Aug 16th - Tinner's Trail

I wasn't around this week so Richard wrote this report
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The Bottle Imp

Whilst waiting for Jo we had a quick game of the Bottle Imp

Sadly Steve got caught with the Imp twice in three rounds - the significant time being when I managed to discard my '2' under his '3' - I think we were both sweating a little!!

Matt 38, Steve 17, Richard 94


Tinners Trail

In the first Turn Jo manage to mine siginificantly more copper than the rest of us - and with the high copper price giving him loads of cash it was very difficult for the rest of us to close the gap ....

Jo 98, Steve 76, Matt 77, Richard 85


San Juan

Once Steve and Matt and departed Jo & myself finished with a quick game of San Juan

My Guild Hall/Palace combo won out over Jo's Guld Hall/Chapel

Richard 42, Jo 38

2nd August - The Spiecherstadt

Bought this at Essen last year and this is the first time I've played it. Really nice little game.

Ben 33, Garry 32, Steve 18

We has some time left over so Played a few games of Paris Connection

Garry 89, Ben 86, Steve 78
Steve 181, Ben 167, Garry 136
Garry 156, Steve 139, Ben 125

26th July - Age of Empires III

I'm quite liking Age of Empires III despite it looking like an Ameritash game with all the plastic figures.

Matt 103, Richard 90, Steve 89, Garry 78

19th July - Masters of Venice

We abandoned Masters of Venice after about 2hrs of painfull play.

That's the nicest thing I can say about it.

No scores

12th July - Age of Industry

I'm not a big fan of some of Martin Wallace's game, Age of Industry is alright but I'm still not convinced.

Garry 43 (tie-break), Richard 43, Steve 31

5th July - Havana and San Juan

I was away so Matt has written a really good report:
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You were in the Orkney Islands and Ben was directing planes so Steve, Richard and myself ate all the biscuits. First up:

Havana

First play for me and I sneaked in and got loads of points in a single turn, despite a concerted attempt to stop me. It wasn't what I expected at all and it certainly doesn't owe much to Cuba. I was a bit unsure if I liked it or not, so I suggested a rematch:

Matt 23, Richard 12, Steve 7

Closer this time. In an unprecedented move, Steve found himself in what he thought was a knigmaking position in that he could remove a building from play that either Richard or myself could build to win. Steve um'd and ah'd for a while (only a while? - Garry) and decided that he'd enabled Richard to win because I'd won the last game. then Richard sportingly pointed out that he thought that Steve wasn't in a kingmaking position as he could remove the building the Richard has his eye on and the other building that I could build scored only enough points to bring Richard to 19 rather than twenty. The upshot was that Richard talked Steve into removing the building that would have won him the game, then Richard built the building I was going to build and win with then it was my turn.

Richard's build action revealed another building that I had the resources to build- so I built that instead and won. I debated pointing this out to them whilst the ruminating was going on, but the brutal irony of Richard talking Steve out of helping him win was too funny to miss. I don't think I like Havana, there seems to be too much dog-piling the leader and AP about who will do this, so you should do that.

Matt 23, Richard 19, Steve 10

Then we played:

San Juan

I thought this would be closer than it was. Steve had a Harbour/Customs Office combo rolling and both he and Richard had Silver Smelters cooking from about turn 3. Fortunately for me, Steve built a Triumphal Arch without any other monuments which scored me points for Cathedral and didn't do much else. Result!

Matt 43, Richard 32, Steve 26

28th June - Paris Connection

Paris Connection, a trains and shares game bolied down to the minimum, plays in about 30 mins (in fact one game must have lasted around 10mins) So far I really like this, very easy to learn and play, but not easy to win.

1st Game
Richard 174, Steve 148, Garry 146, Matt 138

2nd Game
Richard 142, Steve 139, Matt 128, Garry 120

3rd Game
Garry 71, Matt 68, Steve 71, Richard 27

4th Game
Garry 150, Richard 114, Steve 97, Matt 92

Then a quick card game (that actualy took longer to play than Paris Connection) R-Eco

Richard 6, Matt 3, Garry 2, Steve 1