Seven of us this week so we split into groups of four and three with my group of four starting with Walnut Grove. I like this game but our game was very unforgiving with a heavy penalty for heating workers in wagons on the first round. The first two players in player order immediately went for extra farmhouses while the other two took pain. Julia was one that took pain and also found herself blocked because of player order on the next turn. However, she did recover well by building up a couple of large land areas but Mark G was the king of the prairie farmers by snapping up three improvement tiles for lots of bonus points at the end. We all thought a three player set-up would be kinder, especially for a first game but, having now played it once, we ought to be more aware of the potential for nasty blocking manoeuvres and winter events.

The other table of three tried Uwe Rosenberg's latest big box game, which owes quite a lot to his erlier Agricola and Le Havre. They were all very impressed by the game but agreed that three player was a good number to learn the game with. A fourth player would have made it too long. Guy clocked up another win in this game.

My table of four moved on from farming to gambling in Vegas, a really fun dice game designed by Rudiger Dorn and published by Alea. Lots of laughs and groans in this one and easily plays within 30 minutes. Everyone expected the dice king, Mark G, to win this but (and even I was surprised to find) I actually ruled the casino on this occasion.

We just had time for another game so decided to play Vegas a second time. Again, there were some really fun moments with Julia at one point having placed all her dice and noting that she wasn't winning at any casino, finding that by the end of the round she had won at two casinos due to players ahead of her getting tied and eliminated. When the dust settled, Mark G and Julia were tied for most money and had equal numbers of cards so they rejoiced in a joint win.

Eight of us this week so it was a good excuse to start with a game Julia had previously requested, Tumblin' Dice. Unfortunately, the dream team of Mark G and me were split up this time so we didn't get the chance to prove our dominance. We were also a bit concerned as to Nige's fitness and whether he might suffer another shoulder injury so we made sure he did plenty of stretching exercises before we started. The first round showed just how rusty at the game I have become as Guy and I scored just 3 points while NIge and Mark W surged out into the lead with 21 points. Mark G and Julia got their flicking fingers into gear in the second round and at the half-way mark, they led the field with 36 points while Andrew and Pete had amassed a paltry 8 points. They recovered a bit in the third round but Mark G and Julia held onto their lead. However, a barnstorming final round from Nige and Mark W saw them collect 36 points and the win. I had some questions over whether Nige was taking performance-enhancing medication to guard against injury but we gave them the benefit of the doubt.

We then split into two groups with five of us trying out Last Will, which is basically Brewster's Millions the Board Game. After a good start, I stalled towards the end while Nige and Mark W looked well positioned for the final (7th) round. However, that never came as Guy managed to become penniless at the end of the sixth round to claim an early win. We all liked the mechanics of the game but felt it was way too long with five players. I'd like to try again with three players at some point.

On the other table, Pete taught Andrew and Julia Small World. However, he didn't teach it well enough for them to stop him winning.

After Small World, the group of three wanted to try the new Zooloretto dice game and, as the turns at Last will were taking lots of time, I had plenty of chance to explain the rules to them. Pete was able to chalk up a second win of the night here.

Next up for the table of three was the clever pie-dividing game, Piece of Cake, with Pete again proving he was hungriest for the win (and the cake).

Pete's winning streak had to come to an end at some point and it did with the final game of the evening. And how! In the second hand of 6 Nimmt, he scored a massive 45 points and was only a couple of points off ending the game there and then. He recovered in the third round but he still passed 66 points, leaving Andrew to claim the win by a single point.

This week, eight gathered at my house so we split into two groups with Mark K teaching Lords of Vegas to Mark G and myself, while Julia tried to remember her previous playing of the game. This was a fun game where fortunes swung from player to player. My good early start evaporated when the two experts started picking on me. Then Mark K and I seemed to be doing all we could to help cement Julia's very strong position. Although Mark K had a late rally, it wasn't quite enough to catch Julia. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the game, especially when the dice results were defying the laws of probability. Good stuff.

On the second table, Nige was teaching Cosmic Encounter. Andrew was obviously doing pretty well when the obligatory shout of "Even Andrew can't lose it from here" was heard, which normally results in Andrew doing what seemingly he shouldn't be able to do. On this occasion though, he did manage to keep his nose in front.

Our table continued with an old Klaus Teuber game, Gnadenlos, in which you try to use adventurer cards to win competitions in panning for gold, shoot-outs and playing poker. The novel and fun part of the game comes when you have to pay your adventurers' IOUs as your stack of gold nuggets gets eaten into and you never know which player's IOUs are going to turn up. Unfortunately, I got one rule horribly wrong but we agreed to follow through on my variant, which didn't really impact the gameplay too much. However, when I turned out to be the winner, the inevitable question marks were thrown out as to the validity of the result.

The other table finished up with Bohnanza and it looked like a pretty close result. However, Mark W turned out to be the most accomplished bean farmer and claimed the victory.

With seven of us this week, I sat down with Andrew and Mark G to try the second scenario from D&D: The Legend of Drizzt. This saw Bruenor, Drizzt and Rogue searching for the entrance to Mithril Hall and an ancient crown while fighting several monsters lurking in the underground passageways. Eventually we found the broken door leading to Mithril Hall and managed to defeat Artemis Entreri, the secret assassin, allowing us to claim the crown and win the scenario. Mark and I both enjoyed this but it wasn't really Andrew's kind of game. I'd quite like to try one of the competitive scenarios, possibly one with a traitor element involved. There should be lots of replay value in this one.

On the other table, Mark K had brought along Dominant Species and they decided to try a shortened game, which actually turned out to be nicely timed to fit into our usual evening timespan. Don't know much about this one apart from the fact that Julia did a lot of glaciation. Nevertheless, Mark K seemed to set himself up for a fairly comfortable win.

Our group of three had time for another game after our dungeon crawl and Mark G suggested the excellent civilization dice game, Roll Through The Ages. Andrew had not played before but he certainly was pretty single-minded in purchasing developments as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, he was also suffering from a number of disasters and when he eventually triggered the end of the game by reaching five developments, he misjudged the overall points position and I was able to claim the win.