Clerical terror

There was a Beano story once, where the character (Dennis or Minnie, or it might have been Rodger) wished it was Christmas every day. By the end, they were sick of it. This has been the concern of the Bracknell Trio with their favourite game, Lords of Waterdeep. If they play it too often, will its brilliance fade?  This week, enough was enough. Chris was urged to set up Lords.

Paul accelerated into an early lead, rapidly knocking off the relatively low-reward quests. So fast and furious was his quest completion, it was hard to pin down exactly what he was after. James plucked up the purple wizards, so it was clear he was after the Arcana quests. And he soon had a couple of 25-point quest cards and a 20-point one in his hand, optimistic that the high-scoring quests would win him the game.

Chris bought buildings. Soon, he had a commercial empire. Though it was more like an empty precinct in a struggling seaside town. And as he dropped further and further behind, he bemoaned his luck and his tactics and woefully buried his head in his hands each time he missed a good quest card. But James was having none of it. It was glaringly obvious that Chris had the Lord card that favoured buildings. Chris’ acting was fooling no-one and James and Paul had to keep up the momentum knowing full well Chris could come steaming back when the bonuses were counted.

But Chris did execute the cruellest, most devastating move of the game playing an Intrigue card that wiped out any Clerics in any opponents’ taverns. Paul and James’ taverns were packed to the rafters with clerics one moment... Eerily empty the next.

Paul was almost always in the lead. James would momentarily leapfrog ahead as he completed the high-scoring quests, but Paul was slapping down the cheap and cheerful quests faster than a kid playing his first game of Snap.

            

The game’s rounds ended with Paul just ahead of James and Chris a long way behind. Paul totted up a lot of bonus points where James didn’t have that many. So the gap widened. But Chris was just about to announce what had been obvious from the start. Buildings make bonuses. Just how fast would this terrible actor come zooming round the scoring track?

            

It didn’t happen. He’d actually been after commerce and warfare. Not buildings after all. He’d built those to produce the resources that would pay for the quests that would grab the glory but fallen too far behind in doing so. It’s not a tactic he’ll be using again. Chris’ commentary on his tactical shortcomings was not an act at all. Just genuine despair.  

Final score: Paul 170, James 159, Chris 135.

Atmospheric 7 wonders picture

So, for pudding it was going to be 7 Wonders, the B-sides. Again a game they all know quite thoroughly now. Paul had Babylon and went for military mastery, adding a dab of science in the third round. James had Giza and steadily assembled the points through structures and the completion of all his wonders, plus his yellow cards. Chris had Ephesus and stacked up the structures too, before making a killing with a couple of cracking guild choices at the end. With three coins worth a point, Chris’ pile of dosh helped seal the victory.

Chris had the Grand Palace. So there’s still not been a game where someone has built the grand palace and not been victorious.

Final score: Chris 54, James 53, Paul 47.