Shots fired!

Being the 3rd Wednesday of the month meant that it was another chance to join up with the Reading Boardgame Social. Tonight we were 8 and as I arrived the assembled members were all sitting around waving foam pistols at one another. These were the very necessary props for Ca$h N Gun$ which was to be the nights opener. The principles of this game are simple. 8 rounds. Each round you select from your deck of 8 cards either one of the 3 bullets you have or 5 blanks. This is hidden from everyone else. Then after the count of three all players point their gun at someone (Not yourself). You then need to chose whether to duck out and avoid potentially being shot or risk staying in to in order to be able to select the money cards. Of course if nobody is aiming at you you have a free ride! Each round someone is the godfather which means they can deflect a person aiming at them. If you get shot you take one damage, 3 damage and you're out of the game! Harsh. (You can repair if you get the right card). At the end of the 8 rounds those still in count their money. Most money wins.

Do ya feel lucky? Well do ya?

Its all very noisy and a lot of fun as people shout out in mock (or real) disbelief at being targeted and swear revenge in the next round. I managed to stay off peoples radar for quite a few early rounds but as my money pile grew evidently bigger more guns came my way. Although my stash looked good I hadn't been picking the bigger scoring cards and at the end a different Chris took the win.

The group then split into two gangs of four. Places for Thebes was quickly snapped up which left me, Daryl (Organiser), other Chris and Bob (His girlfriend with a tricky to pronounce name) to debate and deliberate over what to play next. Luckily I had brought a big bag of games with me so we could prolong this discussion. In the end Kingdom Builder was selected. It was nice for me to play this as a 4 player as so often it's only three or less. It really comes into its own with 4 as space becomes tightly contested along with bonus tiles. I managed to squeak a win courtesy of one extra city that I managed to paddock jump to!

Final board

To my surprise nobody in this group had ever played Medici so after my promises of easy to learn rules it was accepted as our next game. Explainers curse took hold in royal fashion as I paid way too much for tiles, eager to win biggest boat only for the gold tile to come out and spoil my plans. Daryl played a tight game hardly paying for anything whereas Bob had a plan to maximise one or two of the goods. This plan held true after trailing behind Daryl for most of the game she came sailing past him with 30 points worth of pelts!

To end the evening, those left joined together to play two really raucous games of Incan Gold. This gang really know how to throw themselves into a party game. Roars of disbelief ran through the pub as yet again another Zombie Lady (Which they now all shout in the GNN way.) came lumbering through the cave. Such was the craziness of the games that winners and placings was a little lost but nobody cared it was definitely the taking part and goading each other to leave the caves which was important.

So another good night at the board game social, even if I did spend most the night playing my own games!