A turnip for the books

Two o'clock on a drizzling afternoon between Christmas and New Year is not usually an occasion to celebrate but this Saturday saw the annual GNN Christmas do and I was there right at the start. Katy was the only other gamer at Sam's table and, after a brief chat, we began the day's gaming with Misfits. This is basically Bandu but we all share a single tower and we're all trying to make it impossible for other players to place pieces without collapsing.

Katy initially thought it was co-operative but Sam assured her to be dastardly. So she left it almost impossible for him to add anything, prompting him to say “That's dick dastardly.” Katy won the first round, having never picked up a single piece. 

Joe arrived and we began again and Katy began with a very mean upright circle. It didn't last long but soon our tower had one section, a narrow but usually flat-topped part of the tower, where we kept building up and it falling down. No one went for too long without picking up more pieces and Sam soon said that it was the longest game he'd seen “by about 150%.”

Katy won again after I thought I'd stopped her from placing her last piece with a clever use of an upright circle. But her cube perched happily on top.

Then we played Word On The Street, a sort of tug of war with letters. A card suggests a topic and you have to think of a word that fits. Then spell that word while dragging certain letters of the alphabet towards you if you use them. Drag them far enough and they're yours. First to have eight letters wins.

All of this must be done within the time set by a very strict hourglass, which made it all very stressful. Katy left the spelling to Joe, lacking confidence in her own abilities. She also demonstrated a strange habit of answering "crucifix!" to a number of questions.

Sam & Andrew 9

Joe & Katy 7

During this, Laura arrived with pizza and then Steve and Anja turned up with crisps and children. After some rearranging and making sure the children were happy with videogames, we split into two groups. 

Sam, Steve and I played Apiary, the thinly themed game of bee-based science fiction. Laura, Anja, Katy and Joe played Quest for Eldorado. The table hummed to the sound of simultaneous rules explanations. Just as things were beginning, Martin arrived. We'd known he was coming but somehow we expected to be further into our games than this. “If I'd known, I wouldn't have been in such a hurry to get here,” he said.

Despite his insistence that he was fine to relax and watch, Laura decided she could happily sit out Eldorado and join him in a two player game, so they took over the sofa, grabbed a stool as a table and played Romi Rami, a variant on rummy.

Eldorado was new to Anja but it was Katy who found it hard going, spending ages stuck behind “a wall of nonsense.” Joe won and Anja came second.

Apiary was slow moving. Steve found parts of it baffling but it didn't seem to hurt his strategy. I, for some reason, focused on the favour track (“That's one up the Queen's favour!”) and ignored the end of game scoring. A hopeless idea. Even if I'd maxed out the favour track, I still would've been last.

Steve 81

Sam 71

Andrew 46

In the time it took us to finish Apiary, two other games were completed.

Hitster was a Timeline-style game with QR codes on cards, read by an app that would then play a pop tune, anywhere from the 50s until today. Put the card in the correct place (once you've tried to identify it). Since I wasn't playing, I found it easy to guess the songs but me and Steve agreed that, should we actually play it, we'd find it impossible. Katy had trouble with song titles, having to sing Dancing in the Dark by Springsteen right up until the chorus until she was able to guess its name.

Joe won, and Laura must've come last based on her (good natured) refusal to ever play it again. At this point Joe had to leave, because he had friends visiting from London who, apparently, would think it strange if he wasn't there to greet them.

Adam and Hannah arrived (with Arthur, who swiftly disappeared in the front room). They all played Cross Clues, and scored 22 out of 25. Anja had the highlight of the game by cluing Red and Light with “district.”

Finally, with Apiary finished and back in its box, everyone was available again. The next game we played was Food, which is a resource management game concerning the pizzas that Laura brought from Lidl and Adam and Katy walking through the rain for chips, mushy peas and curry sauce. Just like Agricola, we had to also feed the children but unlike Agricola they weren't able to eat wood.

During the meal, we did the annual GNN quiz. With Sam as the quiz master we split into teams according to where we sat around the table. 

This lead to a slight imbalance in terms of regular attendees, with Martin, Adam, Laura and Katy on one side and Steve, Anja, Hannah (“I think I was at the start of one games night this year”) and me on the other side.

But we did okay. Steve got up to get a beer just as Sam asked a question that he would've known, which was irritating but equally he did help me get the answer to What was Joe's clue for Nail/Young in So Clover.

In the end, we did okay, but I think that if I'd just answered Joe every time, I would've scored 6.

Katy etc. 14/25

Andrew etc. 10/25

So, having been reminded that Joe kissed Kylie Minogue and finding out how much Katy loves Fields Of Arle (she had to stop playing it when she began dreaming about it) we began gaming again.

In a tussle for players, Martin lost Katy’s commitment to Big Top when Sam and Laura started to set up Raccoon Tycoon, leading to some falsetto claims/denials of betrayal between the two of them.

Adam, Steve and Anja set up Cascadia at the sensible end of the table, while Martin and I returned to the games cupboard to choose a game for us and Hannah. We plumped for Spots and we were just setting up when Laura got a call from home, asking for help with getting the kids to bed. She had to go, leaving Raccoon Tycoon not yet started. 

