A Day With “Scotland Yard” Searching For The “Word On The Street” And Discovering “Match-Ability”

Unfortunately my Saturday adventure with “Scotland Yard” did not take place with the real organization, but with a representation of its detective work via the board game of the same name. It was the first game I played at the September session of the monthly European Board Games Marathon. Joining me as I played this game for the first time were fellow detectives Ben, Mary T., and Steve, while playing Mr. X was Tim. In this seeking game, Mr. X’s “…job is to move from point to point around the map of London taking taxis, buses or subways. The detectives…acting in concert, move around similarly in an effort to move into the same space as Mr. X.”. – boardgamegeek.com. Acting as Lead Detective, Ben (who has previously played the game), primarily provided the strategy of movement that the rest of us detectives followed. When Mr. X had to reveal where he was for the first time in the game, amazingly it was in the same area of London that most of the detectives were located. Despite a good run at avoiding the pursuing detectives, Mr. X was finally caught by yours truly on the board spot number 45 – which corresponds to Marylebone Bone Road/Marylebone Station. Thanks for the great strategy Ben and a big hip, hip, hooray for all the detectives!

After the well-deserved celebration, I ascended to “Cloud Nine” for a rest from the successful chase, but eventually came down to take the “Metro” to the ever elusive “Word On The Street”. Upon arrival I was met by Ben, Mark, Stacy, and Terry. Together we sought to control the street against Crosby, Lisa, Patrick, Ray, and Tim. Another new game for me and it works like this: “On each turn, one team flips over a category card. Team members frantically brainstorm words that fit the category while the opposition tries to sidetrack them. The team must agree on a word and pull each letter of that word one lane closer to their side of the street, all before time runs out.” – boardgamegeek.com. The struggle between the two teams was full of shouting of words, quick decisions, and fast lane changes. I was the keeper of the letter tiles that made their way to my team’s side of the street and gradually the pile grew. Though the road to victory was intense and with some setbacks, my team won to become the only “Word On The Street”. Now if I could only remember what that word is…

Next it was time for refreshments and a whole group of us enjoyed some “Apples To Apples” and I refortified myself for the endgame. The last game of the day for me was “Match-Ability”, which is a “group game where people write their quick reactions to words as they hear them and try to match other players.” – boardgamegeek.com. In addition to me, three other people, Lisa, Terry, and Tim were trying to make perfect matches. As would be expected, the categories had different degrees of success for the players – my worst category was “Casablanca” (no matches) and my best was “clothing” (nine out of ten matches). Guess I have a take on “Casablanca” that’s different from others (or just three specific people). Oh well, just reinforces my uniqueness. It took eleven different categories before Terry emerged as the winner. Just have to keep on striving to make matches. But that will have to wait for another day of games. Keep boarding!


Images:
Left: Box cover of “Scotland Yard” from the website boardgamegeek.com
Center: Box cover of “Word on the Street” from the website boardgamegeek.com
Right: Box cover of “Match-Ability” from the website boardgamegeek.com