Junk Junkies

After two weeks of trios, GNN swelled in size to a whole quintet of gamers. Initially, there was Joe, the host, Sam, returning from holidays, Ian, returning from illness and me, again. Later Andy M was expected to join us.

We began with one the games that Joe bought in Germany; Kimono. This is a Mammut-esque card game of dividing a group of objects (in this case, pieces of Japanese finery) in two and then players secretly choose which one they are interested in. If you're the only one who's interested in a group, then it's yours. Otherwise it stays on the table and is divided again. And so the process repeats.

On top of this, any group that can't be shared goes into the bin, as does any group chosen by no one. This is important, since one of the cards on offer each turn allows you to collect whatever is in the bin. This may, of course, be nothing. You score points for sets of things up to a certain number, but anything above that number and the collection will count against you.

The only photo I took of the game that was in focus.

It's quite a thinky game and I didn't really get to grips with it. I like to blame Joe's German beer, which he was drinking from a chilled glass. This left little puddles of water wherever he put it on the table and it seemed no matter how often we cleaned up, there was one more patch of water. Very distracting.

Ian had a great third round, picking up lots of stuff from the bin. Joe and Sam ended the last round with a selection of things that would score Sam negative points, no matter which he chose. He cleverly chose the same that Joe did, meaning he wouldn't have to pick anything up at all.

Ian 46
Sam 40
Joe 36
Andrew 18

During this game Andy arrived. We pondered something a bit meaty and substantial, but before we chose one we decided on a quick game of Illusion.

This game of area judgement made its debut last week and Sam and Ian were both intrigued. Its a bit longer with five, especially since we began with four incorrect challenges, all being made by different players. We were amazed at how good we were at working out the ares of things, even if we did all have to make a conscious (and sometimes verbal) effort to remind ourselves to change colours from round to round.

In the end, another incorrect challenge (this time by Joe) finally gave Andy that crucial third point.

Andy 3
Andrew 2
Sam 1
Ian 1
Joe 0

Next up was Skull King, a trick taking game in a similar vein to Voodoo Prince. In this card game each player has to bid on how many tricks they will take this round, not unlike Contract Whist. Except, that the deck contains certain Special Cards, pirates, mermaids and the Skull King himself, which are more powerful than the usual suited cards.

The other difference to Contract Whist is that bidding for and winning no tricks gets you the Round Number x 10 in points. As such, the longer the game goes on, the more powerful it becomes.

I set off into an early lead and maintained it, keeping a hundred point gap between me and my nearest rival until round eight.

My nearest rival being Andy who was, at one point, in a distant last with -30 but had since put together a run of form. His early confusion was gone and we'd quite forgotten how he'd asked to change his bid after everyone else had bid and we had to remind him that, technically, that would be cheating.

Instead now he set up a grandstand finish, with him on 190 and me on 210. I bid an exceedingly possible three tricks and, since he doubted he could get four, he went for no tricks at all.

It was tense. At least, it was for us two. The other three weren't in contention, although we should note Sam's last minute dash into third place at Ian's expense. In the battle for the top, both of us completed our bids, but mine got me 60 points and Andy bagged a cool ton.

Andy 290
Andrew 270
Sam 140
Ian 80
Joe -20

Next was a request from Andy, who was keen to try Junk Art. This "Bandu with benefits" is fun but I always feel it overstays its welcome. While I don't dislike it, I prefer Bandu's simplicity.

Joe, meanwhile, admired Junk Art's aesthetic qualities and it's hard to argue. From my brutalist architecture to Joe's forgotten shelf in a garden shed, the structures were nice to look at.

Brutal

Joe's shed in the distance

Since Joe's table has a bit of a wobble, there was a strict No Elbows On Table rule. Sam also observed "Bandu breathing" (breath out with you head turned up and away from the table) in times of high excitement. Andy's habit of sometimes slamming cards down on the table often caused some consternation but no actual collapses. Joe, despite losing the cooperative round, ended with most fans.

Joe about to topple the tower

Joe 16
Andy 14
Andrew 12
Ian 12
Sam 8

Time was ticking on but we had enough time for one more game: Face Cards. This recent arrival also raised some interest after the blog post for last week, and now it was time to see how it played with more players.

Well, it was a bit slower. With Ian and Andy both on their fourth beer, there was a bit of analysis paralysis. I (still sober, teetotal for the night) lacked imagination with my chihuahua/lynx pair (both animals) and geisha/bride (both women) but I did get chosen, more often than not. Others were more ingenious, with Karl Marx being successfully linked to some kind of owl. I didn't take too many notes, but the scores fell in quite a orderly manner.

Andrew 11
Ian 11
Joe 8
Andy 8
Sam 8

And with that we were done. I slipped out, apparently unnoticed, into the night and home to bed. Thanks for the entertainment, guys. Let's do it again next week.