Fruitful Pastimes

Another night, another alien invasion averted by the power of flicking. Yes, it was Flipships again, as Stanley and Joe were suiting up for space flight (furry onesies) just as Andrew walked through the door to join us at 7pm. We played a standard mission, and saw off the invaders so comfortably - about eight flicks to spare - I'm thinking it's time to play expert next time.

Joe hits the mothership. Cries of joy supplied by Stan.

The reward for saving the planet was a good night's rest, so I put the boys to bed whilst Andrew packed the game away.

We decided that it was a good night for Macao, the game that everyone many of us profess to like but only ever gets played by Andrew and I. Maybe because it's a much faster game with two, I'm not sure. Anyway, we went wildly divergent routes. I picked up hard-to-activate cards but because one of them - I managed to activate it - was the Idler, I could choose not to pick up extra cards from then on if it took my fancy, and this came in jolly handy.

Idler, skulking in the distance

However my idleness looked less than wise when Andrew got his gold-making engine going and repeatedly bought points from the tribute track, overhauling my narrow lead to push himself ahead. I came back into it though, using my stockpiled cubes to sail my boat repeatedly in and out of Antwerp delivering tea, like I'd fallen in love with a waitress there. My paper delivery got me double points too, and it was enough to see off Endersby and claim the Crown of Macao (just made that up, but it's like Mr Biblios).

It was approaching 9.15 but as it was a school night Andrew wanted something light to finish. I taught him the delights of Finca - it plays up to four, but is best with two as it's more tactical and less random. In the game your Farmers are delivering various types of fruit around the island of Mallorca, and the board shows what is in demand where. But the game itself is really about the windmill - a randomly-generated rondel system that works in a clever way: on your turn you move a Farmer as many spaces as there were farmers on the spot you started. Then you take fruit pieces equal to as many Farmers on the space you stopped in.

Extreme windmilling

You can forego collecting fruit in order to make deliveries, but the rondel - and the fact you collect the donkeys you need for delivering when passing certain spots on the windmill - is really the game.  I'd like to try it with three but I imagine four to be chaos.

A Finca is added when a region is sated

Andrew took a debut win after he sped the game to its end, which happens when five regions have had their fill of fruit:

Andrew 50
Sam 45

A delightful aperitif, thanks Andrew!