Gravel in the Bag

At one point this week's GNN threatened to people no less than seven, but Andrew was lost to fatigue and Ian's mysterious friend Paul remained, for now at least, mysterious. Instead we began as a four: our host Joe, Martin, Matt, and myself (Sam). As we pondered over whether a fifth person would arrive shortly, we played Gold Fever: possibly one of the silliest games to somersault through the GNN door: each player has a bag of five gold pieces, and the first to draw four of them wins the game. But - you also have twelve gravel pieces (four each of white, grey and black) and if you draw two of the same type of gravel, you're bust, and must chuck everything back in your bag.

What adds a soupçon of strategy is the option to stick: instead of continuing to draw, keep any gold you drew and chuck your gravel in someone else's bag instead. It's not the sort of game where you can pause and take photos, as if anyone draws a ruby, it becomes a simultaneous race to pull out a gold piece. The result is a very swingy, silly, Take-That affair, which I now can't remember who won. Not me though. And not Martin either, who declared the game "stupid" - but in a fairly complimentary way.

With Mysterious Paul's absence now established, we realised we had an hour as a four to play with. And so we set up Oregon.

The board is a grid of sorts where you can play a combo of landscape cards to add a cowperson (or a 'guy' as we referred to them) to a square, or you can play a single landscape card and a building card to add a building. Both score when placed: guys score any building they're adjacent to, buildings trigger adjacent guys. I think. I found the very simple mechanic weirdly hard to get my head around, despite playing the game before. Matt surged off into an early lead as Joe struggled to get going. Martin gathered his guys together in a huddle (points!) and made sure he was adjacent to a lot of mines. I kept pace for a bit but started to lag when my hand was full of bird cards.

It got crowded.

It also got extremely thinky, and we were all mid-pause when Ian arrived and had to be patient as we lurched towards the end. It's not the sort of game you'll get a kick out of watching as it's mostly like wandering around a library and hearing someone murmur 'shit' under their breath every now and then.

Joe's late-game performance was such that he actually surged into the lead at one point, but come the final count-up, Martin's collection of coal and gold saw him crowned most convincing cowperson:

Martin 93
Sam 80
Joe 75
Matt 65

Matt realised his lack of coal and gold counted against him. Martin confessed to cockblocking Joe. The game met with lots of approving murmurs, if not the outright excitement of our next conquest: Decrypto. Martin and I teamed up again to see if our losing run would continue, whilst Ian joined with Joe and Matt. We - Martin and I - felt pretty confident early on, when we'd deciphered two of the other team's words pretty quickly. But our confidence evaporated when they successfully intercepted us. We intercepted right back, but then - disaster! - Martin's clue of 'end' for Bell was identified by Joe, and we'd need to intercept again successfully to even have the chance of a draw. It came down to the single word of 'Horn' which could go with word 4, which we'd already identified as Boat. But was it a bluff, designed to make us guess 4? We'd wagered it was a bluff, and put our money on the enigmatic second word - and we were right!

So it came down to the decider - which team could identify the most words? Thanks to Matt's horn  Martin realised that the second word (magical/horn) could be unicorn, and he was right. In the narrowest of wins, we identified all four words to their three:

Martin and Sam - win! (finally)
Ian, Joe, Matt - don't win

The hour was still early, and we had no less than four more games in us. First up was High Society, which I said might be my favourite Knizia. This got the room rustling like a Jose Mourinho press conference, what with the likes of Ra and Tigris and Euphrates out there. But I love the simplicity and silliness of High Society, where every card flip can be a mini-drama.

And this proved to be a particularly dramatic night: I began the spending with a x2 card the first to flip, but before too long there were three x2 cards on the table and Joe in particular seemed to have spent a lot of money. Martin was convinced he (- Joe) was nailed on for last place (so was I), but there was to be a twist in the tail. Joe made us all spend cash to pick up the -5 card, and Ian spent big on the 2. Then the fourth red flipped over and the game instantly ended. Contrary to expectations, Matt had somehow spent the most and was bust. Martin and I had 2x zero, and the convincing winner was Joe!

Joe 12
Ian 6
Martin/Sam 0
Matt - BUST!

Martin still reckoned Joe should have lost, despite the evidence. Another GNN story to tell our grandchildren.

Next up was Perudo, as canvassed for by Ian and seconded by me. It was the usual Perudo story of deception and brutality, as we hedge-betted and lied our way around the table. Matt was first out after he went into a semi-death-spiral and lost dice on subsequent turns. Ian followed him shortly afterwards. With three of us and Martin palafico, he bet on three fives. I had none, and he was out. Joe and I faced off with Joe palafico and me with three. He paused for so long I started convincing myself he was reading my mind, but fortunately whatever he discovered there was as unreliable as I've ever found it:

1 Sam
2 Joe
3 Martin
4 Ian
5 Matt

We then busted out another game of Gold Fever, notable mostly for Joe passing gravel to Martin when both Matt and Ian had gold in front of them. "I've got no fucking gold!" he protested.
"But you're Martin" said Joe.
Martin promised bitter revenge but we all got sidetracked by trying to shaft Ian first, whose bag was filling up with everyone else's gravel. I think Joe won, but oddly I can't remember. Games of Gold Fever are a bit like an Intercity 125 zipping through a station of steam trains.

