Saturday 19th May, 2007

Today was Beyond Monopoly!

I arrived late so lots of games were in progress. I hung around for awhile until Andy arrived. I then introduced him to the joys of It's Alive! Despite losing 37 to 54 Andy enjoyed the game and was impressed with the artwork.

We then had a go at Balloon Cup. Andy had played before and so explained it to me thoroughly. We enjoyed this as it was well-balanced and fun! Andy won by 1 green cup. We decided to play again. I felt I had made a few blunders and so was happy to play again. I did worse this time losing by the green and the blue cups!

We mutually agreed to try Architekton next - a game neither of us had heard of before. We felt we were missing something as we just kept copying each other's moves to effect a draw; there seemed no reason to do otherwise. We scoured the rules convinced that we must have been playing it wrong but, we hadn't. Not a great game.

I then got involved in a game of Settlers of Catan - my first for sometime. Of the three other players, 1 was new to it and the other 2 were clearly experienced. It felt like there were actually 2 games being played; the experienced guys made no allowances for me and the noob. Needless to say he lost and I limped into third place. Not an enjoyable experience. Little time was taken to explain the rules, tactics or anything.

I then got involved in a game of Winner's Circle. I'm not usually that keen on horse or racing games but this one was okay (and a Reiner Knizia game!). I liked the bluffing involved in the betting and the board itself. In the end I came second out of five, narrowly avoiding victory by losing a photo finish at the end.

All in all a fun day, although the Settlers game will stick in my mind as a BM! lowpoint.

Monday 4th December 2006

Lisa and I were joined by Jack (who brought games), Spencer, Andy and Greg for the ritual that is Monday Night. First up was Ticket To Ride. I had played this once before and I thought Lisa may enjoy it. She certainly did. Spencer, who arrived a little late, teamed up with her. It was a good game, although the board seemed to fill up quite quickly. Lisa got off to an early, and ultimately unassailable, lead. I rallied towards the end coming from last place to erm... second to last.... courtesy of several tickets I managed to complete. Lisa really enjoyed it she said!

Final scores:
Lisa 102, Andy 84, Jack 84, Paul 80, Greg 69.

Next up waas the classic Settlers of Catan, played with the 5-6 Player Expansion Set. Again, Lisa had not played this before. The game lasted for two and a half hours due mainly to rule changes within the expansion and the scarcity of grain and clay throughout the game. I still think this is an excellent game, although I'm more mixed about the expansion.

We had fun making silly comments ("I've got wood for sheep!") and realising that with a bit of letter re-arranging the game could be called 'Cettlers of Satan' (read Kettlers!) which made us chuckle!

Despite getting off to an appalling start and looking out of it for most of the game I finally managed to sneak ahead at the end of the game thus bringing it to a close.

Final scores:
Paul 10, Spencer 8, Greg 7 (with the most armies EVER!), Jack 7, Andy 6 and Lisa 4.

Lisa has not said much about this game except that she preferred Power Grid and Puerto Rico. She later conceded that it might be more fun with less players and hence no expansion. We shall have to see....