by Karl Bown
Eight of us for boardgames today, along with the Cardfight and Yu-Gi-Oh players who seem to make most of the noise :-)Five of us were there to start with so we kicked off with a few rounds of Guillotine, a recent addition to my collection but one I've played many times in the past. Always fun seeing people screw each other over and a good fast game when you've got 15-20 minutes to fill.
By the time we'd nearly done the others had arrived so we split into two groups of four. I'd managed to get one of the guys Terra Mystica earlier in the week so he was pretty keen to get a game of that going. I stayed with the younger guys to play Puerto Rico. This is an all time great which never fails to entertain. I was getting lots of shipping in, and trying to be as efficient as possible in stopping my opponents shipping anything, but I just couldn't get the money coming in. This meant I never had enough to get a 10 point building, and great play by Andrew and Alex meant I came a lowly third behind those two, despite Alex never having seen the game before, and me probably playing it more times than the rest of them put together. I think we're gradually pushing up the level of play in the group and I might be getting too old now :-)
Just as we finished that Terra had finished as well, and I was was keen to give it a go Rob came over to join my group while I went to play Terra. They played DC Deckbuilding game, another regular favourite and one which is very easy to get new players into. Meanwhile I was being taught Terra Mystica. At first it seemed quite overwhelming, lots of different options each turn, and the unique factions meant you couldn't just try and see what your opponents were doing and copy them, you had to tread your own path (which is an excellent design mechanism). After a couple of turns I'd got a decent handle on the game - though I pretty much avoided using the cult tracks as it was my first game and there was a lot to take in - and I was in the lead for quite a couple of turns despite the others having already had a game and I felt I was doing reasonably ok as the Halflings. However as we turned the halfway point it was clear that a couple of the guys had a much better long term idea of what to do and they passed me on the penultimate turn. I ended up third though which I was pretty pleased about. It's an excellent game and I'm really looking forward to going at it again and trying the different races to see how to get the best out of them. Ver tempted to pick up a copy from the shelves for myself (if my wife doesn't notice that is!)
After that a couple of the guys asked if they could have a go at the copy of Wings of War I'd brought as part of my plan to tempt people into playing more wargames (it's working my precious....) and the rest of us, plus one latecomer jumped into a seven player game of Citadels to finish off the day. I have played this dozens, if not hundreds, of times and knew what a cracker it is, but everyone else was new to it. Of course, they all loved it, it's just devious enough with the Assassin and Thief to allow you to get at people but without ever knowing if you're picking the right target so there's no correct play each turn. Lots of fun and a few of us got to seven buildings but Gareth topped it with the full eight, and the win!
A great day, new games for most people and everyone had a good time. New (and old, I'm twice as old as the rest of them) players are always welcome at our Saturday club in Lincoln.