East Berks round up.

I've been a little bit tardy with the reports from this end and thats a shame because we've started a new set of competitions to mix it up a bit. For both James and myself with two player games and the bi-weekly three player, we have decided to put all of the games (Their names anyway) into a hat and draw them out each week. The aim being that we should get to play all of them over the period of a year. This meant that we had a starting point for a mini league of our own for both nights.

On the two player week we have played two rounds and the results are as follows;
Nile - James
Hey Thats My Fish - James
Agricola ACSAB - Chris
Airlines Europe - James
Ticket to Ride - James

So James 4  - 1 up with plenty of games yet to go.

So on Wednesday Paul joined in the fun after missing the previous meet up owing to an administrative cock up. Names out of the hat this week were Airlines Europe again and Carcasonne the Discovery.

Airlines Europe has quickly become a game I totally suck at and in no quick time I was seemingly behind. With my tendency to back the wrong horse and jump on the band wagon when the optimum moment had gone left me up the creek without a paddle. I needed it to be a game of two halves. Obviously. Anyway, I did rally, but my battle with James over the high scoring Air Abacus stock was an example of how not to play the game. I was exactly one card behind him at all times, therefore each stock card I bought James added another. Paul must have been mentally rubbing his hands with glee. Eventually the game finished and the Air Abacas score was significant in giving James the win.

James - 100
Paul - 86
Chris - 77

Then on to Carcasonne the Discovery. Tabling this game was just the reason we chose to go down this route of game selection. Paul hadn't played it in probably 12 years. However he has still retained the instinct for tile placement games and didn't suffer any hinderance. In fact his skill and natural tendency to be a helpful chap often spilled over into helping his opponents. Which was nice.

I managed to stay a little ahead throughout the game, scoring little amounts here and there and cashing in on the odd biggy. Both Paul and James appeared to be stuck in potentially high scoring places but needed highly improbable tiles to make them pay off. In the end it was me with the last tile of the game that managed to slot in an unlikely setting and gain around 10 points.

Chris - 60
James - 56
Paul - 51

Our mini league stands at C 1, J 1, P 0

Notable mention must go to the mint choc pringles that were as foul as they sound. Unsurprisingly, rather like eating plain pringles after several after eights. I managed 4.