Match Report 14th February

The evening saw the welcome arrival of a new face, Ruth, together with some of our regulars Ben, Malcolm, Gwen and Crispin.

We started with another run out of David and Goliath whilst we were waiting for Ben to join us. The first game saw a stunning win for Malcolm with a score that was more than double his nearest rival Gwen, however the honours were reversed in the second game. As a game the artwork belies the depth and complexity to the game. The skill in the game is to loose tricks and thereby secure the largest card played in the trick. This when combined with other elements of the game makes it a challenging starter and more thoughtful than some of our more light hearted alternatives.

The second game of the evening saw us returning to Dominion although with the arrival of Ruth , having never played it before , we returned to the card combination ‘First Game’ with Gwen guiding her along the way. This game continues to delight us with the variety of approaches that can be taken with the cards and the speed with which it can be played. Crispin demonstrated his ability at this game resulting in him once again emerging victorious. But with all players finishing within seven points the competition is on and no victory is assured until the last card is played.

Having consumed all of the delicious lemon cake baked by Crispin especially for the evening (Thank You) we moved on to the last game of the evening. A daft game entitled Abandon Ship. The theme is a race for a group of rats from the bilges of a very big ship to the deck and escape from the surging waters drawing the ship down to a watery grave. However woe betides the first rat on deck as they are sure to be trampled by the terrified passengers.

An unusual game in as much as each player is responsible for three different coloured rats, however each rat will have a number of owners and so you find your rats at times being moved up through the decks by other players whilst at alternate moments they may be being moved down towards a watery grave by less helpful players! It’s an amusing game that introduces a different set of dynamics to our other games but may not have the depth or intrinsic humour to ensure it appears at our table on a regular basis.