Tap the Magic Dragon

This week's games night saw four of us regulars (Sam the host, Ian, Joe and myself) waiting for Adam T and Martin to arrive. With their eta still unclear (Adam had emailed to say ten minutes but no one saw it until hours later) we broke out Rollet, the panic-enducing table top action game. Sam and myself teamed up together against Joe and Ian. I made few notes but, then again, I didn't have much time.

Sam and Andrew 5
Ian and Joe 1

Then Stanley replaced his father and we started another game. We started it, but never actually finished it: the first point was an epic to rival Viking poetry. We battled and made last ditch defensive moves or threw everything we had in the hope of a goal, but for about two minutes we struggled to get anywhere.

Finally, Stanley got the vital touch and sent the ball into the goal and, at this point, we called it a game. Frankly, we were exhausted. Plus, Martin and Adam were now here.

Stanley and Andrew 1
Ian and Joe 0

Now we were six (Stanley chose to just watch the next game), and we all played a game of Frank's Zoo. As we got settled, Sam told us that he and his son were developing a game. Then, midway through the rules explanation, he interrupted to mention that, just like Frank's Zoo, the game they were designing was also based on animals eating each other and that chameleons were wild in their game, too. Must have been some weird deja vu when he was listening to Adam describe how to play.

The game was perhaps not best with six. We each had a limited hand size and I couldn't see any kind of winning strategy. Mind you, I was very tired. Joe and Ian got the hang of it much quicker and both went out in the style of a seasoned Tichu player, by putting down cards they knew couldn't be beaten.

1st Joe
2nd Ian
3rd Adam
4th Sam
5th Andrew
6th Martin

Now we split into two groups of three. Sam, Martin and Adam battled it out in Pax Porfiriana Pamir while Ian and I were introduced by Joe to the arcane delights of Res Arcana.

I had sneered at this game from a distance several times recently but now had it spread out in front of me. The iconography was easy to understand, at least, so even my sleep deprived mind could cope with it, but when Joe suggested we look for "synergy" in our hands of cards I admit I think I blacked out for a second or two.

The game itself, once it was going, was fine. I built, it seems, too many cards and never seemed to have much in the way of essences coming in like Joe and Ian did. I did, though, have options for drawing new cards and reactivating used ("tapped") cards, which helped a lot. I also sang "Tap the magic dragon" to the tune of "Puff the magic dragon." A joke I was so happy with I believe I did it twice.

Ian had a Dragon's Lair (complete with reminiscing about the gorgeous but unplayable 1980's arcade game) and a dragon to go with it, which he used to rack up points. Joe bought a Catacombs of the Dead and then filled it with even more death. It ended closer than I was expecting, and with a different winner, too.

Ian 11 plus he had more essences left over
Joe 11
Andrew 9

We had, somehow, managed to make Res Arcana last as long as a game of Pax Porfiriana Pamir since we finished at the same time.

Pax had begun (with metal coins!) mostly concerned with Russian and Afghan forces on the map and Adam stating "I'm not enjoying this."

Then, the next time I looked over, Adam had a large pile of cash in front of him while Martin looked distraught. I am also quite sure that, at one point, the map had no forces on it at all. Is that common? I've no idea.

The game went until the final dominance check.

Martin 11
Sam 6
Adam 4

So, since we were all together again, and with Ian and Adam making noises about an imminent exit, we chose Stinker! as our next game.

It's the game that throws up more laughs than can reasonably be noted. Adam scored early with his philosophical saying "Dis shit bites." During a round about something a mad scientist might do, I wrote down Joe's "Orbit a shit light" but omitted to write down the winner. Joe, by the way, managed to get the word "shit" into most of his answers. Sam's insult of "funp bungs" is also worth noting, if only for its unpronouncability. But Ian magnificently sailed to a null result, despite always coming up with something relevant but somehow never quite good enough...

Something about church slogans

Martin 53
Sam 29
Joe 28
Adam 26
Andrew 15
Ian 0

Once we were back down to a quartet, we played Yokai (妖怪 which means ghost. Doesn't seem to fit the game but oh well). This cooperative game is a bit Hana Bi and a bit Colour Wheel. There's a 4x4 grid of cards and each player looks at two cards and may move one (not necessarily the ones they just checked). The idea is to rearrange the cards so that the four colours are all orthogonally adjacent. To help us are clue cards that we can place on top of a card to tell the other players what colour a card might be.

It is a sweet little game. We cleared it pretty easily and scored 15 points which is Glorious, according to the score track. Highest is Legendary. I'd like to see that goal achieved one day.

After this, there was still time for one last game. We chose Heul Doch Mau Mau. Sam and Joe got a rules explanation and we were off. I got lucky with early sixes and sevens while Martin had to play two weeping onions in a row. "Give me the damn tissue," he growled, disgusted at his fate. And then, later, we all played weeping onions on the same round.

