Malmesbury!

A return to Steve and Anja's in Easton occurred last night after a couple of weeks delay, caused by a) gaming fatigue and b) quite serious illness (possibly brought on by playing Feast for Odin).

A few regulars were missing, but by the time Katy and I (Joe) arrived we were seven plus little Louie: Steve, Anja, Martin, Adam H, Gareth, Katy and me. Conversation eventually turned to the business of the evening, with Louie keen to max out his promise of one game before bed into something an hour long. We quickly established that we had nothing for 8 players, so Anja, Martin, Gareth and I slunk off to the other side of the room and played a couple of hands of Hit. Fortune smiled on me in both games... not so much on Anja. We enjoyed the bittersweet delight of choosing to stick when the next card was revealed to be a bust, even though that inevitably meant you lost all those points to the next player.

While we made like grizzled Old West poker players, Steve, Katy, Adam H and Louie had settled on Barenpark, the lesser-spotted polyomino zoo-building game.

They seemed to have only just begun, so when Hit ended we four turned our attention to something a bit deeper. I'd brought my home-made deluxe Ra set, for which I've (finally) found the perfect draw bag. The bag that came with the deluxe tiles was too silky and gaudy, and the painted tube I replaced it with was too constricted and flaky. On a recent trip to Ikea I spotted a woven bag that seemed just right, and it is! Not too floppy, easy to delve into without looking; I can't now find it on the Ikea website, let's call it Göldiloks.

Anja had played long ago, and it was new to Gareth, so Martin taught while I assiduously stiurred the draw bag to mix the tiles. The only thing missing from my set is a player aid showing what scores what; in fact that's the hardest part of Ra to remember for new players, but Martin did a good job of teaching it, and Anja and Gareth an excellent job of keeping this in mind. With the civilisation tiles, Martin explained, it's theoretically possible to get all five for 15 points; "but that's never happened in any game I've played". 

The first epoch was notable for the absence of Ra tiles among those being drawn, which is always portentous. Anja and then Gareth bowed out fairly early, followed by me, leaving Martin to clean up on his last sun tile with five Ras still to come. And out they all came, leaving him to cash in his 12 for a meagre 4 tiles. Later he rued his lack of gumption, feeling he should have kept going. Personally I think he was wise - we can all instinctively tell when an epoch is on the cusp.

The second epoch was an absolute corker for Anja, who ended with the fabled five civilisations, and more points to boot. I was nursing the 1 tile, and showed the newbies what to do with it - call Ra whenever it's your turn, basically. Not that it worked out especially well for me, I think I scored 0 on the second epoch.

Barenpark had finished, and Katy and Adam dabbled in a bit of Strike (a tie, apparently) while Steve checked on Louie.

Barenpark

Katy 97

Steve 82

Adam 81

Louie 72

On his return, they sat around and seemed at a loss with what to do with their time, waiting for us to finish. "Just play a game!" urged Martin, and after another go at Strike, they eventually gave up waiting for us and got to work on Ticket to Ride Germany.

Strike

Adam 2

Katy 1

Steve 0

Meanwhile in ancient Egypt, I was sure the third epoch wouldn't last long - Ra tiles must have outnumbered everything else in the bag. The game was also notable for the large number of monuments that came out, and a decent three way fight over the Pharaohs, which I eventually won. As the third epoch closed out in a flurry of angry Ra's, it was clear we were fighting for second place to Anja. Gareth's third epoch was hurt by a lack of floods to hydrate his large stack of Niles, but he at least took 5 points from me for highest sun tile total.

Anja 62

Joe 47

Martin 36

Gareth 29

Ticket to Ride Germany was in full swing, and Gareth bowed out, saying something about Malmesbury. From now on I think anyone leaving games night before the end should just announce "Malmesbury" and disappear in a puff of smoke.

Keen for a Knizia triathlon, we broke out San Francisco. This was new to Anja, and we again settled into a routine of Martin explaining while I laid things out and handed him relevant bits like a bald little Debbie McGee to his Paul Daniels (Martin has not sanctioned this analogy).

I really enjoy this recent Reiner; the contracts provide just the right sort of tension in whether to add or grab, and we all admired the decision to keep the overall scores as low as possible by having half points. Anja focused on cable cars, and was lightly dismayed at the end to discover she got all of 2.5 points for them. Martin and I fought over Master Builder status, and in the end his win may have teetered on him dumping two cards that would have been good for me, and despite my ire at discovering that was even a tactic, me failing to return the favour on a subsequent turn, allowing him to grab a 3rd 'scraper and the master Builder point.

Martin 13

Joe 11.5

Anja 8

Whilst we were in the final throws of San Fran, Ticket to Ride Germany had ended. I know nothing of what happened, sorry. It seemed to involve a lot of meeples, which I've never seen in a TTR game. The scores are pleasingly uniform, unless I wrote them down wrong.

Adam 182

Steve 172

Katy 162

While we packed away, Adam H Malmesburied and Steve and Katy chatted.

We knew it was time to go when a weary Steve was overheard saying to Katy "All it takes is a child to have a poo at the wrong time and your whole day is screwed." We bade our lovely hosts goodnight and headed out into the chill. "The moon!", cried Katy, and told Martin and I that this week's full moon is called Alan. Alan R Moon, perhaps? Who knows. 

Thanks for a lovely evening, and sorry to miss so many regular faces. And especially big love to Sam, whose mum passed away earlier this week x