While Blue, Pink and Burgundy were waiting for their supper to arrive, Teal, Green and Lilac turned up.  Since Teal wasn’t staying for the quiz, the group decided to squeeze in a quick game of NMBR 9.  Although the game officially only plays four, we have two sets which means eight people can play together.  This is a game we have played quite a bit recently, largely because it is very quick to play and has almost zero set up time.  Everyone except Teal had played it before too, so a very quick explanation later and people were placing tiles.

– Image by boardGOATS

The game is driven by a deck of cards each of which represents one of the tiles which are shaped like the numbers zero to nine.  The numbers are really important in the scoring as each is multiplied by the storey it is on, so the higher the number is, the more it is worth.  With some of the high scoring tiles coming out at awkward times, it felt like comparatively low scoring game compared with some of the recent efforts.

– Image by boardGOATS

It might have been beginner’s luck, but Teal played a great game on his first attempt scoring eighty one, taking victory by six points from Blue with Green taking third.  Food had turned up towards the end, followed by Black, Purple and Pine, so once dinner had been dispatched there was time for a quick game of 6 Nimmt! before the Quiz.  This is one of our favourite games (and won the Golden GOAT award last Christmas), but we rarely play it with so many.

– Image by boardGOATS

The game is really simple:  players simultaneously choose a card which are then placed in turn at the end of one of the four rows on the table.  Starting with the lowest value card, the cards are added to the row that end with the highest number that is lower than the card itself.  If a card is the sixth in the row, the player takes the first five into their scoring pile and the card instead becomes the first and only card in the row.  The player with the fewest “nimmts” is the winner.  This time, while Teal, Black and Pine were busy picking up cards Green, Pink and Purple were keeping it tight.

– Image by boardGOATS

Pink and Purple tied on six with Green just one point behind.  Purple took victory in the end, with a quickly invented tie break (guess the number of the single left-over card).  There wasn’t time for another game and after Charles had been round with the pictures, we presented him and Anna with a signed wooden goat and a card to thank them for looking after us so well over the last nine years.  Next time we meet, the Jockey will be under new management.  In the meantime, we had the Quiz to focus on though.

– Image by boardGOATS

Things started badly as we struggled with the picture round, usually a strength.  However, we took an early lead with a series of Perfect Ten rounds.  It couldn’t last, but by the time we got round to scoring the Pictures we had a healthy lead.  Getting all three anagrams helped (no “Orvilles” this time) and a fairly straightforward “Who am I” also went in our favour, finally resulting in victory.  The first time we did the Quiz (Christmas 2016) we won, but since then, despite coming close we’ve never achieved the same heights.  It was fitting therefore to bookend our attempts under Charles with a second win.  And we’ll put the winnings towards our unChristmas Dinner next time.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning Outcome: Winning is all the sweeter after a few near misses and the odd “Orville”.