2nd July 2014 saw 2 new visitors to the club, bringing the numbers to 8 for the evening, You were both welcome and I hope you enjoyed yourselves.

Pick A Dilly - The Egg collecting filler - but no omlettes

We warmed up with Pick A Dilly, a simple game where your selection on a dial affects how many eggs (points) players get, out guessing your opponents is the key to success.

We then split up into 2 tables, the first group selecting Takenoko a lovely family game where you grow bamboo for the Panda and get rewarded for your efforts.

The Panda examines new bamboo growth whilst the Gardener looks on

Takenoko - mid game showing three different land types and plenty of Green Bamboo growth

Table 2 took on the more complex 20th Century where each player bids against one another for tiles which they then use to grow their own economic empire, there is quite a lot of mental arithmetic to be done and you need a keen eye for spotting key tiles.

20th Century - You need to recycle to win

20th Century Gameboard and my start tiles (bottom left hand corner)

I tried the tactic of overspending in the first turn to get an early lead which would then keep me ahead, this worked well until the last turn where game-end scoring doubled one players score and left the rest of us well behind.

Eight Minute Empire midgame with the card row at the top.

In the meantime Table 1 had moved on to Eight Minute Empire a “Kickstarter” purchase which turned out to be a best buy, players on their turn select a card from 6 on offer and use it to place or move cubes on a board. At games’ end players earn points for commodities on the cards they chose and for majorities on the board. Despite its title it plays in 15 minutes but crams a lot of depth into what is really a filler game.

Sauerbaum - Early stages with the rain starting to eat away at the top of the tree ( Board is side on )

Table 1 then moved on to Sauerbaum, a co-operative game which should really be played with a box of smarties in place of the rain counters, on a turn players roll dice and place “acid rain” counters on the tree, players then use other dice to manoeuvre their playing piece to remove those counters. On this occasion the players beat the game.

Table 2 finished off with Tongiaki a game where I feel I have a complete lack of control, this game was no different as my boats were rapidly manoeuvred onto the Ocean floor along with those of my well-meaning competitors, I was not the only one to suffer though as we slowly got split up.

Tongiaki - Towards the end with both orange and blue sailing off into oblivion, leaving yellow to defend the home islands with a little help from green (I tried - I really tried but my boats kept sinking)

It was a good evening with a nice mix of games.

Medway Area Boardgamers