A lot of new gamers, and mazal tov to Bill!

Beth, David, Marco, Gili, Bill, Shirley, Eitan, Emily, Eszter, Nadine

Gili invited her boss Beth and her husband David, Bill and Shirley brought Marco from Holland, and most of the regulars came, for an unusually high non-game day attendance of 10. Bill and Shirley also brought Girl Scout Mint Cookies, I haven’t had those in ages – they’re different from when I used to sell them.

Notre Dame

Beth 60, Gili 49, David 27

Gili must have done a good job teaching this because she didn’t win. They played 3-player because Beth and David needed to leave, but they didn’t leave as early as planned because they liked the game and wanted to keep playing. Hopefully we’ll see them back again.

Microscope

I was starting R-Eco with Marco when more people showed up. I’m not used to people requesting Puerto Rico because Gili doesn’t like it, but others do. Bill taught the popular RPG Microscrope to Eitan, and eventually Eszter and Gili. They played a few rounds before switching to London.

Puerto Rico

Marco 58.8, Nadine 58.5, Shirley 51, Emily 48

Marco has played Settlers, and learns and plays games like a gamer, with good analysis. I tried to help less, though I did point out more to him than to the other since this was his first time playing, and second Eurogame. Everyone did well, and did a good job of not always listening to my recommendations. I had a Factory but only three goods, and Wharf and four corns, which made Marco realize that corn had value. I gave him and Shirley corn to start. Marco had a coffee monopoly; it took him a while to get it going, but he traded a lot, and got two big buildings and a Harbor, but no storage. Shirley got a Hospice instead of an early Tobacco building, which hurt her with trading so she took Settler Quarry for three of them, and she got a Construction Hut. I don’t like the effect of Hospice – we had four colonists on the ship most of the game, and everyone kept needing to take Mayor. Towards the end Shirley got a Factory and Wharf and was producing four sugars and tobacco. Emily had three tobaccos going early, and a monopoly on trading, though she took a boat so traded less than Marco did. She almost got a Large Warehouse but switched back to a Small One when she realized how they work. They all gave each other a lot of advice and analyzed together. Marco didn’t take a coffee boat even though it was suggested, he preferred to ensure trading it. Emily got a Hacienda and then Residence. On the last turn, after running out of shipping points, Marco took Builder and the last tobacco for his Guild Hall. Shirley and Emily took Coffee for points. I had six coins and a quarry, so I could only get a two point building, and lost. The coffee monopoly is strong. I’m still not good at 4 or 5-player, very different from 3-player. And different with new players.

London

Bill 31, Gili 17, Eitan 15, Eszter 7

They had to figure out the rules from scratch, Bill didn’t remember how to play, neither did Shirley or I. They said it was a good game with numerous possible strategies. Eitan came up with a productive repetitive strategy which Bill countered by taking lots of cards to end the game. Bill also focused on not getting poverty points.

Lo Ra

Nadine 30, Emily 26, Shirley 19, Marco 16

Fun and dramatic as usual. We all thought Emily was going to win, at the end of the second yovel she had 17, to my 9, Marco’s 0 (up from -5) and Shirley’s -1. I managed to get three matching tribes and a pair, and Shirley took most baskets aways from her after Emily was out of the game. The mosaics came out quickly the whole game. No disasters until the last yovel. We had told Marco that the Ark could be used to counter disasters in one round, he didn’t understand what we meant by disasters and wanted to use it to counter what he considered a disaster – having no animals.

See you all next week!