After returning from a day out, we decided to go for an impromptu games weekend as we had enough time over the remainder of the weekend to get a decent amount of gaming in.
With the current score in our championship 1-1, it was all to play for, and someone would leave the weekend with the lead.
DAY ONE
MAG-BLAST (2002)
We couldn’t have a games weekend without getting one the girlfriends’ favourites to the table. And after I won a single game of MAG-BLAST last time, my confidence in the game has gone up.
So, the girlfriend decided to take it upon herself to chase that poor confidence from the building screaming like a little girl.
I started strong with two Dreadnoughts in my fleet, but her flagship’s special power of trading two resources in to cancel shots with no limit basically meant I was facing Wolverine, and any damage I inflicted and any tactics I could think up were just turning to dust after every move.
ME: 0
GF: 1
TAKENOKO (2011)
Before I met my girlfriend, I had a 100% win record with TAKENOKO. My girlfriend thought it would be funny during our first games weekend to try and break it. Which she did. And she has mocked me continuously ever since.
So, this time I didn’t hold back, and I ate all the bamboo and I grew the garden better and I once again stood victorious!
Okay, so it wasn’t that aggressive in any way, because Panda Nom Nom (as my girlfriend calls it and it gives her +10 cuteness) is such a relaxing game to play, even when you’re playing with your honour on the line.
And to be fair, I got lucky with a couple of cards near the end, especially when two panda cards were identical, so double points for the same action.
ME: 1
GF: 1
TATSU (2016)
This is a game I’ve been eyeing up for months now, and when I started on the 2-player only portion of the collection, it was the right time to add it to our shelves.
TATSU is such a simple game to learn. Three types of dragon each. One player goes around the board clockwise, the other goes anticlockwise. And then it’s about using your dice rolls to place your dragons in the right position to either hinder your opponent, or outright destroy their pieces. The aim is to either destroy one of the three types of your opponent’s dragons, or have all their pieces off the playing area.
I really liked this, and the girlfriend did too. She was quick to take down one of my two fire dragons (the only dragon that can destroy your rival’s pieces), so within the first few turns, I was already down an offensive weapon, and she was halfway to victory.
If it had been my vine dragon (used for trapping) or my water dragon (used for returning pieces back home) then I could have held off putting one of those back on the board to hinder her. But I needed my fire dragon out there, so I was vulnerable the entire time. And then she got a six and a four and went almost halfway around in one turn to take victory.
Game length and set up is short, so next time I think we’ll play a few games back to back.
ME: 1
GF: 2
JAIPUR (2009)
We have fallen in love with JAIPUR and have picked it up quick. Before the weekend I had been unable to win even a single round. I don’t know how it happens, but diamonds really are a girl’s best friend as whenever I flip a card to the market, there they are, begging her to pick them up and mocking me as they go.
And thinking that the diamonds are important to get that win seems to be the case, as this time they were showing up for me, and not only did I win my first round (which I was extremely chuffed about) but I then managed to win the next round, and thus the game too. But damn, did the girlfriend make me work for it, with her losing score in the second round being higher than my winning score of the previous.
It was close.
ME: 2
GF: 2
HANAMIKOJI (2013)
Quickly becoming another one of our favourites (and sure to be one of my 10×10 games for 2020), HANIMAKOJI is becoming quite the brain buster. The tug of war between rounds is tense stuff and leads to some drawn out, quiet moments as the player whose turn it is tries to do a Doctor Strange and predict all possible outcomes in an attempt to find the winning one.
I started off a little too well, having control of all five of the number 5 Geisha cards by my second turn, and for a moment I even thought that if the number 4 Geisha went uncontested, I’d win on the first round. But I wasn’t that fortunate and then I had to really pull out all the stops to take the win and have my first lead of the weekend.
ME: 3
GF: 2
SUSHI ROLL (2019)
Another favourite, SUSHI ROLL was the final game of the evening as darkness descended on our Saturday. And once again it was all about the puddings. I watched as the girlfriend greedily eyed up my own pink dice roll to see if I scored better, which I did. She then proceeded to use her chopsticks to steal my three pudding and pass a Dumpling back the other way.
The game flowed and it wasn’t a runaway, but a mistake from me late on, and her domination in the pudding business, saw her draw level as day one closed out.
We would sleep on it, and battle would commence in the morning.
