Desperate Times

Summer continued its grip on our attendance figures, with a mere four gamers around Sam's kitchen table this Tuesday. Sam, Martin, Ian and me.

Both Martin and I were a little late, so Ian and Sam kicked off the fun with a game of Akrotiri. In this game you have to place temples on a modular and ever-expanding map, according to the placement of coloured cubes already on the map (ie, one red to the north, two blues to the east and a grey to the south).

I came in mid game and watched them play for a while. It all looked quite relaxing as they sailed around some islands, selling and buying cubes. Who knows the frantic machinations going on inside their heads, though?

When Martin arrived they ended the game. It was 2-2.

With all gamers present, we began with a little history lesson: Reiner Knizia's first published game, Deserados. How would this proto-Knizia be received?

The game is a team game, with colleagues sitting opposite each other, with six cards and a draw deck in the middle. The idea is to play a mine card (gold, silver or copper) and then between you, keep playing cards with the same element to that mine. The other team can try to grab it with a Desperado, which can then be fought off with other Desperados of a higher (combined) value. To stop this, you can close a mine and that's safely in the bank for points.

To be honest, none of us were massively taken. Martin reminded us that this was made years ago before anyone knew anything about games but, even so, it was a pretty drab exercise.

Martin and Ian 28
Sam and Andrew 9

After this, we all gazed at Sam's games wall, wondering what to play next. Quantum? Flamme Rouge? We could recreate that Welsh bloke winning in France, said Ian, demonstrating his in-depth knowledge of current affairs. Hit Z Road? More of a late night game, really.

Instead we chose The Quest For Eldorado. Not played since Adam used the twin trash card spaces to hone his hand into an unstoppable machine of speed, we were keen to try it again with a gentleman's agreement not to copy Adam's strategy.

Instead, we all went a bit cave crazy, with me even going backwards to grab a useful treat. We took great pleasure in pronouncing the names of the cards in the most obscene way possible. Ian, Martin and I all seemed to have the idea of using a Trash Three Cards space on the penultimate tile to make our hands lean and efficient. We all arrived at the same time, though, meaning we had to wait patiently as we each took a turn to use it. Sam, meanwhile sped through undergrowth. Definitely the long way round but, with no one in his way, he made it count.

In the end, it was between Martin and Sam. Martin couldn't reach the temple but was in a promising position. Sam fell just one space short. Could Martin take advantage with his next, surely final, turn?

But wait! Who's this charging up from behind like Wile E. Coyote with a fully functioning Acme jet pack on his back? It's Ian, whose final turn made a mockery of Sam and Martin's slow progress as he cleared the entire last tile and arrived at the temple. I could only just reach the final tile to make my last place look respectable. And could Martin join Ian at the temple and win on a tie breaker? He showed us his final hand: all money. He couldn't move at all.

The game before Ian's final move...

... and after.

1. Ian
2. Sam
3. Martin
4. Andrew

After this we succumbed to the temptation of Decrypto. Martin and Sam teamed up again to try and avenge some previous defeat that, I admit, couldn't bring to mind. We named our teams after our favourite single entendres from Eldorado, so that Sam and Martin were The Kundschafters, while Ian and I were The Urine Whiners.

In round two, Sam over-thought a clue and actually changed his mind from the correct answer. An early mistake!

But by round four, it looked increasingly like the words had been deduced, as both interceptions were only one word out. "We need cat poo levels of ingenuity here," declared Martin, referring to Joe's stroke of genius when defining the word "message".

Today's themed clues were Martin's very short clues in round two (only used ten letters in total), and Sam's filmic round six which prompted Martin to inform Sam that he doesn't know much about films. Sam also had a short story "Watch / Ugly / Luke"* while my final clues resembled a Marillion album title: "Childhood watches / Puberty become / Death."**

In the end, Ian and I got two interceptions (in rounds six and seven) to win the game. To cap it all, we correctly guessed all their words!

Ian and Andrew gracious winners.
Sam and Martin plucky losers.

Now with a party feel in the air, we couldn't go back to a Euro. Instead Martin brought Polterfass and The Mind in from Sam's living room.

Polterfass has been absent for a while, but tonight's game had everything that reminded us how good it was. We had clever bids that left the bier meister with barely anything. We had a player (Sam) fall back into minus points after an extravagant bid went wrong. But mostly, we had a three way tussle for the lead. After the seventh round the scores were 42, 41, 41, 16 which left us all (except Sam, perhaps) fully invested in the game.

But in round eight, Ian drew ahead and then only needed two points to win when he was the bier meister. There was nothing anyone could do to stop him, except Lady Fate, and she was probably next door partying with all the cool young things next door, singing along to "Africa" by Toto.

What I mean is Ian won.

Ian 83
Martin 69
Andrew 63
Sam 7

Finally we ended on The Mind. It was a fraught affair. Despite collaborating with team games like Desperados and Decrypto, we were horribly out of sync. In the first two rounds we lost lives in the 30s. We didn't improve and were dead by round five.

We reset and tried again. Early signs weren't good when we lost a life to 58/75. We lose a life in round three (11/12) but otherwise seemed pretty solid. Then, in round four Ian was very slow in putting down the 8 and then slower still following it up with the 10. Maybe this unnerved us since we lost a life later on. We had a clear round five thanks to a shuriken getting us through the treacherous thirties. But we lost two lives and failed in round six with 11/12 (again!) and 15/16 providing our downfall.

A lovely evening. Interesting to play a bad game by The Knizia, and the rest were all top notch entertainment. Here's hoping for a venue next week. Damn these summer holidays.


* Time, fruit, cage
** Rainbow, revolution, torpedo