5/24/07

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We were only four this evening with a lot of summer activities starting to happen. And, believe it or not, we had a special appearance by Jane for an early game.

This was a light kids game prototype by Ted that seemed to over well for this style of game. Dave proved to be the Scallywag

Dave asked about this game earlier since he had not tried it and it was a SdJ winner. This is when Jane dropped in to play a game so, this seemed a good choice. Diamond Jim sailed along with the four of us. The early part of the game was extremely brutal as the storms brewed and the river flowed swiftly. Everyone lost at least one canoe over the falls. As a matter of fact, I had the two winning gems in my canoes when they both hit the falls. Kris arrived about the time a light bulb blew out so he took my spot while I strapped on my utility belt and went into maintenance mode. After new lighting was installed, a new round was starting and I decided to jump in as the 5th player. I managed to pull 4 identical gems for the quick win....of course at that point I was the only player with two canoes since I started so late.

Kris picked out the Teuber classic. I much prefer the tension and forced player interaction in this version to the sister game Domain (not that Domain is a bad game). Kris started the early money gathering which put him in the "don't bid against him" mode early. Charlie got an easy first run on the special cards and took the good ones from both stacks. Dave and I hit the middle ground with knights and walls. The meanness started early when I boxed Dave in with no exit strategy and revenge was to follow. Kris and Charlie started to squeeze Ted in the middle and Dave sealed off a small area to Charlie leaving a rather large area for Kris. Had Kris not been able to get it closed, it would have been a different game, but that was not to be and Kris became the clear heir to the throne when the king died.

After Lowenherz, we decided to stay with the Teuber set with another game Kris had not played. We played the new version. Dave attempted and early coup but expending much gold to build a house early on the +10 island. Unfortunately, this island did not close until the very end of the game. After Dave recovered from the money loss, Kris became the banker for the game. It seemed he had to roll for money almost every turn slowly giving each of us more money. Charlie and I were the big scouts. I managed to close quite a few small islands and got all of my scouts peeking in the village huts. Luckily, they were good huts that gave me 35 bonus points at the end of the game for the win.