Some more Games.....

Well, this was last week, so I am a bit tardy with my post again. Anyway, 3 player session with Pauline and Stephen, Tina couldn't make it. Accompanied by some tasty plum cake curtesy of Stephen! First up we finally got around to playing Carcassonne - Mayflower. Pauline and Stephen have had this for awhile and this is the first time it's hit the table. Normal Carcassonne rules except that you build from one edge of the scoreboard, representing the coast of the New World I suppose. Exploring Westwards....there are two Surveyor meeples that move West one row every time a feature is scored.....ummmm. Gives something else to think about, because if any of your meeples are left behind the Surveyors on an unfinished feature they get removed. So you could leave a potential scoring opporunity for another player.

Carcassonne - Mayflower layout
As you can see from the picture, we didn't think it through before starting to play because the tiles are going to stretch a long way in one direction. We had to remove the scoreboard and keep moving the tiles so we had enough room to play them all!
We found it difficult to score a farm as you needed to surround it with tiles (a la a cloister in normal Carc), and it was likely to get left behind the Surveyors. I think it adds a nice twist to the basic game and I enjoyed it. As you can see the scores were quite close.

Final Scores
Pauline 107, Colin 93, Stephen 92

We followed up with a game of Thurn & Taxis, Pauline had played this before but Stephen hadn't. I like this game a lot, planning your routes etc. It does get a bit frustrating when the card you really like gets cleared just before your turn though. I had a pretty awful time in this game and came a distant third place. Pauline got a few bonus chits including the Bayern one.

Me, looking reasonably calm considering my performance
Final Scores (Coach Card, Bonus Chits, minus coaches left)
Pauline 10+16-3 = 23
Stephen 10+5-6 = 9
Colin 7+6-8 = 5

Creepy, spacey sound effect whooshes us forward to Wednesday of this week (19th)

Stephen has gone back to the UK for a week, Pauline came round for a chilli and of course, a game. It's been really hot here for over a week now, too hot to sit on the balcony an the only time it's bearable is in the evenings. So what better way to cool down than a nice Chilli!!
I have had Morganland (Aladdin's Dragons) for a few years now and I think I have only played it once up until recently.....little story about buying this one. We went on the bus to Salzburg one year we were here on holiday and went to a shopping mall outside of the city, never been there before. Of course there was a kids's toy store in there, but toy stores over here have proper games in them too. Not just Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly. Anyway I didn't see anything I fancied until, on the way out by the checkout they had a bargain bin, and I saw....Morganland, shrink-wrapped....10 euro. Well, you can guess the rest!!!
So, Tina and I had played one game a few days ago and I thought we could try it tonight with 3 players. The board is quite large and very colourful and the game has nice bits as usual with German games. I explained the rules and off we went. I seemed to be the only one going for the magic spell cards which came in very handy during the game. I think we all underestimated the power of being the start player as there were quite a few ties which are broken in start player order.

Morganland, board layout
We all enjoyed the game, it played smoothly and didn't outlast it's welcome if you know what I mean. I think both Pauline and Tina would go for more magic spell cards next time, they got a bit cross when I decimated a space of their counters with one....he! he! The tiebreaker is the most scroll artifacts, but Pauline and I both had 7 artifacts and one scroll each so we shared the win.

Until next time.....Happy Gaming!!