I arrived at Sam’s at 8 o’clock for my first games night in three weeks and found Joe, Katy, Martin, Ian, Adam H and, of course, Sam already in attendance.
I’d missed a game of Cross Clues (23 out of 25) and Prey Another Day (Ian won).
We split into two groups. I joined the gang of four and played Maldivia, a new game with the gimmick of a cloth board that slowly folds up during the game, making the play area smaller. The game concerned guiding your ship around the sea, picking up fish and delivering them to traders at the edge of the board. There’s a certain amount of dickishness, in that you can steal from other players, change the direction they’re going or cause the sea to get smaller which might lose them a fish from their boat or cover up a shoal of fish they were heading towards or remove a trader that someone wanted.
It was surprisingly dickish, especially as the board got smaller and it became impossible not to bump into each other.
This close-quarters combat didn’t sit well with Katy who lapsed into a surly mood. I can’t honestly say I was having enormous fun either, as the constant changing of the board/traders made it hard to plan ahead. Mind you, I didn’t exactly embrace the notion of exploring the wide blue ocean as I spent the first few rounds going back and forth along a single row picking up fish and then trading them.
Sam 13
Martin 11
Andrew 9
Katy 8
The other group of Ian, Joe and Adam played Tajuto – a rematch between the same players of 5th Oct. Back then it ended with a narrow win for Adam just ahead of Ian. This time Ian was victor.
Ian 15
Joe 13
Adam 11
The games ended at about the same time and so we rearranged our seating into two new groups. Obviously in a racey mood, Adam suggested Quest for El Dorado or Race for the Ganges and so Sam, Katy and he played Quest. I was at the far end of the table so I missed most of the nuances of their strategies.
Everyone, however, noticed the surliness lifting from Katy as she played. By the end she even offered Sam a "joint second place" after Adam ended the game but Sam had to point out that technically she was nearest to El Dorado.
M
Adam
Katy
Sam
But the surliness didn't leave us completely as it settled over Martin during the opening rounds of our game, Mille Fiori. Ian said he wasn't in the mood for learning new rules so he was amenable to the return of this recent favourite.
And, indeed, he sped off into a sizable early lead. But then he became stuck with a selection of poor cards. His misfortune was to have his cards handed to him by Martin ("sitting cuntside of Martin," as Katy put it). Joe looked to have it all tied up mid game with a handsome lead but then Martin put together four extra turns for a mega move that pushed him into contention and, before long, the lead. Now he was devoid of surliness, and Ian monopolized it for the rest of the game.
As for me, I bossed the market such that by the end I was getting at least ten points almost every turn and the occasional extra go. It kept me competitive, even briefly squeaking into the lead in the final round. But not for long.
Martin 206
Joe 203
Andrew 203
Ian 151
And again, we finished at similar times. Whopper flavoured Doritos were poured into a bowl and generally greeted with a mixture of disgust and delight, often from the same people. The bowl was emptied pretty quickly.
With a number of us promising to leave after the next game, we played Herd Mentality together. This game plays up to 20, apparently, although there's only space for six players on its tiny score pad.
In this game we discovered that most of us preferred tea to coffee, we mostly think of McDonald's as the worst fast food chain (my odium for Subway spoilt our best chance for a clean sweep) and Biltzen is the most memorable non-Rudolf reindeer.
We had to cancel one round when Joe couldn't think of an animal without a tail and the hinting eventually morphed into reminding him that humans are animals. I was glad this round was abandoned since I'd written Manx Cat. There was also controversy in the “Job beginning with B” round when Martin said “Barrister” and Katy matched with him, but when we saw her piece of paper, she’d actually written “barrista” as in the coffee-shop employee. She insisted she’d meant the lawyer-type person, but we found it odd.
I had the scores on a separate piece of paper that I lost but I’m sure Sam won and Adam and I came joint last.
Then Ian, Katy, Adam and I left. Joe, Martin and Sam played a game of Sea Salt and Paper. A full game, not just a few rounds as a filler.
Martin 37
Sam 30
Joe 19
And then they finished with So Clover, getting a perfect 18 out of 18! Congrats.
Thanks for the evening, everyone. See you next week!
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