Auctions all the way...

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Date: Weds 2nd Sept
Players: Gareth (+ wedding ring), Jon, Philip, Ian and James (+ beard…)

A rainy night outside (which meant a quiet pub and a deserted upstairs room) led to a night of bidding games inside………

For Sale

While we waited for any late arrivals, we had a quick go at this excellent card-based property auction game. It was new to James, and I’m sure that he’ll be much more competitive next time. There's probably a tie-breaker for this one, but as Gareth is a newly-wed, we allowed him the pleasure of a joint-victory.
Gareth 58; Jon 58; Ian 51; Philip 45; James 38

Ra

This was new to Ian and James, and is quite a different game with 5 players as opposed to 3. You don’t get so much opportunity to control when Ra! is called, and sometimes simply bidding on a couple of tiles can be worth it.

Before we knew it, Ian had won 3 bids and had a healthy stack of monuments in his collection. James amassed a veritable tombful of pharaohs whilst Philip and Gareth played the waiting game. After the first scoring, Philip and Gareth had less than they started with, Jon had broken even, and James and Ian had sneaked into an early lead. Everyone piled on a few points during the second epoch, and by the end of the game it came down to the sun totals – Jon had the highest and Ian the lowest – and that 10 point swing was enough to win it for Jon.
Jon 45; James 39; Ian 34; Philip 17; Gareth 15

Ra
Now that Ian and James had very much got the idea of the game, we plunged straight into a second round. Gareth decided that negative points were not an option this time, and quickly grabbed a number of pharaohs. James went on a Nile-tile frenzy and Ian concentrated on monuments again. Philip and Jon tried the middle-ground strategy. During the last round, James failed to get a flood for his numerous Nile-tiles, and Jon somehow found himself with the 1,2 and 3 sun tiles to bid with – with predictable results.
A tense final scoring ensued with Ian just pipping Gareth, thanks to his impressive monument-building.
Ian 39; Gareth 38; Philip 34; James 30; Jon 28

Medici
Another bidding game to round off the evening, and this one was new to James, Philip and Ian. This can be a tricky game to know exactly how much to bid, as (like with Ra) you only get one bid per round. Gareth shot into a massive 1st round lead, after paying almost nothing to pick up the 30 point bonus for highest value of shipment. However, James somehow managed to pick up a sackful of spices in the second round, and ended up at the top of the spice-pyramid, picking up 30 points for the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Even Gareth’s enormous good fortune at picking up two 5’s and a 4 for 1 florin in the last round was not enough to overhaul James’ impressive total.
James 117; Gareth 97; Jon 96; Ian 86; Philip 77

And that was it for another night at the Apprentice…see you next week….