It’s been a busy week of gaming around here. I played Tigris and Euphrates and Kingdom Builder with Joe, Louis, and Ben – a guy who found us via BoardGameGeek – on Wednesday. Then Thursday Joe, Gina, and I played Agricola.
Ryan was going to join Joe, Gina, and I on Friday, but he was running a bit late, so we played Dominion while we waited. Joe got off to an early start with his Bishop, while Gina kept hitting us with Witches. I eventually got an engine running with Laboratories, but even though I bought a bunch of Provinces I was still a couple points short of Joe.
When Ryan arrived we played Castle of Burgundy. It was a pretty even game throughout. Ryan pulled ahead early with animals, but we all managed to catch up eventually. I picked up a couple of bonus point tiles and managed to get five of the estates for a big bonus. I also had a large shipment of the purple goods pushing me well into the lead.
Gina was out of town Saturday, so it was just Louis, Joe, and I. Again we kicked things off with Dominion, and I managed to win both games we played. The first was dominated by Louis’ Saboteur, but I was able to work around it using Goons to score points. I also had some Ventures that provided enough money to pick up a few Duchies. The second game got a bit ridiculous. We had two different Villages and a bunch of plus-draw and buy cards. At one point I had so many buys that I was able to buy a Province and six free Peddlers on the same turn. A few turns later I bought the remaining four Peddlers. At that point I was able to consistently buy two Provinces at a time, and the game quickly ended.
Kevin showed up at this point and we played Caverna. I grabbed the Office early and was using it to get as many tiles as I could. It was taking quite a bit of work, so I was glad that I was able to get a dwelling and then the Couple’s Dwelling fairly early, and by the end of the sixth round I had a full family. Feeding them was a bit of a challenge, but eventually I managed to get some vegetable farming going and shortly thereafter a herd of boars. Kevin was also following the full family path, concentrating on his farm and maximizing a single dwarf in the questing.
Both Louis and Joe only had two dwarves throughout the game. They were both using the questing spots for strong gains. Joe had monopolized the sheep, ending the game with twenty of them, while Louis was gathering rubies and ore for bonus points.
The difference in the game ended up being the tile that provided me with bonus points for veggies and wheat that I picked up in the last round. I received twelve points from that and ended up beating Louis by eight. The differences in scores was interesting, as Kevin came in last with his full family, with Louis and Joe – with only two dwarves each – came in second and third.
Until next time, happy gaming!
