Raiders XI was a good one for me, not that any of them are bad but sometimes I don’t get to play as many games as I’d like, still I suppose that is true of us all, I managed to play a few new games and an old favourite.
We had quite a few people there, including a lot of new faces which was nice to see
despite the football and the lovely weather, not that I’m complaining about the weather of course
Zombie Dice was my first game, I had not played this before as the subject put me off a little, silly I know but I just don’t like them Zombies
Anyway, it’s a nice little dice game quick and fun.
The idea is you have dice with brains, gunshots and footsteps on them, you throw 3 dice and collect as many brains as you can, be wary of the gunshots you have to collect these too, if you throw 3 gunshots you loose all your brains, so you keep throwing 3 more dice from the supply (if you get footsteps you throw them again) until you decide not to risk getting any more gunshots and loose your brains. (keep score on a D12) The first one to 13 brains starts the last round where the other players have one more attempt to get as many as they can, then whoever has the most is the winner. Simples !
I played this with Arnu & Sam and even though Sam had an incredible score of 10 brains in one round at one point I snook ahead on the last round to win.
Settlers of Catan was the next one, Andy had bought it recently and was itching to thrash someone at it, we had a four player game Andy, Aidan, Vince and myself, the game started slowly as there was a shortage of clay I think to start, this was not helped by the number of sevens we were rolling, sheesh !! things improved later Vince managed to gain 2 points with the longest road at one point and I managed to upgrade my villages to towns when the wheat started to flow as I had a wheat port. It was a close game really and even Andy’s fortune’s improved, but I had an ace up my sleeve with a VP card and won in the end.
Next was Fresco, I sat in on Zarniwoop’s place while he had a break, we bought this recently and I really like it, it’s different in that you are trying to restore the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel piece by piece. After the first round turn order is determined by the time you get up in the morning to go to market, if you get there early you have first pick of the paints, if you lie in then your choice is limited as you can only visit one market stall each turn.
Next you pay to move the bishop if you want to (this gives you more VPs if he’s adjacent to the piece you restore) you then restore he fresco piece(s) and move the bishop to the space you uncover so he can admire your work.
Then you can earn money and then blend paints, because all the colours are not available you need to mix the ones you have to create the colours you need to restore all the pieces, [for example you trade a blue and yellow for a green] the last action is to determine turn order for the next round and collect your coin for the amount of pieces you have restored.
I’m sure I have missed some stuff out but that’s the basics. I played this with Andy, Matt and Colin.
Next was Montego Bay, Another fun game. Here you need to get your barrels from the quayside onto ships before they sail to gain the points available, you have a big dude and a little dude and you have a set of cards for each one numbered 1-5, this is your movement option each turn. You all choose the movement you want for each dude not knowing what everyone else will do, when all is revealed you may not end up in the position you wanted, therefore you may have barrels, you could get coins, you could also get broken barrels which means you loose them if you have any in the first place. Every one makes their move, this may displace other people but hey ho all fair in love and games !! the one with the most points wins obviously but it’s a real giggle getting there
Played with Andy, Colin and Zarniwoop, I think I was winning but just got beaten to the winning post on the last round.
I think the last game we played was Illium, I had not seen this before, Andy had just bought it and wanted to give it a try.
We were a group of archaeologists and needed to excavate sites to gain treasure to win points at the end, you had a deck of cards to determine how many dudes you can use each turn, these are placed on routes between the dig sites, whoever has the most influence once the route is complete chooses their treasure, you also have 3 blockers you can use to make the route safe for you to claim but you can only have these three in the whole game so tactical placement is very important.
You gain points for the most of one type of artifact and you also gain points for the number of sets of artefact's too, there are 5 types so if you have 3 sets of them you gain more points.
Played with Andy, Colin & Zarniwoop
Thank you all for your support once again and I hope to see you all and all your friends at the next event on the 25th of September........
cheers.
