Copper bottoms out while tin foils plans

Today was the first “proper” games night of the week (ie, one that had been arranged more than twenty-four hours in advance) and four doughty players (Me – Andrew, Sam, Jonny and Adam) were in attendance for the feast of joy that is Board Games.

Adam and I arrived bang on time, seemingly not jaded at all after three games evenings in the space of a week. While three of us waited for Jonny to arrive, we tried a simple yet cunning game called “Hey, That’s My Fish!” In this game, penguins hop from one chunk of floating ice to another, collecting fish and leaving gaps wherever they once stood. Each player must be careful not to get trapped behind these gaps, but Sam showed himself to be the master of cutting himself off with a plentiful supply of fish that he can take at his leisure. It was non-Leaderboard, but just for the sake of complete-ness the scores were Sam 35, Adam 30, Andrew 30.

Then Jonny arrived and he chose Tinners’ Trail as tonight’s main event. We set up and set about filling Cornwall with water-logged holes as we chased the price of tin and copper up and down the markets. I began with a simple strategy: finish ahead of Adam and you're bound to finish first. A strategy that, for once, was not true.

Adam started slowly, investing no money at all in the first round. I had the (slightly soggy) East Cornwall area all to myself for most of the game while the other three battled for the rest of the county. But Adam was on the receiving end of some poor rolls and despite an incredible run in the final round where he actually earned over £100, he couldn’t make up for his early slow start.

But as the final round began, I couldn’t tell who was in the lead. Myself, Jonny and Sam all had quite a presence on the investor board/score track. In the end, Sam took the first place, with me in second and Adam taking third from Jonny right at the end.

Sam 115
Andrew 108
Adam 101
Jonny 100

Afterwards, Adam told me how I could’ve played it differently so as to win, but I think he was just sublimating the desire to tell himself how he could’ve avoided third.

After that, Jonny sped home and Sally was tempted by the lure of the Leaderboard to a game of “Hey, That’s My Fish!” Adam was keen to play again, suspecting the game had hidden depths. Sally was given a guide to the rules – of which there are only two, more or less. The game was fast and deadly (for the fish) and by the end the scores told a very interesting story.

Sam 28
Sally 26
Andrew 24
Adam 22

Adam, for the first time in months, finished a game outside the top three. Meanwhile, Sam surged ahead with his second win of the night.

The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio
Sam	11	49.5	4.5
Adam	9	40.5	4.5
Andrew	11	38.5	3.5
Joe	5	16.5	3.3
Dan	2	8	4
Sally	1	4.5	4.5
Jonny	1	2.5	2.5