Friday 8 July 2011

Six of us were about to play Frank's Zoo, but before we could sit down Sharon turned up after catching red lights all the way down The Terrace, so we split up to play Tichu and Glory to Rome.

Tichu
Sharon and Anne got off to a good start with a snappy Tichu 1-2. But in the next hand I called Grand Tichu on a Dragon, Phoenix and an Ace. I picked up another Ace and Andrew kindly gave me a third and then backed me up to make it a 1-2 as well. In the third hand Anne and I both called Tichu -- I made it. With the score on 525 to 275 the Boys were half way home, but that was as good as it got. We failed Tichu in the next 3 hands while they made Tichu over 4 consecutive hands. In the 8th hand no-one called Tichu but Sharon and Anne made 100 points to win 1005 to 395.

Hnd IA+AP SH+AM
1.     0   300 Sharon's Tichu 1-2
2.   400   300 Ian's GT 1-2
3.   525   275 Ian's Tichu, Anne fails
4.   465   435 Anne's Tichu, Andrew fails
5.   420   580 Sharon's Tichu, Andrew fails
6.   365   735 Sharon's Tichu, Ian fails
7.   395   905 Sharon's Tichu
8.   395  1005 Sharon & Anne make 100 points

Glory to Rome
I was too busy getting thrashed in Tichu to pay much attention to what was happening during the rebuilding of Rome, but I have it on good authority that Andrew won, Nigel was second and Anna third.

While we were playing Ceedee and Rob turned up and played a game of Jaipur on the coffee table before joining Anna, Andrew and Nigel to play...

Rheinlander
Which was another new game for Ceedee and Rob.

Anna     41
Ceedee   38
Rob      37
Andrew H 33
Nigel    30

John B arrived in time to play one hand of Coloretto before we reconfigured to play Taj Mahal at one end of the table and Vegas Showdown at the other.

Vegas Showdown
From what I could see Andrew P had a significant lead for most of the game so I was surprised to learn that Sharon won. Unfortunately no scores were recorded.

Taj Mahal
Ceedee's first game and she led from start to finish, playing an opportunistic strategy, having the Princess card for a few rounds and mostly avoiding big fights. Andrew went after the King and connections, while the rest of us (Anne most of all) went after the elephants, leading to some bruising fights. Ceedee demonstrated yet again why we shouldn't teach her new games.

Ceedee   53
Andrew H 50
Anne     44
Ian      34
Anna     22