A quantum paradox

With festivities at a minimum, perhaps it's no surprise to see so many people with nothing better to do during the Christmas period than play board games online. Martin, Sam, Ian, Katy, Adam T, Andy and me met on Discord and since there were seven of us, with Martin's begrudging acceptance, we played 7 Wonders.

Andy built no resources at all in round one, while Martin and I go big on sciences. Martin expresses surprise at how well he's doing and is gutted when he saw how close he came to a win.

Sam 60, plus cash

Martin 60

Ian 55, plus cash

Andrew 55

Adam 50

Andy 49

Katy 36

With all those tie breakers, I consoled myself with the thought that I was, effectively, joint second. Less happy was Katy, who couldn't understand why she was last. She was told that both her neighbours, Ian and Andy, overtook her military forces with the last card of the game. 

Then we split into two groups. I expressed an interest in Marrakech and people quickly joined me. Ian, Sam and Andy pondered what they should play and, apparently, they also chose Marrakech.

Ian 65

Andy 39

Sam 28

On the four-player game, it was Adam’s first turn and it was a close swingy affair. And Martin pointed out that, as last player, he was able to decide who came last by whose carpets he covered up with his final move. He chose Katy.

Martin 46

Andrew 42

Adam 37

Katy 36

Then we all joined up again, and I mentioned Quantum - which Ian had requested earlier. Sam was keen too so the three of us set off to another Google Hangout while the other four played a new trick taker, Segment Trix.

Quantum started off fine, with us placing cubes and fighting each other as per usual. Before long, Sam and I had one cube left and Ian needed to place two and there were only two spaces left. He went the war route, getting his dominance up to four then researching to six, picking up a tech card (aggression: dominance + 2) and thus his dominance hit 6 and he could put down a cube. A classic move.

Then we noticed an issue. Wherever he put the cube, it would mean that either Sam or I wouldn’t be able to finish the game since you can’t put a cube on a planet where you already have a cube. At first it was Sam who couldn’t place, but we ploughed on and, luckily, a Relocation card became available. Sam researched, picked it up, moved a cube and now I was unable to win. We started to get uncomfortable at this, since the only available strategy to me was to keep researching and using that to change all six tech cards, hoping for a Relocation card. We decided that this wasn’t workable, so we agreed to abandon the game.

Next we thought about which short fun game to finish the evening for Sam, and we went for 7 Wonders. I won, having gone big on war.

Andrew 55

Ian 45

Sam 42

Ian and I returned to the other Google Hangouts to find Andy was missing and Katy was stressed over her connection. Meanwhile, I couldn’t work out what was going on, game-wise. Still not sure who won, if anyone.

So the six of us played For Sale. We remarked on the disparity of ELO ratings, from a bunch of us in the mid-200s to Adam with 21. In the opening rounds, I picked up a 1 to much scorn from Martin and I had to pointedly remind him who had the best ELO rating in this game. Alas, hubris is usually followed by nemesis and I went into the buying round with a poor hand. I did pick up $15k with a 15 card, though. That was nice.

Andy 52

Ian 49

Adam 46

Martin 40

Andrew 38

Katy 35

For the record, Ian now has the highest ELO and Adam’s now stands at 62.

I left at this point, but the rest played Butterfly.

Andy 73

Martin 63

Ian 59

Katy 58

Adam 56

Cheers all. See you next year!

Eight gamers gaming

Another week of GNN. Except this was Christmas week, and previously this involved some kind of cake and a quiz by Sam but this year, all of that was passed over in favour of online gaming.

There were eight of us: Katy, Ian, myself, Sam, Martin, Andy, Steve and Anja. Once technical difficulties were ironed out we tried Fuji Flush and we were reminded how difficult it can be to explain rules online. Sat around a real table, Fuji Flush is pretty easy to understand but somehow the same can’t be said for staring at a screen. Steve professed to be confused and, as is usual when Steve insists he’s baffled, he won. The next couple of minutes were spent with people hitting the deal and recall buttons and generally behaving in a way that would get you thrown out of Vegas.

Then we split into two groups. Steve, Anja, Andy and I chose Thurn and Taxis since Steve and Anja were familiar with it and no one wanted to put them through more rules explanation. I was happy to play, having only recently played it myself. Andy is also familiar with it, mentioning that he’d played about 200 games of it on Yucata. As we began, I didn’t fancy my chances.

The other four of Katy, Martin, Ian and Sam played American Bookshop and Katy won by a country mile.

Katy 31

Sam 3

Martin 3

Ian –5

Then they played Marrakech on BGA and I can attest that it works well as a spectator sport. All the information is available meaning that you can play along with them. And I did enjoy imagining what kind of fruity language Martin came out with when he landed on Ian’s huge carpet and had to play him nine coins.

