Camembert!

This week's games began with a little subterfuge and some secret emails as all but one of Tuesday's attendees arrived at Joe's house a few minutes early to sign Martin's birthday card (Joe took the cover for the game Poison, replacing the title with the word Martin) and admire the cake and present we bought him.

We (Joe, Sam, Ian, Katy, Adam T and me) hit upon the jolly wheeze of hiding the cake in the box for Fauna. Our plan was to tell him that we'd decided to play it, and then amaze him when we revealed the cake inside. A brilliant plan, although we did worry that Martin would see through it, since Fauna doesn't actually play seven.

When he arrived we told him our decision, to general disinterest, and then we suggested that he should open the box. This peculiar request and the expectant grins on our faces must have tipped him off but he still had the decency to act a little surprised when he saw the cake.

But enough birthday jollities. We needed to play some games. We started with a big communal game of Just One, using our excellent Bonus Point variant - if the guesser can guess what any duplicate clues might be they score a point. We got a couple bonus points, with Katy guessing that two of us wrote Ogre for Shrek, and Joe guessed that Dummy had been eliminated from the clues for Comforter.

Katy stretched the rules when her clue for Baby was to write the word Human in really small letters. "Human," said Martin as he read it, "really small human..." and this lead him to the correct answer. Effective but not strictly kosher.

Everyone: 11 points

Now we split into groups. Martin had previously mentioned that he would like to play Tigris and Euphrates and Adam had brought T&E: the card game. Martin said he'd never played it and Joe, thinking that might level the playing field against T&E expert Martin, agreed to join them.

Sam, Ian, Katy and I played Rise Of Tribes. This simple but combative game is all about achieving criteria on cards in order to score points. Hit 15 points and it's an instawin.

It was interesting, with quite a bit of downtime between goes, but entertaining to watch other players move sabre toothed tigers around (with sound effects, if you were Katy).

Katy and Sam found themselves stepping on each other's toes in one half of the board, I sprawled leisurely down the middle of the map and Ian built point scoring villages in the west.

It was a ding dong battle, with the lead changing several times and as we neared the end, choices over actions became confounded with the desire to not allow someone else a chance at victory. Sam found himself in such a position where his best move would wipe Katy off the map and, therefore, give me the win. In the end, he went for a more risky, less destructive strategy and drew cards that he hoped might score points (see also, Ticket To Ride and Orbit). It didn't work and I won that turn anyway. All that remained was to put the pieces back in the snugly fitting foam inlay. Which turned out to be quite a challenge.

Andrew 15
Katy 13
Sam 12
Ian 9

As for Tigris and Euphrates The Card Game, Joe got off to a bad start when, during the rules explanation, he pointed to a stack of something and said "Are these catastrophies?" only to be informed that, actually, those were treasures. That's the sort of thing that a Pharaoh should know.

At the end (after a brief pause for cake) Adam insisted it was all luck while Martin commented that it was just like the board game version.

Martin 6
Joe 4
Adam 3

While waiting for us to finish they played 99. I know nothing about this game and the in-game banter was impenetrable, but Martin won again.

Martin 117
Joe 54
Adam 7

Now we were all together, there was a little reshuffling. Martin, Joe, Adam and Katy chose Clash of the Gladiators; a massive punch up in an arena with dice arenas, one of which was particularly bouncy. .

Was Martin really invested in the game when he asked rhetorically "Why do we need to fight?" Katy soon found herself relying on the success of wildlife as she called out "Come on, bear!" Adam was good enough to say that the game was very silly... while he stood over their blood stained corpses.

Adam 17
Joe 15
Martin 13
Katy 8

Ian Sam and I played Cartographers, a roll and write game with cards and occasional opportunities to write on an opponents paper. There was an Isle Of Skye style scoring system, where two different criteria scored each round. Sam got hit by explainer's curse while Ian won after winning from the start.

Ian 56
Andrew 46
Sam 39

It was fun, like a meaner Avenue.

Then Ian left and Sam and I knocked out a quick Flick Fleet in which I (the evil empire) beat Sam.

When 99 ended, Adam left and the five of us banged out a game of Stinker. A game we all know and love, although apparently Katy didn’t know you had to say “Stinker” when you had an answer. Tsk.

Highlights (one from each player) were...

