We began with recent favourite, The Resistance. Sam was a late arrival so we set off on our quest to topple the evil government with five in the team: me, Chris, Paul, Joe and Adam. We began with a successful two-man mission (me and Joe) and from then on, it was easy street. Stumbling onto two genuine revolutionaries in the first go is a real boon, since it makes the spy's turn much harder (and there'll be a 66% chance the next will be a spy) since they have to fail the second mission or risk having to fail three in a row in order to win a game. In the end, Adam and Chris were thwarted and the revolutionaries won! Victory went to the Free!
Sam arrived and we played again. This time it was a tense affair, made all the more tricky when a four-man mission went off without a hitch with the other two insisting that they weren't spies, honest. It was enough of a smokescreen for the two spies to get selected for the final two missions and scupper them both. Chris and I were well rewarded by our glorious leader for our devilish subterfuge. With Pringles.
Then Joe wanted to try out a new game, City of Horror, which is apparently good with six players. We set it up and early signs were good. The board fits together like a jigsaw, allowing a bit of randomness and it's nicely designed with evocative scenes of post zombie-holocaust streets.
Then Joe read out the rules. They seemed straightforward, but I wasn't sure how I was going to win. Then we started playing and any thoughts of winning were replaced by wanting the game to be over as soon as possible.
They key to success is all about bargaining, and forming alliances. But if you've nothing to bargain with, then there's nothing you can do. It seems to rely heavily on two strokes of luck: getting good cards at the beginning, and having a chance to be starting player. The only bits I liked where when the game focused on a building where I had no characters.
Playing this game is like being at a party where there's an attractive woman who you'd really like to speak to but instead you are cornered by a fat sweaty geek who's determined to explain to you in minute detail where George Romero went wrong. In the end, I came last, which was fine since I don't want to be good at a game that's this bad. Other people weren't as dismissive as me, but their comments seemed to be along the lines of "Well, it wasn't a complete waste of time."
Adam 9
Chris 8
Paul 6
Sam 5
Joe 5
Andrew 2
In the end Joe suggested a final game as a palette cleanser. We chose Incan Gold, the game of luck-defying scavenging. For a while it looked like Sam would win with a decent haul when he was deep in a temple all by himself, but then in the last round Chris, Adam and Joe all left at the same time, leaving Paul in the temple with an artefact and a 15 jewel card all to himself.
Paul 38
Sam 34
Andrew 25
Adam 23
Joe 11
Chris 7
An interesting evening. Nice to see Paul and Chris again, and they got to see Joe's electronic shuffler in action which, by itself, is worth a journey across England. My biggest regret is because we played six-player games, we didn't have the excitement of using Joe's secondary back-up games room. Maybe next time.
| Points | ||||||
| Steve | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 9 |
| Anja | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| Sam | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Adam | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 11 |
| Joe | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 15 |
| Hannah | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 17 |
| Andrew | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 18 |
| Paul | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Jon | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 23 |
| Chris | 6 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 23 |