Sam 50

Ian 40

Katy 39

Martin 28

Then Sam left and the remaining three played Eggs of Ostrich while we finished off T&T.

Martin 14

Ian 9

Katy 7

Meanwhile, in Germany, I was feeling much better about my position after a 6-link route that allowed me to put down six houses. I’d been somewhat helped by Steve and Anja both having to abandon routes, which could explain their joint last place. 

Andy 28

Andrew 17

Steve 7

Anja 7

After this point, Andy left and the six of us finished off with a game of For Sale, with Steve initially daunted by some 200+ ELO ratings among us but we reassured him it was largely meaningless. Recently, a six-coin opening bid has become a classic move but this time Ian showed the power of a four-coin bid as a means of making people commit to a bun fight for treasures or pick up some trash for free.

In the end, the results more or less reflected our ELO ratings after all. And Steve and Anja tied again.

Andrew 52

Ian 47

Martin 46

Anja 40

Steve 40

Katy 27

And with that, we were done. Happy Christmas everyone. See you all soon.

Rude if you do, rude if you don't

Six gamers congregated in virtual space like a genteel version of Tron where the biggest threat is the sound of cutlery on plate or a crisp bag being opened.

We began with For Sale. Katy amazed us all with her opening gambit of taking the one. Sam was a little too frugal and as we began the last buying round he admitted that his highest card was 11. He went big(ish) on the last round and picked up a 20. However, during the game, that 20 card netted him only $4k in money. Ian managed to pick up $15k with only a 19, but that wasn’t enough to get him into the top half of the table. The victory had to be shared between Martin and Andy.

Martin 47

Andy 47

Andrew 45

Ian 41

Katy 40

Sam 38

So, after a little reminiscing about the Division, we decided to split into two groups. Katy, Ian and Martin set off for Marrakech while Andy, Sam and I went for Alhambra. Andy kept saying “it’d be rude not to” when taking an optimal move that ruined someone else's plan. Sam got stymied by the lack of an undo function, and I had such a quiet second round that I was never able to recover.

Andy 139

Sam 118

Andrew 101

Marrakech ended;

Katy 48

Ian 43

Martin 39

And then they played something called Ambiente Abassall (sp?).

Then all six of us were together for a quick round of Codenames. Sam and I were spymasters and I was given Ian and Andy while Sam got the louder Martin and Katy. I started with what I thought was a definite: “pontoon” for “Queen” and “Jack” but Ian and Andy only thought about boats. A poor start. Luckily, Sam’s clue lead Martin and Katy to one of my clues. 

We never lost the advantage, and when Katy mentioned Jack the Ripper when considering Sam’s clue of “Abduction” (for “Kid” and “Alien”) I realised I could use that clue to link “Jack” and “cloak”. Thanks Katy.

Quiet ones win

Loud ones don’t

Then Sam went. I was fine for a quick fun game but, funnily enough, there aren’t many fun quick games on BGA for 5 players. After some deliberation, I decided I would bow out too rather than stick around too long.

According to BGA, the four of them played Butterfly twice and Ian won both times. Well cone, Ian. And thanks all for the evening. We can probably squeeze in one more before Christmas, so see you next week maybe?

 

How Bazaar

In the absence of several of the regulars, I (Martin) convened with Ian, Andy and Laura for a brace of new arrivals to BoardGameArena set in North Africa. 

Fist up was Caravan, which I'm half-way through a turn-based game of, enough to know that it has the GNN-approved combination of simple rules and plentiful interaction. Laura had even gone to the trouble of watching a video to prepare, but was a little concerned that it had taken that group 3 hours to play. Fortunately it was more like one for us. 

The main idea here is familiar from Railways of the World: you're trying to pick up coloured goods cubes from around the board and transport them to their matching destination. But the tricky part is that you have only five camels available to you and often you'll want to move a cube over a longer distance.

Peculiarly, once a camel has picked up a good, it is rendered motionless, while the cube itself can be transferred to any other camel in a connected chain. So you have to shuffle goods along your chain, periodically moving the further back camels to the front, and hopefully planning towards your next drop-off too.

So far, so peaceful, but it's also possible to spend an action robbing a cube from a camel you share a spot with. To moderate this, each player starts the game with just one 'permit to steal', which you have to pass on to your victim, giving them an extra opportunity to pinch a good in the future. It's quite amusing watching someone painstakingly transport paper or cloth across miles of desert only to step in at the last moment and complete the delivery for them.

