The weekend started with a big name in gaming, Puerto Rico. We dove right in. We have the expansion and added some of our favorite buildings to the mix, but we left the Forest tiles out since they just seem too tedious. With the Construction Huts going quickly and some diligence by those without, everyone managed to quickly obtain a pair of Quarries.
Over the course of the game Señor Bob went into Market upgrades and coffee production, but took too long to get his Coffee Roaster and failed to grab a Trading Post. Despite eventually getting into big buildings with the help of the Office, his pathetic pile of chips from shipping small amounts of corn and indigo left him in last place.
Señor Greg balanced his corn production with ever expanding sugar and tobacco production to give him a diversified shipping portfolio. There were a few key building purchases that he wished he had, as the girls managed to stay a step ahead.
Señorita Heather capitalized on shipping lots of indigo and sugar with the combination of her Aqueduct and Wharf and became the apparent chip queen. She did snatch a Trading Post, but she was lacking the high ticket production items to get her real estate into high gear.
As usual Señorita Jennifer, or should I write Doña Jennifer, brought in goods, money, buildings, and point chips by the bushel load. Her timely acquisitions of the Construction Hut, Large Market, Trading Post, and Wharf insured a healthy return every round on her way to victory.
Puerto Rico was followed by two smaller games, Quicksand and Quiddler, both of which Greg deftly won without breaking a sweat.
Race for the Galaxy was opening game on Day 2. Jennifer struggled getting card combinations and production planets going. Heather went for war and built up her military might to settle some high-point planets. Bob kept creating developments that gave him development bonuses and development discounts, but he ran out of time to sufficiently diversify. Greg had the blend going with a portfolio of production, trade, point planets, and chips for the big win.
In Rail Baron everyone wisely started buying some nice rail lines, but Bob had the trajectory on this one. Besides making an early tactical grab in the northeast, Bob managed to get a nice monopoly going in the north central and northwest regions. His rolls throughout the game gave him short to medium distance trips primarily on his own lines or on public lines, which allowed him to buy early and often.
To keep the pace going for the weekend, we played a single, standard RoboRally board with four flags. The flags were laid out in a moderately-spaced crossing pattern to encourage "interaction". The crossing pattern had some effect throughout the game, but "interaction" ensued before reaching the first marker. In the mad dash for the first flag, Heather decided to get the party started by judiciously shoving her husband's robot into a pit. He came back with a chip on his shoulder (and two on his card) and got into a few nice firefights that included tampering with Jennifer's programming cards. Jennifer inflicted her own levels of damage on the field, and at one point Heather took a dive in a pit. Greg kept skating along, and although everyone eventually abandoned their own endeavors to attempt to snipe or bludgeon him (or snipe or bludgeon someone who was attempting to snipe or bludgeon him), he had easy sailing to the finish.
In Rook Jennifer out-sparkled everyone with a perfect score of 1000.
Greg finished the gaming by claiming his fifth win of the weekend with a win in Rummikub
This post by Bob.
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