With this new development, Martin gallantly did not insist that's exactly what Katy deserved but instead we joined together for a five player game of Texas Showdown. We played with the New Rule, in which playing the highest card in a winning suit means that suit is cancelled and can't win, unless all the other suits are cancelled too. It makes the game much more uncertain as playing a suit that you're sure no one else has may still win the trick if everyone else plays a suit that is subsequently cancelled.

It was great fun. Sam's first round was appalling and maths genius Martin helpfully pointed out that he was already halfway to the losing score of twelve. But then he turned it around and by round three he was still last but level with me and Hannah and only three behind leader Katy. But he picked up four tricks in round four while Katy went clear for a comfortable win.

Katy 5

Martin 9

Hannah 11

Andrew 11

Sam 12

Cascadia had been bubbling along with occasional phrases drifting across the table. “Anja, always with the fish,” said Steve, sounding like a disappointed Jewish grandfather at Passover. “I've got no elk,” Anja realised late on while Adam wondered if it was “too late to get into bears.”

It looked like being a tie for first place, until Adam mentioned that pine cones also score points, a rule that newbie Steve hadn’t been told about.

Adam 94

Steve 92

Anja 87

Then there was a period of general kerfuffle while Adam & Hannah and Anja & Steve made arrangements to leave, taking their clans with them. Laura, meanwhile, returned from parenting duties. Despite it being 8 o'clock, I only had one game left in me, so we chose So Clover.

We played twice and during the first game, Martin got so agitated by our logic when doing his clover that we began to worry that he was genuinely annoyed.

“Look at all the words,” he hissed, unable to stay silent any longer. Sam said that was cheating but Martin insisted that he was merely telling us the rules. But thanks to this rules refresher, we noticed that Medusa went better with his clue of Snakeskin than whatever we had at the time.

24 out of 30

In the second attempt, we started well and Katy, Sam and Martin all created perfect-scoring clovers. Then Laura turned over her clover and we were intrigued to see that “Joe Berger” was one of her clues.

Our sense of intrigue changed to bemusement as nothing seemed to fit. Soon we saw Paintbrush which seemed good, but what to pair it with? Putting Foot/Envelop with her clue of “sock” seemed right but that gave us Turnip/Paintbrush for “Joe Berger” which seemed unnecessarily rude.

In the end we settled on Old/Paintbrush even though it didn't quite fit with the other clues. 

“I like old paintbrush,” Martin insisted.

“I like him too,” said Sam, “but…” 

In the end we went with it, but it was wrong. This left us with only one option: Old/Turnip. It was correct. We were baffled and unfortunately Laura was laughing too much to explain what she meant. 

We then thought about phoning Joe to tell him about this before he read the blog - a conversation that quickly digressed into a discussion about how posh his visiting friends might be. If Joe's ears were burning at this point, no one would've been surprised.

My final (and relatively boring) clover was solved, giving us a final score of 28 out of 30. Not quite a perfect score, but a game worth remembering for its own reasons.

But on that note I went out into the persistent rain. What a Christmas do. Thanks all. 

I'll hand over to Sam for coverage of the final stages...

*            *            *

After Andrew left we found ourselves an incongruously tiny four and debated what to play. We kicked off with Big Top, Martin's new auction game. This is quite bonkers but basically you score points by getting cards and everyone takes turn auctioning them. You can buy your own cards but, as Martin pointed out, it's not a great habit to get into. The cards themselves then need to be 'filled' by covering the numbers with coins, and you do that by bidding that number on subsequent cards (whether you win them or not). It's crazy. 

Being a little drunk possibly helped me. I think Laura was the most sober of us and subsequently the most confused. But we were all confused. I won this one with 71 points, with the others back in the 50s and 40s.

What next? Katy introduced her strawberry gin so that helped us decide, jettisoning Misfits in favour of Hitster. This was my first experience of it and we tried the co-op version, playing tracks and trying to align them in chronological order (much like Timeline) before revealing our triumphs/errors. It didn't take that long to make the five mistakes we needed to end the game, but it was enough time for Laura to display impressive audio prowess, correctly placing a track she didn't even know just going on the production style. 

I drunkenly demanded we followed that with Rankster, and the others allowed me my little fit of pique. With this little ditty, players are trying to match their rankings (one active player, then everyone else, Wavelength-style) of three historical characters in a given situation. EG Who'd make the best drummer in your rock band? Martin favoured Henry VIII over George Washington, and we agreed. We also agreed that Pele would eat more donuts than the Queen. 

This was incredibly funny even though Martin and I both managed to interpret King David as King Herod, which explained our slightly inebriated/jet-lagged mirth. We wrapped up Rankster scoring (I think) 5 out of 8. I drunkenly demanded more games but was this time ignored as three tired gamers went out into the abysmal weather to end a dramatic day in a dramatic way. A lot of fun, thanks everyone!

Old Friends

T'was the games night before Christmas...  an intimate affair, with various regulars absent for a variety of reasons, including flying to the US, landmark family birthdays and gigs. And so just Adam H, Ian and I (Joe) convened at Steve and Anja's at 7.45pm for a night of classic GNN frolics.

While Anja did a bit of  last-minute adulting elsewhere, the rest of us plus Louie played Timeline. It was fun to revisit this old friend (a theme that would recur this evening), and we mostly got things right, until Louie and Adam finished the round with no cards each, forcing a chronological head to head. They both failed this, which meant they had to do it again, and Adam thought he was a shoo-in with the invention of GPS. His swagger turned to dismay as he discovered that it was invented before the launch of the first Space Shuttle (though with hindsight that seems reasonable) and Louie rejoiced in his unshared victory. 

