Der Elefant im Porzellanladen

Ed brought out this light filler that he had ordered on the last Adam-Spielt order. Adam suggested Tichu and boy did I regret not playing Tichu instead. But Elefant a new game, and I had to try it out at least once. The mechanics are simple. You can either buy cards that you can score with. Or, you can take a card that forces you to discard cards for money. Maybe it was because we had five players. Or maybe it was because I started last. Whatever the reason, I spent the entire game being forced to make moves that would hose me. The vast majority of the moves were automatic. And on the few times where I had a choice (either take a point card or take a discard card), I felt that my choice had little impact on the game. Ugh. I doubt that I will give this game a second chance.

Struggle for Rome

Ed also brought Struggle for Rome which is the new Settlers game. I definitely wanted to play this one. It fits within the Settlers family quite well. Some negatives about this game were:

• there was not much trading going on
• the board is static. However it does make for a good map of Europe
• there is likely more robbing with the thief in this game
• there are a lot of routes on the map that take time to figure out which one to use

Some positives about this game are:

• On your turn you roll dice until you come up with four unique rolls. Everyone gets the resources for these rolls. This evens out the unprobable dice rolls
• good niggly bits: two tribes, wagons, gold coins
• thematic fit of barbarians invading Rome

It was my first game of this, so I took quite a while figuring out what to do. I didn’t want to make any beginner’s mistakes. Ed and Susan could have helped by pointing out what worked for them in the past and where the good spots were on the board. I tried to go for the 2 point bonus that you get if a tribe conquers all five areas. And I was able to get that for both of my tribes. I probably wasted a turn on both tribes since I got two tokens for one of the five colors. And I was able to get the largest army equivalent (in this game it is the biggest diplomat). So all I needed for the win was to settle in four spots. Which I was able to do. Unfortunately, Doug was able to get 11 points on that turn for the win. Still, it was an interesting game. And one that I will play again.

Tichu

First, I must give credit to John. He called an awful lot of Tichus, and made most of them. He also called a couple of Tichus before the pass. Way to be aggressive, John. Doug also called some Tichus as well. Adam just continued his string of poor card luck and was silent the whole game.

On my second Tichu call, I called Tichu first. John then over-Tichus me. He bombed in with an eight bomb. Later on, I responded with a three bomb. Which Doug promptly over-bombed with a nine bomb. Unfortunately for Doug, he could not pass control over to John and I went out first.