Andrew arrived earlier and we bashed out a quick game of Polarity. This has been sitting in my cupboard for a while (on my gravestone it'll probably say Sitting in his Cupboard) or more accurately, being distributed around the house by feral children. Made of magnets and a cotton mat, the game consists of trying to balance - or position - circular magnets in such a way that the repelling effect holds the magnet in a gravity-defying position.
It's fairly nuts, and to me, tricky. I started well but after an initial couple of successes, morphed into a kind of gaming Mr Bean, the archetype of cack-handedness. The points were really swingy, but Andrew's steadier hand and brain-gauge saw him trot out a whitewash:
Andrew 43
Sam 3
Chris arrived in time to express disbelief that such a game could exist, and then we broke out Giants. This has been sitting... etc etc etc and it was nice to finally play it. I knew the basics so we ripped through the rules in about 15 minutes and embarked on an Easter Island odyssey, building Moai statues and placing pimp-style hats on them. The game is a mix of bidding for the statues, but then transporting them to their coastal destinations is an entirely different kettle of fish, often working co-operatively whether you like it or not.
Chris seemed increasingly resigned about his chances, but his statue scoring was the same as mine and his collection of Rongos (who knows?) scored him a whopping 18 points to claim the win.
Chris 93
Sam 77
Andrew 67
I thought I might have won, but I also thought if I hadn't Andrew would be the victor. Maybe Chris' tactic is all about maintaining a forlorn air - look out for it, guys.
It's a nice game actually, but my, that first play was fairly long - over wo hours.
After that epic, Andrew was threatening to leave but we tempted him back to the table with a bit of Biblios, regaling Chris with the tale of Andrew being beaten 18-0 by Ian. We decided - or maybe I did - that the King Biblios title has to be a something-to-zero score, and I wondered if anyone would manage it tonight... not quite, though Andrew did notch up a second zero. I was pleased when the very last card in the auction stack was the blue I'd hoped for, and bid 16 gold. Is that a record?
Sam 8 (Mr Biblios)
Chris 5
Andrew 0
It as now well past 11pm, so we called it a night. Thanks guys.