Worst possible gift: God’s rectum (Andrew, but only after Sam said no one deserved it)
How to win a sword fight without a sword: Hide in sofa (Martin)
Best meal to cook when meeting in-laws: Coq au Arse (Joe)
An elevator pitch for a movie: Yes it’s great n stuff (Katy)
Something you don’t want to hear your spouse say: Eating shit later (Sam)

Such was the fun we were having, that we went around the table three times!

Best meal for the in-laws: a noble second place for Martin

Joe 39
Katy 35
Martin 33
Andrew 30
Sam 28

This amount of fun is almost decadent and both Katy and I walked home with our joy tinged with a hint of regret that neither of us would get to our respective beds before midnight. But still, a fun evening. Thanks all.

Bring Your Own Cestus

Tuesday arrived with yet more drama playing out in Parliament - I mention this because I hope one day we'll look back and laugh, but probably not - and so we grasped preoccupations of our own with which to spend the evening. Rovers having a match on meant Joe and Adam were struggling to find places to park, however, so there was a conversation between myself (Sam), Katy, Ian and Sally that lasted at least five minutes.

"Will you be joining us tonight?" Katy asked, but Sally declined. She had children to wrangle into bed, an event they always resist with increasingly demented strategies.

By the time all the willing gamers were finally sat at the table, it was nearing 8 o'clock, and we kicked off with a six-player Bring Your Own Book. Adam had brought his own (Thomas Pynchon) so from our bookshelves we mixed in Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carson McCullers, Zadie Smith, Nick Hornby, and the British Gardeners Guide to Insects.

Joe won this with "How much have you drunk?"

Adam grabbed an early lead with his answer to what one might see on a bumper sticker: I'm driving along the freeway looking for Volkswagens to destroy. Ian requested a name for a Battleship and most of us found suitably aggressive-sounding monikers, but Katy took the point with Puddles. 

Step five in Katy taking over the world was Vibrate, vibrate, and vibrate again (although I still liked my suggestion of several bird calls). My craft beer was called Fuck you, leave me alone and at the end of a good half-hour of Stinker-like nonsense, Adam took the win. 

With the hour closer to 9 than 8, the day's talk of Pax Pamir dissipated with Martin, Adam and Katy trying out Martin's latest Knizian Fix: Clash of the Gladiators. I - along with Joe and Ian - was fixated on our dubiously-motived scramble around Africana, so didn't pick up much about the game aside from the fact there was a lot of swearing going on. When I asked if the game was any good, Martin replied "Yes! Adam just twatted a lion"

Meantime Ian's eerie predictions of his own demise looked like coming true in Africana as we both found ourselves in the northern hemisphere when all the expeditions started in the south - where Joe was. He led the early running, and my optimism aligned aligned to Ian's when I paid no less than eight coins to keep turning the pages of the book (what is the book?) in order to find myself another assistant. 

I love the simplicity of Africana though, even if fate can occasionally crap on you from a height: twice I had a large hand of cards but was unable to use them to any effect. Ian and I thought Joe had the game stitched up, but thanks to my expedition cards I managed an unlikely win. And Ian was closer than we all expected...

Sam 36
Joe 32
Ian 28

At the other end of the table, after some talk about 'fucking the bear' ("Can you fuck it nicely?" Katy asked) Clash of the Gladiators had also finished:

Adam 20
Katy 18
Martin 17

Gladiators: Ready!

The verdict was broadly positive, so hopefully we'll see it again. They'd also squeezed in a game of Hats...

Martin 42
Adam 36
Katy 34

And after Adam retired for the evening, Katy and Martin played a round of Maskmen:

Martin 2
Katy 1

After Africana, Ian elected to depart as well, leaving us as a four. We decided on Polterfass as a nice 10pm game, and began rolling barrels like our livelihoods depended on it. Thank God they actually don't, though, because as always in Polterfass I repeatedly shot myself in the foot, even allowing Katy - 30 points behind me at one stage - to overhaul me. The battle for first was always between Martin and Joe, and Martin's cause was harpooned when we collectively bid for all of his beer. The smirk was wiped from my face when the same thing happened to me moments later - but the round of the night was the final one, where Katy scored a whopping 21 beers and Joe staggered drunkenly over the victory line. Katy caught Martin for joint second.

Joe 84
Martin / Katy 47
Sam 37

I asked if there was a tie-breaker and everyone scathingly cried "What, for second place?" as though I was pedantically foot-noting. I don't know, it's not the same without Andrew here... I forgot to take photos of Polterfass, but here is the box from a funny angle.