ME: 3
GF: 3
DAY TWO
PARIS: LA CITE DE LA LUMIERE (2019)
We started day two with one of the last of our unplayed 2-player only games. I wanted to bring it to the table before but always put it off because I didn’t want to learn an intricate game when I was tired or had just struggled learning something else. Turned out I needn’t have worried, as PARIS: LA CITE DE LA LUMIERE is very easy to pick up.
But don’t be fooled just because it only has two phases, and you are limited to only two different actions per phase. Oh no, this one is a brain scratcher, and if you like planning out moves in advance, this isn’t for you, as planning can get thrown out the window after every single turn.
The aim of the game is to place tiles down on the streets of Paris (in this case the base of the game box itself) and pick polyomino buildings, all the while looking at the different coloured cobblestones (yours, opponents, or shared) and to see where the buildings would fit best.
And then it’s onto phase two, where you try to place your buildings while your opponent does the same and you inevitably screw each other over, and occasionally get to pick up one of four of the eight available special power postcards to help or hinder further.
As I said, it sounded complicated and I was constantly looking for the best time to bring it to the table. Well that was Sunday and it was a lot easier to learn than expected. But like a lot of games that are easy to teach, the rules are one thing, but the tactics are something else.
I managed to get the win thanks to the bonus of having my buildings touching, as well as cutting off the girlfriend’s painter bonus, who was located near five lamps until my annex bonus cut him off from all but one in my penultimate move.
We have much to learn of the nuances of this game, and I look forward to many more heated battles with the girlfriend over the streets of Paris.
ME: 4
GF: 3
MUFFIN TIME (2020)
A return to the first Kickstarter game we’d played, and I was hoping to steal the weekends victory by winning my first game of MUFFIN TIME.
Alas, it was not to be. But damn, did I have an hilarious time losing.
The cards in this game just keep on giving. I had a trap card that needed me to scare another player, but it got discarded before I had the balls to suddenly scream out loud. The girlfriend had a card that punished a player for complaining, but I managed to steal it and then we both stayed positive while it remained in play.
And then, despite knowing that we had plans later that morning, and that time wasn’t on our side . . . the girlfriend plays a card that makes us both discard our full hands, shuffle the desk . . . and start all over again.
I couldn’t stop laughing.
I watched victory drift away as my new cards couldn’t be used in a small game (seriously; one was an attack on boys and I was the only guy at the table, and more frustrating was the players not in a relationship card, showing up in a game played by a couple). I had nothing but duds.
The girlfriend left me with one turn to stop her winning, and my only offensive card was to be played against a player not living in the house. I tried to find a legal loophole as she is technically, (technically!) staying with her mum. But her argument of post being redirected and the length of time she’d been there meant I didn’t have a leg to stand on.
And despite time being limited, we couldn’t end the weekend on a draw. So, we picked one last game.
ME: 4
GF: 4
CARCASSONNE: STAR WARS (2015)
Having a girlfriend who likes boardgames is awesome. Having a girlfriend who likes Star Wars is also awesome. My girlfriend is both, and she owns STAR WARS: CARCASSONNE.
There are a few rules that are different based around faction symbols and the ability to fight over planets, and there was the mild annoyance that there were no blue meeples to choose from (I mean, what the hell?!?!), but other than that its CARCASSONE with a Star Wars paint job.
She picked Darth Vader. I picked Boba Fett. And we were off.
It was a tense game to start, but somehow the planets aligned (literally) and I managed to get a fair few completed. The planets in the version are the equivalent of the Abbeys in the original version, but there are a lot more of them.
Despite a screw up with the scoring, which we agree wouldn’t have affected the outcome, I managed to steal ahead and show why Bounty Hunters are better than Sith Lords to claim the game and the weekend.
ME: 5
GF: 4
THE END
What a weekend. Unlike the first two, this wasn’t planned to include this many games, and so we hadn’t panned on making it a weekend battle. But when we were on our fourth game on the Saturday night and feeling like we had more in us, we knew we had to.
And so, I go to 2-1.
It’s still all to play for, and I thoroughly enjoy how evenly matched we are. Sure, some games are better for one of us over the other, but we make each other fight for every victory, and no game has been truly one sided (especially now that I’ve managed at least one victory in JAIPUR and MAG-BLAST).
Not long until our next weekend of Versus Gaming. Can I extend my lead, or will the girlfriend charge up to draw level going into September?
Stay tuned to find out.
Always Play Blue 