Battered and Bruges

This week's gaming bonanza coincided (approximately) with Katy's birthday. Since the actual day wasn't for another two days, the festivities were kept to a bare minimum: cake a card and the vague offer of a game of Yokohama.

There were between eight and ten of us this evening, namely: Adam and Hannah (the hosts), Judith (Hannah's mum), Sam, Joe, Katy, Ian, Martin, Stuart (a friend of Martin's) and me.

We began with eight of us around the big table (all of us minus Hannah and Judith) for a rousing game of Fuji Flush. Stuart started well, getting down to two cards in next to no time. But  soon after, Joe got down to one card and then before anyone had worked out how best to stop him, he pushed through for the win. Sam grimly accepted that, in this life, his super power appears to be the ability to pick up only the very lowest cards from a randomly shuffled deck.

Joe no cards left
Martin, Stuart, Katy, Andrew 2
Ian, Adam 3
Sam 4

This was followed by delicious cake, courtesy of Hannah, before we split into three groups.

Cake! Split into somewhat more than three.

Judith was tempted into a game of Team Play with Adam, Hannah and Katy. Soon after the game began, Judith remarked "I'm already getting frustrated," and a laugh of recognition spread across the room. It could almost be the motto of board gamers everywhere. That game ended...

Hannah and Katy 30
Adam and Judith 21

On the big table, six players played two games. Martin, Stuart and Ian played Azul. I didn't follow it, despite sharing the same space, but Ian was in full pessimist mode mid-game and couldn't dig himself out by the end.

R to L: Team Play, Azul, Heaven and Ale

Martin 95
Stuart 67
Ian 49

Joe, Sam and I chose Heaven and Ale. I was keen to defend my title, but instead found myself making rookie errors while Sam, free from Explainer's Curse, played an exemplary game, ending with six large barrels.

Sam 40
Joe 17
Andrew 11

Team Play and Azul ended at more or less the same time so, without Judith, they rearranged into two new groups.

Stuart was tempted by the artwork on Eggs Of Ostrich, so he, Ian and Katy played a game.

Katy 14
Stuart 7
Ian 5

Meanwhile, Hannah, Adam and Martin battled through The Mind all the way up to level nine. But Hannah was counting under her breath. Apparently, this meant something but I, in my ignorance of the game, didn't understand the importance of this. (Actually, now I've played it, I'm still don't see how it's a viable option for victory but oh well.)

Then Heaven and Ale finished and more groups were shuffled. Adam, Ian and Sam went for the (in my opinion at the time) insane option of Calimala with its daunting 75+ minutes game time on the side of the box. And that was without factoring in the rules explanations. Hats off to them, though, they cracked through it at lightening pace, zipping around European cities (hence this week's tenuous blog title). The ending must've been tense since, when the scores were counted up, Sam had just squeezed a win. This caused a joyous declaration of "In your face, Hillmann!" from the victor who had just survived some major spoiling tactics from Adam.

Sam 33
Adam 32
Ian 28

While all this was happening, Katy, Stuart and Martin played Hit Z Road. I know very little about this game except that Martin tried his best to avoid zombies.

Katy 12
Martin 7
Stuart died "but did well," according to Katy.

On the blue coffee table, Hannah, Joe and I played Zero Down which is a simple game of having a hand of nine cards and drawing cards from a common source of five cards, and also discarding into the same source so it always remains at five cards. The aim is to score least. Each denomination (1-8) scores its value in your hand, ie a pair of eights scores eight. As does one eight or three or four. But five eights get you no points at all. Equally, five in the same colour (of which there are seven) also gives you no points.

It's a tricky game. Unless you're Hannah, who scored 4 points, 0 points then 1 point in each round to win the game comfortably.

Hannah 5
Joe 26
Andrew 48

Then Hannah retired to bed, so Joe and I played The Mind. This simple game of putting your cards down in numerical order but without speaking is a surprisingly exhausting ordeal.

We made it all the way up to level twelve and, with a little more courage, might have cleared that final level too. But we were proud of our efforts, especially round ten which ended with the cards 93, 96, 97, 99 and 100. Joe did try to argue that losing your last life meant you had one more left, like in video games, but Martin wasn't having any of it.

Now we were all together we finished with 6nimmt. Any reservations about the late hour to start the game were eased by the sight of Joe crashing into a death spiral in the first round, ending with 46 points. At the other end of the luck spectrum, Martin had 1 point and Katy had 2.

In the second and final round (Joe was worst player twice in a row) Adam and Ian, sitting side by side, both scored a clear round. Not enough to win the game, as it happened, but enough to give Katy a moment of doubt. But only a moment.

Katy 10
Adam 12
Martin 14
Ian 15
Stuart 39
Andrew 42
Sam 46
Joe 74

And, with that, we were done. Thanks to the hosts for hosting and for cake. And thanks to Joe for a lift back in his spacious new car.