Dominion (3)

This dominion update is kinda overdue and since I write all these recaps by memory, this one might lack the detail I normally like to include. That is 100% my bad; I need to stay on top of this. Some of the cards I remember being used in this game are Ironworks, Goons, Militia (Haha yep we used them both and it worked pretty well), Bazaar, Merchant Ship (two great 5 gold choices), Royal Seal, Moat, Throne Room, and Great Hall.

HB immediately went after merchant ship to get sustained income quickly. HL started off with ironworks to build up her deck. Merchant ship quickly turned into Goons for HB, and iron works netted a bunch of Great Halls and more Ironworks for HL. There was a lot of attacking and blocking in the game as both players used Goons, Militia, and Moat. Both players also used the super powerful Throne room well. HB had a few clever plays with Royal Seal to get some powerful cards at his disposal immediately. HL also used Bazaar and tried to make a big deck that cycled quickly even buying estates to pick up a few extra points. In the end, HB’s deck was too streamlined. He had many more provinces and Victory chips. Final score 86 – 57. 

In the Shadow of the Emperor (1)

This game has been on the shelf since February 22 without being played. How do I know that it has been there since then? Because HL had it rush delivered to our home so that it would make it on time for HB's birthday. Anyway, HB and HL finally had a chance to give this game a go. Disclaimer: most game forums say this game gets kinda broken without atleast a 3rd player, but HB and HL added some variants to make it work. First, we gave the non emperor an additional thaler and a younger starting elector. Second, we made selling daughters to the convent 2 thalers instead of 1. We also made each county more crowded by taking away available spots. HB thought the game was fair, but HL thought the starting emperor was still more powerful. There's only one way to find out. Play a bunch more times.. Hopefully we'll be able to do that.

HL started as emperor and HB decided to become the elector with the ability to get another 15 year old noble. HB also gained control of the 2 emperor vote county while HL positioned herself to get the 2 thaler county. Up at the churches, both players kinda split influence. HL focused on making sure she could keep the emperor seat and +2 thaler seat and since HB is usually not very confrontational, he allowed her to do so by going for other things. HL made some very shrewd decisions from her position of power often attacking with the doctor. HB quickly realized that never being the emperor made things very difficult especially since imperial cities only increased as the game goes by, and the tie breaker advantage is huge. By the time he realized this it was too late and HL was able to easily overtake HB's early VP lead by the 4th round when HL controlled 4 out of the 5 counties and the emperor. By the end of the game, HB was able to take back one county, but HL built an insurmoutable lead and won 24 -19.

Board Game Packed Weekend

Lots of games for HL and HB this long memorial day weekend. I'm not going to recap most of the games we played, but we had two runs of one of our 1v1 faves. Jambo. HB won both.



One simple playthrough (no passengers) of Ticket to Ride Marklin  (HL and HB got rocked by a couple of our friends, one who just learned the game!)



2 games of 7 Wonders (no leaders) where HL and HB finished middle of the pack in both games. (one 6 player, and one 7 player)



1 game of citadels - 4 players - HL and HB finished 1st and 2nd respectively. We used the 9 character variant so we were able to still play 2 characters each.

Citadels (1)

Since it’s been a while, HB and HL decided to play a game that we haven’t played in a while, Citadels, our favorite psyke out game. Like most people, we bought the version that came with the expansion so we have both sets of characters and plenty of purple buildings. We normally shuffle about half of the purple buildings (chosen at random) into the regular deck of buildings while also choosing the characters at random. This game we used the Witch, Tax Collector, Magician, King, Abbot, Merchant, Architect, Diplomat, and Queen.

