Wednesday 4 May 2011

It's a marathon, not a Rally.

Later start time of 8.30 but that did not dissuade 6 hard-core gamers from clustering around the table last night - Adam, Hannah, Andrew, Quentin, Joe, and Sam (me). Having played Tsuro last week four of us were keen to induct Quentin and Joe, so we started with a couple of games of that. It's so simple there isn't much strategy to go into - other than trying to give yourself 'outs' from any route you choose - but that didn't stop Adam from doing very well. He IS strategy, and he won the first game before Quent and I tied for the second game.

Game One:
1 Adam
2 Hannah
3 Quentin
4 Sam
5 Andrew
6 Joe

Game Two:
1 Sam/Quentin
3 Adam
4 Hannah
5 Joe
6 Andrew

(note: these have been collated from the comments section)

With six players present quite a few games were ruled out, but with Andrew keen, Adam curious, and everyone else amenable we finally got Robo Rally out of the box - a game that puts the emphasis on fun rather than strategy - if your idea of fun is being stuck in bank holiday traffic, negotiating an automated answering service, or cutting a particularly tricky bit of lino.

It was, I found, an exercise in frustration. My memories of Robo Rally painted something more fun than this, and I guess that's because when I used to play it with any regularity it was a change from Settlers or the Playstation. Since then, if I may put my pompous hat on, we have embraced games of more depth and subtlety. Of course the game is meant to conspire against you, but I found this manifested itself as a petty annoyance rather than fun. Everyone found it a bit of a pain - and the death knell for this game is not so much that it can frustrate when you're losing, it's that it can bore when you're winning - there's no middle ground. In fact the most nearly-fun section of the game was entirely down to Quent's suggestion that we move each other's robots - exciting and silly, but ultimately too long-winded as we tied ourselves in knots working out what was going on.

Anyway - cool-headed Quentin took first place, with the rest of us in his dust:

Quentin
Adam
Joe
Andrew
Sam
Hannah

- Hannah having been stymied by a 'special ability' that was more like a disability, instructing her robot to power down whether she liked it or not.

Everyone was slightly deflated by the experience so we decided on something quick and non-leaderboard to finish off the night on an upbeat note. Nobody did the maths on Perudo having 30 dice with six people though, so 40 minutes later I (having been knocked out along with Joe) vetoed the 'calza' rule in order to get to bed before midnight. Apologies to Quentin, Adam and Hannah who were then short of options as Andrew giggled his way to first place and took the £6 at stake.

All in all, not a classic games night with Quent and Joe underwhelmed by Tsuro and nobody liking Robo Rally at all. Next week: Sherlock Holmes!


The leaderboard...

PlayedPointsRatio
Sam15674.46
Adam13665.07
Andrew15563.73
Joe10404
Hannah734.54.9
Quentin521.54.3
Steve284

A poor evening for Andrew, Joe and Hannah as their points ratios all took a hit. Meanwhile, Adam steams towards taking top spot from Sam, while Quentin's position on the board looks somewhat more presentable.

5 comments:

  1. Playing Robo Rally again after so long was a bit like meeting an old friend, only to find they’re still doing the same jokes that you once found so hilarious. When I heard that Sam tried to put it back in the games cupboard under Golden Compass I wondered if I’ll ever see it again, but no matter. We have Tsuro instead, which has a similar theme of building a path in the face of limited options, but without the forced wackiness and it’s over in ten minutes or so. I think it works better as a two-player, myself.

    And it was an evening of old favourites cruelly deceiving my memories, as Perudo went on for ages. Far longer than it used to.

    But yeah, six quid, baby!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Re. Tsuro: In the first game I seem to remember being fifth. Adam won, with Hannah second. The second game: I was last, and apart from the top two, I don't recall anyone else.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Re. Tsuro: I don't remember the first game at all, but the second was:
    1st Sam & Quentin
    3rd Me
    4th Hannah
    5th Andrew
    6th Joe (I think - I'm sure I knocked him off really early...)

    I think you'd like Ricochet Robots... Much better than Robo Rally (although Hannah hates it).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Adam. By deduction then the first game was Adam, Hannah, Quent and Joe (arm wrestle for third?) then Andrew, then me. If Joe or Q can confirm the third/fourth positions we can slap some points on the board!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Joe thinks he was sixth in the first game and fifth in the second - which ties in with Andrew's post above. So: first game was Adam, Hannah, Quentin, Sam, Andrew, Joe.

    And second game was as Adam has it above except Joe and Andrew's positions reversed. Andrew: it's maths time!

    ReplyDelete