Comments on: Puerto Rico and For Sale session

By: Stone Age session | ludossier

Stone Age session | ludossier — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:34:52 +0000

[...] he explained the rules. Julian remarked that Matt was very nice to newbies… or was it just to win the games? It took us 2h, including rule explanation, to finish the game. I was again the slowest player and [...]

By: Carcassonne session | ludossier

Carcassonne session | ludossier — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:23:25 +0000

[...] 5 completed cities, but otherwise she played by herself. What can I say: it was not enough to come last twice on Thursday, today I was beaten by my daughter: she won with 105 points, I had 101! The shame of keeping more [...]

By: Huggy's Son

Huggy's Son — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:10:16 +0000

Good session report & I certainly was surprised at the outcome of the Puerto Rico game. I haven’t played as many games as you seem to think, but I have found that buying a Hospice is the start of one of the very good strategies for PR. I decided to go a different route, just to make things a bit more interesting for me & quickly felt I was lagging behind everyone.

The plan was to try & get a diverse production system going (hence having indigo, sugar & tobacco) with the large market asap so that I could sell at a significantly higher price, as well as take the Prospector with extra doubloons when it made more sense than another role. The plan was to always get the Harbour, but somehow I could not seem to use the benefit much as I seemed to get blocked out often enough.

Admittedly, I did take the Residence (4vps, 1pt per 3 colonists) in part to shaft Nick as I knew he would be looking to pick it up. But it actually made more sense to pick that up for myself as I got an extra 6pts from it, the others wouldn’t have been as much.

Great game, if very low scores, but it was tense! I thought Julian & Ester did well for newbies. You’re right about PR being considered the best previously, but I sometime find it feels a bit dry, but it’s still good to play when there’s the interest…

By: mw

mw — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:51:26 +0000

Thanks for your kind comments, Damen. It’s actually interesting what you say about runaway winners. Nick and David commented after the game that our scores were low and that usually the winner has 10-15 points more than the others. I prefer close games like yesterday: it’s more exciting, everyone feels good about having played well, but it also makes you go away with the nagging doubt that some decision during the game could have made the difference. Wicked!

By: Huggy Basher

Huggy Basher — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:05:52 +0000

Great write up of the evenings events Michel. Given my absence for last night and certainly the next few weeks, reading about what happened and who played what is very interesting.

I have played PR several time sand found that the games tend to be very close. It is rare that there is a runaway winner. Last night’s game goes to show just how well balanced the game is and that multiple paths to victory exist and make for interesting play after interesting play.

Buying the hospice is a a common strategy that always gives a strong score, most expereinced players I have played against tend to buy it on turn one if they can.

Thanks for the informative write up

Damen