'Who's up for a pub quiz tonight?'
4-5 people affirm.
3 hours pass.
'How about we go to Thirsty Meeples?'
'Yeah! yeah, great idea!'
So that night at about 20:30, we rock up to the Thirsty Meeples, a fine new establishment in Gloucester Green. Because it's a glass fronted outfit, we can immediately see we'll have trouble getting a table. Nonetheless, in we parade, greeted not only by the bright green walls and dramatic fluorescent lighting, but also by the bar manager, who helpfully points out a free table in the corner. We have a seat. As we wait for stragglers to show up, we order drinks, discuss strategy, and ponder when the staff will get things started. At last, everyone has arrived. The milkshakes and hot chocolates arrive at our table and finally the game guru wanders over to our table.
'So, what are we playing today?'
Now if you, the reader, are a particular type of geek and you knew that a meeple is a person's pawn in a board game, than you will have already probably deduced that Oxford's newest and most popular establishment is not actually a pub, but a board game cafe.
Yes, last year we read Shakespeare and this year we're playing board games.
At Thirsty Meeples, you and your friends get the benefit of unlimited board gaming for the unfathomable price of £3.50. The cafe claims to own over 1500 board games, which if you saw the almost floor-to-ceiling shelves along the room's perimeter, provides the sensation of a scientist stepping into the Bodleian's main library. This is why the cafe has a number of game gurus on staff.
'Uhh... we were thinking something in the "light strategy" category?'
'Ok, great. Let me go pull a couple off the shelves and we'll get you started'
The first time we went, we opted for party type games; they recommended Wits and Wagers (trivia) and Dixit (pictorial Balderdash), which we followed up with The Game of Things and Bananagrams. On this occasion, the guru brought over a pair of games.
'I have two potential options for you guys. The first is called Tsuro and the goal of the game is to be the last person to be forced off the board as you build tracks in and around each other. The second game is called Incan Gold, where you go on expeditions into an Incan temple and try to escape with the most treasure. Do either of these sound fun?'
Agreeing, the guru taught us both games, which proved enjoyable. Since then we have been one further time, when we went in with a heavy strategy game in mind, Small World. The guru on that occasion was hesitant to teach us such a game at 20:30, but we insisted. I think the fact that we learned and completed the game in 3 hours will help show them that we belong with the hard core board gamers; hopefully we'll have more tricky games in our future visits.
In fact, outside of Thirsty Meeples, we've been hitting the board games pretty hard for much of the last six months. Led by our intrepid housemate Liam, we have developed quite a house repertoire of games. Our favourites are Settlers of Catan, Terra Mystica, 7 Wonders, and Avalon, but the house has also dabbled in more complex strategy games such as The Game of Thrones board game, Battlestar Galactica Game, and Netrunner.
Ok, ok, I know what you're thinking. Yes, we are geeks. We accept... no... embrace it. But don't worry, I'm still making progress on my research (I was accepted to a June conference in Portugal this week!), and still doing ballroom (Laila and I have been practicing in preparation for the start of the year). Last week Ellie, Liam, and I (housemates) punted almost 2.5 miles up the Cherwell on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon before having roast dinner and sticky toffee pudding (oh yes!!) at the Royal Oak. Yesterday I even hosted my lab for a birthday dinner. My French lab partner made lamb tagine. We also had roasted veg, hummous, homemade rolls, and two homemade birthday cakes. Hopefully this is proof that I do have a life outside of board games ;-)
Really, I just haven't had MCR stuff to do... yet. But alas, today is Sunday, the start of 0th week Michaelmas, my third fall term in Oxford. Where has the tempest fugit-ed?! The welcome dinner is tonight, so I am looking forward to inducting a new group of freshers this week. Hopefully we'll have some good ones.
Well, time to go clean up the mess from last night. Everyone on the home front should keep in touch; it would be great to hear from you! Meanwhile, anyone in Oxford want to play some board games?
PS - Has anyone ever been to Iceland? I'm going in December and need recommendations. The challenge? I will only have 12 hours of sunlight distributed across three days, so I'll need to plan my time wisely. If you have ideas, please speak up!