for a bit of Waterdeep action. We all knew how to play, so there was no tedious messing around with rule book. Just get a gang together, get out there and placate that walking statue.
Sam started slowly, while the first thing I did was try to get a money-making machine going. And it worked okay. Ian also built up heaps of gold, and large numbers of fighters or rouges, most of which he didn’t need.
But it was all very close. Sam’s tactics were very hand to mouth. Most of the time he picked up money, he just left it there, since he needed it to finish a quest. I was in the lead for much of the game, but even I relied on a last minute stroke of luck as I reset the quests with my last agent, and got one that I could do, and that scored pretty well (14 points, iirc, plus a bonus for being the right kind. Without it I would’ve come last). A very close game.
Andrew 161
Ian 157
Sam 154
Finally, we went for a quick game of No Thanks. This challenging game of luck and bluff was new to Ian, and it must be said, it was a fairly unusual game, in that everyone’s scores were high. But he did okay. I went for low cards as usual, and it almost worked. I just needed that 33!
Sam 65
Andrew 82
Ian 96
One win each! How civilised.
| Points | ||||||
| Sam | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| Ian | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 9 |
| Andrew | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 11 |
| Joe | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 13 |
| Matt | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 17 |
Good set of games that we squeezed into 2 and a half hours!
ReplyDeleteThe reason I let Ian retake his go and stop me winning Quantum was that I'd started reading aloud from the rulebook the descriptions of each players race/culture, and, although it hadn't been my intention to distract Ian, it felt kind of duplicitous that possibly as a result of this he hadn't noticed my imminent move. As soon as he won I regretted my charity! There we go - I'm a gentleman, but a begrudging one.
Lords was also good and though I finished third I felt I did well, as I started with un-Lord-pleasing quests and stymied early-doors by Andrew nicking my cleric just as I was about to fondle the elf-king of shambleton or something. And though I scored points every time I played an intrigue card, I couldn't really get that engine going as Gonz has done so successfully before. Ian by contrast seemed to be rolling in cubes, and Andrew's Tower of Luck was getting all the building custom…
Thanks to No Thanks for redemption. Good games all. More tonight!
Well, my Quantum victory does feel undeserved. If Andrew hadn't pointed out Sam's impending win, and if Sam had been less gracious, things would have had a different outcome. So thanks guys, in a way it was everyone's victory!
ReplyDeleteLords was a very close game. I reckon if I had noticed that gathering of rogues I could have used them to complete a 25 point skulduggery quest. It might have prevented me completing another quest, but the net gain might have swung things in my favour.
No Thanks was enjoyable, but I had drank too much to really get my head around numbers, so used my default strategy of "wing it and try to look like I know what I'm up to". A strategy that can be used in both games and life.
Thanks guys!