I speak almost metaphorically - cubes were involved in all our games but in the first we sailed them, then we mined them, and then we claimed them in a gamut of gaming.
Ian arrived first and with Andrew still en route we set up Black Fleet. We needed minimal rules refreshing when Andrew arrived before setting off for the high seas in a highly-imaginary Caribbean. For those unfamiliar, Black Fleet sees you move three ships on your turn - your Merchant wants to deliver goods, your Pirate wants to steal from other merchants, and the Naval ships sink pirates. Your goal is to earn enough doubloons to flip a tableau of cards in front of you; and as you flip them one by one they give you in-game benefits.
ships in the night
In past experience this has been a tight game but the way the cards fell favoured me - I got off to a good start and never felt I was to be hauled in:
Sam: all cards flipped plus 17 doubloons
Andrew: all cards flipped plus 2 doubloons
Ian: 4 cards flipped
Ian was to have his revenge in a similarly watery game however, as Andrew suggested Tinner's Trail and we all jumped at the chance. Ian's opening round was unimpressive as he scored a paltry £16 and invested a fiver, whilst Andrew and I got a bit more involved in the investment track. But after that Ian got some kind of mining mojo going that Andrew and I could not compete with; regularly mining for free and despite out-investing him in the third and most rewarding round, I couldn't get close. Especially when having finally grabbed first-player I rolled the most shitty prices ever in the final round:
elemental mistake
Ian: 130
Sam: 112
Andrew: 94
There was just time for a little game of Love Letter to finish. I can't remember how this happened but we ended up playing the game in the style of George Lucas; stating the obvious in very unimaginative and expositional fashion. Andrew and I were 2-2-0 ahead of Ian but based on past experience, fully expecting a sting in the tail. However this time the force was against Ian, as he was hit with the double-baron and went out of the third round in the style of this post title. Meanwhile Andrew knew I had the Princess, but thanks to a timely Handmaid, could do nothing about it...
Sam: 3 cubes
Andrew: 2 cubes
Ian: 0 cubes
A fine way to end the weekend and a long-overdue win for me at Love Letter!
Cheers guys, was a good evening. If you fall behind in Black Fleet it's hard to catch up, but it was good to play it again.
ReplyDeleteTinner's Trail was great too, might have been my best performance in that game. Followed by one of my worst Love Letter performances. Bloody double Baron!
Tinner's is always good! Black Fleet is... ok. Lots of games have repetition but it's one of those where it feels more noticeable
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to see Black Fleet on the table. I started slow, and my strategy of shuffling back and forth between two ports while my pirate stole stuff only started working once I'd got a good card for my pirate ship. Otherwise I'd have been sunk. Ha ha. Did you see what I did there?
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