Strike then Hit

 I was only slightly late to Joe’s this week, but at least that meant I arrived at the same time as Katy, saving Joe a trip up and down the stairs.

In his kitchen I met Sam, Adam T and Martin and with only brief formalities while Katy assured us she was stoned and that she’d forgotten some zines and then realised that actually, no, she had brought them, we quickly got into a game of Herd Mentality (I was especially pleased by the fact we'd all happily agreed to play, thinking maybe that meant we'd already won). In this game, a question is read out and if your answer is among the most popular, then you get a point. 

It started well. Adam cursed his decision to go highbrow on the question “favourite bodily noise” as everyone else said “fart.” On the question “Name a brand beginning with A” Sam scoffed at Katy’s choice, insisting that “Apple isn’t a brand name,” before he remembered it was an extremely famous one. Alas, the questions took a turn towards multiple choice which kind of ruined the fun, but otherwise it was nice.

Adam 9

Sam 8

Martin 8

Katy 5

Joe 4

Andrew 4

After this we split into two groups of three. Katy was overjoyed when Joe and Adam agreed to play Yokohama while Martin was introduced to First Rat by Sam and I.

While First Rat is at heart very simple, there is a lot to keep track of and Martin’s opinion of the game was that he liked it but there were about three too many things going on. Sam agreed, saying it was a bit like a dog throwing up Christmas tree lights, but he personally never found it overwhelming. I took advatage of Sam’s explainer’s curse and Martin’s inexperience and I copied the strategy I’d seen Adam H use only a couple of days before. Thanks Adam.

Andrew 95

Martin 87

Sam 84

Yokohama had, at this point, barely begun so the three of us embarked on an odyssey of short games. First up was Sea Salt and Paper, a game that looks lovely but I sort of struggled with the scoring system and was never quite sure about how many points I had. That was all academic, though, as halfway through round two Martin stole a mermaid card from me and declared that he had all four mermaid cards and therefore won instantly!

He was amazed, having not seen anything like it despite having 20 plays under his belt. 

Then we played Strike! which I still hadn’t tried yet. It’s simple push your game, rolling dice one at a time into a tiny amphitheatre hoping to get matching values so you get those dice back. Should you be unlucky enough that the person before you emptied the amphitheatre, then you have to roll all your dice. This happened to Sam, who was obliged to throw his five dice and amazingly he got a pair and a three of a kind (a full house, I suppose) and was able to take them all back.

We played three times, Sam won games one and three and Martin won game two.

Then after Strike! we played the similarly named Hit. A very simple set collecting game by Knizia. Draw a card from the deck and decide to stick or keep going, but after three cards any duplicate values mean you are bust. Those cards you stuck with might then be stolen by the other players, though. Then just add up the value of the cards you were able to keep.

Martin had terrible luck, going bust regularly and the most ignominious example was when he drew 3, 1, 1, 2, 2. Still, he did better than me.

Sam 133

Martin 71

Andrew 61

Next up was Dandelions. Roll all your dice and then chose which dice to use as you flit from petal to petal, dropping dice behind you as you go. It’s kind of area control as most dice gets to score a particular petal. Sam got some truly awful luck as he landed on the “reroll dice” space and rolled 1, 1, 2 which meant he couldn’t actually go far enough to leave that petal. That kind of limited his scoring potential.

Andrew 75

Martin 52

Sam 42

Then we learnt that Yokohama was halfway through its final round which meant we had enough time for another game. We chose Hit again. This time a stack of 3s got passed around and around getting longer and more exciting each time until Sam went bust with them and they all got removed. Heartbreaking. I was able to steal some 10s and won the game hansomely.

Andrew 128

Martin 57

Sam 41

Then we watched as the last moves of Yokohama were played and the scores totted up. Katy remains in charge of this particular hub of international trade, but only just.

Katy 143

Joe 138

Adam 114

Lastly we ended on So Clover. Martin and Joe both went clear and Joe’s clue of “Eye” for the words “triangle/pumpkin” was very smart. I was unsure of my clues, since they needed a bit of lateral thinking: I had “Circus” for “circle/cotton” referencing Billy Cotton’s circus. But my decoy card contained the words “show” and “top” and poor old Billy Cotton never got any consideration at all.

Adam was also stymied by the decoy card which contained “cushion” when the real answer was “couch.” Or vice cersa, I don’t recall. And talking of not remembering, Katy forgot what her original answers were. I think that testifies as to how brilliant our guess was. Sam, last to complete his clover, realised that one of his clues was actually a word on a different side of the clover. An easy mistake to make, although Martin had said earlier that game that he’d almost done it.

Didn’t note the score. 27 maybe?

With that I was up those stairs like a whippet up a drainpipe. Thanks all. See you next Tuesday.

Three's a Punch-up

With no tumbleweeds rolling through Joe's kitchen last night, we made do with the trotting, harrumphing, and at one point extremely lazy toileting of Sybil. Outside of the host (Joe, not Sybil) gamers were thin on the ground - just Ian and myself (Sam) with Laura initially expected but latterly absent. Three! Whatever in the world...

