Sam came straight from London, and needed to freshen up and put on new clothes before he joined us at the table. After the usual "no, you choose" shenanigans, we decided on Age Of Empires III. This worker placement game is themed around the exploration of the Americas. Each round has a number of options, and each player has access to different characters who subtly alter those options.
These options, and options for options, left Sam struggling at first as he prevaricated and retook goes. Joe, too, seemed to struggle with some of the rules, especially regarding war which was a disadvantage since Adam was gunning for him for most of the game. However, he kept Adam at bay by simply putting lots of his settlers in the line of fire, hoping Adam would get bored or try shooting at someone else for a change. I kept it simple, going for money in the first half of the game, and then victory points in the second half.
I think the key to my game was my successful pirating career. Getting money from each player every round helped a lot (even if Adam did insist on throwing his coins down in a sign of defiance against my brave Jack Tars). In the end, we were mixed in our opinion of the game, trying really hard to like it because, after all, the box was so big. Sam said although he had reservations, he would play it again... if forced to.
Andrew 108
Adam 83
Sam 80
Joe 66
When we finished, it was late, but Sam was keen to play another quick game, just to cleanse the pallet before going home. No Thanks was chosen, since it's been a while. I decided to forsake my usual tactic of picking up low cards, and it seemed to work. Who'da thunk it?!
Adam 14
Andrew 32
Sam 37
Joe 60
Sam suggested once more around, and so we did. Joe went for the high risk strategy of picking up high cards and hoping to join them together. It almost worked, too. But even when linked together, high cards are still high.
Sam 27
Andrew 31
Adam 58
Joe 58
| Points | ||||||
| Andrew | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 10 |
| Adam | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 12 |
| Sam | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 13 |
| Hannah | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
| Joe | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 21 |