The last game of the night was a newbie - Startups, from Oink games - purveyors of interesting decisions and graphically-pleasing bits in small boxes. I wondered if it was a bit late to be learning any rules but Martin batted my feebleness aside, even though he admitted Oink rulebooks were usually "a bit weird".

Point rewards left; Monopoly tokens right

The game is a bit weird too.  A deck of cards represents several startup companies, and during play you're building a tableau of these cards in front of you. At the end of the round what you're aiming for is the most of the company cards you've collected - anyone who has less of that type of card has to pay you, and most money wins the round. It's classic Oink scoring - 2points for first, 1point for second, -1point for last place.

On your turn you pick up a card, and play a card - but inevitably there are catches. The card you pick up can be a free face-up card from the collective dumping ground (the market), or the top card from the deck if you want to pay a coin to any face-up cards in the market. You can then play a card into either the market, or your tableau. Having the most of a type of card gets you the monopoly token - now you don't have to pay to any matching cards in the market - but you're not allowed to pick them up either!

What this makes for is a jostle for positioning on various companies and the desire to avoid having certain cards means you may - as I did, twice - end up spending far too much money avoiding them. A final twist: when the deck runs out the three cards in your hand get added to your tableau, and (unless there are ties) coins are paid to all the monopoly holders before points are scored.

I finished the first two round in third, but collapsed to ignominy in the final round. The others fared a little better - Martin went from a shocking opening round to grabbing the win:

Martin 3
Katy 2
Joe 2
Sam -1

This time there was a decider - Katy won the tie-breaker to claim second. We all liked Startups - very, very Oinky and I think a bit less procedural feeling than Flotsam Fight - closer to Maskmen in how hard it is to get a handle on - in a good way.

But with the hour now 11 o'clock, it was time to head home to bed. Until next time... thank you all, it was special.

The Antics Roadshow

On Friday night Ancient Civilisations of the Inner Sea was back on the table, with the previous combatants - Adam, Andrew, Ian and myself (Sam) - this time joined by Chris. Adam was Mauritania, Ian Troy, Chris Rome and I was Egypt. Andrew remained the Gaul.

Chris had come early for a quick précis of the rules, but having done a bit of research already, he was pretty much up to speed when he arrived. The overhead is low on this one. And as the others trooped in and cracked open beers - Ian had a coffee - we were away with the briefest of catch-ups.

ACIS all happens through card-play, and it doesn't really do much in the way of increments: after everyone has deployed discs, it's a case of playing cards until everyone's noses are bloodied. Chris kicked off Epoch One, Turn One with a Bumper Crop. He gained talents for his harvest and added discs to Rome's nascent empire. I was next with Navigator, allowing me to cross the deep seas in order to stare longingly at the shores of the Mediterranean.  Ian uncovered a Gold Mine which added discs to Troy and got him talents. Adam's Academy of Science was not discarded but sat in front of him, allowing him more cards in the future. Andrew noted that his Improved Plough seemed evolutionarily some way behind an academy of sceince, but it rewarded him with more map presence and some cash.

So far, so cagey. I noted our opening was remarkably peaceful and Ian recalled that the last game started that way too. Besides - we had more cards to play. But with Chris now back at the wheel he built a Wonder - The Grand Temple, which assists in combat by (seemingly) spawning extra warriors and allies to your cause. It's the only war-specific temple and he beat me to it - instead I built the Grand Gardens, which allow me to add more discs to the map at the start of a turn. Ian played The Golden Age and was rewarded with discs and talents, Adam invented Coinage and Andrew built the Stairway to God, which - I think - added more cards to his hand. A flurry of map-movement followed with Trading House, Religious Fervor and Silk Road all getting played before Adam built his own wonder - the Great Pyramid. As I was Egypt, I was slightly offended. But there was no time to dwell on the narrative idosyncrasies, because Andrew passed and Chris played Sea Pirates, adding the first Barbarians (black discs) to the board. At this point they were merely lurking around menacingly though, and there was no hint of the fire of death that was to come at the end of this turn.

