Crashes in markets and in space

Joe’s place! Seven o’clock! Me, Sam and Joe were first there and, after some chat with Charlotte about holidays, the three of us decided on a game of Coup. “It’s leaderboard, right?” asked an eager Sam. His eagerness didn’t last as he was first out after a couple of rounds. In the end, I prevailed over Joe and was consequently appalled when Joe asked “That’s not leaderboard, though, is it?” It is.

1. Andrew
2. Joe
3. Sam

Then there was a very welcome return for an old regular: Quentin arrived, and Coup was given a second run out. Thus began Joe’s descent into a dark pit of gaming anguish. He came last, followed by Quentin, then Sam edged me out as I unsuccessfully challenged his final move.

1. Sam
2. Andrew
3. Quentin
4. Joe

Next we discussed our next game. Since there were five of us, it was the perfect number to try Space Alert! from the makers of Galaxy Trucker. I was surprised that Adam agreed to another co-op game so soon after Pandemic but he did, so off we went!

Our glorious team... before the game started

We went through the rules, with Joe mercifully skipping over the amusing commentary between important bits, and then we launched ourselves into the tutorial game. We won admirably, with two turns to go, and were confident enough to go straight into the second mission.

Here we became a little undone. I, as communications officer, had put back the deck of enemy ships back the way they were. This meant that halfway through I had to replace the fleet of familiar ships bearing down on us with complete new and unknown enemy ships bearing down on us, and we didn’t have enough time to take in their special attack or defence powers.

Adam mashes the fire button (A).

And do you know why we didn’t have enough time? Because Captain Joe’s daughters needed to use the laptop, or wanted to know where the salt was. Meanwhile, without our good captain’s guidance, we didn’t know what to do. There seemed to be a lack of people able to use guns, and an awful lot of people able to use lifts. In the end, Sam only used three of his potential seven moves, while Quentin, Adam and I only placed cards until move five, leaving Captain Joe to fend off the enemies more or less by himself. We died.

After our failed mission, the disgruntled crew laid the blame at Captain Joe’s feet for not steering us to glory. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. I like games which have a narrative, and Space Alert!, at the very least, tells an absurd story of space exploration where people just press buttons because they happen to be there at the time, or needlessly shoot lasers into the inky void of outer space. Sam, though, didn’t seem totally in love with it, and after this he went back home, feeling a little under the weather.

After this, with the evening progressing, we went for Hab & Gut. This was Quentin’s first attempt at the game, so Joe taught him the rules. Not entirely accurately because Joe started by saying that the cards needed to be shuffled but then told Quentin not to shuffle those cards he’d been shuffling for the past five minutes.

Quentin's shuffling skills... wasted!

At last, with shuffled cards shuffled and sorted cards sorted, we began. We bought, we manipulated. We sold, we manipulated again. At the end of the first round, Adam was in a distant last regarding donations, with barely £75 on the board. I was sitting pretty with £200, so I went into the second round with high hopes. Joe, meanwhile, decided to invest in coal, and drove the price down. Alas, he drove it down to zero – at which point no one can buy those shares. After this, no one touched coal, leaving Joe’s plans in tatters.

Finally, we counted up the scores before working out the donations. I was in first, with Adam, then Joe then Quentin. When we calculated the donations, Joe was appalled to find he was least devout player, and relegated to last. Quentin stole a creditable third on his first go, and Adam complimented me on my play. A high honour, indeed.

Andrew 830
Adam 775
Quentin 510
Joe OUT (but scored 670)

With two last places and a destroyed spaceship full of dead friends, this must have been one of Joe’s less successful gaming nights. It was a lot of fun though. Unfortunately, the Form Table doesn’t have a sense of humour...

I leap to the top. Hopefully, Quentin will be keen to send himself up the table and we'll see him again soon.

						Points
Andrew	1	2	1	3	1	8
Sam	1	3	1	3	4	12
Adam	2	4	4	2	1	13
Joe	4	4	2	2	2	14
Steve	3	3	3	4	3	16
Hannah	3	4	1	4	5	17
Anja	2	5	1	5	5	18
Miles	2	3	5	5	5	20
Quentin	3	3	5	5	5	21
Lizzy	2	5	5	5	5	22

And in the monthly division, I'm top too! Admittedly, I've played more than anyone, but dedication reaps it's own rewards. Hannah takes points ratio, and Sam is first on the medal table.

Oh, and one last thing before I go. I recently bought an X-box, because I had some old games I wanted to play. First thing I did was to rename all the computer-controlled characters in Conker: Live and Reloaded to something more familiar. See if you can find yourself...