I met up with a few folks from Ping.sg at De Coder's Cafe at Balmoral Plaza. Though I arrived half an hour late, I found only four other people there: Uzyn, Sekling, Tian Hong and Chillycraps. Singapore time never ceases to amaze me!
We started with Blokus, where the other three teams (Uzyn and Sekling teamed up) started attacking one another from the start. Which left me alone to focus on building up my little corner. And then they started attacking me, but I managed to either block them off or expand into their territories. It helped that I got lucky twice too. In the end, it was I, the quiet and unaggressive one, who won. Am I boasting? Well, sure, why not? *maniacal laughter* Now if only real-life conflicts could be solved similarly.
Others arrived and we moved to a larger table. We tried playing "Right Turn, Left Turn", but it was too brainy for a Sunday afternoon. So we ended up playing this dinosaur card game, "Jurassic Jumble". It's somewhat similar to "Hard Attack", in that you're supposed to collect a set of nine cards of the same dinosaur by trading cards with the other players. The twist is that you also have to collect a "bone" as soon as someone takes one. Since there is always one more player than bones, the loser is the one without a bone.
My strategy was simple (and others can use it too, copyright-free):
Let someone else win. Trade enough similar cards to ensure that someone will win. Why? Because you should
always keep your eye on the bones. Those are what determine the loser, not the cards. As soon as one goes missing, grab a bone.
Like numerous other shops that have sprouted all over Singapore suddenly, De Coder's Cafe is a place to pay to play games, usually board games. It also serves food and has two Internet kiosks, but the main business driver is the games. Which makes me wonder about its business model. Why would people go there instead of the more popular Settler's Cafe? Even today, if not for us (and another small group), the place would be dead quiet. It doesn't help that it's located in the dingy basement too.
--