Gaming On The Bed

My wife usually goes to local garage sales early on Saturday mornings. Many months ago I had asked her to look out for the game Coda. I knew that it had been re-titled The Da Vinci Code Game when the The Da Vinci Code movie came out and I suspected it would start showing up at garage sales in the future.

On Saturday morning she came home with a near-mint copy of The Da Vinci Code Game which she'd picked up at a garage sale for only $5. Naturally, I was very excited to receive this enjoyable little deduction game.

Anyway, that night, after the kids had been put to bed and as we were getting ready for bed, Deb spied the game sitting on my side of the bed where I had left it ready to read the rules. She suggested we play a game. As we couldn't be bothered going out to the dining room we just decided to play it on the bed. We soon found that it was almost impossible to shuffle tiles on a sheet without knocking them over and seeing the numbers on them.

It was at this point that Maddie wandered into our room to see what we were doing. We quickly enlisted her as our 'Mixing Girl' and she took over the role of shuffling the tiles for us with enthusiasm (as we looked away so we wouldn't see the numbers on the tiles as they were being mixed). We used a couple of hardback books as stable platforms for our code tiles to stand up on.

I won the game and Deb immediately wanted a rematch. I then won the 2nd and 3rd games with Deb winning our 4th and 5th matches. Before we knew it we were playing for best out of seven. I won the final 2 games to win 5 games to 2.

Tonight Deb again suggested we play Coda on our bed. This time it would be a best of five with Maddie once again taking on the role of 'Mixing Girl'. After 4 games we were neck and neck with 2 wins each - the final game would decide it. Maddie was barracking for Mummy to win (she normally barracks for anyone to beat Daddy). Our final game was a close one with me coming from behind to take the win.

Family Gaming - 2

Sunday evening, after the kids had been fed, bathed and teeth brushed, I suggested we play some games before bedtime. In attendance were my wife, Deb, our daughters, Maddie (6), Georgia (2) and myself.

Our first game was Loco!, a Knizia-designed game. It's fun, fast and easy to understand. Georgia alternated between Mummy and Daddy's laps trying to grab the brightly coloured disks. Finals scores were me 24, Deb 20 and Maddie 19.

Maddie's bright yellow card holder (in the background) comes in use once again

Our second game was Der Plumpsack Geht Um (AKA Sherlock). This is a fun memory game. We agreed to play with 10 cards laid out on the table with the winner the first person to claim 3 cards. After my first turn I was regretting that we chose this many cards (it had been a long day and I was tired - at least that was my excuse!). Deb, as always, is very good at memory games. She ended up winning with 3, myself with 2 and Maddie with 0.

Photo taken just before Deb claimed the lightbulb card

Then it was time for bed.

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.