Glass is blue

 Joe’s kitchen was the happy venue for this week’s gamers and we began as a five: Joe, Ian, Laura, Adam H and myself. A bowl of unsalted peanuts sat in front of Adam until he asked them to be taken away.

The first game was a new one: The Numbers. It’s a very simple game where you have to write a three-digit number. Then they are arranged in order of value, highest at the top, and starting at the top numbers are eliminated if they use any digits that appear in the numbers below. Any remaining numbers score according to their leftmost digits. 

But then, those players who successfully score have to cross off the numbers they used on their player mat and those numbers can’t be used again.

The rules were simple, but the strategy wasn’t. Adam wrote numbers with all the same digits which seems sensible but rarely worked and Ian scored nothing at all in round two. It seemed like only Laura got a hang of this and she graciously shared her tactics with us after the game, which was something about ending with middling numbers to get the better bonuses in rounds four and five.

Laura 66

Joe 57

Andrew 49

Adam 22

Ian 21

We all voiced our appreciation of the indented player tiles which allowed us to place them face down without fear of the ink smearing off onto Joe’s clean white table top.

Next we dug out an old classic: No Thanks. Another new game for Laura so Adam and Joe shared the rules explanation. We played twice. Ian went for high cards and Adam went low. I ended the first game with no chips, which I thought deserved a bonus point or two. Laura did the same on the second game and then I thought maybe it shouldn’t.

Adam 5

Andrew 10

Joe 10

Ian 49

Laura 49

And then...

Ian 8

Adam 19

Joe 21

Andrew 27

Laura 28

With Sam expected shortly, we banged out a quick Art Robbery. A third new game for Laura this evening! And the unsalted peanuts were poured back into their packet with Laura promising to do something with them: mix in szechuan sauce and roast them a bit. And add salt.

As for the game, Adam seemed curiously attached to the guard dog. Is he hankering after a pet? When Ian had a 5 token and the guard dog, Adam tried to steal from him. To his surprise Ian handed over the 5 token, not the dog. Ian then immediately stole the 5 token back with his next turn. A smooth move.

Joe 24

Adam 21

Andrew 18

Laura 13

Ian – fewest alibis (but had 18 points)

Then we discussed the guard dog token, with Joe assuming it was a severed head and Laura saying it was a complete dog with a disproportionately huge head sitting down. Joe decided that if we ever meet Reiner Knizia, we’d have to ask.

Sam arrived mid game and we split into two groups of three. Joe, Laura and Ian went for the lush opulence of the Pharaoh Edition of Ra. While he unpacked its enormous pieces, including metal money tokens which looked like they might actually be worth something, he gave Laura her fourth rules explanation of the evening.

The game was a sight to behold. They’d certainly overcome the old criticism that the bag for the tiles was too small: this edition had a bag large enough to carry groceries.

Joe 49

Ian 39

Laura 30

Adam, Sam and I played Cat In A Box, the quantum trick-taker. Adam was taught the rules and seemed so confused that he actually asked if it was a good idea to screw over other players. Who was this impostor? I thought.

Sam 13

Andrew 12

Adam 11

Since Ra was still in its second epoch, we played a quick Block Party. I sped off into a quick lead while Sam and Adam provided comedy moments such as:

Adam: Is it an elf?

Sam (sighing): yeah, it does look like an elf, doesn’t it?

(It was Robin Hood)

Sam: Is it France?

Adam: It’s a bottle of hot sauce.

This last one attracted Joe’s attention who asked why the bottle was blue instead of red and I had to remind him that, as every child knows, glass is blue.

Andrew 9

Sam 7

Adam 5

Then Ra ended and the Block Party expanded across the table. Laura got her fifth rules explanation (a probably unique perfect five) of the evening and we began. Adam managed to finish his guessing round getting none at all and Sam forgot to give us a countdown so that a few of us hadn’t finished. My “moustache” was just two rows of cubes. 

Joe tried to do “bottle” but he used green cubes and no one got it. We reminded him that glass is blue. Ian’s “peacock,” in retrospect, was very good but if I hadn’t already used up my guess I was going to say “quad bike.” Sam had a last-second structural collapse in one round, meaning no one could guess his “dice”.

Ian 11

Laura 10

Joe 8

Andrew 7

Sam 6

Adam 6

Then Adam and Laura left but I had no work the next day so I stuck around and the four of us played Stinker. Joe’s answer to “worst thing to say at a job interview” was “I am not a doctor” while Sam invented a new insult when he answered “eat me tits, airbone.” Possibly better in an Australian accent, we decided.

The most interesting aspect was how prophetic Stinker had become. Sam vetoed a number of cards which were once amusing asides but now referred to very real dangers facing us: Putin, climate change and Kim Jong Un were all topics that were swiftly replaced by lighter fare.

Joe 39

Ian 29

Sam 28

Andrew 20

Finally, Joe tempted us to one last game The Fuzzies. Very simple. Draw a card and remove a fuzzy ball of that colour from the tower and place it somewhere higher. Ian, already dressed in high-vis jacket and cycle helmet, looked as if he were taking the risk of the tower collapsing far too seriously.

Joe made the tower fall down.

Was there a scoring system? I’ve no idea.

Then, way past my bedtime I went home and found that my phone was on 3% battery but would no longer change. I transferred tonight’s pictures at a smaller size to make sure they uploaded before it finally died hence the lack of 4K HD style widescreen imagery. 

Thanks all. See you next week.