We kicked things off with a game of PUSH, Joe's luck-pushing game of set-collection: like Coloretto, you're creating piles of cards on your turn, but catch number 1 is that other players get the piles you don't take. Catch 2 is no pile can have duplicate colours or numbers, so you can go bust. Catch 3 is that instead of drawing cards, you can bank (some of) what you have already. Joe pushed his luck a lot, and found his love of risk wasn't matched by reward...

Sam 90
Ian 72
Joe 46

Then I introduced Lucha Wars, a game of Mexican wrestling that has a bit of Strike-in-spandex about it. Dice are rolled and compared, but before the comparison dodge results (the arrows) can be rerolled to knock opponent dice out of the ring. With three of us there's a slightly bonkers rule that we take turns to go two on one, and work out the edge case rules ourselves: Lucha Wars' manual is a bit fuzzy. 

It's a bit of faffarama for what's essentially a dice-chucker, but it made us laugh, with dice careening out of the ring, random weapons available, and special moves aplenty: mine involved throwing first Ian, and later Joe, into the air by their heels and crashing them down on my spiny back. Except I rolled badly and missed each time. As wrestlers get weaker, they become pinnable: Ian pinned Joe, but Joe reverse-pinned him! Then Ian pinned him again and Joe was out for the count. It only remained for me to jettison Ian out of the ring off a seesaw: a frankly ludicrous end to a silly 20min game.

By now we knew Laura couldn't make it, so broke out the evening's main course in Thurn and Taxis. Joe also announced at this point he'd drunk a lot of wine, but seemed reasonably coherent during the rules explanation to Ian. It was only when he realised he'd connected two unconnected cities in his route and, worryingly, announced he was taking the Station Master (who doesn't exist) we wondered if it was time for a cup of tea or a bucket of cold water. 

For Ian, it was a rough reintroduction to the game as he too lost a route and best-laid plans were harpooned by my finishing my seven-city route and wrapping up a third win in a row. Could I make it four??? 

Sam 21

Joe 13

Ian 9

We found out by playing Hammer Time! Joe enjoyed it more than he appears to be enjoying it here.

Each player has four carts they need to fill with gems, one cart at a time. Each turn you hammer the box to knock gems off, taking the ones that suit you and stopping immediately when at least one gem falls. But if you knock off more than eight, you're bust. Mix in some simple objective cards that give you wilds when achieved (knock off an odd number and so on) and you have a HABA classic. Ian's approach was surprisingly dainty; often knocking off a single targeted gem. Joe and I were more bludgeoning, and we paid the price on a couple of busts but made more progress overall.

1 Joe - carts full!

2 Sam - one cart left

3 Ian - two carts left

It was a little past ten, so we finished off a fairly rambunctious three-player night with So Clover, where I forgot to take photos. We began with Ian's clover and hit a six straight out of the park. But then things went south with some poor clueing on my part, where I had to listen to Joe scathingly say "You wouldn't write Missile for summit and duck!" which was, of course, exactly what I'd done. Ian and I struggled with Joe's clues as well, and we scored an okay 12/18 all told. The game was mostly notable for Sybil having a kind of protracted, noisy, and doomed investigation of under the fridge, stopping only to give Joe an unpleasant clearing-up job. And on that bombshell, we called it a night. 

Mille Fruit Flies

 I arrived at Joe’s a little after eight, having already been told by WhatsApp about two games of Strike! (Ian won the first, Sam won the second) and then a score of 20 in Cross Clues.

There were six of us around the table once I’d sat down (Martin, Joe, Sam, Adam T, Ian and myself) with Katy expected at some vaguely defined time in the next forty minutes or so. We split into two groups: I had my first game of Mille Fiori with Joe and Martin. Adam, despite having brought a load of games, declared that he was in the mood for something new and so Sam and Ian introduced him to Gold West.

Gold West happened at the far end of the table so, apart from Sam killing three fruit flies (many of which danced around our drinks all night), I have little idea about the game. It was very close though.

Adam 97 + tie breaker

Sam 97

Ian 95

As for Mille Fiori, it was a smorgasbord of potential. Not so much a point salad, more a point kaleidoscope, and I had little idea about what to focus on. I was a permanent distant last and while I enjoyed it, I had little chance of challenging for first place against these experienced players.

Martin 204

Joe 198

Andrew 157

During this time Katy arrived and watched us finish off our respective games. Then the seven of us played Doodle Dash, a simple game of speed drawing according to a single-word clue randomly chosen from a card. Adam asked, just for clarification, exactly how many people here had an art background. But as it was, it was the non-artists who made the running in terms of grabbing the “first to finish” stick. Katy stated that, since she can’t draw, then it was the only option she had. Some of the “doodles” where hilarious, with Martin warning that one of his was “a little bit conceptual.”

One of Katy's offerings. Can't remember what it was meant to be

and, frankly, I have no way of guessing

Sam had the best drawings, but was only once quickest to finish (and then I couldn’t guess his drawing). Ian amazed us all by correctly guessing Martin’s “sandal” which looked more like a croissant to me. I just picked up points by waiting for the first two doodlers to fail, after which the guesser gets to see everyone’s drawings.

My rendition of "skipping". A success!

