Thursday Game Night for Six!

Last Thursday our game night started two hours late because everyone had stuff going on. But six people made it, finally, and we tried a few card games and a tried and true classic.

First, before members five and six showed, we busted out Scout.

This is the second time we’ve played it. I’ve had it since months before it was a nominee for the Spiel des Jahres award (the biggest award a game can win), and I never got it to the table until a few weeks ago. It’s really great! You’ve got to either play something bigger (a set or run) than what was already played, or you have to give your opponent a point and take one of their played cards. You play til a hand is unbeaten around the table or til someone goes out, playing all their cards. Cards remaining in your hand are negative points, and any hands you beat with your own hands are positive points. Play as many rounds as there are players, and call it a game. Most points wins.

We really enjoyed the don’t-rearrange-your-cards rule, and picking a side of the cards to play made you feel like you had some agency instead of just being at the mercy of the deal. I’d recommend this one.

After the stragglers showed up, I decided we were gonna try Stick ‘Em, another little card game I’d heard good things about. Hooooooo boy is this game MEAN. Wow. At its core, it’s a trick taking game with no rules about what you can play when. Basically, if all one color is played, the highest card of that color wins the hand. If more than one color is played, then the color that was led can’t win the hand, and the highest card of a different color wins it.

Before you start, you pick a card from your hand of 15 to discard in front of you. This is your “pain suit,” the color of card that will earn you negative face value for taking it. The card values go from 0-14, so you could get stuck with a boatload of negative points (which happened to Robb) or none (which happened to me). Granted, I didn’t win this one because I focused too much on avoiding negative points and didn’t take enough positive points (other cards won in tricks that aren’t your pain suit) to outpace the winner.

Honestly, I’m not sure how well this went over. We were supposed to play 6 rounds with 6 players, but we only played 3. Each hand took a very long time, with people really mulling over their choices. Even after three rounds, some players didn’t understand how to play effectively or what cards were good to play. To play well in this game, I think you need to be mean. But the person who was the least mean ended up winning, so what do I know? I super enjoyed it and rated it an 8 out of 10. I’d happily play this one again.

And lastly, we closed the night with Qwixx, the dice rolling game where you’re crossing off numbers in four colored rows based on dice rolls. It’s chance with choices, and we all had a good time calling out numbers and groaning.

Everyone was tired and it was after 10:30 when we finished, so folks headed home. I will say one more thing about Qwixx (which I say every time I talk about this one): If you buy it, skip the deluxe version. The boards that come with it are super crap, will stain and fade and erase away. Stick with the paper sheets. They’re far superior, and the Qwixx Mixx side of the board you get with the deluxe set is confusing and not an improvement on the original.

Another game night is in the books (and my plays are logged (viewtiful_justin on BGG if you care)). Hopefully next time we won’t have people out because of the possibility of Covid infections. But better safe than sorry. Infections are rampant, despite what isn’t being reported. Wear you masks and get vaxxed if you’re not already.

Thanks for your eyeballs!

~Justin