The Fiery Pit of Hell

Quantum is back. Andrew thought it had perhaps been a year, but actually it was six months almost to the day since it was last on the table. I mentioned the possibility last night and Ian leapt - as only Ian can - at the opportunity for space battle, so away we went.

It was myself, Ian and Andrew with the board vaguely pyramid-shaped and the three of us starting in the corners. We all began with favourably numbered ships and at first it seemed that turn order might even decide the game, as we all placed quantum cubes on the same turns. As Ian was starting player, that put the spotlight on him somewhat, and Andrew moved some low-numbered ships threateningly into the centre of the board.

Ian came after me though, slaloming between planets to blow up my cannily (- I thought) placed 5, which was all set to get another cube down. "I'm not sure why I did that" he said.
"If it was to irritate me, you succeeded" I retorted, as the game began its inevitable spiral into dastardly manoeuvrings.

Andrew was next to have a pop as he embarked on a series of one-two punches to both me and Ian. But as the game progressed Andrew's strategy of Cruel Plundering seemed to be punching under its weight, as he fell behind in the race. At least it seemed that way, until he pulled off one of the moves of the game, getting both his research and dominance up to six on the same turn.

Meanwhile Ian had pulled ahead of both of us courtesy of his Arrogance - allowing him to take an extra action if he had most ships on the board. He was making so much hay with this I expanded just to stop him running away with things. Still, he only had one cube to place whereas I had two and Andrew three. Then Andrew got another cube down and we entered a dramatic endgame... first, Andrew sabotaged us, meaning both Ian and I lost one of our special abilities. Ian was now down to the standard three actions per turn, but manoeuvred himself into an imminent winning position. It looked hopeless, until I realised the replacement for Andrew's Sabotage card was Momentum.

Utilising my Conformist to give me an extra action, I got my penultimate cube down, then used my free Tactical move to push my 6 ship sideways into a new orbit. I took Momentum and used both actions to place my final cube. A pretty nifty move, if I do say so myself.

Sam - 0 cubes left
Ian - 1 cube left
Andrew 2 cubes left

Still in the mood for dickery, next to the table was Azul. I decided early on a strategy of going after a couple of colours and sacrificing the point-by-point round scoring to a degree. Andrew went for columns and managed to cram most of his tiles close together. Ian couldn't get going, although he did have the highest scoring individual round near the end, I believe.

Andrew's impressive board

We continued the GNN tradition of providing pointless names for things, with the light blue tiles now christened 'bathroom', the black 'Axminster' and the yellow 'Fiery pit of Hell". I finished off my blue tiles near the end and could have completed reds or fiery pits of hell, only not enough of the buggers came out. Ian put all his money on Axminster, and I took the final three of them, leaving Andrew and Ian with a load of crap to pick up:

It wasn't enough! Andrew's shrewd play had done enough for the win:

Andrew 66
Sam 60
Ian 42

Exhausted from ninety minutes of pure adrenaline, we decided to do something less feisty and play Burgle Bros. But because the games cupboard had a load of boxes stacked against it and I couldn't face moving them all, we played The Mind instead.

So far this game hasn't failed to entertain, and last night was no exception. We had quite a few near-misses, and only lost lives when someone - usually me - went a fraction too early. Level 7 was achieved with only one or two issues, and we forgave ourselves a lost life when Ian, having checked that I didn't have any cards left, played his 100. "I've still got a card" Andrew pointed out.

Ultimately though, level 7 was it, and we moved on to Sakura, Reiner Knizia's game of bumbling sycophants: follow the emperor as close as you can through the blossom garden, but take care not to bump into him when he stops to admire the flowers.

This was my fourth play and I finally decided it is not mere chaos (though it's pretty close to it) however whatever modicum of control the game gives you, I handled it rather badly, bumping into the Emperor more than anyone else and never being closest to him at his stopping points. Ian, despite mine and Andrew's efforts, did rather better:

Ian 11
Andrew 9
Sam 7

Andrew stood up as though readying himself for home. I asked Ian if he fancied a two-player and Andrew said "Two-player?" and sat down again. Ian requested Love Letter and in trying to extract it from the cupboard I discovered all the boxes in the way were remarkably light. I was baffled as to what was in them, but it didn't seem the time to investigate.

Ian often seems to win Love Letter. But last night there was some drama! He surged into a two-point lead with Andrew on one cube and me on none at all. I guessed Andrew was the princess and he hurled his card to the table in disgust, bending it in the process. As we tried to straighten it out Andrew said it was about time I bought a new copy anyway. Then Andrew and Ian were tied on two points, and with either of them set to win, the doorbell rang. It was 11 o'clock and Andrew was baffled as to what gamer would chance their arm this late. But it was Sally, who is not a gamer, and we recommenced. I won the round and set up a nail-biting three-way sudden death...

Which Ian won. I can't remember how now but I do recall I was knocked out before the grand finale. If Andrew is still keeping tabs on scores I'd be interested to see the stats on Love Letter, as it seems so much a game of chance to me and yet it's clearly not. Not to Ian, anyway.

Three games, three winners. But hey everyone's a winner in boardgames, right?