In our game, Laura took the moral high road, gathering up 3 of the 4 permits but then insisting she was too busy delivering her lawfully-obtained salt, despite my plaintive exhortations to steal from the leader Andy. His swift pair of deliveries of high-value cloth proved decisive:

Andy - 51

Martin - 45

Laura - 42

Ian - 36

Next Laura suggested Marrakesh, a game I've seen around for years but somehow never actually played. The BGA implementation can't match the tactility of the physical game, with its carpet segments of real cloth, but the game is still a lot of fun - again in the 'few rules, many chances to be a dick' mode. 

In this one, our market trader friend Assam moves around the souk according to a dice-roll, stopping to buy and sell carpets. On your turn you get the chance to turn him through 90 degrees before rolling a die to see how far he goes. If he lands on an area of someone else's carpet, you have to pay the owner according to how big the connected section is. Then you get to lay a new piece of your own carpet, hopefully covering over some of the other players' sections and connecting up sections of your own.

There's certainly plenty of luck in the dice rolling, but always in a fun playing-the-odds kind of way, not an irritating one. Andy rode his luck better than anyone else and the final scores ended up looking rather similar to the first game:

Andy - 57

Martin - 39

Ian - 33

Laura - 31

At that point we called it a night, but I'd love to return to Africa for either of these games on future occasions.

Dog Carlo

After last week's no-show, we reassembled ourselves as a sextet. Martin, Joe, Ian, Katy, Andy and me. After a little bit of chat where we confirmed with each other that nothing had changed or happened in the last fortnight, we began with an intriguing word game, Haiclue. In this game there are four shared words and each player has to make a clue from the random letters in front of them. It’s like Dixit with words, as Joe explained. Sometimes, it was easy and sometimes you were left struggling. Andy’s main struggles were with the internet. Joe was left baffled that his clue wasn’t a huge success: his word was “daily” and his clue was “Start prey exit wolf.” No one got it, and no one was massively persuaded by the explanation - at the start of the day you pray and at the end of the day, wolves come out.

Martin 27

Katy 26

Joe 25

Ian 22

Andrew 22

Andy 20

Then we split into two groups of three. Joe, Martin and Katy set off for a game of Don Carlo, complete with mafia dogs. They played twice and Katy won both times. The second game was closer and that ended…

Katy 60

Martin 58

Joe 49

Meanwhile, Ian, Andy and I dug out Kingdom Builder. We got a spectator mid-game, but they didn’t stick around very long. Before long, Andy B predicts his own last place. I say that at least he’s having fun and he replied that he doesn’t like this game online. Oh well.

Ian 43

Andrew 39

Andy 28

Next up was a little Lucky Numbers, which is a rip snorting game of luck and cruel fate that we played in near silence. 

Andy 16

Andrew 14

Ian 12

Next played Coloretto, mostly notable for Andy losing his internet connection twice within the first six cards.

Ian 45

Andy 36

Andrew 32

Now we were all back together we had a game of For Sale. Martin was appalled at his play: he paid 3 coins for a 3 card which he later sold for 3. Symmetrical perhaps, but not a winning strategy. Instead that belonged to Katy who came first despite never having won a single buying round. 

Katy 53

Ian 49

Andrew 48

Joe 46

Andy 33

Martin 30

Martin’s last place saw his ELO rating drop below mine and Ian’s!

And on that bombshell, all that was left was for us to say our goodbyes and go. Cheers all, see you soon.

Training Games

Tonight's games saw four players begin with two helpings of 7 Wonders, a game that was once considered medium length challenge and is now treated like a piece of light hearted fluff that fills ten minutes or so. I set up two games with Ian, Katy, Adam T and myself. In the first one, Ian won by being the quietest, I think. In the other one, Adam T finally clocked up a win. Unfortunately I’d set it up as a training game and Adam’s ELO score remained untouched.

Ian 59

Andrew 51

Katy 49

Adam 39

Adam 59

Ian 49

Ian 44

Katy 43

After this Martin and Andy B arrived and we split in two groups. Adam, Katy and Martin went off to play Ninety-nine while after some idle indecision, we remaining three chose Russian Railroads. It’s been a long time since this was seen at GNN and Ian got a rules explanation that I also listened to, trying to get back up to speed. 

It was possibly not the ideal choice for an already exhausted Ian, but he quickly showed his tactical nous with some astute moves. I, on the other hand, made the same mistake that I used to do: forgetting about the engineers. 

Andy 320

Ian 222

Andrew 190

As for the other group, once they’d worked out which Google Hangout that Katy had gone to, played Ninety-Nine, which I kept an eye on long enough to see Adam T get off to a slow start and also note that Sam had arrived and was watching them play too.

Martin 374

Katy 233

Adam 154

After this they played Yokai. Technically, they played twice, but Martin quit the game that he set up and the result showed that he’d lost and everyone else had won even though Yokai is a co-op game. The second attempt ended in a shared defeat for all.

