• Fort Worth Gamers: gaming session 10/31/17

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    Subject: Fort Worth Gamers: gaming session 10/31/17
    From: Michael Ward <mward258@gmail.com>
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    Tuesday, 10/31/17 6 to 8:50 PM at the Hulen Mall food court, at 4800 South Hulen Street, in southwest Fort Worth, TX.

    We only had four gamers at one table this damp evening; including newcomer Jay.
    I think the rest of our regulars were out trick-or-treating!


    Our first game was my Urland, which was new to Jay and Duane. Connor and I had last played 17 months ago. Play order and initial roles: Jay - Environmental Player, Michael - Dummy, Duane - 1st Ichto Player, Connor - 2nd Ichto Player. As there was no fifth player the 3rd Ichto Player placard wasn't used.

    During initial set up most of the dozen islands were seeded with a smattering of Ichtyostega (prehistoric amphibians of 350 million years ago, that long to evolve into reptiles), except island #9, where a volcano broke out. As usual, we all placed three of our Ichtos in each of the five sea zones around the islands.

    Epoch I - Jay and I took off to an early lead, leap-frogging over each other up
    the score track. Meanwhile Duane made a few points, but often bet on the wrong
    island scoring. Connor, as usual, was doing his own thing (which means fixating on one aspect of a game and running that strategy into the ground - along with his scoring). So he did nothing but propagate the first several turns. Doing so helped him in the long run, but also helped the rest of us, as our critters all breed in a sea if anyone breeds. Eventually my black Ichto on the score track passed the 12 space, which triggered our first gene auction. I was totally outbid and was not allowed to buy a gene. Jay bid highest and took the powerful Muscles (which made his yellow Ichtos worth 1.5 each). Duane purchased Turbo, which allowed him to invade the land twice as fast with his white Ichtos. Connor paid for Stink Gland. He used it quite effectively against
    any and all of us the rest of the game to great effect, driving our herds back
    into the sea on many islands, leaving his red herds in charge.

    Eventually the Environmental Player was unable to draw a third island chit. That triggered the end of epoch I. Two volcanoes broke out (on islands 3 and 12). One scored, then several Ichtos were seared to a crisp in the ensuing lava
    flow, that joined nearby islands together. Epoch I had lasted 11 rounds (as always). The scoring triggered the second gene auction when my black Ichto moved just past the 16 space on the scoring track. In the gene auction that followed Jay paid the most and took Teeth, Connor bid next highest and took Ears. That left two genes (Egg, and Assimilation) that neither Duane or I wanted, so we passed. By the way, the first occurrence of the Panic chip only happened at the very end of Epoch I.

    Epoch two then began with a reshuffling of the 9 remaining island chits (and the Panic chip). We continued our clockwise shunting of ID placards, as our roles rotated. I'd used both my +2 action chits early (which is why I was in the scoring lead). Now the others began using theirs. My scoring lead evaporated for a while as Jay's Muscles gene ate my lunch on several islands. Yet it was still my scoring dauber that passed the 21 point mark, triggering the third and last gene auction. Connor bid some insane amount (6?)and took Warm Blood. Its a great gene, but getting it so late was of limited value. By the way, Connor still only had about 4 VPs, while Duane had about 11, and Jay and I were at 20 & 21. And I *finally* bought a gene, Wings. A very good late game gene, for moving critters by air from islands that have already scored.

    As to the other genes, Care of Young did not come up, and no one bought Assimilation or Egg. By this point Connor had three genes (the max possible), Jay had two, and Duane and I had one each.

    The game ended when someone (me) made it to at least 30 points. As this coincided with the environmental player running low on island chips, two more volcanos then broke out. We scored the first one, as usual. Then 3 bonus points
    were awarded to the player with the most Ichtos on land & sea. That was Duane who had all 28 of his on board. Zounds! Then Jay won the 2 bonus points for the
    most critters on land. He groaned as that didn't quite allow him to leapfrog over me for the win. By game end everyone had used both their +2 action chits.

    Final scores: Michael W 31, Jay 30, Duane 24, Connor 7. Duration: one hour and 8 minutes. Everyone enjoyed the game. Even Connor, who lost horribly.




    Jay left and the rest of us played my Imhotep, which was new to Connor. We used
    all "A" sides of the four construction sites. As usual the game lasted six rounds. Berserker Connor, who always zigs while others zag, got quite a kick out of often sailing ships full of other player's stones to locations he thought would irk them. Pffft!, fine with me. For he was usually wrong, and saved me the trouble of doing it myself. His fixation this game was collecting as many cards from the Market as possible. I think he took 8. Two he used early, the rest helped him at game end. Duane and I played more conservatively.
    Yet I did wonder if Connor's 6 end game cards might boost him to overtake the lead in the final analysis.

    I found it weird that after 3.5 rounds no ship had gone to the Burial Chamber. Duane wanted to keep me away from it, for he recalled how many points it could generate. Connor, I think, steered me away from it for similar reasons. So in the middle of round 4 (of 6) I remarked I was *finally* going to sail a ship myself! I then shoved four gray blocks into the Burial Chamber, which made Duane groan. Hey, he'd had the Obelisk locked down since round two! As to the Pyramid and Temple, we all had some input in building them. As mentioned before, Connor was king of the Market.

    When I dumped 3-4 more gray blocks into the Burial chamber in the final (sixth)
    round Duane groaned again. The last ship eventually sailed, and the game ended. It was then time for final scoring. Now we'd see if Connor's 6 cards would turn the tables on me. Side note: I had no cards and Duane had one (worth
    a single point). Uhhh... nope! Oh, Connor did make a great many points with them. But as he had been so far behind, all he managed to do was draw near Duane.

    Final scores: Michael W 50, Duane 38, Connor 36. Duration: 32 minutes. We all enjoyed the game.



    See BoardgameGeek http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ for more information on the games mentioned above. And if you're in the area on a Tuesday night feel
    free to join us for a game.

    --
    Michael Ward
    Fort Worth Gamers
    And check out our MeetUp page http://www.meetup.com/FortWorthGamers/ .
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