Nine hours of games

While Sam's family were away, he took the opportunity to host a day-long games night. Sadly, Joe was unable to make it but Adam and myself arrived at Sam's at three, eager to take advantage of the good weather by sitting indoors all day. Anja, Steve and Hannah were all expected in the early evening.

The first game brought to the table was Toledo, in which you have to forge swords and collect art in an attempt at getting prestige points. In this game, the players create the board and move along it at the same time. The game begins with a featureless street leading up to the palace on the hill. Placing shops along the street gives the characters a place to stop, and the playing cards in your hand allows you to move multiple times each go, but only if the value on each card is the same.

It's a bit like Ludo according to Wallace, since landing on another character sets off a duel, and the losing piece goes back to the cathedral. The game ends when one player has three men in the palace. It was okay, but I found I didn't get the cards I needed to progress how I would've liked. But isn't that just like life? Adam and Sam had no such problems.

Adam 22
Sam 19
Andrew 12

Then we went back to an old familiar, Alhambra. We considered playing with one of the extensions, but no one seemed terribly keen when we looked at them, so we stuck to the original, pure and simple. It's definitely not a very sociable game, and there were a lot of tense silences as we all weighed up our options. In the end it was very close with me just squeezing past Adam by the slenderest of margins.

Andrew 126
Adam 125
Sam 121

Then we went outside! First we played headers and volleys. Sam's passing skills were a little wayward, and he explained that he was used to passing into space for people to run on to the ball. He then demonstrated this by passing into the ample space of next door's garden.

This was followed by cricket, which wasn't leaderboard since we were making up the scoring system as we went along, but Adam kept mentioning it throughout the evening when he was asked how many games he'd won.

Adam 19 not out
Sam 10 out (B.O.F. – ball over fence)
Andrew 4 not out

Back inside, we sat down for another new game, Biblios. This is a card game, where you collect books of a certain type (including mucky books – or Forbidden Tomes as they're called in the rules) which then score you points at the end of the game. It's a case of choosing a category or two and then trying to push up the scores for them by using special "church cards" and hoping no one is also collecting the same things. It's okay as a game. I didn't really get what was going on,though. Adam did.

Adam 9
Sam 5
Andrew 2

Then reinforcements arrived, in the shape of Anja, Hannah and Steve! Sam took the opportunity to start making some pizzas, while the five of us played Trans America. It was apparently Steve and Anja's first time playing the vexation rule but they seemed to take to it very quickly.

Adam 4
Steve 6
Hannah 7
Anja 9
Andrew 15

And so, having eaten well, we split into two groups of three. We insisted that Steve finally play Stone Age, and he joined Sam and Adam for foraging larks. Hannah, Anja and myself chose San Marco. I can't remember why. Hannah and I explained the rules to Anja, and then watched in helpless bemusement as Anja took us to the cleaners. In the final round I think she scored in every region.

Anja 78
Hannah 57
Andrew 34

Meanwhile, Steve seemed to be getting on fine with Stone Age. He was a long way up the score track and was even calling the starting player marker "Brian Blessed". It was if he'd been playing it all his life. And there was no last minute sprint up the score track from Sam or Adam, so it ended:

Steve 214
Adam 169
Sam 161

Those two games ended at similar times, so there was a brief period of discussion before we split into groups of four and two. Anja wanted something a bit more thinky, so wanted to play Ponte del Diavolo, while I wanted something silly and decidedly not thinky, so I suggested Mord im Arosa.

So Steve, Adam, Hannah and myself went looking for (and hiding) clues to the murder of two small red cubes. It's a game that requires listening skills and, most of all, a good memory. Something that Steve insisted he didn't have. But he still came second. Sort of.

Adam 11
Hannah 11
Andrew 21
Steve 21

Meanwhile, Anja's lack of experience with the scoring system on Ponte del Diavolo was surely an aspect in her defeat.

Sam 21
Anja 10

By now it was half past ten. Usually the time of the evening when we consider a quick game to finish, or maybe even calling it a night. But not tonight!Tonight is a special night where push towards midnight with a Martin Wallace double bill! Toledo returned to the table, and Tinners' Trail, too, was chosen.

I was up against Hannah and Adam on the Tinners' Trail half of the table. They'd recently bought this game as a joint birthday present to themselves, so they clearly had an affinity to the game. Certainly, Adam cleverly played it so that he ended the first and second rounds in a position to buy a cheap mine. I never really got going, with my mines all over Cornwall. And Hannah was hurt after putting money into buying a new mine, only to discover an underground lake.

But no one could have foreseen the crash in the market in the last round. For me, it meant that mining copper would just break even. I may as well sell pasties

Adam 131
Hannah 104
Andrew 92

Grr. Adam again!

Over in Toledo, Steve and Anja showed Sam that experience is no substitute for beginner's luck.

Steve 23
Anja 19
Sam 17


All of which makes the Form table look very different. Unfortunately, I played so many games that my early win of the day has already been replaced by other, more recent more regrettable results. Adam, meanwhile, equals the best ever score.

						Points
Adam	1	1	2	1	1	6
Hannah	2	1	2	3	2	10
Steve	1	2	1	2	5	11
Sam	3	1	3	2	3	11
Anja	2	2	1	4	5	14
Andrew	3	2	3	5	3	16
Joe	4	4	3	3	4	18