Court off guard

 I was only ten minutes late, but that was enough time for a bunch of hardy adventurers take on Chapter 7 of Fellowship of the Ring. Alas, they failed with Ian unable to win a trick and Martin apologising for having a hand of almost all high cards.

Now we were five - Sam, host Joe, Martin, Ian and myself - with no one else expected we sat down for a game of Mlem. This sci-fi adventure featuring cats of varying usefulness in an expedition seems to have acquired a favored opening move: Joe and Martin took no time in placing Panet-doubler Cat and Moon-doubler Cat, making me wonder if people had been discussing Mlem strategies.

We flew and we fumbled. Joe prompted no confidence at all when he was captain, putting his Saboteur Cat in the driving seat. Saboteur Cat got the nickname Dick Cat, sparking badly sung renditions of the theme tune to Top Cat whenever it was played. My second time at the bridge was a disaster - a series of ones, followed by an explosion.

Martin, after starting well, found himself on a run of bad luck before his mojo returned. He just pipped Ian to the win as a result of some clever move he made a few rounds earlier that escape me now. Sam, meanwhile, kept sending out his Deep Space Cat, only to see it return forlorn and Earthbound and so he ended the game with five cats still on his launchpad.

Martin 31

Ian 30

Joe 26

Andrew 20

Sam 12

Next up was Court of Miracles which, at first glance, reminded me of Sam’s own boardgame Henchman, with its bird’s-eye view perspective and use of hidden values. In this game we are trying to gain areas of influence, allowing us to put down renown tokens. First to place all tokens wins.

Placing any token in an area of influence (not sure if that’s what they were called but never mind) allows you to use it’s special power, and whoever “owns” that area gets a coin. These coins (tiny cardboard tokens in the game, replaced by Joe’s poker chips tonight) are useful for paying to put down more tokens.

It’s an interesting game. With only three space in an area to fight with and five players in the game, I often found myself staring at a mostly empty board, with any fights having already been decided by the time it was my turn.

But I seemed to have a grasp of the game and, having put down a token in my first turn, was always first or threreabouts. When I saw my chance to put down two tokens in one go and win the game, Quantum style, I took it.

Andrew wins!

Not sure if there’s second, third etc in this game.

So with time ticking on, I bade my goodbyes and set off. The remaining four played Bomb Busters…

And then two games of So Clover, first scoring 19/24. And kudos to whoever had the balls to clue "ornate" and "golden".

And finally 20/24