by Tony Boydell
It finally seemed like proper Spring as I meandered back to the B&B after a day's training; flumping on to the bed, I caught up with some loose games of 'Gric on boiteajeux.net while the happy sound of chattering tourists rattled my windowpanes. A number of options presented themselves, prone though I was on the deco spread, as potential evening entertainments::nostar: Go to the cinema and (possibly) kill my diet with a delicious double-scoop of Baskin Robins' ice-cream;
:nostar: Stay in at the digs and borrow one of their DVDs (and probably scoff grapes all evening); or,
:nostar: take the car out for a sunsetty spin down the coast road to Bangor and play some bloody board games.
So, I decided to stay in...
...no, but pish! I merely jest with you because OF COURSE I decided to go and play some games! It is ridiculous that (just a couple of months ago) it was getting dark as I set out on my evening mission of ludography and now it's still a bit glowy-in-the-distance on the coming back! A brief diversion by way the supermarket for some scrummy end-of-the-day sushi bargains then it was up the whooshing lift to the 5th floor of Pontio's Art Centre; après "ping!", one is dumped in to a quiet area bedecked with tables, foamy chairs and many an earnest student-type gazing - brow-furrowed, bic biro interdental, at their laptops. I scurried quietly by attempting to keep the boxes in my bag rattling like cuboid maracas.
It was an excellent turn-out (with over 20 in total) even though it was just a shade passed 6PM; they like to get their gaming done early in these 'wilder' parts and - indeed - the place had emptied and people were looking at the inside of their lids by 10PM. I, of course, remain awake to document the sessions' delights. To open, Rob - who works at Bangor Uni (of which Pontios is a 'wing') and his son Ethan (?) joined me for some dice-chucking and Welcome to Centerville:
I find myself curiously enamored of this Yahtzee-esque meaty filler and I'm not sure I can tell you why coherently; it's just a feeling I have when I think about playing it. It pleases me with the simple rules: roll/re-roll six dice up to three times then 'spend' them on a variety of actions, score area majority and set collection in two currencies (Income and Prestige) at various times and then the lowest of those two currencies at the end of the game is your final score. It's more than Roll Through The Ages and it's ilk and less of bastard fiddle than Roll For The Galaxy. (Semi-)amusingly, Ethan kept rolling the dice so that they'd bounce on the central board and scatter player cubes in all directions; indeed, this perilous corruption of the game state was further compounded by Ethan's tendency to lean on his player reference and slide it either OFF the table (his weight creasing the cardboard - argh!) OR slide it toward the (aforementioned) board for minor nudging. Anyway, it mattered not because the fight was really for second place between Father and Son as #badteacher I romped away with proceedings.
Things wouldn't be quite so clear-cut when Aaron joined Rob, myself and Yollo (?) for some hot, spicy Goa action:
Both Yollo and Rob were in virgin territory here, so there was much for them to take in and they did tickle along for a couple of respectable scores (29 and 31); on the other hand, the very LAST action of the game was from Aaron playing an Exploration card that allowed himself to sell 10 spices for 3 dukats a-piece and edged past my own 28 cash to claim the 'richest player' 3pt bonus! This took him from 44 to 47 and me, consequently, from 44 to 41! Robbed, I say! It turns out Yollo and Rob have a great many other fantastic games of the Goa Era to explore - Princes of Florence and El Grande to name but two - so I need to find an excuse to be up here on Thursday evening more often!