Reach for the Skyscrapers

Thursday! It's not Tuesday, but one is still allowed to game in the right circumstances, and those circumstances arrived at 8.30pm for myself (Sam) Andrew and Steve. Steve was unfashionably early, so the quick two-player game of Just One Andrew and I settled on quickly became a three.

It's tough with three. For the guesser in particular, although Andrew and I did manage to duplicate our clues for Powder by both writing Talcum; Steve guessed we'd both written gun. A reasonable assumption - but the game as a whole didn’t  reach the heights of success that Tuesday's did. Nonetheless Just One is always fun. 

The meat of the evening, even if it's more thin-sliced ham than gammon steak, was New York 1901. It's New York - I forget the year - and we're all building, building for the skies in the days when the gherkin would have been frowned on as not nearly square enough. Turns are simple - grab a lot, place a worker on the lot. Build there now, or hope to grab an adjacent lot later, in order to build bigger and better buildings. 

But because you only have four workers at your disposal, there is a kind of economy to things. There's also rewards for having the most buildings on particular streets, and the possibility to demolish previously-built buildings in order to build better ones. Sadly, you can only demolish your own... 

Steve and Andrew were off the marks quickly and before I knew what was happening, they were dominating Broadway and Cedar Street. I focused my energy on building, building, building, and was the first to claim a legendary skyscraper in order to leap ahead on the scoretrack. But you can only build one of these in the entire game, so in the parlance of architects, I'd basically run out of scaffolding. 

As the lots ran out it was clearly a two-way battle between Steve and Andrew: I claimed nothing from the most-buildings-on-streets rewards and they surged past me. Steve getting two was key to his victory:

Steve 70

Andrew 67

Sam 63

With the time now nearing ten, Andrew headed for home, but Steve and I still had some games left in us, and we kicked off a delightful hour of 2-player silliness with Karambolage. This is a 25-year-vintage Haba game where a play area defined by string contains a number of coloured discs. Dice are rolled showing matching colours, and your job is to flick one colour into another, as Steve demonstrates deftly here:

The wooden block can be placed wherever you like before you make your shot. As deft as we - Steve especially - were, we were also regularly catastrophically over or under-flicking. Often the dice are unkind and the colours rolled are blocked from a direct shot, so you have to attempt a rebound. 

I never managed it at all, but Steve did a couple of times. There's a Can't Stop style point-scoring system where you can bank what you have or choose to roll again and push your luck, and we regularly fell foul of our own insatiable greed for points as well. If you roll doubles on the dice, you roll again and keep rolling until you get two colours, but every doubles roll increases the points value of your next shot. We had a lot of fun with this, and I managed to conquer Steve over three games despite getting the Uncontrollable Yips when on the verge of victory in game three. 

Sam 2

Steve 1

It was nearing eleven but our gaming tank still had fuel in it, so I introduced Steve to Kariba, the game of waterhole dominance, and overcame a terrible start in order to gain a second win - at least in part to a slight rules misunderstanding.

Sam 28

Steve 22

There was just enough time for me to try and drunkenly explain the rules to Outfoxed (I think I might have called it Fox in the Forest, which is, er, different...) to Steve before we called it a night. As always, splendid fun, thanks gentlemen!

Just One Virgin

Six eager players sat around Joe's kitchen table this week. The host was joined by myself, Adam H, Ian, Martin and Katy with Adam T expected later. There was no Sam but he was still a part of tonight as we discussed the mystery of his three year old email that had suddenly dropped into all our inboxes. It was so old that it went to people who'd long since left the mailing list and a couple contacted Joe asking if it should have gone to him instead.

But talk about where this email had been for three years was put to one side and we played L.A.M.A. to fill the time until Adam T arrived. I went clear in the first two rounds but Joe, despite an apparent inability at remembering which number followed which ("I forgot there were sixes,") went clear in round three and got rid of a ten point token.

Joe 5
Andrew 9
Martin 15
Ian 25
Katy 28
Adam 45

When Adam T arrived we split into two. Joe, Martin, Adam T and Katy played Babylonia - the table-hogging area control game from Knizia. That meant Ian, Adam H and me adjourned to the card table for slightly smaller scale fun.

