Playing hooky

 I arrived at 8pm, having received pics and news of the already attending players playing Fuji Flush (Martin won) and then Pairs (Martin lost then Ian lost). A nice retro start to the evening – remember when we always played these games? Happy days.

 

Two games were already in preparation when I walked into Sam’s kitchen. Sam, Adam T, Adam H and Gareth were at the beardy end of the table, setting up a game called The Staufer Dynasty.

 
Adam T gave the other three a lengthy rules explanation, during which Sam wilted visibly. Adam admitted he hadn’t played in about seven years. “Two more final things...” I heard him say as he checked something in the rule book.
 
At the other end of the table, Martin, Ian, Laura and I chose The Quest For El Dorado. It was new to Laura, so Martin gave a quick run down of the rules before we set off on our campaign of competitive exploration. Ian, Martin and I all buy a Captain, thinking its three-water value would help in what was a pretty blue map but all of us cursed its complete uselessness as we either got stuck in a desert (me and Ian) or circumnavigated it completely (Martin). Laura also got stuck in the desert and she mostly stayed there after Ian and then myself extricated ourselves from the sandy tar pit.

Martin was the first to reach the last part of the board, but then spent a turn dawdling such that Ian caught him up. One turn later, I was also on the final stretch and in a good position to win with my next go, when Ian crossed the finish line. Since he was the last player to start, the game ended immediately. Martin said he couldn’t get to El Dorado with his next cards anyway, despite being closer than me to the end so I suggested that meant that I’d actually finished 2nd because I could. Martin disagreed.

 
1. Ian
2. Martin
3. Andrew
4. Laura
 
Despite her last place, Laura seemed to like it a lot.
 
The Staufer Dynasty was still in full swing, so we dug out a game that looked for all the world like a light piece of fun. Hooky is a letter deduction game and the basic premise is that out of 26 cards with the alphabet on, three cards are removed from the game and eventually we have to deduce which letters they are. The players are dealt five cards (with letters on) each. By giving a player a five-letter word, they have to tell you how many times that their letters appear. Make notes and draw conclusions and make noises of despair while you think about what word to ask.

It was fun, although I did terribly. Another way of scoring is to guess what five letters the other players have and I was reduced to guessing letters based on personality, for example, Martin is just the kind of person to have a Q in his hand. And he did. One of the few correct guesses I made. Laura did slightly better than I did while Ian, who’d declared that he’d be surprised if he got any points at all, came second. Martin won, which is fair since he seemed to be most tortured over his choices by the end.

 
Martin 46
Ian 32
Laura 16
Andrew 15
 
Then the Staufer Dynasty ended.

 

Gareth 73
Adam T 62
Adam 61
Sam 58
 
Despite the early hour, barely past 10, I set off early having been woken by a car alarm that morning at 5.30. Laura and maybe Adam T (?) left too. The evening ended with a game of Insider Inside Job.
 

The agent won.

 
And then, of course, So Clover
 

22/24

 
Thanks all. See you again soon.