Billabong Boardgamers - 10th October, 2000
Present: Doug, Janet, Craig, Debbie, Tina, Andrew Steve, Alan, Donna, Roger, Pedro
Craig Macbride writes:
HATTRICK
We started this as a 5-player game, but then let Steve join at the average score after the first round. Donna started well, not having anyone competing with her in the first round for one colour. Doug did particularly well in the third round and I managed to get most of the red in the last round. Apart from that, it was a fairly even game.
I do like this game. Even Doug likes it, so that makes it special among trick-taking games!
Scores:
Craig 39 [ 6 2 8 10 13]
Donna 34 [11 7 2 7 7]
Doug 32 [ 5 9 12 7 -1]
Steve 32 [ 7 8 3 7 7]
Alan 28 [ 5 6 5 4 8]
Pedro 27 [ 8 6 2 9 2]
Alan Stewart writes:
STICHELN
Roger, Janet, Alan
A trick taking game to finish off the night while the 'space settlers' was concluding.
We had all played this before, but not for a while.
Fairly even first hand, and then Roger and myself broke away. Janet was getting dealt lots of 0s, but although that meant she wasn't picking up many negative cards, she wasn't winning many tricks at all. On the third hand I was dealt four 8s, so made the one suite I did not have the 8 of my negative suite, even though it meant playing a 6 as my first negative card. I still scored 72 for that hand.
Then I made the mistake of playing my only red card as my negative suite, without having any 0s in my hand. Every time red was led I had to trump. The game ended when the Settlers game did.
Alan 33 93 165 191 251
Roger 39 105 132 185 216
Janet 48 82 95 129 186
Debbie Pickett writes:
MAMMA MIA!
Debbie, Donna, Tina
It was destined to be a short night for Tina and me, who were both suffering from a lack of sleep and needed to catch up. Donna, too, wanted to go home early, so we played a few fillers to finish up. Donna won Medici handily, then we picked up this fun little card game.
I was practically unstoppable in this game, due largely to a lot of luck - such as having the minimale pizza order in my hand at the start of the second round and getting it down early in the hand when it is easier to fill. Tina and Donna caught up a lot in the last round, but it was too late by then.
Final scores (Pizzas completed, cards left in hand):
Debbie 7, 4
Tina 6,4
Donna 6,3
My rating: This is my favourite of Rosenberg's card games. It's short, and fun even without bad Italian accents (though that helps). Rating: 7.
Doug Adams writes:
DIE STERNENFAHRER VON CATAN
Steve, Pedro, Craig, Doug
Pedro was back in Melbourne for one of his fleeting visits, and he's always welcome. He requested a game of "Settlers in Space", and after much too-ing and fro-ing, and just a little huffing and puffing, we got four players willing or semi-willing to play it.
We used the standard setup as neither Steve or Pedro had seen the game in action. Doug jumped out to the early lead, thanks to a spectacular series of die rolls that gave him a production hit virtually every roll for the first half of the game. However, one thing this game seems to do better than basic Settlers if that big leads can be reeled in, and Doug's three point jump on the track was pulled back by the middle of the game.
Pedro was lagging badly behind, perhaps three or four victory points, while Steve, Craig and Doug fought it out for the lead. The die rolls dried up for Doug, and the number 10 was rolled four turns out of five - a result which handed Steve four trade goods, and Pedro two. It's amazing what you can do with a fistful of trade goods, and pretty quickly (for Siedler, that is) Steve and Pedro were threatening the win.
A lot of trade disk interplay began to occur which lengthened the game considerably, with the disks being passed backwards and forwards between Steve, Craig and Pedro. Nobody went after Doug's trade disk, who was on 13 vps but in the midst of a production drought. Pedro edged to 14 vps just as Doug got a colony ship into space. Doug was eyeing off a token that nobody had colonised and guessed it was a pirate nest. After checking it out, Doug realised he only needed one more canon to take it out and take the game, which he could do next turn. However, Pedro chimed in by plonking down a colony and taking the game....finally! :)
I think our game took over three hours - way too long for me. Just not enough to do in the 15 minutes waiting for your next turn. Perhaps a once a year game, perhaps :)
Scores:
Pedro: 15
Doug: 13
Craig: 12
Steve: 11
Andrew Harding writes:
LA CITTA
Andrew, Alan, Janet, Roger
A very interesting game with a city building theme. Each player starts with two cities on the map and can build up to two more, expanding along the edges of resource tiles. (There are several similarities to a certain island colonisation game). Cities compete with nearby cities in three fields - culture, education and enterainment - with one or two of those fields being important in each turn.
A clue is provided at the start of the turn and further information can be obtained by using one of the limited number of actions; at the end of the turn cities that are strong in the right field will attract population from nearby cities, though feeding all those extra people can sometimes be a problem. I'm going to want to play this one again.
We all built a third city early, with Alan going on to to build a fourth. He was unable to defend both of the new ones; although both survived the game one of them had only the palace left at the end. Roger and I had the best access to farms (I was still able to build a three food farm on the last turn). Roger was looking very strong with a massive city in the center of the board sucking population from all around it but outran his food supply at the end.
Final Scores (Population+Bonus-Starvation)
Andrew 32+9-0=41
Roger 32+6-5=33
Janet 20+9-0=29
Alan 18+9-5=22