We started with Can't Stop, discovering that if you can stop, the game passes by pretty serenely. Ian and I were sensible while Adam pushed his luck and failed regularly. Even though he went for sevens. Out of the four rounds we played, he succeeded only once. I, on the other hand, got lucky and closed out the 2 and 12 columns quickly before wrapping up the 8 column for a swift victory.

Andrew 3
Ian 1
Adam H 0

Then we chose Hab and Gut, which just about fitted on the table. Ian manipulated Yellows to good effect in round one but then joined me on a doomed speculation that Brown would improve dramatically in round two. It didn't.

Adam was the wisest investor but, in the final count, we discovered he didn't have to be since Ian and I both donated exactly the same amount to charity ensuring that we were both disqualified as joint least generous.

Adam H 720
Andrew 695 but OUT
Ian 520 but OUT

Midway through this game Babylonia ended…

Martin 133
Adam T 127
Joe 120
Katy 106

And they embarked on a few missions of Die Crew. I was a bit miffed that I was going to miss this game again but Martin assured me that there'd be plenty of time to catch up.

They began where they left off, on mission 9 and continued until mission 14 . Martin would read the scenario and criteria before each mission. They pondered over their co operative trick taking (notwithstanding Katy's outburst of "I won" after one successful mission) and indulged in the kind of dialogue that more science fiction should have.

"I've done it again," said Adam, sighing.

"What do you mean 'Done it again'?" asked Martin.

"You'll see," replied Adam.

Now imagine that in a block-buster CG-laden sci-fi film and you can see the appeal of the game.

Anyway, after Hab and Gut, we on the card table played Take It Easy. Categories were: Things I taped off the TV onto VHS (me), Terry Pratchett books (Ian, revisiting an old favourite) and computer games I've played (Adam). Whoever called the categories scored worse for that round, interestingly enough.

Adam 439
Ian 385
Andrew 358

This was followed by a discussion prompted by my disbelief that Sim City ever came out on the ZX Spectrum.

Then Die Crew finished and we were all together again. We needed a rousing party game to finish off. I was keen on Stinker but Cybil the dog had pissed on the floor and it was difficult to reach the game without standing on damp yellowing tissues. So Just One was chosen instead.

We were amazed and delighted to discover that it was a brand new copy brought by Joe to entertain so visitors for the forthcoming weekend. Katy revelled in the feel of a virgin pack of cards and she marvelled at the new dry wipe pens.

"Looking forward to using my rubber. Look how firm it is!" she exclaimed happily.

"It doesn't stay firm for long," said Joe, dolefully.

But double entendres aside, we whipped through the first four rounds when Joe mentioned that they've never achieved a clean sweep. Katy was not impressed because he'd mentioned this right before her turn, putting the pressure on.

But she succeeded and the correct answers kept coming (although no one managed to guess a duplicated word) until it came back to Katy at which point Joe reminded her what was at stake, causing more despair as all hopes came to rest on her shoulders.

But she rose to the occasion, got it right and all that was left was for Adam T to correctly guess the last word "pool" which he did. And by the way, kudos to whoever (Ian, I think) wrote "swimming" because this most obvious of clues wasn't duplicated. A perfect run of Just One was completed.

With history made, Ian, Katy and the two Adams left. Martin, Joe and I took on the mighty challenge of The Mind Extreme. The rules are the same except there are two suits, red and white, of 1-50 and the white cards should go up in value while the red cards should go down. And sometimes one of the piles is placed face down.

We played twice and both times got finished off by round six, a devilish level that requires both piles to be placed face down. Evil. The second time we perhaps should have used more shurikens but instead lost both our remaining lives to mere single--digit mistakes. Very cruel.

But fun. Thanks all for a lovely evening. See you next Tuesday.

Yukon fly if you want to

In an apparent attempt at breaking the record for length of time between games night and games night report, I finally sit down on Sunday 24 November to write up our little soiree from four days earlier.

