Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 28^th December, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

This week the “Feature Game” will be Chicago Express (aka Wabash Cannonball), which is an economic game with a train theme and zero-luck.  The game is fairly simple, with three possible actions per turn and a maximum of eight rounds.  The player with the most money at the end of the game wins.

– Image used with permission of boardgamephotos

And speaking of trains…

Jeff decided to visit his sister who was living in France. He assumed that most French would speak English, so didn;t even take a phrasebook with him.  Unfortunately, Jeff fairly quickly discovered that many people spoke only their own language and this included the ticket inspector on the train. He punched Jeff’s ticket, then chatted cordially for a bit, making several expansive gestures. Not wanting to look stupid, Jeff simply nodded from time to time to show him that he was interested.

When he had gone, a pretty American tourist, also on the train, leaned towards Jeff.  Initially, he thought his luck was in, but she just and politely asked if he spoke French.

Jeff blushed, “No,” he admitted.

“Ah, that explains it,” the American answered.

Not wanting to miss his opportunity with a pretty lass when she was a relatively captive audience, Jeff continued the conversation.  “Explains what?” he asked.

“Oh!” she replied, “It explains why didn’t bat an eyelid when he told you that you were on the wrong train.”