Ten More Years!

 This week’s games night was in celebration of Laura’s birthday and when I arrived, she (hosting), Katy, Sam and Martin were in Laura's newly remodelled kitchen playing a card game. Martin suggested I try to work out the rules of the game, which I failed to do except you had to get rid of your cards by putting them on the table and reading out the number they made, but didn't understand it apart from that. I also failed to make a note of the name. But Sam won.

Sam 2

Katy 4

Laura 5

Martin 7

Then Adam H arrived and since everyone was here, we got out the cake: a caterpillar cake, which was sliced up and served with ice cream! Katy also asked if there was any coke available, apparently thinking this was a children’s party.

When we raised out glasses and made a toast, Katy happily cried out “Ten more years!” which I said was a bit bleak. Katy said she didn’t mean it like that: she meant ten more years of gaming with us, at least. But the joke stuck that Katy had wished Laura ten years of life, maximum, and it was referenced throughout the evening.

But what about the games? We split into two groups. Laura, Martin and Katy played Captain Flip which was GNN’s present to Laura. Adam, Sam and I played Guild of Merchant Explorers, a very short eurogame in which you have to explore a map within the turn of a few cards. In fact, I don’t think Adam or I really appreciated how quick the first round would be and after five cards had been played, Sam told us to take our cubes from the map and start again.

With this regular reset in mind, it’s important to build villages, which allow you to start exploring fro a point other than the centre of the map. Also, there are things like treasures and towers and trade routes to discover. Before long Adam was muttering to himself and trying to max out his moves. In fairness, it worked.

Adam 149

Sam 144

Andrew 127

The first game of Captain Flip ended in the most amicable way possible, with a tie for first.

Laura 45

Martin 45

Katy 35

Katy mused that she used her lookouts too early (don’t know what that meant, but I made a note anyway). They played again.

Katy 46

Laura 43

Martin 33

Then we drank some “pink fizz” and gazed at Laura’s games cupboard. Then Martin, Laura and Sam played Via Nebula. Adam, Katy and I played Cascadero. Martin and Sam had actually brought one copy each, meaning for a time we considered everyone playing Cascadero at the same time. But then sanity prevailed.

Katy wasn’t sure about playing, and throughout the game she complained that she didn’t really know what she was doing, even when she was about twenty points ahead of Adam and I. Then she completed all of the bonuses for linking cities together and admitted that that was her strategy.

Now she was in a fix - in the lead but way behind on the track that you have to complete before the game is over. I was in last in terms of points, but my track was all but complete. I had to use up all my meeples before either Adam or Katy finished their tracks. Adam was in the middle - behind me on the track and behind Katy on points.

Of course, he won, hitting the game ending 50 point mark at the same time as, or the turn after,  completing his track. I came second and Katy seemed to think she’d never play the game again.

Adam 50

Andrew 34

Katy 47 (DNF)

I missed most of Via Nebula apart from Sam saying “I’m going to finish the game,” in the kind of excited voice you used to hear on adverts for MB Games.

Sam 27

Martin 23

Laura 13

And while we struggled through the end of Cascadero, they played a quick Captain Flip.

Martin 44

Sam 37

Laura 25

Then, because it was Laura’s birthday, I didn’t leave early but stayed on for a game of So Clover. With six of us, there was a chance of a golden 36! 

But it didn’t last beyond my clover. Sam’s was first and we got a bit of luck - one of his words was “Tiny” and “tiny” also appeared on a card so we were fairly safe in assuming that was the decoy. 

Then we finished Adam’s with no bother before we got to mine. Two of my words were LOOP and KISS and I couldn’t link them apart from the fact that they’re both rock bands, so I wrote “bands”.

Alas, a word on the decoy card was “DREAM” which everyone linked with D-ream. The other word seemed to match too, so they were happy to offer up their guess. Katy was so confident that she'd picked up the fifth card and stuck it back in the box. I sadly told them they were wrong and Katy had to start looking through all the cards in the box to try and get the fifth card out again. 

Katy searching for a card

On their next attempt, they got it - although Sam and Adam thought it was a reference to Looper. Only Martin mumbled something about Loop being a noise band.

Then the remaining clovers were all completed successfully, although there was a lot of anguish over Martin’s clover. “Lemon” either related to “RECIPE/SHARP” or “RECIPE/YELLOW” and in the end we got it right (Sharp was the correct word).

34 out of 36. Close but no clover.

Then I did go home and found out that they’d played So Clover again.

17 out of 30. Never mind.

See you all next week and happy birthday Laura!