I only got to play games once this week. I took some games round to Fiona & Pete's Wednesday evening, but the huge barbeque (I was pretty full after a large piece of pork and a couple of sausages, and then Pete put on a load of chicken legs), and copius alcohol proved too distracting (and Fiona and Scott couldn't stop fiddling with a large bundle of purple wool) .
So no games on Wednesday. But I managed to pop back round Friday evening, and we had time for a couple of games of Schotten Totten (which I got as far as explaining the rules to Fiona a couple of weeks ago) and a game of San Juan.
The first game of Schotten Totten seemed to be going Fiona's way - she won the first four stones. But you need five to win (or three in a row) , and I could sense that she might not win another. I was clear favourite on a couple of stones, one stone was blank and I had a strong straight flush to play, and for the other two stones Fiona was relying on completing single sided straight flushes, one of which I knew she couldn't - I had the required card in hand. I then draw the card she needs for the other straight flush, and am able to take the last five stones for a 5-4 win. Good game! (I am somewhat fortunate, in that Fiona has a straight flush in hand near the end of the game, but no unstarted stones on which to play it.)
The second game was a bit more one sided - after about ten cards Fiona commented that she'd already been "completely outplayed". I take a three stone to nil lead, and look to be winning at least a couple more. Sure enough I managed to win my fifth stone for a 5-2 win.
Schotten Totten really is an excellent game (kind of like a gamers version of Gin Rummy, not that Gin isn't an excellent game in it's own right). It's a shame that the production values of the commonly available version are so terrible. The cards have stupid artwork, the font isn't terribly clear, and the six colours include two shades of green. Couldn't the publishers think of six different colours?? When the gameplay really requires you to pay close attention to what cards are in play, this sort of niggles do distract from the enjoyment.
Lost Cities, another excellent two-player card game, suffers from the opposite problem - it's hugely overproduced. The cards are gorgeous and very clear, but far too large (Schotten cards are the size of regular playing cards, and so will at least fit in my pocket), and the the game comes with a completely unecessary board. Ideally I'd like to see both games with cards the size of Schotten Totten's, but the design quality of Lost Cities.
After Schotten Totten, we had time for one game of San Juan, which was a complete blowout. I had a much better start then Fiona anyway, and she wasn't helped by the fact my Gold Mine worked on the first two Prospectors. I got an early Carpenter and Prefecture and just ran away with the game, building a set of Monuments + Arch + Palace (despite picking Councillor most turns I couldn't find a City Hall). We didn't bother counting the scores.
During the games we had a DVD of Russian Martial Arts playing in the background (from the blurb "In the world of office violence, home invasions, hijackings & back-alley muggings, you must have the tools to survive"). Fiona is a proponent of Systema, but was complaining to me that she has a problem that all the rest of the class are men, and so some of them will go easy on her because she is a girl.
A lot of two player games have the property that if one player is better than the other (even slightly), they will tend to win most of the games (if not all). So far this has been my experience of my two-player games with Fiona. But unlike her Systema classmates, I won't go easier on her just becuase she's 'weaker' than me. I know whe wouldn't want me to - she's smart enough to play most games well and learn from my advice, and when she does win that makes it so much more satisfying.
And she can always kick my arse at Carcassonne (like pretty much anyone I play Carcassone against).
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