Replenish!

A rare Thursday GNN extra session, as Ian and I made our way to Steve and Anja's for a pre-Christmas bit of competition. Louie joined us as Ian and I talked our hosts through the basics of Terra Nova, which we'd played on Tuesday. "We'll remind you of the rules as we go" I said "If you can just remember your own faction's ability" Sure, everyone said. And off we went. 

We were supposed to be hoovering up cash and power respectively, whilst Anja's reds got power moves on the cheap and Steve could form cities over the rivers, without even bothering to build a bridge. We were using the advanced sides, but playing like amateurs: Steve and Anja didn't know the rules and Ian and I kept forgetting to use our faction abilities. 

Louie was transfixed by the game, but also Ian's sack of chocolate that he carries everywhere, like a confectioneering Santa Claus. Despite our best efforts, we were nowhere near the bottom when the game ended. And it ended in a fight-off between the hosts: Anja built the largest network and hauled in twelve points for doing so, whilst Steve's comparative hamlet trundled in in fourth place, size-wise. But his round-by-round shenanigans meant his points cushion was big enough to hold Anja off for a narrow win, whilst Ian and I lagged some distance behind, possibly victim to the first twin-barrelled explainer's curse. Or possibly just out-done.

We debated whether to go again, but it was nearing 10pm and so elected to go with something shorter, landing on Tembo. Roles were reversed, as now the hosts were the explainers, and as they were a little rusty on the rules, there was some German translation (hats off to Anja) and online English version downloading from Steve, who having explained the rules to us kept forgetting to follow them - leading to repeated cries of 'replenish!' when he failed to replace spent cards from his hand. 

Your cards are animals, seeking to cross the river. At the start there are five paths across it, but during play three of them get blocked by lions, who eat everything. And there's also crocs, who eat some things (for instance, a croc may bag a gazelle but leave the zebras alone). But mostly there's tentative hope and temporary alliances, as crowds of animals gather together before crossing en masse, when someone plays an elephant to guide them over. Animals that make it across are points! (the cubes in the pic above just denote who is who)

No explainer's curse here, as Anja ran away with our first game and Steve came in second. Having enjoyed predation and shouting replenish so much though, we played again, and this time Ian took the win. A really fun 15minute filler where everyone cries with despair at least once felt like an appropriate way to see out the night. Thanks all.