Everything’s better with chips

I arrived bright and early this week, but still late enough to miss two games of Strike. Martin ended the second one in fine style with twice as many dice as he started.

Laura was expected soon, so we split into two groups. Adam H, Sam and Katy played the excitingly-titled Little Town which Martin said was “quite good, considering it’s a worker placement game.” Joe (hosting), Martin and myself played a short game of Narabi.

It’s an odd game, a co-op in which we have to arrange the numbered stones in front of us in ascending or descending order. Each of us had four cards in front of us and each card had a rule restricting how it could move on the back that only we could read but couldn’t discuss with the other players. If the game was supposed to evoke a sense of zen calm, then it succeeded. Maybe I was just tired, but it seemed to drift past quite serenely. We completed it after using only half the number of turns allotted to us.

Then Laura arrived and we changed from tranquil teamwork to mind-reading rivals in Gambler x Gamble! This Japanese game is hard to find, or at least it was until Joe picked it up this week for £12. Laura was introduced to the game but maybe Joe should’ve listening in too. At one point, when making a secret bid, he put his card face up and declared “Zero” which was either an audacious bluff or he’d forgotten the rules.

This time we did away with the game’s tiny plastic chips in favour of Joe’s genuine poker chips. This gave rise to someone uttering the title for this blog post. It was also ironic because, apart from some chocolatey biscuits that Katy handed round, no one brought any snacks at all.

As for Gambler x Gamble!, I won again. It was my turn and I needed any of my three gamblers, 2, 3 or 6, to pay out and then I’d hit the winning score of 15. Meanwhile, Martin had the instawin 4 card in front of him, so I needed to be careful. I can’t actually remember what I did, but it was brilliant and I ended up with 17 points for the win.

As for Little Town, all I know is that whenever I looked over, Adam seemed to picking up the last cubes of a particular resource.

Sam 56

Adam 51

Katy 49

Next we played Schrille Stille, a game “like no other,” promised Joe. It was six-player so Joe and Sam teamed up for this crazy game of music industry mayhem. In the game, we have to influence and also predict the Top 14 of a chart full of fictional artists, with each of us representing a record label. Our votes were given using a large cardboard CD which looked more like a rotary dial on an old telephone. Little wooden disks would be put into the little round holes and then those disks would be dropped into a contraption which could then release everyone’s disks for one particular artist at a time.

It’s all very clever from an engineering perspective, although at one point it did feel like every rule came with its own bespoke piece of equipment. And with six people voting for artists to rise or fall, it was hard to feel like you had any influence in the game. After round one, for example, I was miles in the lead and no one was more surprised than me.

But, like Stock, Aitken and Waterman all rolled into one, my star fell as quickly as it had risen. By round three, Martin was level with me and I scored only two points in the final round as Martin went past the 50 point mark that we’d set as the finishing line.

Laura had to leave mid-game so Sam left his partnership with Joe to take over her ailing record label and he oversaw a swift increase in revenue, taking it from last to second in the final round. Adam didn’t seem to like it and I’m inclined to agree. I had fun, but it was more of an activity than a game.

Martin 52

Laura/Sam 41

Joe/Sam 40

Katy 40

Andrew 37

Adam 32

Next we played So Clover as a nice warm down for those of us eyeing the clock. Sam and I went clear, with my clover being solved so quickly that I was actually a little disappointed. Martin also went clear, albeit after he was obliged to give us a clue. Katy took issue with “fireman,” insisting it should be “firefighter” and she even erased it until Martin objected, saying there was a reason for specifying gender. This led us to the word “big” as one of the correct answers, which I don’t think we’d have otherwise got.

The fastest ever clover?

I think we were wrong on Katy’s but then we somehow navigated Adam’s clover with the clue “Colonel” written on it. Eventually we settled for “Mustard/Pigeon” although we couldn’t think of a reason for Pigeon. Adam admitted afterwards that he couldn’t think of a clue for both words, so he just clued “Mustard” and hoped for the best.

Finally was Joe’s clover in which we got three tiles wrong. This was all the more appalling because we’d had it correct earlier on. The problem clue was “Sam” which we initially paired with “Root/Bike” because he likes the game Root and he rides a bike. But then someone noticed “screen/right” and that worked too because he’s a screenwriter. So we rearranged the tiles and sat back, anticipating congratulations, only to receive opprobrium instead. We went back to our earlier guess and finally got it right.

At first, everyone but Joe and Martin were making moves to leave, but in the end Katy was tempted by one last game of Piece o' Cake. Best decision she made all evening.

Katy 44

Martin 33

Joe 31

Thanks all for a special evening. Same time next week.