Sam, you're a Samurai

As is usually the way towards the end of the week, there is an impromptu games night for any stragglers who can't make it through the weekend without some kind of supplement. And, as is usually the way, it was Sam and myself.

We began with a new game, Samurai. For me, this had three things going for it: Reiner Knizia, Japan and hexagons. It's a very simple yet very confrontational strategy game. Various black pieces are scattered throughout Japan and each player has to have the highest value numbers on adjacent hexagons when each piece is surrounded. Then you can claim the piece. There are three types of pieces, and the player who has won in most categories wins the game.

For example, in the first game I had most of two types, compared to Sam's one. And then that was reversed in the second game.

It was simple enough to get your head round quite quickly but deep enough that there's a decent amount of thinking to be done. It remains to be seen how it scales up to more players, but I'm going to guess it'll do better than Tzolk'in.

After this, we decided that it was early enough for another game, but too late to learn any more rules. So I suggested Alhambra. Why on Earth I chose that, with Sam's record, I don't know. I'm going to have to start carrying round my spreadsheets on my phone in future. Anyway, Sam got off to a flyer, and built a ten-point wall before the first scoring round.

Then Sam really turned on the razzle dazzle by completing his wall with a handful of tiles still to go. This meant he couldn't add to his Alhambra, but by now, he was already comfortable clear of me and Dirk who were pretty much neck and neck until the final score.

Sam 142
Andrew 110
Dirk 87

Then we played Biblios. Sam ended by collecting four dice, giving him a win so complete that he exclaimed in victory “I am Mr Biblios”. Not exactly “We came, we saw, we conquered” but still, a neat encapsulation of the joys of winning.

Sam 13
Andrew 3