The game was pretty even throughout. HL jumped out to a small lead by picking the Queen correctly twice, and extended her lead with a nice Witch play in the middle of the game to steal the architect when HB psyked himself out by not choosing the King. HB used a decent 2 for 3 trade with the Magician once, and also had a nice late game Witch play to steal the King. Both players failed miserably at trying to steal gold with the Tax Collector and Abbot. The Diplomat’s power was never used although HL used the red building bonus a couple times, and as always the merchant and architect were strong. Neither player obtained any really useful purple buildings worth mentioning. In the end, HL was able to build her 8^th building first, but HB was able to finish as well later in the last round. That along with the all building types bonus proved to be the difference as HL topped HB 33(26+7) to 29(27+2).

Notre Dame (2)

Notre Dame fits perfectly into the time it takes to cook the rice for dinner. Onto the recap:

 HB was thinking Cubes and Coins early on. HL was thinking Coins and Rats. After the first round, HL looked to be in great position: She was low on the rat counter, had plenty of money, and controlled ND. HB was also in decent position with lots and lots of cubes that set him up for a late game push. HL continued to roll in the 2nd round, picking up 7 points for buying up the helper who gives points for being low on the rat counter. HB tried to fight the rats a little, but eventually went away from it, taking the penalty for the last 4 turns of the game. Both players moved the carts a little. HB ended with 4 messages, HL had 3. HB made a big push in round 3 with 8 cubes on the cloister house and also capitalizing when HL gave him her trusted friend in round 3. HL was safe from the rats, still controlled most of ND, but didn't really have good point engine for late game. In the end, HB came from behind and won 67 -  54.

Dominion Cornucopia (1)

HB and HL own all the Dominion sets through Cornucopia, and for the most part we mix up the cards when we play. This time HB randomly picked a bunch of cards and most of them happened to be Cornucopia Cards. We also had Haven, Goons, Laboratory to add some flavor.

HB decided to go with a rainbow strategy to take advantage of Fairgrounds. Later in the game, HL also dipped into the Fairgrounds victory pool, but she was one card short of making them worth 6 each. Both players took advantage of Goons to attack the other player and gain some ever valuable Victory Chips. HB and HL both ended up with 8 chips each (we decided that Goons would give a max of 1 victory chip per use not per buy. It would not have affected the outcome much because both our scores would have been inflated by approx the same amount). Both players also used Harvest to gain some decent treasure (since we both using rainbow decks). HL utilized her Shanty Towns and Hamlets well, as always. The big difference in this game was that HB used Ambassador, Scout, and Haven to streamline his deck while cluttering up HL's deck (ambassador). HL was able to slightly combat it with Farming Villages. In one turn, HL played farming village twice and was able to discard 5 green cards allowing her next turn to not be a total bust. In the end, HB's slightly more efficient deck and 6 point Fairgrounds vs HL's 4 point Fairgrounds prevailed. 75 - 62. All provinces bought.

Jambo (4)

HL came out spending like it was an Amazon 1 day sale. By the end of the 2nd turn she almost went down to zero money by outbidding HB for an arabian merchant, buying a market extension, using her 6th spot twice, and picking up 2 different sets of wares. HB took his time using his supplies to try and find some matching ware cards. The game moved along slowly because neither player was picking up any useful utility cards to spend our actions on. Lots of 3 and passes for the one gold bonus. HL got herself stuck a little with 4 rings, but was able to use the dancer to finally clear her market for nice payout. HB eventually picked up a boat, leopard, and market extension and used them to sell the big 18 and take a nice lead. HL quickly followed up with an 18 sale to narrow the gap. HL also took advantage of a few animal cards a lion, a parrot, and a crocodile. HB tried to use an elephant early, but it was blocked. The score was 57 - 53 HB when things started to get really tight and strategic for both players. HL tried to use a cheetah, but HB had a guard, severely hampering HL's strategy.  HB had a chance to nudge himself up to 60, but was scared that gap would not hold up. He delayed and HL went down to 48 on her next turn trying to set herself up for big finish. The next turn, HB decided that getting up to 64 would be adequate sized lead. HL had one last shot, but didn't have the cards she needed. In the end, she stayed right at 48. Final Score 64 - 48 HB.