The game’s afoot!
Our first winter meeting for ’24, and it was cold outside at the Jannali Gamerdome. Mother Theresa supplied the nibbles and cups of tea, including French Onion dip (yum). No absentees, although it was looking like Matt wouldn’t make it due to a bout of pneumonia from which he’s recovering, but he still turned up and managed to get 50 points – that’s dedication. Nicole also made it from her new abode in Canberra, dedication again!
Sherlock Holmes was the main game, and rookie Pete had his first taste of the famous detective, and became confused by the cards like every rookie ever. In fact some of us so called veterans still get mixed up between the card title and the list of what can be played on it, so not to worry Pete. The game was won convincingly by Genelle with the two ladder bottom dwellers (Wayne & Pete) taking the minor placings to get some badly needed points. We corrected a dealing error this time around – having spotted in the rules that one (and only one) villain is supposed to be included in the deal. Previously we set it up so that at least one was in the deal. It seemed to make a difference in the flow of arrests. In addition, for the first time in memory a player “went out” with no villains caught. So Matt (who went out scoring zero) got to attempt an arrest by unsuccessfully accusing someone, who in turn unsuccessfully tried to arrest Genelle, who finally made an arrest to score minus 28 on her last turn.
Then followed Greed, and there were some new rule interpretations implemented in the area of what happens if one or more dice roll off the green mat. It pays to be careful NOT to let any escape off the mat – and it was Matt who won followed by Louise and Genelle – a second helping of points for GG. Nicole and Peter failed to open their score account, possibly due to time preventing enough attempts.
The only ladder position change this month is Rob and Louise switching places, Louise up one to 5th, but still only 5 points between them. Genelle has closed the gap from the leader Tara from 150 points to 40 points, and Matt has pulled ahead of the middle bunch to cement his 3rd placing.
Rob, Tara and Nicole were the sad players who WHP in June.