Having missed Tuesday's games night, when Sam sent out a call for some extra gaming on Wednesday, I jumped at the chance. Also taking advantage of our host's hospitality was Ian and Adam and the four of us sat down around the table with Yukon Passengers already laid out before us.

Sam talked us through the rules, having played it through a few times over the weekend, and randomly assigned the starting player to Adam. This prompted the first bout of AP of the night as he looked from his hand of cards, to the board and then back again. The basic premise of delivering coloured dice to locations that house cubes of the same colour is simple enough, but on the way there are new icons to grasp and questions to asked. Such as how to make a ten-fuel trip when your plane's tank only holds seven.

But even once the initial confusion had passed, the AP continued with each player trying to maximise the potential of their hand of cards while being aware of the risk of losing a destination to someone who took off before you. This is because in order to pull of a high scoring move, you'd need a bonus that was only available if choosing to take your turn later in the turn.

As I recall, that didn’t happen as much as I was expecting. The fact you can see what dice someone has taken and therefore work out where they’re probably going means it’s possible to avoid (or engineer, if your being a dick) those situations.

The basic premise of deliver colour to matching colour, then, is simple with a lot of jiggery pokery in between to add a bit of puzzley elements to it. We came away with the feeling this was perhaps better with three players, and with the abiding image (and I don’t remember how we got here) that Ian is at his most confident when sitting in an infinity pool on top of a Dubai skyscraper while slowly wetting himself through his trunks.

Interesting design on the backs of the cards: is this four cards or two?

Adam 82
Sam 81 wins second place on tie breaker
Andrew 81
Ian 68

Adam went at this point, clearly having had too much fun, and Ian, Sam and I broke out The Mind for old times sake and a bit of whisky. It was nice to revisit it after so long and while my memory is hazy, I expect it threw up the same kind of close shaves and near misses as it usually does. I do recall that we failed on round six. A noble effort.

Thanks all.

Tricked into Space

Tuesday, and chez Joe's alongside the host sat Katy, Martin and myself (Sam) with Steve on the way. Unusually both Andrew and Ian were missing! Instead I took blogging duties and Steve provided the fatalism.

Martin's return from Eastbourne signified an influx of Essen-smuggled games in his bag, and first onto the table was Hurlyburly. This is something like a cross between Rhino Hero and Castle Crush - everyone is building their own tower a la the former, but trying to knock each other's constructions down like the latter - only with catapults!

The home-spun components smacked of an enthusiast's labour of love, and apparently the designers are father and daughter. Very sweet! The game itself - not so sweet. But a lot of fun. On your turn you can add sandbags, take blocks, construct more levels (fast for height or strong for sturdy) - or attack. As the winner is the player who has a four-level tower at the start of their turn, it's beholden on everyone to attack each other when that threat becomes imminent. Like Joe did to Martin here:

You can also improve your catapult. This is rather key, as the starting catapult is pretty flimsy and reaching the other side of the table with it is a bit of an ask. But when you slide in extra layers of card for rigidity, suddenly your blocks can go that much further.

We liked it so much we played twice - Katy won the first game, and Joe the second.

By that time Steve had arrived, so without a great amount of further ado - one day, Tulip Bubble! - we settled on Decrypto. Katy was markedly suspicious of this choice as she remembered being too far away from the pad the last time she played. Martin suggested moving nearer. Katy narrowed her eyes, and joined Steve and I as we faced off against Martin and Joe.

It's definitely an advantage having two guessers on a team instead of one - spotting links (as Steve did) that someone else (me) might have missed entirely. But you wouldn't have known it at the start of the game as for three rounds we were completely foxed trying to find any meaning at all. Worse, it seemed like they were onto us. 

But then we had an inkling of one word (Picnic) and made a somewhat fortunate interception. We cashed in our laser tokens, identified picnic and won! What's more we were very close on two other words as well - we'd actually written Garden and Breakfast on our pad. Joe and Martin had worked out word 2 (Dance) but were otherwise stumped.

Katy, Steve, Sam - Decrypto!

Martin and Joe - Decrepto

The most notable part of Decrypto wasn't actually the guessing though, but Joe insisting that the word crap was onomatopoeic. We wondered what he'd been eating.

