In the future we'll all be carrying baggage on the Moon

 
Contributors: David, Jon, Peter



The first game was one quick round of Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper with James, Neil, James B and myself. We made it through about two thirds of the deck wondering why no one was playing Victim cards that matched the colour of the evidence cards in game before Jon turned up and explained that you can meld any evidence cards once any victim has been played and that the evidence cards don't match the colour of the Victim. We could have been there a while longer before we figured that out

After that was Port Royal with Magnus, Peter, Philip and myself. Only Peter had played before but it seemed simple enough to pick up. Both Peter and Philip went for a strategy of buying Pirates so they could control the ships being drawn which then allowed them to buy the higher priced cards and claim contracts. I meanwhile went for the luck of the draw that failed badly as I went bust at least four times. Pushing your luck with no pirates isn't the greatest strategy. In the end Peter won with 13 points compared to Philip on 10 and Magnus and I on 6. 

After that was half of Android, the game is dripping in flavour text and background, the sort of game you could spend half the day playing. However we only had two and bit hours and some of that was a rules run-through and grappling with a lot of different parts. So we only made it to the half way point before calling it but it's definitely something I would love to play again now we know how to play it which should speed things up. As for the game I spent most of the time on the Moon, gathering clues and completing my story in a positive way despite a huge amount of bad baggage. The others in the meantime were completing the conspiracy, laying down contracts and gathering evidence on earth. My favourite moment came when I played a card on James that forced him to spend a full turn moving to a location to fulfil his duty, something I don't think he appreciated By the time we called it Dan was leading with 38 points with Raj and myself a close second and third. Philip was fourth and James was on 3 points so it was all up for grabs.

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As alluded to above, my favourite moment of the evening was hearing the increasingly frustrated remarks from the Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper table, and on closer examination, discovered that they were trying to play the unfinishable game. That is what you get, ladies & gentlemen, when James gets to explain the rules.....

We then got to play one (which turned into two, as no-one else was near finishing their games) games of Pandemic Legacy: Season 1. Still in January, we tonked the game when Jon handed a squillion cards to Paul in one go, who then cured not one, but two diseases in a single turn! What a guy... (or actually, Cecily Petri-Dish, as his character has been named... )

Moving into February, we were excited to find out that we could now XXXXXXXX XXX XXX X XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX and more importantly, that meant that we could XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXX and XXXXX X XXXX XXXXXX!!!

But - we still lost! To be fair, it was an unlucky draw of a card that caused so many outbreaks, rather than James's poor personal hygiene standards, so it was a bit gutting. The only consolation? We're getting our money's-worth out of it.....

Then we played Pairs - Paul lost - and Too Many Cinderellas, that James won by default following the introduction of the random card at the end, which stuffed both John and Jon. I'm sure we've never played with that rule before (although Dan claims otherwise.) Good that pure random luck and chance gives James a chance to win something every now and again though.......

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After Port Royal the inside of the Stockpile box saw the light of day (not strictly true since it was dark outside, more, saw the half-light of an English pub).

The two John's and Magnus invested in some Electric Company which I just ignored for the whole game. Round after round the share price of Irritating Electric, I believe it was called, just rose and rose as the cards fell its way. Shares split and doubled in price again and again. Meanwhile, my Appalling Automobiles company went bust just as I bought the shares. So, in the end John B won closely followed by other John, closely followed by Magnus, not closely followed by me. It is a good game with loads of hidden information giving it great entertainment value, and it gives me complete freedom to blame the cards for my poor financial record. However I have now played this twice and come waaaay last both times so my excuses may start to wear thin.

Kingdom Builder followed and we choose to play the new House Hurling Expansion. Here the idea is to randomly hurl the houses around the floor of the venue you are playing in. This must be done one by one. The card draw between hurls allows you to admire the pictures of flowers, desert, grassland and other landscapes whilst you are hurling. Marvellous stuff. Magnus beat us, followed by the Johns and last of all me. I prefer the base game.