The Mine Shaft Gap

Venue: Richard’s place
Present: Pat, Brian, Andrew, Brad, Alex, Jeff, Neil F., Tommy, Richard, Paul.
Played: Die Heisse Schlacht, Oasis, Witch’s Brew, Rocketville, Timbuktu, Fredericus, Nottingham, Pass the Bomb.

Title refers simply to the fact that my two ‘big’ games tonight were about camels and deserts. We should have done Durch die Wüste and Yspahan to complete the set…
Pics again from the phone cam (to be posted tomorrow, perhaps), so not so great. Sorry.

Die Heisse Schlacht: Balls of steel/ Balls of polycarbonite variant: If you choose to roll 2 or all 3 dice at once and make it 7 or under, you get the legal move and an extra one or two spaces backward or forward, to help you cross the scoring line or land on another player’s token. Jeff played in true do-or-die spirit by taking this risk frequently. He didn’t win, but he did earn respect. So important in a game about a restaurant buffet service.
17 mins game time.
Results: Brad: 18. Pat: 15. Neil F: 14. Jeff: 13. Paul: 11. Alex: 3.

Oasis: Offer cards from your face-down deck, build camel trains and land segments on the board, gain scoring tokens to make your board placements worth something.
I was going well early on with a great pick-up of camel scorers, but then my camel train potential was cut off by a bastard play by Andrew. Ouch.
12 mins rules and setup; 48 mins game time.
Results: Pat (blue): 107. Brad (black): 88. Andrew (red): 86. Paul (yellow): 66. Jeff (green): 61.

I should add that my casual table-singing was insulted during this session. I don’t know what some of you guys thought I was singing, but on finding and presenting this I can now feel fully vindicated. I sounded exactly like this, and I don’t understand why you didn’t get it - presumably you’ve never heard this one before…?

(”Send your camel to bed…”? Hmmm… Moving on.)

Witch’s Brew: Played on the other table.
About 10 mins rules and setup; 40 mins game time.
Results: Tommy: 20. Richard: 14. Brian: 13. Alex: 12. Neil F: 11.

Rocketville: This was played on the other table to Timbuktu. I avoided it because I vaguely recalled less than favourable reviews.
So I asked the players afterwards - did it suck? Yes, was the answer, but it was funny, and therefore worthwhile.
Alex kindly transcribed the results in my notebook and wrote “yup yup yup” against Brian’s score result. Some explanation and discussion on this afterwards about Alex being ‘Brianed’ during this game. Maybe this is a new verb to enter the gamer’s lexicon? I think the definition would be similar to being “pussed”, with the difference being that as a result of a combination of actions carried out by Brian in his unique style..!
45 mins incl. rules & setup.
Results: Brian: 26. Alex: 20. Brad: 10. Andrew: 9. Pat: 7.

Timbuktu: Camels, deserts and deduction. This was an enjoyable session, although I couldn’t help but be sympathetic for Tommy, who lost his camel-carried goods with excruciating frequency.
By the end, Jeff and I managed to retain all but four each of our goods tokens. Unfortunately for me, his combinations were worth slightly more than mine…
About 10 mins rules & setup; 75 mins game time.
Results: Jeff (blue): 133. Paul (black): 125. Richard (orange): 100. Neil F. (red): 85. Tommy (green): 28.

Fredericus: “Vewy well - I shall fwee… Dewickus!”
About 26 mins.
Results: Brian: 17. Alex: 16. Brad, Pat: 12.

Nottingham: Two or three years old - although anew-to-us title from Uwe Rosenburg. Collect sets of cards to score points, or play a revealed card to rob or force a ‘trade’ (in various ways) with the cards from other players’ hands. OK game for so many people (supports 7), but I had to continuely refer to the player aid for an explanation of every card’s action. I suspect that without this player aid, most people would give up on this very quickly…
12 mins rules & setup; 33 mins game time.
Results: Richard (purple): 50. Tommy (grey): 41. Pat (blue): 38. Paul (white), Jeff (green): 35. Alex (yellow): 28. Brian (red): 25.

Pass the Bomb: A family fun game to finish off the night, and we dragged in Karen in who was still wandering around. Ridiculously funny and frantic, there is a genuine anxiety with the handling of the ticking bomb. As I said, I felt like I needed a sedative to calm myself down after playing this!
25 mins.
Results: Karen survives. Paul the last to be blown up, then in order Richard, Alex, Tommy, Brian, Pat, Jeff.