Due to the weather and a massive blackout, the group was a little different to normal. So we started the night with a game of Ticket to Ride. I started with two routes that took me from LA, across the top of the board and down to Chicago. They weren't huge scoring paths, but I figured they would set me up well for future routes.
However, it was the first game I've played with 5 people in a long time, so I'd forgotten that it takes longer to build up your hand and the board fills up quicker. It took me 3/4 of the game to make my first two routes. I picked up another two routes that both joined onto the ends of my existing track, so I was able to keep to my goal of having one long track.
I caused the game to end, and ended up with a very tight second place (the last route card I picked up that I couldn't do was the difference).
We then broke out a game that I'm calling Beananza, although the real name is in German (I think it's actually the same thing). It was a set-collecting card game were you tried to plant different types of beans. We all picked up the game pretty quickly, and it went really well. In the end there were only two points between the highest and the lowest scores - I finished in the middle of the pack.
We played a couple of extremely quick games of We Didn't Play Test This. Amusingly I didn't get to play a single card in either game.
The boys then had a go of Cutthroat Caverns, which is basically Munchkin without the puns. A bunch of adventures are trying to kill all the monsters, but want to make sure they're the one with the most kills.
It was a good mix of cooperative and backstabbing play. But unlike Munchkin, it wasn't so much a case of the winner being the last person who hadn't lost. We were able to use different tactics and plan to try and position ourselves best.
Partly because I was able to pull out the right cards when I needed them, and partly because W decided to try something foolish, I ended up winning.
We ended the night with a game of Dominion with the Prosperity expansion. I ended up winning quite comfortably. It wasn't until we were scoring at the end that I realised that I had played the entire game with only one action card in my deck (a Vault)! My money-making processes had just fallen into place so I hadn't needed to buy anything more.
As always, it was a great night!
