Gonna get Got

Short Session report:

No new games this week. We started out with a game of Ticket to Ride:Europe and then played Pueblo 3 times.

Even though Kozure couldn't make it, Mrs. Duchamp joined us to make a foursome (the minimum needed to play with double routes). She caught on quickly and we all fought for routes in a surprisingly crowded board (I've been playing the base Ticket to Ride online, and it doesn't feel nearly this crowded with 4 players). Shemp managed a very long route and lucked out with a long ticket which had all three of his initial short tickets inside of it. I butted heads with Luch over a connection to Venezia (which I eventually got, but paid dearly for). I was far too idealistic when I drew tickets later into the game, keeping all three (for a total of 5)... Due to incredible luck drawing cards on my last two turns, I came VERY close, but I was one turn short (I only needed to put a station to finish them all!). In the end, Shemp won with a considerable lead, enough that even had I made all my tickets I still would have been short 2 points (of note, Mrs. D. did very well on her first go, successfuly claiming 5 routes. Conversely, Luch had a hard time and missed many of them, ending with a score low enough to get lapped by the leader!)

Next, we played Pueblo. We tried the "advanced" game, by bidding for turns and using 1 of the sacred sites (pieces which are placed on the board which make those areas off limits for the game). It seemed be a good addition, but we craved even more complexity. We then tried another with 3 sacred sites, to see how difficult it would become. The impact was fairly significant. Right from the start, players are forced into very unattractive moves and tough decisions (a connundrum which gave birth to the phrase "I'm gonna get got", the title of the blog). I enjoy the change of pace this game offers, and I definitely prefer the advanced game (although I still don't quite see the advantage of bidding for turn order on the first turn.. maybe the advantage of that will come apparent with time). Overall, it's a bit of a brain burner but it's definitely fun to play. We closed the evening with a final game of the base version, since we didn't really have time for anything else. I was lucky enough to win the first two games, but Luch won the last.