I arrived last, and San Marco was already set up, ready for play. It was a first time for all of us, so we picked our way through the relatively simple rules and got stuck in. The game involves using your aristocrats to gain influence in Renaissance-era Venice. This involves moving coloured cubes around a nicely designed map (not sure why there's a cat in it, though).
The main game mechanic is that one player gets all the cards, and then splits them into groups for the opponents to chose. Once the choice is made, each player has to action all the cards in their hand. Obviously, this means no group can be too awesome, otherwise they'd be picked up immediately, meaning there was a lot of Analysis Paralysis to try and work out how to make one group look good while secretly wanting the other group.
There was a lot of downtime between goes. Enough for me to start describing the action in the style of David Attenborough and for Finn the cat to get more attention than usual. Perhaps it was because we were new to the game that we took so much time over our decisions. Or maybe as we become more savvy, those pauses will get longer. As the game closed, Hannah come out a clear winner.
Hannah 78
Sam 71
Adam 59
Andrew 53
Then we chose a quick game to round of the evening. It was either Poison or Trans America, and since Hannah was keen, the train game was chosen. Sam had reservations, but he brought it to the table. As it turned out, his fears were justified. I'm usually far more drunk when I play this game, so I did well. I was helped by tonight's lucky combo (the three-colour neighbours: Santa Fe, Phoenix and San Diego) which, by chance, Hannah also got too.
Andrew 5
Hannah 8
Adam 12
Sam 13
| Points | ||||||
| Hannah | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
| Andrew | 1 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
| Adam | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 21 |
| Sam | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 21 |
Sorry to have missed out, though it was for the greater good - San Marco doesn't play with five, so it would have been another no show for that one.
ReplyDeleteThat selfless act is worth some leaderboard points, no?
Get out of it Berger! This is GNN, where the bottom line is hard-hearted materialism.
ReplyDeleteI would declare San Marco a qualified success - qualified because of the aforementioned down-time and AP, but let's be fair, it was our first try and I think next time we'd be a little faster (though to be equally fair I guess the divvying up of offers will always take a bit of time). I'm really happy to finally play it because as one of the Guilty Ten (now nine) it was weighing on my conscience, but also because I liked it; perhaps not a top ten game but certainly nestling around the lower teens.
I've got round to doing my top ten (in no particular order):
ReplyDeleteSettlers of Catan
Colosseum
Ascending Empires
Agricola
Princes of Florence
Ticket to Ride
Stone Age
Tinners' Trail
Power Grid
Sam Marco (I like AP. It gives everyone else time to chat. Also, I like thinking. Especially circular thinking.)
Glad to see Tinner's Trail in there Hannah! This is a top ten I approve of, especially as it contains my name. I think I'm right in saying - Joe can correct me if not - you have a diverse set of designers as well; two Alan Moons (San Marco/Ticket to Ride) and everything else an authorial one-off. Mmmmmm... games. I now will go obsessively back and check the other top tens for authorship.
ReplyDeleteHe he I should have written Sam Narco!
DeleteI wrote that last line as a joke, but I'm now having to physically restrain myself...
ReplyDeleteLet me help you out Sam — I think Wolfgang Kramer has his name on Princes of Florence and Colosseum, which is regarded as a sort of retheme, interestingly. He might also be involved in Stone Age, since the designer of that is a pseudonym.
ReplyDeleteDidn't the name Wolfgang Kramer come up recently too? Trying to remember where - oh yes, 6 Nimmt! We can officially adopt him as a GNN favoured designer.
Where have you played Princes of Florence, Hannah? I had it for a while, but traded it away when I got Colosseum.
Anja and Steve have got Princes of Florence. We don't often play it though.
DeleteThe desginer of Stone Age is a pseudonym? My illusions are shattered. Is there anyone else in the gaming community who doesn't exist?
ReplyDeleteMore bad news re: Stone Age - Brian Blessed is actually an actor and doesn't really sit on that little cardboard chair.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue for Stone Age - neolithic man probably didn't use dice to cut down trees or quarry stone.
ReplyDeleteSure they did. They just threw them a bit harder, that's all.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't have the tools to round off the edges either.
ReplyDeleteMichael Tummelhofer is the designer listed on Stone Age, but it's a pen name for Berndt Brunhofer, to reflect his thanks to Jay Tummelson and Michael Bruinsma, who (I think) are publishers.
ReplyDeleteHe also designed St Petersburg!