Venue: Pat’s place.
Present: Jeff G., Jeff F., Alex, Brad, Jonathan, Richard, Lindsay, Pat, Paul.
Played: Other games not recorded, Exxtra, Death Angel, Coloretto, The Resistance, Thunderstone Dragonspire, Ascending Empires, Dominant Species, Navegador, Dry Gulch Junction, Limits.
Picture gallery below.
Exxtra: (NB: Just discovered that this has recently been re-released as Excape!)
My first game of the day although the other guys had already got a few under their collective belts. This played as a filler until the Death Angel guys finished their game.
2 mins rules refresh; 13 mins game time.
Results: Pat: (blue): wins. Jonathan (red): -3 spaces from the end. Jeff G. (green): -9. Jeff F. (yellow): -14. Paul (black): - a lot (of course - it’s a dice game!). 
Death Angel: Results recorded by Richard:
Richard, Brad, Alex: Death becomes us. Gene stealers reported to be putting on weight and ready for breeding. (Whatever that means…)
Added by Brad in an email yesterday:
A point about the game between Richard, Al & myself for when it’s played next
The Void Lock card is the 1st location card every time, after that the location cards are placed in order 1 (A, B or C), 2 (A, B or C), 3 & then 4.
So the Void Lock will be the first location, then a card from 1, then a card from 2, then 3 & the final location will always be from deck 4.
Also, Doors are quite useful as they impact all Genestealers in the formation, not just at the door itself.
Cheers
Brad
(Whatever all that means…)
Coloretto: Another filler - Death Angel still in progress.
3 mins rules and setup; about 20 mins game time.
Results: Paul: 28. Jeff F. and Pat: 23 each. Jeff G.: 21. Jonathan: 17.
The Resistance: Two games squeezed in, both satisfying, but especially game two, with Richard and Brad counter-accusing each other of being spies, despite both being innocent. It was a marvellous thing to encourage, being on the side of evilness!
Game 1: 27 mins, incl rules refresh (and first time for Jonathan): Pat, Jonathan and Jeff the spies, but failing against The Resistance (Richard, Brad, Paul and Alex).
Game 2: 34 mins game time: This time the spies (Pat, Paul, Alex) delightfully successful against The Resistance (Richard, Jeff, Brad, Jonathan).
Thunderstone: Dragonspire: Apparently like a cross between Dominion and Ascenion.
About 109 mins incl rules and setup.
Played by Jonathan, Alex, Pat, Lindsay. No results info recorded.
Ascending Empires: Richard brought this game of galactic empire expansion and military competition, with the unusual feature of flicking timber spaceship discs to expand across space between planets. Unfortunately my flicking action was appalling. Apparently a dexterity skill I couldn’t master, despite previous successes (although none recent) on the Crokinole table.
Leaving this aside, three of us were playing fairly steadily and uneventfully, until glancing over to notice that Brad had been steadily collecting a bunch of points tokens and gradually working his way up the various progress tables - including the military strength one. Before too long he had himself a battleship that he was using to devastating effect, eventually securing the end game and a deserved win.
21 mins rules and setup; 82 mins game time.
Results: Brad (red): 34. Richard (blue): 26. Paul (yellow): 19. Jeff F. (green): 18. 
Dominant Species: I’m looking forward to the opportunity of playing this one myself some time soon.
About 30 mins rules and setup; 205 mins game time.
Results: Lindsay (Insects; green): 169. Jeff F. (Arachnids; red): 167. Alex (Mammals; white): 133. Jonathan (Reptiles; yellow): 129. 
Navegador: First-time playing for Richard and me, and maybe Brad too. I really like the look-and-feel and the theme of this game, despite the fact that, given the end scores, I clearly did not play it well at all! In hindsight the most significant problem for me (also for Richard and Brad, but less so) was neglecting the Workers recruiting option! By the time I (and the other two) appreciated the significance of these, it was too late and they were too expensive to try catch-up moves with. Having learnt this lesson I’m eagerly looking forward to another playing of this.
BTW - I love the board art on this - reminisicent of De Vulgari. Although I don’t love the box front art.
33 mins rules and setup; 75 mins game time.
Results: Pat (blue): 95. Richard (red): 70. Brad (black): 69. Paul (green): 48. 
Dry Gulch Junction: Chosen primarily as a filler while waiting for the Dominant Species players, this turned out to be an interesting and decent game beyond expectations. For the first half or maybe two-thirds of the game, I really didn’t know how I was supposed to be playing to maximise my score results and spent much of that time confused! But I managed to put myself into the groove with enough plays to avoid humilation at least and enjoy the theme of town-building in the wild west.
22 mins rules and setup; 32 mins game time.
Results: Pat (blue): 57. Paul (green): 52. Richard (red): 48. 
Limits: Light night-ending game with positive scoring a rarity.
6 mins rules and setup; 31 mins game time.
Results: Pat and Jeff F: +1 each. Paul: -1. Jonathan: -4. Alex: -6.
Gallery:
-
-
Exxtra
-
-
Death Angel
-
-
Coloretto
-
-
Ascending Empires
-
-
Ascending Empires
-
-
Navegador
-
-
Navegador
-
-
Dominant Species
-
-
Dominant Species
-
-
Dry Gulch Junction
-
-
Limits
Digg It and other sharing pointers: