Cornish Pastimes

Last week Sally and I took the boys to Polruan, Cornwall, and though most of the time was spent on the beach we did squeeze in a few games. I'd taken Ice Flow, Flash Point, Hey That's My Fish and Sumeria, the latter an incongruously popular choice with the boys (usually; we didn't actually play it this time).

Castles of Beige

First out of the box was Hey That's My Fish, or Hey, That's My Fish as Jon correctly emphasizes it. This was a two-player with me and Little Joe. After some early shenanigans of Joe's penguins slaloming toward the more rewarding tiles, we settled into a neat pattern of Joe picking up the most fish while I made suggestions as to how he could block me off. It ended closely:

Joe 52
Sam 46
(two tiles left on the 'board')

My apple

Stanley had spotted Blokus at the cottage so we pulled it out. The board is a grid of 1cm squares and each player is given a collection of tetris-style pieces in their own colour. I looked for the rulebook only to find there wasn't one, and I was thinking ho-hum... until I realized the rules are printed on the back of the box. Genius. Here they are:

1. Each player starts in a corner.
2. On their turn players place a piece that cannot be adjacent to any of their own pieces (they can be adjacent to other players') but must touch one of their own pieces at at least one corner.
3. Whoever manages to play the most pieces wins.

The key is squeezing between the corners of opposing players pieces really, and making sure you don't have all your biggest pieces left in the endgame. It was so simple and the boys really liked it - even Sally did, in fact. What I don't understand is how it works as a 2-player - there's so much room on the board you'd have to make a concerted effort to not get all your pieces down. There's probably something on BGG about it…

We played lots of games of this and there were many winners. We also had some pub lunches and I messed about with my phone:




Stanley and I played Ice Flow. I'd remembered it as quite simple but it's actually a bit of a puzzle, trying to get three explorers across the Bering Strait while being pursued by polar bears and stymied by the opposition. There was a fair bit of head-scratching, and although Stanley won (a collaborative effort) it was not requested again.

The other popular game was Flash Point. Stan is not one for tantrums when he loses but he can occasionally get a little forlorn, so I think he liked the fact this was a team effort. Together we put out many fires and rescued many victims, but we also (courtesy of my longstanding blind spot) played a rule wrong, making it easier for ourselves than it should have been. Having corrected it we both died as the building collapsed on us. Oh well.

Finally upon returning to Bristol I suggested Lords of Waterdeep, which Stanley has played before. Joe did not play but was The Shopkeeper - in charge of cube distribution.

Last time Stan needed a little help with some of the reading, but no such qualms for him this time. In fact he shot off into a healthy lead, and although I assisted by 1. once pointing out he could get wizards by going to the harbour and 2. not nicking cubes off him when I could have, he pretty much bossed the game, picking up handsome endgame bonuses that I didn't see coming:

Stanley 145
Sam 122

The Flow must go on

It may have been April Fool’s Day, but there were no jokers in this pack. Playing games is a serious business round here. Although, you might have been forgiven for thinking that one of the games brought by Martin was a practical joke. San Quentin Kings is a game where you have to put together the toughest gang in jail. The first reaction when we opened the box was “Did they actually make this game in jail?” The artwork was kind of amateur, and Joe studied the board (printed onto flimsy cardboard) with the words “You seem to actually have the original artwork.” But the game itself sounds like a lot of fun. Martin says there are three rounds and a riot. Can’t be all bad.

For our main games, the seven of us split into two groups. Will (the host for tonight), Sam, Gonz and myself went for Gonz’s new game Ice Flow. This game involves transporting three men across the Bering Straits, hopping from one chunk of ice to another, using a combination of fish and ropes. Ian, Joe and Martin went space-battling with Quantum.

Ice Flow started slowly, as you might expect. There were a fair amount of rules, and remembering all your options took a while. I was distracted by the early stages of Quantum, where empires seem to rise and fall every time I looked.

While all that history was being made, our band of guys defecting from the US to Russia tiptoed across the icy seas. Will found himself running out of fish and ropes, with no clear way to get any more. Polar bears, meanwhile, dominated half the board. This meant we had to all try and get through a limited space. Not easy with a two-man limit on each space.

But Sam got his trio across first. I came second, having got two guys across, and Gonz and Will had both managed one.

We then decided on a light game to keep us going until the other three finished Quantum. We chose Raj. I continued my recent run of good form and/or luck. Sam, meanwhile, achieved new heights of misfortune during round three: he lost four times on negative cards, thanks to other players tying. A remarkable achievement.

Andrew 77
Will 47
Gonz 26
Sam 24

While we were playing Raj, they’d finished Quantum and started on another new game, Splendor. This game is not one of those games that you can tell what’s going on just by looking. I had no idea what was going on, but they seemed to like it.

Joe 16
Martin 10
Ian 5

In fact, they liked it so much, they decided to play it again. Of course, by now, we’d finished Raj and had started Las Vegas as a light game to keep us going until the other three finished Splendor. As you can see, we were hopelessly out of sync. Las Vegas ended like this.

Sam $460,000
Gonz $330,000
Andrew $260,000
Will $210,000

And, of course, when we’d finished, they were still mid-way through Splendor. What else could we do except twist Gonz’s arm and play on round of Take It Easy! I chose the tiles, and they came out bad. Only six nine tiles in the whole game. It ended

Sam 162
Will 160
Andrew 113
Gonz 82

While the scores from the second Splendor game were

Martin 16
Ian 15
Joe 9

After this, we had all finished at more or less the same time. We relaxed and chatted for a few minutes, as if we hadn’t seen each other in weeks, before heading off into the night.

And Happy Birthday, Steve!

						Points
Sam	1	1	4	1	2	9
Andrew	3	3	1	2	1	10
Gonz	4	2	3	3	2	14
Martin	1	2	1	5	5	14
Will	2	4	2	3	5	16
Joe	3	1	2	5	5	16
Ian	2	3	3	5	5	18