Then Steve and Anja arrived while Sam bowed out. The five of them now played For Sale.

Martin 57

Katy 57

Steve 53

Anja 45

Adam 42

Finally, the weary Russian Railroaders joined up with the rest and they ended on 6nimmt, in which Ian crashed out in two rounds, picking up an impressive forty cards in the process. In the closing stages, it was very close with the standings at Anja 59, Andy 58, Steve 56, Martin 55 with two cards left. It ended

Andy 58

Anja 56

Martin 55

Steve 55

Katy 36

Andrew 27

Ian –22

And that was all for this week. See you all soon.

I put the alarm in Alhambra

This week, our attendance bounced back up into the high units with seven of us online for our gaming fix: Martin, Sam, Andy, Adam H, Ian, Laura (returning after a long time away) and me.

Our first game, before Andy overcame his usual dodgy connection and joined us properly, was Incan Gold. It was a mean game, with temples two and five not paying out any gems at all. Martin started well, getting out of temple one just before the second rockfall. "I've never done that before," he remarked in disbelief. But his early lead didn't last as Laura stayed in longest on two temples, winning big on both. In fact, she was probably quite glad that the last temple was a wash out.

Laura 36

Martin 18

Sam 16

Adam 9

Andrew 6

Ian 3

With Andy among our ranks, we split into two groups. Four of us (Andy, Adam, Sam and I) played Alhambra while the other three ran through a trio of games.

Sushi Go

Martin 53

Laura 45

Ian 37

Coloretto

Martin 53

Ian 50

Laura 40

Kingdomino

Martin 78

Ian 48

Laura 40

While they gambolled happily across Board Game Arena, the four of us spent a frequently silent game of Alhambra. If we hadn't kept ruining each others' plans then there might not have been a reason to speak at all.

As we approached the end of the game, the fire alarm in my flat went off and I had to go and make sure I wasn't about to perish. 

At the final reckoning I blamed my poor showing on the distraction, although the truth is the damage had been done long before that. Everyone else had a very exciting game, though.

Andy 111

Adam 106

Sam 104

Andrew 72

After this, we were all back together for one last party game together: 6nimmt. It was Laura’s first experience of this game, but she didn’t have long to enjoy it since I crashed out in two rounds. How desperate. Could I still blame the fire alarm?

Laura 56

Adam 52

Sam 48

Martin 47

Ian 36

Andy 17

Andrew -2

Laura and Sam bowed out and the rest of us banged out a quick For Sale, which Martin felt had gone very well for him a couple of rounds before we'd even finished. His confidence was not misplaced.

Martin 67

Ian 52

Andrew 49

Andy 43

Adam 39

And with that, we were done. Thanks all.

Niagara Falls, attendance plummets

The world outside might have been churning up a froth over the US Election, a new lockdown in the UK and Wimbledon AFC returning to Plough Lane after 29 years, but GNN ploughs on regardless like a short sighted old aged pensioner driving the wrong way down a main road.

Tonight there were just three gamers crammed into that car: Ian, Andy and myself. Elsewhere, Katy, Sam and Joe were grabbing a few minutes of quality time together before social mixing is outlawed again and Martin was taking a break from screens before launching himself into some early-morning news coverage.

The first game of the evening was Kingdom Builder. This was played in almost complete silence and it was only Ian's sighs of disappointment that reassured me that I was still connected. Andy, meanwhile, hoovered up the tiles and quickly ended the game.

Andy 76
Andrew 53
Ian 46

After this, I was in the mood for something a little more conversational, so I suggested Niagara. Andy had mentioned several times recently and I had vague memories of it being slightly combative and silly, so Andy ran through the rules for us, and away we went.  

It was fun, trying to judge what the likely lowest card might be (and therefore how quickly the river will move). I'm pleased to say that no one went over the falls. I'm even more pleased to say that just as Andy got back to shore with his fourth identical gem, I arrived back too, carrying the final gem for a last minute game winning set of five different gems.

Andrew wins on tie breaker
Andy a close second
Ian, one gem short

Next was Piraten Kapern, a luck-pushing dice game. Roll eight dice as often as you please to collect sets or coins and diamonds, but skulls are frozen and once you get three skulls, you go bust. On the plus side, if you roll four skulls on your first roll, you go to the Island of Skulls (figuratively speaking) and now have to roll as many skulls as possible, which will take points off your opponents.

So it went as you’d expect luck-pushing dice games to go, until Andy hit the game-winning 5000 points. Then I rolled four dice and I was off to the Island of Skulls! In the end I did 1200 points of damage to my two opponents and the game didn’t end after all. And then I sailed to 5400 points and the game ended with my victory. Andy seemed puzzled as to why they hadn’t had a chance to roll some negative points against me, but put it down to the game still being in Beta.

