We began with a new game, Timbuktu (or Tombouctou) which involves guiding your fleet of camels safely across the desert. As each section of the desert is complete, thieves come out and take goods from camels in particular squares. But panic not! During each round, the players receive cards telling them where some of the thieves will strike. Thus you can guide camels away from some danger spots, while hoping you're not blundering into a new crime wave.
The theme of camels and thieves made us expect a light-hearted fun game, but it requires a fair amount of thought and bluffing. Perhaps the most fun is giving your camels silly names based on the letter they carry on their backs. Steve leapt into an early lead, with lead to an anonymous death threat scribbled on one of the game's useful notepads.
Steve 123
Andrew 108
Anja 100
Sam 96
We followed up with another new game for Steve and Anja. Sam and I had played Artus only once before, on the previous day, as a two-player. As a four-player option, I was sure it'd be a different matter. And so it was. It's still a mind-melting bag of options, except with this many players, there was little point in planning ahead, since you could be pretty sure that someone would move the king or make a new king or generally ruin things for you. Anja played half of the game using far more difficult rules than was necessary, yet had still managed to get to second when she realised her mistake.
In a neat example of symmetry we ended this game in the opposite positions that we finished Timbuktu.
Sam 124
Anja 92
Andrew 75
Steve 33
We realised we'd all scored five points on the leaderboard, so a tie-breaker game was introduced. It was Biblios. This baffling game of card collecting takes a minute to learn, and offers a lifetime of wondering if you're winning or not. Steve spent a lot of the game complaining about his terrible hand. Of course, he won.
Steve 7
Sam 5
Andrew 3
Anja 2
By now it was almost midnight, and after three analysis-heavy games, it was time to wend our weary way home.
| Points | ||||||
| Steve | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| Sam | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 11 |
| Andrew | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| Hannah | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| Joe | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Adam | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 12 |
| Anja | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 13 |
Clearly, the more you think, the worse it turns out for you. There's a limit to how much thinking you can do with Biblios or Timbukto - which always works out well for me. But Artus.... I was so crippled with AP that Sam seized Crime and Punishment from the bookshelf. Perhaps he thought that this tale of a man's plans to pull off the perfect murder and then elude police were the perfect metaphor for my enigmatic yet effective playing style. However, just as Raskolnikov bungles the murder and ends up in a Siberian labour camp, so I stank at Artus. Sam treated us instead to a Sausages and Mash-up version of the book which better suited my general incompetance.
ReplyDeleteFun night. Thanks chaps.
Sausages and Mash is a Septcon staple event. As is the James Bond titles game.........
ReplyDeleteYeah, the James Bond title game doesn't quite have the veneer of sophistication that Sausages and Mash does (replace a word in a Bonf film title with 'shit') and the outcomes are always the same. But it's fun.
ReplyDeleteI have to take my hat off to Anja and Steve, I don't think I could face learning three new games in one night, but they were happy to do so.
I'm not sure about Timbuktu, it just felt too long - as Andrew intimated out the time spent working out your best moves kind of went against the fun appearance of the game. Maybe if it was played with a timer that would help. Artus is similar in that there is calculating to be done, but at least this only happens on your go, as the board changes so much between turns.
Biblios: could there be strategy tips on the geek? I don't know if I want to learn them. I like the fact this game continues to baffle.