Stoned Sage

It felt a bit odd at Joe's this week with Andrew missing for the first time ever. We tried to carry on as normal, but it somehow wasn't quite right.

With only four players (Joe, Sam, Hannah and I) there was a myriad of choice but new favourite Stone Age was selected. There was some debate on the history of the game with Joe claiming he'd had it first, which might explain why his smelly cup is so much riper than Sams. Speaking of which, it can only be that cup that masked the smell of the small mound of horse manure dragged in by the eerily (technologically-enforced) silent Sybil. Some kind of dirty protest Joe?

Having given away the secrets of his success after last week's game Sam embarked on a new tack tonight, getting hut multipliers early he went all out for huts. Hannah heeded Sam's advice and hoarded cards while making sure she had a good stock of raw materials at all times. She also got to eight family members early on, allowing her to gather lots of resources. Joe went for field multipliers and (funnily enough) fields, along with a few cultured icons while I stockpiled wood, expanded my family and also followed Sam's blueprint by taking every card or axe I could get my hands on.

Mention must be made of the luxurious use of two dice-rolling arenas, one for each side of the table. Apparently Joe also has a third, just in case.

There was a bit of controversy over dawdling meeples, who (tenuous attempt to make the title fit the piece) might have been experimenting with early herbal cigarettes! With much polite coughing and "let me help you get your tribesmen back" to be heard from all sides of the board the game stumbled on, wondering if there was any chocolate.

In the end Sam's hut multipliers (6 x 8) scored him a massive 48 points, but had he neglected other cards in getting hold of the huts? Joe's field multipliers looked good, but were they good enough? Hannah had seven cultural icons and lots of people multipliers in her wad of cards, while I'd stuck even closer to the Morrison Manual, having axe, field and people multipliers along with four cultish icons. The final scores were:

Sam 130

Joe 131

Hannah 160

Adam 183

We then played a non-leaderboard game of Tichu, a trick-taking card game, with aspects of poker and bridge, but a completely different style. I can't satisfactorily describe it due to not really understanding what was going on...

Essentially you try to get rid of your cards first, by playing runs, pairs, trios, singles, phoenixs, dragons, bombs and dogs. If you think you'll be first out you say "Tichu" before you start, and then gain big points if you're right or lose them if you're wrong. The secret seemed to be to play combinations that no-one else could follow.

The upshot after the agreed four rounds of play was that Sam and Hannah staged a massive comeback to draw with Joe and I on 205 points each. I have a feeling that Sam had started to get the hang of it, so Joe and I were probably lucky he was also desperate to get to bed.

The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio
Adam	17	87	5.11
Sam	18	74	4.11
Andrew	18	57.5	3.19
Joe	13	51	3.92
Hannah	8	35.5	4.44
Jonny	7	28	4
Steve	6	21.5	3.58
Quentin	4	17.5	4.38
Paul	2	6.5	3.25
Chris	2	5.5	2.75
Sally	1	3.5	3.5
Matilda	1	1.5	1.5