Stone Age Pensioners

A hopeful text is sent out
Through the threat of snow
We played Stone Age at Sam's house

Nothing says Games Night like a bad Haiku. Sam I and met up for an evening of board games. I was given the choice of game, and ever since someone mentioned it on Tuesday, I've had a hankering for another game of Stone Age. Even if we've played it so often that I've run out of puns for blog titles (see above).

It had been a while, but there was no issue with rule remembrance. We got right into the stride, and AP set in almost on the first round. Sam went for axes instead of his more usual fields tactic. I made a fatal mistake: I diversified. Jack of all Trades and master of none, and that's not good enough when it came to multipliers.

Sam cashed in on his large family and axes, while I rued my inability at ending the game earlier and maximising my chances with my extensive collection of knick-knacks.

Sam 285
Andrew 254

After this we dug out Artus, in which Knights of the Round Table discard any sense of chivalry and shamelessly scramble for the best seats at the table. However, we needed a rule refresh and I missed an important rule regarding scoring every time you move a knight. Instead, we only scored when a scoring card was played. Instead of starting again, we carried on, because it was still quite a fun game. Our truncated non-leaderboard scores were

Sam 67
Andrew 24

From here to Timbuktu

No Joe or Adam this week, but Steve and Anja returned after a brief spell away and it was they who hosted Sam and I this week complete with supplies of crisps and cats. The cats weren't edible, but they were in bags.

We began with a new game, Timbuktu (or Tombouctou) which involves guiding your fleet of camels safely across the desert. As each section of the desert is complete, thieves come out and take goods from camels in particular squares. But panic not! During each round, the players receive cards telling them where some of the thieves will strike. Thus you can guide camels away from some danger spots, while hoping you're not blundering into a new crime wave.

The theme of camels and thieves made us expect a light-hearted fun game, but it requires a fair amount of thought and bluffing. Perhaps the most fun is giving your camels silly names based on the letter they carry on their backs. Steve leapt into an early lead, with lead to an anonymous death threat scribbled on one of the game's useful notepads.

Steve 123
Andrew 108
Anja 100
Sam 96

We followed up with another new game for Steve and Anja. Sam and I had played Artus only once before, on the previous day, as a two-player. As a four-player option, I was sure it'd be a different matter. And so it was. It's still a mind-melting bag of options, except with this many players, there was little point in planning ahead, since you could be pretty sure that someone would move the king or make a new king or generally ruin things for you. Anja played half of the game using far more difficult rules than was necessary, yet had still managed to get to second when she realised her mistake.

In a neat example of symmetry we ended this game in the opposite positions that we finished Timbuktu.

Sam 124
Anja 92
Andrew 75
Steve 33

We realised we'd all scored five points on the leaderboard, so a tie-breaker game was introduced. It was Biblios. This baffling game of card collecting takes a minute to learn, and offers a lifetime of wondering if you're winning or not. Steve spent a lot of the game complaining about his terrible hand. Of course, he won.

Steve 7
Sam 5
Andrew 3
Anja 2

By now it was almost midnight, and after three analysis-heavy games, it was time to wend our weary way home.

						Points
Steve	1	4	1	1	2	9
Sam	2	1	4	2	2	11
Andrew	3	3	2	2	1	11
Hannah	3	4	1	2	1	11
Joe	4	2	3	1	1	11
Adam	1	3	3	2	3	12
Anja	4	2	3	2	2	13

Night at the Square Table

Andrew and I often squeeze a little two-player game on a Monday and tonight it was Artus, which I got dirt-cheap off Ebay and was subsequently collared trying to smuggle it into the house. I thought my smuggling skills were good, but clearly I need more practice - so obviously will have to purchase more games.

Artus is in English Arthur, head Knight of the semi-democratic round table. In Artus you're trying to curry favour with him by getting as close as you can at the table - to pass him condiments, perhaps - except that he keeps moving about, and spinning the table with him, and occasionally getting dethroned by one of a triplet of hungry princes.

It's weird. The mechanics in no way match the theme (except the table is round) and every turn is a cluster of mathematically-inclined choices. Do you shuffle a knight around, or one of the princes, or the king himself, who will spin the table as he moves? We played the basic game and then the 'expert' (Andrew beat me at both) and the latter was much better, as it brought in an extra move each turn (letting you play combinations of cards) and an additional deck of potentially damaging or lucrative cards - depending on where your knights were located.

It's an odd game but quite a lot of fun for two. As Andrew said, four players and you can imagine each turn taking an age to complete.