Wednesday 30 October 2013

Hey That’s My Fifth! (win in a row)

For the second week in a row, Adam hosted. For the first time this season, Steve and Anja could make it and like a weird DC/Marvel crossover, Chris came all the way from Bracknell to Bristol for work, and stayed for the evening too. With me and Sam in attendance too, that made six of us.

At first we were just four, as we had to wait for Anja and Steve to arrive. We dug out Hey That’s My Fish! As a quick filler beforehand. It may have the appearance of a silly kids game, but it hides strategies and challenges that deserve deep ponderous thought. At least that’s how we play it.

At the end, it was Adam wot won it.

Adam 28
Sam 25
Andrew 23
Chris 19

And this meant that The Perfect Five had finally been achieved! Five wins in a row for the creeping custard, and this means an extra special look at the form table before this rare phenomena disappeared!







Points
Adam 1 1 1 1 1 5
Joe 2 3 2 1 2 10
Gonz5 2 3 2 1 13
Sam2 3 4 4 3 16
Andrew3 4 5 5 2 19
Quentin3 5 55 5 23
Chris4 5 55 5 23

Look at all those ones in a row! Look how pretty they are!

Anyway, the form table marches on, and with no sign of Anja or Steve, we broke out Bananagrams, an amusing game of wordplay, as long as your not playing against Scrabble experts who know all the two-letter words. I gave up halfway through the first game.

Sam
Adam
Chris
Andrew


I sat out the second, and watched as Sam and Chris battled it out, with Adam left in their dust this time.

Chris
Sam
Adam

After this, Steve and Anja arrived. To be sociable, we played a couple of games of The Resistance. Round one, the resistance won convincingly when Chris was one of the spies, and had no idea about how to react. He was quickly unmasked and the other spy, Sam, was never chosen to go on a mission. Viva La Resistance!

Then for round two, Adam began by asking people if they were spies. When Steve and Anja said yes, I thought it was a clever double bluff, especially when Steve kept saying he was a spy. In fact, it was Chris and Sam again who, by some nice acting and clever play were able to keep up the pretence. Viva la Dictatorship!

Then we split into two groups. Steve, Anja and Sam went for Tinners’ Trail, while Chris, Adam and I went for Agricola. Adam’s recent form on this game has been pretty poor, so maybe this was went he got his mojo back? Not when you’re up against Farmer Smith. We played with Occupations and Minor Improvements, and I started to get worried when he seemed to know what each card did after he’d only heard the card’s name.

Chris plays Agricola like Richard Clayderman plays the piano. Suave, smooth and in a nice suit. Everything went together nicely in Chris’ farm while Adam and I bickered over the starting player. Adam cursed his luck in the final round as Chris took an option that would’ve netted Adam a tasty seven points. He only had himself to blame, though. Him and his family of five farmers.

In the end, though, it wouldn’t have mattered. Chris reigned supreme.

Chris 45
Adam 31
Andrew 23


Tinners’ Trail ended

Sam 135
Steve 128
Anja 113


Then Chris, Sam and I drove away, reliably informed by Talk Sport that Arsenal are going to have to finish above Chelsea if they want to win the league this year.







Points
Sam1 2 1 2 3 9
Adam 2 3 2 1 1 9
Joe 2 3 2 1 2 10
Gonz5 2 3 2 1 13
Chris1 1 3 4 5 14
Andrew3 4 3 4 5 19
Steve2 5 55 5 22
Anja3 5 55 5 23
Quentin3 5 55 5 23

On the end of month leaderboard, surely it is merely a procession towards Adam’s ultimate victory.


7 comments:

  1. Thanks for a great evening chaps. I got back at 12.30 so only an hour and 15 mins journey. I really was clueless in that first Resistance game but I think that helped a lot with the second especially as I was chosen first to go on a mission....

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  2. It was more a stroke of genius by fate than anything in that second game - no-one, least of all us, expected the same two players would be spies. Though I think we played it pretty well on the whole. Nerves were making my voice slur though...

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  3. oh and congratulations to Adam. What target shall we set him now?

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  4. I'm surprised at how often the same people end up being spies in a given session of Resistance - Martha was complaining about just that when the kids played this weekend at Rushay.

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  5. Wahay! Okay, now I'm aiming for five last places in a row...

    Good old HTMF, lucky that was the first game as for the rest of the evening I was totally out of my depth as Chris first showed us how to play Bananagrams (with a bit of help from Sam) and then showed us how Agricola is really played. I suspect that expanding the house and family early is the key.

    In The Resistance the odds aren't that high for the same people getting to be spies twice in an evening - for one person in a six player game its 2/6 so it should happen a third of the time, for two people its 2/6*2/6 = 1/9 so it should happen every ninth game. Good going in that second game the spies.

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  6. That Perfect Five is starting to make even more sense Adam...

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  7. Adam, an extra rooms and a additional workers are a solid strategy (negated when everybody does it). Effective occupation and minor improvements combinations are key too. When I saw that I had the riding plough and the greengrocer I practically disregarded all the other cards and made that my core tactic.

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