Andrew 5400
Andy 4400
Ian 1600

Next was 7 Wonders, just to finish off. Ian said he’d screwed himself over in round two and then spent round three burning science cards for money just so I couldn’t build them. It worked.

Ian 52

Andy 50
Andrew 44

Thanks all. See some of you next week, I expect. 

Commanding presence

Tuesday evening rolled around with a diminished attendance this week. And a later start time. And an earlier finish time. But it still contained enough intrigue and strategies to send us off to bed happier.

We (Andy, Ian, Martin and me) began at 8 with a new game, Mapmaker. It seemed very appropriate that, with the election looming, we should be playing a game of area control with a first-past-the-post criteria for winning. The game is simple enough. Each player puts down four dividers such that they have the highest value within a particular area once it is completely surrounded and below a certain size. 

It was tricky to understand at first. Andy was in last (3, 3, 3, 1) in the closing stages, but had the vast majority of tiles in the remaining part of the board. Then he put down his four dividers to create three new regions, winning each one and finishing the game. Martin called it a "sneaky bastard of a move," with admiration in his voice.

Andy 4

Andrew, Martin, Ian 3

Next we passed over a couple of suggestions until we decided on The Crew. It was a bit daunting to return to Mission 38 (in the heliosphere, looking for planet X), and I flinched a bit when I saw the eight tasks we had to do, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, I suppose.

I didn't start well and my mistake led to mission failure on the very first hand. Then we suffered a similarly swift fate in attempt two before finally sailing to victory in our third attempt!

Mission 39 began well, as we all chose two tricks each of the same colour. This should be easy, observed Martin, optimistically. Unfortunately Ian was too eager to give a card before it was supposed to be taken. None of us noticed so we were all surprised when the “Fail” message appeared on screen. After a couple more turns, we got another perfect colour spilt, and this time we succeeded. By now, though, Ian was sick of always being the commander.

I don’t recall how many attempts we had at Mission 40, but I do remember Ian, when asked why he’d taken a Green 8 as a task when he told us his highest green was a six, admitted “Yeah, I panicked.” But we scraped past, with a little help from Martin who’d pretty much worked out where each card was by the closing stages. Ian chucked his green 6 and then in the penultimate hand, won the green 8 with a trump. Nicely done, and it’s onwards to mission 41, and I think Martin’s the only one to have been there for each one. There’s only 50 in the game. Is Martin’s trick-taking epic nearing its end?

Well, it was nearing the end for us this evening. We went our separate ways at about ten to ten. See you next week.

Snakes on a plan

This week I experienced the rare sight of an empty Discord server as, for a change, I was first to log in. Ian, Martin, Adam H and Katy joined me and we began a game of For Sale to entertain us until Andy B was expected in fifteen minutes or so.

Katy discovered that her newly mended internet (the one she has hand delivered by the postman every morning) didn't work at all. She played on her phone using 4G but she struggled with the tiny screen. "Is that a nine?" She asked before bidding. Despite all that hassle, she still didn't come last.

Martin 56

Andrew 52
Ian 51
Katy 46 (plus cash)
Adam 46

This result pushed my ELO rating for For Sale above 200 and for my efforts I got a slightly patronising message on-screen telling me I was a "good player".  Thanks BGA. I wonder if, should I drop below 200 some time later, I'll get another message telling me I'm a huge disappointment.

Katy left to solve her internet issues and Andy B did his usual performance of appearing and then disappearing before joining us for the evening. Six times this week.

We played 7 Wonders and Adam (whose ELO rating is above 200 and so must also be a "good player") went big on military and won.

Adam 59

Andy 56
Martin 53
Ian 43
Andrew 41

Katy, with internet fixed, came back during this game and said it was quite relaxing just being a spectator.  The six of us played Fuji Flush and enjoyed the short lived alliances and swift treacheries that this game encourages.

Andy won, while me and Martin were on their last card. Don't know about the other three.

Then Sam arrived and we split into two. Sam, Martin, Ian and Katy went off and played Decrypto. Adam, Andy and I tried out Alhambra, one of many old familiars now arriving on BGA in beta, ready to be playtested.

It worked well online, except it was a faff to scroll up and down to see what your opponents are doing.  I forgot any strategy I might have once known and came a distant last. 

Adam 156
Andy 125
Andrew 99

At this point I had to chop some vegetables for my girlfriend and when I came back, everyone was in the same Google Hangout, discussing what to play next. Everyone but Sam, that is, who must have decided to bail early.

