Weekend Gaming: Trains, Wonders, and More

The usual crew of Joe, Kevin, Louis, Gina, and I were joined by Fr. Sean for games this Saturday.  He was a real trooper, learning three new games and picking them up quite quickly.

We started off with Chicago Express.  I spent probably too much and bought into the Red line first.  It worked alright, as Fr. Sean and I were able to get it to Chicago first and it had a very strong showing.  The problem was that I was only able to get the one share, while Fr. Sean picked up two.  This gave him too strong of a position on the board, and while I was helping myself I did more to help him.  Gina and Joe were doing well, being the only players in Blue and Green respectively, while Louis and Kevin were both working in Yellow.  The strong position of Red was the deciding factor in the game, and Fr. Sean took the win.

We followed that with 7 Wonders.  I had Giza and I made the mistake of not ensure I had access to any paper resources.  This meant that I was unable to finish my wonder or many of the other strong cards I was passed.  Both Gina and Louis next to me had very strong Science collections, and while the game was close, Louis’ science propelled him to the victory.

Next up was Dominion.  We played with the Underlings set from the Intrigue set.  We thought Louis was going to run away with the game when he started comboing Festivals into multiple Witches each turn, but I was able to swing things slightly with Masquerades to pass Louis some Curses.  Louis also slower down late in the game as his deck became less efficient, allowing Joe time to get his engine working and pick quite a few Provinces.  When we finished, Joe had the lead, despite the nine curses he had received.

After that, Fr. Sean called it a night and headed home, so the rest of us finished up with Glen More.  I was picking up a ton of tiles trying to use an annual fair, but not really optimally.  Louis had very few tiles and a bunch of whiskey that he turned into Taverns later in the game for quite a few points.  Kevin had the best town, though.  He had bonus points for his villages and was selling goods throughout the game.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Another Birthday Bash

We headed out of town this weekend to celebrate Laura’s birthday over the weekend.  Joe, Phil, and Dana also joined in on the festivities.  On Friday night, after the majority of the party had quieted down, we started in with the board games.  Gina and I showed up while they were finishing up 7 Wonders.  We then setup Trajan and Agricola.

Gina played Agricola with Phil, Nick, and Laura.  I played Agricola with Dana and Joe.  I had intended to use wheat to feed my family and then gather sheep to take advantage of my loom.  Sadly that didn’t pan out.  I never got the wheat rolling, and ended up using my Manufacturer to get the Joinery and Pottery cheaply to help feed my meager family.  Joe and Dana were both grabbing sheep, so I missed out on them.

Joe and Dana both managed to fill their farms, but Joe had played a ton of Improvements for points.  I managed to score 33, but Joe ended up with the win.

While the others finished Trajan, we played a quick game of Dominion.  We had a fairly expensive selection of cards, but the 6 Gold Village that gives another card when it is purchased was available, so that and the Highway went very quickly.  Joe was using the Highways to get a couple Provinces, but wasn’t drawing many cards, so it was hard to sustain.  I had picked up a couple Margraves, so it took a little longer to get my engine running.  It got rolling, though, and I was able start getting points, and even managed a couple multiple Province turns with extra buys.  That was enough to take the victory.

We finished the night with Cards Against Humanity.  Everyone had a blast, and while I only won a few hands, it was entertaining all around.

On Saturday, Gina and I finally went to see Guardians of the Galaxy.  It was awesome all around.  I loved the characters, the special effects, and the music.  I can’t wait to see it again.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Dominion, Lancaster, and Manhattan Project

Kevin and Joe joined Gina and I for games Saturday.  Gina was busy, so the rest of us started things off with a game of Dominion.  Joe got to buying Colonies early using his Gold and Banks, but cooled off a bit as Kevin started getting his money flowing.  I had been buying Cities and Trade Routes early, but I was having difficulty getting my engine going.  Once a pile was emptied, though, my cities took off and propelled me through my deck repeatedly.  I was able to buy multiple Colonies and Provinces at a time and ended the game with a dominant 86 points.

Gina joined us then for Lancaster.  I decided to ignore my castle and focused on fighting in the wars again France and upgrading my knights.  Kevin and Gina had much more upgraded castles, while Joe had a bunch of low level knights early.  They all seemed to be working together better and were rewarded with Laws that benefit them much more than me.

By the end, though, I was able to leverage my high level knights to score quite a few points in the battles and took the 6 point county.  I also was rewarded for having one of each level knight, thanks to some well timed laws and help from Kevin.  With the strongest army, I was able to overtake Joe for the lead and Kevin wound up taking second.

