The smell of bull

Saturday night. After a day of entertaining nine 13-year-olds (-little Joe's birthday party), what I should probably have done was go to bed. But I wanted some me-time and what better what to spend it than with other people. Specifically, in this case, Ian and Adam H, who arrived at 7.30pm. I had the Great Zimbabwe set up and waiting for them, and proceeded to explain the rules. Every time I go through them the game seems a few degrees easier, although I still had to reference the book twice. 

But essentially it's build and raise - literally - monuments for the win, with the caveat that to do so you need craftspeople, and having craftspeople raises your victory point requirement (VR): it begins at 20, and in theory at least could remain there throughout the game, if your opponents give you the freedom to play using their craftspeople instead. I thought Adam might have bitten off more than he could chew when his VR hit 31, but he combined his craftspeople, specialist and God - both of which give advantages but also push up your VR - to utterly tank Ian and I, hitting something like 38points as we lagged in the late teens. 

Adam admitted he enjoyed himself. I complained aloud about Adam winning. Ian remained silent. 

At this point however, Laura arrived and we blasted through Viva Pamplona!, the somewhat dubiously-themed (in terms of animal welfare) game where you partake in the Running of the Bulls in Spain.

On your turn you roll the two dice and move (or not; the arrow result lets you advance 0-6 spaces) two of your runners. After everyone's done so, a card is flipped, and the bull moves too: often 1,2 or 3 spaces. Occasionally a little faster:

Your goal is to try and remain as close to the bull as possible, so close you can smell his animal scent. If the card flip reveals a scoring card then the bull doesn't move and the runners score: 3points for being on the same spot as the bull, 2pts for just ahead of it and 1pt for two spaces ahead. All runners behind the bull lose points!

Orange spaces cost you a point when you stop there, and there's a double-space full of tomatoes that you need to fully pass, or you'll slip back. If you arrive on a space and your runners outnumber another player there, you can push them back (or forward) a single space. 

This continues until the bull arrives in the arena. Any runners who beat the bull there receive points - as late as possible is better than earlier - but being behind the bull at this stage costs you points, of course. Ian found his bad luck and continuously rolling high worked ultimately in his favour. As we clustered around him on the final corner, he suddenly sped up and gambolled into the arena, leaving everyone behind him! But Ian was the least far behind by some margin, and picked up a win. 

We followed that with Kingdomino Origins, where I missed the drama of the scorecount as I had to go out and collect Joe as the hour hit 10pm. Despite the time though, Laura wanted to revisit Quantum, and Ian and I needed no encouragement. Adam gained a refresher and off we went...

I was first to go and having gotten a cube down, took a two-action bonus card to ready myself for a second. Then I spotted I could get a third cube down on my third turn, and as a result I found myself on the receiving end of unwanted attention (and commentary) from everyone else. My ships were blasted off the board, but thanks to my Tyrannical power, I pushed my dominance up to six twice to get my final two cubes down for the win. As Adam pointed out, going first doesn't harm your chances in Quantum at all, but I was pretty pleased with my win all the same, as Ian and I agreed Quantum remains a top ten game for us. 

Another top night, thanks all!