Louie WIN!

Everyone else LOSE!

Anja arrived on the scene at this point, and we debated the merits of a 6 player versus two 3-ers. The 6-ers on offer didn't satisfy Louie's criteria for a 'proper' game - I've never heard the word 'Kites' uttered with such deep disdain - and thus we split into two 3s. Ian, Steve and Anja set up Mille Fiori at one end, whilst Adam, Louie and I reacquainted ourselves with another old friend, Dominion.

We played the 'Big Money' variant, and it didn't disappoint - Louie utilised several Adventurers to explore his deck for coins, whilst Adam used several Laboratories (pronounced 'Bloboratories' for reasons forgotten) to chain some big moves. I set to Mining, and it worked quite well in conjunction with my Throneroom; we launched into the points-harvesting phase of the game with all in contention.

It was close, but Adam took the win with 33 points. I had 30, and Louie 29.

Mille Fiori was drawing to a close, and Ian seemed to have discovered an overlooked rule - that the offer gets restocked at the end of the round not only with players' discards but also one card per player from the deck. I'm not sure I've played that way before, but I could be wrong. Martin will tell us in the comments.

The final scores were Ian winning with 198, Anja a close second with 192, and Steve elbowing various delicate glass objets onto the workshop floor with 162.

Whilst they finished up and Louie retired, Adam and I debated what next for us five. Adam, as noted by Ian, attempted a bit of Derren Brown-style subliminal influencing by asking me aloud what game we should 'railroad' the others into playing.

Perhaps it worked. I'd brought 20th Anniversary Ticket to Ride Europe, and as we got the bits out to admire its sumptuous stylings, positive noises from the other end of the table suggested it might fit the bill. So while the others packed MF away, we tried to understand the implications of the various route tickets, which can be combined for all sorts of variants. In the end we used all the base and 1912 tickets, plus Big Cities. Lots of tickets.

Steve made the excellent suggestion of using the Team Asia card holders; being able to see your destinations all at once really helps, it turns out! We started off all clustered around Paris, for some reason; apart from Steve, who built Roma to Brindisi on his very first go. And then ignored this little branch line for much of the game. Adam adammed, meaning top-decked like a mofo, and Ian followed suit. As did Anja. Ok ok, I did too a bit - what can you do?

The board gradually spidered out from Paris - it was feisty and tense (though I felt relatively un-messed-with), and there were various agonised noises coming from Steve, who seemed to feel unfit for the role of early 20th Century rail magnate.

Here's a distinctly unsophisticated time-lapse of the game...

Eventually Adam blew the final whistle, and on my final turn I gambled on a six link tunnel from Budapest to Kyiv, which paid off. Steve, Ian and Adam had nothing to do on their last turns, and all weighed up the option of taking more tickets, but balked. We turned over the top three to see if they should have taken the plunge, and there was a collective sigh of relief - except from Anja, who it turned out could have made all three!

Anja did take the longest route bonus, however; and then we started the final scoring from Steve, who was in last place. In the final tally, Adam held on to his crown as master of TTR in style, with over 30 point separating him from me in second place.

Adam 160

Joe 129

Anja 120

Ian 111

Steve 73

The final board state in all it's sumptuosity

It was quarter to midnight, shockingly, so we hastily packed away and tootled off (so hastily I forgot my jumper). Thanks S&A - it was a lovely final games night before Christmas, and great to play some old favourites.

Bee-curious

 It still feels like a rare treat to be able to leave my flat on a Tuesday evening and arrive at the games venue in barely five minutes. And so I was second to arrive at Joe's, pipped to first place by Sam. Ian, Katy and then Martin were next to join us, with Martin declaring his happiness at the Solid Six being in attendance.

We began with Team Trio, a new game to me but simple enough that I understood it by round two. Simply ask an opponent (or the other member of your team) what their highest or lowest card is. They have to reveal it, and then you continue to ask others, hoping to make a three of a kind. Any reliance on memorising what people have is ruined slightly by the occasional swapping of cards between team mates.

Martin & Sam won the first two tricks, followed by a brace for Katy & I. Joe and Ian got on the scoreboard but then Sam and Martin got a three of kind of sevens, which is an insta-win. But they were winning anyway.

Martin & Sam 3

Katy & Andrew 2

Ian & Joe 1

Then we split into two groups of three people. Martin, Joe and Katy played Big City: a sort of Sim City game from the 90s with its dour functional pieces contrasting with the exciting triple layered plastic inlay.

As they set up, Katy told us she'd almost seen a dead body: her neighbour hadn't been seen for a few days and she and someone else went into the house. Katy chose to investigate the bedroom while the other checked out the bathroom and that's where the neighbour was found.

And after that cheery note, they set forth into various civic planning adventures. A world in which Post Offices score double next to a street car or city hall and triple if it's next to both. A world where Martin can say “It's church time!” and no one thinks he's lost it. A world where Katy can have a park taken away from her by Joe and Martin and be livid about it for several minutes. She was already in last and without that, she never stood a chance

Martin 118

Joe 103

Katy 79

Meanwhile, Ian, Sam and I played Bees In Space, or Apiary, to give it its proper name. It's a new twist on space exploration, with a curious emphasis on making honey and wax as much as discovering new planets.