At this point everyone had passed and there were no competitions to be resolved. Minimal points were scored, with Ian slightly trailing. But when we drew fresh cards, the world exploded: we pulled no less than five of the seven events from a massive deck of cards, and Ian - as player last on VP - got to assign Barbarians in the north, south, across the Mesopotamian Empire and throughout the sea. We all - bar Ian himself - suffered the consequences. Suddenly Turn 2 was looking a lot more barbaric, and Andrew kicked things off with Blasphemy as he fought them out of his home territories. Adam and I did similarly whilst Chris busied himself opening a Sea Route to Britain and Ian took advantage of our distractions to gather a lot of cash. Andrew stole cards with his Spy, Adam and I gathered coins, Chris built the Great Library and Ian the Mausoleum. A flurry of discs came and left the board as we strengthened where we could and ejected Barbarians. Chris played a series of destructive cards causing havoc: Millennial Volcanoes, Massive Volcanoes, and finally Millennial Earthquakes that raged through the Iberian peninsula and ruptured Adam, Ian and Andrew's civilisations. I escaped his censure, but then I was busy fending off massive stacks of black discs at my end of the board.

Then, the Epoch suddenly ended! Ian rocketed up the track by 11 points, I clung on far enough to be five points behind him whilst the other three were another four or so points back. And so began our campaign to get Ian, although it was a somewhat muddy campaign as Ian campaigned against me as his nearest competitor, and the others weren't above chipping in to that effect either. When I tried to invent the Improved Plough (Epoch 2, turn 1) Andrew Negated me - the first negate action of the game, and all I was doing was planting some crops!

Chris and Andrew both went after Ian with Biblical Floods and Massive Earthquakes, whereas Adam stuck to the comparatively dainty Local Plague. Chris also made my crops fail, whereas Civil Disorder worked out okay for Ian, as he removed 4 opposition discs from the map and replaced them with Barbarians. Again, he scored reasonably well, and held the lead.

Turn 2 began with the return of Millennial Volcanoes (me) Negated by Adam. Chris then played the absolutely horrid Bread and Circuses, where my notes simply say 'tonnes of shit on Adam'. Andrew played the Black Death and Adam dug a Gold Mine, possibly to hide in. Chris and I both went after Ian with Widespread Plague and Civil War, and Ian ended the round still in the lead despite being hit by Barbarians.

Turn 3, Epoch two. Literally all of us went after Ian with our opening gambits, to the point where Ian protested that now I was going to win - as if that was a bad thing. Adam hit him with Gods Demand Sacrifice - and with no Negate, Ian had now lost two cards (one to me through the somewhat erroneously-named Trade, another to Adam's demands) He retorted by hitting the man in second place (me) with Millennial Earthquakes, probably scuppering any chance I had of a big score this turn. Chris passed early, and Andrew stared at the board before announcing "I'm in last, and everything's wank". He made someone's crops fail - I can't remember whose.

Ian played Local Plague - possibly at me, notes are a bit hazy now - before everyone but Andrew passed. He improved his plough and added Pirate Raids, before passing and everyone resolving competitions. The Sudden Death step saw the second Epoch also end suddenly - and with it, the game! In scoring I dropped to fifth - Ian scored very little, but clung onto a tiny lead as the others hurtled up the track to catch us both - but! There was a twist in the tail, however - the End of Epoch event penalised everyone for their cities - a point apiece! - suddenly all Adam, Chris and Andrew's scoring was reversed as they fell back down the track, as Ian and I as the comparatively low-scorers weren't so effected. Ian's lead was back to convincing, and final scoring (most cities/wonders/sea areas) was minimal enough to make no difference.

Final scores

Ian 36

Sam 33

Chris 30

Adam 29

Andrew 28

Our three and a half hour epic had come to a conclusion! And that was with only two epochs, both ending early. As we noted, it's best played at a clip (there's not a whole lot of logic to strategising too much, considering how swingy it all is) and we mostly did that, meaning despite the playtime the game felt relatively breezy. It is the type of game where the final placings can come down to the final event - as it did here - but we all sat down kinda knowing that. I'm looking forward to playing again, but I think two epochs is definitely enough - four would take all day!

When Alcatraz escaped from me

Seven gamers, one table, countless craft ales. It was Tuesday night at Joe's and he was joined by Adam H, Sam, Martin, Ian, Katy and me. We began with a big communal game of Just One, this time with a twist - a bonus point if the guesser can guess what (if any) clues got rejected through duplication. Adam successfully did it when he worked out that the rejected clues for "bar" were "cheers".

I feel we should apologise for the clues in Sam's first round, which expected him to deduce "market" from a disparate bunch, including words like "Marrakesh", "bear", "dominion" and "albion." I should also apologise for blurting out the word as I tried to cajole Adam into writing something. "Come on, it's Alcatraz!" I exclaimed in frustration. Oops.

Finally, hats off to Katy for perhaps the least helpful clue possible. She tried to guide Adam towards the word "guard" with the clue "the". Apparently The Guard is the name of a film.