Last game of the night, then, with Joe setting up Botswana AKA Wildlife Safari AKA They Must Have Had Loads of Plastic Animals They Didn't Know What To Do With (Martin).

This is another neat Knizia where you play an animal card, and take an animal (a plastic animal). You can take any animal you like, but you must take one. The cards have values between 0 and 6, though, and when the sixth card is played on any row, the game ends and the last card played in each row defines the value of your animals.

My lions were looking pretty valuable too, until Martin played the zero on them. But fortune smiled on Joe as the game ended before he had to play his last card on the zebras: the zero. Joe had a lot of zebras:

Joe 23
Martin 16
Ian 11
Sam 10
Matt 5

And that was that! A lot of foul-mouthed fun was had in an evening of short games. "They're all short games!" Martin said when I mentioned as much. We'd forgotten about Oregon.

Ones upon a Time Of Crisis

This month’s Time of Crisis meeting began with Joe setting up the game remarking how nice it was to have a game where we don’t need to check the rule book all. The time. Well, there must have been a mischievous troll sitting under Joe’s kitchen table who heard this, as we were pitched into a determinedly odd series of unfortunate events.

It began in typical fashion. Joe went into Gallia, Ian into Pannonia, Martin into Macedonia (of course) and I went to Hispania.

In the Three Blue Two Red round, Joe took Britannia (throwing the deposed neutral governor across the table and onto the floor), Ian took Thracia, Martin took Egypt and I took Africa. So far, so good, although an event card was rolled that sparked inflation, making our already weak yellow cards even weaker.

In the second round, Joe (2R 3Y) found a lone band of Franks on his doorstep in Gallia. He attacked them with his army there and lost, rolling two ones against Frank’s roll of five. He used his yellows to boost support in Gallia which fell straight back down again.

Then Ian (2R 3Y) found that he had two Allamani in the perennially invaded Pannonia. Clearly the barbarians were feeling feisty today. He attacked them but rolled two more ones against the Allamani’s rolls of 6, 4, 4 which wiped out his army stationed there. He used his one remaining red point to put the general straight back in again, though.

Then the Sassanids invaded the otherwise unoccupied Syria. Martin (2R 3Y) bought a general and boosted support, I think. It was quite boring. I (2R 3Y) moved my army from Hispania into Gallia to attack those Franks. It was so unlike me, I did it! And then I rolled yet another one. And so did they. A draw.

Round three and Joe had an odd hand of 1R, 3B, 2Y. That one red point was used to attack those pesky Franks in Gallia with his remaining legion there. He rolled another one! How long was this going to last? The Franks rolled a 5.

Ian (5B, 1R) found himself facing a surprisingly strong neutral emperor. Due to our being distracted by barbarians, the provinces hadn’t fallen as quickly as they usually do. Instead, he got himself voted into Asia and then finally broke the Jinx Of One plaguing Roman military rolls all game when he attacked the Allamani in Pannonia. He still lost, though, but at least he rolled a five.

Six ones in a row comes in at odds of 1 in 46,656 and if those odds were miles that would get you round the Earth almost twice. Astonishing scenes.

Martin (5B, 1R) needed to recruit a governor before getting voted in anywhere so he couldn’t go for Rome either. Instead he got elected in Asia, taking it off Ian. I (3R, 3B) pondered attacking Joe’s weakened army in Gallia. Instead I recruited a governor and then failed my (admittedly unlikely) attempt at getting voted into Galatia, needing two votes with one die. Joe’s crisis roll was a double one (“More ones!” cried Martin), which triggered a new angry barbarian in every homeland. Joe (1R, 2B, 4Y, I think) took Galatia, and repaired his army in Gallia and generally boosted support.

Ian stepped up with 3B, 2R, 3Y and a spare governor. Rome needed four votes. Could he do it? He foederatied an Allamani in Pannonia, moved the army from there to Italia. Now he needed only two votes. He was successfully voted in! Our first Emperor at 20:42. We celebrated with the first of our trilogy of increasingly spicy crisps!

The next crisis roll saw three Nomads pile into Martin’s Egypt. “Well, that changes everything,” grumbled Martin, paying tribute to them, building a second legion there and then attacking them. Two hits each meant that one still hung around at the end of his turn. Then he remembered we had Bad Auguries, subtracting one from Roman military rolls. It made no difference but “I wouldn’t have attacked them if I’d remembered that,” Martin said. And then he chucked a mob into Emperor Ian’s Thracia and built a basilica in Asia. My underwhelming move (3Y 2R) saw me build a basilica in Hispania and move my roaming army from Gallia into Ian’s undefended Pannonia.