The mechanic is fairly typical worker placement except your workers’ value (1-4) influences what they can do. Level 4 bees are most powerful but they have to hibernate afterwards and be brought back by taking an action.

The board is rather fussy and I admit in the first couple of rounds I was a bit lost. Ian seemed to know what was going on as he devised a new dance that would make cheaper honey. Which I suppose is a priority for Space Bees. 

We approached the final round I became acutely aware that the score track went up to 100 but me, in the lead, had only scored 15. But the game is all about end of game scoring and any confidence I might have had from being in first quickly dissipated as Ian came from last into a slim first. It was all very close.

Ian 75

Sam 71

Andrew 70

Apiary was a longer game than Big City so while

we finished, the other three played Robo Tricks. After Big City, this was a game they could all enjoy.

Joe 7

Martin 2

Katy -5

Since Robo Tricks was a bit long, Sam, Ian and I played Stomp The Plank. Amazingly, for such a GNN favourite, this was my first game. We played twice. In the first, Ian repeated his trick of coming from last to first and in the second, my cautious chiseling tactic proved successful.

Now we were a sextet we joined together for a rousing game of So Clover. We seemed to finish quite quickly. So fast that we began deducing our first clover while Katy was still in the toilet. 

Katy's clover had a lovely reference to our recently departed (not dead) gamer friend Gareth. She used his name to clue the words “Beard/Patron.”

We did okay with 32 out of 36.

Since that seemed to be over too quickly, we set up for one more go. This time, though, the moans of impending defeat filled the room. But, in the face of adversity, we proved ourselves to be highly resourceful. 

Sam clued Mug/Dream with Grande and Joe clued Hardware/Smell with Cordite (his second word of the evening that we needed a definition for). Katy saved Martin's clover when she spotted that Bubble went with Invincibility, even though I pointed out that bubbles are pretty much the opposite of invincible. 

I was relieved when my four slightly dull clues were solved and full marks to Katy for cluing Television/Crow with carrion. “Carry on.” Get it?

We had a perfect score as we began Ian's clover. We obsessed over his reasoning for pluralising Circuses. It made us think that our first guess of Clown/ring must be wrong, since surely he'd only write Circus. In the end we chose clown/universe and we were correct! A perfect score! 

36 out of 36!!

So with the afterglow of achievement still warming my veins, I set off. Sam said he could be tempted by a quick fifteen minute game and later I received a photo from him with the comment “Incredibly rude game of medium!”

Thanks all. See you soon.

Gettin’ chilli with it

Joe's at 7.30 was this week's destination for the first weekly meeting since the big games weekend. Sam was already there when I arrived and Martin wasn't too far behind.

At least I think so. I'm writing this on Friday, a full three days late so, just like AI rendered hands, things might be a little out of place.

First we played Rome In A Day, a game in which you have to build areas of tiles with matching buildings to score points and you get these tiles and buildings from your neighbour who has taken their allocation of tiles for that round and split them in two.

Sam played while still in his fluorescent orange jacket and (unconnected, I'm sure) we kept forgetting which neighbour we were supposed to be taking from.

At the end of the game, Joe was counting up the scores and added up one column to the total 47 and said “urgh” in disgust, thinking it was his. But it was Adam's. 

Sam 57

Joe 49

Adam 47

Andrew 46

Martin 37

Sam's winning strategy was to simply take which ever set had the most tiles. Can it really be that simple? It was entertaining enough 

Katy was expected later so we began another quick game: Too Many Cooks. It's a game about German cuisine in that you have to collect cards to make soup (Pea, Mushroom or Onion) while avoiding chillies because they ruin everything, apparently. Unless you're making chilli soup, of course. You collect these ingredients by playing cards to the table until the value adds up to 10 or more, then that player collects all of them.

We played all of round one before we remembered the rule about one of the zeroes actually being worth 10. And I had trouble recognising some of the mushroom cards since they had illustrations of butter on them. But I was fine in the end, taking a win without really knowing how.

Andrew 23

Joe 22

Adam 19

Martin 11

Sam 10

Katy arrived and we split into two groups of three. Joe Adam and Katy played Robot Tricks and Martin and Sam introduced me to Havalandi.

In this game a hot air balloon glides around the edge of the triangular playing area and the active player can put down a landing site (cardboard counter) somewhere along the balloon's line of view. You score points for groups of three or more (on the same terrain) and also for flipping tiles as long as they are contiguous and cross the central path.

It was nice. Gently puzzly and a bit screwish. I forgot about the end of game scoring and, despite being quite competitive in the first half of the game, Martin and Sam (almost literally) drifted off, far above me.

Martin 104

Sam 94

Andrew 82

With that, both Sam and I got ready for an early night. I watched a little bit of Robot Tricks to see if the game was going to end. It didn't, but I did see Katy pick up an ace which, apparently, was bad.

Hopefully we'll get a result in the comments although it's pretty likely that everyone has forgotten.

Thanks all! It was special.

Sun, Sea and Sand timers

Finally it's here, the weekend we've been looking forward to basically for the last 12 months. This time, we convened in Weymouth on Friday with Katy first to arrive (by bike!) as in a pub nearby Joe, Martin, Ian and Adam H were playing Bag of Chips (Joe won) and then started 12 Trick Trip but abandoned it in favour of joining Katy at the house, where they started playing Prey Another Day. 

