Gaming in Jamaica

I spent last week in Jamaica, enjoying some sun and relaxation. Gamewise, I took San Juan and Pandemic, but as it turns out, neither one ever got played. The only game we played was Scrabble Slam (by Hasbro). Gillian's dad (Ollie) won all three games.

Tuesday night a local village, down the hill from our villa (shown in the photo) had loud music playing most of the night. According to the villa's chef, the village was hosting a dominoes tournament. According to him, Dominoes is the most popular board game in Jamaica. From his description, Jamaicans play a simpler (blocking) game (as opposed to scoring games, such as my family's favorite, Muggins).

I took Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1 and read the rules over the course of the week. Andrew read the rules back here, and we hope to play a scenario tomorrow.

Finally, I took the rulebook for Paths of Glory. I was hoping to play a solitaire game using Wargameroom, but the villa's Internet service was down most of the week.

Friday Night Dominoes

Dennis won a game of dominoes tonight at Mom's house. The final score was 360 for Dennis, 195 for me, 175 for both Patrick and Teresa and 125 for Mom. It was the first time that we had played dominoes in several months.

According to the Wikipedia, the game we play is known as Muggins. In standard dominoes the goal is to be the first player to go out (play your last piece). Points are scored based upon the number of pips in the opposing players' hands when you go out. In Muggins, players also score points when the number of pips on the endpoints is a multiple of five.

According to the rules posted at the Wikipedia, we should start with a hand of seven when playing with two or three players, and a hand of five dominoes when playing with four or more. We usually play with a hand of seven regardless of the number of players.