I actually got to play some games today.

Very generously Charlene had offered to host a gaming afternoon at her house on this bank holiday Monday (in the UK).

I had picked up Diego on the way.

When we got there Diego revealed what a monster he is, and had been hiding it for all these years.

How did Diego reveal his dark side?

He was offered a cup of tea. He wanted brown sugar in it, but had to settle for white. What monster has brown sugar in tea? Coffee yes. But tea? NO! It’s just wrong.

We started our game day off with a game of Five Tribes. The last time I played this according to bgstats is July 2017. That’s way too long a gap to have left it sitting on the shelf.

Despite getting my butt handed to me by Diego and Charlene, I had a great time playing Five Tribes. Like all the games sitting on my shelves it deserves to see the table much more often than it does.

Our second game of the day was First Rat. But this time we went with the gamer side of the board with the variable tile setup.

For First Rat Charlene’s son Archie joined us. Even having the extra player in the game didn’t help and I still came last (by a single point).

I do like First Rat. And I particularly like this variable setup option. I like that it keeps the game fresh, and each play a different problem to solve.

During First Rat we broke for pizza that Charlene had very generously ordered.

Our third game was For the Queen, the storytelling card game.

I really like how the setup and learning the rules involves everyone. It is very dependent on the group playing it. You need players who like role playing, improve, making stories up. Otherwise those taking part may not enjoy the game or might take the shine off the experience for others.

We had a blast. Our story had a brown sugar vs white sugar in tea plot, with the cards falling for Charlene to imply but never confirmed relationship between Charlene and the Queen that turned sour with Charlene betraying the Queen.

Thankfully the final vote was 2-1 to save the Queen.

Our final game was the card game 5 Towers. A bidding game where you are bidding to draft cards to build 5 towers.

It was light but fun, and quick.

After losing once more it emerged that Charlene is not a milk first person when it comes to making tea. I was playing with another monster!

You think you know someone then they reveal this dark side.

I had a great day playing with these two monsters. A big thank you to Charlene for hosting and the pizza.