Session Report for Friday, 05/05/2006

11 Players, 10 Games

---

High Society

(Drew, Tony, August, Roman, ADD_kid)

---

Loot

(Kevin K., Marshall, Kevin L.)

MarshallPhilips -

First time I've played Loot an older pirate themed game from Reiner Knizia. It's a quick filler game where you play pirates and are trying to steal the valuable cargo ships from other players while protecting your own cargo ships. It was good with three but it seems like it would get confusing with more players because you have to keep track of who played which pirates on what boats. Rumor is that there's a partnership version for more players.

---

10 Days in Africa

(August, Marshall)

MarshallPhilips -

I've been promising August to play 10 Days in Africa with him for about six months now and today was finally the day! 10 Days is about constructing a trip through African countries by moving between adjacent countries and by using cars and planes. First person to get a valid 10 day trip wins. It's a very good family game as it's quick and easy to play but there is some bit of strategy to it. Also, after a couple of games you'll have mastered African geography! See also: 10 Days in the USA and 10 Days in Europe.

---

Blokus

(Chris, Scott, ADD_kid, Kevin L.)

MarshallPhilips -

I swear I didn't beg out of this game just to avoid playing with the ADD_kid that was just a fortunate side effect.

---

Blokus

(Chris, Scott, ADD_kid, younger but much less ADD kid)

MarshallPhilips -

Kevin L. was the next to bail. I couldn't help but notice that the ADD_kid was blocked out awful early in this one.

---

Tower of Babel

(Scott, Chris, August, Marshall)

In this game the Trader card was making frequent appearences so I tried my contrarian strategy where I go for workers when everyone else is going for disks. This means I tried to not put the trader into my offers and I wasn't afraid to accept an offer with a Trader. I never really had the cards to follow this strategy with the kind of conviction required though. Unfortunately, the deck was relatively sorted to begin with and I didn't do enough shuffling so everyone had large runs of a single color. I think Scott ended up winning following a balanced strategy. Despite the shuffling problems I think the game was enjoyed overall because it keeps players constantly engaged, there're decisions to be made by all players on every turn.

---

Ra

(Scott, Chris, August, Marshall)

MarshallPhilips -

Ra has been really popular with the group lately getting played at virtually every session for quite a while. In this game I got really lucky in round 1 when all the other players had exhausted their Sun Tiles and there were two open Ra spots before the end of the round. I was able to push my luck all the way and fill up the board with useful tiles before claiming them and that windfall powered me to a victory though Scott made it close in the end.

---

Fury of Dracula

(Roman, Drew, Kevin K., Kevin L., Tony)

---

Fearsome Floors

(Roman, Drew, Kevin K., Kevin L., Tony)

---

Railroad Tycoon

(Scott, Marshall, August, Chris)

MarshallPhilips -

This was the first game of RRT for Scott, August and Chris.

I started my network in the Northeast and August contested me by building in the mid atlantic region. Scott and Chris overlapped in the Chicago area and parts south. August fell behind a little bit early on but was able to recover when he completed the Major line between Richmond and Atlanta. Scott built the rarely seen Western Link, turns out that was his objective for his Railroad Tycoon Card. Chris delighted in interfering with everyone else's plans. When I built some expensive track to get a delivery bonus to Toronto Chris shipped the necessary good out from under my nose even though it gave points to Scott! He also spoiled August's "longest continuous track" bonus in the end. In the I parlayed my experience and knowledge of the action cards into a victory. The other three players were tightly bunched indicating they'd all done pretty well figuring out the strategy. Next game with this group should be pretty interesting!

---

-- MarshallPhilips - 06 May 2006
to top