Orbital Problems

A Saturday evening of games kicked off with Andrew and I watching the tail end of the FA Cup. Once upon a time the cup final would have felt like a seismic event to us, but in these days of country-financed football clubs and billionaire playthings, the sheen has worn off and rather than watch the post-match trophy-lifting and back-patting, we played Kingdomino. I forgot to take any photos, but Adam arrived as we hit the home straight and I took a reasonably convincing win. We set up Caldera Park and Ian arrived to join us, kicking off the night proper with a quartet of gamers, surrounded by washing. 

I don't actually remember who won Caldera Park. I think it was Andrew by a hair, as Ian fell foul of particularly bad weather and I of misplaced confidence. It was something like 

Andrew 183

Adam 182

Sam 135

Ian 120

There followed a flurry of game propositions where we finally alighted on Hansa Teutonica. And what an epic this was, as we serially irked each other via the medium of desk enhancements, like competitive IKEAing. 

Adam looked to be building a decent network as again Ian lagged. Andrew was stuck on two actions for long enough that I stopped worrying about him. A dreadful mistake, as misplaced confidence© once again bit me on the arse. Andrew's network plus his east-west connections sent him soaring to a convincing win. Ian staged a good recovery too, whilst Adam was probably over-targeted, his reputation preceding him:

Andrew 46

Sam 40

Ian 39

Adam 37

Great to play this again, I really think it merits more table-time on a Tuesday. But if we thought we had tamed Adam, oh boy did we have another think coming. After chips - which Adam charitably went to get - we set up Orbit: The International Space Race. This hasn't been seen in a while but the rules are hardly complex. What makes the game tricky is the constant planet movement and the forward-planning aspect that tacticians like Ian and dice-chucking fuckwits like me do not shine at. 

Perversely though, I got off to a good start. Whilst Adam complained that we were all doing his achievements, and thus depriving him of points, I pulled off all of mine and had some security and time to pick up missions. Weirdly, Adam was doing this too - despite having rockets that moved incredibly slowly, he seemed to spend a prodigious amount of turns picking up cards and making quietly and worryingly approving noises at them. Meantime my cards said things like Return from Neptune, Ride a Comet, or Make A Rocket From Twigs. Worse, Andrew and Ian started barreling up the track too, eating into my early lead, as Adam's murmurs of appreciation continued.

Suddenly Adam started scoring. While his rockets were still ponderous in the extreme, his planning department was pissing all over ours and in three turns he scored 21 points. I picked up another Mission card I couldn't do and then the game ended. Ian and Andrew had a couple of Missions each, I had about 6. Adam flipped over something in the region of 20, and most of them scored (when they don't score, they cost you points instead). 

Adam 62
Andrew 40
Sam 39
Ian 18

"I'm never playing this with you again!" I cried accusingly.
"That's what you said last time" said Adam. 

Andrew had to leave, and approaching 10pm, we'd been playing for five hours so the three of us wrapped up with So Clover. After a good start with Ian's clover (a six) things fell apart with mine and Adam's. I couldn't think of a clue for black/frame and ended up writing Van Gogh. One of Adam's clues was Trump, and Ian and I found numerous things that could have gone there, including capital/medusa. We were half-right. A paltry 12/18 in the end, and an underwhelming finale in points terms but, as always, a nice closer. 

Animal House

Sam’s kitchen table, at eight o’clock, was already groaning under the weight of three nature parks. I arrived to find Sam, Katy and Ian playing Caldera Park, with Mel watching. Sam assured us that they were almost finished. During scoring, Ian had some big scoring animals but Katy’s consistency across all groups gave her a surprise win.

Katy 153

Ian 147

Sam 139

Ian described Caldera Park as Kingdomino crossed with Take It Easy, and Sam said it was growing on him.

Next we stayed in a natural setting, this time hiking, cycling or kayaking through woodland in Trailblazers. 

It was new to Mel, so she got a quick rules explanation. I listened in since I’d only played it once and then I spent my game trying to complete the hardest end-of-game bonus despite it scoring only 6 points. And I almost did it, just one card short of having two loops around two camps. Katy really wanted a bison, Sam admitted to sacrificing some animals, Mel asked a last-minute rules clarification and Ian was tired.

Katy 78

Mel 70

Sam 64

Andrew 34

Ian 28

After this, we chose something a bit less thinky and Mlem was brought to the table. Mel admired the roll-out board made from something like wetsuit material. She was taught the rules and we were off into space! Commander Ian must have still been tired, since his first rocket exploded on the first space. Katy, too, had teething problems with her space program, suffering two early catastrophes.

No one got even close to deep space, with Sam and Mel fighting over the same planet, having both commited their x2 Planet cat to the same place. 

Sam placed his cats quickly and was on his last cat while Katy still had five. I managed to get the 4-moon bonus on the last roll of the dice and I also got a very cheap six points by colonising the lowest planet with a bonus while everyone else ignored it.

Andrew 25

Sam 23

Mel 16

Katy 11

Ian 8

Mel left at this point and the four of us ploughed into the night with Misfits. I was exploiting my newly-acquired unemployed status to stay until the end for a change. Misfits is a game that defies explanation, with a whole host of “you have to be there” moments.

I was first to use all my pieces. Sam also used his last piece on the same round, but refused the title of joint winner.

Then we played Little Tavern. More dickish moves, as Katy couldn’t resist events which inevitably made her the poorest player. Something she mentioned whenever someone else had to give money to another player for an event. In round two we started reading out each character's little quote in the style of their race. Possibly offensive but luckily there were no elves, nobles, witches etc to witness this.

Ian 26

Katy 23

Andrew 22

Sam 22

Then we played So Clover. Sam had finished his clover by the time I’d come back from the toilet. But then we floundered on everyone’s clover except Ian’s. Only 16 out of 24 so we went again.

This time I was first but got hit by a bad decoy. My clue of Kabblammm!!! went better with Strong/explosion instead of the correct Physical/explosion. Everyone else went clear, despite controversy over Katy’s clue of “Apple” for “Heavy/Pear”. Immediately after we’d solved her clover, Sam went to get an apple and a pear and it was clear that pears are actually heavier than apples.

And hats off to Ian’s clue of “Any” for “Port/Storm”. Poetic.

22 out of 24.

And we were done. Thanks all. There’s a chance of a new venue next week, so let’s hope I’m still unemployed so I have enough time to get there and back.