Race for the Dairy Milk

This week, GNN saw the return of a familiar face after a lengthy absence: Adam. It was great to see him again and in the ten minutes or so before the last of us gamers arrived, there was quite a lot of conversation about things while Ian and I were distracted by a box in the kitchen that, sadly, did not turn out to be a new game.

At this point, we were five - Sam, the host, Martin, Ian, Adam and me. We were expecting Andy B any time soon, so we thought a quick game of Fuji Flush would fill the time. As it happened, as the game was being unpacked, we heard the front door open and voices of welcome, telling us that he had arrived and so he was dealt in before he'd even got to the table.

Fuji is as Fuji does. No amount of text can replace actually being there. Suffice to say, Martin drew scorn for suddenly abandoning his attempt at foiling anyone on one card left and instead he put down a 15 to join with mine. He said he did it to guarantee joint second, to which Andy dismissively replied there's no second place in Fuji Flush, only losers and a winner. Who, it should be said, is usually me.

Andrew 0 cards left
Ian, Martin 1
Sam 2
Andy, Adam 3

Surprisingly few dick points, though.

After this, we split into two groups of three. Adam was keen to try Root (or Sam was keen for him to try it, I'm not sure which) and, not wanting to be a party-pooper, I agreed to be the third. Ian, Andy and Martin chose The Quest For Eldorado.

There was a period of simultaneous rules explanation since Adan and Andy were new to their relative games. I took the chance to read about my faction, the Marquis de Cat. It seemed like a more resource management type affair, somewhat removed from the aggressive Eyre, who were Adam's faction. Sam was the Woodland Alliance.

Adam's strategic sense shone through, despite him learning the game almost on the fly. Stanley watched the early stages, giving Adam the benefit of his considerable experience. Adam flooded the board with birds, moving them en masse in a rather intimidating blue wave.

Adam sportingly rolled a couple of these to give us a chance

I had decided to get buildings down as soon as possible, and ignore half of the board. But Adam's presence needed seeing to, and here my inexperience showed. I tried to ruin his decree by moving out of Fox enclosures, meaning he couldn't fight there. Alas, I left behind one of Sam's sympathy tokens and Adam fought that, keeping his decree intact.

Then, in an astonishing turn of events, Adam ended the game sooner than anyone could have guessed.

He reached ten points and picked up a Domination card, meaning he could win if he controlled three Fox enclosures. He asked if he'd won and Sam explained he'd win if those conditions were met at the start of his next turn.

He took it anyway, saying if was"fighty". So then Sam and I had to stop him. Sam cleared him out of one Fox clearance but I misunderstood what "control" meant. I thought he needed a roost there, so I ignored him and attacked Sam instead. Meanwhile, an ill Sam hadn't seen the Fox enclosure on my side of the board where Adam outnumbered me (the real criterion to control an area) so he couldn't advise me.

As such, when it was Adam's turn again, he asked "Have I won?" and Sam realised he had indeed. A schoolboy error.

Adam wins
Sam and Andrew "let Adam win"

I enjoyed it more this time, since I had a better idea of what was going on. Not good enough, though.

This sudden end meant that we finished at the same time as Eldorado was finishing. That had been a close race with a remarkable ending. Ian had positioned himself perfectly, blocking off the only grassy path. All he needed on his final hand was a card to move through grass. Despite having special cards to increase his hand size, he mostly got nothing but money. This meant an end to his chances, since Martin had found another way round and won on a tie breaker.

Martin, first and foremost
Ian, at least he got there
Andy, stuck in a lake

So we rearranged, and Andy, Adam and Ian played Flamme Rogue. Martin, Sam and I faced off over Azul.

Flamme Rogue was close, with Andy using his two cyclists to good blocking effect to keep his opponents at bay. It was still close, even to the end, with Andy just pipping Adam to the post by one space.

1. Andy
2. Adam
3. Ian

In the time it took them to play Flamme Rouge, we played two games. The first was the aforementioned Azul. In this game, Sam started poorly and improved while Martin started well (although always one point behind me) and then fell back, thanks to starting the fifth round with four rows already started. I did well.

Lots of options for the first to pick up the Player One token

Andrew 75
Martin 57
Sam 53

Then we banged out a quick round of Cobras, the trick taking game that demands that each player time when they win and when they lose to maximize their scores. It took a while to remember the rules, but I’m glad this got back to the table after too long away.

Martin 59
Andrew 49
Sam 31

Now we were all together again, we decided on a six-player game of Powerships, which was Ian and Andy's third race game of the evening. But first, there was the little matter of the game of Laying Out The Powerships Boards. “Why is it so difficult?” wailed Martin as, despite constant reference to the instructions, they never seemed to fit as they should.

But eventually, all the gaps had vanished and Adam had kindly supplied us with Dairy Milk chocolate to get us through the late hour so we were ready to speed off across infinite space. With walls, of course. Sam was sent the wrong way by grim fate before he’d got round buoy one. “I don’t want to roll a three… there’s a three,” probably sums up his game. Martin and I sped off, with Andy and Ian in close pursuit, but despite moments when it all could’ve been very different, Martin seemed to have the right number to get past most of the solar system without re-rolling anything.

1. Martin
2. Andrew
3. Ian
4. Andy
5. Adam
6. Sam

Then we played the Getting The Board Back In The Powerships Box game, which Sam won.

Adam set off home at this point, while we remaining five played Texas Showdown, with whiskey! As it should be played. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s not mentioned in the rules. I got badly stung in round one, picking up 6 tricks. You know, if you ignore round one, I actually did best. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to ignore round one, so I came third.

Martin 7
Sam 8
Andrew 10
Ian 11
Andy 12

And so we were done. Thanks for hosting, Sam and great to see Adam again. Cheers, all.