Next up was Die Crew, the trick-taking game of co-operative space exploration. We played the first Mission again to introduce the mechanics to Katy and Steve. Katy picked things up quickly, but Steve was bewildered. He told us we should continue the mission because that was his default state anyway. We liked that do-or-die attitude, and played several more rounds, taking three attempts at Mission 8 before we succeeded. "There's over fifty missions!" Martin exclaimed, perhaps marvelling at our ineptitude. Mission 8 is hard though.

Steve and I were keen for a different flavour of game so we played LAMA. For whatever reason whenever a Llama was played the active player would pipe "Llama" as though we were playing reverse bingo. Steve started rather badly, and things got worse when Martin and I dropped out of round two and he, Joe and Katy just kept picking up cards...

Then I had a hand of high cards and kept picking up more, pushing me into last place. But Joe played like a pro and wrapped things up when Katy fell apart in successive rounds to trigger the end:

Joe 6
Martin 12
Steve 30
Sam 35
Katy 46

After we packed LAMA away Joe told a story about being in the sauna which I now don't recollect the details of, and Katy called a leftover card a 'wanker', leading to a discussion about when cards should or shouldn't be sleeved. The details are probably all best lost though.

Despite the encroaching late hour, For Sale was quickly voted as the next game. It was a game of strange displays, with opening bidding cards tableaus having all high cards and then the final one all low except for the 30. Everyone picked things up cheaply, and there was a surprising lack of teeth-gnashing. In a tight game, Martin ran out the winner:

Martin 60
Katy 55
Joe 50
Steve 49
Sam 46

Before we wrapped things up with Just One, playing our house rule of guessing eliminated (duplicate) clues if the guesser guesses correctly. We ran into trouble with Katy's word being Muse (I only understood my own clue for that one) but did rather well overall, with our variant rule making up for any failures - we scored a 'perfect' 13, but the house rule does need its own separate scoring system really as theoretically you could score 26 points with it.

In the meantime, that was that! I didn't take photos of Just One, but here's a plastic bull.

The Luckiest Casino In The World

Our annual mass exodus from family responsibilities in favour of several days of gaming nonsense took place in a familiar cottage near Taunton - the same venue as last year and all our devices recognised the wifi without needing the password. Sam and I arrived first in the crisp air of a Friday morning in November. Technically we were half an hour early, but the cottage was unlocked and ready for us. We got settled and began our weekend by doing surprisingly well at the Guardian cryptic crossword. Joe, Adam, Ian and Katy were next to arrive at 12:20 and after some arranging and storing of food, we began.

Joe does a few reps before getting started

Sam, Katy, Ian and I began with the aptly named Startups. We played for three rounds, two of which involved Ian sighing in incomprehension followed by a third round where he won handsomely, wiping out all his minus points to date. Thanks to Oink Games usual 2pt, 1pt, -1pt for last place scoring system, it ended pretty evenly.

Sam 2
Andrew 2
Katy 2
Ian 0

Joe and Adam chose a two player war game, Undaunted. Joe won after an attritional battle for farmhouse 13B, apparently.

After this, Katy went for a walk - on her own since no one else seemed keen - while Sam and I went to Waitrose to buy our share of beer and nibbles. Once we were back the others were deep into a game of Artemis Project, which looked like a bit of a beast and came complete with a sort of meeple tower that you would pour meeples are random out onto cards. Jon won, beating Adam by a point.

Sam and I filled the time by playing Assembly, a two-player co-op puzzle game in which you have to open a sealed air lock by moving discs onto cards that have the same symbol. It was entertaining and we managed to open the door with the last turn of the game.

Katy returned and the three of us played Cartographers. I didn’t win, but my map - complete with mountain surrounded by a large lake - seemed to describe a land I’d quite like to visit.

Sam 79
Andrew 77
Katy 69

Now, you remember I began this post by talking about leaving responsibilities behind? Well, alas I found I had one that I couldn’t ignore, so I got back into my car and set off back to Bristol for the evening, promising to be back tomorrow morning. I was somewhat sad about this, but I had little choice.

