A table of two halves

After a day of persistent drizzle, three, then four, five and finally six gamers arrived at Sam's house for their weekly fix.

At first it was Andy B and me joining the host for a couple of rounds of Red7, to commemorate the fact that Andy had finally bought a proper copy of the game. Sam won round one and Andy won the second.

At this point, Joe arrived. He sat down and determinedly started drinking so that no one could ask him for a lift that evening. As he poured himself a large glass of wine, he recommended a TV programme he'd just seen, all about the dangers of drinking in middle age.

Sam wanted to know how long we'd be a quartet, so he texted Andy M (the third part of this evening's Andrew trilogy) to ask for an ETA. Almost immediately the reply came as a ring on the door bell. He was here and we were a five, with about an hour before our sixth, Ian, was expected.

Joe suggested and then self-vetoed a game of Chickwood Forest as being too long to learn. Instead, we played the simpler fare of Kimono. This game of "I cut, you choose" is fun, but any strategy still eludes me. In fact, I went completely Dirk for the first few rounds and I did well enough for Andy B to start picking on me. Sam and Andy M began in almost perfect sync, mimicking each other so often that at the end of round two, they had the same cards: a kimono and a three gold.

Andy M managed to improve his situation while Sam found himself constantly on the wrong end of our collective consciousness. "I thought nobody would go for this one," he said on more than one occasion. Joe took a few attempts to work out his final score.

Andy B 48
Joe 41, no wait 37, no actually 42
Andy M 23
Andrew 20
Sam 6

With Ian imminent, we chose a game of Illusion to fill the time. And then Ian arrived mid-opening round, so he joined in before he'd even sat down. There were some amazing mistakes, not least me putting a card with 23% green in a place where it needed a percentage in the low teens. There was general bemusement at my choice. My defence was that the green was all around the edges so it looked like less. Apart from that, most misjudgements were blamed on the drop shadow.

Andy B 3
Andy M 2
Sam 1
Ian, Joe, Andrew 0

Now we were six, we split into two groups of three. Joe persuaded me and Andy B to play Welcome To Centreville. Ian, Sam and Andy M took a very different route. After considering Photosynthesis, they instead chose a series of shorter fun games.

The first was Quest For Eldorado, which was Andy's debut on the game. He seemed to take to it well. Sam shot off into an early lead and seemed to have it all sewn up as he approached the river that lay in front of the goal. He needed his Capitan card to cross the water but, since he'd only just bought it, he'd have to cycle through his deck to get it.

He managed it just in time, with Andy in hot pursuit. Ian ended somewhat further back.

Sam, at the gates of Eldorado
Andy, wrong side of a river
Ian, wrong side of a desert

As for us, we were still in the early stages. We'd begun, after a rules explanation, at 9.25. Andy B admitted he didn't know what was going on, and he did make an early mistake by building on the river but not being on the tree track, so he scored no points. I'm sure any town planner would commiserate with him.

On the other half of the table they were now playing NMBR9. "I'm definitely losing," said Ian, which is now pretty much his catchphrase. I tried to cheer him up but on this occasion he had maths on his side.

Sam 90
Andy M 81
Ian 62

I think they played a second game, but I have no record of any scores.

Then, as if to fully contrast with our point-salady thinkathon, they played Mord Im Arosa. Genuine cries of jealousy rose from our end of the table. Maybe Sam felt guilty as he offered around some whisky.

I found myself quite distracted by the goings on in Hotel Arosa and its "shloppy investigations" and kept having to force myself to think about Centreville. Normally what had happened while I was occupied was that Joe gave Andy B another favor token.

Mord Im Arosa finished:

Ian 8
Sam 9
Andy M (for 'murderer') 14

In Centreville, my strategy of cities (gotta love those benches) and rivers seemed to be working. Joe admitted that he'd more or less forgotten about the city while Andy B was focusing on collecting sets of tiles, apparently because it was the part of the board closest to him.

As for the other "fun" half of the table, they played Heck Meck, interspersed with a discussion about funk. Andy M's success in pushing the GNN soundtrack in a more groovy direction was directly reflected by his lack of success in the game. As someone put it, "He was dicked by fate."

Sam 13
Ian 10
Andy M 0

By now we were entering the final stages of "the longest game of Yahtzee ever". I got a stroke of luck when two disasters hit while I was safe from them. Soon after this, the final scoring round was triggered (at 11.05) and, all told, I did rather well.

Andrew 90
Andy B 72
Joe 63

Now we were all together again, we decided on a game of Perudo to finish us off. Joe drained the last of his wine into his glass and fretted about how he was going to tell his new Drink Aware app.

Andy M insisted that Perudo is a loud game as he slammed his cup down on the table. Sam, meanwhile, rearranged the bags hanging from the handle of the kitchen door so he could close it properly.

It was an uneven game. I was down to only one die when Joe lost his first. Ian rolled lots of sixes early on. Sam made chicken noises after he bid "two twos."

My notes are a bit confusing but I think it ended

1. Sam
2. Ian
3. Andy M
4. Joe
5. Andrew
6. Andy B

And so with that we were done. Half of us, anyway. Andy B, Ian and I set off but as I was leaving the remaining three seemed to show no sign of moving. Thinking they were about to play a game, I almost joined them at the table again but it was a quarter to midnight and I was drunker than I'd realised so I bade my farewells and left.

Turns out, they didn't play a game and just had a chat. Whatever next?