A record-breaking and kitchen-table-straining nine people were expected tonight. While the four of us waited for the hoard, we played Seven Wonders. It was new to Chris and Paul, so Sam talked them through the rules. Paul was initially confused, but regained his composure to push his way into a clear second place. Sam ended the winner, with Chris and I battling for third.
Sam 62
Paul 59
Andrew 46
Chris 45
Then the house began to fill up with excitable gamers. With nine of us crammed into Sam’s kitchen, the group split into two, with Jonny given the rare luxury of a game he’d played before. He, Sam, Steve and Adam sat around Tinners’ Trail and I’ll leave it to Sam to fill in the details later. Meanwhile myself, Hannah, Paul, Chris and Joe tried a new game – Year of the Dragon.
This game involves you trying to survive perhaps the unluckiest year in Chinese history, in which famine, pestilence, and a Mongol invasion all happen twice between March and December. But at least there are fireworks to lighten the mood. And taxes. But then, there are always taxes.
Joe explained the rules, and started strongly, gaining prestige which would pay him handsomely throughout the game. But he stayed with the original two-up two-down temple that you begin the game with. Others quickly expanded their temple to include extra buildings and floors and, therefore, more flexibility.
Chris often found himself without any money and the two of us were often the last to take our turn due to our lack of influence. It’s the kind of game that can slip away from you, if you’re not careful. All of us were happy to let people die once their usefulness was over, which makes me wonder if we’d make good mafia bosses. But in the last round, tables were turned (not literally – there wasn’t enough room) when I leapt from last to third and Hannah sped past Joe to steal first place. I like a game that gives you hope right until the end. An enjoyable game and one that I’m sure we’ll return to.
Hannah 89
Joe 86
Andrew 73
Chris 71
Paul 64
Like I said, Tinners’ Trail will be spoken about at length later, but in the meantime, the scores were:
Sam 87
Adam 82
Steve 64
Jonny 64
Lastly, The Year of the Dragon went on for longer than expected (it must’ve been a leap year, ho ho) so after Jonny left the other three set up a game of Poison. Once we’d finished our game we were able to watch the final round with interest. It was delicately poised, and anyone had a chance of winning. But Steve wilted under the pressure of all those spectators, and ended in last. Sam finished the evening as he began – in first place, with Adam grumbling over his second second place.
Sam 17
Adam 20
Steve 29
So big thanks to Sam for hosting, and also big thanks to Sam’s wife for making sure the kids were tired enough to sleep through the evening. A lovely evening was had by all.
Meanwhile, Steve and Sam climb the leaderboard and, just like last season, Hannah is Adam’s only threat when it comes to points ratio.
The leaderboard...
| Played | Points | Ratio | |
| Adam | 12 | 63.5 | 5.29 |
| Sam | 12 | 54 | 4.5 |
| Joe | 12 | 47.5 | 3.96 |
| Andrew | 13 | 38 | 2.92 |
| Steve | 6 | 21.5 | 3.58 |
| Jonny | 5 | 19 | 3.8 |
| Quentin | 4 | 17.5 | 4.37 |
| Hannah | 2 | 10.5 | 5.25 |
| Paul | 2 | 6.5 | 3.25 |
| Chris | 2 | 5.5 | 2.75 |
| Matilda | 1 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
Wow — good evening for Sam, including a second win at Poison in as many games — this menace must be stopped! And thanks too for letting me punch out your new game; I know how much that hurts
ReplyDelete.
Interesting that the point spread of TInners' Trail and YotD is almost exactly the same . . . or hang maybe it's not interesting.
My two week hiatus in France begins next week, so I expect you all to flail about not knowing the rules to anything. I think I don't even have internet access out there, but if I do I'll keep in touch, and maybe post some of my gaming experiences. Whilst it will take some seriously awful weather to get the girls to play, Cha's dad is very amenable to games, so I'm taking some two-player treats. And I might have room in my suitcase for Mü . . .
After further reflection I'd like to upgrade my score of 7 for YotD to 8. I'm really bad at picking up the rules to games and it often takes a full game to embed the rules. More importantly, by the time I've worked out what the key factors are it's too late. Therefore, by falling behind on the turn track and splurging all my money early on I was left with an uphill struggle.
ReplyDeleteOriginally I gave it a 7 because I thought its just another take on resource management, which I guess it is, but it does it very nicely. What I liked was that it had many routes to victory and even if you appeared to be behind coming into the final run it didn't always pan out that way.
7 Wonders is an instant classic. A 9+ in my book, the best of its type I feel.
Yep, Sam was on fire, I don't know how many calculations per second were going on behind those steely eyes but he created an economic powerhouse down by the Lizard...
ReplyDeleteChris, have you played Notre Dame, Stefan Feld's previous game? They share many similarities, not the least the fact that they are both games that need to be played a few times to get a hang of the flow. In fact, YotD feels like an evolution of ND in some ways. There is the disaster management factor, and playing cards to take actions (though ND has a draft like 7 Wonders, so there is perhaps more player interaction).
ReplyDeleteBut the bit that feels most similar is that, in both games, specialising pays. In Notre Dame, the first time you take an action (for instance take a coin) you play an influence cube in to the 'take a coin' section. Subsequently, when you take that action, you add another cube, but you always take as many coins as you have cubes on that action, so you can build up bigger and bigger returns. In the same way, Year of the Dragon's people tiles allow you to take more rice, fireworks etc, the more of those you have.
I like the ebb and flow of it — once both droughts are out of the way, you can chuck your farmers, forget about rice and move on. (though of course, if you keep your farmers and get more rice, you'll reap the rewards in the end of game scoring).
My 'two-up, two-down' approach to palaces was woefully poor. But I thought I'd stick with it anyway, and see if running what amounted to a cozy B&B was a viable strategy. Perhaps if I had really concentrated, and wrung out the best possible points from the last couple of turns, it might have worked out. But having so few people limited my options - next time I'm going to build a massive Holiday Inn style apartment complex!
Never played Notre Dame. Another on my list of games to play! Although one chalked off last night with 7 wonders.....
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ReplyDeleteI couldn't hide my delight when I beat Adam twice in one evening. I hope he took it as a compliment; I did refrain from shouting IN YOUR FACE HILLMANN - I wanted to, but let's face it he'll be beating me again next week.
ReplyDeleteTT was a close run thing; probably the first time we've played it correctly after rules misunderstandings and my erroneous set-up a couple of weeks back. I managed to group four mines close together, get a couple of adits set up and didn't need to worry about a fifth mine. It was hard to call who was in the running early on as Jonny seemed to be doing well, then Steve had a very productive second round, but come the final round Adam and I were battling for first and I just about nabbed it - though I had to be careful how I invested with the others poised to squeeze me out if they could.
I liked Poison anyway, but obviously winning helps too. As ever, I'm still unsure as to what the key to this game is, but Steve will confirm it's not picking up 5 poison cards in round three. Before that, two rounds down anyone of us could have won.
Great night, hopefully Paul and Chris can come again. The next objective is to get Sally on the leaderboard. Maybe you can all secrete yourselves under the table and I'll hide a game underneath the cheeseboard...