So, until then, I hand over to Sam to talk us through the proceedings...


After Andrew left I took up temporary blogging duties, with the current situation Joe taking on Adam and Ian at Res Arcana ("Because Martin isn't here") and Steve, Jon and I attacking each other in Rise of Tribes. Katy was busy in the kitchen making a vegetable tagine.

Rise of Tribes began relatively peacefully, as humans perhaps once did, before following well-established pattern of descending into war. Steve and I surged ahead of Jon. Jon urged us to attack each other. We were both hesitant though, knowing that to do so would leave us open to Jon's mustering forces gathering on the other half of the map.

Something had to give, and in the end both Jon and I piled in on Steve (points leader at that point) as Jon's blue tribespeople seemed to proliferate all over the land. He made substantial comeback and a tense finale ensued with all of us potentially one move from victory. I couldn't manage it - Jon was poised to score three points at the start of his turn and win, but Steve was before him in turn order... and he wrapped things up:

Steve 15
Sam 14
Jon 12

Res Arcana ended around the same time, with Joe victorious:

Joe
Adam
Ian

I didn't hear much of what happened at the time, but the next day was assured by Adam that "Joe trounced us in three or four rounds" and by Joe that the game was "hilarious".

The early evening also hosted a staccato game of Tumblin' Dice, but it never ended. At least, not on the day.

After Katy's delicious tea, there were more games to be played. Jon coaxed Adam and Steve into his new acquisition Paladins of the West Kingdom, while I had something close to a mental breakdown trying to remember the rules to Treasure Island. I last played it only two months back but the nuances were totally lost on me and the weird layout of the rulebook meant we spent almost as long working out the (relatively simple) rules as we did playing the game.

Joe was Long John Silver, and hid the treasure somewhere on the island. Ian, Katy and I were pirates looking for it, spending the dwindling days searching before Joe Long John escapes captivity and claims it for himself. It was entertaining, but that might have been partly the ongoing purgatory for Steve and Adam in the nearby game of Paladins.

"I said it was chewy" Jon pointed out.
"You said it was simple!" - Adam
"It is simple. Put a wooden guy on the board!"

Steve worried that there would be an inquisition, and it wasn't entirely clear if he meant the game or not.

Meanwhile Katy found the treasure...

Katy: Rich!

...and we began a game of the long-dormant Alhambra. This used to feature almost every week in the the pre/early blog days, so regularly that between us Joe and I recalled every rule. I think. I built a long wall early on, and found - like Joe - that I was stuck with an alhambra that subsequently resisted the idea of expansion. But late-game we both recovered and my epic wall sealed the win:

Sam 108
Joe 98
Ian 89
Katy 76

Katy felt she should get an extra point for having her surname 'Wall' but we resisted this idea, as there was no structural integrity to it.

Paladins of the West Kingdom was continuing, so we played Mamma Mia. The highlight of which was probably Ian's Italian accent. Or Joe's. We all attempted to make pizzas that ended as ghosts of an idea, but come closing time I claimed the title of Chef with Best Memory/Luck..

Sam 6
Katy/Joe 5 each
Ian 4

Then we played Push It, with Katy and I taking on Ian and Joe. Katy said I should prepare myself for defeat, but actually we ran away with it!

Katy and Sam 11
Joe and Ian 3

The Paladins of the West Kingdom ended! It had been a three hour epic and at time of writing it's still unclear what level of PTSD they are currently undergoing.

Jon 53
Adam 44
Steve 39

Before we joined together for a game of Just One that defied the term 'co-operative' - so drunken, tired and post-Paladiny everyone was that the atmosphere was almost like a begrudging intervention, albeit one punctured by laughter. I don't recall what about now, as I was exhausted at this point and couldn't stop yawning. We didn't do very well.

All of us: 7 - must do better.

