My year of meets

I logged on at eight to find nine gamers in attendance or just joining. Such was the attraction of our two anniversaries: Katy's birthday and our year of gaming under lockdown rules. Before I'd arrived, five had already played a game of Vulture Culture, the new theme for Raj which loses any airs of Indian luxury in exchange for cartoony graphics of birds. I wasn't there but BGA lists the scores as...

Adam H 25

Ian 10

Sam 3

Katy 2

Martin 0

Once we were all together (Andy, Joe and Adam T were the other late arrivals) we played 6nimmt. Sam fell into a death spiral, and I pointed out that that’s the worst kind of spiral there is. Katy remarked that “6nimmt is like life - it all depends on what other people do.” With age comes wisdom, I suppose.

Andy 52

Adam H 38

Andrew 32

Katy 17

Adam T 16

Joe 16

Ian 11

Martin 9

Sam -3

After this, we split into two groups. Well, technically we split into three because Adam H left, becoming a little group all on his own, but for the purposes of playing games, we became two groups. Martin, Adam T, Joe and Katy sped off the playingcards.io for a game of Nokosu Dice.

We four (Andy, Sam, Ian and me) played Marrakech. Andy informed us that the day after I went bust, an identical fate befell him. I got anxious that history might repeat itself when Ian started off by rolling fours all the time, skipping past my carpets and leaving me without an income. Luckily everyone’s carpets were spread out across the board, with no real mega-carpets until Sam put together a six-square carpet in the last couple of rounds, so I managed to end the game with some money remaining.

Ian 46

Andy 41

Sam 40

Andrew 29

Next up was 7 Wonders. I chose my side of the board simply because the weather was nicer. I then proceeded to play an exemplary game of 7 Wonders, which is a shame because I’m not sure what I did right as opposed to all the other games I've played. Maybe the weather helped after all.

Andrew 64

Andy 45 + cash

Sam 45

Ian 41

Next Sam left and Ian, Andy and I played Vulture Culture. I was glad to see Raj on BGA but less so when I found out it only lasted one round.

Ian 20

Andy 12

Andrew 8

Then we played Cubirds, which ended 1-0-0 to Andy. The other group were still playing Nokosu Dice but said that Katy was so far ahead (she had 68 to Adam’s 9, Martin’s 6 and Joe’s 5) that they’d decided to end once round three was over. So the three of us banged out a quick game of Butterfly while we waited for them.

Andy 53

Ian 40

Andrew 19

But they saw that we had started a new game, so they ploughed on to end the game properly even if it was a foregone conclusion.

Katy 95

Adam 45

Martin 43

Joe 13

I went to bed as did Joe, and the remaining five saw out Katy’s birthday with a couple of rounds of Vulture Culture, ending with identical placings both times.

Martin 26

Andy 14

Adam T 10

Ian -2

Katy -8

Martin 16

Andy 14

Adam T 6

Ian 4

Katy 0

Thanks everyone. See you next week for another year of lockdown gaming!

Rude if you do, rude if you don't

Six gamers congregated in virtual space like a genteel version of Tron where the biggest threat is the sound of cutlery on plate or a crisp bag being opened.

We began with For Sale. Katy amazed us all with her opening gambit of taking the one. Sam was a little too frugal and as we began the last buying round he admitted that his highest card was 11. He went big(ish) on the last round and picked up a 20. However, during the game, that 20 card netted him only $4k in money. Ian managed to pick up $15k with only a 19, but that wasn’t enough to get him into the top half of the table. The victory had to be shared between Martin and Andy.

Martin 47

Andy 47

Andrew 45

Ian 41

Katy 40

Sam 38

So, after a little reminiscing about the Division, we decided to split into two groups. Katy, Ian and Martin set off for Marrakech while Andy, Sam and I went for Alhambra. Andy kept saying “it’d be rude not to” when taking an optimal move that ruined someone else's plan. Sam got stymied by the lack of an undo function, and I had such a quiet second round that I was never able to recover.

Andy 139

Sam 118

Andrew 101

Marrakech ended;

Katy 48

Ian 43

Martin 39

And then they played something called Ambiente Abassall (sp?).

Then all six of us were together for a quick round of Codenames. Sam and I were spymasters and I was given Ian and Andy while Sam got the louder Martin and Katy. I started with what I thought was a definite: “pontoon” for “Queen” and “Jack” but Ian and Andy only thought about boats. A poor start. Luckily, Sam’s clue lead Martin and Katy to one of my clues. 

We never lost the advantage, and when Katy mentioned Jack the Ripper when considering Sam’s clue of “Abduction” (for “Kid” and “Alien”) I realised I could use that clue to link “Jack” and “cloak”. Thanks Katy.

Quiet ones win

Loud ones don’t

Then Sam went. I was fine for a quick fun game but, funnily enough, there aren’t many fun quick games on BGA for 5 players. After some deliberation, I decided I would bow out too rather than stick around too long.

According to BGA, the four of them played Butterfly twice and Ian won both times. Well cone, Ian. And thanks all for the evening. We can probably squeeze in one more before Christmas, so see you next week maybe?