That was the opinion of myself, Andrew and Ian, anyway, albeit I lost track of time and they arrived on the street to find myself and Stanley attempting (and failing) to fit roof bars to our car. Whilst that was resolved, they stepped inside and broke out a 'ten minute' game of The Mind, that came to a dramatic end over half an hour later.
Having put the kids to bed, I watched the drama play out from level five onwards, at which point they had four lives but no shurrikens. It made no matter - an absorbing display of synchronicity played out right up to level 12, with almost no hitches at all, at which point Andrew - possibly distracted by Genesis - said "synch at 23" - giving away his lowest card. He discarded it and drew a new one, but the spell was broken and their tango turned into a drunken stagger home from the ballroom.
Nonetheless - they got through level 12 with two lives remaining, and played out an astonishing six levels of the Dark Mind before finally succumbing.
and look how close they were!
Nothing could live up to that, could it? Well, we gave it a go with Quantum. This is a favourite of mine and Ian's in particular, but hasn't seen the light of day in a while. I got off to a flier but was quickly caught. Ian surged ahead, before my dominance strategy saw me catch up, while Andrew somehow drew level as well. With all of us poised with a single cube to place, this particular three-way race went Andrew's way in a dramatic denouement - Andrew named it his dream before it happened, as he moved a 5 ship five spaces and needed to reconfigure his 6 ship to a 3 with a free action - he rolled a three, and Ian and I could only applaud.
Next up was Andrew's choice - Heaven and Ale, that classic game of brewmasters and ingredients needing to be as far up the track as they can so the position of the brewmaster can change the position of the ingredients by a certain amount depending on how far the brewmaster is itself and the poorest-performing ingredient defines your score although so does the brewmaster.
We were all a little ring-rusty and had to check the rules once or twice, but the game's seeming thinkiness suddenly drops away on the final round, which arrived sooner than we thought, somehow. Ian had neglected his brewmaster, whereas mine was at dizzying heights, but Andrew's middle path proved to be the winning one:
Andrew 29
Sam 28
Ian 16
With 11 looming we bashed out a quick game of Love Letter, where I fell foul of picking up the King in every round but one, and Ian found himself ousted before he could catch the man of the moment:
Andrew 3
Ian 1
Sam 0
Before we ended with the most ludicrous game of No Thanks that has possibly ever been played. Andrew picked up a card in the thirties, whereas I found myself tempted by two cards that were never going to combine. Another high card plopped out and Andrew took it - another lowish one for me. With both of us so card-happy, Ian ran out of chips, and it only got worse for him from there. Andrew had a seemingly inexhaustable stack of chips. I had an inexhaustable sense of optimism, and kept picking up cards before Ian could. Andrew needed the 32 to combine his high cards into one relatively harmless run. Ian picked it up because he had no chips. I needed the 27 to stop my score running away into the high reaches of acceptibility. It never came. The scores ended looking like we played the game all wrong - because we did.
Andrew 55
Sam 71
Ian 164
That's one hundred and sixty-four!
Brilliant.
Five wins in a row for Andrew if we include The Mind, which he shares with Ian. And I think we should.
Ian's final card combo
That was a bit nuts.
ReplyDeleteMy error in The Mind, when I began the game by saying “Sync at 23”, was compounded in comical fashion when I discarded the 23 and drew a new card instead. Ian seemed to assume my new card was lower than 23 and I assumed that Ian’s lowest was lower than 23. As such, we both sat there until Ian played. His card was in the mid-thirties, so my now-lowest 29 was in the wrong order and we lost a life.
Otherwise, we dazzled in the Dark Mind, banging down cards, one after the other, and being amazed when they came out clear, or with only one mistake. Our clear Dark Mind round five will perhaps go down in my greatest gaming achievements.
I was very surprised to win at Heaven & Ale, especially since I had such a middling biermeister. And No Thanks was just insane. I’ve no idea how I won, apart from Ian’s almost constant bankrupcy meaning that he had to pick up almost everything in his path.
And let’s not forget our conversation about whisky, with Sam saying he’d bought a £20 bottle just to get free delivery on a shopping order, Ian saying he’d sold on vintage bottle for £600+ and then bought a £60 bottle in celebration and me saying they all taste the same after a jumbo bag of beef hula hoops anyway.
Thanks all, it was special.
Of course, the beef hula hoops conversation! We should really try some new crisps...
Delete164! Holy shit. Thats got to be some sort of record!
ReplyDeleteGo for the Jacobs cracker crisps or walkers popadoms that I bring. They always seem to go down well :)