Archipela-go-go

 Tuesday games at Joe's new kitchen arena and seven of us (Joe, Adam T, Ian, Katy, Sam, myself and, at long last, Martin) squeezed around the table, looking for some fun and expressing mixed feelings about the tube of sour cream Pringles in front of us.

Our first game was Bliss20. A game where we all take it in turns to say consecutive numbers from 1 to 20. Except that after each time, an extra rule is added, eg, swap 2 and 17, or instead of saying 16, you have to trace the shape of the numbers with your finger.

At first we did okay. Certainly, well enough that the pile of twenty gems representing lives seemed hugely over generous. But as the rules began to build up, we made more and more mistakes. It was funny and agonising to see people forget which rule was for which number and also, after a run of consecutive rules, forget what number it was at all. A nice game and we cleared level 2. But as Katy said, not sure I'd want to play it at the end of the evening.

Next we indulged in a discussion about what to play next, featuring some games I'd never heard of. Did everyone stock up on games during the pandemic? Eventually, we went for Polynesia and Cosmic Frog, and once the decision was made Sam expressed relief that he could now stop saying "cosmic frog". 

Joe, Sam and Ian went on the coffee table but during the rules explanation, Sam felt that he wasn't as familiar with Cosmic Frog as he'd thought, so they changed to Hardback. This is a game I know nothing about but Sam won.

Sam 62

Joe 54

Ian 52

As for Polynesia, it was a pretty deep and thinky game, where points were scarce. I’m sure we all played sub-optimal moves as we explored the islands and archipelagos around Polynesia. I moved all my guys off one island, leaving one of Martin’s meeples stranded and unable to move. All very funny but, at the same time, now all my guys were in the wrong place. Katy didn’t realise about one scoring method until late in the game. Meanwhile, Adam seemed to be one step ahead of all of us but the final score had a familiar name at the top. Much to his surprise.

Martin 14

Adam 13

Katy 12

Andrew 8

Next, we play Snakesss, the game in which we’re all trying to answer a multiple choice question, except there are three snakes among us trying to slyly push people to make the wrong choice. I was pleased about my reasoning to make people think that “Rock em Sock em Robots” was a cartoon in the 1980s, but I was helped by the fact that the real answer (Rubik, the amazing cube, or something) was pretty outlandish. Joe and I were heading into the final round neck and neck and it was very exciting but then we were both chosen as snakes, meaning we crossed the line in joint first whatever happened. But then there was a tie-breaker: a game of rock paper scissors! How odd, but okay, then. My scissors cut into Joe’s paper, and I won. Sam was pleased with his late comeback, having scored nothing at all for the first half of the game.

Andrew 19 + scissors

Joe 19 - paper

Adam T 9

Martin 9

Sam 9

Katy 7

Ian 7

After that, I was exhausted and Adam and Ian left at the same time. Katy, despite having a job interview next day, stayed on for one more. According to Sam’s text, they played Scout.

Sam 33

Martin 29

Joe 12

Katy 11

Thanks all. See you next Tuesday.

The Silly Olympics

It was a balmy August night as I returned home from the park with the boys, cutting things a little fine that we bumped into both Ian and Adam on the way. Katy swiftly followed and after catching up, we realised we had time for a short game before Joe joined us at 8pm. That game was Cabo, the unicorn-themed something or other that is mostly about remembering your cards and, in my case, remembering you're supposed to remember other people's cards as well. Katy and I failed miserably on most counts, as we careened off on a point-scoring spree in a game where points are bad. Adam steered a more conservative path, but it was again Ian who took the plaudits, with an impressively unabundant score:

Ian 30-something / Adam 60-something / Katy 90-something / Sam 112

didn't take a pic of Cabo

Joe had arrived during our final round and as he graciously took and remained on the Stool of Discomfort, we tried our hand at Snakesss. This is a guessing, deduction and bullshitting game where - not hugely unlike Insider - the snakes (always 2 in a 5-player game) know the answer to a somewhat niche quiz question, and are trying to steer the humans into guessing incorrectly. One of the 'human' team is actually The Mongoose of Truth, who reveals their identity at the start of the round: they don't know the answer either, but at least the human players know they're not a snake, so can be trusted. 

crisps are optional

The dynamic probably changes with more players, but with 5 of us it felt less like a question of figuring out who the snakes were, and more what they were trying to do. The first round snakes had no chance because Adam knew what a truel was, and indeed demonstrated it was some impressive recall. After that, suspicion was rife, and the snakes did well if they stayed unmasked. On the other hand, the humans realised that if everyone was in agreement on what the answer might be, it was probably wrong... Not to take anything away from Adam's impressive win, but I do think the game might be weighted against whoever gets dealt snakes cards the most? 

Adam 13 / Ian 10 / Joe 9 / Sam 8 / Katy 6

Next up was the lesser-spotted Magical Athlete, where a third of the game is spent bidding for the athletes in question, before they all run a series of races with bonkers special powers, most notably Katy's demon that caused her to cry "Demon!" before every single turn for the entire duration of the opening race.

dice tower optional

 It didn't work out for her, though. We all finished first or second at least once, so when the final race took place everyone had a chance of winning the contest overall. But like the Olympics, for every victory, there are a clutch of tearful defeats. I still feel the best athlete was Adam's spy: no superpower at all, just honest hard work.

Joe 8 / Katy 5 / Ian and Adam 4 each / Sam 3  

rubbish ninja

"It's a good game to break out once every three years" said Joe. But if it's a slightly protracted experience, it's stupidly funny one too. And we stayed in that vein with Perudo, risking the wrath of Stan (who had just gone to bed) by shaking and slamming cups like a bunch of plastic vikings. Katy was first out, followed by Joe and then Adam. That left Ian with a single die and me with two. I couldn't cock this up, could I?

Ian wins

Joe still believes

We stayed in the silly realm for four plays of In Vino Morte, another new one to Adam but possibly the simplest game there is after Win Lose or Banana. Your card is either a wine or a poison: drink it now (ie reveal it) or swap it, and reveal at the end of the round. Poisoned players are knocked out of the game, and the last player standing wins. This was Katy in game one and myself in game two, then in game three Ian pulled off a spectacular by poisoning everyone but himself. 

you're poison (ed)

In game four, Joe announced he was going to do the same as Ian. I took him at his word and swapped his card with mine. Ian drank and died. Adam swapped with Joe's new card (my old one). Katy - sadly for me - also took Joe at his word and swapped her card with mine (Joe's old one). We all revealed, and we all died - except Katy.

After this incredible drama, Adam took his leave of us and headed home. The four of us tried our hand at Telestrations: Upside Drawn, which is a simple matter of identifying what is being drawn. The catch is that the guesser is also the player drawing: a team-mate moves the drawing surface around under their pen to create the picture. It's weird, and kind of funny, but also difficult. Katy and I won, but this was as much to do with listening to Joe and Ian's guesses as it was decoding our alien scrawls.

chauffeur!

Katy and Sam - chief telestrators!

And after the high-octane creativity of Telestrations, we were done for another evening. Thanks all.