Tuesday evening games-fest II

It's nearly eight months since my good friend Joan and I, in the temporary absence of our husbands, held a five-hour 'games fest' evening. It so happens that this week, once again, our menfolk are away at the same time. So we thought we might try a re-run.  Not that it was quite the same... for one thing, I knew I would not be able to walk even as far as the local Souvlaki Express.  I thought I had bruised my toes badly three weeks ago. The advice and observations of various knowledgeable people, combined with the rather slow healing process, suggets that two of them were in fact broken. So I'm not walking anywhere at present. 

Joan offered to pick up some halloumi souvlaki (if that's not a total oxymoron...) on her way.  And since we'd both eaten lunch early, we ate that at once, while it was still hot, along with some rather spicy and delicious falafel which she had also bought.  

Then, not sure what we would play, I got down a selection of our games:

Joan suggested starting with Bananagrams, as it was at the top of the pile, and is a pretty non-competitive game that would get our brain cells going.  So we did this one, where I think I finished about half a second before she did: 

Followed by this one, where Joan was about two seconds ahead of me. I photographed this upside-down (as it was her grid) and rotated it, which is why it looks a bit odd:

Joan wasn't too sure about RUSED... I thought it was probably all right. It wasn't until posting it right now that I spotted NAJ. I'm decidedly dubious about that word... !

Here's my grid done at the same time, with the last two letters that I hadn't quite had time to place. I think I had more than my share of 'tricky' letters, although the two Qs were in my starting tiles, along with a U, so not difficult to play:

Then we did one more, and as far as I recall finished at exactly the same time:

Brain-cells now functioning, Joan asked about Boggle - a game I hadn't played in years.  So we did a few rounds - I think it was five in all. 

The timer didn't seem to be working so we just stopped when we'd both decided we were getting bored (or repeating words). As far as I remember, I won all the rounds - not that it mattered. 

After that, we switched to Upwords. Yes, a third word game - and this time, it was Joan who was the winner.  Quite interesting, really, that different kinds of word game must still use different kinds of skills, tactics and strategies. 

Here's our second game of Upwords, which Joan also won:

We did consider Scrabble, but we play Lexulous online anyway. We decided not to play Rummikub, since Joan's husband, who is not much of a game player, is usually happy to play it. So we decided to try a round of Settlers of Catan. It was just after 9.00pm by then and we thought it might be the last game of the evening. 

We were just placing our first settlements when my other good game-playing friend Sheila texted; we'd suggested she join us if she was able to get out, and she wanted to know if she could come.  So we removed our settlements and waited until she arrived.  A three-person game is more fun than two-player anyway, as it involves trading.  

This isn't the most flattering photo of either of them, but for some reason it's the only picture I took with faces in: 

Sheila won.  If she hadn't done so that turn, Joan would have done. I was trailing. 

It was a good game.

By then it was 10.00 and I was beginning to get a bit tired, but we thought we might play a quick game of Dixit  - something that isn't possible with only two people. The three-player rules looked as if it would make the game faster than playing with more people, and Sheila hadn't played before. 

I got so interested that I forgot to take any pictures during the game, other than this selection of cards:

It wasn't that quick. Shortly before 11.00 Sheila's husband called to say that the children were all fine, but that it was rather later than she had expected to be... we were a couple of turns away from the end by then. 

Sheila turned out to be extremely good at Dixit, and won - she was about three or four points ahead of Joan, who is also very good at it.  I was so far behind that they almost lapped me on the board. I'm not sure if it's just that my creativity is a different sort, or whether my being strongly a morning person (and thus mostly closed down after 10pm) meant that I was even worse than usual. It was fun, anyway.  

I was in bed by 11.30...