Adam, Ian and I all retired at this point, but Joe and Katy partook of further debilitating ingestments and initiated a drunken game of Midnight Party, at midnight. Joe was having some kind of psychotic episode and forgot all the rules, being concerned - he confessed the next day - that his heart might stop beating. Steve remembered them. Katy dealt with the psychosis better and pulled off a win:

Katy -18
Jon -33
Steve -36
Joe -57

And that was it for Friday, at least as far as gaming was concerned. There was still some nighttime weeing in the fields and Joe fell over on the way to his pod.


Meanwhile...

I (Andrew) returned to the cottage mid-morning on Saturday and recommenced blogging duties. The table was already straining under a game of Tales of the Arabian Nights (Joe, Katy and Ian) and a two-player Feast For Odin between Adam and Jon at the end. According to Sam’s notes, Katy was worried that she would still be in jail by the time the game was finished, and Joe found himself grief-stricken.

Adam beat Jon at feast For Odin, after which Jon said he had a headache.

Adam 119
Jon 100

Steve and Sam played Cartographers that ended 88-75 to Sam and then I arrived just in time to join the two of them in a game of Villagers which Steve didn't understand at all for the first couple of rounds. Sam had clearly learned a thing or two having been beaten when playing against his son.

Sam 103
Andrew 84
Steve 81

After this, while we paused and considered our options, Jon taught Sam Getaway Driver, a table top equivalent of all those car chases that used to amaze us when we were nine. He won, too.

Next Sam, Joe, Ian and I embarked upon an epic game: Ancient Civilizations Of The Inner Sea, despite us all having to deal with fatigue/hangovers of various strengths. It was Joe's first game and he surged into an early lead. This,of course meant everyone started picking on him. Then Ian made his move and Sam and I had our hands full with trying to pick on both of them.

We had agreed to only play two epochs, and as we were halfway through the second we were almost neck and neck: Sam 61, Joe 59, me 59, Ian 58. Then, in the final round, I clocked up fourteen points, barging into first position and not even the End Of Game Event could unseat me.

Andrew 76
Ian 72
Joe 68
Sam 67

There was guarded praise for the game from Joe while Sam admitted that it wasn't at its best on a drowsy afternoon. As if to demonstrate that point, Ian retreated to his room to try and sleep off his hangover.

Meanwhile, Jon introduced Katy and Steve to Roam.

Steve 26
Katy 25
Jon 21

While people lazed about, a group of gamers decided to try Sol. I was supposed to explain the rules but my memory of them was too unreliable. I stalled for time by setting up until Sam got to the table and he took over.

It was Jon's first game and he found himself cursed by two offset gates that no one wanted to use. As such, he suffered from an acute lack of energy. Steve refused to drink until five o'clock exactly, even going so far as to pour it a couple of minutes beforehand so he could be really precise.

Sam 29
Adam 29
Steve 25
Andrew 19
Jon 11

During this, a revived (perhaps) Ian and Katy played two games of Kribbeln. First, they drew and then Ian won.

Elsewhere,the ever-present Tumbin' Dice board attracted a new group of gamers. Adam entertained us all by flicking three dice in a row that all scored minus points. He was in second place when that happened.

Jon 120
Andrew 100
Adam 91
Sam 74

And then, just before food, Kribbeln had turned into Push It, where Ian beat Katy 12-7. Joe supplied us all with pasta and tomato salad and following that, we split into two groups. One went down the epic path, embarking on a five-player game of Western Legends. The other three took a route past three different games until one of us gave up and went to bed.

Adam is delighted by the shape he made when peeling a satsuma

The three of us were Sam, Adam and me who broke out Orbit: The International Space Race. I failed to get any of my initial missions and, when the final scoring was announced, Sam admitted to an enormous amount of luck in how the missions he picked up during the game went together.

Sam 47
Adam 27
Andrew 17

Western Legends was played by Steve (who made full use of his American accent throughout), Katy, Ian, Joe and Jon. Joe explained the rules and it took so long that we were halfway through Orbit by the time they’d started. It was a rip-roaring event, judging by the amount of times Katy gleefully called out “Go to the cabaret!” The highlight was a game of poker where Katy saw her full house beaten by Jon’s four of a kind. How cruel.

Ian 25
Katy 23
Jon 22
Joe 16
Steve 11

Ian was so exhausted by this, that he went to bed.

