Giving up the ghost

I write these blog posts on my phone and I like it when the predictive text on my phone suggests words for this report. I feel like I'm getting a glimpse of another reality: in this case, a reality where Simon and Mary joined us for games night this week.

Tonight we were at Joe's and we were six in number: Joe, Martin, Ian, Sam, Adam and me. Sam was running a little late, and Martin made a pitch for Tigris and Euphrates The Card Game but the mood around the table wasn't amenable. Joe brought in a stack of options, with Welcome To Centerville hiding at the bottom. It caught Adam's eye and Martin's description of it as Yahtzee crossed with Sim City didn't put him off so we had to clarify that it had most of the Sim City bits taken out.

When Sam arrived, we still hadn't made a decision. He remarked on Centreville's presence on the table in a tone of voice that suggested he wouldn't be choosing it. Instead we went for a completely different style of game. Mysterium.

In this game of clue giving and deduction, Martin was the ghost. He couldn’t talk to us directly, but his mutterings about how shit his hand was told us that death hadn't changed him.

It's a hard game to describe but, as I recall, Martin The Ghost liked giving clues based on dominant colour, Sam was usually one step behind us in solving his clues and in the final round when we had to choose one scenario out of five, we got it completely wrong, despite spreading our choices across three of them. In fact we hadn't even discussed the correct option at all, much to Martin's annoyance. And, once he'd explained it, his clues did make perfect sense.

In the post-game wind down he also told us that we'd usually start off on the right track with our clues until Adam suggested something wrong.

Martin made another attempt at persuading some of us to play Tigris and Euphrates The Card Game, but with little success. Next up was another six player game: Team Play. Despite their lack of bonding over Mysterium, Adam and Martin paired up. The other teams were Joe & Sam and Ian & me.

It was a close game, and Sam played the eighth trick to trigger the final round. We were all very impressed when, after Joe had handed Sam two cards, Sam was able to complete his last trick (two pairs) with the last play of the game.

Sam & Joe 26
Ian & Andrew 23
Adam & Martin 22

It was still only 9.30 and we wondered what to do next. Sam asked if it was time for another discussion about Tigris and Euphrates The Card Game. Martin, Adam and I went for Azul. Joe went to get some roll and write games and discovered his dog had done plops on the floor again. Oh, Sybil.

They chose Kribbeln for their entertainment, and brought out the Das Exclusive dice arena to host it.

We played out a slow, thinky game of Azul. When tiles were pulled from the bag, there were almost no triples of the same colour on a tile for the whole game. Instead, we had to slowly put together our rows of four and five from the doubles and singles that were available. When Adam went to the toilet, I took the chance to watch some Kribbeln but I noticed Martin, deep in thought, scanning Azul and trying to find the optimum move. And it worked too, as he edged ahead in a close game.

Martin 63
Andrew 57
Adam 54

Kribbeln ended with Joe throwing caution to the wind, trying to catch the runaway leader Sam.

Sam 20
Joe 15
Ian 10

And they also squeezed in a game of Kriss Kross. This roll and write game has an air of Take It Easy about it, as point scoring opportunities are ruined by bad luck. Sam looked to have won it until he remembered a rule and demanded a recount. Such sportsmanship.

Joe 38
Sam 32
Ian 32

Now we were a sextet again, and there was some discussion about the next game. Vegas had been perched on top of a stack of games for the whole evening and I was keen, but instead we chose For Sale. Such a great game and it always throws up a surprise or two. As shuffled decks of cards so often do.

In this game, we had a round of all low cards, a round of all middling cards and a round of all high except one low card. Oh, and Joe picked up the 1 card. No surprises there. Sam’s win was all the more impressive since he picked up a $0 cheque in the second round. All his others were well into double figures.

Sam 51
Adam 50
Martin 45
Joe 38
Ian 36
Andrew 35

After this, Sam and Ian set off home and the remaining four of us pondered how to end the evening. Someone suggested Tichu and since we all knew the rules, we all agreed. The thought of starting a game Tichu at 10.30 was almost too exciting and GNN hasn't seen such decadence since that time we started Lords Of Vegas after nine o'clock.

It was, of course, a shortened game of just four hands. Martin and Adam overturned their previous poor form and ran into a 500 - 0 lead by the end of round two. Thankfully, Joe flexed his Tichu muscles and put us back into more respectable territory. He called Grand Tichu in round four because "why not?" and he made it too. Martin's failed bid of Tichu in that same round dragged them back towards us making the score look even better.

Martin and Adam 510
Joe and Andrew 390

And finally we were done. What an evening, and what a finale. Thanks all.