When we're sixty-four

 I arrived at Joe’s at 8.05pm and found Joe, Laura, Sam, Martin, and Adam T sitting around talking with Laura explaining a scene where she struggled to explain the rules to a new game to people who insist on chatting about, you know, normal things.

First we played Rapido, a dice rolling game by Reiner Knizia. In this, players roll two asymetrically numbered dice to make the highest possible number (i.e, a one and a three would count as 31) while avoiding Xs. Once (if) you have a score you’re happy with, put those dice beside a number, between 1 and 5 and if they’re still ther when it’s your turn again then you score those points. However if someone scores equal or higher than you and places their dice on a lower scoring space, then you’ll be bumped off and won’t score anything.

We began slowly, rolling 6 and 4 a lot and bumping each other off. Then Sam scored a point, but then went bust with his next turn and lost that point. After about five minutes, no one had moved. I rolled 2,2 twice and got two points as a bonus for rolling a double and leapt into the lead. Sam rolled 7,6 which was the highest possible score. Then Laura also rolled 7,6! Then, on his next turn, Sam rolled 7,6 again and bumped off Laura.

In the end, I rolled 7,5 and put my dice on the 5-point spot. If I was still there at the end, I’d win. Everyone tried to stop me, but to no avail.

Andrew 21

Sam 12

Laura 9

Joe 8

Martin 6

Adam 0

Then we split into two groups of three. Sam, Joe and Adam played The Great Zimbabwe, which many people was too long to start so late but Sam insisted they’d get it done by half past ten. 

Laura, Martin and I played Longboard. In this game we are all owners of a surfboard-shaping business and we have to make the longest surfboards with the most stickers on it. Once a surfboard is four cards long it is "shaped" (always said in an American accent) and will score bonus points.

Laura started well, but that was because she hadn’t understood the rules – she’d been following them purely by accident. Once she knew them, she played a lot slower. But slower isn’t necessarily worse, and in the end it couldn’t have been closer.

Martin 46, wins on tie-breaker

Laura 46

Andrew 39

We thought The Great Zimbabwe was still hours from completion so we chose our next game: Mille Fiori or “Mille Fiori (In The Glittering Lagoon)” to give it its full name. We ignored the shipping area at first while Laura and I pushed our ships along the scoring track at the bottom. Martin picked up  bonuses and extra points on the key track and also got more bonuses for that area with oreos, broccoli and fish. Don’t know what it’s called. The market, I guess. 

But despite Martin’s bonuses, Laura kept on his tail and even edged into the lead at one point. Then Martin executed his final move, chained together three “extra turn” bonuses and finished with a healthy lead.

Martin 192

Laura 178

Andrew 142

To our surprise, The Great Zimbabwe came to an end mid-Mille Fiori. I knew little about the game, except for overhearing snippets about trading with cows or having the right God. Apparently it ended when Adam and Sam made the resources that Joe needed to win the game. So he did.

They went on to play Capital Lux 2 Pocket.

Adam 77

Joe 60

Sam 47

And Martin, Laura and I played Sea Salt and Paper. I had a better idea of what to do, but I’m still not sure about when to call a winning hand. Twice I sat on a hand with more than seven points hoping to get more with my next card, only to hear someone else call “stop” or “last chance.” In round two, Laura picked up 5 shells and in the last round we played, I actually had the 2 anchors plus anchor bonus card for 13 points.

Andrew 24

Laura 18

Martin 14

Adam and Laura went home at this point so the four of us played two dismal games of So Clover. During the first game, we fell foul of a mean decoy on Martin’s clover. With clues like “Imprisoned” and “Numbers” we thought a card with “Cage” and “Pie” (i.e, pi) was definitely right but instead
it should’ve been “Nightmare” and “paintbrush” as in “painting by numbers.”

Then in round two we managed to fail on Joe’s clover, getting three out of four wrong. And even on our second go, we didn’t get much closer. We obsessed over thinking that pigeons fly in a v-shape while overlooking that ducks certainly do. But then, the “duck” tile was being used for “Police/Barrack” = “Precinct.”

The only high point was everyone’s guess of “Bang/hook” for my clue of “Trigger” which is really clever and caused a lot of mirth but was unfortunately also wrong.

At this point, we finished, thouroughly defeated by So Clover. I had no work the next day so I was able to stay until the end for a change, but maybe an early night would have been better for my self-esteem.

How I felt after So Clover

Thanks all. See you next week.