East of Adam

It was raining so hard when we arrived at Adam and Hannah's house all Joe, Katy and I (Sam) had to do was cross the road from Joe's car to arrive drenched. Already present and surprisingly dry were our hosts (plus Arthur!) along with Adam T, Martin, Gareth, and Mel, whom I last saw something like 15 years ago playing football on the Downs. After some catching-up time, Hannah took Arthur off to bed and we decided games should be played, foregoing an 8-player opener in favour of the same Knizia one-two we saw recently: Joe, Adam and Katy began teaching Mel Tajuto in the kitchen whilst the rest of us migrated to the front room to set up on the other table. I realised I'd probably be on blogging duties and went back to take a photo, but Katy said to come back when something had actually happened. 

My phone died halfway through writing this up so I'll update with the correct scores later

In Babylonia it was happening fast. Like last week, Martin snaffled up the first ziggurat and grabbed the free extra turn. Gareth and Adam occupied either end of the board as I tried to weave a path between them, stymied by both the river and, inevitably, Martin. Adam made the early running, but Babylonia moves so fast we all took turns ahead of the pack, with one turn Gareth made sending him from fourth into a clear lead. 

I ignored ziggurats, feeling I had enough to think about already with Babylonia's cascade of options on every turn. I was pleased when Martin said my farmers had fucked everything up though - always a good sign. In the other room, meanwhile, Tajuto had moved on.

I was impressed with their discipline around the Monster Munch; we'd devoured ours already along with Gareth's Pringles, a fact I'm regretting at my leisure this morning. "It's only me eating them" admitted Adam. Not sure what was happening in the game, as I was mainly focused on crisps at this point. Meanwhile in the other room we'd moved on too, both in the snack department (honey and mustard pretzels) and the games also: I'd managed to stumble onto a win in Babylonia, jumping into the lead with my last big-ish move but without realising I'd also triggered the end of the game. Yes me! 

Sam 138 / Adam T 135 / Gareth 130 / Martin 120

Thanks to Adam too, who realised to everyone's chagrin (apart from me, of course). We were now playing Whale Riders, where a clear split in strategy came early: Gareth and Martin raced ahead whilst Adam and I lingered behind. 

I was first to complete a contract but after that my whale seemed to stagnate somewhat. Both and Adam and I were concerned we'd made the wrong choice in our lingerings, as the better tiles all seemed to lay ahead of us, with the others hoovering - other more whale-applicable verbs may be available - them up willy-nilly, and completing several contracts at a time. I made a late-game mini-surge, but it wasn't enough, and the surprise ending this time didn't help me:

Martin 26 / Gareth 21 / Sam 19 / Adam T 14 

Tajuto finished around the same time, it being Katy's turn to beam happily at the Knizia-fuelled shenanigizing, having beaten Adam off to claim the win:

Katy / Adam / Mel / Joe

There was surprisingly little debate about what came next: Martin, Adam T, Joe and Gareth swiftly teamed up for The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, and hosting Adam was keen to revisit the cube-rail auctions and manipulation craziness of Luzon Rails. When Katy saw the bits she wanted to try it too. It is a lovingly-presented game.

It was a cagey start as the opening sale of shares all went for around the same price, with yellow the only one - restricted to three shares total as opposed to four or five - a little more expensive. Mel grabbed it and began building in the south of Luzon, so I went for a second share in yellow and before long Adam joined us too. There was a great community spirit in this little corner of the board. On the other side, Katy was very reluctant to share the spoils of her investments, outbidding me me on both red (which made sense) and pink (which probably didn't) before apologising for her latent capitalist leanings. As the game headed for yet another abrupt climax, Adam's incremental nudges forward on yellow and green pushed me - as the co-owner of both - past Katy even as she triggered the scoring on an extremely close game:

Sam 50 / Katy 45 / Adam 42 / Mel 40

My win, but also Adam's, in a way. 

In the other room, the four astronauts divers had sailed through no less than seven missions first-time, and only took three to complete mission number 8. They looked pleased with their night's work. 

The hour was getting late and so Gareth and Adam T headed home, leaving us as a six. It was the perfect number for Cross Clues, which immediately looked like it was going to be tricky with the words 'bag' and 'suitcase' both appearing. From early on it didn't look like it would be our finest Cross Clues hour as several guesses hit the wrong mark. I wrinkled my nose at Martin's conviction that my clue 'leather' definitely went with 'hat', and everyone wrinkled their noses at Katy's interpretation of Adam's 'helmet' clue. But we rallied somewhat and finished with a respectable-ish fifteen.

There was time for one more game, so we segued into So Clover. Though my memory at this point is somewhat foggy, I do recall was a comparative triumph. I think we scored 30 points from a possible 36, which is the best we've done, possibly? It doesn't quite have Cross Clues' hilarity, but it's immensely satisfying for both cluer and clue-ees when things come off.

It was not that far off midnight so we wrapped things up, happy with a salvo of games played and memories, if at this point slightly out of focus, acquired. There was a tinge of sadness that Hannah is still an avowed non-gamer. Maybe next time we should start with Cross Clues and do some gentle cajoling?