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Subject: Fort Worth Gamers: gaming session 12/19/17
From: Michael Ward <mward258@gmail.com>
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Tuesday, 12/19/17 6 to 9:40 PM at the Hulen Mall food court, at 4800 South Hulen Street, in southwest Fort Worth, TX.

We had five gamers at one table this rainy evening, including newcomers Tyler and Stephanie. We had an extra hour to game tonight (mall holiday hours.)

Our first game was my Priests of Ra, which was new to Stephanie and Tyler. Round one saw Tyler gain 7 of the 10 tiles he needed for a level four pyramid. Zounds! Michael L, Connor, and Stephanie did reasonably well gaining other tiles. Meanwhile, I think I made a grand total of 3 points at round end.. Oy! Part of the problem was the Ra tiles came out fast and furious. So Connor and
were unable to use all three of our sun tiles before the round ended.

I did much better in round two. Especially at round end, where I filed up the display with 8 tiles (most of which were very good for me) and took the lot with my last sun tile, just before Connor filled the Ra track, ending the round
(which once again screwed over poor Connor). I was amazed Tyler gained no more
pyramid tiles. Stephanie got them this time, almost as many as Tyler gained in
round one. Plus she took a lot of colored ones (worth bonus points).

Round three saw everyone except Connor in the running to win. Tyler and Connor wanted to argue with me, saying the tiles in the bag were going to run out. What do we do then? I said that's not s problem. Yet no one at the table seemed
to believe me. Connor, who had his hand in the bag, said there were only 4 tiles left and the 8 slot display only had 2 tiles in it. Therefore I must be wrong. Nope, I said. Just keep drawing tiles, you'll see. Well, the inevitable happened. The next to last tile drawn was the last Ra tile, which ended the game. See! I said. Only then the others sorta grumbled under their breaths I was right after all. Then Tyler tried to counter with I was right, but they didn't understand, as I didn't explain it clearly. Oh, please!

Then it was time for final scoring. Connor had the largest sun tile total, so Stephanie (who had the smallest) gave him 5 of her VPs. Alas Tyler never did complete his level 4 pyramid. But Stephanie did, plus it was chock full of red and green bonus tiles too! Michael L and I were doing good to achieve a level two pyramid each. Poor Connor didn't even do that. I think Tyler had the most plague tiles (3). Lots of Ankhs were doled out. I know I had the max (4). I think Stephanie, Michael L, and Tyler did too.

Tyler and I ended up with a tied score. It was broken by Tyler's higher sun tile.

Scores: Tyler 60 (won tie), Michael W 60, Stephanie 59, Michael L 53, Connor 40. Duration: one hour and 24 minutes (which is a bit long). Everyone enjoyed the game.



Next up, my Carcassonne, plus the Inns & Cathedrals expansion. The expansion was new to Michael L, Stephanie, and Tyler. I was the first to place a farmer. The others soon followed suit (except Connor). Of the nine monastery tiles I drew none. I think Stephanie and Connor got most of them.

By mid-game there was one huge city under construction, with Michael L, Tyler, and I jockeying for control. Eventually Michael L used a regular meeple and his
"big boy" to have an influence of three within the metropolis (to Tyler's two and my one). Then Tyler poisoned the well by adding a cathedral tile to it, making the city impossible to complete, as there weren't enough turns left for Michael L to add three adjacent tiles to the Cathedral, even if he could have drawn just the ones he wanted. All that effort for naught! I'm glad I didn't bother.

Late in the game Tyler drew the other Cathedral tile and knifed Connor's only city with it. Also, Michael L managed via skillful tile play, to get a second farmer into my central field that already had two of mine, to tie me there. I spent my last four turns trying to undo that. Alas I was unable to get a third farmer into that field. At least I did keep Tyler from glomming on as well with
his "big boy". In final scoring Michael L and I made 33 points each from that central field (over half our eventual scores).

I remarked as the last tile was placed I alone never used my big meeple. Its not that I forgot about it. Its just that I never saw any situation where it would have helped more than a regular meeple. So it stayed in reserve the whole
game "just in case".

Scores: Michael W 82, Michael L 78, Stephanie 63, Connor 48, Tyler 44. Duration: one hour and 18 minutes (again a bit long). I think everyone but Connor enjoyed the game. He was ultimately quite frustrated with his low score.
I can't say it was due to anyone continually picking on him. It was more the way the tiles were drawn, which no one can control.


Due to the mall being open tonight until 10 PM (holiday hours), we had about 24
minutes left. Yet that wasn't enough time to explain and play a third game. (It would have been, if the others had played a wee bit faster in the first two
games, and Michael L and Stephanie hadn't been 12 minutes late.)



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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