Code Red

Paul arrived this week with armfuls of reduced halloween goodies which ensured for an evening of sugar filled craziness. What better way to compliment statements of "Have you eaten a brain yet?" than a bloody rampage in cardboard and plastic form which is Nexus Ops. This week I suggested that we played the King of the Hill variant which meant that occupiers of the centre hex (The monolith) can opt to take a victory point rather than two energise cards (Special bonus cards). James was unsure, preferring the game in its purest form, but agreed to give it a try.

After all of the initial exploration of tiles had been performed James' surge through the middle in a hope to reveal warrior pieces proved fruitless and instead placed a few of the much coveted refineries on his stretched out forward line. Paul pounced and won a quick succession of battles with his red army to set up a nice line of victory points. It was a counter attack that neither I or James could react quickly enough to and when Paul lumped his best piece (A Rubium Dragon) on the Monolith and James' attempt to dislodge him failed the writing was on the wall. The next turn Paul executed what he referred to as his "Bastard move" and attacked James' home base to reach 12 points after completing a special mission.

Checking back over the game the King of the Hill didn't really add that much. Only 3 points where taken and it did seem to finish the game just as it was getting interesting. I could have happily played on for several more rounds.

Paul - 12
Chris - 5
James - 3

Next up was Revolution! making a quick return. I totally sucked at it last time and my abilities hadn't improved in the interim. Suffering again from choosing the same roles as either James or Paul and losing out completely, I ran out of steam, whereas Paul and James seemed to have it all worked out. James' strategy this time was to extend as great a lead as he could around the scoring track and leave the buildings largely to Paul and I. Suddenly, after counting up the difference and checking the building totals it seemed impossible to catch him. However James wasn't so sure and to his credit didn't listen to my inadvertent sandbagging as the end result was closer than it appeared.

James - 180
Paul - 166
Chris - 129

I was pretty dismissive of the game after getting walloped at it for the second time and after some reflection feel I was a little hard on it. My main gripe is that I can't establish a cogent strategy, which is my fault not the game's, as Paul and James don't seem to have the same problem.

There was just enough time for Hey thats my fish, the kids game that's more suited to my skill set. And so it was that I managed to stay on the board long enough to hoover up the remaining fish and score a small victory..... I'll take them where I can.

Chris - 39
Paul - 30
James - 25