Lucky in games, unlucky in weather

As I sit here in Ersby Towers, barely minutes after Adam left on his bicycle, the heavens opened and rain pelted down. As if someone was reminding the creeping custard not to get too cocky. Because tonight mostly belonged to Adam. Admittedly, he only had two opponents: myself and Sam, but even so, he can be proud of his two comprehensive victories (and a third place).

We began with Macao. Sam and I had played before, but any advantage we may have had from experience was washed away by Adam's canny ability at chaining together his cards to build an insurmountable lead. He got the Ship Loft to allow his ship to move two spaces, and then the Captain which allowed him to get two Prestige Poitns every time his ship moved on two spaces. You get the idea.

End of the game, nothing but ones...

But it's a great game, with a lot of thinking and trying to second guess what the dice may do. It's a little bit fire-fighting (as you pick up cards you don't want, and have to get rid of) and a little bit empire building (with trading and buying city quarters. Despite my dismal performance at the game, I like it a lot and I felt I had a shot at second place until the very last round when Sam connected a chain of city quarters, leading to some healthy bonus points.

Adam 88
Sam 68
Andrew 58

After this we played Biblios as a less intense game. I thought I had some idea of what I was doing, and had some kind of strategy during the game. Perhaps this was all an illusion, since I came in second but nevertheless an interesting illusion.

Sam 7
Andrew 4
Adam 3

After this, we chose No Thanks as a nice short game to wind down with. The cards teased us with a flurry of high, yet unconnected, values which we picked up grudgingly. I never even got the chance to do my usual tactic of picking up low cards. Not that it made much difference to my place.

Adam 41
Sam 52
Andrew 68

After this, Sam went to the toilet and came back requesting another game and a cup of peppermint tea, but he quickly read the atmosphere in the room and, despite it being only half past ten, we ended the evening.

The Form Table shows Adam still atop the pile, albeit with a little slippage in his lead. I squeeze ahead of Joe and Hannah thanks to my new tactic of coming last in three-player games, not four player games.

						Points
Adam	1	3	1	1	1	7
Sam	2	1	2	2	3	10
Steve	4	1	1	4	1	11
Andrew	3	2	3	2	3	13
Joe	2	4	3	1	4	14
Hannah	4	3	4	1	2	14
Anja	3	2	5	4	2	16
Dan	1	5	5	5	5	21