Gina headed to bed, while Joe and Kevin stuck around for a game of The Manhattan Project.  I had intended to focus on Uranium bombs, but when a bunch of Plutonium reactors and nice bombs were available, I had to switch plans.  I bought a couple nice Universities, paying $14 for the one that provided three scientists for one.  I also had the only efficient source of yellow cake – two engineers for four cake.  There was some espionage late, but not enough to really slow me down once I had built and tested a small bomb and then finished with two larger ones to get the 60 points needed.  Kevin wasn’t far behind with Joe bringing up the rear.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Cards, Castles, and Caverna

It’s been a busy week of gaming around here.  I played Tigris and Euphrates and Kingdom Builder with Joe, Louis, and Ben – a guy who found us via BoardGameGeek – on Wednesday.  Then Thursday Joe, Gina, and I played Agricola.

Ryan was going to join Joe, Gina, and I on Friday, but he was running a bit late, so we played Dominion while we waited.  Joe got off to an early start with his Bishop, while Gina kept hitting us with Witches.  I eventually got an engine running with Laboratories, but even though I bought a bunch of Provinces I was still a couple points short of Joe.

When Ryan arrived we played Castle of Burgundy.  It was a pretty even game throughout.  Ryan pulled ahead early with animals, but we all managed to catch up eventually.  I picked up a couple of bonus point tiles and managed to get five of the estates for a big bonus.  I also had a large shipment of the purple goods pushing me well into the lead.

Gina was out of town Saturday,  so it was just Louis, Joe, and I.  Again we kicked things off with Dominion, and  I managed to win both games we played.  The first was dominated by Louis’ Saboteur, but I was able to work around it using Goons to score points.  I also had some Ventures that provided enough money to pick up a few Duchies.  The second game got a bit ridiculous.  We had two different Villages and a bunch of plus-draw and buy cards.  At one point I had so many buys that I was able to buy a Province and six free Peddlers on the same turn.  A few turns later I bought the remaining four Peddlers.  At that point I was able to consistently buy two Provinces at a time, and the game quickly ended.

Kevin showed up at this point and we played Caverna.  I grabbed the Office early and was using it to get as many tiles as I could.  It was taking quite a bit of work, so I was glad that I was able to get a dwelling and then the Couple’s Dwelling fairly early, and by the end of the sixth round I had a full family.  Feeding them was a bit of a challenge, but eventually I managed to get some vegetable farming going and shortly thereafter a herd of boars.  Kevin was also following the full family path, concentrating on his farm and maximizing a single dwarf in the questing.

Both Louis and Joe only had two dwarves throughout the game.  They were both using the questing spots for strong gains.  Joe had monopolized the sheep, ending the game with twenty of them, while Louis was gathering rubies and ore for bonus points.

The difference in the game ended up being the tile that provided me with bonus points for veggies and wheat that I picked up in the last round.  I received twelve points from that and ended up beating Louis by eight.  The differences in scores was interesting, as Kevin came in last with his full family, with Louis and Joe – with only two dwarves each – came in second and third.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Most everyone here was busy for the holiday, but Joe and Terrell were available Saturday evening for some Dominion.  We ended up playing three games and I lost all three.

The first was a longer game with no way to reduce the card in the deck.  Terrell had bough the Mountebank and was filling Joe’s and my deck with coppers and curses.  Joe actually ended up winning, though, as he had managed to make the most out of his Monument.

The second game featured heavy use of the Masquerade and Minion cards.  I kept losing good hands to the Minion and even had to pass a couple stronger cards to Terrell because of the Masquerade.  Joe managed to win that one as well.

The final game was dominated by Joe’s Saboteur.  It actually didn’t get many of my important cards, but it made things difficult.  I was trying to buy up Nobles and Harems and used the Mint to collect Harems as well.  I completely ignored the Bishop, though, and both Terrell and Joe were collecting points with it.  Terrell was somehow able to get a bunch of money and spent a couple straight turns buying Provinces.  He ended up losing two Provinces to Joe’s Saboteur, but still managed to win overall.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Cards and More

Louis, Kevin and I kicked Saturday off with Terra Mystica.  Louis was playing the Giants, I had the Halflings and Kevin the Merfolk.  With only three players, it was tougher to build next to each other, but we all managed to cluster in the upper center of the board with our initial buildings.  I was the first to get a town, with a Sanctuary and two trading posts.  Once I got that completed, I went to work digging in the lower right of the board.  Kevin had taken control of the fire and water cults, while I had my hands in air and earth.  Louis had built a decent lead, but I was able to catch up.  My expansion was able to challenge Kevin for largest empire, but I was one short.  I thought I could keep him out of the lead in both earth and air, but ended up losing out in air anyways.  That effort cost me a couple points from not building my last dwelling, and Kevin beat me by three points.

