Waldorf Bamboo

This Tuesday found four gamers pitched up around Martin's table for their weekly helping of convivial fun. Joining Martin were Ian, Joe and myself: the four Time Of Crisists. But there'd be no Roman intrigue today, instead we began with Montage. Had this game been designed in Japan it would have been called something like Let's Build A Crossword Puzzle! since that is, by and large what you're doing. Each coloured counter represents five letters and clues have to be devised that your partner can guess before both of your opponents can (being ready to guess is signified by knocking on the table).

It was Ian's first game and I'm not sure what he made of it as a lot of the clues revolved around dogs. "Not a dog," was used twice: once for "cat" and once by Ian himself for "feline" (although Joe's guess of "gerbil" also fitted the letters on the board and was funnier). And, Martin's dog-clue trilogy ran like so: A dog with a point. (Spike) Round a dog's neck. (Bandana) And then, just too late for the game but he shared it anyway: A dog's skintight disguise. (Catsuit)

As for the scores, Joe and Martin ran into a swift 3-0 lead before consolidating with a 4-0 victory.

Next up was Blue Lagoon, Knizia's feisty game of area control in a Pacific paradise. In both rounds, Martin managed to build around a piece of bamboo in the corner, effectively allowing him to choose when a round ended. This Walled-Off Bamboo strategy soon morphed into Waldorf Bamboo - a panda's favourite salad, apparently. Hence the blog title.

During the game, Martin sped into an early lead but at the end of round one had only three villages, all in corners. I had four villages, mostly quite central so although I was in third behind Ian, I felt pretty good about my situation. Ian, like Martin, scored big for items while Joe struggled to get started and trailed a distant last.

In round two Martin found it impossible to get anywhere. Being in the corners and having three opponents actively trying to stop him made life very difficult. He did try to sneak inconspicuously along the edge of the board to reach a distant item and Ian was happy to let him do it until he blocked Martin off at the very last minute. Both cruel and funny.

I went for area control and a smattering of items, but this paid off as I bossed the four of the largest islands for big points. Joe picked up four of a kind and a set to give his score some respectability while Ian chained islands together, stopping me from doing so in the process. It was close, but I was very pleased to get my first win on Blue Lagoon.

Andrew 149
Martin 143
Ian 140
Joe 117

Next up was Krass Kariert, a trick taker where the value of the tricks don't matter, just whether or not you can play a legal hand. Also, there are no winners, just one loser and in this game Ian was first to lose all his lives.

Martin and Andrew, both lives intact
Joe, one life lost
Ian no lives left

After that we played a game of Potato Man, the four player only trick-taker based around potatoes of all kinds: evil, super and sexy. In the first low scoring round we sneered at anyone winning a trick with the red suit, deriding their crusty red sacks. In round three, though, suddenly Ian won two gold sacks in a row in a display of masterly control. He had the last super potato man in his hand and so was able to use his evil potato men without fear. His lead after this was so great that we decided to forfeit the fourth round, giving Ian a comfortable win.

Ian 28
Martin 17
Joe 11
Andrew 11

Then we finished with the old favourite, The Mind. Is there another game which so regularly serves up more close shaves and agonising missed opportunities as this one?

Round one was tough (27 was the lowest card, followed by 31, 88 and 90) but we got through to round four before we lost our first life. Martin and I were at cross purposes over 35 and 36. Surprisingly, we got those numbers again in the next round, but this time got them down in the right order.

Joe became curiously fascinated by the way a bottle opener rested perfectly across a bowl. We respectfully listened to his theory that this might be a major breakthrough in bridge building and we tried to not worry.

He was still rock solid in the game, though, and we reached the Dark Mind with no shurikens but two lives. We lasted until round three before luck finally clipped our wings. But none of the mistakes had been huge and we felt pretty good about our achievement.

A fine way to end the evening. We set off home having all won a game and then joined our forces together for a rousing co op finale. Delightful.