We scored 11, including the bonus point.

Then we split into two groups. Katy had brought her new purchase (from Sam) Hit Z Road and Joe, Ian and Martin were happy to join her. Adam, Sam and I chose Orbit. We set up using a genuine (I suppose. No way I could've checked it) map of the solar system at that moment, and we were off. It had been a while since we last played so I was glad of the player aid. Sam forgot to hand one to Ian, perhaps under the assumption that if he did, then Adam would win.

Most frustrating were the frequent occasions when Earth was in entirely the wrong part of the board for launching to any planet. Frustrating because I couldn't blame anyone's random set-up for this. Except maybe God.

Sam sped into an early lead while Adam languished in a distant last. We still thought he'd win, though. After all, he was India which was the space agency he had said he preferred. But Sam would not be caught. He picked up mission cards several times and when the final tally was counted, he laid out one successful mission after another for a fine victory.

Sam 50
Andrew 31 (wins tie breaker)
Adam 31

In Hit Z Road, it was its usual entertaining self and I actually made more notes for that game than for the one I was playing. The craziness began with Katy saying the game was a co-op, which wasn't a universally accepted opinion. Then the bidding went crazy cakes in the first round, with Martin putting in a full bid of ten for the right to go first.

At the end of round two Joe had to face off against some zombies. His two survivors against their six undead. Amazingly, he did it. Alas, neither he nor Martin make it to the end of the third round. Ian and Katy do, although they had no resources at all. They did have lots of survivors though and both made it through to the end, Ian had five survivors and Katy, who at one point had seven in her gang, ended with three.

Ian 19
Katy 7
Joe and Martin dead

Then they filled the time with a game of L. A. M. A. And it ended with a clean sweep for Ian.

Ian 0
Katy 27
Martin 33
Joe 50

At this point Ian left for home and the remaining six of us joined together for two more games. First was For Sale. After the bidding round, Sam declared he had a “right dog shit pile of cards,” although it can’t have been that bad. I got stung with a zero cheque having played a 17 card in that round.

Adam 60
Sam 46
Andrew 44
Katy 39
Joe 39
Martin 35

Finally we ended with 6nimmt, about which Katy said “usually I do well at this game.” But not this time and after round three she was in last. Luckily (for her, that is) I fell into a massive death spiral which lead to me picking up 42 points in round four and dropping from second place to last, crashing through the 66 point barrier and ending the game. Martin won by miles.

Martin 22
Adam 50
Joe 51
Sam 53
Jaty 64
Andrew 71

And that was it. Thanks for the evening, everyone. See you all soon!

Rome burned, onions wept

Seven gamers and Joe's kitchen table came together this week in a resounding crash of bonhomie and rivalry. Joe, Sam, Martin, Ian, Adam T, Katy and me were all seated by 7.30 and we began with all of us collaborating in a game of Belratti.

This Dixit-ish game of detecting conscious choices from random chance is a firm favourite but are we getting to good? Since discussing our choices is not allowed, Sam hit upon a method of giving his cards a percentage according to how good a match they were for one of the two targets. This was quickly adopted by all of us except Katy who refused to reduce her art to a mere number.

We did well but, also, we got lucky. We linked wasp to a clapperboard because they had stripes, only for Adam to tell us that the real link was B-Movie. Too smart for us. And despite a lengthy discussion as to what was better matched to mouth: bread or cigarette, we got it wrong. Bread should have gone with the other topic - tiger. Tiger bread, you see. Well done, Martin. Sorry we didn't get it.

Us 21
Belratti 6

Then we split into two groups. The Was Sticht gang (Joe, Ian, Adam and me) regrouped for another attempt at the wily trick taker while Katy, Martin and Sam sat around the card table for a feisty game of Senators.

Was Sticht started hesitantly, with Ian having to have two attempts at explaining who won which trick during the opening matrix stage. Then the game was remarkable for a large number of no trumps, and for round three when I dealt out no green cards at all in the first half of the matrix.

The game was much smoother this time, with Joe cleverly choosing his cards according to one of the criteria ("no tricks", "no green cards," etc) he needed to complete.

But I won again! Is this the game for me? It was close, though.

Andrew 3 plus 16 on the tiebreaker
Joe 3 plus 13
Ian 2
Adam 1

While we finished that, the card table gang finished Senators and two other games too. From what I can gather, Martin was in the lead and then saw a sudden collapse in support, followed by the third war ending the game in dramatic fashion.