Dana, Gina and Joe joined us, and we busted out Dominion, with the Intrigue and Prosperity expansions.  I was the first to buy an Expand and proceeded to use it to transform many of my Estates into Duchies, and further.  My deck worked quite well, with a King’s Court providing a couple extra expansions.  I managed to finish the game with three Colonies, only one of which I had actually purchased.  My 41 points was enough for the win.

We followed that up with 7 Wonders.  I thought I was doing well with science, picking up four compasses, four tablets and a gear, but I missed out on the clay needed to get my third wonder entry.  Louis was next to me, and he was grabbing all of the Civilian cards available.  He finished with 40 points just from that, and another 18 from military.  He won with a solid 71 points.

Louis and Dana took off, but the rest of us stuck around for one last game of Eminent Domain.  I focused heavily on military, while the rest mostly were colonizing.  There was a lot of surveying as well, especially by Joe who was trying to survey and colonize as much as possible, while trashing as many cards as he could.  All of their surveying helped me get a decent number of planets, so I could focus on warfare and research.  I ended up with six colonized planets and a level two research card.  I ended the game relatively quickly with the last survey card, so my 19 points was just enough to get the victory.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Family Clash

Gina was out for a “girl’s night” Friday, so Joe and Louis joined me for a games.  We started things off with Clash of Cultures.  No one was being terribly militaristic, so we were pretty much free to develop as we wanted.  My starting objective was to get all four Economics advances, so I pushed for taxation quickly.  I had a bunch of small settlements in a clump while I also developed towards Nationalism to get mood tokens for building armies.  This didn’t quite work as I planned, and I ended up with a bigger focus in the Education group.  Louis was nearly completely walled off with water, but started pushing armies toward Joe, defeating barbarians along the way.  Joe and I both managed to build Wonders, but it was Louis who ended up winning.  He had a ton of medium sized cities, a bunch of advances to go along with a full set of completed objectives.

Louis had to take off, so Joe and I broke out The Manhattan Project.  Joe decided to airstrike my stuff early and often, so I countered by spying heavily.  I rarely allowed him access to his buildings and he had the best access to the limited selection of mines.  I was able to get two uranium bombs with an early bomb design, and then built one quickly.  By then, things were shaping up well for my game, while Joe was just starting to get his plutonium production rolling.  Joe was able to get a small bomb built and then tested, and finished building his second a few turns after I had my second.  By then, though, I had another uranium bomb in the works and Joe couldn’t slow me enough.  I was able to build it and then it just took another couple turns to gather the resources to load it for the last five points and the win.

Gina was home by then, so we played a quick game of Dominion with no expansions.  When I bought a Chapel early, they knew what I was up to, and tried to quickly end the game.  I was able to get my engine rolling, though, with Villages, Markets, a Council Room and a couple gold.  By then I was able to play the entirety of my minuscule deck for 11 coin each turn and proceeded to pick up a Province and Cellar each turn.  The Cellars kept things working smoothly, and I was able to quickly rack up the Providences.  Even with that, things were close.  Joe and Gina had an early start, buying Duchies and Provinces along with me.  I did end up winning, with 36, beating their 34 and 33.

Then Saturday night, Joe and Phil joined us for another game of Clash of Cultures.  Again it was a fairly peaceful game.  I went straight for Economic Liberty and a size 5 city.  Joe was headed for a heavily Trade focused strategy with boating, and Phil was pushing for Taxation.  Gina was a little less focused, but did build a bunch of temples and Theocracy advances.  Phil and Gina switched gears part way and started building armies to go after Joe for some reason.  I had built some fortresses to dissuade Gina from attacking me, and it seemed to work.  Joe ended up with a single city, but was still able to pull in a ton of resources with Trade Routes and Cartography.  He somehow managed to build three wonders in his single city before we realized that wasn’t legal by the rules.  While this was going on, I had two wonders built in my two major cities, with enough armies to defend them for once.  Phil ended the game on my doorstep, but decided against trying for the attack.  The win was mine, with a solid 46 points.

