I set up a Pitch Car before anyone got to my house. I had never taken it out of the box for AGN. Ken and Rich gave the cars a few token flips but I don’t think they were fooled into thinking it was a real game so I quickly packed it up and we got down to business.
First up on the docket was a round of Coloretto. I have played it with my family before but this was the first time for AGN. I think it went over pretty well. I suspect it will hit the table again in the weeks to come.
Tim showed up at 8:30 so we closed up Coloretto and next up was Pick Picknic. Rich was the only one who had played before so after laying down the rules we were quickly taking corn and feeding the chickens to the foxes. Pick Picknic is a light cube and card collection game that employs the “everybody play at once” mechanism like 6-Nimmt and Piratenbucht (among many others).
Our ‘time consuming’ game for the evening was Ticket to Ride Europe. Rich, Ken, and I had played online before but we ran through the rules for Mat and Tim and set off. Tim (red) kept all 4 route cards from the beginning. We laughed. We scoffed. We laughed again. But on the final turn of the game he made his last route. Ken (yellow) on the other hand went for the Hail Mary and managed to just finish out five…yes…count them…five route cards. Mat (blue) made a goofy turn mid-game (later called a ‘mistake’) that totally messed up Rich. Rich (green) and I (black) were fighting for the longest train bonus. I had kept two route cards from the beginning but ended up drawing another set of routes mid-game that allowed me to easily keep two of the three routes. Rich never drew more routes and ended up having to use a station. In the end, Rich and I tied for the longest train (37) but his lack of additional route cards cost him the extra points. Final scores were Mat (85), Tim (94), Ken (98), Rich (100), and me (109).
It was a great game night especially given that we were able to play 3 different games. Although Coloretto and Pick Picknic weren’t full games I was glad we played.
Several pictures for AGN – September 2005 are available in the gallery.
(Edited 09/13/2005) – Rules clarification. When two people tie for the longest train, both receive the full 10 point bonus. Rich and I split the 10 point bonus so the scores have been adjusted appropriately bring Rich into 2nd place forced Ken down to 3rd.