25th September Report

This is just a quick post to help remember the games played on Tuesday night.

St Petersburg - 4 players. One experienced burger in Luke, whilst Steve & Harry had played before but only in a two player game. All in all VERY even amongst the players who were new to the 4 player version, with only a few points separating 2 from 4. It feels like an obvious statement but St Petersburg is really only competitive amongst players of equal recent experience. Obviously a good gamer will get to a level of competence faster than a bad player. But because the mechanisms are relatively simple in St P its really a measure of when to go for what and the real value of anything is and that knowledge is experience. Jimmy and I played a 3 player version a few weeks ago and despite solid player Jimmy was off the pace in the end because whilst an excellent 4 person player, he was not as experienced at playing with 3. In this game after all others scores had been finalised Luke was 3 points behind the leader having not scored his 16 different oranges.

After 5 Victories in a row for Luke it was time to play a game he wouldn't win.......because there wasn't enough time to finish it. We attempted a 6 player game of VINCI. It got a lot of positive feedback from the table and scores and leads changed quick. Jimmy ran the rules session to 5 newbies and like always we were none the wiser. In truth most of the game is incredibly simple and with some English player aids, some of the questions asked would have been redundant. Luke started, chose his spot and Steve followed and crushed him early, a very admirable tactic all most have appreciated. Steve then proceeded to take an early lead with the game being abandoned while Jimmy's empire was in the ascendancy. The game has natural dips and peaks in players scoring so it would have been hard to predict the eventual winner however I felt despite an improved mid game showing from Tom that Richard was in the best position to ultimately win the game. I can see the case for playing with 6, crowding the map, however this lead to very unpredictable choices in races/abilities. With experienced players I feel 4 may be a better number, we will see, as VINCI will no doubt be out on the table again soon.