A Games Day Finally Blogged

Firstly, apologies to my readers on my tardiness, I have been very busy the last fortnight :) and that said I shall regale you with part of it!

Last weekend, Saturday the 20th, we had one of our triannual games days. To date I haven't taken any photos during the 3 years we've run it because I wanted everyone to relax; but now I have a blog their comfort wasn't so important, kidding kidding!! I asked everyone hesitantly if I should and it was very graciously tolerated (although to be not too intrusive, I didn't take many - enough :p - photos).

So you have a very privileged peek into the rare and secluded world of gamers doing geeky fun things ;).

It was a busy week in general and I had polished up the house a bit. I finally finished Blythe's room, it is now free of dust and mold and while I was at it I did the windows and banisters and stairs! climbing up to the ceiling with my gloves, chux and tea tree, eucalyptus oiled hot water :).
This time everyone got to bring some food, normally I bring out all the snackies and drinks and lunch and feed people to my hearts content :D (its a european family tradition thing ;)) but I aquessed and shared the responsibility.

Up bright and cheery at 6am I decided I'd braid my hair for the week, an hour later I took a rest and prepared salad and meat for our lunch rolls then back to my hair to finish off. Our first guests, Cheery and Tin arrived at 8:45am and we learnt Cheery's new game Pandemic. Its a popular family game, and we enjoyed it but it lacked a challange seeming to be mostly luck based, but it was a nice change to play a cooperative game.

Del and K :).

Z and Dee arrived having dropped off their kiddies, freeee! and started a 2 player Lord of the Rings game which is similar to Stratego and good fun. They won one each, how friendly (though you should have heard the cheers of "I crushed him!" lol :D ). Del and K arrived with a flourish in Del's new car repleat with personalised number plate. She was still glowing with excitement after recieved it a week before :). Osca snuck in around this time (you owe me a hug!) and a 5 player Smallworld game commenced so Tin and I had a round of 2 player Dominion.

We were only missing Tin's Lotus to do our driveway proper justice ;). What is it with geeks and hot cars? Mwahahaha... wait... where's mine? :( (its the only unwashed one there hehe)

Cheery's friend Michael arrived, whom we hadn't met before, a fencing buddy, and we all had some yumming lunch. Cheery made a much needed executive decision and brought out Thurn and Taxis, being a bit drowsy after lunch I didn't pay any attention to the rules lol (woops, sorry!) and being generally clueless got to go last :). It was a 4 player game but Cheery stayed to steer us through it, luckily he did as we had plenty of questions. I didn't really like it until half way through when the penny dropped and I 'got it'. Then I loved it :), can't wait to play it again when I know what I'm doing ;).

The group in the other room played Last Night on Earth so we snaffled that after them. They had cracked open 'the BIG one' - RuneWars, our token big game for the day. It definately lasted the longest, but wasn't too bad at 2-3hrs.

Clockwise starting from bottom left person- Cheery, Osca, Phill, Tin playing RuneWars. One game I was looking forward to playing - Dungeon Lords - didn't get played, its a bit involved and a 4 player game so suited for a last late night finish.. maybe next time :).

Our Last Night on Earth (yay zombies!) came to a nail biting finalee: we were on our last round (before the zombies won by default of running out of rounds) and our particular senario had us with one last special zombie to kill. We abandoned any sense of self preservation, charged and surrounded him.. it.. but as luck would have it all our attacking was brought low by bad rolls. Was pretty funny :D, and Z got his goal and won ;), all hail the zombie master!

Clockwise from left- me (thats 20 braids!), Del, Z, Michael, Dee. And the happy -kid free ;)- couple, sweet :).

At this point my memory gets a bit fuzzy but Dee and Z left to have dinner with the family and Michael had to get home, the rest of us had left over rolls, and I think we played Smallworld, half of whom had missed out on the last game of it. I was very proud of my races especially when Cheery snorted each time I picked one and said 'of course!' in disgust ;). I was pretty sure Cheery and I were neck to neck that we did our best to kill each other off, not realising Tin was insidously creeping up behind! Tin came second after all. Ps I won >:).

Phill (since he's called Bo, Morks, Sharks and Jarks respectively by friends) and Osca had a 2 player Agricola game where Phill took the first player option and Osca didn't worry because he had big plans! After that he kept bypassing the first player option because there was always something else that was more valuable, but Phill kept taking them because he had first player, it was a pretty funny game hearing Osca go "Oh no!" over and over.

Another game Cheery pulled out of his hat trick box, I didn't play this one so I have no memory of it's name. Poor K is a night shift worker and usually succumbs on the lounge.
Tin and his usual antics :D, I'd love to say I caught this with professional photographic finesse but the truth is our slowly dying chairs gave way beneath K and he wouldn't reenact it for me! But our resident funny man was happy to ablige ;).
Phill had gone shopping and I refused to let him buy the lunch foods because he's budgetly minded and I like to spoil our guests with yummy stuff. So he'd bought some ice cream and not told me because he 'didn't want me to eat them'... so when I went shopping I got some too!! Whats worse his were half price on sale lol!!

Z came back and Del and K, Cheery and Tin went home so the last few brave (stupid ;)) souls finished the day with a big favourite - Funkenslaag (Power Grid). By that stage everything seemed pretty funny :). Phill stole my only good spots in the game again :P and I got cross. I soon realised I was being a wet blanket and fun was more important and forgave him ;) lol. Ha, who won?, it was a fun game who cares? ;) Phill of course...

Epic Funkenslaag game we started sometime after 11pm..? I thought it was a pretty close game, but Phill out finessed us with some end play, and it was pretty late lol so who knows if I was half accurate :).
0.20 on the play school clock when we glanced at our kitchen and decided to leave it till tomorrow lol.
Lollies party mix was the favourite for the day, although cherry and almond dark chocolate was a hit and the chippies and snack deforestation was devastating.

Thanks everyone for coming :D. I can't wait for the next one, I think they get better every time.

Btw, next Canada blog coming soon! Sorry, off to the Gold Coast this coming Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday! Wish me luck, Dad and I are playing in the restricted pairs for the Gold Coast Bridge Congress.