Tuesday 23 July 2013

Inglorious Pasties

Since Joe was unable to make the regular Tuesday meet, and he was keen to squeeze in one more games night before his family holiday, he sent out the call for gamers to congregate at his on a Monday.

The air was heavy and full of the promise of a thunderstorm, but we weren’t to be deterred. Myself and Sam were in attendance. We began with Ra, one of the old favourites. Sure to bring a smile to our face. A smile that turned sour in round two as floods and civilizations became notable by their absence, and on Ra after another were pulled from the bag.

But as the second round came to an end, Joe hung on until the last, and gambled on a decent spread which he finally got. This put him in a commanding position for round three, which he exploited with aplomb. When the scores came to be counted, though, Sam felt sure he’d done better than he had. We tried to remember his scoring throughout the game, but we’d all started drinking by then and it was a hopeless case.

Joe 43
Andrew 26
Sam 14

Next up, with the atmosphere still muggy and close, I wanted something familiar to play. So we opted for Tinners’ Trail. A classic that has stood the test of time. And as we played, we could finally hear the first sounds of rain outside. I walked out to greet the oncoming storm, only to discover it was the next-door neighbour watering his plants.


As for the game, copper prices stayed high throughout, which was nice. If there’d been a bonus for longest adit, I would’ve won it, as I had four of them in a row. I think my use of adits was a definite help, as I was able to scrape a win, despite wasting time and money on a new mine in round four that I didn’t even use.

Andrew 131
Joe 127
Sam 120

By now, it was only ten past ten. Sam was keen to salvage something from the evening, so a light game of 6nimmt was suggested. I think the heat finally got to us as we (well, Joe and Sam) descended into hysterics over jokes I can no longer remember, and got increasingly concerned about putting the cards the right way up. As it turned out, Sam did end with a win and we went out into the night rejoicing into our shared victories!

Sam 54
Andrew 61
Joe 71








Points
Andrew 2 1 2 4 1 10
Joe 3 2 1 1 3 10
Adam2 5 2 1 1 11
Sam 1 3 3 5 2 14
Hannah3 4 1 4 5 17
Miles2 3 5 5 5 20
Lizzy2 5 5 5 5 22

4 comments:

  1. Joe worked it out - my score was correct in Ra. It was just my optimism that was badly calculated.

    Very nice evening. I think Joe and I were mainly giggling about the Ween track concerning a middle-class party.

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  2. Yes, it was Ween, and a gratifyingly well-received food cartoon (always worth waiting til a few beers have been drunk before testing the latest cartoon - after all that's how most people experience it in the Guardian on a saturday morning).

    Your memory is shaky on a couple of other points Andrew - it must be the thunder clouds. It was the end of the third round in Ra when I scored my big haul. I was holding out for monuments, and none came out. But I did get three civs, which made up for it.

    And I definitely had one of the four adits in Tinners Trail - I stole it out from under Sam's nose, much to his justified annoyance. It seemed only sensible, as it would have been very effective for him, and italmost certainly secured me second instead of last place as a result.

    A very lovely evening all round - there's a huge amount of satisfaction in playing old favourites, even if that is tempered by the audible shuffling of unplayed games on the shelf next door.

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  3. great post title by the way Andrew

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  4. oh yes, the food cartoon is tickling me this morning Joe!

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