Meanwhile Laura and I were barrelling along the A-roads of the sceptred isle with a car full of games, arriving before Prey Another Day could even finish! 

They restarted with Laura now dealt in as Joe pottered in the kitchen and I marvelled at the ensuite in our bedroom, an ensuite pretty much in name only, as the only nod to privacy was a weird plastic curtain and the toilet boasted a noisy macerator that went off now and again incongruously, like a nervous tic. 

Prey Another Day ended in unheralded manner: but I'm not sure who won. Martin instantly setting up a newbie in the Knizian Havalandi, where everyone launches balloons in extremely passive-aggressive fashion. It's just like being there, assuming balloonists are uptight control freaks.

Joe and I returned from the shop and I joined Ian and Adam in Quantum. 

Quantum's map was harsh, with all three of us facing a contested trio of '9' planets down a narrow avenue of space. What happened to the rest of the cosmos, who knows? Maybe it had already been conquered by Adam, who started well and continued even better as Ian and I struggled with luck, cards, basic maths, and the claustrophobic layout. And Adam.

Quantum has seen some varied plays, but I've never seen anything as one-sided as this. 

Adam - all cubes down

Ian - two cubes left

Sam - 3 cubes left

We needed some gentle recovery time after that, so stayed in space for the co-operative Tesseract, where we are scientists, collaborating to prevent the titular cube (of dice) from destroying Earth. This was an enjoyable puzzle, but I made a clunky rules error that made it much easier for us than it should have been...

 Meanwhile, Martin had won the inaugural Havalandi, Jon had arrived, and they'd started playing Noli.

He won this too, and I speculated that we needed Martin and Adam to play each other to make one of them lose at least one game. The scores were a slightly oddball three points each, but our resident boisterer took the laurels courtesy of the tie-breaker. They set up Bag of Chips and we played Kingdomino, luring in Joe from his kitchen duties. 

Martin did explain Bag of Chips to me, and it sounded fun, but I don't remember it now and am 'live-blogging' having not played it. But he won. Around now, Steve and Louie arrived as well!

In Kingdomino, I picked up my first victory of the weekend!

Sam 56

Joe 49

Adam 47

Ian 43

Then we convened in a big group for Cross Clues, scoring a solid 20 and then a near-perfect 24. Now it was time for Joe's marvellous chickpea stew, abetted by a cucumber/rice vinegar combo with dill that Steve kept on eating, despite being allergic to dill, and made us all slightly worried that Novocon was going to end in a tragic anaphylactic episode. Fortunately this was avoided. 

This games night first led to ongoing dill references throughout the evening as we refused to let it go. Poor Steve sought solace in Kingdomino, but was beaten by his son:

Louie 54
Adam 43
Steve 38

And they went on to play Block Party, where Adam made some rugby posts.

Steve, probably recoiling at the colour green by this point, took a redemptive win:
Steve 9
Adam 7
Louie 6

While all this was going on, I was finding Ankh Morpork mildly frustrating, but also amusing in its bombard of screwage. Martin foisted some crappy cards onto me that gave me a hand of three for the entire game, a situation that got increasingly less jolly (for me) as I played hand after hand of water-treading effectiveness. 

Katy triggered billions of events, one of which burnt down her own building. But Martin wrapped things up when we failed to spot he had control of four areas:

Lord de Worde (Martin) wins with just a single card left in the deck!

While this was going on, Jon Ian and Joe were playing Dune. I've no idea what was happening except there were occasional sighs, mostly from Ian and Joe. 

I started washing up, but halted to join six-player Ticket to Ride Team Asia, where Katy and Steve made for a fragile partnership, with lots of pre-game debate. Laura kept forgetting the locomotive rules, to Martin's despair, and poor Adam's mega-tight stratagems were compromised by being partnered with me. 

We created a fantastic trans-continental snaking yellow railroad across the top of the board, but with most of my tickets incomplete, it was nowhere near enough:

Katy Steve 128

Martin Laura 129

Adam sam 108

I think Dune finished just before us:

Jon 12

Ian 6

Joe 4

And they played Joe's Revenge, otherwise known as Ra:

Joe 48

Ian 36

Jon 33

It was now 11pm but despite it not being midnight, we broke out the now-established GNN tradition of the slightly chubby, slightly lewd and all-invasive Hugo. 

Katy was caught twice in the first round and faced an uphill battle to remain relevant, score-wise, to the point where she began placing her party attendees in dangerous places, saying it was more fun. There was lots of mini-dramas in this game, but to sum it up: Hugo screwed us. 

Eleven o clock party

Adam -12

Steve and Laura -17

Martin -18

Ian -20

Jon -21

Sam -23

Joe -30

Katy -31 

There was time for one last game. Laura, Jon and Adam drifted away so with a suitable six, we busted out So Clover. It was a bit of challenge and to be frank, nobody besides Katy seemed that optimistic about our chances at the start. But thanks to some canny clueing and dextrous deduction, we not only did well, we did well enough to merit our place in the Hall of Legends or whatever it's called:

36/36!!!!!!!! The only way for Novocon was surely down. Or was it?

Saturday

After some breakfasty/walky/cyclingy shenanigans, Joe and Katy cajoled each other into playing Fields of Arle, an undertaking that was still going on by the time lunch arrived some three hours later. 

