Games in the key of life

If late is the new on-time then I'd be as punctual as a Japanese train. Unfortunately, it's not and so when I finally arrived well after 8, i found Sam (host), Joe and Katy deep in a game of New York Zoo. 

It's from Uwe Rosenberg and it involves filling a grid of squares with various shaped areas which you can fill with animals. It caused a lot of anguish as players bemoaned their non-breeding stock, imagining the animals either looking at each other from afar or just wanking. Joe was first to fill his area which gave him an instawin.

Joe first

Sam and Katy joint last

Next the four of us played Take The A Chord, a Japanese trick taking game which has a vague theme of playing Jazz music. All of it seemed confusing and opaque, such as who won the trick, who started an improvisation, who got the spotlight and what happens if we change keys. Even working out who started the next round in the event of a tie for least points in the previous round required us to read the rules slowly at least twice.

Meanwhile, Katy's request to have jazz on the stereo was largely left unfulfilled as the playlist kept veering off into other genres. Mind you, we filled in by humming the note we’d just played in a perfectly tone-deaf manner. I think I had fun playing it but that was mostly due to the company, not the game. I'm not sure it's the kind of thing you understand first time. Just like real jazz, then.

Katy 80

Sam 60

Joe 45

Andrew 20

Then we tried Rumble Nation as a four player. It’s pretty feisty, at least it was for Katy who snatched Joe’s phone from his hand as he was searching for Sri Lankan restaurants so that he could concentrate on taking his move, and then she criticised me for folding up a crisp packet really loudly. Nevertheless, her dedication was rewarded by a comfortable win.Maybe we should all play like that.

Katy 39

Sam 28

Andrew 20

Joe 19

By now it was after 10.00, which is usually finishing up time online, but not here. Instead we leapt feet first into our best Victorian story-telling pants with a rousing game of The Secret Adventures of the Old Hellfire Club. It’s a very basic trick-taker dressed up with a lot of nonsense about storytelling.

This evening’s nonsense was based around our attempts to find the Elephant’s Graveyard and we made a fairly good start, getting on a ship with a foul-mouthed Karl Marx and sailing past the Cape of Good Hope, but then I was arrested and we all went to Newgate Prison. Joe won, but let’s be honest it’s the kind of game that doesn’t need winners. 

Joe 15

Katy 14

Sam 12

Andrew 6

So, congrats to Joe and Katy for winning everything. See you all next week.