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Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
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We were 5. Richard arrived earlier than the other two, so we started with a game of King of Tokyo. The kids immediately headed upstairs to join us (they love helping with this game). I was doing well earlier on, but then Jennifer deserted me when it became clear I was going to be first out. The battle between the other two went on for a bit longer, before eventually it finished, just in time for Marion to arrive (James had arrived halfway through). The kids went off to play again, and we sat down for a 5 player game of Outpost. There was heavy competition for the data libraries early game, while the titanium strategy seemed largely uncompleted for once. I picked up a double Heavy Equipment and a nodule, and then spent a few turns increasing my income. The first buildings to drop included two Ecoplants, and I picked one of them up too, which meant when the Outposts did start arriving I had a 25 discount more than Sami (the other titanium player), and a slight edge on income too! Unsurprisingly I picked up two of them, while Sami got the other. James meanwhile was picking up all the Orbital Labs and his income was absolutely amazing, although his points were way behind. Marion was playing a fairly solid research strategy, but timing wasn’t working as well for her, and Richard’s income was lagging rather. Third age started, and James managed to get three large buildings in the first three rounds, with no-one else managing more than two, which was enough to win him the game. I was a fairly safe second, while the other three had to count carefully to see where they placed.
James chose Power Grid as the next game, and we rolled for the map, getting the Korea map. I bought the 1 power plant on the first turn, to Richard’s surprise, just to get me in a good position for the second round, and it worked for me, giving me a nice early burst. Richard meanwhile bought the first uranium plant to appear, which didn’t look a good buy at the time – but given that not a single other uranium plant appeared all game, turned out to be a really good choice, as late game his powering costs were very low. The mid-game was dominated by a huge number of plants in the 20s – at one point we had bought every plant from 19 up to about 28 I think, with nothing higher ever dropping. This meant that no-one had particularly efficient plants, and costs were high, and resources getting scarce. James and I in particular were taking it in turns to stay behind each other, just to get cheap resources, as the difference in position was huge! I was incredibly lucky with power plnants one turn, as I was first, put up a power plant that I really needed, but got out-bid as there was steep competition for it. I thought I was going to have a disaster, but a good plant appeared from the top. I got outbid again, but then another, and another kept appearing. I eventually bought the 5th plant to appear, at costs, and it was probably the best plant we’d seen all game – very much against the odds (there were 3 lower valued power plants in the deck that could have come out). As we hit Phase 2 I build houses to go ahead on houses too, and then the next turn built to 14 houses, with the ability to power 15 next turn. It looked like I was in a good position for the win, but unfortunately there was an oil shortage, and the other players (Sami in particular) conspired to make it impossible for me to buy the 2 oil I needed to power my third plant, so I was only powering 11. At one point it looked like that would be enough to net me second, with only Sami powering and owning 12 houses, and everyone else on 10 or less, but then Richard also built to 12 houses, so I decided to play for the extra round and see what happened (meanwhile I’d bought lots of coal, to hopefully stave off a coal shortage the next round!). I was very lucky with power plants, with a 6 renewable plant appearing, so that I had no resource worries, and could build and power to 17, which was way ahead of anyone else. Sami and James had a tied second place, but both had made mistakes on the last round which could have put one of them ahead of the other – James buying extra unused resources, and Sami a power plant he didn’t need, as he couldn’t afford to buy the extra house it helped him power.
After that it was time for an end-of-evening lighter game, and I chose Ave Caesar, always a favourite with 5. Marion started the first race with three 6s, and blew up only halfway into the first lap, and her game didn’t seem to get much better with subsequent races. I was only doing marginally better, but at least I finished most races, even if way behind. I can’t remember who finally won, but it was very close between the other three going into the last race.
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