Cross correspondences

At eight o'clock I squeezed past the bicycles in the path to Sam's front door and arrived for another games night. Inside I found Sam, Martin, Ian, Joe, Adam H and Steve just about to launch into a game of Cross Clues.

This game involves a 5x5 grid with words along the X and y axes. The idea is that you're dealt a card with a set of coordinates on it and you have to give a single word clue that'll allow the other players to deduce what coordinates you have.

They'd already played once, before Steve had arrived, and got 18 out of 25 and were keen to do better. It's a fun game, but if you get the wrong combination of clues, you can find yourself beached on the sands of bemusement. Joe managed to get one clue done, while Steve's combo of Goat and Shovel defeated him and he was stuck with that clue for the whole game.

It was surprisingly difficult. I think we all had moments when our logic that made so much sense was undermined by a hitherto overlooked meaning behind a word. I said "Jaws" thinking it'd be an easy clue for Shark and Angry, only for Sam to initially focus on the word Holiday which was kind of an important plot point in the film.

In the end we scored 17 out of 25.

After this we split into two groups. Sam, Ian and Adam chose Brew, which is a very busy looking game. Martin, Joe, Steve and I went for Tajuto, a Knizia game of building pagodas out of pieces pulled from a cloth bag while making jokes about leaving brown offerings. We got a rules explanation of the many varied ways to score one or two points here and there. 

Like most Knizia games, the winning strategy wasn't at all clear but, as time went on, Martin bought points while I made a list ditch attempt at gambling on which pagodas would be completed. In the end, only one of my three bets came to fruition while Martin’s points in the bag were a far safer investment.

Martin 18

Steve 13

Joe 10

Andrew 4

It was fine. I was a bit bamboozled about the strategy and, as Joe pointed out, it relies a lot on timing. Nice, though.

As for Brew, I didn’t try to understand it from all the way across the table. Steve asked why it was called “Brew” and Sam explained that you were brewing potions, but that was only about a third of the game. Unless you’re Adam, he added, as the aforementioned gamer held up a healthy hand of cards.

Adam 78

Ian 74

Sam 57

Around this time we got an email from Katy (or "GNN Wales" as she called herself) reporting on her brief gaming experience while on holiday. She beat her other half Rob at Fake Yahtzee, and then lost at whist. Not games that we often see at GNN but getting Rob to play anything is worth noting.

After this, we split again. Sam, Joe, Martin and Steve tried Kabuto Sumo while Adam, Ian and I brought out good old Tsuro. 

It was so nice to see this again and we weaved in and out as if we’d never been away. Adam proved to have to next-level tactics, trying to block me into one corner. We played twice and both times it finished… 

Adam

Andrew

Ian

As for Kabuto Sumo, after a very short first round when Sam used his special powers for a quick win, Joe and Steve beat Sam and Martin 2-1. I'd gone home by now, but apparently it had a mixed reception.

Then whoever was left (did Steve go too?) played Wavelength. Sam texted me a brief recap and he said that it was "Very silly including Angela Merkel's index finger and cock-flavoured sand plus a debate about Keir Starmer. We won though!"

Thanks all for the evening. See you next Tuesday.