Stumble Brothers

This Sunday I had a rare chance to meet up with Sam for some weekend gaming. I got there a little late and Sam had already lay out a game ready to begin. It was Clank in Space, which is basically the game Clank, except set in space instead of a castle. Hence the name. Otherwise it’s much the same: a hand-builder where you have to move around a spaceship stealing things while a monster tries to stop you.

I preferred it to the original, at least what I recall. Clank in Space requires a little mini-quest (hacking the ship’s computer) to be achieved before the second half of the ship is available, which means there’s no tactic of get-in-grab-it-get-out any more. Plus there seemed to be more ways of healing. I say this in hindsight, since I didn’t avail myself of enough of these options until it was too late while Sam skipped to the end with health to spare.

Sam out and alive

Andrew dead and buried

After this we tried A Little Wordy. Sam described it on the blog recently, and I can say I enjoyed it. Each round is only ten minutes but there seem to be plenty of options for variation, with a stack of rule cards randomly dealt out. Oh, and the entire English language (no proper nouns) to choose from. My strategy, if you can call it that, was to go for words with common letters (ie, LIFTED) and hope that Sam would overthink it. Guessing Sam’s word of BOUT after three clues (four letters or less, two vowels, ends in T) meant I won the decider.

Andrew 2

Sam 1

Then we played Wavelength. It was my first time playing a two-player, and I clarified that I was supposed to externalise my thoughts rather than sitting in silence, contemplating. We then played the worst game of Wavelength ever. We miscommunicated on topics such as Damien Hirst’s cultural relevance, the pointyness of The Gerkhin and how much a crater on the moon resembled a person, among others. We did agree, marginally, on where cricket lay on the sport-game spectrum.

I think we got five points.

And with that, and having finished Sam’s beer and eaten his milk-free milk chocolate (complete with allergy warning that it might contain milk) I set off home, glad to have finally got some gaming done. Thanks Sam, and hope to see everyone soon.