Nige sent me this report.

"With Garry away again it was up to your truly to provide the games report for this week. Just 3 of us this week and one old fave and a new one to keep us company.

First up was an old fave San Marco. I think the game has been described earlier but as a recap...The game mechanics are fairly simple - you place ambassadors in certain regions on the board. Each region has a certain no of VPs associated with it depending upon whether you have the most ambassadors or second most ambassadors in that region. When the Doge comes to call you score the VPs of the region he lands in. In order to play ambassadors or move the Doge you need certain cards. A proposer splits the cards into piles and the other players select the pile that they want - In each pile there will be good cards together with negative cards that you don't want. The skill is choosing the correct pile.

Anyway Mark K started off well securing some lucrative regions and scoring with the Doge. I managed to score the least negative points so picked up an end of round bonus together with a free banishment. The second round continued with it being very close between mark k and myself. At the end of the third round it really was a 2 horse race. Mark G however held the key, He finished the last round with the fewest negative points so had the free banishment. If he banished Mark I would win - if he banished me Mark K would win. The trusty dice came to the rescue as he rolled it to determine who would be banished. Sadly my number was up so I was banished and Mark K won a close one."