The games began early when Stan and I nearly played chess, but then abruptly changed tack to Flipships. We blithely obliterated the oncoming mass of tiny attackers but realised we had a single round to hit the mothership 6 times. Still, we had 24 attempts to do it with. And every missed attempt would just made the final hit that much more glorious... except we hit the Mothership exactly once, and sent our other pilots careering uselessly around the kitchen table and into the salad dressing.
Alien Invaders: win
Sam and Stan: lose
With Andrew and Adam still half an hour from arrival Stan wanted a crack at The Mind. Without making any kind of verbal pact, we started playing at a much brisker pace than normal, and barrelled our way up to the eighth round before expiring. But round five was a Mind Classic: I got down three low cards and Stanley two, before I sat back with my cards face down on the table. Stan scrutinised my face for ten seconds, then played his 95. I played my 96 and 97, and he slapped down 98/99 for a clear round. Genius!
The Mind - wins
Sam and Stan: lose
Stan vacated the kitchen for the front room as Andrew and then Adam arrived to find Underwater Cities set up and ready to go.
very similar to last week
Last week's play gives a more in-depth run down of the rules, but suffice to say in Underwater Cities, you're building underwater cities. Actions are paid for by cards, and if the card colour matches the action colour: bingo! You get the action on the card too. This simple twist on worker-placement is genius when everything combines neatly, and annoying when you regularly end up with a hand of like-coloured cards. I got the rule sweats - not only is there a fair amount to get through, I was also conscious of Sally in hearing-distance as I said things like "An upgraded desalination plant gets you biomatter"
"So that's shit, essentially?" asked Adam
Andrew and I protested that biomatter could take many forms, but for the rest of the evening Adam referred to his desalination plants as 'piss factories'. Is this what Vladimir Suchy worked so hard for?
piss factories not shown
Andrew and I knew Adam would win, but by how much? There have been times in the past where his debut attempts at games we already know have been embarrassing for us, so it was up to us to keep the pressure on, which we did with lots of sarcasm about how long he took to take his turns. It didn't work - Adam had come with pyschological ploys of his own, which included pointing out my schoolboy error in round two (I coulda built a symbiotic city! Instead I'm a bum) and waving sugared peanuts in Andrew's face. Andrew hates nuts, sugared or not.
Other snacks featured, including the rowdy salt and vinegar twirls that attracted Sally's attention ("What are you eating? It's so loud") which Andrew rationalised as the acoustic properties of the twirl over our table manners. Back in the game, Adam's natural inclination to hoard, even in a world where resources can be hard to come by, became evident as we hit the final straight and his nose was just visible behind a pile of 'science'. I grabbed the first two government contracts. Andrew grabbed the next one. Adam looked unconcerned. We snapped up Special Cards with end-game bonuses. Adam shrugged. After round ten we counted up and found I had won! - If you exclude Adam, that is.
Adam!!!!
Adam 94
Sam 84
Andrew 81
We'd bashed out three submerged conurbations in rapid speed, taking a little over 2 hours. "It felt longer" Adam admitted, but that's just because he thought about it more than we did. Anyway, there was still time for a little closer which was Spy Tricks. Andrew accidentally broke the game in round two when he revealed the hidden card with what he realised was a drunken decision. I capitalised with a winning bet, and wrapped things up in round three:
Sam 27
Adam 22
Andrew 10
This morning when I mentioned my win to Stan, he archly compared the 'deep strategy' of Spy Tricks to the 'luckfest' of Underwater Cities. Pithy cynicism from an 11-year-old - this is the world we're living in now...
We couldn't persuade Adam to stay any longer, but Andrew and I finished the evening with an old favourite in Love Letter, where Andrew shot into a 3-0 lead in a matter of seconds, guessing my cards and baroning me into submission. I surged back to 3-2, in a princess-missive-mission-recreation of the recent Man City-Spurs game. I was helped a lot by my handmaid, as Andrew found himself forced to discard his own princess. But Andrew took the win when he guessed I had a shitty Baron, giving everyone a victory on the night... a delightful night too, considering the amount of biomatter involved.
Thanks for hosting and blogging Sam. I can be fairly pleased with my last place considering I kind of wasted my early moves. My end of game bonus required me to build symbiotic cities, but I couldn't get any biomatter before the opening production phase. In the end, I decided to ignore them completely and used special cards instead.
ReplyDeleteSorry about breaking Spy Tricks. It was a stupid move: all blue cards were out except the four and seven. I played the four thinking it would force the blue seven to be played since you have to follow suit. Of course, I realised if it doesn't get played, then the mystery card must be the blue seven. It wasn't played. Sam won that trick and promptly plonked his marker on the space for the blue seven. Round over.
Thanks for hosting Sam and thanks for the twirls Andrew!
ReplyDeleteI think I'd like to play underwater cities again - there was a bit of too-many-cards information-overload, but the way that there were multiple ways to achieve things even at the end of the game was pretty neat.
Thanks for coming! If I'd been fair-minded I'd have suggested we start that second round of Spy Tricks again. But at the time I was too excited by the bonanza win on offer. It was kinda funny too.
ReplyDeleteI'm up for another crack at Underwater Cities. It's clever.