The next event was Good Auguries! Hurray! We can fight better! Now Joe built a new legion in Gallia and finally beat those pesky Franks in Gallia. The first time tonight that a Roman army had won a battle, and we’d been playing for almost an hour.

Then another event (we were ploughing through the event deck) saw Palmyra Allies clear the board of Sassanids, leaving Syria free of barbarians. Ian attacked me in Pannonia using the army from Thracia (which he’ll lose to the mob no matter what he does). We rolled at the same time for dramatic effect. We both rolled ones. As battles go, not that dramatic. Ian got himself voted into Syria and finally the last neutral reign ended, but then Thracia went neutral instead. Martin (3R, 2Y 1B) killed the last Nomad in Egypt, moved his army from Macedonia into Thracia and boosted his support there.

Now was my chance! My big move (4R, 4B) that I had planned out. I tried to get voted into Syria, using all four blue points for just two votes. Surely nothing could go wrong. Well, it turns out Lady Luck wasn’t done with us yet as I rolled 1, 1, 1, 3. Just one vote. Disaster. (“You’d have won if you’d chosen Pannonia,” said Martin not at all helpfully) The second part of my plan was to fight Ian in Pannonia since I had a 2 to 1 advantage. But I rolled 1, 2 while he rolled a 5 for a single hit that won a whole battle. A shocking move for me. I refused to buy a card because my hand was already overloaded with level-2 cards and not a single level-3.

Then in the next crisis roll, the Franks invaded in numbers: three into Pannonia (still under Ian’s governorship) and one into Italia (under Ian’s Emperorship). Joe (3R, 3Y, 3B) got himself voted into Syria, built a new army in Galatia and must have done other things too, I don’t know.

By now, both Joe and Martin have level-4 Yellow cards allowing them to set up a Pretender Empire. The crisis roll saw yet more ones, and another Ira Deorum with a new angry barbarian in every homeland. Again. Ian put a mob in Martin’s Asia and attacked Martin’s lone militia in Macedonia. But Ian rolled a 2 while Martin rolled a 5, giving Martin an improbable win. Ian did beat the Franks in Italy, though.

The following crisis roll saw another event and by now it was looking likely that we’d reach the Diocletian card near the end of the deck that would trigger the end of the game. This round’s event was Ludis Seculares allowing the Emperor to discard a card for that amount of points. Ian discarded a level-3 red, pushing him into a significant lead.

At this moment (mid-round) the scores were Ian 31, Martin 21, Joe 19, Andrew 14 (with only Ian getting any Emperor Points at the end). Ian wanted the event deck to play out fast.

Martin’s move (8Y, 3R, 1B) saw him create a Pretender Empire! And he got rid of the mob, putting a mob of his own into Italia. On my turn, I fought the Franks in Pannonia. I avoided rolling ones, but still lost. I did get voted into Pannonia, though, keeping hold of it by boosting support.

Meanwhile, the mischievous troll under the table had possessed Joe’s dog Sybil who was currently disembowelling a cuddly toy. Made for her by Joe’s daughter. How tragic.

The next event was a Priest King in Joe’s Syria. Joe built an army and attacked Sassanids with a flanking manoeuvre. He won. I was distracted by the dog at this point, I’m afraid.

Thanks to the Ludis Seculares earlier, Ian only had four cards in his hand, 2Y, 4B and he had only one province (Italia) with a mob in it, a rival leader and a pretender empire on his hands. He cleared a mob and got voted into Egypt (rolling two ones out of his four dice, but still got enough). Joe brought out some monkey nuts, whose shells made such a mess that Joe had to get the handheld vacuum to clear periodically the table.

There’s another event (Preparing For War) Martin gets voted into Ian’s Egypt with lots of sixes. Ian’s support level in Rome is now on zero. Then he goes after Ian’s army in Macedonia and wins, three hits (from his militia!) against Ian’s two. He’s making this Pretender Empire tactic work.

Then there’s ANOTHER event, as Postumus pops up in Gallia. Ian’s hope of the Diocletian card ending the game before Martin can win might work.

On my go (5B 3Y) I became Emperor because why not. Ian’s entire presence on the board was one solitary army in Italia. Being Emperor didn’t get me much, but I was finally able to buy a level-4 card. Joe recalled a governor from Syria and got voted into Martin’s Egypt. He attacked Postumus in Gallia but neither side landed a hit.

Ian sprang back into action with his four governors in reserve he got voted into Syria, Egypt and then back into Rome! He was emperor again at 22.02 and my nine-minute reign was over, then he killed the Priest King in Syria. The scores now (again, mid-round) were Martin 37, Ian 36, Joe 30, Andrew 24.

