Games Night

Last night we had some friends round for games. There were only five of us in the end (lots of people were away for the Bank Holiday weekend). We started the night with a 3-player game of Carcassonne while we waited for the others to arrive. Strangely, my almost legendary inability to win a multi-player game of Carcassonne deserted me and I won the first game - despite the presence of Roman, who is a very competent gamer.

Once Karen and Jochen arrived we settled down to a 5-player game of Puerto Rico. I based my strategy on shipping to the new world, but I was outclassed in terms of production by almost everyone else. Still, I got off to a good start, managing to utilise the Craftsman and the Captain in the first two turns in such a way that I was the only person to benefit. I was strapped for cash for most of the game (I had only 1 coin in the final five turns), so I didn't get many buildings. Still, despite all this I managed to come second, behind The Wife. Who was delighted to have won the game. Really delighted :-) It was a really close field, with the spread of scores between 39 and 45. I guess one of the good things about Puerto Rico is that everybody thinks they are in with a chance of winning - which keeps everyone interested.

We finished up with a few games of Carcassonne, as it was getting late and people were getting tired. We played two 5-player games, and then a 4-player game without The Wife, and again I managed to do surprisingly well. I won the first of the three, and came joint first with Karen in the second. Not quite sure why, I wasn't trying a new tactic or anything (although I did try to concentrate more on building lots of small cities in the field I was farming). I came down to earth with a bump in the final four-player game though, I came last by a fairly hefty margin, which was nicely won by Jochen.

All in all a great night's gaming. Plus I learnt the meaning of Funkenschlag (the German title for the game Power Grid), and got to practise my Deutsch a little.