Fast asheep

At eight o’clock I rolled into Joe’s to find the already assembled gamers (Joe, Martin,Ian, Laura, Gareth, Sam) finishing off a game of In Vino Morte, which I think I heard someone say that Laura won, but I was too busy sorting out my drinks, so who knows?

Before that they played Cross Clues and got 24 points. The one that got away was a clue from Gareth for “Painting” and “Water” which was “colour”. Unfortunately one of the other words was “Blue” and that was enough to put them off the scent.

Finally, I sat down to play a game. While Martin enticed Sam, Laura and Gareth to play a game of Profiteers, a war game only in the sense it is set during a war. The players are simply trying to make as much money as possible, without caring who is actually winning.

Sam 33

Martin 26

Laura 6

Gareth 3

Ian, Gareth,Joe and I played the far more cuddly Sheepy Time, in which our sheep run around the board, leaping over a fence while avoiding a nightmare and the first to catch forty winks wins. It was fun in a push your luck kind of way, trying to stay one step ahead of the nightmare while also making sure you hit the right bonuses.

I was in the lead for most of the game but then Ian leapt back into contention in the final round, doing laps at an unholy rate. Joe, though, one by going furthest past his pillow. My first round was dismal and I didn't get anywhere near enough winks.

Joe, two spaces past his pillow

Ian, on his pillow

Andrew, nowhere near his pillow

With uncanny timing, the two games ended pretty much at the same time. After the usual cognitive dissonance of choosing a game, Gareth, Joe, Ian and I chose Hardback, the letter building game with a Dominion style deck-building mechanic. Draw five cards, buy extra cards with ink (but you must use those letters) and make the best word you can. Letters score either cash or points. Cash gets you better cards and points wins you the game. Sixty of them, to be exact.

At one point, Joe raised a few eyebrows when he announced he was paying an ink to draw another card from his deck. He made this plain, he said, so it didn't look like cheating in case the K (which he had just shuffled back into the newly-recycled discard pile) should come out. He then drew the K. This made it look like clever sleight of hand or an awkwardly accurate premonition.

Ian had his own moment of awkwardness when we realised halfway through the game that he’d been paying an ink to draw a card from the communal draw deck, not from his own. That did explain why his deck was so large.

However, it didn’t seem to help as he came in joint last with me. I would have been further behind were it not for a stroke of luck with my last word “FLOP” which got me 15 prestige points. Any hopes that I might pip the others to 60 were immediately dashed by Gareth who (having played PIXELS twice during the game) reached 60 points with his next word.

Gareth 60

Joe 53

Ian 51

Andrew 51

While we played that, Laura, Sam and Martin regrouped for another go at Quirky Circuits and they cleared two more tracks before Laura had to go, mindful of the changeable weather outside.

Sam and Martin then played Rosetta (twice?) and after we’d finished Hardback, as I was leaving, Martin finally guessed the word: Sacrifice. Then I set off into the evening, confident that my waterproofs would withstand the light drizzle, only for it to turn into a downspout before I got to the end of the road. After I’d left, I’m told, they played a tough game of So Clover.

Thanks Joe for hosting and thanks others for guesting. See you next week.

 

Archipela-go-go

 Tuesday games at Joe's new kitchen arena and seven of us (Joe, Adam T, Ian, Katy, Sam, myself and, at long last, Martin) squeezed around the table, looking for some fun and expressing mixed feelings about the tube of sour cream Pringles in front of us.

Our first game was Bliss20. A game where we all take it in turns to say consecutive numbers from 1 to 20. Except that after each time, an extra rule is added, eg, swap 2 and 17, or instead of saying 16, you have to trace the shape of the numbers with your finger.

At first we did okay. Certainly, well enough that the pile of twenty gems representing lives seemed hugely over generous. But as the rules began to build up, we made more and more mistakes. It was funny and agonising to see people forget which rule was for which number and also, after a run of consecutive rules, forget what number it was at all. A nice game and we cleared level 2. But as Katy said, not sure I'd want to play it at the end of the evening.

Next we indulged in a discussion about what to play next, featuring some games I'd never heard of. Did everyone stock up on games during the pandemic? Eventually, we went for Polynesia and Cosmic Frog, and once the decision was made Sam expressed relief that he could now stop saying "cosmic frog". 

Joe, Sam and Ian went on the coffee table but during the rules explanation, Sam felt that he wasn't as familiar with Cosmic Frog as he'd thought, so they changed to Hardback. This is a game I know nothing about but Sam won.

Sam 62

Joe 54

Ian 52

As for Polynesia, it was a pretty deep and thinky game, where points were scarce. I’m sure we all played sub-optimal moves as we explored the islands and archipelagos around Polynesia. I moved all my guys off one island, leaving one of Martin’s meeples stranded and unable to move. All very funny but, at the same time, now all my guys were in the wrong place. Katy didn’t realise about one scoring method until late in the game. Meanwhile, Adam seemed to be one step ahead of all of us but the final score had a familiar name at the top. Much to his surprise.

Martin 14

Adam 13

Katy 12

Andrew 8

Next, we play Snakesss, the game in which we’re all trying to answer a multiple choice question, except there are three snakes among us trying to slyly push people to make the wrong choice. I was pleased about my reasoning to make people think that “Rock em Sock em Robots” was a cartoon in the 1980s, but I was helped by the fact that the real answer (Rubik, the amazing cube, or something) was pretty outlandish. Joe and I were heading into the final round neck and neck and it was very exciting but then we were both chosen as snakes, meaning we crossed the line in joint first whatever happened. But then there was a tie-breaker: a game of rock paper scissors! How odd, but okay, then. My scissors cut into Joe’s paper, and I won. Sam was pleased with his late comeback, having scored nothing at all for the first half of the game.

Andrew 19 + scissors

Joe 19 - paper

Adam T 9

Martin 9

Sam 9

Katy 7

Ian 7

After that, I was exhausted and Adam and Ian left at the same time. Katy, despite having a job interview next day, stayed on for one more. According to Sam’s text, they played Scout.

Sam 33

Martin 29

Joe 12

Katy 11

Thanks all. See you next Tuesday.