The final game of the weekend was Dixit with my family after an early Thanksgiving’s day celebration.  I had been trying to get them to play for ages, and we finally had the chance.  Everyone loved it, and my mother already is asking for more new picture cards.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Halloween Party

This weekend, Nick and Laura were in town visiting for our annual Halloween Party.  Friday night we played Dominion, The Manhattan Project and Lords of Waterdeep with them.

Dominion was fun to get to the table again.  I thought I had a plan for the random set of cards, but it never really worked out.  I ended up getting beat badly.

I redeemed myself in The Manhattan Project, though.  I was able to grab two Universities early, and then set myself up for some nice Plutonium gains.  After I had tested one bomb and built a second, Nick and Laura tried to bomb me into submission, but didn’t do quite enough to stop my engine.  I grabbed the last Plutonium needed and finished off my third bomb for the win.

We finished the night with Lords of Waterdeep.  I was doing well early, completing a couple big Commerce quests.  I thought I had things locked up, until Laura hit me with a mandatory quest slowing me down just enough.  Nick managed to pick up just enough to finally complete his 25 point quest, launching him into the lead at the end.

 

Then, Saturday night the real festivities took place.  Things were so busy, I completely forgot to get any pictures.  Joe, Jaime, Ryan, Laurel, and Louis all joined us and we started things off with The Restance with Gina, Nick, Ryan, Laurel, Louis and I.  Nick and I were spies and we played it pretty much perfectly.  Nick lulled them in with the first quest, and then after plenty of deliberation about who the spies were, I was able to finish the Resistance off in the fifth mission.  The  second game added Laura and Joe to the mix.  Laura, Joe and I were the spies and we screwed up royally, with all three of us selected for the third mission and contributing “Falied” cards.  The Resistance knew what was up at that point, and the spies couldn’t recover.

We followed that up with Dixit.  Since we had so many people, we ended up playing as teams.  I was paired with Ryan, and it was obvious from the start that we were terrible storytellers.  Luckily we were decent at guessing the right picture and submitting pictures that others thought was the right one.  We managed to stay competitive, but finished a couple points short, losing to the team of Joe and Laura.

Ryan and Laurel took off at that point, so the rest of us played Shadows over Camelot.  I was doubting Joe’s loyalty early, while the deck was coming up with a ton of Excalibur cards, failing that quest quickly.  Gina and I made a lat of headway towards the Holy Grail, while Nick went out to win glory in a tournament bout.  Louis and Joe were also helping by beating up on some Saxons.  Jaime had planned to help with Excalibur, but didn’t get there in time and instead was needed to use her ability to defeat siege engines.  Things were looking pretty good for us, though the siege engines were piling up.  No one was an obvious traitor, though Joe was a favorite target of suspicion.  After whittling down the number of siege engines and finishing the Grail quest, we were only two swords away from winning.  Gina completed a tournament bout, and the Lancelot quest failed, providing us the last two swords and the victory for everyone., as there were no traitors.

Joe and Jaime had to go and Gina was tired, so Nick, Laura, Louis and I finished the night of with Dominion.  It ended up being a very expensive, but money heavy game.  We had to get to six coin to really get things rolling.  Laura and Louis had trouble, while I was able to work a Loan and Moneylender into Hoards and eventually a Bank.  Once I was able to rid myself of some copper, I was able to get into the Grand Markets and then things really took off.  Nick was doing well too with a bigger focus on Platinum.  We were matching each other pretty evenly with Provinces and Colonies, but I had the last action, picking up a Province and the last Estate.  I took the victory by about 8 points over Nick.

Until next time, happy gaming!

 

Weekend Gaming: Snow Day!

Saturday night started off with Louis, Kevin, Gina and I playing Thurn and Taxis.  I started off well by picking up the purples, but then slowed down.  Because of the cards available I decided to try to grab all of the central gray areas in one route.  I did manage to do it, but there was some slowdown when two of the locations didn’t turn up when I’d hoped.  Kevin ended the game with a big run through gray, but it was Louis with the most points at the end.

Joe and Dana had joined us at this point, so we broke out 7 Wonders. I wanted to go with science, but I never do well with that tactic. I ended up working with military and commercial. Joe was to my left and he had no military, but Dana had played a few so I actually had to work foot my victories. Louis on the other hand was able to maximize his military points with only two cards. The rest he spent on blue card picking up a ton of points. He also scored a bunch of points with a couple of guilds. He ended up with over 70 points and the win.

