Tuesday 12th September - Shark

shark3
Originally uploaded by coljen.

Richard couldn't make it tonight, he was in Birmingham. So Steve, Garry and myself sat down to play a game of Shark. This game is from 1987 and originally published by Flying Turtle, Garry had the 1991 edition from Ravensburger. Neither he or I had played and Steve had played but a while ago. This is a stock trading game a bit like Acquire. You can buy and sell shares in each of the four companies at the beginning or end of your turn, in the middle you roll two dice one normal six sided and one with the four colours of the companies and black and white. These rolls determine which company you affect and where on the board you can place the marker. If you roll black or white you can choose which colour to place. If you place the marker next to others of the same colour this causes the share price to rise. If a larger chain of markers is joined with another chain of a different colour that is smaller the smaller one is removed from the board and the share price takes a hit equal to the number of pieces removed.
This I found out to my cost later in the game. I had built up a good holding in blue , red and yellow and was probably in the lead when Steve rolled exactly what he wanted and joined a large yellow chain with a not so large blue one. The share price dropped 7 points and I had to pay 120,000 to the bank. Ouch, that effectly ended my contention to win the game. I could kick myself because if I had seen it coming I could have sold all my blue shares and had a very healthy bank balance. Ah well, next time I shall be more aware of the board position. Steve had done that very thing when red was looking a bit vulnerable and sold his entire holding in that colour. So in the end Steve won by a mile, but we all enjoyed the game and I will have a better idea of how to play it next time.

Final Score (Money plus share value)
Steve 404+130 = 534
Garry 26+221 = 364
Colin 102 + 153 = 255