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Anthony Boydell
United Kingdom
Unspecified
Unspecified
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Right – lets get down to biz-niz…
100 COMMENT ************************************
110 COMMENT * Friday Night Games 25/03/11
120 COMMENT ************************************
130 LET $game = “”
140 READ $game
150 IF $game = “End” THEN GOTO 180
160 PRINT “Tonight we played “ && $game
170 GOTO 140
180 PRINT “…and then I went home”
190 DATA “Caylus Magna Carta”, “Dixit”, “Small World”, “End”
The salubrious surroundings of the White Lion Inn, Ross-on-Wye (and the attentions of big, hairy, over-friendly canines) served as our games-playing environment yesterday e’en.
We kicked off with a 4 player Caylus Magna Carta, new to the Batesons although it’s pappy (the ever maligned Caylus, of course) is one of their all-time favourites. We had reached the conclusion of my rules explanation when Bill arrived – we could’ve packed it away and started something else, but that would’ve left Agricola (see last weeks note), Small World (too early in the evening) or Paperclip Railways (not to Ben’s taste) as a fall-back and I’m not sure I could’ve coped with all the moaning!
I very much like C:MC and ‘its different but the same’ feel (and much-reduced playing time); Ben was left unconvinced as, after an hour, it ended with a three-way tie on 30 for victory - he pronounced that this must somehow be a failing in the design…I suggest further plays to resolve this anomaly (as I'm set against first-game-ever pronouncements *cough* Pergamon *cough*).
Next up was to be Bill’s selection, on account of him having waited patiently, so Ben picked up their shiny new copy of Dixit and the mind games commenced. For comedy value (as opposed to just plain terrible play), Ben’s score piece languished at the [1] spot for most of the game – making a last minute rush to pull defeat from the jaws of defeat. Terrible puns and much merriment accompanied this delightful diversion – I am now a firm believer that every Pub in England DESPERATELY NEEDS a copy of this behind the bar, along with Dominos, Chess, Draughts and Pork Scratchings; it’s something even the most die-hard ‘I only play Monopoly at Christmas’ Brit could grasp…probably.
Having realized that Bill didn’t actually get to ‘pick the next game’ after all, we deferred to his be-bearded wisdom, paused, and then Ben selected Small World anyway from the crate. Great invasive fun was to be had, although Bill suffered a rather terrible opening and, as a consequence, everybody ignored him in sympathy for the rest of the game and he won by an embarrassingly large margin (112-86-83-76).
At this point, even the staff at the White Lion were putting on their coats, switching off the lights, coughing excessively and remarking (somewhat over-loudly IMO) that ‘goodness, is THAT the time?’
The iPod randomized into ‘Stayin’ Alive’ and the sing-along-a-Bee-Gee journey home ended a perfectly respectable evening.
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