On the other end of the table, Orbit was replaced by Kartel which is a simple game of criminal allegiances.

Andrew 12
Sam 9
Adam 9

And we followed that with Movable Type. “Let’s let Sam win a game,” said Adam when we’d agreed on it. But that turned into a cunning double bluff.

Adam 20 (“Lucky”)
Sam 17 (“Doughing”)
Andrew 15 (“Quiz”)

And now Adam, too, retired for the evening. “But what about Midnight Party?” Katy wailed. Sam and I passed the time until Western Legends ended with Passtally, a clever puzzle game of making links.

Andrew 35
Sam 34

But after Passtally and Western Legends finished, it was still nowhere near midnight. Hugo would have to wait. Instead we played A Fake Artist Goes to New York. I explained the rules to a sceptical Jon, and he didn’t really enjoy it - not his kind of game. I had fun, though. My first key word was Orchestra and it remains a bone of contention if Joe’s drawing of an orchestra pit was far too much of a clue or was brilliant in its execution. Sam, the fake artist, got enough of an idea that he was able to blend in (Katy was accused instead) but he wasn’t able to guess the actual word. Then Jon was found out in the second round, when he couldn’t join in with our hamburger picture.

Next, Sam and Steve retired and the remaining four of us finally dug up Hugo and dumped him on the table. Hugo was very fast up the stairs in each of the three rounds which didn’t suit Joe and his ability to roll ones. Katy finally found out that there were two Hugoes on the die, which explained how unlucky we were in rolling so many of them.

Jon -21
Katy -31
Andrew -54
Joe -54

So, with Midnight Party finished, you might think that was the end of it but there was one more game left in our lungs: Memoarrr. This simple memory game feels like it’s as much against yourself as any of your opponents. It was Jon’s first game and, despite a poor start, he came right back into it.

Jon 7
Andrew 4
Joe 3
Katy 1

What a way to end the evening and start the morning. We finally went to bed to catch some sleep.

On Sunday, I was up first at 7.30am. First, that is, unless you count Adam who’d had to leave his sub-Arctic room for the joys of a sofa. I pottered about quietly, read and did my Japanese homework while waiting for people to wake up.

And they did, making breakfast and slowly getting into gear. Katy informed everyone that there was no pain au chocolat, when there was actually one on her plate! The games began where they left off, with another game of Memoarrr.

Joe 6
Andrew 5
Ian 4

Then Jon, Joe and Katy embarked on Yokohama while at the other end of the table (and of the gaming spectrum) Steve and Sam faced off against each other in three games of Flick Fleet. Sam won the first game but then somehow managed to send his ship too close to the Neutron Star and quickly lost the second round. Steve won the decider in a nail biting finale.

Finally, Ian and I gathered up enough enthusiasm for another game, and decided on Tumblin’ Dice. It was pretty close until the last round which either shows how similar we are in terms of skill, or that Tumblin’ Dice is mostly luck. Ian pulled away in the last round, though, clocking up forty points to my feeble fifteen.

Ian 120
Andrew 98

Next, Adam emerged for his first game: Powerships, against Andrew, Steve, Ian and Sam. Adam found the perfect line to the finish and even landed perfectly on a hyperspace square to get him back even faster, with me, Steve and Ian coming in one move later.

Adam
Andrew
Steve
Ian
Sam

Yokohama finished after Katy insisted that she was enjoying herself even if it might look as if she weren’t.

Jon 155
Katy 142 (“I still had a nice time!”)
Joe 133

We broke for lunch and finally those of us who hadn’t had a walk yet actually went outside. Admittedly, only down the road to the farmhouse to pick up some dishwasher tablets but, nevertheless, this counts as a walk.

Back in the cabin, four of us (Adam, Joe, Steve and Katy) loaded up the saddles once more and rode back into Western Legends. The other four (Jon, Ian, Sam and me) portrayed a different side of American history with Neta Tanka, which involves Native American tribes building the tallest totem pole or most teepees or best craft items. It was an interesting game with plenty of opportunities for screwage after a fairly docile beginning. Ian used The Nomad (an extra meeple that you can buy in order to use in the next round) to take all the meat from the board, leaving Sam bereft. But karma came back in a big way for Ian when he found his penultimate turn ruined by a lack of wood to cook meat. This left his plans in tatters and he ended in full “that’s me fucked, then” mode for the final round.

