Billabong Boardgamers - October 5th, 1999
Present: Roger, Doug, Glenn, Janet, Julian, Tina, Debbie, Craig Mac., Alan
Doug Adams writes::
A short glance at the played list tonight sees a lot of trick taking games played at the Billabong Cardgamers. Reporting will be brief this week, apologies for that. Apologies also for the typos that I'm sure are following!
HATTRICK
Roger, Glenn, Craig, Doug
A new game of Roger's that made its first appearance. Roger picked up this along with Sticheln, both by the same author (Klaus Paulesch [sp?]). Sticheln has been received well here, so we were interested in giving this one a try.
In this very simple game there are three suits of 20 cards. The object is to take lots of one single suit, while avoiding the other two suits. Points at the end of the hand are good suits minus bad suits, one point per card taken. The weevil in this game is you can have two tricks running in the one "trick" - ie. two suits can potentially be played to.
This last feature had us all saying "huh" to each other, but in fact worked rather well. Some trick taking games I can "connect" to, while others such as David & Goliath I struggle with. This one was simple enough for even me to pick up, and the tight finish says good things for the game. The game also has some good nobble potential, as demonstrated by Glenn handing me a bunch of cards she should have rightly been collecting for herself!
Scores (totalled at the end of each hand):
Glenn: 5 - 12 - 19 - 25
Doug: 8 - 17 - 11 - 24
Roger: 1 - 8 - 11 - 23
Craig: 5 - 14 - 22 - 21
Doug's rating: 6, solid game, probably deserved higher but I'm feeling tough this morning. No more soft 7's! :)
MEDICI
Julian, Glenn, Roger, Doug, Craig
A game I've never won at Billabong given about 12 starts, and this was no different. A new game to Glenn. Highlights of the game were Craig seemingly spending the entire game using a "deficit spending" strategy, even being below 30 beginning the final round. Roger was the leader after rounds 1 and 2, with strong presence on red (uh, sorry, pink), green and blue. However, Roger didn't drive home any of these colours into the bonus rounds, while Craig picked up two bonuses as well as the cargo bonus on round three. Biggest comeback I've seen at Medici!
Craig: 102
Roger: 96
Doug/Julian: 87
Glenn: 82
Possibly the tightest band of results I've seen as well. Bolstered by that showing where I felt I had half a chance, I got in on game two of Medici. The Settlers table were nudging each other while Medici was being played, and comments such as "I like Medici!" were wafting across. It was no suprise when Medici was seized as soon as we finished. I went along for another game to try and break my hoodoo!
MEDICI
Alan, Debbie, Tina, Janet, Doug
This game was dominated by Tina, who lead well through out the first two scoring rounds. However, yet another come from behind performance saw Janet come bounding past Tina and Debbie (who had also finished well) on the third scoring round. Alan was purely in it for cargo points during the third round, while Doug blew all his Medici good fortune on the first game earlier!
Janet: 109
Tina: 108
Debbie: 104
Alan: 91
Doug: 83
Doug's rating: 9, but boy do I need a good strategy! 85 points does not win this game!
MONEY
Janet, Debbie, Tina, Alan, Doug
Three hands of Money before the Buffy Express departed Amaroo, running express to Mt. Waverley. It had to be a card game so we could just sit there and watch Tina shuffle them (great technique!), especially after Debbie's shuffle on hand 2! ;)
Not much to report here. Janet jumped out to a lead after the first hand, maintained it (just!) on hand two, and a very low scoring hand by everybody on hand three gave her the win.
Janet: 720 - 1120 - 1610
Doug: 570 - 1090 - 1420
Alan: 500 - 960 - 1380
Tina: 640 - 1040 - 1330
Debbie: 250 - 770 - 1010
Doug's rating: 8. Of the recent Knizia fillers, I think I like this one best (however Tightrope has a bit going for it as well). I love fast playing fillers!
STICHELN
Tina and Debbie just caught the Buffy Express so that left Alan, Janet and Doug to kill 40 minutes until the time Amaroo turned into a pumpkin. Sticheln was bought out to test out the three player version - simply cards 1-8 in each suit with no purple suit. Again I had to sit on Janet's right and watch her win yet another game! Leading a low card in Alan's "pricked" suit and watching him claim a swag of negative points during hand three more than made up for my ongoing Medici woes!
Janet: 19 - 30 - 47
Doug: 8 - 18 - 26
Alan: 4 - 13 - -4
Doug's rating: 6. I like this and Hattrick enough to want to get them sometime. My spy in Essen will hopefully come through ;)
Another game of Sticheln was played earlier, scores are:
Debbie: 15 - 36 - 39 - 50
Janet: 7 - 22 - 33 - 41
Alan 11 - 12 - 23 - 31
Tina: 12 - 21 - -7(!!) - 10
DAVID & GOLIATH
This game is hovering just over my trade pile. I don't get it! Any game where on each lead I must recite to myself "lowest takes the highest, highest takes the other two" can't be worth the effort! Janet romps on....
Janet: 41 - 69 - 97
Alan : 33 - 54 - 86
Doug: 19 - 44 - 60
Doug's rating: 5
Janet Ford writes:
WAS STICHT!
Debbie, Janet, Alan, Tina
Debbie was the only person who managed to clear one of her goals when dealer. Another fast playing game of Was Sticht - it almost can be classed as a filler now - playing time has dropped from 3 hours to 45 minutes!
Janet: all cleared
Alan: 2 goals remaining
Debbie: 2 goals remaining
Tina: 3 goals remaining
SETTLERS OF CATAN
A game that is being reborn at Billabong! One of the fastest games of Settlers I've seen - over in 45 minutes. Alan nobbled Janet twice :-( Tina is very good at this game!
Tina: 10 - longest road, 3 cities, 1 settlement, 1 vp
Debbie: 6 - 1 city, 3 settlements, 1 vp
Alan: 6 - 4 settlements, largest army
Janet: 5 - 5 settlements