In the final round, Joe and Martin physically tussled for the “first to finish” stick, with Joe remarking afterwards that he’d actually been scratched. Joe’s nice white tabletop also didn’t do well, with ink smudges wherever we’d put our doodle-boards face down. Joe didn’t seem to bothered about it, while Sam went into full parent mode, wiping up as much of it as he could.

Two drawings, same word.

"Monorail"

Joe 10

Adam 7

Andrew 7

Sam 5

Martin 4

Katy 4

Ian 4

Then we split up again. Martin, Sam and Adam played Tiger and Dragon and, apparently, broke it. They played three rounds and the same strategy won each time. Then Adam left and Sam and Martin played Sea Salt and Paper.

Joe, Ian, Katy and myself played Break The Cube, a puzzle game in which you ask simple questions and try to guess what formation each player has secretly stacked their blocks in. We went around a few times, made a few guesses but began to forget what our initial clues had been.

“I suppose we should’ve used the pads,” said Joe, revealing the existence of some bespoke sheets of paper that we could’ve used to note down our information. We finish the game with no one guessing correctly.

At this point Ian and I left, while the remainers finished off with American Bookshop. Katy used to be so good at this…

Sam 21

Joe 20

Martin 17

Katy -20

Thanks all, it was a blast.

Mossy Top and Bottom

With Andrew one of the changing-season lurgy drop-outs (get well, everyone), blogging duties fell to me (Sam). I was also hosting. Adam arrived early again, and was treated to the sight of Stan and I eating our tea (and Stan making fun of my cooking skills, naturally). Ten minutes later the others began to arrive: Martin, Gareth, and Ian at first, which was enough of us for a quick blast at Strike. Despite Gareth - when forced to roll all his dice - taking five 2's straight back out again, Martin won and continues to convince that there's more to the game than blind/bad luck. 

As we finished, long-term absentee Andy Mosse arrived, and then Mel joined us too. We split into two groups, with Martin and Gareth teaching Andy The Crew and the rest of us setting up Flamme Rouge. 

From the start Mel led the peloton, alternating occasionally with my Rouller and both of us collecting exhaustion cards as Ian and Adam bided their time. It was an unusual course we'd chosen, as there were no uphills at all until a tiny slope right at the end. Halfway around the track Ian made a break for it and Adam went with him as Mel and I languished. Two-thirds of the way through it was a very obvious two-horse race as we were left far behind, playing out a fairly insignificant sub-plot to the main event. 

It was a dramatic finish as Adam realised his '9' card wouldn't take him over the line because of the last hill. Because of gravity, Ian pedalled frantically home to claim a 1-2 finish, with Adam third and fourth. Mel was fifth and eighth and myself sixth and seventh. Around this time, they finished The Crew as well:

And we swapped chairs as Adam set up Luzon Rails. for himself, Gareth, Mel and Ian. I gave them a brief and panicked precis of the rules before returning to Martin and Ian for a crack at Dandelions, a slightly chaotic dice-moving/placing/majority-claiming game. I profess to have no idea how, but I won:

Sam 62

Martin 51

Ian 41

And whilst Luzon Rails continued, we moved swiftly on to Sea Salt & Paper, a fast-moving set collection game. Like Dandelions, there's a lot of luck, but also a sliver of table-reading and deduction. Cards score points in various ways, including pairs that trigger extra turns/card draws/card thefts. Pairs are played to the table for the reward, but you can keep them hidden instead if you like. When you have 7 points (or more) you can halt the round, either by saying Stop (everyone scores) or Last Chance, in which case everyone else gets one more turn in which to try and beat your score. The latter is more rewarding (and more punishing for opponents) but carries more risk...

Not knowing what you're doing doesn't hurt either. I survived a dramatic last-round comeback by Ian to take the win (first to 35 points)

Sam 35

Ian 31

Martin 13

Luzon Rails were still under construction so we blasted through four games of Strike, winning one apiece before Ian took the decider (2-1-1) assisted by some preposterous rolling, including getting all but two of his dice back when forced to roll 15 of them. 

Ian left, and Martin and I blasted through a ding-dong battle of Schnipp & Weg which was so dramatic I didn't even take a picture, despite winning. Then Luzon rails finished!

early bids

Andy's worries that he'd overbid for shares at the start proved unfounded, as prices escalated and they ended up looking comparative bargains. Other than that, I'm not sure what happened, except to say he'd picked a debut win as Adam suffered (semi) explainer's curse:

Andy M: 57

Gareth 51

Mel 42

Adam 31

And with the hour approaching 10.30, Mel and Gareth left to make their way back to Easton. The remaining four of us played Polterfass, the game of beer pouring, serving, and greedily grabbing. My table-reading skills were abysmal and after a decent first round (16 points!) I was still on the same score several rounds later, as Martin surged ahead, Adam caught him up, and Andy and I floundered around in the dregs on the floor of the tavern. Andy quit on zero beer as the innkeeper caught us all out, and had Martin wailing "Why? Why???" as Adam surged past him for the win.

"I just thought it'd be funny" Andy said. 

And it was. 

Adam 77

Martin 51

Sam 26

Andy 11

That was that! Thanks all, see you next week....