Spy Power

 I arrived just in time to see the last couple of clues of Cross Clues being posed. Ian, Laura, Joe, Martin and host Sam did well for time but fell short of perfection, getting three or four wrong.

The six of us stayed together for a six-player game of Wandering Towers. This was my first attempt at this simple game, new to GNN last week, and I managed to put a meeple in the tower with my first move. But any notion that I might have had that this would be easy was soon dispelled – I wouldn’t get another meeple into the tower until after Ian neatly dropped his third guy into the castle, triggering the end of the game.

Laura was the last to play and she thought she could get her last meeple in the tower, if only she knew where it was. Her first card allowed her to move a tower. She chose a tower, hoping to see her third guy underneath. No joy. Such is Wandering Castles.

Ian 3

Sam 2 (and four filled potions)

Joe 2, Laura 2, Andrew 2, Martin 2

Then we split into two groups of three. Joe, Ian and Sam chose Switch The Signal, a co-op train game. Laura, Martin and I played an ancient classic, Web of Power. This was Laura’s first game and my first game for about ten years, so a rules explanation was duly doled out by Martin.

But Web of Power has a few quirks that kept tripping Laura up, such as only one cloister in a new territory and that the maximum number of advisors in a region is equal to the number of cloisters in that territory owned by leading player in that region.

I enjoyed it. It was nice to go back after all this time. I don’t think I did particularly well, apart from a move that annoyed Martin, robbing him of ten points. That was satisfying.

Martin 75

Andrew 58

Laura 48

I didn’t really follow Switch The Signal, apart from catching the phrase “he’s got an itchy bum now,” uttered by Sam. At the end of the game, they declared themselves winners but only after awarding themselves an extra turn which, according to the rules, shouldn’t have been given.

While they were finishing off Switch The Signal, Laura, Martin and I banged out a quick High Score. As Martin explained the rules he demonstrated with a number of successful dice rolls. He put his cube high up the score track while I argued that those were just examples and shouldn’t count. My logic wasn’t taken seriously but I needn’t have worried. A run of good results for me (in round four, I scored 32 while Martin scored 8) meant I went into the final round just needing to avoid going bust to win. I accepted my first legal roll and took first place in a close match.

Andrew 15

Martin 14

Laura 13

On the other half of the table Sam won a quick game of Spicy, having won two 10s which was the first time he’d ever done that, apparently.

Then Laura left and the five of us played Decrypto. Joe and I were a team and we got a miscommunication in our first round. Joe’s clue of “Pret a Porter” should have pointed me to “Pocket” but instead I thought “Porter” was a reference to portaloos, so I chose “toilet”.

But I made up for it, noticing that Sam’s clue of “Ant/Zebra” seemed to reference A-Z, eventually leading Joe and I to guess Dictionary for that word. We got an interception for our second white token and won the game. Interestingly, I think both teams were on the right track for most words, even though we’d only played three rounds. Clearly we are all out of practice.

Joe and Andrew, I spy with my little eye

Sam, Martin and Ian, Blind Man’s Buff

At this point I went home, leaving the remaining quartet to play Ghosts of Christmas.

Martin 16

Joe 16

Ian 3

Sam 2

Thanks for the evening, everyone. See you next week.