Saturday 2nd June, 2007

Beyond Monopoly!

I started with a 5-player game of Canal Mania from the Ragnar Brothers. In this, players compete to construct a canal network linking English towns to ferry goods. There are government contracts you have to complete, and you can enlist the help of famous engineers. The game ends with the arrival of the railways. Several players were familiar with it and, despite this, I managed not to come last. Final scores were: Adrian 80, Neil 66, Paul 58, me 54 and Keith 46. I enjoyed this and would play it again. The theme was a change to train games and I liked the engineers mechanic.

Next up was a 6-player game of Power Grid. This is a game I enjoy playing but am hopeless at. this was a typical outing for me: Paul won with 15 cities, Neil and Oliver were next with 14, Hugo and I managed 11 and Adrian could power 9. I wish I was better at this game!

I was then introduced to Cartagena. In this pirates are atttempting to escape from prison to a waiting boat. You play cards to move them along corridors, or they fall back to collect more cards. I found this somewhat challenging ot start with. In the end all 6 of Paul's pirates escaped, along with 3 of Adrian's and 2 of mine and Hugo's.

A good day's gaming!