Synonyms from the Stars

Just the four of us last night at Joe's - as well as the host it was Ian, Martin and myself (Sam) just mobile enough after an ankle sprain to make up the quartet. An unusually sparse evening kicked off with A Message From the Stars, new to me and to be frank even more bamboozling than I found Hooky. I'd read Andrew's report on Message but for whatever reason neither that nor Joe's careful explanation or Martin's interjections stopped me spending the game feeling like a doofus, which I was. 

Martin was an alien trying to clue us a desperate message (although in fact, only three words) and we had our words we needed to convey to him. But it's kind of two-games in one because as well as supplying synonyms and/or related words to the secret ones, we also have to deduce some letters behind the alien's board which have - unless I'm still confused - zero relationship to the words he's trying to make us guess. I think. 

our three words

The 'message' thing is by the by - perhaps that's what threw me - although it does stitch in a seam of comedy. Both sides clued semi-synonyms for their words on the first three rounds then threw in a bonus clue that confused everybody. Martin's 'Trump' we discovered seemed to dovetail with anything remotely negative: tiny, weak, arrogant. But despite this we decoded everything triumphantly, and moved on to Foundations of Metropolis. 

New to Joe and Ian but simple to teach: take cash, buy deeds, or build. But both the deed-buying and the building have a snarky interactive element, as you can cockblock your way around the board with the deeds (©Martin) and leach other's constructions with the civic buildings, which score points depending what they're built next to. Retail buildings score points just for existing and residential buildings provide another parasitic quirk: you score the position of the person ahead of you on the population track. 

Ian's early lead after round one was pegged back as we jostled for position, and my final turn in round two nabbed the population bonus to give me a narrow lead. But in round three Martin's decision to stop giving a shit about citizens and focus on banks proved 'constructive':

Martin 101

Sam 92

Ian 82

Joe 69

Martin suggested Gang of Dice and we all swiftly agreed. I elected to roll all my dice on the very first turn which Martin was appalled at, citing my blithe disregard for probabilities. He was right and Ian won. In fact Ian seemed to win most of the rounds, although Joe popped up now and again to maintain the illusion Ian might possibly not be the victor. 

I kept rolling with an idiotic optimism that did at one point pay off, when I needed to not roll any odd numbers came up with 4-4-2-2 on my final attempt. A stopped clock and all that. 

However Martin's more scientific - or less moronic - approach wasn't serving him well either: he picked up a single win when the rest of us busted. And when he finally ignored his head and went with his gut, that let him down too. Ian picked us off like dice-rolling fish in a casino barrel.

Ian 101

Joe 55

Sam 6

Martin 0

My foot was telling me to go home but I stayed for a quick bash at So Clover, although all of us were stumped by our combos initially. I think Ian was first to finish and we deduced his words with relative ease before stumbling on my clover (Electric/Demon: I'm sure there's a better clue than Lightning but I couldn't think of it). 

I didn't take any photos, sadly, but we managed 22/24 with just my clover falling at the deduction hurdle. It was 10.40 though and pumpkin time for me - I hobbled off whilst they played another So Clover, with a not-dissimilar result after Joe's clue of sharpen for cactus/file a particular highlight. Martin's clover was apparently the shortfall this time, with a lot of possible solutions, but overall a solid 16/18 regardless.

And that was apparently that.