And so after over a year of playing alternate weeks with my gaming friends James and Paul, the planets aligned to bring us all together on the same night. So as not to bog down the evening with rule learning I displayed the range of games I had that all parties were familiar with. After the briefest of introductions we were straight into the gaming action with everyones favourite Roll Through The Ages. After a slow start Paul came roaring through to take the first game. I foolishly decided to end the game early thinking I was in 1st place but forgot I was the starting player thus meaning everybody else got to take a final turn.
Paul- 21
Chris -16
James -13
Next up for the main fare of the evening was everyone favourite Stone Age. None of us are a stranger to 2-player Stone Age, however the addition of a 3rd person was enough to get some heads scratched searching for good strategy. Unlike the 2 player where you can start collecting anything you please and its a sprint to amass the most stuff, the 3 player makes you observe your opponents to make sure you don't clash. Paul struggled throughout trying to feed his family on his worker strategy. James made huge strides around the scoring track buying up huts using expensive resources and at one point threatened to lap me. I settled on the axe route as the first culture cards I picked up had a few corresponding multipliers on them. Paul spotted that culture cards were about to run out leaving us with one final hurrah. Needing a few rolls to go my way I managed to buy two huts and push my score up a vital 30 points. It was enough, plus my healthy axe score, to pass James.
Chris - 206
James - 183
We wrapped the session with a turbo quick game of everyones favourite Hey Thats My Fish which produced one of the closest games I've seen. After tying with James I tipped the scales on count back of how many tiles I had collected.
C - 33 (19)
J - 33 (18)
P - 30 (19)
Current top ten in no particular order: Macao, Stone Age, Tinner's Trail, Collosseum, Alhambra, Lords of Waterdeep, Downfall of Pompeii, Ys, Taj Mahal, Seven Wonders.
ReplyDeleteSorry, too soon?
Railways of the World, Brass, Lords of Vegas, castles of burgundy, Pompeii, twilight struggle, ticket to ride, high society, Stone Age, Alhambra.
ReplyDeleteSomething like that.
I'm astonished that Ticket to Ride is in anyones top 10. It's a nice game but a bit light on strategy for me. I guess my 10 would be now be, Agricola, 2 player Agricola, Alhambra, Stone Age, Lords of Waterdeep, El Grande, Seven Wonders, Nexus Ops (2 player), Macao, puerto rico.
ReplyDeleteSo there.
I know - its kind of just the 10 games I most feel like playing now. I'm on a bit of a railway thing at the moment, and Matilda will play TtR with me, so there you are. Besides which US TtR is very pure - no tunnels, ferries, stations - and can be played quite strategically I think. Ivor instance I invariably win against Matilda, but I would expect to lose hard against Adam.
ReplyDeleteWho's Ivor? The engine I guess.
ReplyDeleteWe're all different aren't we? (as I have found when sending group emails)
ReplyDeleteI imagine there'd be a lot of gamers looking at my top ten and finding it a little light compared to say, Caylus, Battlestar Galactica and others. But I like my games reasonably short - for instance I like Wallenstein and Shogun a lot, but I don't want to play them that much because they take so long. Partly I like to play more than one game of an evening. Partly I like to know if I'm losing at least I won't be losing for another hour and a half... partly I feel I'm an Hour-Long-Gamer. I can win a game (sometimes) if it takes an hour. Long ones expose my flaws.
TtR is a bit samey for me to play too much of but I really enjoyed the Switzerland version when we played it at Stabcon.
My list is mix of long and short games. like you Sam i like to get more than one game in on a games night ideally, but some long games feel worth it - Brass!
ReplyDeleteTinners Trail is currently £15 on Board Game Guru by the way...
Is one copy enough? One never knows when flood damage will hit the lower shelves of one's games cupboard
ReplyDeleteA flood-damaged copy of TT would be thematically resonant...
ReplyDeleteAnd it's everyones favourite.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on winning a lot, Chris.
ReplyDeleteMy top ten of the moment would be Tsuro, Lords of Waterdeep, Macao, Bibios, Seven Wonders, Mord im Arosa, Stone Age, Tinners' Trail (yes, really), Manila, and Hab & Gut. I'm fond of light-hearted short games. And if there's anything wrong with Tsuro, I've yet to find it.
How could I forget Biblios?!?
ReplyDelete