I found myself hanging out with my mom earlier this afternoon and the two of us were fairly bored. Sure we were chatting away yet, once we talked through the usual pleasantries , there wasn’t a whole lot going on this lazy Sunday afternoon. No cable or satellite to kick back to and the pickings were mighty slim on free TV. Seeing that I had made mention of the new website here I asked if she might consider humoring her son for an hour or so and play a game. I had the Carcassonne Big Box II set out in the car and I thought this would be a nice way to give her a better idea of what all of this game “stuff” is all about.
Keep in mind that my mom is 67 years old and I can’t remember ever playing a game with her in the past. I’m sure that she no doubt played things like Candyland or Don’t Break the Ice with my brother and I when we were very little kids but, from the time I was 10 or so, my gaming tastes probably weren’t up her ally. Sure, she knew about the ton of dough I blew on all the various games I purchased throughout the years and the thousands of American Civil War figures I painted (in 15mm mind you as well as all the countless 25mm and 6mm figs) but it wasn’t as if I ever invited her to play nor did I think for a moment that she’d be interested in anything my friends and I were playing. I’d take a guess that she probably thought I was some sort of a nut tossing away so much money, in her opinion.
To say that I was rather taken aback when my mom answered my invitation with an “Ok” would be an understatement!
Carcassonne: The Board
Off I went to the car, cleared the centerpiece from the dining room table, and began to pull out the needed tiles and such for the standard version of Carcassonne. I spent no more than ten minutes explaining the rules and we set off to play. A half hour later I had squeaked out a narrow one point win and I thought to myself, well at least Mom now knows what we’ll be writing about on the site and talking about on the upcoming podcast here. So I began to gather up the tiles to put things back in the box.
“What? Don’t you want to play again?” she asked.
“Oh yeah, I’ll play again!” I replied, “Just let me reshuffle these.”
The second time around was a bit different from the first; the idle chit chat coming from across the table dried up a bit, I could detect a bit more seriousness from my opponent, and I could see Mom was carefully keeping an eye on the scoring track – as in making sure I wasn’t cheating! During the first game I pretty much let her run with it and kept the discussion of strategy to a bare minimum outside of asking if her follower piece was going into the city or onto the road, explaining why a piece couldn’t be dropped onto an area that I already controlled, and pointing out the mistake when she would try to lay a tile incorrectly. This time around I pointed out the importance of a well placed farmer (I learned that one from Elliott “Green Acres” Miller) and “meeple management”. Alas, this was all to no avail for mom.
Game two ended in a shellacking by more than 60 points. I thought that was going to be the end of that. Yet she was raring for a third go round!
In the third game she was clicking away like a pro. She was tossing around the word “meeple” – yes, I know, not REALLY a word – with abandon, complaining the that tiles weren’t shuffled well enough, insinuating that I was cheating by getting “all the good pieces”, counting out my scoring out loud, tossing around a little friendly schmack, and so on. For a minute I thought I was playing back in Chicago with the guys!
I’ll point out I was making the game a little easier by adopting the two tiles in your hand after the draw phase rule, which I like in a two player game, and giving a bit more advice on what was probably the best bet as far as putting down a tile or a meeple. Still the game ended with a pretty substantial win for myself. I suppose my mom now knew what I felt every time I took Elliott on in Carcassonne…
As the evening ended I knew the hobby had possibly gained a new convert as my mother asked, “What other games do you have?” and reminded me to bring Carcassonne along for the next visit.
It just goes to show that someone is never too old (or young) to be introduced to our great hobby!
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7 Comments
I'd say that "crushed" might be too strong a word, but I certainly don't remember winning a single game of Carcassonne against you. As far as the good old days of our gaming, I don't seem to recall you and I being on the same team for a game and losing either – although I'm sure we did somewhere along the way – but we made a pretty unstoppable team! 🙂
I must admit, after spending my teenage years getting wiped all over the floor in just about every game we played, it felt good to finally crush my good buddy in multiple plays of this enjoyable game. Now if I can just get you into a game of Agricola…..
No you are right we never lost a game we played together, I just got killed in the games we played against each other, particularly war games. I believe I was wiped out in just about every epic battle throughout history. Patton was rolling over in his grave when I took over.
I really have been wracking my brain to see if I could remember a game that you and I were on the same team and we lost. There were even games that it was four or five people against the two of us and we still came out on top. We won't even go into that game of Fletcher's in Tim's basement where we were the American's at Midway… Or that time playing Fletcher's at the little game convention in Oak Park.
I guess we've just always made a great team.
Had a similiar experience at Christmas with Carcasonne and my in laws. We had four generations playing this game at one time. Youngest 11, and the oldest 87. It was definitely a memory maker for my daughter.
I love hearing that TC! I can imagine what a great time the 11 year old had playing with their elder because that's probably going to be something that child will remember for a long, long time!
Hoi y`all, and I have Gwen Dons-("gwen") at BGG to thank for introducing myself to this on BSW. In addition to a few others that I have also been fortunate to experience with her, and others, through that platform, as they had opened up an entirely NEW venue for these then with their patience and excellent co-operations or guidance throughout. She is also responsible for the "hoi" greeting that we fervently adopted in token as recognitions and respect of her contributions in every regards. I may as well make this a dedication on her behalf now, while plenty of others ought to also be thankful we have the likes of her on performing "Geek Mods", as many no doubt share her thankless task for the mere pittance that obtains. I'd always advocated for it to at least be worth a "Geek Dime" on their time, efforts, and troubles, so that it would be taken more seriously and garner greater respects all around. She is just one exceptional, of plenty, for friends or acquaintances from which I am glad to have met through BGG, and some other sites well before, and even afterward then.