Wednesday 28 January 2015

Key related post title

Last night was the first time in an age that the three of us Bracknell gamers had been able to coordinate our calendars and get round a table. Finally my chance to get Keyflower out as a three player. But first a new game to my table if not to Paul and I, No Thanks. James took no time at all in taking in the simple rule set for this modestly tricky game to win comfortably first time. Paul took the next game easily as I languished, professing to not having a clue to it's inner subtleties.

Better luck with Keyflower maybe? James had spent a bit of time with a Keyflower training video ahead of time and it must have been a doozey as he needed no confirmation of rules before play. None!

With the three of us competing for the few good tiles bidding and counter bidding was harsh. Especially around the tile which allows you to produce the rare green meeple. James won the battle and I, maybe foolishly, turned down the option when I had it to produce a green guy. I found myself getting edged out of some of the better tiles although at that point my strategy wasn't set. Reviewing the hidden winter tiles I'd decided on collecting tool tiles. Unknown to me Paul had decided the same thing and that left us in direct opposition.


In Keyflower one of the agonising decisions you need to make is whether to bid early to lock in the colour or come in from behind to outbid. In summer I probably did a bit too much early bidding and found myself without my preferred tiles again. Paul cleverly won the powerful summer boat which allows you to ignore the bidding colour and after that he was always the threat. It could be argued that this tile is too strong but it should be up to the others to make a player pay heavily for it. Which we didn't really do.

As autumn and winter finally came around Paul had covertly created a strong position based on boats and tool tiles. Scoring his winter tiles came to 31 points, one shy of my over all total. His win was crushing!

Paul - 64
James - 45
Chris - 31

I can't even blame explainers curse! I was totally outplayed....

We then managed to squeeze in two more No Thanks rounds which I won! Therefore taking the No Thanks crown on the night. A bit of luck mixed in with the realisation that you can make people pay for cards they don't want....

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