Bubble Trouble

This week, five games were sat around Sam’s kitchen table, quite unaccustomed to the space available. We were Sam, Joe, Martin, Katy and myself. The numbers weren’t right for Babylonia and so we passed the first games night for some weeks without a sight of Knizia’s latest classic.

Instead, we chose Tulip Bubble. This was new to me and Katy, but the other three all said how happy they were to have another go at it. This game recreates those heady days of tulipomania in the Netherlands in the 1600s. The five of us bid on cards representing tulips of three different colours and if we were the sole bidders for one cards we got it for face value. If there were multiple people bidding on one card, then an auction would begin and this is where prices could get crazy. Then, at the end of the round, the value of each type of tulip would be adjusted according to how many cards of that colour remained. It is a clever mechanic, ensuring that tulips that were expensive one round would usually fall in value in the next (and vice versa).

In the first round, Sam asked for a do-over when he realised he’d put bids on two of the most expensive tulips available, despite only having 20 guilders. This early faux pas seemed to haunt him as he would occasionally berate himself for that terrible opening move and then struggled to remember the sequence of the rounds. “I understood this a lot better the last time I played it,” he mused while it dawned on him that he was already quite drunk.

Martin wasn’t drunk but giddy with luck. His early despair at seeing the price of white tulips collapse was wiped out when they rallied again and he was able to sell some of his cards to “a collector” for a bonus return. The same thing happened again a couple of rounds later leaving him with a surely unassailable lead. The next person to reap rewards of their speculation was Joe who had to endure our scepticism regarding his investments in the already expensive reds, only to see them rise again, netting him a decent profit.

Katy, Sam and I battled for most pessimistic and Sam won.

Martin 123
Joe 57
Katy 43
Andrew 29
Sam 14


After this we broke out Mamma Mia. This game might seem like more luck than judgement but that wasn't the way Joe played it. Twice he ended the “making pizza” part of the game with no cards, having used them all to complete pizza recipes that he’d played earlier in the game. This cool-headed efficiency was a joy to watch, but he fell foul of the tie-breaker rule which requires a player to have lots of ingredients left in their hand.

Sam 5 recipes completed (5 cards left)
Martin 5 (4 cards left)
Joe 5 (0 cards left)
Katy 4
Andrew 2

After this, we went all co-operative and lovely, with a game of Wavelength. The co-op version involves beginning with a set number of clue cards and then, every time you score a 4, you add another card. In this way you can keep going, like a game of keepie-uppie, and score as many points as you can.

Notable event was Martin’s clue of “Good Day Sunshine” by The Beatles for the spectrum “Happy/sad song.” Sam, Martin and I had to sing it to Joe and Katy while Martin implored Joe to try listening to the album Revolver. Joe, whose apathy towards the fab four is legendary, didn’t seem hugely excited at the thought. But our singing must’ve been good, because it got us three (maybe four) points.

Overall score: 18, a good score!

We ended with more co-operative shenanigans: Just One. We were remarkably duplicate free and Katy can count herself unlucky that our clues all pointed to boots as well as socks, and she chose the wrong option. The first duplicate was for me: all I had was Joe’s clue of “Bixby” and Katy’s clue of “Milk.” Bixby had to be a reference to Bill Bixby, the actor from The Incredible Hulk, but what about “milk”? I plumped for “Incredible” as my guess, but it turned out to be “Hulk” and there was once an advert for milk featuring the Incredible Hulk. If only I’d known.

Overall score: 9, not good apparently.

At this point we decided to leave so Martin ordered an Uber which was waiting in the road outside by the time we’d left the house. Amazing.