Weds Night - Not at Spirit

[Zarniwoop]

So, we regrouped round our place to fill in for losing out at gaming at the shop.

We started out with Incan Gold which was a very quick starter game for all six of us. I really like this game it's good fun and plays really well with any number of players, Carole won this won comfortably. Played this time picking up the cards after each exploration is over (as suggested on boardgamegeek.com) not sure about this, I may prefer the way we played it first time, leaving the already dealt cards down. Need more plays of both to see what makes for a more consistent game.

We then split up into two 3 player games, myself, Richard and Carole played Powergrid always a favourite. After spending all my money in several rounds manged to get a decent combo of Powerstations with 17 cities being able to power 14 which won me the game (only the 2nd time I've managed this!)

Finally we played a game of Dominion which I also really like, we played a random deck which produced some interesting new cards I have not played before. Richard managed a killer combo of village, council room and militia meaning if we did not manage a moat in our hands we were getting extra cards just to throw them away   
In the end it was a victory to Richard but I cam a respectable 2nd.

Thanks to everyone who popped round it was fun and good company.

See you at the Shop next week...

[carldjcross]

Better late than never...

While Phil was off irresponsibly whizzing round corners on two wheels Carol and Paul kindly opened their house up to us for our weekly boardgame fix.

We all started off together with Incan Gold which has natty cardboard tents that I briefly thought were place settings. Perfect for a quick game while you wait or settle in it didn't outstay it's welcome and whetted our appetites for the main event.

For us this was Philsy's Ideology: the War of Ideas. Playing very much like a cut down Twilight Struggle (...and not Imperium as I said on the night...) would be megalomaniacs take on the mantle of an ideology (capitalism, fascism, imperialism or soviet style communism) and do their best to spread their influence around the world.

Countries can be wooed by cultural, diplomatic or plain old military means and each country naturally specialises in at least one of these. The actual policies are simply played as cards with the most cards winning the country.

The game has a very “take-that” rapid fire feel with the players being forced to fight over the small number of territories on offer.

We all fell in to our respective roles: Philsey spreading his superior US culture (Hannah Montana presumably), Frog his British stiff upper lipped Empire and my glorious armies liberating them both from all such concerns. Until that is I overstretched myself and allowed Frog to steal two (count 'em, two) countries from under my nose winning the game at a stroke. Oh well I guess the good guys won in the end.

Thanks to Paul and Carol for allowing us all to sit at their tables, drink their coffee and scare their neighbours.