I had a funny title, but I didn’t write it down

This week's games night was staged around Joe's kitchen table with Joe, Sam, Martin, Adam, Katy and me seated expectantly around it.

Our first game (after an unsuccessful attempt at a conversation to keep us occupied until Katy arrived) was L. A. M. A. A clever card game, not dissimilar to what The Mind might become should it get shitfaced and go out looking for trouble. Like the aforementioned genial co-op game, L.A.M.A involves putting cards down in steadily increasing values (one to six and then the llama card resets things back to one). But this time, there is a real delight in screwing over your opponents. Holding on to a card of a value that has otherwise been exhausted causes wails of anguish from your opponents as they have to pick up card after card, stuck behind the logjam you created. It was a lot of fun.

Katy 11
Adam 12
Sam 14
Joe 29
Martin 30
Andrew 41

The group split into two at this point. Adam, Sam and I played Orbit, the new slightly sol-esque game of space exploration. Basically, we send our three ships to fly-by, orbit, land and/or return from the eight planets while they slowly move around the circular board.

Sam got into an early lead with a quickly accomplished Pioneer card getting him three points. Adam managed to fly-by Jupiter and Saturn at the same time! As the game went on, Adam moved further and further into the lead such that Sam and I were reduced to picking up Mission Cards, hoping that it'd work like Ticket To Ride and give you a set of criteria that you've already achieved. Turns out it doesn't work that way at all.

Adam 31
Andrew 18
Sam 13

We all enjoyed it and we were confident that Ian and Other Adam would like it too. Then we speculated about the players sitting across the table from us. Right in front of them. Joe, probably, but as for the others... Who knows what floats their boat?

They didn't respond to our musings (that I recall) since they were still finishing the second of the two games they'd played.

The first was Res Arcana, a game I haven't played simply because it would be too embarrassing. The names of the different cards are so absurd they must be deliberate parody. And while Martin sounded suitably portentous when he told them he was destroying his Corrupt Altar, when Joe said he'd got a Hypnotic Basin he sounded more like a disappointed ebay customer. Nevertheless, Joe grabbed first placed thanks to some clever tactics that generated lots of gold that everyone seemed impressed by but I didn't understand it at all.

Joe 13
Martin 11
Katy 8

After this, they banged out a three handed game of L.A.M.A. with Joe victorious again.

Joe 16
Martin 20
Katy 41

Now we were all together again and Martin floated the idea of Decrypto. Adam wasn't keen but when we found out that Katy hadn't played, our decision was set. Decrypto it was. Martin, Katy and I faced Sam, Adam and Joe.

It went to the seventh round and that makes it sound very close but in retrospect, Team M.K.A. were struggling. Thanks to one word, Barracks (spelt without a 'c' on the card) which caused us no end of trouble. Both me and Katy gavs clues for it that equally applied to another word we had: Sword. I put "wooden" for Barracks because they are but Martin and Katy immediately focused on "wooden sword". Miscommunication one. Then Katy used "fence" for Barracks (because they have fences) but Martin and I were convinced by the sword/fencing link. Miscommunication two and defeat.

But that's not to take anything away from team S.J.A. (I forgot to note the actual team names) who cleverly gave a clue to a word that we knew we'd deciphered, but we failed to see the connection. The word was "wedding" and the clue was "Idol" which kind of linked to our suspicion that they also had "heaven" as a word so we chose that instead. But, of course the link was Billy Idol - White Wedding. Well done Joe for fooling us so late in the game.

Joe, Sam, Adam: James Bond
Katy, Martin, Andrew: James Bay

Finally, in a frisky mood, we played Dead Man's Chest. And what a game it was. Joe, in his pomp after two victories, made short work of Martin with some audacious bids that Martin failed to read, including a bid of 2-2 when he'd rolled 5-2

But his run of form couldn't unsettle Katy who saw through Joe's bids and he was out next. I followed thanks to Katy rolling Dead Man. Sam went out to Adam, leaving the final two: Katy versus Adam. Adam won the first round, bringing the score to one life left for each. But then Katy rolled Dead Man again, and Adam could only challenge. No hope.

Katy wins!
Adam
Sam
Andrew
Joe
Martin

And we were done for the night. A sterling night's entertainment, with a promising newcomer (Orbit) and a game we wondered why we don’t play every week (DMC). Thanks to Joe and to all who attended. It was special.