March 25, 2009

Participants: Jon, Gili, Heschel, Nadine

Heschel contacted me this week and dropped by for his first game night. He's played Ticket to Ride and some other light fare, but not Settlers of any of the other Euros. He's a good Chess player, however.

Dominion

Jon 43, Nadine 30, Gili 26, Heschel 20

Second time for me playing with a non-coddling game set. Our kingdoms: Festival, Spy, Remodel, Bureaucrat, Moat, Cellar, Woodcutter, Moneylender, Adventurer, Feast.

Festival was first to go. We all struggled to build engines that would get to 8, but most of us kept managing to get only to 7, most of the time. As a result, the second card to go was Duchy. Which didn't help any, of course. Nadine ended the game by buying out the Estates; there were 2 Provinces left.

I had a few more Festivals, and therefore had a little more luck with the treasures and got 4 of the Provinces, and several Duchys. I had a few Moats, but never got to play them, even to protect myself against attacks. Heschel had a good hand going but turned to buying victories too late.

Amun Re

Jon 40, Nadine 33, Gili 29, Heschel 25

First play for Heschel; I'm sad he didn't place better on his first games, but first games are a learning experience, after all.

Money never went over 2 in any round, and most rounds it was only 1. That's because I got the 8-camel province in the first round. Nadine was leading 20 to Heschel 13, Jon 12, Gili 6 at the end of the first eon, but I had more cash due to caravans.

I was able to snap up all the best pyramids on one side in the next three rounds: first round due to most cash, second due to a card blockade, and third round from simply being willing to spend the most.

Nadine and Gili politely conspired to share the maximum pyramid bonus on one side of the Nile, while I took the other.

Fairy Tale

Gili 51, Nadine 38, Jon 36, Heschel 28

I concentrated on one of the 3/*3 sets, which didn't do too badly for me in the end, but Gili made me flip a few cards, and then hunted one of my last ones, too. It was a struggle. Meanwhile, Gili had a set of 5 squares, and a 3 square, as well as a 9 point "most of" and some other stuff. Nadine had a number of "most of"s as well. Heschel had some, too, but none of his panned out.

Once again, I felt that the game gets better each time I play. But I still really want to add Cosmic powers and flares and stuff.