Martin took Egypt and put an army in there to stop it changing hands all the time. He then boosted Asia. Meanwhile, the crisis roll sent three Allamani into Pannonia and another one into Italia. Martin’s plan on shoring up support in Egypt didn’t last, as I then moved an army from Africa into Egypt and won the battle there, getting voted in afterwards.

Joe kills Postumus and builds a Basilica before establishing the game’s second Pretender Empire! This level of anarchy had never been seen before, and we had to check the rule book to see if multiple pretender’s score extra legacy points. They don’t. Ian crossed the sea and attacks me in Africa and then killed the Allamani in Italia.

Then Martin, on 44 points, said he thinks he can end the game. With 6B, 4Y, 7R he sent an army across Europe, foederati-ing two barbarians on the way, to attack and defeat Joe’s Seat Of Power in Britannia. Then he became Emperor (on level 5 support!) and killed an Alamanni for 3 points. He did it! He reached 62 points and was Emperor and triggered the end of the game. I just had one move left. I didn’t make any notes about what I did.

Martin 68
Ian 51
Andrew 41
Joe 36

It was still relatively early, so we played Tichu. Ian and I versus Martin and Joe, just like on my phone (I renamed the AI opponents). Martin was lucky enough to have three bombs during the match while I was unlucky enough to have one round where the cards I gave to Martin and Joe gave them both bombs. But after four rounds the scores were so close (260-240) that we had a final round as a decider and Ian and I went out first and second for 200 points and the win.

Ian and Andrew 460
Martin and Joe 240

Phew, what a night.

No Peking

This week's GNN started with trauma. I arrived to find Joe receiving some first aid due to a nasty burn on the back of his hand caused by scalding hot oil and water. Ouch. He played through the pain, though, with his hand smothered in ointment, wrapped in clingfilm and then topped off with a single glove.

As for the games night, we were six in number: Joe, Ian, Martin, Sam, Adam and me. Martin had brought Ticket To Ride Asia, the team version of Alan R Moon's cash cow. I wasn't keen at first, having only recently played Ticket To Ride New York but the general consensus was favourable, so it was chosen.

The teams were Ian and Sam versus Martin and Joe versus Adam and me. The rules do not allow collaboration between the two players, only a little 'light chat' while you play. This rule was somewhat stretched when Martin pointedly asked Joe if a card he had just picked up was going into the communal card between them.

Ian and Sam raced into an early lead after Ian completed a six link route. And he also brought along  thematically appropriate crisps, too. He looked like a strong contender. Adam refused to give any information regarding what he wanted to his opponents (or indeed, to me) by almost always choosing two face down cards from the deck.

Ian and Sam's lead was slowly whittled away and there was a lovely moment when we were all on 49 points. If only it could have stayed that way as Martin and Joe's gambling on route tickets paid off.

Martin checks the scores with lightning speed while Joe's

single white glove shines in the dark.

Joe and Martin 207
Adam and Andrew 130
Ian and Sam 124

Then we split into two groups. Sam, Ian and Martin played Dragon Castle.

Sam 40
Ian 38
Martin 37

Meanwhile, Joe, Adam and I chose Twenty One after I said I was in the mood for a roll and write game. What a fool I was. Twenty One is a game where everyone uses the same dice values to mark off dice on their differing score sheets. Ideally, you want to match exact values of the dice with the ones on the sheet. Unfortunately, my attempt at rerolling my dice because they were beneficial to Joe usually ended in them being even more beneficial to Joe.

Joe 106
Adam 94
Andrew 82

After this, we were back together as a six. Ian was tempted to stay for one more game with For Sale. In the property round, I spent all my money, Ian played it cagey at first before picking up the 30 for just 10 chips. Then in the cheque round, Joe was sunk by a zero dollar cheque when he'd bid a 15 on it. He never recovered. Sam, though, picked up his third For Sale win in a row!

Sam 50
Adam 47
Martin 46
Ian 45
Andrew 42
Joe 37

After this Ian and Adam set off home while the remaining four played Troika. It's such a simple game that Joe and Martin had no difficulties with it and it seems like a winning strategy came to them quite easily, too.

Martin 3
Sam 2
Joe 2
Andrew -1

And that was that. Thanks to Joe for hosting through the pain (or at least, some discomfort) and well done to everyone for just being you.

Troika's Company

Saturday, and Andrew and Ian were hardy enough to make the trip to my house for a bit of gaming. Not only that, they were hardy enough to learn no less than three new games!

Before they arrived, Sally, Stan, Joe and I all performed an impressive feat of fireworks in Hanabi, scoring 20 points with minimal (and inadvertent) cheating. I say minimal: we did give our clues in a very dramatic play/don't play manner, which might be against the rules I guess? 

