Four time's a charm

This week saw a rare five-way battle between regulars Joe, Quentin, Adam, Sam and myself, Andrew. And giddy with excitement at such esteemed companionship, we ploughed through four games in one evening.

Joe was a late-comer, so the evening began with a gentle Roll Through The Ages between the other four players. At least it was gentle until wave upon wave of pestilence swept across the kitchen table causing untold grief to everyone except Sam, who’d invented medicine. This evening saw a new side to Quentin that we’d previously not seen, as a remarkable series of freakish rolls of the dice meant he got no people at all until around the fifth round, with each failed roll or inadvertent disaster greeted with a slew of profanities. But in the end, it was Sam’s disease-free civilisation that won the day, comfortably beating Adam, Andrew and Quentin (in that order), who all struggled to get out of single figures.

Joe arrived mid-Stone Age, and so the first leaderboard-centred game was chosen: Seven Wonders. It was the first time in a while that we’d played this, and we had difficulty remembering a few of the finer points regarding strategy. There seemed to be a general lack of resources around the board, such that Adam and I both had a healthy stockpile of cash by the end. By the end of the game, a quick glance at the table left us baffled as to who had won and it was only after a tense round of totting up the scores that the truth was known:

Adam: 58
Andrew: 52
Joe: 49
Sam: 48
Quentin: 44

The night was still young, so a further game was suggested. No Thanks was chosen, and it was decided that this would also go on the leaderboard. Once again, my tactic of picking up low cards was mocked as never having got me a win, but frankly I didn’t get much of a chance as I ended up picking up middling cards, with little chance of linking them up. Sam’s run of five high cards was very tidy but it was cautious Adam who picked up his second win of the evening.

Adam: 15
Sam: 17
Quentin: 27
Joe: 35
Andrew: 43

At 10.20pm, blood was coursing through our veins and we weren’t about to meekly go to bed, so a fourth game was chosen. This time we decided to keep this off the leaderboard, and it was another bidding game: For Sale. It started well for Quentin who picked up the 30 point card for only $3000. But the bidding-for-properties part is only the first half of the game: it’s how you use those points that’s important. In the bidding-for-money part, in the first round I fluked a $15,000 bill for a bid of only 13 points! After that head start, sensible play was all I needed to ensure a comfortable first place to end the evening. Points (in thousands of dollars) were: Andrew 58; Quentin 55; Sam 49; Adam 45; Joe 41.

After such a concentrated session of gaming, Quentin could only rue the damage done to his points ratio, but Adam was more chipper after last Tuesday’s last place.

The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio
Adam	13	67	5.15
Joe	15	59	3.93
Andrew	16	52.5	3.28
Sam	11	47.5	4.31
Quentin	9	36	4
Hannah	3	11.5	3.8
Jonny	1	2	2