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.

Sobek (1)

A game 3 days in a row! Let's see how long we can keep this streak alive. Shout out to LG for gifting this game to me last Christmas.

As per the rules, HB and HL busted out 3 rounds of non-stop good collecting and set placing action in about 25-30 minutes. For the most part, HB always placed sets early and had first choice of the tokens, but overall both players used the tokens pretty effectively. In the first round, HB was very, very corrupt. It seemed like he had 2 of everything left in his hand. Even after the penalty, HB had a slight lead in a relatively low scoring round ~40-35. HB had another huge score in round 2, but lost a close corruption battle 3-2. He was able to maintain a small lead going into the deciding round. One other note: HL used the "discard down to 6" character card 3 times on HB. (I just wanted to mention that because HB is not normally a very corrupt person). Both players were able to score well in the final round so corruption was the deciding factor. We both ended up with 5, but HL had a bigger score for the round 66-62 bouncing her all the way back down the track. Final score 147 -105 HB. [edit] we were supposed to count scarabs, not the score for the round to tiebreak the corruption. We'll never know if this would have changed the result. Tainted victory!

Stone Age (1)

This is a classic for HB and HL, and is one of our favorite games. No question, it's our favorite dice roller and for a worker placement there's a nice balance of "hey, you took my spot" vs "okay fine, this spot is almost as good".

Two 1-7 any resource huts were available right off the bat making gold a hot item early. HB also noticed the tool multipliers were available for cheap early so he decided to get wood early and tried to pick-up tools whenever possible. HL reproduced earlier and led in the food tech most of the way allowing her a big advantage in meeple placement power. HB's efficient use of tools allowed him to keep pace. We ended up splitting the two big huts both using Gold, but unfortunately for HL, a couple a bad rolls only allowed her to get 6 instead of 7 golds. Back and forth we went, HB sticking with wood, ended with more cards and HL had one additional hut. With a nice block, HB took away an opportunity for HL to use her gold for hut, and she ended up using gold to pay for less desirable card. The game ended 94 to 80 HL before the card bonuses, but HB's 8 X 5 tool bonus proved to be the difference. Final Score 178 to 141 HB.

Power Grid (1)

HB and HL are back at the game table for a H2H game of Power Grid. We modded the rules slightly because we prefer a shorter game. We started step 2 at 9 cities and ended the game with 18 cities. I think I prefer this house rule because it makes choosing which cities to connect part of the strategy of the game as opposed to knowing that you must connect all 21 cities in order to end the game. Also, it moves the game to the dramatic finale sooner which also means there's more time for more games. Don't get me wrong I don't think the first part of the game is boring, but the end game is when my heart races. One additional change that I think we will make going forward is removing 10 plants instead of 8 at the beginning of the game in order to allow Step 3 to play a bigger role in the game.

Onto the result. No surprises here. Since it was a learning game for HL, it was an easy win for HB. HB took most of the cheaper connections in the east and mid west while HL paid more for the pricier connections in the gulf. In terms of resources, HL also competed with herself for uranium while HB pretty much used everything else. HL also used some of the green energy as well, but couldn't keep up with HB's income. HL also "got tricked" into bidding for plants that HB never really wanted which HB happily gave up. In the end, HB powered 17 cities to HL's 14 on the first turn of Step 3. Not bad for her first try!

Game of Thrones

I haven't been lazy about posting in this weblog. HB and HL have actually taken a slight board gaming hiatus due to our new found interest in other forms of entertainment. We've moved on to this:

Maybe after we're done reading we'll pick up the Game of Thrones board game. Just Maybe

Side note: During the hiatus, HB has still been gaming with his buddies. 4 games of Power Grid (2 wins), 1 game of Settlers of Catan, and 4 games of The resistance (2 team wins)