You Ankhers

Saturday night’s alright for fighting, according to Elton John, but recently it’s also been alright for gaming. Sam hosted while his wife’s absence meant he was housebound. The evening started early since Sam’s oldest son, Stanley, was keen for a game of Lords of Waterdeep, with little Joe in charge of distributing cubes.

Matt texted to say he couldn’t make it, so there were four of us around the table: myself, Sam, Stanley and Ian. Waterdeep is familiar enough to all of us that no introduction is necessary. I made sure I always had plenty of money coming in, while Stanley had a powerful machine for collecting Intrigue cards. At the end, Stanley came first, and I was trying to win quite hard.

Stanley 122
Sam 114
Andrew 112
Ian 103

Martin turned up and watched the end of the game. He noted with approval Stanley’s low-key celebrations on winning. After that, Sam put his children to bed, and the rest of us played Biblios. Martin told us that the real tie-breaker was amount of gold left in your hand (how boring). This game was remarkable for no one going for orange, and so it was discarded at the end of the game. Also, there were loads of church cards making things complicated.

Martin 7
Ian 3 (+7 gold)
Andrew 3 (+4 gold)

Sam rejoined us and we decided on a new game: Nefertiti. This is a game of bidding on cards at a constantly changing set of market places. Once the not difficult rules were explained, we were off. Winning an auction means you can take either two cards, or one card that has the royal seal on it. Then on your next go, you can trade these seals for special actions (or keep them for three point each). And after each turn, the player passes on the ankh to his neighbour so we can keep track of whose go it is.

Collecting sets is good, unless other people are collecting the same sets. Then the value of both sets goes down. We all started well, going for the same special action of immediately scoring a set in your hand. But Sam and Martin later managed to build up a new sets that only they had, sending them far ahead of me and Ian.

Martin 146
Sam 134
Andrew 98
Ian 82

It was a lot of fun, and with each market having different criteria for closing the auction, it never got boring or samey. I think we shall be playing this again soon.

Then, to finish of, Mutineer was brought to the table for the first time in –oooh – over a year at least. I was quite drunk by now, but as I recall we sailed round in circles while Sam was captain for most of the game. The least mutinous game of mutineer ever. His bribes for support were so consistent (always one point) that we decided it was more like a wage than a bribe. How anyone else ever had the right goods for the island we were heading to is a mystery to me.

Finally, we noted that the amusingly titled island Fingerhut is actually one of the duller places on the table.

Martin 53
Sam 31
Andrew 19
Ian 18

And with that, it was over. Nice to have a new game like Nefertiti that’s fun and challenging, and also nice to be reminded that Mutineer is a good game.

I’m too tired to do a form table just now, but be aware that Martin is just two away from a perfect five.