Gamers x Games!

 I walked into Steve and Anja’s house a little after eight to find myself immediately thrown into the opening round of 6nimmt. I’d been dealt in and, if I’d remained absence, would’ve gone Dirk until my arrival.  Before then, they (Anja, Adam H, Luther, Sam, Joe, Martin and Ian) had played Strike, which Adam had won.

As for 6nimmt, I thought I’d done okay in round one until I added up my points and found myself ten points adrift in last place, while Joe was the early leader. At the end of the second round (of three) the scores we surprisingly close, with a cluster of players behind new leader Adam on 24, 26, 29, 30, 30, 31, 32.

In the final round, Luther said his heart was beating fast. It was his first game at 6nimmt, I think, and we made sure to explain that the cards were mean to everyone, not just him. We needn’t have worried. While Ian collapsed, Luther went clear and he and I grabbed an unlikely win.

Luther 32

Andrew 32

Joe 34

Anja 37

Martin 42

Sam 43

Adam 45

Ian 64

Then we split into two groups. Sam, Anja, Adam and the newly arrived Steve played Tiger and Dragon, a Japanese game I still know nothing about apart from it having nice pieces.

Martin, Ian, Joe and I played a new Japanese game, Gambler x Gamble! In this simple yet cunning game, one player plays a numbered tile face up and the other three play theirs face down. Then all the numbers are revealed and added up. The trick is to guess/influence/predict that this total matches one of the gambler cards in front of you. If so, then that gambler pays out. More gamblers can be bought in order to increase your opportunities of winning and they can also be flipped to super mode, where they can win you more. First to 15 coins wins.

Easy, except if no gambler pays out, then that’s a Gambler’s Fumble and the chip leader(s) have to pay half of their money, rounded up, into a special fund which may be redistributed later. This means you don’t want to be in the lead for too long.

I won with a piece of deduction that I’m rather proud of. I wanted my 6 to pay out, Joe had a 9 and Martin’s and Ian’s highest was both 5. I began with a face up 2 and the other three put theirs face down. I was sure Joe would go high, trying to hit his nine, while Ian and Martin would do the opposite. I guessed Joe would play a 3 and the other two both zeroes. Therefore I paid a coin to adjust the total up by one.

I was right! My six gambler paid out, and I hit 15 coins for the win! I was so excited that I forgot to note down the other players scores.

While they finished off T&D, we sped through a game of Trendy, which is basically the game Whale Riders: The Card Game was based on (and was, itself, based on something else). Midway through the game, Martin put down a 3 card when Anja, across the room and still playing T&D, said “three”. We were surprised at such psychic ability and, keen to see if it continued, I put down a card: a 4. “Five,” said Adam. The moment was ruined.

We played twice

Martin 31

Andrew 28

Ian 16

Joe 14

And then

Joe 43

Andrew 42

Martin 34

Ian 32

As for Tiger And Dragon, Sam won one game and Adam won twice.

Then we reshuffled a little. Steve explained that their games collection is loosely divided into two groups: games that Steve usually wins and games that Anja usually wins. Amazingly, Thurn and Taxis was brought out at this late hour (almost ten o’clock) and Anja, Sam, Joe and Adam sat down to play. I preferred something lighter, so I joined Martin, Steve and Ian for a game of Piece o' Cake.

In this game an 11-segment pie/cake or various flavours is split into four by one player. The others take turns choosing a piece and then the splitting player takes what’s last.  Each flavour has a value that you’ll score if you have the most or join most of that flavour. Otherwise you can “eat” you cake/pie immediately and score a point per blob of cream on the slice.

The start of the game was postponed after Martin spilled a little beer on the game. Despite being a small amount of liquid, it somehow managed to get on every single piece.

Ian went big on Chocolate cake, with it’s 11-point value. He collected four early on, which seems like a loss since they had three blobs of cream each and could’ve been eaten for 12 points, but it certainly rendered everyone else’s chocolate cake valueless. I, on the other hand, went for lower scoring pieces and ate the rest. It was lovely.

Andrew 35

Steve 34

Martin 32

Ian 24

I left at this point, and Martin, Steve and Ian played Strike three times. Martin won twice but, when he emailed me, he couldn’t remember who won the third. Then they played High Score

Martin 17

Ian 13

Steve 11

As for late night game of Thurn and Taxis, I got a message from Sam at half past eleven with a photo and the scores.

Adam 26

Joe 15

Sam 11

Anja 3

Thanks for hosting Steve and Anja. See you all next week.