A Doggy Dog World

 Late again for games, I was about to knock on Joe’s front door when I heard laughter coming from nearby. Checking my surroundings, I noticed that the set of stone steps leading down to a little below-pavement quadrant was no longer blocked and that the quadrant now hosted some welcoming doors that lead  inside. I followed the sound of happiness into Joe’s new open-plan kitchen/lounge area. An impressive new gaming arena with a surprising lack of games which were still in Joe’s studio.

But we had enough games to be getting on with. When I arrived, Sam, Joe and Katy had already played Spicy, which Joe had won, with Sam in second. I also soon learn that we are to be welcoming a couple of newcomers from Sam’s work, Dan and Mikey.

Before they arrived, we played a game of Take The A Chord, since to leave it any longer meant we’d have to learn the game from scratch. We pretty much had to do so, anyway, as the finer details of key changes and improvising eluded us at first. Eventually we got into it, and I won by getting three tricks in each round. Mr Consistency, they call me. 

Andrew 90

Sam 75

Katy 65

Joe 30

Then Mikey arrived and, after introductions, we all played Troika. Joe tried to play mean (“It’s a doggy dog world,” he said, unless I heard wrong) while Katy insisted you had to think for yourself. Joe won this argument, but only after a tie-breaker.

Joe 3

Katy 2

Sam 1

Andrew 0

Mikey -1

Then while we waiting for Dan to arrive we grilled Mikey on his board gaming knowledge. I hope we didn’t seem too interrogatorial, but he acquitted himself well as he name checked a few GNN favourites. 

When Dan arrived the six of us split into teams for Team Play. It’s a pretty rule-light game so Dan and Mikey were up to speed before too long. In fact, Mikey was able to complete a task in his first turn and then so did Dan. As the game wore on, me and Dan were in a comfortable lead and I thought Mikey and Katy were in second with four-task lightweights Joe and Sam in last place. 

But we were in first because, after starting with some high-scoring tasks, I decided to dash to eight tasks by getting a few two-pointers out of the way. When we counted up, my hunch was right, but it was much closer than I’d imagined as Sam and Joe ended with only five tricks but each one was a peach.

Dan and Andrew 26

Joe and Sam 25

Katy and Mikey 19

And with that Katy and I dashed off home, leaving the others to… chat I suppose. Thanks all. See you next Tuesday!