Put up your Dukes

What supernatural force dragged three gamers out of their warm homes and into the biting Siberian winds this Tuesday night? What tempted us towards Joe's house where he waited for us, not so much a host, more a Siren, calling gamers to dash their dreams of victory against his jagged rocky shoreline of defeat.

We were a group of just four: Joe, Ian Katy and me. Joe was angling for a game of The Ruhr (I think), a new "old school" eurogame that involves the shipping of coal. Neither the theme nor the playing length attracted me - it would have taken up almost all of the evening - so Katy's suggestion of Lords Of Vegas won me over, then it swayed Ian and eventually persuaded Joe, too.

But not before a quick game of Tichu. We split into pairs, Ian & me versus Joe & Katy. The I&A team sped off into an early lead, thanks to Ian completing a Tichu and then a 1-2. But with the score at 405 to - 5, the K&J team leaped into action. Joe completed a Grand Tichu and they did a 1-2 in the same round to make it 405-395. Then, in a further display of his mastery of the game, Joe completed another Tichu and another 1-2! Seven hundred points in two rounds. Astonishing.

Joe and Katy 695
Ian and Andrew 405

So, next up was Lords of Vegas. I secretly harboured thoughts of revenge over Joe, but instead we all got a thorough lesson in how to play the game. Joe began exceptionally. His first three dice soon each controlled two-tile casinos, which then proceeded to pay out.

The secret of his success was, when he built his first casino, he briefly mistook gold for brown. He had originally wanted brown, and was about to put the gold tile down when he decided that this was destiny, and he built a gold casino instead. It was only one of his many good decisions.

Meanwhile, the rest of us made do with 'pocket casinos', as we called little one-tile casinos dotted around the board. Ian tried a bit of psychological tactics. When Joe offered a good location to him, Ian said he'd buy it for $10 million but only if he bet $5 million in Joe's casino and won. Joe was stumped as he tried to work out how much he'd actually be paid for it.

As we played, Joe's kitchen oozed capitalism. During the game we made sure to always mention that we were dealing in millions, to heighten the sense of decadence and even our resident social conscious, Katy, found herself empathising with the mega-rich when she sighed "it's almost not good to have so much money."

This was because, as the game wore on, Katy's fortunes had turned from distant last to potential first and she'd been raking in the proceeds ever since. Taking over my three-tile casino by turning it into a four-tile casino when she drew a neighbouring location with a six on it was hard for me to take. I never got it back.

Joe played like a master throughout. His lead was never in doubt, despite Katy's plucky last minute attack. Joe's best move, in my opinion, was when he remodelled two of his neighbouring casinos into one big seven-tile casino. And he did this after he realised he didn't have enough money to do what he really wanted. God knows what that move would have been. Mind you, he then rerolled a six-tile casino hoping to get it from Katy but in the end Ian, with his single die, ended up as the boss, so it didn't all go Joe's way.

I struggled with getting control of anything until near the end when I remodelled my two-tile casino (with a six and a five) to the same colour as Ian's six-tile casino, netting myself a choice eight-tile casino on the strip. Alas it didn't pay out until game over. It couldn't get me out of last. Only enough to save me from total humiliation.

Joe 44
Katy 36
Ian 20
Andrew 18

Then we played Coup, a game that's been absent from GNN for far too long. We played three times and we won one each. Most people's strategy was to calmly insist they had a Duke while they picked up three coins. The games ended (in order of elimination)...

Andrew, tried to assassinate Joe who had a Contessa.
Katy, tried to assassinate Joe who had another Contessa.
Joe, tried to assassinate Ian who had the third Contessa!
Ian wins!

Andrew, wrongly challenged Ian's Duke.
Ian, wrongly challenged Katy's Ambassador.
Joe, tried to assassinate Katy who had the Contessa.
Katy wins!

Katy, tried to avoid assassination by saying she had a Contessa but she didn't.
Ian, killed by my coup.
Joe, killed by my coup.
Andrew wins!

We finished with No Thanks, which saw Joe return to his previous heights of skill after the random silliness of Coup.

Ian went for big cards, but not because he wanted to. Katy had a wide collection of disparate cards. I did okay with a couple of runs, but very little money at the end. Joe finished with one long run in front of him, as if he'd just played it in another successful game of Tichu.

Joe 5
Andrew 33
Katy 62
Ian 79

After this, it was a case of last visits to the toilet and then back out into the sub-zero night air with an extra layer of bonhomie to warm us on our way home. Big thanks to Joe for hosting and for showing us how winning should be done.