Babylon is burning, but Egypt is rising

Inner cities across the land may be in turmoil, but it takes a little more than a massively-multi-player version of Grand Theft Auto III to postpone Tuesday’s games night. Even if, halfway through, one of the players got a text describing airborne helicopters and yelling outside their house.

It started so serenely, with Sam convincing his wife into a game before the main contingent arrived. A game of Tsuro was laid out on the table for myself and Sam, and she couldn’t resist a quick go before she went out for the evening. As it happened, Hannah arrived just as we were beginning, so she joined in too.

It was a tense occasion, with Hannah going out first. I managed to go in spirals long enough to claim second, with Sally in third and Sam continuing his run of form with another first place. Adam came in halfway through that game and, in a somewhat un-gentlemanly fashion, pointed out that Hannah had screwed up her points ratio.

1. Sam
2. Andrew
3. Sally
4. Hannah

After this, Jonny arrived and Sally left, and Ra was chosen as the evening’s main feature. Hannah and Jonny were given a quick update on the rules and we launched into the game. In the first round it was all buildings and Pharaohs, and Adam started strongly with a seven-point Nile and it looked like business as usual, but when the second round began and our bidding tiles were turned over, we saw that Jonny had 15, 14 and 13. A commanding position indeed, with only Sam’s 16 tile offering any kind of resistance.

From that moment on, it was a scramble for second. Jonny later said those tiles just “turned out that way” but I’m not convinced. He used his position of power to get extra points for most pharaohs and picked up a healthy amount of buildings, too. This set him up to glide through the final round, despite Adam’s best efforts.

I ignored buildings completely, preferring instead on a productive Nile and not losing points each round. Hannah played a safe game with a little bit of everything, but Sam found himself on the wrong end of some end-of-epoch gambles with the auction track. Twice he had a point-scoring set of tiles, but both times he turned over one tile too many, and lost them all to a Ra tile that ended the epoch.

Jonny 40
Adam 33
Andrew 19
Hannah 18
Sam 10

It was barely past nine thirty, so a game of Trans America was suggested. This simplified train game was explained to Hannah, and with no standing on ceremony and a complete lack of further ado, we began.

Hannah was thrown in at the deep end, as she went first in the first round, but soon found her feet with a quick win in that round. She won another round soon after that, insisting it was beginner’s luck, while Sam slipped badly, picking up six points twice in a row to send him out of the game.

Hannah 7
Andrew 8
Adam 10
Jonny 13
Sam 17

All in all, everyone placed high and low in their games so it was an evening that pleased no one, except perhaps Joe who was on holiday. I managed to edge my points ratio above 3, and lift myself above the afore-mentioned absent Joe. Hannah and Jonny also climbed places, but Hannah’s points ratio has fallen somewhat.

But a big round of applause for another name on the table! Hello, Sally! Hopefully, once she sees she’s only 0.08 behind Steve in Points Ratio, she’ll be back before long.

The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio
Adam	14	72.5	5.18
Sam	15	63.5	4.523
Andrew	16	51.5	3.22
Joe	12	47.5	3.96
Jonny	7	28	4
Hannah	5	22	4.4
Steve	6	21.5	3.58
Quentin	4	17.5	4.37
Paul	2	6.5	3.25
Chris	2	5.5	2.75
Sally	1	3.5	3.5
Matilda	1	1.5	1.5