Shabbat Gaming

My brother Ben and kids came for shabbat. I played Antike with the younger two kids on Friday evening. I retaught the kids, but they remembered the rules if not any semblance of strategy. They did ok, but concentrated overly much on specific mechanics regardless of the amount of points that these mechanics achieved.

For instance, one of them was up to 17 marble production. That's not bad, but it took a while to get that, and by that time I was three points ahead and scoring nearly as quickly. The lights in my apt went out right before I was going to take my final turn and win by conquering one of his temples.

The next day I played Thunderstone with two of the kids. Similar story. I ended with 43 points, second place was 27.

In the afternoon David and Rosalynn from the game group dropped by. I taught them and Ben how to play Nefarious and everyone enjoyed it. Rosalynn had a quick start. Ben ultimately took the game. Our special rules were both for the Research phase: 1) no money, and b) "Draw 2 and keep 1".

Now that they knew the rules, we played again. This time Ben and I both hit 20 points exactly on the same turn. Ben was left with 3 coins and I had none, I had one card left and Ben had none. Fortunately for me (actually, it was planned), my one card cost 0 to play and gave me 2 points. Our special rules were a) 5 coins = 1 point, and b) a card without any special effects inherits the effects of the card you played prior to it (I like that one).

For our last game, I taught David (and refreshed Rosalynn) how to play Puerto Rico. I started with Settler/quarry, and there was no corn for Ben in second turn order. I grabbed the next corn, and we didn't see any more come out until the fourth Settler phase. I had a very early Factory (my second purchase), which I followed with Small Indigo, then Harbor, and then Small Sugar. No one had any tobacco until the end of the game.

Ben had an early coffee monopoly which David broke a turn or two later. This helped Ben keep up with me. Oddly enough, no one bought Small Market until turn five or six. Rosalynn picked one up because it was cheap, and David took the other a few rounds later because it was the only thing he could buy with a bunch of quarries but no cash. David had a Hacienda / Construction House / Hospice thing going. Ben shipped a lor (38 points) but had almost no buildings, ending with 50 points. I ended with two big buildings and 52 points. David took the only other big building and ended with 40something.