After some polite discussion, followed by a round of voting, and finally an executive decision by Adam, we chose Puerto Rico as the night's first game. This game has an interesting twist to the usual worker-placement method, since when you chose and action, it affects everyone. Usually beneficially, so you have to be sure it is more advantageous to you, or that it helps them in a way that actually hinders them.
It had been a while since we'd played, so Adam talked us through the rules and some tactics. He poo-poohed a particular building's usefulness, so Hannah decided to build it and use it to its fullest potential. Meanwhile Sam seemed to resign himself to a lowly third place during the game, but his repeated use of captain (with its bonus victory points) pushed him past Adam into second.
Hannah 55
Sam 44
Adam 41
Andrew 37
After this, Biblios was brought to the table in the faint hope that light would dawn on us and we work out what the winning strategy was. But it remains an enigmatic beast. We can't even be sure when we're losing! Sam seemed to have thrown away the game when he made a bid for a card that he couldn't afford. After each player took a card at random as punishment, he was left with three cards in his hand and no option but to pass for the rest of the game.
Amazingly, this left him in second since he retained enough points to pick up two dice. I, too, got two dice of a slightly higher value to pip first place. Adam came third to Sam only because Sam had better monks. Meanwhile, Hannah scored no points at all.
Andrew 6
Sam 5 (plus monks)
Adam 5
Hannah 0
It was after ten o'clock by now, so we chose a quick game of Condottiere. This is a game of trumps with special cards and a map of Northern Italy to fight over. The idea is to conquer adjacent regions of Italy, but like a lazy Garibaldi, once you have three regions you stop. Perhaps you think that's about as united as Italy will ever become. And you may have a point. Who knows?
Hannah used her bishops a lot (against me, it seemed) and Adam seemed to have an endless supply of mercenaries in his hand at the end. His wall of numbers was unbeatable and got him that final region.
1st Adam: 3 connected
2nd Sam: 2 connected and 1 other
2nd Andrew: 2 connected and 1 other
3rd Hannah 1 region
Sam's three runners-up prizes have put clear blue sky between him and the seething mass of gamers beneath.
| Points | ||||||
| Sam | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| Steve | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 11 |
| Hannah | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| Joe | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Adam | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 12 |
| Andrew | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 14 |
| Anja | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 14 |
Puerto Chico? Bubblios? Condominiumtierre?
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean. They're the most un-punny games ever. But I enjoyed them all... nice to play Puerto Rico again. Yeah, I was surprised to finish second because I struggled for money throughout the game when Adam and Hannah seemed to be awash with it at times. And my 'captaining' was more self-serving early on - later everyone seemed to benefit equally from it. The end stretch felt like a Johnson/Hillmann fight for supremacy... I like it when you don't know who's won.
Puerto Rico is one of my favourite games in my loft that I can't get to table because you need 3 players. In fact it's probably 6 or 7 years since I've played it!
ReplyDeleteI will send over a report from Mondays games between Paul and I later.
I didn't actually get two dice in Biblios, Andrew, I picked up the highest one (Monks) though.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't think of a title, how about a crossword clue instead...
ReplyDeletetop courier roams island (6,4)