Meanwhile Martin suggested Havalandi, which you can refuse by saying 'Don't Havalandi' if you really want to, but Martin was spared this torture by three of us joining him in this weird balloon festival/area control crossover. 

It's a quirky thing even by Knizian standards, but moves at a nice rate of knots mixing tactics and strategy in semi-Babylonian style. Ian possibly had the best long-term plan, but the ghost of the ghost of Hugo appeared and finished the game before he could finish them. Louie and I monopolised the rewarding corner spaces to good end, he doing it slightly better than me!

Louie 88

Sam 87

Martin 65

Ian 38

Suddenly loads of people went out for a walk and Adam Jon and Steve started playing Pioneer Rails. Left by ourselves, Louie (not into walking) and me (shit feet) played Quantum. Defying its' reputation as needing at least three players to shine, this was a Quantum Battle Royale. Louie expanded early and then picked up Arrogant, meaning that his extra ships also gave him an extra action. I was on the ropes for a long time as he blitzkrieged the board with cubes, needing just one more to win whilst I still had 4!

I grit my teeth and staged a comeback, cubing via Dominance and repeatedly kicking Louie off the board as fast as he could deploy. I dragged myself level, but then Louie's arrogance kicked in again and with four actions at his disposal, he wrapped up a debut victory.

Louie: all cubes down!

Sam: 1 cube left

Despite Quantum having a fairly long phone call intermission, Pioneer Rails was still going with the soundtrack of some impressive harrumphing by Steve. "It's too complicated!" he said. They were just starting round 5. I had a shower and a phone call which ended around the time Pioneer Rails (officially 30-45 mins) ended almost two hours after it had begun. Adam didn't mind:

Very Long Game of Pioneer Rails
Adam 121
Jon 95
Steve 80

The walkers had returned but were imminently departing again in search of chips. Everyone bar Katy and Joe (still in Arle with hoes) joined them as we ventured at various speeds along the front. It was a marvellous day...

And the fish and chips were pretty good too. Enormo-portions that only Martin and Ian managed to finish, maybe just to spite the screeching seagull roaming around us making a racket. We made our way back to the house to find Fields of Arle had finished. What's that they say about pictures and words?

Joe 97.5

Katy 86

Completely besotted, Katy had already made Joe promise to play it the next morning "and every morning for the rest of my life" she added. Martin's expression at the phrase 'scoring barn equipment' was another illuminating vision that needed no footnotes. However he moved swiftly on to Faiyum with Joe and Katy...

as Laura, Ian, Adam and I set up Wandering Towers. 

After Martin's rules recap we instantly broke several rules (by accident) but corrected ourselves. Ian and Adam both lost track of their wizards, and after half-hour of mild bewilderment broken only by Adam and I unblocking the kitchen sink, I overcame my abysmal record in this game to snag a first win:

Sam: all wizards, all potions

Adam: all wizards, two potions

Laura: three wizards, three potions

Ian: two wizards, two potions

They played again

Ian: all wizards, one potion

Adam: three wizards, two potions

Laura: one wizard, five potions

And then we began playing Railways of Europe, which was considerably feisty and occasionally pregnant with pauses. 

Faiyum finished after two hours: 

Martin 91

Katy 79 

Joe 77

And Katy said it didn't have enough meat for her, but corrected this descriptive comparison to tofu. She and Joe both went for a swim, don't ask me why. Here are the before and after photos:

Joe prepares for the sea

The swimmers return

I didn't witness anything that happened, but while they were splashing about in the cold cold waters, Steve was clearly schooling Martin and Louie at Harvest:

Steve 140

Louie 70

Martin 20

Railways, then: something of a baptism - for Laura - and rebirth - for Jon, returning after 'about ten years' - of fire coming up against Railway veterans - not only were we inured to the politicking and bidding, but also the visual chaos of the oft-obscured board. Early on it's not too bad...

...but by the time the last empty city marker appeared, Jon almost started crying with relief when Adam removed them in order to help read the board. For a long time it looked like Adam's game to lose with Ian and I squabbling over second as Jon several times pointed to the score track as though illuminating the banality of existence. But I had a strong end-game, then benefitted from Adam not appeasing his baron to pip him to a very narrow win!

Sam 52

Adam 50

Ian 37

Laura 31

Jon 26

Jon didn't like it at all, so kudos to him for staying the lengthy course. I'm not sure Laura was a convert either, but Adam magnanimously agreed to high-five me, I was so excited. Apologies everyone.

I was so tense during Railways I now needed a shower, but Louie (and Steve) immediately stepped in to make up the numbers for Jon's piratey punch-up, Seas of Havoc. "Don't sail into rocks" he advised. "You'll come off worse"

At the other end of the table, Havalandi was getting another run-out and Katy was bravely navigating her hunger pains, waiting for tea. 

Amidst all of this hot meeple action, Steve was making food. Breathless from a day of almost relentless gaming, I took a breather as the world heated up either side of me.

I asked Seas of Havoc if they understood what was happening yet, and Adam said no. Jon pointed out he - Adam - was leading, and Adam pulled a face. From what I could tell, there's some small boats doing worker placement around the edge of the board, after which shit gets real in the middle. Beyond that I was bit lost, as my attention alternated across both ends of the table.

Havalandi ended with Joe insisting that he still didn't understand it, despite winning. He said he had help, and Martin confirmed this when he added "we helped him too much". But a win is a win is a win, even if the victor referred to balloon launches as 'explosions'. Martin frowned. 

