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6th April 04.....................................................4 Players

Four of us turned up for tonight’s session. No sign of Dave C and Ben? Mike is on his hols and Steve is attending a quiz night.

San Juan – 90 minutes

Second week in a row we have played the card version of Puerto Rico. It is Mike and my third game following the 2 player game we player at the weekend. Dave was winning from mid game on. He made good use of the Library and got big points via the 6 point cards. Daniel took well to the game and has encouraged me to buy the game myself. I took a trip to Waylands this afternoon and now I have my own copy. I obviously like San Juan but I don’t consider it to be as great a game as its parent Puerto Rico. I hope SJ does not take play time away from PR.

Sherlock Holmes – 40 minutes

There is a bit of an “emperor’s new clothes” thing going on with the rest of the group and me over this game. I really don’t get why you all like it so. I don’t think it plays very smoothly (lots of halts while we figure what location we are in), the black and white cards are not exciting, there is practically no skill required to play and at the end of each round play stops while we add up our points and keep a pencil and paper record of the running totals. Some games I am less inclined towards but I can appreciate why others like them but this game I simply don’t get. Although I don’t follow why it is so, I do enjoy the pleasant atmosphere the game seems to evoke within the group.

13th April 04.....................................................4 Players

Sorry I missed last nights meeting I was in the midst of the car journey from hell, 8 hours to get from Blackpool back to Sutton! It sounds from Dave’s report that you had a good game of Vinci. I hope Simon enjoyed himself and will come again. It would be nice if you could pass me your brother’s e-mail address Steve so he can get included on the circulars.

I have been playing a lot of Ticket to Ride over Easter which is another good game from Alan Moon. Maybe a touch light for a Tuesday night for its 60 – 90 minute game length.

Vinci – 140 minutes

Dave Dudley's summary:
Four of us last night (and Ben), Steve came along with Brother Simon and the game of the night was Vinci. It was only when I was sitting at home afterwards and was musing on the fact that everyone was only on their second empire at the end of the game that I realised we’d played to 100 points, when it should have been 120 for 4 players (still it was agreed at the beginning and the game was close, also I’m not sure we’d have finished going to 120, it being about 10:15 at the end).

Simon went into an early lead with his empire of specialist slavers, but was pegged back by Steve (Mining, Medicine) and myself (Currency, Port Building) so we were very close at the time the declining started. It was at this point that I think Steve waited too long, after Dave came in with a revolution in the mountains which split Steve in two. Dave made good use of Heritage here and his old and new empires intermingled to such an extent that it was important to keep an eye on where the decline markers went. After this Steve held on another turn, unwilling to lose the income from his mines and I came in from the east on my next turn with a new empire (Fortification, Slavery). It was at this point that I was able to get into the lead with a better change over between empires. Simon caused a lot of damage rampaging about with Field General and Ship Building, but was not able to match his early game points. Steve was catching up at the end with Fortification and messages, but could not quite make it before the end.

Switzerland in Beige was left undisturbed throughout the game.

20th April 04....................................................5 Players

Kremlin – 140 minutes

Dave has been bringing Kremlin along to the club for what seems like months and finally we played it. We had to call the game because we ran out of time. I suspect if we had played the game to its conclusion we would have been playing for another 90 minutes at least. It made for a pleasant romp.

Playing Kremlin reminds me that we need additional members so we can more often split into 2 groups. I am sure the Dave’s and Mike got more out of Kremlin than Peter and me. I know they have many more old games which they would like to play, games that hold fond memories for them. I think game preference is like music preference. You have a soft spot for the music/games you first experienced with passion. So for music that is generally your teenage years. I think Dave’s and Mike’s golden gaming years were the 80’s. I guess Peter, Steve and I are more based in the present.

Now I have been introduced to Kremlin, I don’t want to waste the learning experience. I would like to give it another go. With 4 players who know the rules the game should just about finish within a session.

27th April 04.....................................................4 Players

Oasis – 90 minutes  bgg

This was everyone’s first playing of this game. Dave did a good job of explaining the rules. None of us had a problem with the mechanics of the game but we were all floundering over the best way to play. I can’t see that Dave played differentially to the rest of us but his final score was shockingly low. I would feel happier if I could see a way of avoiding the thrashing Dave received. Dave’s misfortune aside, this seemed like a good medium weight game which we will probably get down to a 1 hour play time now we know the rules.

Guillotine – 20 minutes

Steve went into an early lead after day one which did mean he got picked on. Dave took over the lead on day 2 and held it through to the end of the 3rd day. He took the accolade of the most respected Guillotine operator. What a fun game.

Dave Dudley is the winner of the Trophy for April. Well done again Dave. You got two good victories earlier in the month playing Vinci and San Juan.

Average attendance this month 4.25

Trophy

Trophy points are calculated separately for each game played by multiplying the game length in minutes by the number of participants and dividing that figure by a player’s final position. All player’s points go back to zero at the end of each month.