Due to a variety of misunderstood and forgotten messages and mobile phone mast breakdowns, the plan for Tony and Bekki (that’s how she seems to spell it) to both come round to mine didn’t quite work out. Bekki came round, but Tony thought she wasn’t, and so didn’t bother coming. Oh well.
We started with a couple of games of San Juan. Bekki has played once before, a four player that she won with Smithy & Guildhall – and what does she get in our first game – Smithy & Guildhall again. Meanwhile I’m going ‘mono-violet’, with my first builds being Prefecture and Gold mine, and City Hall in hand. I get a Carpenter (but not Quarry), and am able to maintain equality with Bekki in number of Buildings, as she spends time building a Palace.
With both of us having seven buildings I could conceivably finish with the following, which I have in hand: Victory Column, Hero, City Hall, Triumphal Arch, Palace! (I have a Tower in play, which will let me build, whilst retaining the others, and already have the Statue). But there’s no way a Smithy / Guildhall player should let that happen – they should rush me out with quick production builds.
This being Bekki’s second ever game, of course she doesn’t know that, and so she wastes enough time producing, trading and dropping large production buildings, that I am able to play them all except the Palace. On the penultimate turn I discard the Palace to build an Archive, letting me just build the Arch next role, as the governor, with Bekki being unable to build. As I end up winning by two points, this was a pretty good move!
The second game is more one-sided - Bekki doesn’t get a Smithy this time! I get an okay start with Poor House and Black Market, and am able to find a Guildhall, for a fairly comfortable win, despite having to build inefficient Tobaccos and Sugars. Bekki cripples herself by building a Palace very early, and finishes with an average City Hall (she had built too many production buildings).
In games of two player San Juan between a beginner and somebody with 50+ games, the beginner is a huge underdog. Considering this Bekki did very well.
After San Juan, we played a couple of quick hands of Lost Cities. Bekki quickly experienced the Lost Cities angst of a typical opening hand, where every move either seems like a bad idea, or a gamble, depending on your point of view. She wins the low-scoring first round 24-18 (she had a nice 36 doubled in blue for 32 points, to offset her total of 3(!) in white, whilst I just had four lowish scores), but I dominate the second, with much the better of the cards (the majority of the eights, nines and tens ended up on my side of the table), for a comfortable aggregate win.
During Lost Cities I had done the scoring each time – I’m pretty good at mental arithmetic, and know the game, so it’s seemed easier that way. Consequently I’d don’t discover just how bad her mental arithmetic is until we play Can’t Stop. She actually has trouble calculating the possible totals you could make by combining different pairs of dice! With a bit of help from me pointing out the possible totals, she is able to win, claiming columns 6, 7 and 9. It basically all comes down to the Sixes, where she just beats me. I crashed out more than she did, which I lead to me being too cautious when it came to try and close out on Six, and she pinched it.
Bekki needs a solid diet of Lost Cities, Can’t Stop and Cribbage. That’ll cure her mental arithmetic ills. Or drive her insane.
We had more time than expected after the one game of Can’t Stop, (her boyfriend was unable to get away from some urgent business on World of Warcraft), and so we finished with a game of Lord of the Rings. Bekki had played this before, didn’t have much trouble relearning the rules, and soon we were off to Mordor to destroy the Ring. Bekki was Frodo, and I was Sam (the reverse of how Lucy and I usually play). We had a little trouble in Moria, (‘Fly you fools’), but did okay through Helm’s Deep and Shelobs Lair, until Bekki rolled a triple corruption on the dice near the conclusion. In Mordor we hit event three very early, with neither of us having a Heart token, and this was enough to kill me, and Bekki rolled triple corruption again, to leave her within one space of the Eye, and only one card in hand. Her boyfriend arrived then, so we called it in Sauron’s favour.
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