Santiago to Rome is a little under one metre

Only a couple of days after Martin had hosted Time Of Crisis, he was the genial MC of another games night: our regular weekly get together. Tonight there were seven of us. Martin, his friend and GNN debutant Adam, Sam, Joe, Ian, Anja and me.

We began as a six and to fill time until Anja arrived, we showed Adam how badly Just One can be played. In the first three rounds we passed and Sam was the first to get us any points at all (he guessed "white" from Christmas, blancmange and Spurs). We struggled to get going, but hats off to whoever wrote "sex offender" as a clue for "register" - Martin got it easily. We finished with our worst score on six, with the ever patronising score sheet rating us as "a good start."

But by now, Anja had arrived and it was time to play something we might be good at. Joe was keen to try Senators while Adam touted Santiago de Cuba. Sam and Anja went to Cuba while the Time Of Crisis cohort returned to the ancient empire of Rome once again. The table hummed to the sound of simultaneous rules explanations.

Cuba on the left, Italy on the right.

I know little about Santiago de Cuba except there are dice on boats and the players all ride around in the same car. Rather sweet, really. There was mild consternation from Sam that he'd been given too many points but for the record it ended

Sam 40
Adam 33
Anja 27

In Rome Joe was having a terrible time of it on his first game. Having just paid for a governor, the next event removed all governors from the game. This hobbled Martin, too, as he explained later that his senator was about to help him strike it rich.

Instead, Joe saw himself going backwards along the score track as he sold Senators to make ends meet while Martin struggled with cash for most of the game.

I got lucky (is it luck, though?) by getting a couple of cheap senators in bidding rounds and when Ian and I were first to cash out, buying three senators each, I was in a considerable early lead which I held on to. Martin clawed his way back to second place but then the fourth war broke out while Ian was on the toilet and the game ended.

Andrew 11
Martin 9
Ian 7
Joe 5

After this, while Santiago De Cuba was ending, we played a couple of rounds of Maskmen. Just like in Senators, Joe began by getting negative points but he redeemed himself with a first place in the second of only two rounds.

Andrew 2
Joe 1
Martin 0
Ian -1

Then we rearranged seats and groups. Joe, Adam and Sam played Spirits Of The Forest. Sam had undersold this by admitting that even he wasn't sure if he wanted to play it after his underwhelming first game, but this was enough to capture the interest of two of us.

Sam 23 wins on a tie breaker
Adam 23
Joe 16

They squeezed in a little one round game of Good Little Tricks, which ended

Sam 7
Adam 9
Joe 11

The rest of us chose Polterfass, a wholesome family game about beer and gambling. There were some huge points on offer as well as moments of real penny-pinching cruelty as some bartenders limited their stock just to annoy everyone else.

I put the cup on top of some barrels on the table and when I picked up the cup the barrels were wedged into the rim of the cup. Should've been worth points.

In the end, it was another shockingly high total that gave Martin the win. When he decided to roll again after an unremarkable opening amount of beer, he can have envisaged the luck he was about to receive. We all got our bets fulfilled but Martin picked up thirty one points in the final round.

Martin 87
Ian 73
Andrew 68
Anja 64

At this point Adam left so we joined together for a six-player nightcap, Texas Showdown. This game is as funny as it is evil and most of us had our share of bad luck. There was a serious discussion in round one about whether to keep your tricks face up on the table or face down. The trouble with face up is the extra information from the visible card, but if you keep them face down then there's the risk of picking them up by accident if you put your cards down.

We decided on face down and to refrain from putting our cards down. We also thought that the game should come with little ceramic animals ("ceranimals" (c) Joe) that you could put on your tricks to distinguish them from your hand.

But as for the game, it was very close unless you were Ian, in which case you had a decent lead. After round three it was 2-5-5-6-6-6 and I was bemoaning how difficult it was to target someone in this game.

This is what Ian looks like in a commanding lead

My bad karma flew back in my face as I entered a death spiral of 6nimmt-ish proportions, picking up five tricks in the second half of round four. Ian had another clear round to seal a comfortable win, and so did Sam which saw him go from joint last into second.

Ian 2
Sam 6
Anja 7
Martin 7
Joe 7
Andrew 11

And with that it was back home thanks to taxi Sam. Thanks to Martin for hosting and hello to another Adam. We should do this again soon.