Wednesday Night at Critical Hit

Princes of Florence

I bought PoF a few weeks ago, and Tim bought it right after we had a chance to play it with Jerod. Since then, I think I've played it once, and Tim hasn't been able to get it on the table. However, there's been a lot of interest, and Jerod made a good scheduling move getting on the board.

When I got there at six, I was a little hungry, but Chris was there with Tim's board and three other players, ready to go, so I sat down to play. Another player showed up, and Jerod abdicated his seat. Another interested party came in the form of Eric, who spends a lot of time in the store, and I gave up my seat. I figured I could get dinner, and another game would start soon. Plus, I like to take every chance to get new players into games, as it increases the chance of being able to find opponents.

After a quick run to Hardee's, I experienced a little frustration. Dan wasn't playing, as he wanted to scout Tim and Dave's Blood Bowl Quarter-final match. Jerod was willing to play, but nobody else. A couple people were trying to get Betrayal at House on the Hill going, and that proved to be the more popular option. So, I waited an hour and a half for the first game to finish, to get in on the second.

Chris won the first game, and we had more than enough interest for the second, including one of the players who'd played with Chris. I ended up being in the second seat. I like the fifth seat in a five player, as you have the chance to rush a work for a quick three points, but I like the second seat even better. Since there are six extra profession cards, you are guaranteed to get a second, which is actually a pretty big advantage (as Chris pointed out, half a jester for 300). Things started off pretty well, with really high bidding for jesters (1500, 1500, 1400 over the first three turns), and some other stuff going pretty cheap. I think I got a recruiting card for 200, and there were multiple 200 cost prestige cards. I decided to take the path of least resistance, bidding jesters up, and then folding, and then taking whatever I could get for a couple or three hundred. I messed up and rushed a work on turn two, knowing I could get twelve and thinking people were unlikely to pass me later. However, that wasn't the case, and I was left kicking myself staring at another profession that shared a building, meaning I'd want to build it anyway, and, hence, I would have made four more off the card, as well as bonus points, on the next turn, probably. I held off building until I got a builder for 400, and had strong turns for the last four rounds. I got a couple lucky bonus cards, and definitely a lucky pull on my prestige card, pulling plus 8 for all three freedoms when I had already purchased them... It was a pretty good, tight game, but then the third and fourth seat players sort of decided they'd had enough of thinking, and just built their last works for all prestige, leaving them with no money to spend. They then, for the last two turns, lost prestige for money to buy things for small gains. They definitely would have done a little better if they'd just planned ahead and kept a couple hundred in ducats. Steve, to my right, in the first seat, pulled a couple decent bonus cards. Going into the last round, things were pretty close, but I had two bonus cards and two professions. Steve made a big work of value 30, but with two jesters and six professions, I was able to make two of twenty, and, then, with a five bonus and a six bonus, pump one of them up to 31. This put me well in the lead. With the prestige card in hand, I had it locked, as Chris was too far behind for his smaller prestige cards to close the gap. So, I think it finished me, Chris, Steve, and then the fourth and third seats, whose names I didn't catch, unfortunately.

This solidified my admiration for Princes. I like it better with five than with the three that we originally played it with. It's certainly a different game with three, with a lot less pressure to go into bidding wars. I don't think that's necessarily bad, though - you just have a little more room to explore a strategy. It's certainly somewhat more friendly with fewer players.

Well, the wedding is looming, so there's probably not going to be too much gaming coming up. Scratch that. As I write this, I remember that I have a playtest report for Tide of Iron due on Monday, and that Kurt and I are playing Hammer of the Scots that night, and that I have my "bachelor game night" on Thursday... I hope I have some time to write!

GG, GL