Tuesday 2 September 2014

Red Means Stop

Three of us made it to Easton to join Adam and Hannah. Andrew and Matt dropped out late, Ian was away, but I (Sam) was a late addition and, having been collected by Joe, arrived at the re-stocked guinea pig hotel to find Adam and Martin in combat over a game of Hive, which to my mind doesn't get played enough (though to be fair it is a two-player).

I had just finished explaining the rules to Age of War when they finished (I didn't pick up who won) and joined us, making it the first 5-player of the evening.

It's a simple Knizia game; rethemed from an earlier title based on Risk (which was called Risk Express). Several cards are laid in the centre of the table - these are castles, and in order to capture them you roll a set of seven dice. If you can fill one of the "battle lines" in a chosen castle, you do so. If you can't, you have to sacrifice a die before rolling again. Fill all the battle lines, and you claim the castle for your own.

As well as claiming castles from the centre you can also grab them off the other players (although this is harder) and - as the castles come in certain colours, representing tribes - if you gain all the castles of a certain colour, you can flip the cards over, giving you a twofold benefit: firstly they can't be stolen from you, and secondly you gain a points bonus.

Grrr

We all liked it I think, even Hannah, who fate shat on from a great height as she continuously fell short of the necessary dice icons needed (there's cavalry, bowmen and so on) and having finally captured a castle, had it nicked from under her nose. In the end it was a close run thing between myself, Adam, Joe and Martin. To win I'd have to steal a card from someone, but also hope nobody would steal a castle from me and the last castle in the central pool would still be available on my next turn. Coupled with the fact there were concerns over how long the game might last, I decided to grab the final castle to claim second place:

Adam 9
Sam 8 (2nd on most castles)
Martin 8 (3rd on most castles)
Joe 8
Hannah 0

After a debate over whether to play Railways of the World or not, we finally settled on Ra, the game that even my electronic devices have no auto-correct for.

Martin, unaware of the Ra-ing he was about to receive

This game needs no introduction, and we began like a bunch of old folks settling into a comfy chair. Although Adam and Hannah had to share a chair, as they played as a team. I bailed early on the first round, picking up a decent bunch of monument tiles and covering the bases elsewhere. It was a tactic I tried to continue throughout, despite picking up crappy bidding tiles, and it just might've worked if it hadn't been for that pesky Martin picking up a shitload of Pharaohs in round two.

Martin's Pharaohs stretched on into the night

That loss of 5 points was enough for monument king Joe to sail past me:

Joe 43
Sam 38
Martin 35
Adam and Hannah 34

easy

There was little debate over the next game. Joe pooh-poohed playing Port Royal, as he has played it so much recently, and I pooh-poohed it too as I think it's kind of pooh-poohy. Instead we played Red, the game of completely confusing rule-changing. Like Age of War, I believe we all liked it. Unlike Age of War, sitting at the end of the table where me and Hannah were made it very hard to tell the difference between indigo and purple. "Just like real life" as Hannah philosophically noted.
"The colour's written on the cards!" Martin pointed out, in-between thrashing us all (except Joe, who in the early running looked like the likely winner).

Martin 37
Joe 25
Sam 0
Adam and Hannah 0

By now we were all, as we collectively confessed, 'pooped' - but as Martin and I had cups of tea to finish, we broke out the classic No Thanks. Joe and I both took calculated risks in putting together runs, and they both paid off. Martin ran out of coins. Hannah, perhaps sensing leaderboard implosion, let Adam go this one alone:

Joe 18
Sam 24
Martin 64
Adam 67
Arthur is there in spirit for the family portrait

A very enjoyable evening that couldn't even be spoiled by me knocking my cheap Spanish wine over. Fortunately I'd just enough left to spray the table and chair, but leave the carpet and guinea pigs completely unsullied. Now that's a games night.







Points
Ian3 1 2 2 1 9
Joe 1 2 1 4 2 10
Andrew2 2 3 1 2 10
Martin 3 1 3 3 1 11
Chris 1 2 13 5 12
Sam 2 3 2 2 3 12
Adam 4 3 4 1 1 13
Hannah 3 4 5 2 2 16
Matt 2 3 5 3 4 17
Paul 2 2 5 5 5 19
Steve 1 5 5 5 5 21

8 comments:

  1. Gosh it was lovely to return to the fold last night, even if we were relatively few in number.

    I liked Age of War, though I think I prefer the simplicity of Pickomino, which it remind me of with the dice to capture tiles and stealing other player's tiles. Not entirely the same though, and I'd be happy to play again.

    Ra is an all-time classic. I slightly regret my purchase of Priests of Ra, because the scoring is no simpler really, and I think the iconography of the original is very straightforward (or maybe I'm just much more used to it now).
    It was a ding-dong game, very close in the end. That sun scoring at the end could have put any of us into first place.

    Red I thought was great, and I'd love to play again - I never ever want to see those advanced rules thanks.

    And speaking of no thanks - No Thanks! Haven't played that in what seems like forever, and was reminded of what a brilliant game it is. Lovely to play a game where there's absolutely no discussion of rules or even players needing to describe what they're doing - just play, punctuated by cajoling, coffee-housing and the sound of tiny plastic tokens landing on the table (and the floor).

    Thanks Hannah and Adam for hosting - let's do more sooooon!

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  2. I don't think Adam liked Red. In fact, he told me quite vociferously that he didn't :)

    Damn you Ra and your capricious whims!

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  3. Who won Hive? I seem to recall you cursing a fair bit Martin.

    Also I forgot to put in your hilarious drawing of consecutive Ra tiles!

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  4. One more and you'd have had to carry me home!

    Adam won Hive. I was rusty :)

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  5. Yeah. I said if Martin drew out four consecutive Ra tiles I'd give him a piggy-back to his house. Fortunately he only drew three.

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  6. Oh yes. I thought he was referring to one more glass of the Spanish Red - wish you'd got a photo of that flagon, Sam.

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  7. I did take some photos but can't get my phone to sync with the laptop...

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  8. Hive was fun, with the balance of insect power swinging wildly between us.

    I didn't get a chance to enjoy Red as it was over before I'd understood how it worked (possibly related to the glass of red provided by Sam which I definitely did enjoy). Martin said that the rounds are usually a bit quicker and lower scoring so perhaps it just needs another try.

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