"One Snack Rule" yet to catch on

After last week's games night both Sam and I said how ill we'd felt the next day. We didn't blame the alcohol, but suspected the salt-heavy, MSG-laden snacks may have been a factor. But this week, rather than restraining ourselves to one snack like sensible adults, we munched our way through chips, crisps (Kettle Chips, though. They're almost healthy, right?), and two types of chocolate. Oh well. We'll see how we feel tomorrow.

Thanks to Sally being on bedtime duty with the kids, we were able to start a little earlier than usual, and Sam, Adam and I chose Stone Age. Even though Sam and I had played it only yesterday we agreed since Adam seemed keen. And the best time to play a game against Adam is when you've practiced it in the previous 24 hours.

Playing with a third player changes the balance of power. I abandoned my usual hut tactic after Adam got an early multiplier, and for a while I was at a loss as to what to do next. In the end, I plumped for fields after I was able to pick some multipliers for cheap. Adam, however, struggled with some terrible luck on dice rolls. Ones and twos were the order of the day whenever he went looking for food or wood, which on two occasions left him unable to complete a hut.

I admit, with that display of misfortune, I thought Adam wasn't a threat and spent most of my time watching Sam. However, when the points were finally added up, the result was as surprising as it was close.

Adam 147
Sam 145
Andrew 145

If he wins when he has luck as bad as that, what would he have done if he'd rolled fives or sixes?

Towards the end of Stone Age, Jonny turned up. For our next game we decided on a new but simple game – Portobello Market. This game of setting up markets and manipulating the police is easy to learn but takes a lifetime to master. If you only play it once every few years.

Adam's tactic was simple – put markets in the way so anyone who wanted to move the Bobby had to pay him. I went for putting down my scoring tokens as soon as it was worth it. Sam specialised in customer placement. Jonny did a bit of everything, and towards the end, he put down an aristocrat that scored for three of his streets at once. When the game ended (rather suddenly. Very much an "Okay, that's it! We're done!" kind of moment) Jonny's lead was insurmountable.

Jonny 109
Andrew 98
Sam 71
Adam 70

It still felt quite early, so we had a game of TransAmerica. It'd been a while since I'd played it and I sort of remember it being quite quick and light-hearted. Not tonight, as we studied the map, lost in thought, and our tracks seemed to act like repelling magnets whenever they came close. In one round, all four of us built parallel tracks for the first few moves, waiting for someone else to make the first move across the map.

In the end, the game ended when Sam accidentally finished Jonny's network for him. That was enough to give him his second win of the evening, and leave Sam and Adam at the tail of the pack again.

Jonny 9
Andrew 13
Sam 15
Adam 15


This changes the complexion of the Form Table quite dramatically. Jonny leaps up the table with just one week to go with a great performance to steal top spot from Quentin on the "best most recent score" rule. Despite an indifferent performance, Sam gains a point and I am the new Mr Consistency, with an evening of second places, edging me ahead of the old Mr Consistency, Steve. Adam sees both his pride and his position dented. And it all started so well...

						Points
Jonny	1	1	3	1	3	9
Quentin	1	3	1	1	3	9
Sam	3	3	2	1	1	10
Andrew	2	2	2	3	2	11
Steve	2	3	2	2	2	11
Adam	3	4	1	3	3	14
Joe	4	4	1	3	3	15
Hannah	2	3	5	5	5	20
Anja	5	5	4	4	3	21