Mike and Kathleen came over next, and rather than stretch to a 6 player game, we split into two groups of three. Arman, Laura and Matt played Carcassonne, where Arman did quite well for his first time, while Mike, Kathleen and I played 3-player Ticket to Ride. With only three, it was a much tighter game, as there are no double routes available on the board. So once a route is played, it's gone. We all scrambled to fill the board quickly. I scraped by with an unlikely connection overlap, while Kathleen and Mike blocked and parried in the south-east. In the end, Mike almost won, but missed connecting one city for a loss of 17 points, enough to put me in the lead for victory.
Both games were done about the same time, so we moved on to 5ive Straight. I remember my parents enjoying this game with their friends, but somehow I never remember playing it myself. On a recent trip home, I found they had two copies, so they graciously let me take one back for our game group to try out. Tonight we had 6 and needed a quick closer game, so it was time for the 5ive Straight magic. It was weird to play a themeless game, being so accustomed to medieval settings for our game night regulars.
As we'd just played Ticket to Ride, I noticed a few similarities, as your turn is either draw a new card or play a card and put a peg on the board, and it made explaining the rules that much easier. Our teams sorted out to be Matt and Kathleen, Laura and Arman, and Mike and myself, and we were off. We started playing in the 90s quickly, each of us going for three in a row quickly. But it seems we were spoiled by Attika, where you can sometimes leave the blocking to the last possible player. With partners, it was much easier to make connections, and the game was over after three rounds, with Matt and Kathleen victorious.
There seemed to be more here than what we were playing, so we stepped up our efforts to block and began again. Once again, we were playing for the 90s first, moving toward some low numbers, but we missed some key blocks, giving Laura and Arman the quick win in three rounds this time. Hmmm, this game is harder than we thought, and requires some co-operation!
Not to be defeated so easily, we tried one more game. This time, our blocks came out quickly, sometimes even before there were three pegs in a possible row. The 90s were not as well focused, and the attention turned to the 60s and 70s in the upper-left corner. Each of us made an effort to connect, and the game went about 6 or 7 rounds, but eventually we all ran out of cards, except Laura and Arman. They moved in for the end pegs, Laura playing a low card and Arman following up with the last peg for the win, while we all drew cards and watched.
This is a game that takes some effort to block, and some hand management so you don't run out of cards. It's definitely a classic that we'll be playing again, and not as simple as it seems.
