It was just Kevin, Joe, and I for games on Saturday and we kicked things off with Castles of Mad King Ludwig. I jumped to an early lead with some large recreation rooms, but then stalled. Kevin bought the basement room I was hoping to get, and Joe grabbed my back-up, so I never built a single basement. Joe was racking up points with the purple rooms and Kevin had a bit of everything. It looked like Joe might run away with the game, but the gap was quickly closed with the end game bonuses. Kevin’s bonus cards ended up being the difference maker and he took the victory.
We followed that with Railways of Great Britain. It ended up that Kevin had the North, I had the center, and Joe ruled the South. Joe and I were fighting over a couple bonus cards, while Kevin just kept delivering and increasing the capability of his train. He had a nice loop from Edinburgh to London and back, and was making 4-6 point deliveries consistently. It was pretty close, but Joe and I couldn’t overcome Kevin’s deliveries. I was hoping for second place, but Joe’s baron was worth 8 points to my 5, and that left me in last.
We finished the evening with Brass. I didn’t have a real strong plan in the first phase of the game, mainly trying to set up some coal and positioning for phase two. The best play for me was probably sneaking two cotton mills onto the board and tanking the external market before Joe was able to ship.
In phase two I ended up with a bunch of Liverpool and port cards, so after building a decent network of rail links, I focused on building as many ports as possible. I ended up with four of them along with a few more cotton mills. Joe was forced to use my ports to ship his cotton at the end of the game, providing me quite a few points. Kevin was building boats, and managed to get two of them built, but he was lacking links. In the final scoring, Joe had the most points from his links, while Kevin had a ton from his buildings. I had the best of both, though, and managed to come away with the win.
Until next time, happy gaming!
