Dixit

We were given the game of Dixit by some friends, who brought it from the US although it's available in the UK too.

Dixit is easy to learn, and we find it ideal to bring out after a meal with friends who would like to play a game, but can't decide what to play. The game consists of a set of 84 large cards with brightly coloured and somewhat stylised images on them. There are also voting cards and little rabbit scoring markers. It's not a game we want to play every week, but when we do get it out, people usually enjoy it - particularly if playing for the first time. It's best for 4-6 players.

The easy part is choosing a colour (I have yellow if I can) and placing the rabbits at the start of the board:

Each player is dealt five of the large picture cards, the others being placed face down on the table to form the stack. One person is allocated as the first ‘storyteller’. Not that they tell a story - the idea is to select one of their cards, without letting anyone else see, and then say a word or phrase that is in some way connected with the image.

The aim is for some - but not all - of the other players to guess correctly which of several cards matches this phrase. So the storyteller must choose something which is neither too obvious nor too subtle. As the storyteller says their phrase, the selected card is placed face down on the table. Then each of the other players selects a card from their hand which they feel is also, in some way, connected with the word or phrase, and places it face down with the first one.

The storyteller picks all these cards up, glances at them to see what has been chosen, then lays them face up (including the original one) in a row on the table, without comment - other than numbering them from 1 to however many cards there are.

All the other players then try to guess which card was the storyteller's. Which might sound easy, but it’s surprising how often there is at least one card which seems to fit the theme rather better than the original. I don't recall what the phrase was for this particular set, but - as usual - everyone had to ponder awhile before using the little square cards to cast our votes.

Here's a set from a different game, on a different occasion, with mostly different people. One card (the centre one in the lower set) happens to be the same as one in the top set - but was evidently selected for a completely different phrase.

Scoring is the most complex part of the game, in my view; we refer to the scoresheet almost every time for the fine details. Basically, if either everybody OR nobody guesses the correct card, then the storyteller gets no points. If just one or more (but not all) of the others guess it, both they and the storyteller score. Also, if one of the other players has their card chosen by another player, they also score.

Each player’s coloured rabbit is then moved the relevant number of spots along the scoring track:

Everyone picks up another card from the stack, so that they have five to choose from. The next player, counting clockwise, then takes over as the storyteller, and the game continues until all cards are used up. This means that in the final rounds, players will have fewer than five cards, and in the last round each will only have one. It’s amazing how often even that final card will somehow have a connection with the storyteller’s phrase.

I’m not a visual person, and I find it difficult, sometimes, to come up with a word or phrase that suits any of my cards - usually I either make it too obvious, so that everyone guesses, or too subtle, so that nobody gets it. But it doesn't matter; I'm not particularly competitive and it's a fun game that only lasts about half an hour. I do quite enjoy the guessing part which often prompts discussion, once the story-teller's card is revealed. Of course. each player must be careful not to indicate in any way which of the cards they have played so we tend to stay quiet until everyone has voted.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes board games, although it might not appeal to those who tend to be literal in their language, or to people who only like strategy games. It’s ideal to play at a small, relaxed party, or for a bit of socialising with good friends.

Family in Cyprus again!

It's only three months ago that we had our family all together for a few weeks; Tim has moved back here for a year or two while Daniel and Becky came for a holiday.  We had a good time, tinged with sadness at the end when my mother died. We then had a busy week in the UK, much of it with the family, but did not really expect to see Dan and Becky for some months.

While they were here in May, Richard had hoped to film a couple of episodes for a pilot video series which he has been thinking about for several years. Daniel was going to be the sound recordist/engineer. But there were too many delays and problems, so that in the end all we managed to do was spend a day in the mountains looking for suitable locations. 

Then one thing after another conspired to put the project off until at last it all came together for the first half of August.  

Except that there was nobody to do sound. Richard was directing and had found a local guy to do the camera, and his young friend Jacob to assist... but could not find anyone able and willing to do the sound. So he asked if Daniel would be available, and realised that the funding for the project would allow flights to be paid for... and hoped that Becky would come too, as stills photographer. 

It all came together, very much at the last moment. They were in Germany working at a conference until almost two weeks ago, and when they arrived in Cyprus on August 4th they were exhausted. 

They had few days in the sun, with plenty of time to sleep, and - naturally - a few games of Settlers of Catan - here shown with our friends Jörn and Sheila:

They had two busy days of filming with Richard in a school in Limassol, disguised so that it would not look Cypriot. They reported that it mostly went very well, although it was quite tiring. 

Then a week ago, an old friend called Reti was in Cyprus, so came to dinner followed by a game of Dixit: 

We followed that with a few games of Ligretto, but that's so fast that there was no way I could take a photo!

Tim, meanwhile, had been working all week at a church holiday club called Kingdom Rock; he roped Daniel in to play drums on the Sunday morning for the end-of-club service at LCC: 

This week the filming days were Monday and Tuesday; despite having looked at a large number of villages, they ended up using part of Lefkara (with permission from the mayor). Here's Daniel... though I have no idea what he might be doing: 

The days raced by. We did play a few other games; we hung out; Daniel and Tim helped Richard with some computer installations and discussion about various geeky/technical topics.  I found it quite amazing that although Daniel went off - seven-and-a-half years ago - to work as a deckie on a book ship, mostly around the Far East, and Tim went off - five years ago - to do a theology degree in the UK, both have also kept up-to-date in the general media and technical world, and now often know more than Richard does on some of these topics. 

Last night, Tim went to a party for some of his old friends from the inter-church youth group, and the rest of us decided to have ice cream at Richard's favourite place in the McKenzy area of the sea front. We were a little put off by the garishness of the plastic chairs (although they were quite comfortable) but the lure of real fruit yogurt ice cream was too strong for both Daniel and me, while Becky had a coconut/chocolate one, and Richard a dairy-free fruity one: 

Afterwards Daniel and Becky took their flip-flops off and waded just a little way into the sea: 

All good things come to an end; they're now packed and will be flying back to the UK tonight hoping to spend at least a few weeks in their home in Carlisle.  But first, just a few more games - and Becky was eager to play Mahjong again: 

It's been great having them here and we're going to miss them. 

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...