It's a bunny old game

The unstoppable influence of football was felt once again here at GNN. England's game tomorrow meant Martin couldn't attend since he can't be out two evenings in a week. Then Laura's other half was out playing football so she was able to host. Finally, the TV in the kitchen showed the France-Belgium game for those who were interested.

There were only four of us (Laura, Sam, Ian and me), and Laura had requested something a bit longer and more substantial than she'd previously played. Out of the selection that Sam had brought, she was immediately drawn to Bunny Kingdom. Well, she was eating carrots at the time so how could she resist?

Sam gave a rules explanation to her (and a rules refresher for Ian and I) and we were off. Before long we realised a couple of things had been placed in the wrong sort of terrain. Even in this early stage, it was too much to start again so we carried on, ignoring the rule about placement and location. This gave rise to such rare items as mountain fish and forest pearls, but it didn't exactly break the game.

Ian started off by building a very long, thin fief with only one empty square between the two halves of this kingdom. Laura stayed mostly in one part of the board and got mine and Sam's approval when she blocked Ian's thin kingdoms from unifying. Sam dotted his rabbits all over the place and, near the end, he spent some time trying to work out if joining two fiefs would get him more points or less. I got lucky with my cards, and built a large fief in one corner, connecting to my other rabbits by use of two sky towers.

As it came to the final count, Ian was very pessimistic about his chances after he'd added on his bonus scores. Laura had a boat load of treasures among her scrolls and went past him. I used my collection of wood to maximise two parchment cards and squeezed past both of them. Then Sam revealed one low scoring (or no-scoring) bonus card after another and ended up going from first to last. Ian expressed considerable surprise. Was it because Sam was in the chair with the best view of the TV? Who knows.

Andrew 121
Laura 117
Ian 108
Sam 85

After this, we split into two teams for a game of Decrypto. Sam had forgotten his glasses and one of the cards had to be replaced since he couldn't read it.

We gave ourselves proper pub quiz team names: Sam and Laura were The Lager Louts and Ian and I were Dead On Arrival. Ian and I got an early stroke of luck with a successful interception and, for the most part, we were on the front foot. Sam and Laura couldn't fathom our clues and in one tricky instance, nor could I.

I made a bit of a guess that Ian's clue "Captain" referred to "Planet" since it really didn't fit anything else. It wasn't until afterwards that Ian explained that Captain Planet was an eighties cartoon series. Blank looks all round. All I can say is if I ever get Thundercat as a word in Decrypto, I know who I want on my team.

Lucy came back from football (a total thrashing, apparently, but she enjoyed it) and watched us with interest. Before too long Ian and I got our second interception and the Cold War was won!

After this, having seen the enormous amount of fun we were having, Lucy was persuaded to join us in a game of The Mind.

We began in total silence. And stillness. It was as if some statues had decided to play The Mind to while away the decades. In the end, Lucy said she didn't like awkward silences and played her card. Thanks to her, we successfully navigated through 62-67-70-100.

In round two, we had the opposite, with Lucy swiftly putting a 65 on a 36, amazingly to no ill effect. We ended on 83-85-87, just to prove that round one wasn't a fluke.

Or maybe it was, as we lost two lives in round three, misplacing 45-46 and 61-62. We squeezed past round four using our shurikens and another life. We finally fell in round five to a misjudged 71-72-73. Amazing scenes.

After that, we felt there was still time for one more game so we chose Movable Type. Lucy stayed, despite her misgivings about the wordy nature of the game. She got a rules explanation, with the rules regarding slang and proper nouns described thusly: Sam said you can say "Shit" but, as Laura interjected, not "Mr Shit". "Also because that would be two words," added Sam in the finest example of tag team rules explanationism that you're ever likely to see.

We kept it simple, and didn't use the Author Cards. In round three Lucy's word of "woosh" was allowed after a check on the Internet. I was stymied one round by ending up with a hand of cards identical to the common cards on the table.

I'm having a hard time reading my notes, but I think it ended...

Ian 19 (Killers) (won on tie breaker of highest scoring card)
Sam 19 (Chapped, or chipped or something)
Laura 16 (cobbs)
Lucy 14 (swatted)
Andrew 14 (messier)

And with that we were away. We set off out through the back garden, with Sam taking the super special route that only locals know.

Thanks to all for a great night.