I suspect that I was muted from this point on, since no one responded to anything I said. Then again, I didn't say anything worth responding to, so I couldn't say for sure.

First we chose Incan Gold as a fun party game we can all play together. But only if turning over cards illustrating deadly objects is your idea of fun. Martin (whose ELO in this game is zero) broke the habit of a lifetime and left the first temple early. It was to be the only points he scored all game. 

Round two was swift and brutal: spider, snake, snake. And then round three was cruel to anyone playing the odds of snakes being less likely to come out: 3 gems, snake, snake. Round four was only marginally nicer: rocks, spider, artefact,  rocks. Ian nabbed the artefact but it wasn't enough to overtake Andy who'd stayed in longest in round one and got 15 gems all to himself.

Andy 28
Ian 17
Adam 6
Andrew 4
Martin 3
Katy 2

"That was bullshit," declared Katy. And a few minutes later, she'd be insisting "This is bullshit," as we ended with 6nimmt. Katy crashed out early and then picked up a high scoring row, just so she'd go out in style. This unpredictable strategy appalled Martin who said it was "worse than going Dirk". 

Adam 65
Andy 56
Martin 49
Ian 22
Andrew 22
Katy -20

And so we were done. Another night older but certainly no wiser. Thanks all, see you next week.

Whose Thurn Is It Anyway?

Just like last week, I arrived late and caught the other gamers (Martin, Joe, Katy, Ian, Adam, Sam) in the middle of a fraught game of For Sale. In amongst all the complaining about their fate, Katy made the observation “I won’t tell you what my four lowest cards add up to, but it’s quite low,” to which Joe responded “Is it a single figure?” I guess Martin was really distracted because he didn’t point out that the four lowest cards can’t possibly add up to a single figure. Ian won, swooping in on the last round by picking up a 15 card with only a 21 bid.

Ian 54

Adam 49

Sam 47

Joe 44

Martin 39

Katy 21

Next we split into two groups. And, just like last week again, Joe, Adam and I joined up while the others went off and had fun somewhere else. There fun was called Mamma Mia, which Sam won.

Our fun was Thurn and Taxis, a game I wasn’t sure I’ve ever played but it looked familiar. Anyway, Adam gave a quick rules refresher and we were off! Well, Adam was off: picking up a province in his first turn. Joe and I did our best, but it was never to be. I lost a route when I couldn’t add to it. Joe, meanwhile, tried to tie up the entire central province in one long trail. Eventually he closed it with one city left because Adam sportingly told us he was about to end the game.

Adam 23

Joe 6

Andrew 3

Adam admitted to having played a lot against Steve and Anja. I’d like to play it again soon, before the rules slip away again.

In the other team, Mamma Mia had given way to American Bookshop. Katy won with 20 while the rest “collectively” got -10. Ian and Sam retired after this game, so Katy and Martin moseyed on over to our hangout to watch us finish off a quick game of Kingdomino. I don’t remember much about this game (and my notes are pretty illegible) but I do recall being amazed that I had the highest ELO points for this game. Before we started playing, that is.

Adam 64

Joe 59 (+ tiebreaker)

Andrew 59

Lastly as a five we had what is possibly the most exciting game of Texas Showdown I’ve played. After round one I was already in last, with four tricks. Then Katy had a run of bad luck: she kept choosing me to lead and then having to take the trick. She also had some connection problems that threatened the game. We asked who her provider was and discovered it was the Post Office. “No wonder it’s so slow,” we chorused, no doubt all imagining the postman delivering each download by hand.

Just after the start of round four, Joe and I were joint last with 8 tricks while Adam and Katy and Martin were joint first with 7. It was far too tense and the game went on for four or five more hands until one of us (Joe, I think) hit his 10th trick and triggered the end of the game.

Martin 7

Andrew 8

Katy 10

Joe 10

Adam 10

An excellent end to the evening. Well played all.

Crews Control

Arriving, as is usual by now, late I was able to listen to Adam, Andy, Ian, Martin, Joe and Katy curse their way through a jolly game of For Sale while I made myself supper. Bidding was a feisty affair with Katy observing halfway through the that surely no one had any money left. Except somehow they did.

Adam 49

Ian 44

Joe 43

Katy 41

Martin 37

Andy 36

With me joining the throng there was talk of the traditional blast through 7wonders but the shiny newness of Die Crew on Board Game Arena was too much temptation. All seven of us wanted to play so we set up two games. It was Adam's first experience of the game so Joe offered to host the three player game to ease him in. I, having experienced a bit of a meltdown last time I played was happy to join them "in the kiddie pool," as I called it, which Joe stoutly refuted as a fair description.

So while Joe, Adam and I still sat on the launch pad in mission one, Andy, Ian, Katy and Martin were already heading towards the heliosphere in mission 36. 

