Be there, and be square
At the second meeting of Game or Watch, Alex started gaming before he'd even arrived, winning a small fortune on the slot machines and dooming himself to having beers mooched off him for the rest of the afternoon.
In the jolly and ever so slightly bitter atmosphere that comes from a friend winning a large amount of money, Game or Watch got started properly with a few rounds of the mildly racist and definitely baffling Manga inspired card game, Big Eyes, Small Mouth. Despite no-one really understanding the rules, Big Eyes was a huge success, with winners and losers chosen apparently at random by the distinctly esoteric card game.
Next, GoW took its first steps into the world of electronic gaming, with a few competitive bouts of multiplayer Mario Kart DS and Street Fighter Alpha 3 on a dusty old PS1. After roast dinners and sausage sandwiches, things went back to the traditional, with a game of Trivial Pursuit. Following some heated debate about where to put used cards back in the pack (at the back, Derek), things got going, with Ste and Steve romping to a remarkably quick victory.
As the day wore on, several players bravely signed away the next six weeks by starting a game of Risk. The rest opted for a nice round of Scrabble, won by Greg despite him spending most of the game giggling at great words he couldn't quite make.
The Scrabble table then moved on to premier little-wooden-block-balancing game, Jenga, leaving us with shredded nerves and sweaty palms as our tower tottered ever higher.
After attaining height seemingly measurable in metres, the tower was eventually toppled by Charlotte, much to the room's delight. Meanwhile, in Risk, Alex and Paul obliterated each other in an ill-advised 'Battle for South America' and were left grumbling about lost glories on the sidelines.
Although there was inevitably not enough time to finish the game, it was widely agreed that Marky was on the verge of victory, with his yellow armies stretching from sunny Australia to the vineyards of Southern Europe, thus making him the first person in history to win a war by displaying a yellow streak.
Beer, beef and board games; if there's a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon, we haven't found it yet. See you next month!
After weeks of half-hearted planning the inaugural GameorWatch took place on Sunday 4th February in the Blue Posts.
The eager beavers, Ella, Andrew, Steve & Sian, only slightly perturbed by hangovers and the Posts' new religious art exhibition, kicked off with family favourite Trivial Pursuit. Ella took an early lead and was soon joined by James whose one tactic seemed to be to join the team that had a clear lead).
Vinnie then arrived via a different Blue Posts pub (careful newbies there are 4 Blue Posts in the Soho area!). By the time the game concluded only a bit of beer had been spilt on the game board (sorry Ella & Andrew!), we'd had fab Sunday lunches and been joined by several more keen gamers.
Gaming then branched out to backgammon (Vinnie is the queen of Backgammon!), Top Trumps, Scrabble and even PSP. Scrabble threw up such linguistic genius as 'cum', 'bidet' and 'chub'. Again James romped to victory, though again he was helped by being on the best team.
Polarity, a very cool-looking magnetic game, followed, with Dan and Mike ending victorious. The last game of the afternoon was Boggle, Krystyna managing to get a 5 letter word despite Ste's strict marking. And all too soon it was time to pack up our games & head home (or to another pub) to make way for the jazz evening.
A top afternoon's entertainment had by all, check out the gallery for gaming snaps.
Which of these words isn't a word?