Friday 18 December 2010

Frank's Zoo
As has become traditional we started a game of Frank's Zoo while we waited for Nigel.

We deliberately split Anna and Andrew and made them sit opposite each other. Anne was on form, jumping out to a lead of 8 by the second round. A lead which she never looked like loosing. While Nigel, as he often does when he arrives late and joins in, did very well scoring 8 a couple of times to come second. Playing to Anne's left didn't do me much good.

Andrew P 2  6 11 13 18 18
Anna     4  6  8 14 13 14
Anne     6 14 18 23 25 28
Ian     -1  0  3  6  9 13
Andrew H 5  4  3  8 17 22
Nigel    -  4 12 13 15 23

Balderdash
Anne convinced everyone else to learn and play Balderdash. Anna was initially keen to play, but on the first turn she discovered just how tricky it is to come up with a convincing definition and changed her mind! Andrew H was always first to finish his definition while Andrew P had a fixation for Morocco. For some reason Anna liked my definitions better than the correct ones. Nigel was the only person to write down the correct definition for a work. Anne led and I chased, but I burst passed her on the last turn.

This was the first time we played a party game on a Friday night. Experience counted as far as scoring was concerned.

Ian      30
Anne     27
Andrew H 15
Nigel    12
Anna      9
Andrew P  5

Ra
Anne had forgotten much of this game. But with plenty of advice from me and Andrew, she thrashed us. The tiles may not have been mixed well. The first epoch went on and on, while the third finished very quickly with a bunch of Sun tiles coming out together.

The uncertainty of tile drawing, the fixed bids and the penalties built into the scoring system and the disaster tiles make Ra one of the tensest auction games.

Anne     68
Ian      41
Andrew P 21

Master's Gallery
Andrew is quite keen on this auctionless version of Modern Art. It turned out to be quite a close game compared with previous ones.

Anne     16 34 73 139
Andrew P 18 39 80 133
Ian      14 31 73 130

Glory to Rome
At the other end of the table Nigel, Andrew H and Anna played Glory to Rome. I was too busy with Ra and Master's Gallery to take notice of what was happening, though I think I heard that Nigel didn't embezzle enough building materials. I suspect Andrew won.

This was the last Friday night games for 2010.