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Anthony Boydell
United Kingdom
Unspecified
Unspecified
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Another sunny morning beckoned us on a short drive to our friends house and a Sunday lunch followed by chit-chat and some family games.
One of their children, Mary (7-ish), is my wife's God-daughter and for a recent birthday, hearing that she was quite the gamestress, we took along a copy of Totemo as a present. Once we'd taught her this, we proceeded to roll-out a few of her own favourites and a more 'normal' afternoon of gaming followed - at least, more normal than I'm used to because of the geeks I usually pass the time with!
First up was Labyrinth: The Duel - one of Mary's absolute favourites - a game of sliding blocks with 'passages' on in the manner of those plastic puzzles of old, trying to create a path between where you are and a destination on a revealed tile: the first person to make a connection on their board wins the tile for end-game scoring. Hmmm...I was roundly-whipped by 11 tiles to 5...then so was my daughter Daisy...11-5 again.
*owned*
In order to salvage a little dignity, we moved thenceforth to Monopoly Deal Card Game - ahh! now we're talking! A card game with bona fide special abilities, hand management, attack etc...oh! what's that? FIVE TURNS IN A ROW FOR MARY? *sheesh* Her Dad and I eventually succumbed to another embarassing defeat...why didn't I bring Power Grid?
*loser*
To finish, her father suggested Acuity - a pattern-matching affair with pleasingly simple rules and colourful tiles: lay out a 6x6 grid of tiles (each with four icons on) - draw a tile from a face-down pile and reveal to the everyone - the first player to find a match for the four icons on the board wins the tile into their score pile...easy! At last - I was doing rip-roaringly well! A lovely stack of victory tiles at the game end and Mary, that demon in a four-foot mop-haired seemingly-innocent disguise, with only a few...surely the laurels must fall to me?
Hark - what's this? Mary's Dad and I have the SAME points?
What's that - Mary to decide who should win?
*sigh*
Call myself a gamer? I'm off to by some wax crayons, a bib and some finger paints...I'm fit for nothing else in this world.
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