Games Played: Metro, Exxtra, Atlantic Star
Gamers: Chip, Arkady, Rob, Josh, Sara, Chris
Thanks to Chris for hosting, and welcome to our newest SOG member, Arkady.
METRO (0:22)
Josh: 65
Sara: 51
Arkady: 39
Rob: 39
Chip: 34
We set up Metro for 3 players, then 4 players, and then again for 5 players, as people arrived (not unlike Gandalf inviting the dwarves into Beorn's house in The Hobbit). Metro's rules are extremely simply and easy to explain, and we were off.
One of the interesting parts of Metro is how difficult it is to tell who is in the lead. Counting the number of trains remaining for each player is a good way of getting a general idea, but without tracing the length of each train, it's more of a gut feel. I considered Sara the leader (and I wasn't far off), and tried to limit her trains when the opportunity arose. Rob considered me a threat, and closed off at least two of my paths. Arkady scored some longish train paths, and he became a target as well. Josh completed the highest-scoring path late in the game (for over 20 points), placing him safely in the lead.
Metro is a fun game - the rules are simple to explain, and it plays quickly (without the rotating tiles variant). It's difficult to accurately tag one player as the leader, and players don't really have a ton of control over the final outcome. I'm happy with the game and would gladly play it again.
EXXTRA (0:26)
Josh: 21
Chip: 13
Chris: 13
Arkady: 8
Sara: 7
Rob: 4
Josh pulled out Exxtra, my newest favorite game. He explained all of the rules and we started rolling.
My favorite part of this game is the "stop the leader" group influence ending. At one point, Josh was within striking distance of the finish line with a 76 on the 3-point level. Rob was the last player before Josh, and we had to convince him to not place his 71 on the 4-point level, but rather to keep rolling to dislodge Josh. Rob was willing to "take one for the team" so to speak (especially when Josh started to protest his "non-winningness"), and the dice gods smiled and granted Rob the unlikely 76 required to keep Josh from winning (that turn). I believe Josh won in the following round, but at least we postponed the inevitable a bit.
Great game - I've got to get a copy for myself.
ATLANTIC STAR (1:20)
Chris: 49
Arkady: 48
Rob: 36
Josh: 35
Chip: 34
Sara: 20
Josh suggested Atlantic Star, designed by Dirk Henn (who also created Alhambra, so I had high expectations). I wasn't disappointed. Chris, Josh, and Rob (I believe) had played this (or the equivalent, Show Manager) before, and Sara, Arkady, and I were new players.
Someone (Arkady?) completed the first cruise in green, and placed in the highest scoring slot (5 stars). I was working on completing a green cruise as well, but I paid more attention to having the correct letter combinations (without having more than 2 excess cards) than creating a high scoring cruise. As the five star cruise has the biggest impact on the game, my first cruise would end up hurting me a lot. I held onto the second highest slot on two other cruises, and used my other cruise for money. I should have spent more time accumulating high value cards.
During the last round, Rob, Arkady, and Chris (not co-incidentally, the top three scorers), were working on completing the highest-value cruise (green), and Josh, Sara, and myself were competing to complete a red cruise (the second-highest value). Rob complained about Arkady taking the good tiles before he got a chance at them (as the turn order was Arkady -> Rob -> Chris), but I'm not convinced of his logic. If this were the case, then Chris, who was also competing for the same tiles, should have been in an even worse situation - but Chris won the game.
This game was a lot of fun, and I look forward to playing it (or Show Manager) sometime soon.
.chip
posted by FlyingSheep @ 11:49 AM
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