Easter Monday (as with most other bank holidays) means board games with the Matts!
As usual not everybody can make the same time. So Matt OH (Matt), Dave and I start at 12, Matt (Bell) arrives about 1:00 and Matt (Stacey) around 2:30, after the Spurs game has finished.
We start with a 3-player Puerto Rico, the idea being that when Bell arrives we can play 4-player.
Three player: Dave, Matt, Me.
Matt makes a Factory, and has both Coffee and Tobacco for trades, but he doesn’t have quarries, so he’s never really as rich as he seems, and doesn’t get many shipping points. He buys two large buildings and finishes third. Dave does well on the shipping (he and I get the Harbours) by concentrating on Corn and Indigo (he has extra plantations from his Hacienda), but never gets any trade goods. He realises late game that he should save for a Customs House, which he just gets before the game ends. I get both a decent income from my trade goods (I even buy an Office, which was okay with Matt also possessing trade goods and sitting to my right) and okay shipping points from my Harbour. With two large buildings that’s enough points to win.
Matt’s mistakes were overrating the Factory, which caused him to miss out on a Harbour, which is more important, and not getting quarries. Dave did almost the opposite – he had the Hacienda and Harbour for shipping points, but no decent income source to go with his multiple quarries, so he didn’t get much use out of them. He only finished with about seven buildings.
Four player: Bell, Dave, Me, Matt
I can’t remember much about this game, except I think I bought some slightly odd buildings to see what would happen (going “off-curve” as I put it), like Construction Hut, and Hospice. I think I even bought an Office again. Bell goes really early into Coffee (choosing it over Tobacco when both plantations are available), which looked like a mistake, but seemed to pay off for him, as he ended up the winner over me by a point. I think we did a good job clogging up the ships with Coffee / Tobacco, which hurt Matt and Dave.
Edit: now I remember – this is the game I went for turbo Guildhall – I ended up with GH and all the production buildings except Small Sugar.
When the four-player finishes Matt suggests we play Princes of Florence. But PR is just so more-ish, already out, and probably Stacey’s favourite, so we play five-player.
Five player: Stacey, Bell, Matt, Me, Dave.
This games starts really weirdly. Stacey selects Builder, and then builds an Indigo Plant (not Small), as does Bell. Matt and I grab Construction Huts, Dave sensibly grabs a Small Market. Then Bell Mayors. We’re really not in Kansas now. Matt and I both man our Huts, but then Matt skips Settler for Prospector as he has a Hut. I decide I’m not letting Dave have fifth (!!) pick Settler, so I grab it.
After Construction Hut I go for Hacienda (I think the idea was to get some goods to go with my Quarries, and with the double Indigo Plant purchase on turn 1 there are more men available), and then a third violet before getting any production buildings, it was either Hospice or Trading Post (I definitely got a Post at some point, but would I really buy it third??) Pretty weird, but it worked out okay, as I absolutely smoked everybody in this game. The Trading Post was great, and by the end of the game I was buying large buildings off four manned Quarries, and had Factory at 3 doubloons per Craftsman. I end up with two large buildings (I could have tried for three, but that would have meant passing on the Small Wharf, which I’m pretty certain would be wrong) and 51 points, about 15 ahead of everybody else.
After the final Puerto Rico game Bell has to leave, and we have about 90 minutes left. We’re not the quickest, so we decided to a few rounds of High Society (after I explain the rules) rather than breakout Princes or Tigris.
At the end of the first game Matt & I tie for least money, eliminating both of us, whilst Stacey has two recognitions for x4, but no luxury items, handing the game to Dave! I win the second game on a tiebreak over Matt (quite a heartbreaker, as I assume tiebreaker is most money, so we think Matt wins, but I check and it’s best luxury item, which does make sense when you think about it, and I win!). Dave takes the third.
This was the first time I played with four players – it was certainly better than three. I’m not sure how it’ll play with five. In the third game Matt was trying to actively track everybody’s money. I think I prefer the game played quickly, making money counting harder, so that the game is a fun risk-taking filler. If everybody tracks money, and knows how much the poorest player has it will become too calculational.
High Society’s weakness seems to be that sometimes the game will be more by when the game ends, than any mistakes the player makes. For example in the final game Matt & I both have more money than Dave and there is one red and four luxury items left. As the game played out the first tile was red and Dave won. But if we turn over two more luxury items then either Matt or I probably win. Still it’s fun and quick to play, so it’s not worth getting to worried about it.
We plan to meet again next Bank Holiday, in a couple of weeks time. Next time we’ll play something other than Puerto Rico! (probably Princes, but maybe Tigris or Goa,). Or maybe Beowulf will have arrived by then.
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