|
Northern Westchester Boardgame Group - July Game Night
|
|
|
We had a good turnout this past Monday night. Fourteen people in all with a newcomer and a few faces we don't get to see all that often, as well a good number of regulars. Plenty of games were played and most of us were there right up until closing time. As usual, I brought more games than we could ever hope to play in 4 hours, but we did get through a few of them. Eight different games were played by the end of the night, a good mix of short filler games and longer meatier games. If I have gotten anything incorrect about Monday night's meeting, or if you have anything to contribute to the list, feel free. The session report from our previous Game Night can be found here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/32384Our next Game Night will be held on Monday, August 18th, same time and place. The exact address of the Barnes & Noble where we meet is 3089 East Main Street, Route 6, Mohegan Lake, NY 10547. So here is what was played at our last Game Night on July 21st.
|
|
|
Posted Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:38 pm
|
|
1.
Board Game: Hive
[Average Rating:7.41 Overall Rank:83]
|
|
|
|
Our newcomer, Leesa, arrived early so she and Chris played a game of Hive. This one is definitely pretty tough for someone who has never played (maybe we should have handicapped Chris by removing one or two of his pieces). Anyway, in the end Chris surrounded Leesa's Queen Bee (using his own Queen Bee, I might add) to win the game.
|
|
|
|
Then Bob showed up followed closely by Elliot and Ally so the five of them played this one. After one round Elliot only had a one point lead over Leesa (again, her first time playing the game). But after the second round, which Ally won, the final tally was:
Elliot 54
Ally 51
Leesa 47
Chris 47
Bob 40
|
|
|
|
Five more people had arrived by this point (Martha, Laura, Jay, Saloney and Zev) so we pulled out this game because it's really best with 5 or 6 players. We didn't use the Vexation expansion since some people were playing it for the first time.
I find this game to be a little less forgiving than TransAmerica. When you don't link up all your cities, often you've got more than a few missing tracks and the game can sometimes end after only 2 rounds. But that didn't turn out to be true, the scores stayed pretty low each round and the game lasted 4 or 5 rounds.
In the second to last round, we finally had some higher numbers of missing links and a bunch of us ended up on the 1 or 2 space so the end was imminent. Martha and Saloney were both pretty high up the score track so one of them was most likely going to win.
Well, I didn't finish first in the next round, Martha did, so I crossed the line triggering the end of the game and Martha didn't move at all, so she won with Saloney in a close 2nd.
|
4.
Board Game: Pandemic
[Average Rating:7.78 Overall Rank:23]
|
|
|
|
During our epic game of TransEuropa, the other game finished up and more people arrived so they split into two groups. Hal, Chris, Chris and Leesa played this one.
They played the Normal game with 5 Epidemic cards in the deck and they did pretty well, with only a few outbreaks and 3 out of 4 cures. But before they could cure that last one, the deck ran out and they lost the game.
Maybe if they'd had the Dispatcher, maybe if they'd focused a little more on Blue, maybe, maybe, maybe. Alas, the Game won.
|
5.
Board Game: San Juan
[Average Rating:7.46 Overall Rank:66]
|
|
|
|
In the meantime, Elliot, Ally, Fred and Bob played a game of San Juan. I don't know how it played out or who went for which strategy or which 6 buildings, but in the end the score looked like this:
Elliot 43
Fred 35
Ally 31
Bob 23
If anyone involved in that one has anything interesting to relate about how it went down, please do.
|
|
|
|
When TransEuropa finally ended, Jay and Zev split off and played this game. I would have been interested to check it out as well since I have heard good things about the game, but as it was I didn't catch any of the explanation of the rules or see any of the game play so I've got nothing to report except that Zev won.
|
|
|
|
Saloney, Martha, Laura and I played this one. I really like this game and it was everybody else's first time. The rules explanation didn't take too long, but there were a few glazed expressions along the way (mostly in regard to the symbols on the bottoms of the civilization cards and how they can add to your score at the end). Luckily everything in the game is open for everyone to see, so as new cards or huts were revealed I could explain what they did or what they were worth or what you needed to acquire them.
We started out pretty slow, but then we began to go through one of the piles of huts pretty fast, so the game ended sooner than I would have liked. My plan was to gather lots of tools, but there wasn't enough time, so I ended up with lots of tool multipliers, but not that many tools.
Saloney and Laura focussed more on huts. They just built and built and moved up the score track while Martha and I struggled to keep within some kind of striking distance.
In the end my civilization cards weren't enough to do it for me and Saloney ended up with the win. She and Laura were pretty close, but Saloney's 3x huts card put her soundly ahead. I don't remember the exact scores but they were something like this:
Saloney 122
Laura 103
David 91
Martha 76
|
|
|
|
After the other games finished up and some of the people left, those who remained and weren't playing Stone Age pulled out this quickie and played four games. I think it was Zev, Leesa, Chris, Hal and Chris (but I may be forgetting someone).
Leesa (again, her first time playing) won 2 of the games. And I don't know who won the other 2 (help me out someone).
This is always a nice way to finish out the night, a few quick games of No Thanks!
|
|
|
Posted Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:18 pm
