Family Gaming - 1

My wife, Deb, and I have previously discussed starting a tradition of family game nights. It would be nice to turn off the TV one evening a week and spend some time together playing games. It would also give Deb a chance to play some games with us as she's usually busy with her business on the the weekends. Although we're usually both tired by the end of the working week we decided that Friday evenings would be the best time.

So tonight was the first of our official family game nights. Both girls were bathed and in their pyjamas and we'd had an early dinner. In attendance were my wife, Deb, our 6 year old daughter, Maddie, our 21 month old daughter, Georgia, and myself. By popular demand (well by Maddie demand) we chose Der Schwarze Pirat as our first game. Maddie chose red (closest to pink), Deb chose yellow and I chose green.

Georgia - The Dice Keeper

Georgia was too young to play but she got to hold the dice between rolls which kept her relatively happy and amused while the rest of us concentrated on moving our ships around. We tried to teach Georgia how to roll the dice and on a few occasions she rolled our moves for us. She still needs some more practice on letting go of the dice in a controlled manner (or letting go of the dice at all!).

Deb took an early lead with some great moves considering this was her first play of the game. I capsized my ship a couple of times much to Maddie's glee. It was interesting to watch Maddie. On her turn she was so excited to move her ship that she often forgot to roll the dice. Her over-enthusiasm did cause her to capsize her boat a couple of times (like Daddy).

Deb takes an early lead

There was one point in the game where I was trailing (come to think of it - I was trailing the entire game!) and I noticed that one island had 7 gold coins on it. I rolled a move 3 and made it within millimeters of entering the harbour. On Maddie's turn she made for the same island with a move 4. She was quite a distance away and I didn't think she'd make it. With some skillful squeezes of the bellows she just made the harbour, pushing my ship out of the way, on her 4th squeeze.

Maddie enters the harbour to take the treasure while I consider keelhauling my crew

Maddie receives her treasure!

The pirate was rolled quite a bit during our game. For some reason my ship always seemed to be close by when there was pillaging to do. I was pillaged by both Deb and Maddie and I lost at least 6 gold coins due to this.

Final scores were Deb 1st with 24 gold, Maddie 2nd with 11 gold and me 3rd (last!) with 1 gold. We all had fun and look forward to our next family game night.