Phrasell jolly good fellow

I arrived ten minutes late this week (missing a game of Happy Salmon, won by Katy) , knocking on Joe's door just as they'd decided to play Fuji Flush. Clearly this game has mystical powers to make tardy gamers suddenly arrive, simply by thinking about playing it.

But once I'd sat down, the Flush was passed over in favour of something a little more involved. We chose Condottiere, since Joe had just come back from Italy. Martin had brought his Maxi-sized (but with fewer rules than Sam’s pocket version) copy of the game. It was new to Ben and Katy, but Martin explained the rules to them and we were off.

We started by fighting over the regions in the corners and Katy showed little interest, passing early or not playing at all. But then a more central region was chosen, and Katy leapt into action. After she won that, she then won the battle for a neighbouring region so she had two adjacent areas, with the choice of next region and only she and Martin had cards left: her two against his one. Could she win the game in the first round?

She couldn't, but it was mighty close as they drew 5-5. We sighed with relief (at least I did) and prepared for round two.

Martin annoyed Katy by playing his third Bishop of the game, but Joe provided the real drama when he had to chose a region (or risk being cut off completely) that would give either Katy or Ben the win. Katy passed early, hoping that Ian or Joe would beat Ben. When the battle was poised at Ian 22, Ben 27, Joe 28, a key was played (can't remember who by) and Joe saved both Katy's and his own campaign.

Joe's great escape

In round three, I found my southern stronghold in a good place to win the game, but Joe played a Bishop and rendered my efforts useless. But that meant Katy got the choice of region, and chose one that would give her the win. It was Ian versus Ben versus Katy, when Ben played a key to win, even if the region was no use to him.

Finally, the war was decided in the North, which was useless for me centred around Rome, despite my sentimental conquering of Torino in the North west. Martin won it, and took the game!

Martin 3 in a row plus another one
Katy 2 in a row plus another one
Andrew 2 in a row
Joe 2 in a row
Ben 3 separate regions
Ian no regions at all

Next up we decided to play Team Play. And we brought out the crisps! Ben's choice of wasabi and ginger crisps was especially appreciated.

Ian & I started slowly, while Ben & Martin and Katy & Joe sped off to a quick 4-4-2 lead. I say "Ben & Martin" but in truth it was all Ben picking off cards while Martin got stuck unable to clear the one sat in front of him.

Ian & I pick up steam, and Ian clears a 6 point ABCDE card. And also, while Joe was revealing a new central card we could all compete for, he revealed a "Blue + Blue = 7" and I involuntarily went "Ooooh" so of course he discarded it immediately.

In the later stages, Ian & I actually reached seven cards completed before the others. But then Martin finally completed his first card of the game and then got lucky drawing from the deck and finishes another to trigger the end of the game. That left us with once more around the table to try and finish any last cards. Then we counted up the final scores, which we did by revealing one card at a time simultaneously and adding as we went. Not at exciting as we thought it might be, since Ian & I sped into an early lead and stayed there.

Ian & Andrew 28
Martin & Ben 26
Katy & Joe 25

Hopefully this was a modicum of revenge for Ian after his drubbing at Condottiere.

At this point Ben said he had to go, but we all insisted he could stay for a quick game of Perudo. Maybe his heart wasn't in it since he was first to pallathiko (still don't know the correct spelling) and he bet 5 6's. But there were only two.

So, with Ben dashing for the bus, the rest of us played on. Ian is next to pallathiko and his bet of 3 1's fails. Then Joe fails with a bet of 4 6's. Katy survived her pallathiko , but went out soon after. This left me versus Martin and his greater number of dice proves pivotal.

1. Martin
2. Andrew
3. Katy
4. Joe
5. Ian
6. Ben

Despite the late hour, we decided to try “just one round” of Phrasell, one of the many games that comes in the Wibbell pack. In this game, one player turns over a card which has two letters. Those two letters should inspire a topic (ie, R and D could be Road or Research and Development or Red etc) and then two more cards are revealed. Then the other players have to use the four letters to come up with a four-word sentence about the topic. The best sentence gets all three cards to keep as points (the cards can be split as two-points for the best and one point for a noble second).

It was so much fun, that we forgot the “just one round” and played right through the deck. There were some great sentences. For the topic of Time and the letters ODOU, Ian came up with One Unit Of Dimension. SG became seagulls and the letters were EZLN. Think the Z put us off? No! Well, it did a bit. But two suggestions were Zealous Eagles Like Nibbles and No Litter Eating Zones.

TL was Tower of London and I’d love to know how Ian’s Where Beefeaters Enter Nightmares beat my William Erected Norman Battlements, but I’m not bitter or anything.

Ian 14
Joe 12
Andrew 8
Martin 7
Katy 7

Such fun. And then we set off into the night. Because by now it was most definitely night. Well past eleven, and time for bed.

Thanks all!