The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: September 23, 2007

Event Reports page 3


FED PHRASE GAME ROADSHOW

Wednesday 19 September
by Gwaptiva

The Great Floop of DataSpace had left Gwaptiva unable to lift the "portable" wheel, so this week's Roadshow was held in the one location the roadshow hasn't visited yet: Studio 1 on The Lattice. Joining him there were Nkir, Lagkiller and Deklax, with Meteu having to drop out before we got going.

After a brief reminder of the rules, the order of play was determined by the wheel and Lagkiller was first to have a crack at a phrase. This first phrase was in the category Institutions, and Laggy got off to a flying start. He quickly figured out what the first two words of the phrase were, cannily selecting consonants to build up a sizeable total, buying the occasional vowel to confirm his suspicions. At 2700 points, and with no more vowels for sale, he got stuck. The first two words were perfectly obvious, but the third word had remained mostly obscured, and Lagkiller then selected a consonant that wasn't in the phrase, to the great joy of Nkir. Nkir quickly spun up 1200 points and guessed the final two consonants and then solved the phrase as Interstellar Expeditionary Force, causing much slapping of Lagkiller's head (exclusively by himself).

With his fresh lead, Nkir now went in search of a three-word place, trying to solidify his lead. He started off well, revealing a nice collection of consonants and using some of the points scored to buy all available vowels - the final vowel is never for sale - and after some early bafflement it obviously dawned on him which location Gwaptiva had selected (he is so predictable sometimes - ed.). But once again, the host was fooled by the displayed confidence and Nkir selected the B that wasn't part of the phrase. Now it was Deklax's turn to pounce on a late mistake, and he scored 750 points by telling everyone the place was the Muddy Waters Lounge.

As so often, the final phrase of the show, in the Fedstitutions category (the category that says "this could be anything"), had the ability to turn the results upside-down and once again it did not disappoint. Deklax started slowly, revealing a number of consonants for only a few hundred points and then, when the wheel suddenly started showing higher numbers, he requested a consonant not in the phrase, turning over the game to Lagkiller. After the first two rounds, Laggy was still without points but he quickly set about trying to change this. He soon slipped up letting Nkir in and he didn't seem to falter. Nkir only needed a solution to seal the win, but then he goofed in a major way by requesting the G that had already been guessed (and was actually in the phrase on the board). It turns out this wasn't the only goof, as he forgot to use the Free Spin he had picked up earlier, but he took it all in his stride.

The wheel had thus far behaved in as far as it had not yet landed on any of the bogey fields, but Deklax discovered to his misfortune that this wheel most definitely contains them. As he was trying to build a big enough points total to beat Nkir's total, one spin landed him on Bankrupt, and this let in Lagkiller who didn't risk it and solved the phrase as "Electioneering Phorban Gandolf". This gave him just enough points to take the overall win, beating Nkir into second place. The slithy tove that had been put up (a long time ago) by Trilleth (or someone else, but it has been a long time so not entirely sure) was immediately donated back so that next Wednesday, at 4.00pm eastern, we will play for it again. So come and join me, somewhere, and spend a fun hour or so in the company of friends, the wheel and your host as the Roadshow travels again (barring any more wheel-moving issues).


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