Anyway the Eastern theme continued as Sally and the boys went off to watch Thor: Rangnorak and we set up Dragon Castle. 

This is a tile-taking-and-placing game that is slightly reminiscent of Azul, in that what tile(s) you take dictates what tiles are available for others. Score points for sets (bigger the better) during play, and points for shrines (higher the better!) at the end of the game - play is something of a trade-off between these two options. I've played this a lot in January, and my prep fortunately held up:

Sam 45

Ian 41

Andrew 36

Although hats off to Andrew for refusing no less than two proposed do-overs, instead preferring a philosophical sanguinity. Starting something of an evening meme, we agreed that Martin would 'probably' quite like it. BUWMLI (But would Martin like it) score: 3/5

Next we set up Beta Colony: in Earth's distant future, humanity escapes into the cosmos in order to play a massive Stefan Feld game.

It involves dice (move/do actions!) fuel (manipulate dice) resources (pay for actions!) and artifacts (build stuff!) as we hurtled around a vast rondel in space like children on a spinning roundabout, making ourselves giddy with Euro excitement. We added in spacey music, starting off with Brian Eno - Andrew broke the mood by identifying the long, atmospheric ambience as 'Brian Eno's doorbell' -  and then Vangelis, as we hoovered up resources and spent them building futuristic space pods, or not so futuristic buildings like, weirdly, Big Ben or the Sydney Opera House. It was very Feldy in the mechanisms, with agonizing decisions and plenty of 'oh shit' moments. But not Feldy at all in the scoring, which was quite refreshing. Ian moonwalked his way to a fairly convincing victory - we lost the scores but agreed it was something along the lines of:

Ian 62

Sam 56

Andrew 52

Not so much a battle, or even a settle, as a puzzle. We liked it! BUWMLI score: 1/5

Although we'd established Ian as leader of Beta Colony only shortly after the kids retired (albeit past their usual bedtime) everyone felt like a silly luck-pusher to shake things up a bit. Andrew brought out Las Vegas, and as well as the silly luck-pushing there was a fair amount of screw-you placement as well, with at one point several casinos giving out nothing at all, so balanced were the dice in them. 

although not on this occasion

Ian was doing so poorly in the second round it looked like a straight fight between myself and Andrew, but he surged back in round three to claim an improbable and spectacular victory!

Ian $310k

Andrew/Sam $270k each

Fortified by both alcohol and reckless abandon, we broke out our third new game of the evening in Troika, one of those Oink publications that come in neat, tidy little packages. We went through the simple rules and were off!

In Troika there are tiles numbering 1 to 15, with three of every number bar the 7 - there are seven 7's. You shuffle the tiles face-down as an 'extraction zone' and imagine yourself spacepeople landed on a distant planet (so far, so Beta) gathering tiles either to make gems (a run of three tiles) or fuel (three of the same number). The value of the gems is the right-most number of the highest tile: so 1-2-3 is three points whereas 9-10-11 would only be worth one point. You need fuel to get off the planet - without it, you can't score your gems. 

On a turn you flip a tile over and then have a choice: take a face-up tile into your container, a face-down tile into your hand (maximum of three in your hand!) or return a tile from container or hand to the extraction zone. That's pretty much the game, although you can declare yourself out of the round by shouting Troika! and the first person to do so scores a bonus five points: which can be huge in this game, where the winner of a round (ie highest value gem total) only gets 2 points! Second gets a point - third gets minus a point!

This simple affair had us marvelling at how delightful it was - tactical, luck-pushing, and a little bit nasty in places. I emerged the victor in a tense third round as I called Troika before anyone else before the second time:

Sam 3

Ian 2

Andrew 1

BUWMLI score: 4/5!

And with that, Saturday night drew to a close: nice games, nice company! Cheers guys. 

Bring your own birthday

This Tuesday saw the leatherette fliptop diary of the modern world crammed with three vital appointments: The meaningful vote in the Commons on Brexit, the weekly GNN meeting and Ian's birthday. Ian celebrated his new orbit of the sun by wearing a dapper brown waistcoat and by promising to drink all his beers this evening.

We began as a six. Sam (hosting), Stanley, Martin, Joe, Ian and me. Steve was expected in around fifteen minutes. Our first game (after a brief attempt at a 'conversation') was Bring Your Own Book. This fun game involves everyone taking a book (luckily, Sam's house is full of them) and looking through them to find a phrase that would suit a theme drawn at random from a deck of cards. The winner of the round is the funniest. Like a genteel Cards Against Humanity, basically.

For example, the first criterion was "The Meaning of Life," which was ironic since Joe was using a Douglas Adams book. Martin (Streets of Loredo) said "wisdom came too late," but Ian (Among the Thugs) had "underpants full of dodge marks."

