Thirsty Meeples is tucked away on a small market square in the centre of Oxford. On Saturday 30th April a very busy market was running obscuring the shop for the average passer by.
I had arrived a little early - perhaps 20 minutes or so - the shop only had a few customers in it. But one thing was very apparent..... They had A LOT of games in their library:
Their shop was pretty impressive too:
I spent a few minutes becoming accustomed to the layout and Halfling arrived, we chatted for a few minutes and then both agreed that we should get down to business and start playing. A quick game of basic Carcassonne. Within a matter of minutes Curt, Rich_The_Fish and JTAtomico arrived.
For many of us, it was the first time we had played with the Abbot. I quite liked this mini-expansion, I don't think it detracted from the game and it meant we could risk more on cloisters and helped with balancing 5-players. The game was pretty intense, I was doing quite well by magically drawing all the cloisters. JT won the game by securing a large farm!
Next it was time for Gold Rush. Again I think this was new to most of us. I certainly enjoyed the mining token / tent aspect of the game. I didn't seem to score many rail-roads, but got a few points for the cloistery-thing.
Here's the end game:
It was a very close finish!
Next, we decided to split into 2 smaller groups. Curt,JT and Halfling played Carcassonne:The City, while Rich and I played Carcassonne:The Castle. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the City game, but did take a snap at the end of our Castle game:
I think it was pretty safe to say, that neither Rich or myself had any idea what we were doing; I put my victory down to having played the game once before.
Rich The Fish then shared with us: Between Two Cities. At first it sounded extremely complicated; the wording in the rule book wasn't fantastic either. But actually, a lot of the set-collecting, pattern making elements of the game were quite intuitive.
If I remember correctly, Halfling's investments in pubs paid off and his lowest scoring city made him the winner. You have to be happy knowing that was a worth investment.
Shortly afterwards Rich showed me the 2-player variant. I wasn't as taken with this, it was an almost solitary experience.
I lost track of the other table around this time. I think a game of New World had started, now that Dan and Nick were present.
Rich The Fish and I thought we'd have a go at - Single Colour Carcassonne:
I enjoyed this simple variant, but I think it might be even better with 3 players!
As is customary with all Carcassonne Central Meetups, a game of South Seas has to be played:
Even though I lost, I feel I got the moral victory by claiming the ship with the smiley-face, so I was happy.
While we were finishing here, I turned around to find our other table playing: My First Carcassonne:
Good Thumb-sucking action Halfling
The day was almost over at this point. Jungleboy had just enough time to teach us Karuba, which had been on my radar for a while. The game was very quick, but organizing those tiles was a pain at the start. I didn't score very highly....mainly because I sent my Purple Adventurer to the Brown Temple....thankfully there was no photographic evidence of this.
Our second table managed to get one quick game of Tsuro in and even found time for Hunters and Gatherers!
Here's the motely crew: Curt194, JTAtomico,Decar,DanisThirty,Rich_The_Fish,Jungleboy,Halfling
We had a great time at Thirsty Meeple, the staff were very attentive and knowledge about their gaming library. The sausage rolls were pretty good too!
We ended the day at 5pm, had a quick drink in a pub before Dan had to shoot off and pay his parking fines. Finally we ended the day at Chutney's, a curry house recommended by JT Atomico (+1 for that).
Thanks for everyone making the effort to come yesterday; it's great to see the UK's Carcassonne Community leading the charge! It was a bit of a shame we didn't get time for 7 Wonders (I'd been practising) nor Colt Express, but we have to save something for next time!
Share Topic
April 03, 2021, 02:39:30 PM