Wednesday 26 April 2017

Cheese a Devil Woman

One thing I do remember from Tuesday evening was a brief discussion about how baffling the notes made in the drunken haze of a games night could be the next morning. And so it was that today I found myself staring at the words now being used as this article's title with little idea of what prompted me to write it down in the first place.

Last week's Solid Six turned out to be a little flakey this week: with Martin unable to come and no one else to take his place, we were just five. Sam the host, Ian, Joe, Katy and me. At the appointed time Sam was out collecting his son from martial arts training so the four of us entertained with a jolly game of Mamma Mia.

Joe's copy of Mamma Mia seemed to have an
exclusive expansion pack

Midway through the game, Katy was doing so well that she set her sights on making a complete set. Ian, on the other hand, played very few recipe cards in the first two rounds.

Round three, though, reminded me of the final stages of Eclipse, with everyone piling in because, why not? Katy didn't complete the set and I came close to a tie for first.


Katy 7
Andrew 6
Joe 4
Ian 3

By now Sam was back and settled so it was time to decide on the evening's entertainment. Sam and Joe were keen on revisiting Great Western Trail before they forgot the rules and we're happy to play a two-player if no one else wanted in. Which was the case.

Us remaining three perused Sam's games wall, trying to decide what to play and then chose Katy's copy of Isle Of Skye.

"Watch out for moneybleed!" warned Ian
as our respective currencies threatened to merge

We set up swiftly (both games, with Sam and Joe arranging the pieces of GWT with lightning speed) and started our respective adventures. We got a good selection of scoring tiles, meaning we had to concentrate on sets of buildings, completed areas, sheep, and money. Which is more or less the point of the game anyway.

I fell behind, but midway looked like staging a comeback, only for Ian and Katy to speed off without me in the final stages.


Katy 7
Ian 70
Andrew 63

Still, it was fun and relaxing, especially since some of us were still recovering from the AP overload of Saturday.

When we were done, GWT was still in full flow so we picked out another game. Ian and I suggested Quantum, but then preferred Cosmic Run as lighter fare.

After explaining the rules to Katy, complete with confusion over the role of the aliens and a remarkably lucky roll of three fives to illustrate a point I was making, we got down to it.

My luck with the dice during the tutorial did not desert me. Throughout the game I think I wasted maybe a couple of dice. Ian and Katy, though, both had opportunities scorned by Lady Fate, returning home unrewarded for their dice rolls.


Andrew 87
Katy 59
Ian 58

We finished as Joe and Sam had totted up the scores and were packing away.


Joe 55
Sam 48

With Sam commenting that the win was more convincing than the score would suggest.

Since we were a five again, we played a lovely communal game: 6nimmt.

Oh, the agony. 6nimmt is a game that seems to hate its players. We wailed at our grim fate, or delighted in others' discomfort. I got a hand full of multiples of eleven, and didn't know how to play it. Joe put down a card which would normally be safe except that everyone else crammed onto that row before him. This prompted another baffling drunken note: "Amazing. Write that down. Gareth Hunt."


Joe started well with a clear round and Katy and Ian also went clear later on. But it was Katy who clocked up another win as I edged over the 66 limit.

Katy 17
Ian 19
Joe 40
Sam 46
Andrew 67

After this there was time for one more game. We considered Dead Man's Chest, but when we found out that Katy had never played Perudo, it was brought to the table, quicksticks.


With her familiarity with Dead Man's Chest, she had no problems with the rules. As we played, Joe was first to go down to his last die, but he then survived while myself, Ian and Sam all fell by the wayside. A remarkable performance, which ended with him facing off against Katy, die versus die.

He made a bid, but Katy couldn't work out why he would lie. Sam explained the many bluffing techniques open to Joe but Katy wasn't having any of it. She made her bid as if he was being honest and won.

1. Katy
2. Joe
3. Sam
4. Ian
5. Andrew

And that was that. Another evening of cattle trading, space exploration and clan building in the Outer Hebrides. And there's not many hobbies where you can say that.


4 comments:

  1. Sorry to miss it! I do have a 4-day weekend of gaming imminent though...

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  2. A very lovely, quite drunken evening, thanks all. Perudo is an all time classic, and I only managed to escape the death spiral by the skin my teeth...

    Really enjoyed a second game of GWT - it works very well with two, though three may be the sweet spot. And not too long - managed to play Mamna Mia, 6 Nimmt and Perudo round the edges.

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  3. I'm impressed I won Isle of Skye with only 7 points! I really enjoyed all the games, Perudo was super fun and I look forward to playing again soon please. Thanks all x

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  4. I enjoyed GWT too, though I realised I spent the second half of the game making unproductive turns in a manner that Adam would gagged at. I also realised my early move of dashing to Kansa City to make some money was a bit silly, as with no workers I had nothing to spend it on... good game, though.

    Great to play Perudo again! I love it.

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