Jon 47
Sam 38
Andrew 37
Ian 34

In Western Legends, Katy managed to rob a bank, only to find she already had too much money and couldn’t take the $80 with her. She didn’t seem too enamoured with the game this time.

Adam 22 (most marshall points)
Joe 22
Steve 21
Katy 18

Then they banged out a quick No Thanks

Adam 32
Katy 52
Joe 59
Steve 76

Katy went to have a nap at this point while some of us rested. Jon, Ian and Adam had a game of Powerships. Jon came first and then Adam overshot the finish, went around the planet and still got back before Ian did.

Jon
Adam
Ian

Joe, Sam and Steve played Arabian Nights. Joe found himself grief-stricken again while Steve was an envious outlaw on a pilgrimage. Envious, perhaps, of Sam who ended the game first, blessed and respected. That was Steve’s last game of the weekend, and we set him off home with (hopefully) lots to talk about.

Katy came out at some point, looked at the clock and went straight back to bed again saying something about thinking it was one hour later.

Then we played Cartographer:

Adam 95
Ian 92
Andrew 81

Next we play Awkward Guests, an ingeniously designed game which allows multiple murder scenarios to be solved by selecting certain cards from a deck. Then it is up to the detectives to trade clues with each other to try and decide who had killed the victim.

Sam was first to guess, and typed it into the app, only to be greeted with the sound of a sad trombone. I was next, and got the same result. Then, after a while when it looked like no one was getting close, we all guessed again and the last person to guess got it right! Well done Adam.

Next, Katy got her wish for a game of Lords of Vegas. It was Jon’s first turn and he got thrown slightly in at the deep end. Katy and Adam quickly built up large casinos. Katy merging with mine and Adam merging with Jon. People sprawled into vacant lots, only to see them reclaimed later in the game.

Perhaps the craziest story is that of Katy’s eight-tile casino. Once it was impregnable: a seemingly seven-tile solid source of points. She was so confident that when she ran out of dice for new developments, she took on from there, despite my three dice lurking. Then a sprawl was discovered, giving Adam a vital entry and then Jon draw a card allowing him a piece of the action too. This eight-tile behemoth was rerolled several times and, amazingly, it usually ended in Adam’s favour. Even after I rolled everything, and went through four tie-breakers, each time with me as a potential winner, it still went to Adam. Then both Katy and I paid money to Jon to reroll it and Adam won again. Amazing scenes.

Of course, Katy still had options elsewhere, and she had no issues with scoring. Then game carried on much longer than usual and she found herself clocking up a record score, with Adam on his tail. The game over card was fourth from the end.

Katy 66
Adam 60
Andrew 49
Jon 26

The other game being played at that time was Rise of Tribes. Shamefully, I was so caught up in Vegas, I don’t know what happened there.

Ian 15
Sam 13
Joe 11

Followed by Memoarrr, this time the advanced version where the cards move around and stuff.

Sam 9
Joe 4
Ian 2

Lastly the three of them played Just One. As a three-player it worked well with the variant where the guesser can guess the clue in the event of both clue-givers writing the same one.

Then, with all of us in various states of over-excitement, we relaxed for a while and played Sausage & Mash to wind down.

Once we’d winded down, it was time to get tense again with Midnight Party. This time with everyone involved! Sam rolled nothing but Hugoes for all of round one, picking up -14 points in the process. He recovered well, though. But Katy won, beating a pretty close chasing pack.

Katy -10
Andrew -12
Joe -15
Sam -20
Jon -21
Adam -22
Ian -28

With that, it was our final trip to bed before Monday morning, which saw only one game being played among the breakfasting and packing: Passtally. Sam taught it to Adam and Jon and they puzzled over each other’s links before Sam realised that it was nowhere near ending and they had to get moving.