Wednesday 2 September 2020

Ballsy Dudo and the Calza Boys

Tuesday followed Tuesday followed Tuesday. And this time around, the stalwart figures of Andrew and Martin were both unusually absent. Doing the best we could under the circumstances were Joe, Ian, Katy, Andy, and myself (Sam). After Andy's standard intro of checking the online coast was clear several times before finally announcing himself, we dove into our first game of the evening with 7 Wonders. 

Most of us built wonders early, except Katy, who wondered what was going on, and Joe, who wondered why he couldn't build his wonder until Andy pointed out he didn't have any glass. Ian seemed unusually unproductive to my eyes, simply gathering lots of resources early doors and chucking down blue cards. I thought my military was going to pick up a lot of points but Andy suddenly went gangbusters on it. 

Joe insisted the GNN meme about his thinking time was pure fiction, but he did spend the longest time thinking. Ian's productiveness was more reliable than my eyes, as he picked up yet another win. My early confidence crumbled like sandstone over a particularly long period in the wind, as I claimed a shitty third. I didn't write down the scores but it was something like...

Ian 56
Katy 53
Sam 49
Andy 46
Joe 40

Next up was Incan Gold. All my years of work establishing that I leave early came to naught when first Ian, then Andy, did the same thing, with a complete lack of respect. I think everyone died at least once, and it was a who-dares-wins situation with serial non-chickens Joe and Katy tying with 26 as the more sensible amongst us consoled ourselves with living. Everyone was very close together, with the lowest being 21. Fun times

We moved on to Perudo, at Katy's request and others approval. I'd forgotten the slightly different rules on BGA, but got away with it mostly as Ian and Katy took turns to lose dice early on. Then Andy and I joined in, as Joe stayed solid on 5 whilst we all withered. Ian then reclaimed a dice with a classic calza, and I complimented Andy - mysteriously silent for a lot of the game, to the point where Joe eventually cried "Andy, why aren't you speaking?!" and I pictured him twiddling his fingers before a vast bank of screens, cat on his lap - anyway, I complimented him on a 'ballsy dudo' which inevitably led to a riff on who Ballsy Dudo might be. A mafiosi? The leader of a swing band? Maybe a rogue mathematician asking groundbreaking questions about averages. 


Katy crashed out, swiftly followed by Andy and then Joe, who survived a mid-game death spiral but succumbed anyway. It was Ian and I on two dice each. I guessed he was lying when he was telling the truth, and I guessed he was truthful when he was dishonest. Game over!

Ian
Sam
Joe
Andy
Katy

And at this point I retired, leaving the others to get up to who knows what. Thanks all, it was mysterious!

3 comments:

  1. I left then too, as did Ian, so if game continued they'd have been 2 player only. Apologies to Katy and Andy for bailing - I find online games strangely exhausting in a way that real life games seldom are; which is odd since there's none of the actual moving of heavy meeples, rolling cups full of dice present in real life games.
    Thanks for the entertaining blog, Sam.

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  2. I feel the same Joe, it's oddly tiring playing boardgames online. Plus for me I was knackered anyway.

    Was a fun few games, though! See you next week. I imagine.

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  3. I too struggle with online gaming. It's lovely to hear your voices, but after an hour or so on the screen I start to flag. I'm open to home visits/travels for some 2-player gaming though!

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