The earliest missions were, as you'd expect, pretty easy and Adam had no difficulty, notwithstanding a brief hitch with the launch needing two attempts. We got to mission 8 before deciding to play Ninety Nine for a change, assuming the other four would still be deep in space.

But they popped into our Hangout after only a couple of hands saying that space had outstayed its welcome after they struggled only as far as mission 38. This left us with a choice to curtail our game and join them or carry on. 

We decided to keep going, just for a few more hands, giving Joe the chance to come back after his poor opening left him 54-64-4 behind to two novices.

The others went to playing cards dot io and played Merchants of Dunhuang. I know nothing about this apart from Joe pronouncing the name as rudely as possible (Dung Wang).

Meanwhile, in 99 Joe won big on a hand and sped off into the lead. Meanwhile, Adam fell behind and tried to catch up by playing an open hand. While you might think showing everyone your cards makes for a hopeless situation, Joe and I struggled with the extra cognitive load of all that information. Adam didn't succeed in his plan, though.

We stopped after a prearranged six hands and decided on a quiet game of 7 Wonders because you don't have to play it with seven. Adam went big on war and blue buildings and strolled to a win.

Adam 56

Joe 46

Andrew 42

We decided that we didn't have the energy to rejoin our Dung Wanging friends, so bade them goodbye on Discord. We got similar messages in reply, so perhaps they were finishing off too. You might think that two games, one of which was unfinished, but I enjoyed the laid back nature of the evening. Cheers everyone.

Where there is Discord, may we bring harmony

The evening started in familiar manner -- Ian, Katy and I (Martin) chatting while watching Andy B sign in and out of Discord until he could finally hear us and vice versa. As we waited, an expected Adam (T) and an unexpected one (H) appeared too and then Joe made seven. And we all know what seven means...

Adam T selected his preferred old-school 7 Wonders artwork over the new-fangled version now available on BGA and also discovered an option that lets each player choose their side of the wonder instead of having it assigned randomly. Joe may have regretted his choice, given what transpired. Half-way through Age 2 much cursing was heard as he realised that although he'd assembled all the resources he needed for the second, third and fourth stages of the Wonder, he was one wood short of being able to build the first. 

Adam H - 69
Andy - 65
Martin - 55
Ian - 53
Adam T - 45
Katy - 43
Joe - 23

Joe pointed out that he'd have got 20 points more for completing his wonder, prompting Katy to tactfully note that he'd still have been in joint last. 

Next we split into the three As on BGA and a gang of four on playingcards.io. BGA tells me the former played two games of Kingdoms with rather similar sets of scores.

Kingdom Builder

Andy - 73
Adam T - 67
Adam H - 50

Kingdomino

Adam H - 73
Andy - 60
Adam T - 49

Meanwhile on pc.io we fired up my implementation of Senators. The curse of early wars that plagued our face-to-face games has eerily continued in the virtual realm, and this one was all over before Katy even got to take her 3rd turn. Bad luck for her as she'd probably have overhauled my tie-break win. 

Martin - 8 (9 money)
Katy - 8 (1 money)
Joe - 7
Ian - 5

I'm pretty sure I never cashed in a set of cards at all, relying entirely on extortion for my income and blind bids for my senators. 

Next we tried a new one I've implemented - Knizia's game of the classic battle between robots and ducks, RevoltAAA. The game play is about as odd as the concept and the title and I think we all felt a bit baffled and perhaps underwhelmed. I'd try it again though!

Katy - 10 
Joe - 4
Martin - 4
Ian - 3
Dirk/Deck - 2 (but we cheated it out of a few points I think)

Adam T had dropped offline, having warned us that the start of "Bake-off season" would mean an earlier departure and the other two joined us for a rousing 6-player Texas Showdown. 

Andy - 4
Ian - 5
Adam H - 5
Joe - 7
Martin - 9
Katy - 10 

After Ian and Joe bade their farewells, we finished with yet another of my pc.io games (I got paid for doing this one!): Salvage, the new trick-taker from the family team who brought us Coup, Senators, The Chameleon and Hurlyburly. The bidding in this one is rather perplexing and got the better of me early on, but I managed to pull it back to a three-way tie with Katy's boat first to sink.

Andy - 4
Adam H - 4
Martin - 4
Katy - 0

See you next Tuesday!

Beyond Salvaging

 This week GNN saw a mere four members online (Katy, Martin, Ian and I). But while we were mere in numbers we were far from mere in enthusiasm. Notwithstanding being a bit tired and me being late.
When I'd arrived they'd already played Eggs Of Ostrich with Katy winning (K 19, I 12, M 9).

