Digging in the Games Collection

I thought I had brought this diary up to date but it seems, and forgive me if this is a repeat, that I forgot Thursday's games.

It being Petra Pan's birthday, she and mrwendel were absent but embarassingly this had slipped the minds of the rest of us and we first of all looked for a short four-player game to fill the time before they got (or didn't get) here. ProfMudlark suddenly asked MaOldie for a number between 1 and 3  and then me for a number between 1 and 20. We didn't immediately realise what his intentions were but he disappeared into the hobbies room and returned with the game that was seventeenth down on the third set of shelves: Die Maulwurf Company.

This is a Ravensburger family game I found in a charity shop in Horsham a few years ago. Without English rules it was very cheap but I was soon able to obtain a translation from Boardgamegeek.com.

The game involves up to four teams (named the Power Team, the A-Team etc) of different colours, each with a set of disks with numbers on one side. The object is to move one's moles up to the number of links indicated by the turned over disk and to try and manoeuvre as many as possible into the holes. When all are filled that level is lifted clear, taking any remaining moles with it and revealing a new level with fewer holes. Ultimately one mole and one hole leaves only one victor sitting on "The Golden Shovel".

Quick, simple and attractive it once again more than justified the very small outlay its acquisition had entailed. When the dirt and worms had settled the victor sitting on the shovel belonged to Crabro but as all four teams had been represented until the very end everyone was happy.

After a flurry of messages, realisation that we would remain a four dawned and we decided on the main game of the evening. Once again we dipped into the recent bargain booty from "The Works" and this time chose to play Notre Dame.

Crabro and I had a slight advantage, having tried it out as a two-player a few weeks ago and perhaps that told as I won this one. As a kind of card-based worker placement game the mechanisms appeal to me and I was very happy to play it again.

Rats and plague didn't seem to worry us so much this time despite the medic not being so much in evidence. It seemed to us that sometimes it was better to ignore that problem and try to maximise other benefits.

I went for investment in Notre Dame early on when it was worth ten victory points to me on top of the three purchased and this is probably what ultimately won me the game although I was eventually joined in the middle of the board by MaOldie and Crabro.

The Prof surprised everyone including himself by running out of both money and cubes at one point. He rallied before the end though and the scores were not too far apart. Another pleasant evening's gaming albeit not the Steam session I was expecting.