The Mighty Ra

 I arrived at Joe's at the same time as Laura, who was back amongst the gamers for the first time in a while. Downstairs we found Ian and discovered that no one else was expected. For the second time in a week, we were a quartet. “Got any four player games?” I quipped.

After we discussed Ian’s recent charity walk (all the way from the centre to Snuff Mills) Dune Imperium was (half jokingly) suggested, but Laura wanted to ease herself back into game with something a little more accessible. We chose Ra. With only us around the table, finally it had enough space deserving of its opulence. As we were unpacking, Joe dropped the Ra piece on the table and it was so loud, it made me jump.

The first three tiles out of the bag were all Ra tiles, and we started to suspect we were in for a quick epoch. But then there were no Ra tiles, instead there were lots of buildings. Joe gets quite a collection which he refers to throughout as his “pension” - something to cash in, in his old age. Joe was the last player standing at the end of round one. He had two spaces on the auction track but the next Ra would end the round. He monologued for a few minutes about his options before successfully filling up the auction track.

In round two, I score no points at all, hoping that my Pharaohs and Niles will pay out big in round three. Joe is, again, last to still be buying stuff but finds himself cursed by four disaster tiles.

As we went into the last round, I had 13, 10, 9 as my bidding tiles. But we were all screwed by the bag. So many Nile Tiles! “So boring! It's just water,” complained Joe. I had 6 Nile tiles in front of me, Laura had 5, Ian 5, and even Joe (who avoided them) had 4. But Laura was able to pick up the.only flood tile of the whole epoch.

Laura 36

Joe 29

Andrew 26

Ian 20

We remarked on what a low scoring game it was as we bagged everything up.

Then we played 9 Lives, a trick taking game. We figured that it might be nice to play a trick taker with someone other than Martin winning. Joe thoughtfully sipped his beer with salt crystals, wondering aloud if it was salty enough and then Laura suggested he should shake it up before hand.

In 9 Lives, it’s a trick taking game where you guess how many tricks you’ll win, except the backs of the cards tell you which suit that card is, so it’s possible to tell if the other players will be able to follow your suit or not. The most difficult part of the game is trying to discern the 9s from the 4s. Joe mused along the lines of: If there is one part of a game’s design where you shouldn’t be making any radical decisions… it’s the numbers.

Joe 10

Ian 9

Andrew 6

Laura 3

It was fun. Clearly, not the same without Martin but still fun.

Then we played So Clover. Both Laura and I had our clovers ruined by unfortunate decoys. My “Shipping forecast” (for Evening/Station) was ruined by “weather” appearing on the fifth tile.

19 out of 24

With that, I was gone. They others were making the kind of noises people make when they have one more game in them, so maybe they’ll elucidate in the comments.