'Lost Cities' by Reiner Knitzia - 13/07/00
Kendall is suffering from a viral infection and had phoned Dicken earlier to warn him of his delicate health. Dicken agreed to attend provided all bodily contact was strictly restricted. Kendall removed the bottle of Lucozade before Spiller arrived.
Sandi Kendall provided a cheese board for the evening, which produced the historic quote, "You wouldn't happen to have a cheese-board?"(c.1986 Lake District Ragnar Holiday).
‘Lost Cities’ by Reiner Knitzia falls into the 'shorty' category of game, which means it tends to be played as a second fiddle to the longer game of the evening. Spiller has yet to win at this one, so tends to point out its short-comings. Kendall practices hard with his six year old son Tim and can claim a long history of impressive scoring.
The Ragnars have adapted the game for three players - rule changes as follows :
Six cards per player, 15 points being the scoring 'watershed' and a six card suit gives a 15 point bonus. The game otherwise plays the same, except that it is now wildly chaotic due to the lack of time for preparation of an expedition - "Forget the mosquito net, where's my Sherpa?" - and ends before you know it. No good trying to go on four or five expeditions; but how often that seems the only logical course as the deck of cards dwindles at an alarming rate.
Dicken likes to think he is either (a) methodical explorer or (b) a ‘dasher’ - he has exactly the same opinion of himself as a games player. The two roles interchange depending on whether he has to make either (a) a perfectly obvious move or (b) take a bit of a risk (or alternatively doesn't know what to do). Humouring the man as his mind slides between certainty and doubt has long been a prerequisite for a sociable evening.
After three rounds of play, Spiller has broken his duck and Dicken smugly confides that he has now won three times this evening - reference being made to the long game, just in case we had forgotten. Kendall is keen to press on, having yet to score in double figures (has Dicken got the scoring system correct?). Games four, five, six bring the same degree of success and Kendall can be seen entering a dark world of gambling frenzy. He launches expeditions with the abandoned enthusiasm of a dot.com company, only to see them grind to a halt with South-Sea deficits. After each fresh disaster he reveals the loathsome hand he has drawn, declaring the evil fortunes bestowed upon him. Dicken will not forget the evening. Kendall will lick his wounds in private, or was it lick his privates?
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