Sam's other son, Joe, joined us halfway through and, using a Charlie Brown book, he found the perfect response for A Name For A Cat: "stupid dog." Steve also came in halfway and did great things with a book about knots. We ended when it seemed like we were ready for something more substantial, with Ian getting a birthday win.

Ian 2
Sam, Andrew, Martin, Joe, Joe, Stanley, Steve 1

With one Joe departing for bed, the other Joe successfully corralled Steve and Sam into a game of Western Legends. Meanwhile, Martin, Ian, Stanley and I chose Blue Lagoon, another Knizia mind melter. The rules could hardly be simpler: place settlers and villages across a map to get resources, link islands and gain territory. But my brain is not built for such games and I scored fewer points in the whole game than Martin did in round one. Stanley, too, seemed to dawdle across the map and was kicking himself at the end when he misremembered that he had built a link to another island when, in fact, he hadn't. Martin's win came despite only placing three villages and Ian's last minute comeback wasn't enough to stop him.

Martin 169
Ian 161
Stanley 105
Andrew 94

Meanwhile in Darkrock, Sam was vocally regretting his career choice as an outlaw having lost three games of poker. Joe was the only law giver in the game, the role I had failed at last time. I seem to remember him heading off to the doctor to see him "about my hand size."

As for us, Stanley set off to bed and we remaining three went to peruse Sam's games wall. After spending a few minutes trying to find Ra, all of us convinced that Sam owned a copy, we chose Azul instead. Back in the kitchen, we were shocked to discover that Sam didn't have a copy of Ra, despite our conviction that he had. Clearly a glitch in the matrix.

Anyway, we sat down to play Azul. I started slow (one point in round one) but got stronger, with Martin predicting a win for me mid game. But either he spent too much time looking at my board, or I spent not enough time looking at Ian's, because he snuck past us both at the end for another birthday victory.

Ian 72
Martin 69
Andrew 65

But perhaps most amazingly was my phone's predictive text correctly guessing Martin's score in Azul.

By now there were signs that Sam's game was picking up, with Steve referring to him as Billy The Shit, after being on the receiving end of a hold up.

After Azul, we played Ticket To Ride New York. A sort of mini TtR that doesn't take up a whole evening. Trouble is, it's a bit too short. I misjudged when the game would end badly, failing on my big route while Martin successfully completed two of his.

Martin 38
Ian 27
Andrew 13

Then we played an odd little game called "Good Little Tricks." It's hard to describe without the game in front of you, but the basic premise is that as tricks are taken the cards played are laid out according to suit. If someone wins a trick that leads to all of the cards of a suit being on the table, then they take those cards. And cards are bad. However if you pick up all of the cards, then you actually score nothing and your opponents are lumbered with 27 points each.

I had little idea what was going on, despite my best efforts. Strangely, I was dealt the trump suit (just two cards, a 1 and a 2) all three times.

While I did badly in round one (a familiar pattern by now) falling into a 0-6-21 last place, I then managed to Shoot The Moon in the next two rounds, so it ended...

Andrew 21
Ian 54
Martin 60

Western legends had ended now. In fact, it had appeared to be in the closing stages for some time with Sam one point off the game ending 15 point mark, but unable to dig out one more legendary point to trigger the final round.

Instead it was Honest Joe who did that and then gained four legendary points visiting the "theatre" to seal a win.

Joe 25
Sam 21
Steve 19

Now we were all together we had a rousing game of Fuji Flush, the only game I have any kind of form in, despite it being pure luck. In the first game we began with 2, 2, 2, 3, 3. With the table poised so delicately, which team would Ian chose?

He chose neither, and put down his big swinging dick: a seven, clearing the table. But Martin also put down a seven, and then Joe too, calling it "a greasy twenty one" referring to how easily it would slip past. And he was right. It clearly set him off on the right foot.

Joe 0 cards left
Sam, Andrew, Steve, Martin 1 card left
Ian 2 cards left

Since it had been a very quick game of Fuji Flush, with people pushing through almost every round, we played again. This time my 50% success rate* was maintained as my final card, a 12, piggy backed onto Martin and Joe's 12s.

Andrew 0
Martin 1
Joe, Sam, Ian, Steve 2

Then Martin and Steve left but the others stayed for one more game to give Ian a chance to finish off the last of the three whisky miniatures he'd been given for his birthday (the three beers had been finished long ago). I was fortified by Sam reminding me about a bottle of Sake I'd left here before Christmas.

We played Love Letter. I did worry that Sam's aging, threadbare, much-loved copy might not have enough red cubes for four players, but it turns out there were just enough.

In round one, Sam won on Highest Card with only a Baron! Then in round two Ian asked if I was the King. I confidently said "no" but then checked out of habit. I did have the King after all.

But Sam could not be stopped after his audacious Baron win.