Dominion was next. The first game had a bunch of extra actions available but no extra buys. Everyone had a ton of money but could only get one card a turn. Platinum was very popular and I was having a tough time buying cheap cards because it seemed like a waste of the money in my hand. I eventually got a Minion engine running, but it was too late. Louis had been running Villages and Labs for a bunch of money and had the early lead on Colonies. He earned a big win in yet another game.

Another game of Dominion followed, but it was harder to get money. Joe was stocking up on King’s Courts, but rarely had anything to pair them with. Thieves were very popular, but they actually ended up helping Louis and I thin ours decks. I was trying to use the Forge to get Colonies, but rarely had the right combination of cards. Again Louis had the right idea using King’s Courts to triple Markets for big money. He was buying points left and right and ended with yet another win.

Dana and Louis took of at this point, so the rest of launched into a game of Agricola.  I had a decent grain/bread engine going for food, but I had little else.  Joe managed to pull the bookshelf and the occupation that gives food if other players randomly select which one to play.  This provided him tons of food just for doing a normal action.  He managed to easily fill his farm and maximize his family for the win.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Relaxing

Gina and I played Hawaii and Race for the Galaxy Friday night.  In Hawaii, I was trying to be efficient and only bought a single side two fruit.  I was getting good deals and had quite a bit of fruit, but I really didn’t have enough goods each round and I still failed to meet the target at the end of a few rounds.  Gina, on the other hand, was playing with Spear Huts.  She was regularly picking up around 10 points each turn, and I just could catch up.  I did come close, only losing by 15 points.

In Race for the Galaxy, I started with some strong military cards and with some nice Uplift windfall planets.  I also had a Genetics Lab that let me refill those planets so I could trade the genetic goods for cards.  I picked up the New Galactic Order about halfway through, and that was the difference in the game, adding about 15 to my final score.

On Saturday, Ryan, Jaime, Joe, Louis, and Kevin came over.  We started the night with 7 Wonders with Joe sitting out to watch their newborn.  I was trying a money to science/civilian strategy, but I didn’t get enough money and didn’t really see much science.  I did score quite a bit off of civilian cards, but not enough.  I was in last place with 46, while Ryan had a nicely balanced setup and 60 points.

Then Ryan took off, and Joe took Jaime’s place for Hawaii.  All of the huts and the tikis were close to the beach, so I started with the intent to fill my island with Kahunas.  Problem was that I was going last on the first turn.  I missed out on any huts, but I did spend everything I had on Kahunas, which were pretty cheap.  In round two, when I wasn’t able to get a long hut early and the other huts were too expensive, I went to plan B.  I was able to get a side 2 boat relatively cheap, and I grabbed the top island for a foot hut.

From there I continued on my island dominance.  I was able to get the boat/surfer god, and a few more islands, netting me some nice points.  I did end up with huts in all of my villages, but I wasn’t able to get any tikis until the last turn.  Because of that I was only able to score three of my villages.  Even though I was in first going into final scoring (Gina was in second from spear huts and Joe was in third from getting end of round bonuses all game), I didn’t think I had a chance.  Louis pulled in 45 points from all of his kahunas, but not much more.  Gina and Joe only had about 20 end game points.  Kevin had a ton from his irrigation, hula girls and fruit god, but it wasn’t quite enough.  My three kahunas, one hula girl and my boat god were just enough to eek out the win by two points.

The group finished the night with a game of Dominion with Intrigue and Prosperity.

 

 

Everyone seemed to either have a Militia or Goons, so having 5 cards on a turn was a real treat.  I was pushing a Peddler, Minion, Trade Route strategy that started with a couple Militias to get things rolling.  I was off to a slow start, while Joe had started minting gold and was buying Provinces fairly regularly.  He wasn’t able to push the end of the game soon enough, though and started to stall, while I started hitting runs of Peddlers and Minions with 4 coin Trading Posts.  I was able to grab three Colonies to go with my two Provinces and Estates to put me at 44 to Joe’s 41.

 

Gina and I weren’t tired after everyone left, so we played a game of Agricola.  My hand seemed to just go together well, and I actually ended up playing all of my cards.  I had the Bookshelf to help play more occupations, and my Animal Tender allowed me to keep animals in my house early, which I used for food.  The other two major occupations were the Adoptive family allowing me to use my new family members more effectively and one that let me fence in stables when I built them, keeping my wood costs low.  I ended up filling in all but on space and had points in nearly every category.  It was an incredible game that scored me 57 points.