16th January - Leonardo Da Vinci

Ah......Leonardo Da Vinci, last time we played this on November 14th last year I had a pretty awful experience. Didn't invent a single thing, put the wrong components under my lab for one invention and came a dismal last place. Well, I couldn't do any worse this time.....could I? After a quick recap of the rules off we went, playing the advanced set-up where each player chooses 3 favours at the start of the game. I have just had a look at the Nov 14th report and I actually took the same 3, extra apprentice, 4 components and my other lab.



The game flowed fairly smoothly this time and only lasted around 90 minutes, last time we struggled with the rules and mechanics and it lasted nearly 3 hours. We still played the last 2 rounds wrong, we thought that you couldn't declare new inventions in those 2 rounds, but you can....Ah well, next time we'll get it right.
The game is fairly straightforward once you get the hang of it, I think Steve put the wrong components in a lab once, so I am not alone in that :) Looking at the top 4 inventions on the deck seemed quite popular being taken a number of times, Garry took it last, only so he could rearrange them so that the last person to do it (Richard I think) wouldn't know what was coming up next. In the end Richard still won, beating Garry by 7 points. On the invention front, I had 3 different, Garry 4, Steve 2 and Richard had 3.

Final Scores (Inventions Bonus - Money in Hand)
Richard 8+50 = 58
Garry 13+38 = 51
Colin 8+27 = 35
Steve 0+25 = 25