So long and thanks for all the Hey Thats My Fish!

A few weeks ago my trundling, seemingly never ending house sale, a mini saga that would rival the Lost box set, reached it's conclusion. This meant that the Bracknell bunch, after being told of my intention to up sticks and move west 4 months ago, finally had a date for their last get together. That was this Tuesday but the game to which we should bow out to had been the subject of discussion for many a gaming session. In the end the choice was easy to reach. One game over the years had been equally enjoyed by all, was competitive and needed no rules refreshing.

Stand up Lords of Waterdeep (Plus expansion) and take a bow. Maybe not a brain burner of the magnitude of Agricola or Keyflower, or arbitrary as say Smash Up and Blood Bowl : Team Manager, Lords has returned to table time and time again to produce some classically close games. Tonight's tilt at it being no exception. With expansion to hand we played the 'Long version" which meant that it was to be the only game of the evening.

As the rounds played out it was interesting to see the apparent leader swap from player to player. I started almost immediately completing 40 point quest and shot off into the distance, but a set of unhelpful quests slowed me up. Meanwhile James was handily getting his 'engine' going with a number of plot quests that gave useful bonuses. Paul languished behind deliberating on a strategy until he was heard to say at round 4 "I'm a bit behind, I better do something about that".

Then, with the certainty of a glacier edging its way down a valley (Or whatever glaciers do), Pauls green scoring marker sidled down the scoring track as multiple quests got completed. His new tactic was to ignore the potential penalties for skulls and just go for it!

As the game came to a conclusion, a flurry of mandatory quests landed in front of each player and last ditch quests and cube grabs were made. In the end Paul's revised tactic had worked! Although almost all of his gains were wiped out by skull penalties it was still just enough to best James and I.

Paul - 199 (Lord of Bracknell)
James - 195
Chris - 194

Ooo Close

As we cleared up James mentioned a final blog entry. Work commitments have made recent entries very difficult so this is a rare and final one from us. James pondered what had been the highlights of our sessions. The burst water pipe in my under stairs cupboard that halted a game of Agricola comes instantly to mind but the rest of the nights seem to blur into one.

The league of playing every game in my collection was nice as well as the Mini League James and I had on the same principle.

James was the master of the unique savoury snack and I thank him for introducing me to Llama baked bites. The Dorito chili roulette crisps where a real event too. At one point I thought I was going to have to burst into tears in front of everyone. The packet's warning really was accurate!

Snacks - Fruit was made available.

Lastly I would like to thank the chaps for turning up at my house (And James for hosting from time to time) for the last 3 or so years, especially Paul, who has had to train it over from Croydon to Bracknell every two weeks and thats not a cheap journey......