Joe 89

Laura 69

Martin 68

Katy 65

Seas of Havoc continued so we set up High Society, which immediately prompted a fairly long conversation about the sexual allure of Jacques and what book he might be reading. Or not reading.

After that, High Society was as dastardly as ever, and despite Martin saying he was rubbish at it, it was another triumph.

Martin 8 (wins on tiebreaker)

Katy 8

Sam 7

Joe 6

Laura: bust! (with 9 points)

Laura had about 2 cents left. Seas of Havoc ended too, with the jury a little out. Chaotic and random were the chief adjectives I was given, although Steve sounded more approving of these terms than Adam. It certainly looks appealing. 

Steve 26

Louie 25

Jon 24

Ian 22

Adam 20

Then Medium ended - I forgot to say it had started - and I didn't note all the scores but it was a tie between Joe+Sam and Martin+Katy. The Laura+Katy team missed out by a single point. At Joe's suggestion, we moved on to the name game!

This crackpot undertaking involves both trying to eliminate players by correctly guessing their alter-ego, and also trying to remember the names in the first place. Paul Newman (me) was first out, swiftly followed by Pele (Jon), There was a lot of Olivia Colman being bandied about but that was host Joe's red herring addition. Martin was going rat-a-tat-tat eliminating people - the mysterious Robin Blake (Katy) and Martin Wallace (Ian) followed, but he came a cropper when a. he learned there was no points system and b. Steve eliminated him (- he was Mariah Carey). Following that bombshell, Steve knocked out Adam (who was, confusingly, Martin Griffiths) to win!

After that, Steve's lentil bake was ready. Steve saying 'these lentils are too crunchy' every half-hour during the afternoon was either a clever ploy to lower expectations or a way of building the tension. Maybe both. Either way it worked, and it was yet another triumph in the annals of GNN weekend meals; well worth the wait. I was so nourished I didn't even take any photos.

Post-lentil, we split again. Katy Ian Joe and Martin set up Lords of Vegas, Adam and Louie played Carrook and Laura Jon and Steve broke out Scythe. Steve was crestfallen to learn post-set-up that Laura had played before, as now he was the only newbie. 

Joe Ian Katy and Martin played Nokosu Dice, and in the midst of this mayhem  Spots also got played. It's all starting to blur slightly in my head at this point, but I remember Jon not liking a dog's bum and I know Ian won:

Ian 6 dogs 

Jon 4

Sam 2

Adam 1

And then as Scythe continued, Lords of Vegas was set up, leaving Adam and I with a 2-player crack at Root (Eyrie v Duchy). Oddly, I got no pictures of LoV, but it sounded like a doozy of a game: Martin was level on points with him, but Joe won despite ending the game with no casinos at all, and took a disgusting amount of cash out of Martin's casino mid-game.

Joe and Martin 40 (Joe wins)

Ian 32

Katy 20

In Root, I dawdled somewhat instead of getting in Adam's way as early as possible as I should have done, and this left me with an uphill battle: stuck on nine points, my warriors were getting kicked off the board as fast as they could dig to it as Adam went for a dominance victory and rolled a series of pitiful dice. I rallied and got myself to 19 before he finally claimed it. Good stuff. 

Martin mooted Texas Showdown and we were willing. We played with the original rules that if the highest card of a suit gets played, it cancels all cards of that suit in the trick (ie they cannot win) which of course may be null and void if all suits in the trick feature the highest card - in that case, this rule is ignored. Martin's third and final round saw a death spiral like no other, as he picked up something like nine tricks in a game where tricks are bad. 

Adam, Katy, Sam: 5 each

Joe 6

Ian 8

Martin 11

And it was around now Scythe finally finished. Laura and Jon had a side-game of Sky Team going on too, which they completed as Steve reflected on his experiences.

Jon 67

Laura 19

Steve 38

(and the plane landed safely)

Whew. After all the trick-taking, cube pushing and meeple fondling, we needed a breather and got it in the form of So Clover. I'm writing this on Monday and to be honest I don't recall any clues at this point, except to say I have the words 'Grave Cream' written here, which I think Adam had clued with Myrrh. I can only find a picture of my own clover.  

Not exactly a triumph: 20 out of 30

There was more Robot Tricks going on, then some Strike (Katy won two; Joe and Martin one each) and I think another So Clover too but by that point I was in bed, listening to the lilting lullaby of occasional maceration. 

On Sunday I staggered into the kitchen at 9.30am to find Laura and Joe already engaged in an epic: Tales of the Arabian Nights. I missed 90% of the game, only hearing Laura asking Joe if he was married. "No, but I am enslaved and ensorcelled" he replied, channeling Les Dawson.

There was considerable discussion over returnees and arrivals, with Laura's return train - possibly Mel's arrival train - cancelled and Andrew declaring (from Bristol) that he'd just woken up and wouldn't be joining us after all. Having 'booked it in' the night before, Ian, Martin, Joe and I set up Time of Crisis. 

Not having Andrew's notebooks, note-taking abilities or sense of the game, my narrative of Time of Crisis will be somewhat stilted. I do know however that after Ian's brief flirtation with emperorship, Joe moved in and couldn't be evicted. The three of us were afflicted by invaders and I attempted to oust him from power and came a cropper. I needed seven votes from six dice, rolled six of them and my re-roll was the only number that I didn't need: a one. My relationship with the scoretrack was largely down to building things and shipping points to Joe in a high-risk attack from Gallia. 

