Weekend Gaming

For lunch we had over Tyson and Rebbecca, new to the gaming group, as well as Rachel and Dvira. Dvira is a seven year old who came over a few months ago to play on shabbat afternoons; her mother moved with her to K'far Adumim, but they were in town this shabbat. Dvira is still young, but plays beyond her age, both in skill and manners, so she is a pleasure to play with.

Dvira and I played two hands of Gin Rummy before lunch.

Rebbecca, Tyson, Dvira, and I played Settlers of Catan after lunch while Rachel slept. As usual, when two people fight over the longest road (Dvira and Rebbecca), a third person wins. I won without too much trouble, gaining two points on the last round with a hand of twenty-four cards (my record is twenty-nine). We all enjoyed the game.

There wasn't enough time for another game before shabbat ended, what with Rachel teaching and all, but Tyson and Rebbecca came back after shabbat for a Puerto Rico game. They have played the game once before on Games Day and they loved it.

It was funny to see the boards take shape, Rachel and mine with our ideas of how to construct a board versus Tyson and Rebecca's. By the fifth or sixth round, both Rachel and I had exactly the same boards: sugar, two corns, tobacco, Small Market, Small Sugar, Tobacco, and Small Warehouse, while both of our opponents had exactly the same boards: indigo, corn, coffee, quarry, Small Indigo, Hospice.

Rachel was outrunning me in VPs and building points at midgame, and I feared she was simply going to beat me. When we diverged, she taking Factory and me taking Harbor, she still could have beaten me but she neglected to disrupt my shipping sufficiently. By the end of the game, I had a very small city but 38 shipping points, enough to beat Rachel and her two big buildings 58 to 54. Rebbecca and Tyson had 49 and 40 points.

Links:

Poetry and board games: Here be many limericks about board games, as well as many others about other games.

On the Spot Games has offered to send me some review copies of their games. Thanks, and while I wait for them, you can check them out.

Yehuda