I have occasionally had to call games early because it was closing time; however, never had I had to call a game because the shop was not going to be there on the morrow!

Scott, Mikey, Brad and I played a game of Urban Sprawl at Guf Sturt St in Ballarat yesterday. It’s been my place of choice for gaming for the past few years. No-one but I had played this minor masterpiece before, so I very much enjoyed teaching it to them.

Urban Sprawl is one of those games where the game state can change entirely from one move to the next. Or it might not. Once the Urban Renewal cards make their way into the deck, entire streetscapes can change in minutes, often much to the dismay of whoever’s property is being renewed. We didn’t really use as much of that in the game as we should have. The early lead of each of us in the early game was replaced by a fairly dominant lead of Mikey by the middle of the game – a lead he maintained.

Money was an ongoing problem. I became treasurer, but lost it before the end to become and Industry specialist. Brad had a great early game, but lost the position in the mid-game and never managed to regain it, and Scott and I spent a lot of the game behind before roaring back into contention in the last few turns.

Scott ended up with three positions on the council – that helped. He’d been muttering things about the poor Mayor (generally Brad) for most of the game.

When the game ended, Scott had just claimed the most expensive block on the game, renewing Mikey out of his position of dominance. We were four cards away from the game ending (likely one more turn each), when time got called on Guf Sturt St, forever.

We quickly did the final scoring. I actually scored 10 points from money!

Final scores:

• Mikey (black) 113
• Merric (green) 103
• Scott (pink) 96
• Brad (white) 72

Guf Sturt St is now closed. A new version of the store – merged with the computer gaming business – will be opening a couple of blocks away tomorrow, but for now, we’ve made our farewells and turned out the lights.