Sam 3
Joe 1
Ian 0
Andrew 0

And with that Ian and I gratefully accepted a lift from Joe. We were both quite drunk by now, as illustrated by Ian suddenly veering off towards the flower beds as he walked down the garden path. Happy birthday indeed.


* I should probably check this.

Red Dead Recreation

It was the first Tuesday meet of the year for us at GNN and, after a couple of days of emails that saw the potential attendance fluctuate, we finally settled around Joe's kitchen table as a sextet: Joe, Ian, Sam, Adam, Andy and myself.

Joe was touting for players to join him in a new game, Western Legends. It received such a positive reaction that there was the chance of maxing out its six-player capacity. But it was decided that this would be foolish for a first play, so Sam, Adam and Andy went to peruse the games shelves while the rest of us got ready for some Wild West shenanigans. While Joe set up Ian and I swapped stories about our experiences on Red Dead Redemptions 1 and 2 and we found out we'd both dressed our avatars in nice clothes and spent hours playing poker. An option which, tantalisingly, was available in this board game.

The game itself is a collection of mini games, giving players the chance to gain Legendary Points for their success in poker or gold mining or killing bandits or spending money at the "theatre". Each player can good or bad and how well you do at this can also get you Legendary Points.

Two game characters clearly feeling the effects of a high wind

There's a strong sense of theme running through it and each player soon finds themselves creating their own western fable. For example, I was a Marshall, but a somewhat ineffective, comical one who spent more time at the poker table than hunting down criminals. Ian impressed us with his strategy of depositing gold at the bank and then immediately trying to rob the bank. Joe started by buying a big hat and then he hung around town until he robbed Ian of gold (he took half, rounded up, just like real bandits did, I expect).

Ian was first to hit the game ending score of 15 legendary points and in the final round (which saw both Ian and I race across Dixons Creek to spend money on enjoying the "cabaret") he saw off a late challenge from Joe.

Ian 26
Joe 19
Andrew 12

It was a fun game and I perhaps should have taken my peace keeping duties more seriously. Joe and Ian, however were much better at being rough tough rootin' tootin' outlaws.

On the other half of the table, the others had chosen Hab & Gut. It required a little ingenuity to decide how to best arrange the racks of cards but once they did, the whole thing went smoothly.

What with a new game in front of me I didn't pay Hab & Gut much attention, but even I couldn't miss Adam's good natured frustration at donating least to charity by a margin of only fifteen marks.

Sam 715
Andy 625
Adam OUT! He didn't even bother counting up how much he had.

After this I think we in America were barely starting, so they started another game, Tag City. Sam's artwork had an air of Keith Haring about it, so I made sure to take a snap.

Adam 66
Sam 51
Andrew 50

Sam said that Adam handed out a bit of a pasting. Perhaps he should have said "a bit of a painting." A ha ha. Oh, my sides.

Next up, they tried Wordsy, the game of word creation with limited means. Andy failed to come up with a word at all in round one but a bad round or two is of no consequence in this game and he was right on Sam's shoulder by the end.

Sam 99
Andy 94
Adam 84

Then, while perusing the rules they discovered that they had got one wrong. So, since it was already there in front of them, they played again.

Sam 121
Andy 115
Adam 100

Finally, we were all together again and a six player finale was in order. For Sale was suggested, but Texas Showdown won the day. So, Ian, Joe and I metaphorically put our stetsons and tassled suede jackets back on as we embarked on our second wild west themed game of the evening.

It was a game of cruel fate, as you might expect, but also of surprising discoveries. Namely, the fact that Joe has two automated card shufflers, one for the home and one for the studio. Astonishing. And well done to Ian for not opening his final beer so late in the day.

As for the game, Adam fell into an early slump, only to be replaced by Ian who picked up four then three tricks in consecutive rounds. Then, right at the end Joe picked up five tricks to propel himself into last.

As for the race for first, it was always Andy. There was one round (the penultimate one) when he shared the lead with Sam but then he went clear while Sam picked up a solitary trick allowing Andy to seal the win.

Andy 5
Sam 6
Andrew 8
Adam 9
Ian 10
Joe 12

And so we ended. And at a relatively sensible time (ie, not nearly midnight) too. Thanks to all. It was special.

Toad in the crokinole

On those rare occasions when GNN allows itself outside the confines of a single evening, it’s usually a cornucopia of different games. But this time, despite starting at eleven in the morning and ending after midnight, only six games were played in total.

I arrived at Sam’s in the morning, while he was strapping a bike to the roof of his car, sending his family off to a skate park while, inside, Coimbra was already set up on the kitchen table. This is a recent acquisition and seemed interesting enough that I asked to try it when Sam texted me at 10.10am to ask what I fancied playing.

