Saturday, April 07, 2007

Gaming With Grandma - 13

My Mum came over this morning for our weekly gaming session. Our first game, chosen by Maddie, was Mamma Mia. This is a card game all about trying to make the most pizzas by playing both ingredient and order cards. It is played in 3 rounds. At the end of the 1st round Maddie, Grandma and I were all tied at 2 orders each. At the end of the 2nd round Maddie was sitting on 4 orders filled while Grandma and I were sitting on 3 orders each. I had a great 3rd round leaving the final score at Daddy 1st with 6 filled orders, Grandma 2nd with 5 filled orders and Maddie 3rd with 4 filled orders.


Maddie decided to stop playing at that point so Grandma and I broke out the Scrabble board. This game seems to be becoming a regular for us as we both enjoy it.

I went first after selecting a J to Mum's K. I'm going to start keeping a bit of a record of each game so I can refer back to them in the future.

Turn 1 [Me] JAR 20, [Mum] (R)IG 5

Turn 2 [Me] B(RIG) 10, [Mum] (J)OG 12

Turn 3 [Me] (G)REET 8, [Mum] H(E)ED 16

Turn 4 [Me] (B)IRD 7, [Mum] ZE(D) 13

Turn 5 [Me] RIT(Z)Y 34, [Mum] QUi(D) 23

Turn 6 [Me] KEP(I) 20, [Mum] (Q)UAD 42

Turn 7 [Me] Exchanged W & M for S & O, [Mum] (T)OOL 8

Turn 8 [Me] SI(ZED) 30, [Mum] (L)ET 3

Turn 9 [Me] SINO *Challenged off, [Mum] RA(K)E 8

Turn 10 [Me] I(R)ON 15, [Mum] (T)AN 9

Turn 11 [Me] F(A)UX 30, [Mum] (JOG)S 12

Turn 12 [Me] VIBE(S) 20, [Mum] CA(V)E 12

Turn 13 [Me] (CAVE)S 20, [Mum] HO(E) 10

Turn 14 [Me] (H)ONE 21, [Mum] (B)RAY 9

Turn 15 [Me] (S)AW 12, [Mum] A(JAR) 11

Turn 16 [Me] CAWL *Challenged off, [Mum] (E)EL 3

Turn 17 [Me] CL(A)D/D(O) 13, [Mum] WET/W(E) 12

Turn 18 [Me] VASe/(SAW)S 25, [Mum] NU(N) 3

Turn 19 [Me] FOI(L) 11, [Mum] (C)ON 5

Turn 20 [Me] PL(O)T 7, [Mum] TI(P) 5

Turn 21 [Me] M(Y) 7, [Mum] MIN(T) 12

I was left with a G for minus 2 points. As Mum had used all her letters she added the 2 points to her score.

Final scores were [Me] 308 and [Mum] 235. I averaged 14.67 points per turn with 3 of those turns being non-scoring turns.

Afterwards I checked online to find I could have made an acceptable 2-letter word of GI with the leftover G had I known.

Probably the most obscure words I played were CAWL, SINO and KEPI. CAWL was challenged off the board. It was an incorrect spelling of the word CAUL (the remnants of the amniotic sac, that covers or partly covers a newborn baby immediately after birth) of which I knew the definition (but not the correct spelling). SINO (as in the Russo-Sino War of 1904-1905) was also challenged off the board. KEPI was good (a cap with a flat circular top and a visor). The last two words reflecting my reading of military history.

The dodgiest word I played was FAUX (artificial or fake). Although Mum did not challenge it, I did try to locate it in our dictionary (The Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary - 1977 edition) after it was played. Although it had FAUX PAS, it did not have FAUX. I think it's time to get a new dictionary! I checked online and found that FAUX was an acceptable word (as I expected it to be).

The longest words I played (as in number of letters used from my rack) were (G)REET and VIBE(S), both using 4 letters.

I didn't get too many combination words in this game, only VASE/SAWS and CLAD/DO.

My highest scoring word was RITZY which scored 34 points. Mum's highest scoring word was QUAD for 42 points. The letter allocation in this game appeared to be fairly even and each of us got a blank.

Mum and I have agreed we need to get an official Scrabble player's dictionary for future games.

3 comments:

mikey said...

I'm pretty impressed that Maddie can play Mamma Mia. It takes a little while to work out how the whole thing works.

The baby is due next Saturday, although I am glad that it has hung on this long. It enabled me to have a great big gaming sendoff at critical mass today, with a whole big day o' games.

After that there shall be little time for any such chicanery.

Ozvortex said...

I was surprised when Maddie grabbed Mamma Mia out of the games cabinet. I know what you're talking about with the initial learning curve of the game; it's often easier to show someone how to play than explain it.

It's recommended starting age is 7. Although Maddie is only 5, she will be 6 in June. She has played it once before though. In this game I had to remind her that she didn't necessarily have to have the specific cards herself before she through down an order; she could use other's ingredients that were available in the stack.

She ended up being Mamma Mia on the first round and flipping the stack and sorting out the ingredients into their various piles and then seeing if each order could be filled helped her comprehend the game even more. As there is no reading necessary it's perfect for little kids.

Hope you had a great day at Critical Mass.

I remember at around the end of 2005 I'd started to gain some gaming freedom due to Maddie's age and independence - then we had Georgia in early 2006. I keep track of games played on BGG and I've noticed a severe reduction over the last year due to having a bub in the house again. Gaming has to take a back-seat to parental responsibilities.

But it doesn't last forever and we're nurturing future gaming opponents, right? ;-)

Hope everything goes well with the birth. Make sure to update your blog with the news.

Ozvortex said...

Yeah, I posted this at 4.52am after being woken at least three times in the middle of the night due to Georgia crying. We'd thought she was sleeping through fine but over the last month she's been waking up a couple of times every night. Had to give her two bottles tonight. She must be going through a growth spurt. And she's teething. Sleep disruption sucks. I keep telling myself it won't last forever, it won't last forever, it won't last forever. Sigh...