Cakeblazers

After a last-minute change of venue, Katy and I (Sam) were first to arrive at Joe's, and our host set the tone for the evening with a lighthearted quip about masturbation. As we pondered what kind of day Joe might have had, Martin arrived and before long was setting up Accuse! the game that we all profess to be terrible at, but I definitely am. 

I was first to accuse, and got almost everything wrong. Katy followed me and missed out by just one factor. But of course with a murder, knowing where it took place can be critical and Martin's decision to go with the airport won him the game, and we all rued the fact we never challenged him when he said "Hairport".

Martin: Promoted

Joe: Passed over

Katy and Sam: Fired

Steve and Adam had arrived and although Steve briefly vanished again, we were now at our full capacity of six, so promptly split into two groups. Whilst Joe, Steve and Martin played Tajuto...

Katy was keen to try Trailblazers, and a freshly-shorn (but according to himself, grumpy) Adam was happy to give it a go. The game has three different 'settings' and we played twice, first on Adventurer mode and then Animal mode. 

On Adventurer mode, you're building two trails. They have to loop back to the campsite they started in to score, but the longer the better, because adventurers move along said trails, establishing campfires for points. I made it more complicated than it needed to be, panicking that I'd previously played it wrong - before later realising I hadn't - so we ended up with far too many campfires that we subsequently snuffed out. But it was fun anyway. 

Katy took a narrow win, as Adam's scheming fell apart on the final turn, possibly because we drafted our cards in the wrong order to be fair to him:

Katy 46

Sam 43

Adam 26

Tajuto was still going, with Martin complaining that all he'd achieved so far was an aneurysm. Steve went to the toilet and they marvelled at his collection of tiles (on the table, I mean). 

We Trailblazered again, this time forfeiting adventurers and campfires to just go animal mode: now, all your looped trails score points and distinct animals on the trails score escalating points, instead of the basic 2points-per-animal happening in Adventurer mode. Katy loved the animals. 

And I think they both preferred Animals mode, as creating numerous overlapping loops certainly had some agonising fun. Adam said he really liked it despite the fact there's some tangible luck-pushing in how far your trails go, and the fact we kept screwing up the card draft. But this time Katy completely mullered us, scoring so many points she needed to ask Martin to do the addition.

Katy 82

Adam 56

Sam 53

Tajuto finished at the time, with Martin and Steve celebrating their shared victory. I missed the fine beats of the drama here, but everyone seemed happily sated, even Joe.

Martin and Steve - 12 each

Joe - 6

We regrouped as a six and played Auf Teufel Comm Raus (or as my phone likes to call it, Said Refuel Comm Raid) the game of pulling coals from the devil's cauldron - obviously - until you are caught by the devil himself, and his 'disturbing' bellybutton  (-Martin). This was new to Steve, who requested a player aid and nobody seemed sure how serious he was. 

We seemed to get caught by the devil a lot, except when we didn't. Numerous busts would be had then suddenly someone - usually Katy or Adam - would pull out six hot coals in a row. Joe seemed to bust himself nearly every time, but despite a poor start, and serial lagger Martin constantly rinsing everyone for cash when they busted (-he made a deal with the devil) Joe recovered to sail off up the track courtesy of some preposterous bidding coming off, seeing off Adam at the death to claim the win as they both passed the 1600 finish-line:

1 Joe 1840

2 Adam 1710

3 Steve

4 Sam

5 Katy

6 Martin

At some point around the devil's bellybutton we also had cake, provided by Katy. Thanks Katy! Steve cut his slice into two, enjoying the fact he now had 'an extra slice' on everyone else. 

Post cauldron, Adam and Steve took their leave and the remaining four set up So Clover. Katy was even studiously gazing at her freshly-arranged cards when Martin swept all aside and announced we would play MLEM first. Katy's protests weren't strong enough to prevent her being assigned a cat, as we all suited up our catstronauts, ready for space travel. 

It was a first game for Joe, who may not have embraced the strategy but definitely embraced the sense of adventure, as time and again he sent his Deep Space x2 Cat onto the rocket, only to see it return one life down from multiple doomed missions.

It was slightly surprising the game didn't end from our serial failures, so many times did we crash. But Martin's eighth catstronaut making it into the cosmos instead triggered the finale, and unsurprisingly, with so many cats in space, he took a convincing win. 

Martin 33

Sam 20

Katy 13

Joe 12

Then we did play So Clover! And it was a triumphant set of leaves, even if Martin did hiss at us to look at all the words again. We'd missed the fact that 'dead' went quite well with his clue of 'extinct' but having had the ambient tip-off, rounded off the evening with maximum points. Thanks all!