Sunday 5 May 2013

Mammoth Fun

With the coming of the sun it can be a bereft time for gamers. Suddenly the boys want to play outside in the garden - Stanley likes football, Joe likes mangling the plants - instead of healthier pursuits like Scripts and Scribes or Alhambra. Often the closest I get to a game at the weekend is sticking my head in the cupboard and breathing deeply for a few minutes.

Last night, however, the cavalry arrived in the shape of Mark and Katie, our occasional sparring partners. Actually as we went to their house maybe we were the cavalry, if the cavalry have ever dashed to Portishead with a selection of worker-placement games in the saddlebags. Anyway by the time we'd caught up, drunk our first drinks, and eaten some lovely parma ham with melon, there was a tight hour-and-a-half gap for gaming. I'd brought a few options but was open to anything. Katie suggested Carcassone. Sally was indifferent by this stage, but Mark plumped for Stone Age, as we'd not played it together before and he had a hankering for something new.

For anyone unfamiliar with it Stone Age's basic premise is simple - use your stone-age followers to gather resources, then use your resources to build huts or develop your culture (the latter in the shape of cards that give you end-game bonuses). But no-one ever explained the basic rules of life to a caveman after his (or her) third mojito, and there was some confusion over the games finer aspects, manifest through some facial communication and single-syllable grunting. And with time a-pressing I felt the burden of chief-chivvier was upon me, so I game-managed (okay, bossed around) everyone else in order to keep things moving, to their indulgent tolerance.

Texting the cave to say there was no clay

Maybe it was my whip-cracking, or maybe mojitos give a belated clarity, but suddenly everything fell into place and people had strategies and tactics. Actually I don't think I've ever played Stone Age with quite such a gamble-y feel to it before. There were lots of single or double followers trying to dredge up  gold, for instance, and Mark in particular felt the pinch on a number of unlucky rolls.

We didn't finish - agreeing to quit at the end of a round about two-thirds of the way through. I'd like to think I would have been in the mix with a few more rounds played, but I can't be sure. The Chiseller was way out in the lead having started building huts early and getting into the card-buying late on:

Katie 81
Sam 65
Mark 39
Sally 30

Which means while Mark - with a series of wins under his belt - stays in first place on our mini-table, Katie jumps up to second. I think I've actually amended an old table here but it's seven am on Sunday and I'm buggered if I can find the most recent one.

*Table now correctly updated, and Arch-Chisel-Wielder Katie is out in front!

KMSS




Points
Katie
12418
Sam
21339
Mark
332210
Sally
442414








2 comments:

  1. Any potential recruits for Tuesday evening?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll run it by them, but they're not living in Bristol now and have the usual childcare/sleep deprivation issues of parents with toddlers!

    ReplyDelete