Back to Babylonia

I arrived at games night this week and was immediately warned by Sam not to lean back on the rear two legs of a chair. If his nightmare was anything to go by, it would result in me crushing my head against a wall. What a way to start the evening.

We began as a seven (Sam, Martin, Joe, Ian, Katy, the initially silent Andy and myself) so we played 7 Wonders. Sam bemoaned the lack of brick in his neighbourhood, Joe built eleven military points and I was so under-prepared that for me round three was mostly made up of cards with red crosses on them. Quiet Ian won again, and again he had the least thinking time. When asked for his secret, he just said stuff that I was trying to do anyway. I'm clearly missing something.

Ian 63
Sam 57
Joe 56
Andy 45
Martin 42
Katy 37 plus cash
Andrew 37

Then we split into two groups. Sam, Andy and Katy played Down Force on BGA. Martin, Ian, Joe and I chose Babylonia on Vassal, the sandbox-y website for recreating board games online.

I tried to keep an eye on Down Force, and I watched with interest as orange stalled near the finishing line, only to see green speed past for the win. Pity that everyone bet on yellow, then.

Andy $13m
Sam $9m
Katy $6m

Then they played again and, according to an email from Sam this morning, he was so tired he bid on the wrong car, played the wrong cards and thought that orange was red.

Andy $29m
Katy $11m
Sam $8m

As for us, we had to struggle with Vassal's unwieldy interface. Joe was using a pen to control his cursor and found it difficult to access the right click menu needed to flip his counters over. Martin often flipped them for him, asking if Joe needed help in the same way you'd ask a five year old if the needed their food cut up.

I accidentally put one of my counters on a tile and when I picked it up I found they had stuck together and no amount of picking up and putting down would separate them. I managed to get out of it by using the Undo button until I was back where I started.

As for the game, it worked fine online. I was lucky in that I was mostly left alone on the central island while all about me wars were waged. It was also very level in terms of cities. A close game.

Martin 138
Andrew 137
Ian 133
Joe 114

At this point the two groups were both back in sync. Joe and Sam left and the remaining five played For Sale. I started very well, picking up a 23 house for free. Meanwhile, in the selling phase Katy got $0 even though she’d played an 18. “You’re such a bunch of…” she said. Ian, on the other hand, picked up $14m with only a 9. Martin won, having ended up with a run of middling cards which seemed to do well for him. He mentioned that it meant he didn’t have to think so much.

Martin 58
Andy 55
Ian 53
Andrew 51
Katy 39

We played again. I bid high for a 30 house in the first round and then have to pass for the next four rounds as the bidding is always out of my league. Ian repeated his knack of picking up big cheques cheaply when he got the $15m with only a 13 house. Not sure what happened to Katy. Maybe she’s not good at For Sale or maybe she was disturbed by the noise of Any’s keyboard which sounded like an alien chomping on human bones.

Martin 59
Ian 52=
Andy 52=
Andrew 51
Katy 33

Katy wanted to play 6nimmt, keen to try a game that she was good at. But the fates were against her tonight as she ran into trouble early on (“I think I’m going to be sick,” she said). I was in first place until the final (fourth?) round when Andy missed a chance to screw me over when he decided to target Martin instead and managed to achieve neither. My luck didn’t last, though and I went into a death spiral (partly thanks to Katy) and ended in second.

Matin 33
Andrew 23
Andy 15
Ian 11
Katy -3

And then Ian left and the last of us chose Tea Time to close. I had to dash off mid game to give a neighbour some soy sauce. At least, that’s my excuse.

Martin 33
Katy 28
Andy 26
Andrew 24

Martin had neatly wrapped up a Perfect Five in one evening, and all without leaving his sofa. How clever. Congrats.