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.

Synergies

Another rainy day at least had the promise of games at the end of it. I arrived at Joe's early and to kick off the evening we combined dishwasher duties with some quick fire questions from League of the Lexicon, discovering that the phrase rise and shine comes from a plea to the sun. We were maybe hoping for something more idiosyncratic, involving shoes, but reality yet again disappointed. Then things perked up again as Katy, Ian and Adam T all arrived. Joe started the evening in earnest by prompting a game of Mind Meld, which is basically Medium without the cards: two people volunteer random words and then after the 3-2-1 countdown, announce them: Katy and I began with book and shirt. Then the first pair of players to think of a connecting word put their hands up, and we repeat the process until a pair of players finally say the same word. 

Often we floundered around with synonym adjacent words, ending up with for example high-vis and traffic light. But it was fun. Then Adam H arrived and we began in even more earnest with Challengers Beach Cup. 

This is like Challengers, only more so. New to me but similar enough that Adam's rules refresher contained few surprises. We added some A cards to our starter sets and were off, with the early runners seeming to be Joe and the Adams. Katy and I found solace in our shared sequence of defeats - at least until she beat me. Ian muddled along mid-table whilst the Adams racked up what seemed like endless victories, as Joe came a cropper against me. Katy demanded a photo of these cards, I don't remember why now. I was busy crying into my gin. 

As the peloton fell away - and Martin arrived - the Adams faced off in the grand finale. "Are we supposed to be paying attention?" said Katy. I missed drama too, but I was in the loo and only discovered that 'Adam won' when I returned. I briefly wondered which Adam until the Hillmann variety said the whole thing was best forgotten.

Adam T - champion!

Adam H - runner-up

Ian and Joe - 23 fans

Katy - 22 fans

Sam - 9 fans

We split into two groups with Joe dropping his new trick-taker 9 Lives on the table, from Taiki Shinzawa, who brought us American Bookshop, Maskmen and Big Top. Martin Katy and Adam T jumped at the chance, leaving the three of us with choices. We looked in a mysterious box of Joe's that contained cards and a cloth bag before settling on Comet. 

In this game we're trying to rescue various animals by steering them to the safety of a cavern before the comet hits (which is the end of the game). It's driven by cards that can be played either as an animal, or discarded for movement - the potentially joyful caveat being you can skip over any opponent animals in your way - a kind of reverse El Dorado. Once an animal is rescued, it offers a special power. 

It's a reasonably interactive game in a kind of passive-aggressive way, as we hopped over each other and leached powers. And the primal beaver raised a juvenile snigger from the players of 9 Lives...

...which had attracted the attention of Spooky, who seemed to yearn Martin's lap but couldn't bring herself to attempt the leap between chairs. 

As for Comet, from straightforward beginnings it does get rather thinky at times, with the cards offering various options. Adam's love of optimisation meant that he found it somewhat inscrutable, even though he denied his yawning had anything to do with the game. The others ended 9 Lives with Adam yet again triumphant.

Adam T 9

Joe 7

Martin and Katy -1 each (although Katy insisted they scored zero)

Apart from some occasional profanity I'm afraid I missed the ins and outs of the latest trick-taker with a twist, but would like to try it soon. They began playing Scout...

... as we approached the endgame of Comet. 

When the Comet card arrives we can refill our hands but that's it, no further 'resting' to gain cards. Adam wrapped up what we felt might be a win as Ian and I realised our last animals were going to perish in a horrible fireball. But as it turned out, I'd done enough to defy Explainer's Curse:

Sam 40

Adam 38

Ian 23

A tired Ian said his farewells as the Scout game wrapped up halfway through, with Martin taking what they called 'half a win'. "But I only came for half the evening!" he protested. I suggested it was a quarter-win in that case. But whatever fraction you care to name, it ended with him in pole. 

Adam H suggested So Clover and there was no demurring - at least, not until we saw our words. In what was a first for me, I pointed out a rule that we'd missed: if we can't settle on where the cards should go, the player to the left of the 'spectator' (whose Clover it is) gets the deciding vote. Katy insisted we play it, and Martin insisted that we always agree in the end. "No we don't" said Katy. The rule was implemented - kind of. We kicked off with Katy's Clover and discovered all the cards matched all the clues, scoring 3. Then on my clover - apparently - none of the words matched any of the clues, although they did eventually score a perfect 6, and I subsequently explained that Belgium is on a planet. Martin's clue of Gegen fortunately made sense to Adam H and I - being football fans - and an argument broke out about what an 'evening machine' might be, with Joe and Martin volunteering TV and vibrator as examples that Katy rejected. "A vibrator is a machine!" someone insisted. Fortunately our score had already determined this scene would not go into the record of legends. 

After Joe pointed out that Stuart Hall is a 'famous molester' and we cracked Adam's cheesestring clue, it ended up a not-so-disastrous 29/36. Good work!

I was up for another crack but the time was well past 11 and we all had homes to go to, so swept ourselves back into the still-rainy night, until next time...