At the end, my luck continued. When the game was done and we counted up our weeping onions, I had four in my hand that cancelled out only one 4-card. All the rest of my hand scored.

Andrew 101
Joe 76
Sam 63
Martin 59

And then we were finally done. Thanks to all for yet another evening of exciting mental battles.

Too much fun

You would think that, as seasoned board gamers, we would be familiar with the concept of Fun. After years pursuing this hobby, we may even be a little jaded with it. But apparently not, as we squeezed eleven lightweight games of varying silliness into one evening.

We started as a five: Sam (the host), Ian, Martin, Katy and me. Steve was expected so we banged out a five-player game of L.A.M.A. until he arrived. Sam’s started very well, not picking up a single card until round three. He was so focused that when his phone rang, he picked it up, said “It’s only Greenpeace,” and put it back down. Saving the world can wait, Sam’s got games to play.

Sam 12
Ian 26
Katy 34
Andrew 35
Martin 44

After this, with Steve finally arrived, we played Fool! (or Fou!, since we had the French version) which is a trick taking game where whoever played the worst card in trick is the Fool (or Fou) and has to sit out the next round which is a problem since you’re trying to play all of your cards first.

I got off to a perfect start with two clear rounds giving me ten bonus points each time, while the rest of them had to each negative scores. Ha! At the start of round three, I was thirty points ahead of my nearest rival. But I needed that head start as my score began to be whittled away. Martin was looking very dangerous and in the last round, he managed to play all of his cards. Luckily, his last card was the weakest card in that trick, making him the fool and meaning he couldn’t pick up the ten point bonus. Phew!

Andrew -8
Martin -9
Sam -18
Ian -41
Steve -44
Katy -68

Around this time, Ian informed us that he’d drunk a lot of whisky over the bank holiday because it was his dad’s birthday next weekend. There was a pause afterwards while everyone tried to process that statement, before Ian explained he’d been taste-testing his dad’s birthday present.

Then Sam got out the four-player Rollet, just to show us and then, since it was out, we had a quick game. Sam & Katy beat Ian & Martin 5-4 and then Ian & Martin beat Steve & Andrew 5-4. It was silly, high tension fun, and it looked great. Martin said it looked expensive and Sam mumbled something in agreement.

Then we split into two groups of three. Normally, this indicates a change towards the more thinky, strategic game but not today. It was full steam ahead for more fun. Sam, Ian and Steve chose Men At Work, a stacking game where you have to place girders and builders on each other in order to satisfy certain orders on cards.

Ian wins
Steve 2nd
Sam 3rd

Katy, Martin and I played Maskmen, which is actually quite thinky but still fun. At least it was for Martin and Katy.

Martin 7
Katy 5
Andrew -4

The two groups were out of sync so Sam et al played a few games of Kartel which is notable for being a Reiner Knizia game that Martin hasn’t played.

Sam 11
Steve 9
Ian 7

Steve 7
Ian 7
Sam 6

Ian 15
Steve 12
Sam was upstairs sorting out some kind of dad thing.

And we played Heul Doch Mau Mau, which I thought I was doing okay at and lost only eight points in the final count, but I guess I gave away too many points to my opponents.

Martin 112
Katy 93
Andrew 91

Then Ian went home, but the fun just kept coming as we broke out QE. After all, with the two QE champions (Katy and Sam) around the same table, it would be madness not to. And talking of madness, after Katy’s initial starting price of 5,000 the bids would not go below six figures for most of the rest of the game. I finally got my first purchase for the handsome sum of 250,000 and picked up a second for 200,100 which looks insane but I was sure I wasn’t the one who’d spent most. Actually, I thought it would be Steve, and was surprised when I found out who it was. Sam, though, deliberately came in just below me having spent 249,995. However, his last-round purchase (for eight points) meant he lost the lowest spender 7 point bonus, and it went to Martin instead who finally won a game.

Martin 51
Sam 39
Andrew 26
Steve 23
Katy OUT! (but had 30 points)

It was after eleven, so obviously there was time for one more game. Flotsam Fight: the game of saving treasures by putting them in lifeboats that share the same factors as the number on your cards. While Martin explained the rules, some people had the audacity to laugh at my dealing technique, which I was not impressed with. Mocking a gamer’s dealing method is like telling a boxer he has a glass jaw. Suitably insulted, I gave as good as I got and called Katy “a fucking cunt”. Possibly overdid it, in hindsight. Martin, meanwhile, was still trying to explain the rules.

After that controversy, we played and I came out on top.

Andrew 4
Sam 3
Martin 1
Steve -1
Katy -1

After this we were done and Steve kindly offered us a lift back so that we might get to bed before midnight. Thanks all for the fun.