Land of the setting sun

Late as usual, I arrived at Joe’s to find the last moments of Colorful being played out by Joe, Sam, Ian,. Adam T and Katy. Later I asked for a brief summary for the blog and was told by Katy and Adam that Katy had lost first, Sam had then lost twice before Adam lost, so the winners were Ian and Joe who made no mistakes at all. Special mention was made of Adam’s mistake which was on his own round. His clue “go outside” prompted everyone else to choose green while he chose black (apparently a reference to the outdoor goods shop Blacks).

But with six players and few six-player games, we split into two. Joe, Sam and Ian played Shinkansen Zero Kei while Katy and I were drawn to the relaxing aura surrounding a new game Sunset Over Water. In this game, artists play cards from their hands to move around a 5x5 grid of lovely landscapes. 

The card tells them what direction, how far and how many landscapes they can pick up. Once they “paint” these landscapes they can “sell” them for points, assuming the icons in the top left corner match the icons listed on one of the cards laid out across the top of the playing area. Once a card has been painted, it’s removed from the area, potentially blocking in other artists since you can’t move across a space.

It may look very soothing, but the opportunities for ruining your opponents’ plans make it somewhat stressful. It took me a while to get the hang of things and I was by far the latest to actually sell anything. Katy and Adam tied and Adam had to check the rules for a tie-breaker which happened to rule in his favour.

Adam30 + tie breaker

Katy 30

Andrew 21

We asked about the progress of Shinkansen Zero Kei (“We’re building a monorail,” explained Joe) and since it had a long way to go we three played Crash Octopus, the silly game of scavenging on the seas while occasionally you can try to bounce a die off an octopus’s head such that it knocks things of your opponents’ boats. Or, in Katy’s case, you bounce a die off an octopus’s head knocking things off your own boat.

Katy's perilous route ended in tragedy

Katy and Adam set off into an early lead but with Katy’s self-destruction and Adam’s remarkable attack of the yips, shuffling his boat across the table in ever decreasing increments, I was able to catch up and then overtake for the win!

Andrew 5

Adam 3

Katy 1

By now Shinkansen Zero Kei was finished, with Ian apparently making a late comeback and Sam saying “I knew my train would let me down.”

Joe 64

Ian 56

Sam 51

Then, at Adam’s request, we played So Clover. After reading about it so often on the blog, he was keen to try it for himself. We didn’t start well. We should’ve realised that Katy’s clue of “nuclear” went with the words “Giant, Danger”. On the other end of the scale, Adam’s clue of “Bunny” for “Currency” (because bunny sounded like money) needed a couple of attempts. I think that’s our first rhyming clue.

Katy’s by-now-legendary clue of “the” during a game of Just One was brought up again in conversation so you can imagine our surprise when she turned over her clover to reveal one of the clues as being “I”. This time the clue was considerably more apt since it linked to the words “Top, Phone.” I think the quickest to be solved was Ian’s one, with the clues/words: Jacket/Envelope and Potato; Knight/Queen amd Champion; Pirate/Water and radio; Caw/Crow and grate.

We played twice and got 31 and then 28 out of 36.

And then we were done. Thanks as usual for a lovely Tuesday evening.