by Ben Bateson
It's always party time in the White Lion at the RoWBGers last meet before Christmas, and a full-of-fun (well, mostly) sextet came for a feast of part and dexterity fare. Having said this, I'm not averse to playing a good dexterity game year-round.Having ALMOST beaten Gordon to the bar this week, Becky and I managed to get Cubiko set up in short order, and I promptly took down game 1. But I had reckoned without arch-enemy Benedict, that ball-bouncer of great renown, and in a proper four-hander he proved too good, although it did come down to a thrilling finale where pretty much everyone had points on the board.
Dave shuffled in pleasingly promptly after the packing-away of Cubiko, which set us up for a good run at festive favourite Balderdash. Dave and Gordon, remarkably, had never played this most brilliant of party games before, but a brief explanation of 'remember Call My Bluff with Frank Muir' and a demonstration first round read by Benedict was more than enough to ease them into it.
With six, the game does drag a fraction, but there was still japery aplenty to be had: much of which, regrettably, does not translate well to the bloggish format. But, if you ever wondered what exactly Darth Vader's REAL last words were, or what the proper name is for an organ made up of squeezy car horns, then it is possible we may have solved those mysteries.
Gordon was a bit grinchy at first, but eventually shot away for a fairly convincing win, leaving Ben and Tony - the eternal squabblers - battling for second. Benedict, unable to reproduce his previous form, finished a distant last, although he did give Becky a run for her money at one point.
With games for six being in short supply, Becky gave Benedict, Dave and Gordon a run-out at Tumblin-Dice, a game which started enthusiastically but soon led to boredom (mostly, I suspect because Benedict kept winning), while I introduced Tony to the pleasures of KingBrick.
KingBrick is a game I have recently been involved in promoting heavily via Friedemann's 'Battle of the Overlooked Games' geeklists (please go and vote if you haven't done so already, as it seems to be doing rather well!), so it was good to actually get it to the table and attack some quality brick-flicking action without the attendant frustrations of hungry dogs and Becky's nail varnish. Tony took to it in the manner born, and we tied a 4-game series: Tony's predilection for removing 'freeze' bricks by jogging the playing mat proving both his blessing and downfall. It remains a game of which I'm inordinately fond: rewarding strategy in setting up an army, proper tactics, and of course good brick-flicking dexterity: the components are pretty good too for a home-based operation: the baize mat generally stays flat and the dice are a perfect weight to reward strategic flicking rather than power (when they will launch themselves to all corners of the room).
Extended 'Dashing had brought us peremptorily close to the end of the evening, but there was just time for the 109-year-old noisy silliness of Pit, a game which still holds up abnormally well as you try and mentally juggle who you passed the bear to and what each player might be collecting. Gordon managed to take two rounds of this at about the halfway point, which was pretty much game over: in usual 'bizarre' style, Tony won nothing and I tied about three rounds and scored a grand total of 15 points.
Happy Christmas all!