Rock of Ages

I was early for once and experienced the pleasure of watching people trickle into Discord. There didn't seem to be any real urgency in sitting down to play until we (Adam T, Andy, Martin, Joe, Katy, Sam, Ian and me) split into two groups of four.

Martin, Ian, Katy and Sam became the happy-go-lucky trick-taking fun club while the remaining four were the furrow-browed thinkertons of Eurogaming.

After some deliberation we chose Stone Age as suitably thoughtful without being too complex. Joe hadn't played in years and got a rules explanation from Andy. "It's all coming back to me now," Joe said nostalgically.

And then, having taught Joe how to play, Andy showed no mercy in filling up the forest so that Joe couldn't collect wood in that round. I was much more generous and I held a party on my first turn, rolling four sixes such that everyone walked away with a farm.

Joe continued to reminisce about the game remarking that it was the first game they played after Caylus, and we all enjoyed the dice rolling.

One thing that the online version lacks is the sense of satisfaction when placing all of your meeples in one area. Thus, Adam was deprived of the opportunity to feel like a gambling pro at a casino when he went all in on gold. Wasn’t enough to get him near first place, which went to the far more experienced Andy and well done to Joe whose dusty memories were enough to get him into second.

Andy 154
Joe 147
Adam 134
Andrew 127

By the time we’d finished the other four had completed a couple of games (photos below courtesy of Sam - I only recognise Tea Time) and Sam had already retired when we regrouped.

So the seven of us dug out 7Wonders, which is in the middle of its third or fourth revival here on GNN thanks to BGA’s interface making it all very easy to manage. Ian quietly sat in the corner, working on his pyramid of Giza, and winning wars - all with the least thinking time by far. I noticed that very few guilds were built, instead being used to help construct wonders.

Ian  67

Martin 62

Katy 51

Joe 50

Andy 47

Adam 45

Andrew 44

We ended on For Sale. I was quite pleased in one of the bidding rounds, picking up a 13 for just one coin but than that very same 13 got me a bit fat $0 cheque in the second round. With luck like that, I never stood a chance.

Andy 53
Martin 52 + tie breaker
Katy 52
Joe 51
Andrew 38

With that, we were done. Thanks all. See you all again soon.