Despite the board being the usual Euro smorgasbord of tracks, maps and icons, it’s pretty simple fare once you get into it. The storyline apparently concerns us being powerful families in the Portuguese town of Coimbra. Sam, determined to make the Pilgrim tactic work for once, sent his meeple off around various cities picking up bonuses while I dabbled in end-of-game scoring cards.

It was fun. The two-player version has spoiler dice placed in various sections, recreating the feeling of another player taking stuff you want, which makes for a tenser experience. I didn’t stand much of a chance but found it very enjoyable and suggested that it be put in Sam’s bag of games to take to Joe’s studio.

Clearly, this guy has just thought of a funny but entirely inappropriate joke

Sam 130
Andrew 101

Then, after poached eggs on toast, we had enough time for a game of NMBR9 before leaving the house. Sam shocked the gaming world by going up on only the third tile so I, foolishly, followed suit with the fourth.

He then had issues with keeping his tiles flat on the table. With all these distractions, it was a low scoring game.

3D NMBR9, anyone?

Sam 67
Andrew 32

Then we had a walk into town to Joe’s spacious studio, complete with shelf of daunting two-player strategy games at one end. One of the boxes wasn’t even a game – it was the rule book to a game you had to buy separately.

The three of us had a little time before Adam, the fourth and final gamer for today, arrived so we played a game of Ticket To Ride: Switzerland. This three-player version of the old familiar has a smaller map and much greater emphasis on getting tickets to score bonus points. In the end, I only had six tickets while Sam had fourteen tickets and managed to complete each one. But even this wasn’t enough to beat Joe.

Joe 145
Sam 131
Andrew 105

Then Adam arrived and here we all were: the core four, as we used to be. I couldn’t tell you how long it had been since the four of us crossed swords, but it seemed like a historical moment. So why not reflect that in our game choice: Time Of Crisis since now seemed like the only chance to introduce Adam to the joys of Roman upheaval.

Complete with dice terminus at the end of the table

I was the only one to not begin in Europe and from the start tried to defend myself with support rather than armies. This was mostly fine against the other players (apart from Egypt which Sam and I ruled on some kind of time-share basis) but the Nomads, Sassanids and even Goths didn’t seem impressed. In fact, it was a very barbarian-y game, with at least three of all types massed on our boards at one point.

Adam started well and was first Emperor after Joe couldn’t take advantage of the neutral emperor’s low support: he had five blue points, but no spare governor.

We paused for Sam, Adam and I to go out to get pizza and pop into Tesco (where I found someone at the back asking people if there was still a group of boys hanging around outside) to get more crisps. By the time we got back, Joe must have been studying the map since he soon pulled off an impressive move where he knocked Adam out of Thracia, beat Sam’s army in Italia and became Emperor despite forgetting that he had two basilicas.

Sam became emperor for the first time ever, when he unseated Joe using a Pretorian Guard, getting eight votes with nine dice. I pootled about in North Africa and the Middle East, far from any real action, constantly worried by the ever-increasing sassanid horde on my border. When the game ended there were five of them and a barbarian leader.

Joe was reinstated as emperor on the turn he passed sixty points and, at 8.00pm the game ended. I think it might have been a bit too long for Adam but I found that those four and a half hours flew past.

Joe 78
Sam 62
Adam 58
Andrew 45

Next up was Team Crokinole, Joe & Sam versus Adam & Andrew. J&S won the first round and A&A won the second, perhaps because Sam was distracted by trying to find evidence online of his belief that the hole in the centre was called the toad. He found it.

It looked like A&A were going to win the whole thing when we sped to 80 points in round three, but J&S are nothing if not persistent and they whittled our lead away. The score went from 95-55 at one point to 95-65, 95-85, 95-100. They’d stolen the win right at the end!

Joe and Sam 2 rounds
Adam and Andrew 1 round

At this point it was half past nine and Sam left for home, mindful of a drive to Devon tomorrow morning. The remaining three broke out Railways of the World: Mexico.

An early delivery bonus to Culican pushes up the opening player bid, and Joe finally got it for $9,000. He then built somewhere else, allowing Adam to take the delivery bonus and get an early lead. I went bond heavy which had the unintended effect of convincing Joe it was okay for him to take bonds too. I think my income only very briefly got into double figures.

But a railway executive and a delivery bounty to a city I was already connected to saved my bacon, and mid-game, I was the one to beat. Joe and Adam upgraded their engines in an unseemly display of funnel flaunting. My end of game strategy was to get the last route and complete my baron bonus, but Adam kept getting in my way. I spent a little more money than I’d anticipated but it turned out to be worth it.

Adam in my way part one

Adam in my way part two

Andrew 50
Adam 49
Joe 42

Although I think my best move was an early depot card, meaning I shared in the points from Joe’s network. That move must have got me ten points by itself.

And now it was almost midnight, it was time to pack up and go home. Thanks for a lovely day, and thanks to all for a lovely year!