7th Feb - Gaming at Julian's & Ester's

I met Julian & Ester at their place in the evening for some more gaming; having already played the previous two nights, we clearly hadn't had quite enough of games!



Knowing they both liked (especially Ester) Stone Age & the resource-management games such as Agricola, even if the latter is fairly complex due to the number of options, I thought Pillars Of The Earth would hit the right buttons with them. So we kicked off with that... after a little explaining of the rules, they understood the aim & flow of the game after the 1st year, which showed as they played really well.

1st - Matt, 47pts
2nd - Ester, 43 pts & 8 Gold
3rd - Julian 43ps & no Gold.

Next up, we played Modern Art which I had not got round to playing since I bought it, so was looking forward to it. The different types of auctions in the game gave all of us a bit of pause for thought as there were certainly times for me where I found it difficult to read the situation & potential bids of Julian & Ester, especially the sealed bids. I had a disasterous first round in which I pulled in a miserable amount of money for my paintings compared to J & E. From the 2nd auction round onwards, I paid more attention to trying to get a good ranking for the artists I already had in my hand that had a good amount of prior value in previous rounds. This paid dividends as I was able to catch up by game end:-

1st - Ester, $500k approx.
2nd - Matt, $391k.
3rd - Julian, he gave up counting but had less than me! Approximately $350k.

Both me & Julian got a good laugh at Ester's bidding antics; she was spending money & more money like there was no tomorrow... typical of any woman. The biggest overstatement was when I said to Julian he couldn't lose with Ester bidding like she was; turns out she won convincingly. Not bad for someone who said she 'didn't give a f*** about what she was paying out' (not that she didn't enjoy the game)!

3rd game, we played Dominion using the First Game set-up; I was keen to see how they would like it. A very unfamilar type of game for them, but they soon got the hang of it. I deliberately started buying cards to draw in the money for Provinces; Villages & Smithys to get extra cards & action, then onto the Markets & Militia, as well as a good sprinkling of Silvers & Golds. Once I started to put some of the combos together, J & E's faces were a picture! It took a while to finish given they were learning the cards, etc... so I picked up most of the Provinces, but they did manage to get some as well & Duchys... Ester ended the game by picking up the last Province, which was a bit of a blow to Julian as he had the money to get it next!

Final score:-

1st - Matt, 50pts
2nd - Ester, 34pts
3rd - Julian, 33pts

We decided on Zooloretto for our last game, where they demonstrated their liking for this light & quick game...

1st - Ester, 31pts
2nd - Julian, 27pts
3rd - Matt, 23pts

Another great session, which left me really knackered once I got home at 1am in the morning!