Bunte Runde

Since we were waiting for Nick to show up, we started off with a light filler. It played quick enough that we played it twice in a row.

Risk Express

And since Nick had still not showed up we started another light filler. This time, it was risk express. For some reason, Jon decided to sit out this game.

Ra

About now, we decided to give up on Nick and play Ra. It is definitely a great game and always plays differently.

Phoenicia

To finish up the night, I was able to get in a five player game of Phoenicia. This is the first time that I have played with five people. Usually, it is just with three. In this game, I chose to go after Mining instead of Cloth making. I passed on the first two forts and was able to get the last fort for cost. And I was able to secure a Granary for two extra store-houses (which I needed since I wasn’t going after Cloth making). With available workers and the mining card secured, I concentrated on building up my economy. Fortunately, there were no cards that I needed. Jon was off to a great start. However, instead of building up his economy, he decided to buy different cards. Mike had mining as well, but he took a time-out to buy Cloth making as well.

Once I got my economy up to six income cards, I turned my sites to victory points. I bought two city centers and one city wall for the win.

Dampfross

Ed pulled out Dampfross, a old (25 year old) train game. This game uses dice in a number of ways. The first way was somewhat useless. The start player rolls a six-sided die and builds that long of rail. Everyone else builds one after the other and then play passes to the left. This continues until all but three cities have been connected. The first player to connect to any city gets 6 dollars.

Next was the random and painful part of the game. Two cities are picked and a race is run from one to the other. Everyone who joins the race rolls two dice and moves their train that many spaces. So, you had better roll well or miss out on any rewards. The most painful aspect of this game is that it is possible that both the start and end cities will be your own and very close together. Other people who use your track only pay 1 dollar per hex up-to a maximum of ten. So, if the cities are 3 hexes away and two other people join, it is possible that you can lose the race and receive 6 dollars, the second place person will receive 7 dollars, and the first place person will receive 17.

This actually happened three times in our game to Dave. Another slightly less painful occurance is if there is a track where two people have to pay equal amounts (or even relatively equal) to run the race, then it is random whether you win or the other person wins. This happened to me a couple of times. And it sucks because the vast majority of the track was owned by me.

Darjeeling

Next up was Darjeeling, which was a game I wanted to try at BGG.con. I was glad to try it at Ed’s since a couple of people in my group are against playing it again. I liked the first playing of it. It seems like a good lunchtime game candidate.

Age of Steam: Golden Spike

John expressed interest in playing this team version of Age of Steam. So I did everything possible to make this happen. Including getting John to walk off the start up of Hamburgum. After reading the rules, Ed and I decided to be on opposite teams and each take one of the other newbies as their teammate. However, it seems that we misunderstood how the teams were formed. Because Ed (who started third) chose to build track on the same side that I had made us partners.

We played half the game before we noticed this mistake. Here I was helping John out by giving him advice and not taking Urbanization from him. I was also hosing Ed at every opportunity.

I made a critical error during this game. I noticed that Dave was within striking distance of Promontory. But it was through three mountain hexes and therefore expensive. I told Ed this but we both ignored it and continued playing. What we should have been doing was delivering cubes to cities along the main route. This would have connected us to Promontory.

I think Dave did the wrong thing by ending the game without making sure he would win. John had built much more track than he did thanks to owning all of the track along the main route. This gave him the win.

Risk Express

John had a game day because his family was away in Georgia. We started off with Risk Express. Which is a new and light dice game by Knizia. Oddly, this game was not sold in America. I had to ask Marty to get one of his cow-orkers to buy it in England and take it across the pond. Which is sad. There is no reason why this game would not sell as well as Monopoly Express which is already being sold here. Anyways, I like this game. It is quick, light, and thematic.

Amyitis

Next up was Amyitis. John and I explained the game to Ed and Susan. But they missed out on a high-level overview of the mechanics and strategy. And that is because I don’t have one yet. There are a number of routes to score points and they don’t really mesh well. I went for progress along the victory point generation and I mostly ignored trying to finish gardens or concentrate on the temples either. Towards the end of the game, I was getting 10 victory points a turn. And it was enough to get first place.

Attika

We finished up with a quick game of Attika. This is still a decent game. And it probably should be played slightly more often than it is. But, its hard to grab our attention when there are so many games out there to pick from.