Yoko splits the band

Tuesday! You know what that means. But with no Andrew and no Martin, who would provide the acerbic commentary and euro-related disdain? As it happens, Katy stepped up to do both.

Hannah was our initial host, with Adam upstairs trying to lull Arthur to sleep. Joining her at the table were Adam T, Ian, Katy, Joe and myself. Before we knew what was happening we'd been talking for a full five minutes and realised we should probably play a game. Owing in part to Hannah's recent experience with five-player Root, Just One was chosen. I didn't take many pictures, but I recall three people clueing Girls for calendar, but Ian getting it anyway thanks to Gregorian and Advent. Everyone was thrown by Katy's clue for glasses (Hearing Aids) but again, no damage was done. In fact two turns later Joe clued "Hearing Aid (singular)" for glass. Strictly speaking that's three words, but we weren't counting. Except for our points - we ended on a shabby 8 ("average") when I encouraged Joe to guess on his final turn and he got it wrong. "I should be good at this game" he ruminated. "I like words"

With Arthur still circulating somewhere above us, Adam and Hannah swapped over and a debate broke out over Yokohama, which Katy asserted was her favourite game ever, but didn't want to play it because of the time it took. Joe and Adam T were keen, though, and eventually she was reluctantly persuaded, prophesising a late finish as she sat down. Joe said they'd be done by half ten and started explaining the rules to Adam T.

On the other table, our little band turned our faces to the stars. I talked Ian (NASA) through the rules to Orbit as we (I was Russia) prepared for our imminent defeat to Adam H (China). While I was concerned with the movement of the planets, Adam - perhaps inhabiting his China role a little seriously - became distracted by the feng shui of the room, eventually getting the denizens of Yokohama to rotate their table 180 degrees for the better to see Adam T's face with.

Back on our board, I made an error right at the start, calculating that I couldn't realise my Pioneer card (flyby of Mercury) as both Adam and Ian had already set off toward it. However my calculations were incorrect, as when Mercury came around I was the starting player and could have grabbed an early three points and an upgrade. That would come back to haunt me - much as failures at basic maths would haunt a real rocket scientist, I like to think.

Adam completely ignored point-scoring early on, focusing on getting his fuel, speed and build capacities up while Ian and I pottered around getting single points here and there and establishing a lead that looked, to us, disturbingly surmountable. I picked up Missions. So did Adam. So, eventually, did Ian. He looked at the cards like they had just shat in his astronaut suit.

On the other table, things had started moving around the city about a quarter-way through our game, but they were now picking up speed. Katy moved pieces around with the confidence of someone who was playing their favourite game, and expected to win it. At this point, everyone seemed happy.

Except back on the Orbit board Adam was, as we anticipated, moving up through the gears. He was even picking up more missions and not making any annoyed noises about them, which was doubly concerning. Ian said he was losing anyway, so picking up more missions couldn't hurt. But it did. When I took the same risk, the only plausible (I thought) mission was landing on the inner planets, but as it turned out I needed one more round to get to Venus, and when we counted up the 3 point failure was critical:

Adam 44
Sam 42
Ian 27

Yokohama was still going strong, so we had a quick game of Flotsam Fight. It's a very Oinky Oink game: a numbers-propelled mechanic enabling plenty of oh shit moments and paltry scoring of 2pts, 1pt,  and -1pt for first, second and third. The story is you are entitled rich folk loading your trinkets onto a series of lifeboats as the ship sinks - seems kinda topical - and the person who loads all of their goods first wins the round. In a bizarrely surreal twist, however, each lifeboat - there are eight - can only carry certain goods, and may brusquely refuse your Persian rug to keep space for someone else's Ming vase.

It's weird. We couldn't figure out exactly how much control there was, reminding me of my first couple of plays of Maskmen. "But Maskmen is better" Ian pointed out. I don't know; I do think Flotsam Fight is less random than it first appears, and that suspicion is backed up by the fact Adam came back from second place to win on the final round...

Adam 4
Sam 3
Ian -1

As we packed that away to mutterings of various moods, Yokohama finished only a little way past Joe's predicted end time with Katy upset that she hadn't won. "They cock-blocked me - twice!" she cried, and rejected suggestions she might have enjoyed playing anyway with a firm "No." Are her euro-playing days done? Joe seemed happy, and I think Adam was enamoured enough to try it again... but when? Yokohama has a habit of disappearing for a year at a time, so who knows. We didn't note down the scores, but it was a triumph for Joe, who later added happily "I didn't even get the rules sweats". That's some Yokohama-ing.

Joe
Adam
Katy

Ian and I were getting drowsy and Adam has a five-year-old, so with 11pm looming we called it a night. There was just enough time for Joe's smutty riff on Caylus - the game your wife won't play with you - on the way home to endanger our lives as I nearly lost control of the car. Fortunately, we live to play again!