Next was the online debut of Senators, the auction-heavy card game of Roman political intrigue. Katy got a rules refresher which I needed as well. The game worked pretty well on playingcards.io and Katy was impressed enough with how professional it was, and she asked “Is it difficult to do this?” “Martin answered “Not really,” and then Katy clarified “Is it difficult for a normal person to do this.”

The one awkward part was how to blind bid whenever there was a war: everyone bids, highest gets a senator but everyone pays. Martin suggested a compromise: we all flipped over our coins in our player area and then, on a signal, dragged them onto the playing area. If you wanted to bid zero, you would just say so. It seemed to work well, especially for me when my opponents said they weren’t bidding while I dragged my two coins onto the board. What a cheap Senator!

Andrew 10
Ian 8
Martin 8
Katy 7

Next up was Salvage - a brand new game, not even on Board Game Geek. It’s a trick taker in which you have to avoid winning tricks with flaming boats in them. Doing so means you lose points. However, you have a chance to collect oil barrels to offset the damage. (There’s a story behind all this, I think, but it's pretty tenuous) But anyway, there are 15 oil barrels in total and the players are expected to share them nicely without the 15th barrel being taken. If that happens, then everyone loses points according to how many oil barrels they took. Greed is bad, you see.

Anyway, I had trouble getting my head around it, although I did enjoy Katy losing to Martin, Ian and I playing 1, 2 and 3 red cards (all on fire) and she had the 4. This happened three times. How we laughed. Especially me, since I had nothing else to laugh about.

Martin 14
Katy 13
Ian 11
Andrew -1

Next up was another playingcard game - Krass Kareirt. This game of playing increasingly high hands without actually rearranging your cards. It works well on the internet.

Martin 2

Katy 2

Andrew 1

Ian 0

At this point Ian retired to bed and we three pondered our next move. We went back to BGA because otherwise we're just wasting our money. We chose Can't Stop (which appears to have some kind of desert island theme to it) which I usually do well at since I'm usually able to stop. According to the end of game statistics, I went bust only once. Martin, on the other hand, had only one successful roll in the first half of the game.

Andrew 3

Katy 2
Martin 1

And that was that. Off to dream our dreams of success and derring-do. 

I’m overlooking a four-leaf clover

I arrived late and watched the second half of a game of Lucky numbers while sorting out my drinks. Ian was first to get to his last tile, but luck was against him and he couldn't place that final one, allowing enough time for Andy to catch up and steal a win.

In the end of game statistics Sam discovered he had seven minutes thinking time, which he was appalled by until he remembered that included the rules explanation.

Next up was Decrypto, the latest board game to be given an online presence with a .io domain. The site was functional and pretty boring, but it seemed to work fine, barring some peculiar word choices. We had "Wriggler" among our code words. Sam and Martin teamed up together "for old times' sake" and Ian, Andy and me made up the other team.

I can't say I was completely up to speed with the game. We got a miscommunication in round one before we fluked an interception in round two by simply guessing 1, 2, 3. Martin and Sam used clever clues to avoid any miscommunication and then used logic to intercept us in round two as well. Finally, after some very literal clues from ourselves, Martin and Sam got the second interception in round three, making this perhaps the shortest game of Decrypto I've played.

Sam and Martin, double agents

Ian, Andy, Andrew, halfwits

Next we played 7 Wonders. Usually this is Ian's strong suit but this time he was predicting his failure early on.

Andy insisted his wonder forced him to go big on military (because otherwise he’s such a peac-loving opponent). Sam finished fourth after being convinced he was in the running

Andy 66

Martin 58

Andrew 53 (+ cash)

Sam 53

Ian 45

Next up was For Sale and we began with the worst 9 ever: pick it up for free and allow everyone else to help themselves to 20+ cards. In the second half of the game Andy charitably picked up both zeroes.

Martin 57

Ian 54

Andrew 53

Sam 48

Andy 43

Now Sam left and Ian was on the verge of departing too, suggesting a short game as his finale. We chose Kingdomino and watched in amazement as Ian built a 60+ point forest. Martin’s lake couldn’t compare.

Ian 85

Martin 72

Andy 56

Andrew 49

Ian’s win seemed to give him a second win, as he deferred sleep in favour of a game of Downforce. Despite being a speedy one-lap race, I was able to make my bed during the downtime between my turns. Martin won the race but Andy bet on him so he won the game.

Andy 21

Martin 15

Andrew 14 (+ cash)

Ian 14

Now Ian finally retired and the remaining three played Lucky Numbers. Andy won again. But, mind you, he had a 3-20 spread early on while I began with numbers on my board ranging from 3-11. I never stood a chance (is my excuse).

And thus we were done. Thanks all.