Old dragon drawers

I arrived at about 8.15, I think, and found five players: Joe, Laura, Sam, Mel and Martin trying out a new Oink game, Scout. But as I entered, they put it away and got out something more substantial for six: Auf Teufel Komm Raus. This game of luck pushing and devil dodging involves betting on how many points someone will be able to pull out of a furnace without taking a devil tile by mistake.

It is as cruel as luck can be. If round one was generous, then round three was devious, leaving Martin with just 20 points. Mel lead for most of the game, despite pulling mostly only devils. In round six, Laura was in joint last and needed to do something spectacular. She managed to fulfill her bet but did so by pulling 8 tiles, slowly edging towards her target. "It's like crawling a marathon," she exclaimed when it was all over. Then Joe scored 225 with only three tiles. I know it was random but it seemed like he was making a point.

In the final round, Joe bet low, only needing 100 to finish the game. Martin needed to reach his bet and he pulled one low tile after another, just as Laura had, only somehow worse. After 10 tiles he still hasn't reached his target so he pulled another tile. A devil. So cruel. 

Joe 1600

Mel 1480

Sam 1440

Andrew 1410

Laura 480

Martin 430

Next up was Ethnos, another six player game. This game was as quiet as Teufel was rowdy, but that was mostly due to the spicy peanuts that Joe offered. Instead, Sybil the dog kept us, shall we say, entertained with a constant stream of disapproving noises.

Round one ended in the most sudden way possible - all three dragons came out one after the other. Sam insisted he shuffled them properly after putting them in the deck separately.

At the end of round two the scores were Sam 39, Martin 36, Mel 31, Andrew 28, Joe 27, Laura 22.

I mention this because Laura suddenly embarked upon a rousing comeback that almost got her the win. She got a band of four trolls which meant she won any ties for area control. And there were a lot. She sped past almost everyone and came to a rest just short of triumph. Amazing scenes.

Sam 79

Laura 78

Martin 61

Mel 53

Andrew 46

Joe 37

This game also gave us the blog title as Joe referred to people who drew dragon cards as "dragon drawers" which we thought sounded like a nickname for someone. A mother in law from the 1970s, perhaps.

Then Laura and Mel left and we ended with So Clover. Dreams of another perfect score were shot down early as Martin's clue of "boom" seemed to fit equally well with "gas", "war", and "bang." It took us two attempts for us to get it right.

Another notable clue was "sweater" for "wool/oasis" It was Joe's clue and we thought was a lovely poetic name for a sweater: a wool oasis. The guess was right but Joe explained that sweater linked to oasis in that it was somewhere that you would sweat. 

Score 22 out of 24.

Then I left and the remaining three played Letter Press. A late night text told me the score…

Martin 24

Sam 22

Joe 16

Thanks all. See you next Tuesday.