Katy 11
Sam 10
Martin 9

They followed this up with Heul Doch Mau Mau. I don't know what variant they were playing but when Martin said "balls!" in frustration, Katy replied "hairy or shaved?" I didn't note Martin's answer but judging by the final score, his frustration can't have lasted long.

Martin 114
Katy 85
Sam 83

They also managed to squeeze in one round of the word game Handsome. Sam won.

Sam 3
Katy 1
Martin 1

Then there was a period of reshuffling, with four crossword wizards (Sam, Adam, Joe and Martin) going head to head over a game of Montage. Although Sam did apologize beforehand that anyone paired with him would lose.

I tried to listen in to make notes but the only clue I heard was "Donkey" and its answer was "Ass". But I'm sure the rest of the clues were brilliant.

Joe and Martin won!
Sam and Adam didn't.

The rest of us played Downfall of Pompeii, which needed a little rule refresher but was otherwise smooth sailing. We were a little surprised when the rules told us that the owner of the game should set everything up but, since Joe was already playing Montage, we struggled on without him.

It was a memorable game Katy who got one Omen card after another, allowing her to throw her opponents into the volcano. She ended with no meeples left to put on the board when, luckily, Vesuvius erupted. I wonder if I got the Relative Rule wrong but it was wrong for all of us, so never mind.

It was enormous fun pushing lava into the path of our opponents so they died a fiery death. Kathy's early advantage lead to her victor.

Katy 7
Ian 6
Andrew 5

Around this time Adam left and the remaining three bashed out a quick game of Eggs Of Ostrich to fill the time until Pompeii was covered in lava.

Martin 11
Joe 6
Sam 3

Then the six of us played Stinker. Winning entries that I managed to write down were...

Why is a good man hard to find? Polio Death (Ian)
What's under the Pope's hat? Courgettes (Joe)
The name of a fairy tale? Alana and the Bum (Martin)
How to tell someone they have bad breath? Smell toilet to compare. (Katy)

Don't recall the category for this one.

Martin 32
Joe 27
Katy 25
Sam 24
Andrew 11
Ian 9

Then Sam and Ian left, while the final four played on past the eleventh hour with a rousing game of Krass Kariert, the card game of no winners, just losers. We all lost one life in the four rounds that we played and so we called it a draw and went home rejoicing in our shared non-defeat.

The Top 20 GNN Games

Measured by unique plays, four years on....



1 ⏩⏪ 7 Wonders, 87 (previously: 7 Wonders, 74)


2 ⏩⏪ Biblios, 80 (previously: Biblios 62)


3 🔼6Nimmt, 67 (previously: Lords of Waterdeep, 43)


4 🔼Love Letter, 64 (previously: 6Nimmt, 41)




5 🔼 Push It, 55 (previously: No Thanks / Love Letter, 39)


6 🔻No Thanks, 52 (previously: Tinner's Trail, 36)


7 🔼Pairs, 49 (previously: Stone Age, 33)


8 🔻Lords of Waterdeep, 47 (previously: Trans America/Europa, 32)


9 🔼Fuji Flush, 44 (previously: Tsuro/Alhambra: 30) 

 
10 🔻Tinner's Trail/🔼Take it Easy, 43 (previously: Railways of the World/Ra/Pairs: 28)


11 🔼For Sale, 39 (previously: Take it Easy, 25)

 
12 🔻Railways of the World/🔻Tsuro, 38 (previously: Timeline/Incan Gold, 24)


13 🔻Ra, 37 (previously:Kingdom Builder/Cube Quest: 23 each)

 
14 🔼Raj/⏩⏪Quantum, 34 (previously:Ticket to Ride/Raj/Quantum, 20)

  
15 🔻Stone Age/🔻Trans America & Europa, 33  (previously: Agricola/Macao, 19)


16 🔼Lords of Vegas, 33 (previously: Poison/Castles of Mad King Ludwig, 18)

 
17 🔻Timeline/🔻Alhambra, 31 (previously: Hey That's My Fish, 17)

 
18 🔼The Mind, 🔻Kingdom Builder, 30 (previously: Medici/Istanbul: 15)


19  🔼Incan Gold & Diamant, 29  (previously: Lords of Vegas/Castles of Burgundy/Las Vegas/Ascending Empires/Carcassonne, 14)


20 🔼Azul, 28 (previously: Roll Through the Ages/Port Royal/The Resistance, 13 play)