Friday 4 March 2011

Tichu
On Wednesday night, Jarratt was keen on playing Tichu again, so I taught Andrew. We played with Anne and I versus Jarratt and Andrew. They got off to a good start with a Tichu 1-2. This was a portent of how the game was to go as we spent much of the time with a negative score. Finally we had a success but it was too little, too late. All very embarrassing.

Hnd IA+AM AP+JG
1.     0   300  Jarratt's Tichu 1-2
2.   -90   390  Anne fails Tichu
3.   -55   455
4.    15   485
5.   -60   560  Anne fails Tichu
6.    50   650  Ian's low scoring Tichu
7.    55   745
8.    55   945  Andrew & Jarratt 1-2 again
9.   180  1020  Anne's Tichu

Tichu
On Friday night, Jarratt and Andrew were both keen on playing Tichu again. Anne and I agreed (we had to avenge defeat on Wednesday) on the understanding that we would stop if Nigel (or someone else) showed up.

We got off to a good start with a Tichu 1-2 but then things went into a holding patten on our side of the score sheet while Jarratt practiced his Tichu 1-2s. Then Andrew got in on the act. It was an evening of freaky hands. Including a hand where I had 6 consecutive pairs (which Jarratt bombed).

Hnd IA+AM AP+JG
1.   300     0  Anne's Tichu 1-2
2.   375    25
3.   375   325  Jarratt's Tichu 1-2
4.   375   625  ditto
5.   285   715  Ian fails Tichu
6.   365   635  Andrew fails Tichu
7.   365   935  Andrew's Tichu 1-2
8.   460   940
9.   460  1140  Andrew & Jarratt 1-2

Louis XIV
There are far more 4 player games in my collection than games for any other number and that number is swelled by the 5 and 6 player games that are better for 4 than for 5 or 6. After a lot of suggestions we settled on Louis XIV.

Anne tried my usual pro-shield strategy while I tried the more orthodox get-lots-of-missions strategy. Anne did better than I did, while Jarratt did better than anyone. Anne and I got 6 missions, Andrew got 7 and Jarratt got 8. There were an unusual number of draws for most shields of a type.

Jarratt 54
Anne    49
Andrew  45
Ian     42

10 Days in Europe
Looking for something quick to finish the evening we encouraged Jarratt to play this frustrating game. I won the first 2 games (though Andrew was very close in game 2) and Anne won the third game.