Key(s) to Victory

 A quartet of gamers congregated this evening at Joe’s. I was a little late and I found Joe, Sam and Martin deep in thought over a game of fiction. This plays the same as Wordle, except that one of the clues given is a lie. Therefore, the player(s) trying to guess the word also have to work out which of the clues in each guess isn’t true.

 

The game also comes with some nicely illustrated cards that contain sections from classic literature, such as Wizard of Oz, The Great Gatsby, etc. In these sections all the five letter words are highlighted, with those unique words picked out in yellow. I suppose knowing which novel a guess comes from might help the guessers?

Anyway, Sam and Joe eventually got the word, Swarm, having agonised over the ramifications of each clue being a potential lie.

As a foursome, we began with Agent Avenue or, as Joe called it, “A gent. A venue.” This takes the ancient mechanic of going in a circle, trying to catch your opponent, and adds some cunning double bluff as the distance that your “agents” move is decided which of two cards you pick up at the start of your turn. 

There are only two agents, so we played as teams. At the start of the round, the two players on a team chose a card from their hand. One is placed face up, the other face down. And then the other team chooses which card to take.

Do they take the safe option – the visible card? Or do they gamble on the hidden one that may send your agent many spaces forward or drag him back?

It was a lot of fun and it got pretty desperate towards the end when the draw pile ran out and we had to rely on those cards left in our hands.

But most fun was had from the unexpected innuendo as the two people on each party would ask each other if they wanted to go face up or face down. Oddly, it never stopped being funny, like extremely polite foreplay.

Andrew & Martin - Spycatchers!

Sam & Joe - face down in the gutter

Then we dug out Mille Fiori, an old familiar that we could set up and get going within seconds. I chose red instead of purple, somehow mistaking my usual favourite for blue. Not sure what happened.

By the end of round 1 Martin has chained together a bunch of keys for an extra go and a twenty point bonus such that the scores were Martin 57, Andrew 13, Sam 8, Joe 7. Surely it was done and dusted.

But then we whittled away his lead and I managed to chain together a 35 point move and squeezed a few points ahead of him! Maybe there was hope! 

Well, no. At least not for me. I was stuck with some dopey cards and I fell further and further back. Joe, meanwhile, shifted up a gear and in the fourth round - when Martin was starting player and theoretically had the biggest advantage - he was able to overtake us both. He was in the lead in round five, when he was starting player again. Could he make the advantage count?

Well, he didn’t have time to find out, as Martin got just the card he needed that scored big and put down his last two tiles for a win.

Martin 213

Joe 194

Sam 175

Andrew 158

Next up was Montage, the crossword game. Joe and I played against Martin and Sam. In this game allows a guess to stand if it fits in with the letters already on the board. For example, when Sam gave the clue “job” for a four letter space, I said “work” and Joe said “poop” and either would have been fine.

Joe and I started well and completed a “zone” (four zones for the win) but then Sam clued and Martin guessed their way through a storming run that saw them complete three zones in one turn and then, shortly after that, finish the fourth for the win.

Sam and Martin 4

Joe and Andrew 1

At this point I went home. The promise of So Clover couldn’t keep me - too many word games, even for me. But they played on without me, scoring 11/18 and then 18/18.

Thanks guys, see you soon.