Hot Cathedral Action

Walking along Joe's road, with the cardboard recycling bags neatly hanging up on railings, I arrived at his door and spent about thirty seconds trying to find the doorbell under the large Christmas wreath on his front door. 

After I went in I found I was the last expected attendee. Apart from me and Joe, there was Ian, Katy, Sam, Adam T and Martin. We began with Panda Royale,  the fun new dice game that Martin didn't seem keen on at all. 

Joe taught Katy and Martin the rules, getting couple of sums wrong as he did, and we were off. Our dice clattered loudly against Joe’s table as we progressed through the rounds. Martin didn't seem happy with our lassez faire attitude to some particular rules. Katy got confused by the different phases of each round, forgetting which order things happened in and got a little spiky when Martin cajoled her.

As for the game,  Adam when big on reds which didn't work out for him at first but soon hit the jackpot. Joe went for those big green dice and he had four in front of Katy did too, asking for a green D20, “and that's the first time I've said that,” she said. 

I kept getting very low yellow scores and so I always chose my dice last. As such, at one point I had one of each colour,  which is exactly what you don't want. 

The smart money went big on blues and trading dice. Ian did this and strode to a handsome win.

Ian 463

Joe 429

Sam 424

Katy 422

Adam 420

Martin 414

Andrew 387

It's only now when I type the scores out that I realise that we finished in order of name length. Martin still wasn't keen on it by the end, though.

Then Katy got out her bottle of ginger wine, causing a little flurry of cocktails as Sam made a whisky mac and Joe made a Rusty Nail (ginger wine and drambuie). Joe offered ice around. “It's frozen water,” he told us, helpfully. 

We split into two groups. Joe, Martin and Ian chose Rebirth. I questioned the use of zeppelins as score markers and was told this was set in the future which surprised me because, from a distance, it all looks a bit medieval. 

Sam's amazing customization work

Katy, Sam, Adam and myself played Rebel Princess, the trick-taker that poo-poohs the patriarchal society in which we live. Or something.

Katy took to it immediately, scoring an impressive zero points in rounds one and two. The rules regarding passing cards were a bit much, I felt. One round insisted we passed after every hand. But then in the final round,  we discovered that winning a trick (usually the last thing you want) in a particular suit actually reduces your score (which you definitely do want).

One strange thing - perhaps my brain was confused by all this passing anti-clockwise because when it was my turn to deal, I dealt anticlockwise too. Katy found it disturbing to watch. I blame the coriolis effect or something.

Sam played brilliantly in that final round, gathering a healthy crop of that suit, reducing his score enough to trigger a tie breaker. Which Katy jokingly suggested might be “most rounds with zero points”. Sam checked the rules and it turns out she was right. 

Katy 12 (wins on tie-breaker)

Sam 12

Andrew 16

Adam 24

On Rebirth, it ended with Ian strolling to another win thanks to some helpful bonus cards. 

Ian 209

Martin 187

Joe 169

We ended at the same time and after a little reshuffle later and I’m sat between Sam and Ian for another game of Rebirth. My first and, at this late hour of 9.15, I almost vetoed it but I was swayed by Ian’s happiness to play it twice. So I listened to Sam’s rules explanation with even more intent than usual, wanting to reduce any further questioning. I was distracted by the pieces, though, which smelled faintly of sawdust and I was transported back to the woodworking class at school.

As for the game, it was a typical Knizia of balancing gains for yourself with sub-optimal moves which, nevertheless, stop you opponents. Chain together tiles and surround castles for points. I wrote down “hot cathedral action” in my notebook but sadly forgot to note the context.

Andrew 167

Ian 166

Sam 154

At the other end of the table, Katy, Joe, Adam and Martin played a game of Fishing that I pretty much ignored and then left before it had finished but Sam sent me the scores later.

Martin 86

Joe 85

Adam 77

Katy 75

Without me, Ian and Sam played Agent Avenue twice with Sam winning both times.

Then they ended with two So Clovers. In Sam’s message to me, he tells me that Katy thinks taking speed is festive.

Looking at the clovers, I note that someone wrote “Speed” for “sea/fast”. A reference to Speed 2 perhaps?

28/36 or 38/36 if you include “festive” points, apparently.

Then Adam left and they went again for

27/30

Thanks all. Have a great festive season!