Funny story, well not for a certain someone.

Truth is, I don't actually own the game but our group played religiously back in university, going on from there. The actual owner of the game, well he was getting in good with his female housemate, a cute girl from the US (we're all from England), so much so that her dad, who had flown over to visit his daughter, was invited to a game upon expressing his interest.

The ensuing game was interesting, suffice to say.. From my perspective I could tell it would be one of "those" games, when the guy, who I believe had played an earlier edition of TI and had been prepped by my friend beforehand, proceeded to play Mentak as slow as humanly possible and then complain about he gipped he was with the race. Now this would've been fine if he hadn't been complaining and complaining all the way through, about the poor Mentak, their piracy ability, some rule misinterpetation and so on. He was losing and not taking it well.

Now my friend isn't the most patient of people, but he knows how to hold his tongue, especially given the odd circumstance of playing with your girlfriend's dad. To his credit, he took the rule disputes well and discussions in his stride- it probably comes from having to teach the game over and over I guess.

This was tested to the limit when Dr. Pepper got involved. As I'm sure you all know TI creates a veritable tablecloth of cards and tiles, so when the old guy accidentally knocked his bottle of Dr. Pepper onto the table, directly over the unsleeved action and political cards, we were all stunned momentarily. Never have I seen my friend look so conflicted. You could see the emotions of rage and frustration blending with his calm, patient facade.

The bastard didn't even apologise- he just stood back with a dumb "whoops, how'd that happen?" expression whilst we all scrambled to rescue cards and grab paper towels. Maybe further words were spoken after the game, but I remember it getting decidedly chillier from my mate's corner of the table.

Miraculously no major damage occurred to the game, although this wasn't the first time those cards had taken a battering (another story). We laugh about it now, but it does explain his obsession with using coasters, as well as his policy for keeping drinks off the table

Thought about it, decided not to. Why? If they ever wear out I will buy another copy of the game.

Will that happen? Probably not, as my core set is almost 6 years old and going strong.

Treguard said:

I can well imagine that the story is funny now, several years after the debacle. But man…had someone messed up my set with a drink and not even apologized I would have become _very_ angry. Accidents do happen but then it's just common sense to apologize. And as to the quote above…I live by that rule. Drinks are fine, but not anywhere close to any of the game pieces. Oh, and no greasy foodstuff at all…no greasy finger is ever going to touch anything belonging to TI.

One day my friend dropped down a cup of tea and my TI3 with catastrophic speed was turned into a wet pieces of a paper.

Since then I hold all game cards in a protect sleeves and use laminating to protect race sheets. And we never eat or drink when playing a TI3. If we are hungry, we make a pause and go to the kitchen.

I try to maintain a strict policy of zero open beverage containers on the same table as any of my games.

PET bottles with the cap on is fine but as soon as the cap comes off it had better be in your hand or on another table.

I also try to never have open beverage containers on the table with other people's games out of courtesy.

From the moment of that accident, we do the same. It's really right decision.