Then, with Joe now suffering from invading Franks. Ian kicked Joe out of Rome. Now it was Martin's turn. "I'm going to declare Spiculum" he said, even though it wasn't yet midday. Another games night first, as whatever the spiculum did, it was clearly beneficial: he was the new emperor. 

And despite more emperor turns from Ian, and Joe, and even myself in the death throes of the game, it was Martin's game. He shrugged off a tricky Nomad-afflicted beginning and a brief pretend empire from Ian to haul himself over the line - and then haul himself further having had the most emperor turns by the narrowest of margins. 

Martin 76

Ian 66

Joe 61

Sam 58

Yokohama was still ongoing. Jon had to take a phone call so Ian and Katy went off to play Carrooka, which apparently Katy didn't like. Steve and Louie played Radlands, and I think Steve won (Joe impressively taught this while he was still playing Time of Crisis).

And then there was an utterly bananas game of Game Off, which Louie had brought with him. The goal is to collect one each of the skill/body/courage/mind/luck cards on the table, which are harvested by winning challenges. Some - especially the luck cards - are completely arbitrary feeling, and some - like Joe and my helicopter-noise face-off - involves what might be argued as a skill. Credit to Steve and Louie particularly for their beatboxing, and also to Martin - if credit is indeed the right word - for his serenading Steve when he sang Happy Birthday to You. Terrifying. 

Other challenges involved dancing, repetition, and putting unsuitable cards to the bottom of the deck.

Louie picked up the win, which was a nice way for him to finish the weekend, as he and Steve cycled off to the train station, headed for Bristol along with the now-departed Laura. 

And Yokohama finally finished at 1.20pm, some three and a half hours after it began. 

Adam 139

Katy 130

Jon 115

Mel arrived around now, and she and Katy hurried off to swim in the sea and polish this activity off with the less-punishing sauna. This maelstrom of stuff was contrasted back at the house, as Martin Joe and Adam played Havalandi again. Joe picked up yet another win, this time on a tiebreaker. 

Martin and Joe 124

Adam 101

While Robot Tricks kicked off again at the far end of the table, Jon, Ian and I set up Northgard. 

Jon went on the attack fairly early, just to see how combat worked apparently. It worked rather well, as he kicked me out of my central valley of joy and started eying up Ian menacingly. 

I kept passing early, having hands of cards that prompted me to build but with no construction materials. Only when I upgraded my clan cards - draw extra cards from your deck! - did things swing my way, as I was able to bide my time and wait for the others to finish the round first before sneaking into action and conjuring a three-large-territory victory, something Joe referred to as a 'reach-around' which somewhat took the gloss off it. But a win is a win etc.

Robot Tricks ended with Adam triumphant, despite having only scored a solitary point:

Adam 1

Martin -25

Joe -30

He celebrated by beating Ian at Carrooka.  Martin beat Joe and I at Sea Salt and Paper and while Castles of Mad King Ludwig was being set up, I went off to watch the football, returning an hour later with my tail between my legs. Adam had picked up yet another victory in Castles:

Adam 97

Katy 70

Ian 62

Just as Joe was doing the same in Havalandi:

Joe 90

Martin 83

Mel 73

So we - Ian Joe Martin Joe me - had a quick crack at Cross Clues: 20/25

Then we ate Jon's amazing garlic tart dinner! Was it as good as The Famous Mushroom Lasagne He Made? Hard to say, but there were definitely a lot of appreciative noises echoing around the room. A pity for Jon this appreciation wasn't enough to get the players he wanted for The Gallerist, but he was part of an instantly-triumphant crack at Phantom Ink, as he Mel and Adam ended game one almost before it had begun.

Joe was their cluer as Martin tried to help myself, Katy and Ian. We reset and went again with the same teams and cluers. This time it was an epic, so lengthy and transformative that Katy went from being unenthused to saying what a great time she had at the end, by which time both teams had lost (we had considered the correct answer of Unicorn but went with Pegasus on our final guess, to Martin's dismay).

Then we ate Jon's amazing apple tart pudding!

Mel and Joe took on Martin and I at Montage while everyone else played Wandering Towers, which Adam won. They set up Mille Fiori.

Hopefully Mel's love of word games is still intact after a tense and anxiety-inducing montage, where there is a think-fast element to both clueing and guessing that can be somewhat daunting. Martin and I won - a nice change for me in Montage, and Martin too, seeing as he has often partnered me in the past. 

We set up Senators. It had been a long time and rules-refreshment was needed, but boy, what an absolute gut punch of a game this is! I surged ahead a little but was swiftly caught. Ian sold a senator and dropped to four only to catapult himself up the track - but he subsequently fell back again, and Martin's pleads for the war to end it whilst he was ahead were heeded by Lady Fate:

Martin 13

Sam and Katy 10 each

Ian 6

We all enjoyed that one. Mille Fiori in contrast got a bit of a mixed reception. Mel's astonishing debut score couldn't be repeated, unfortunately, and Jon wasn't impressed with how the cards dictated terms for him. Joe's win was a little rueful. "It wasn't the fun I promised" he said sheepishly.

Joe 208

Adam 189

Jon 145

Mel 120-ish

Some of us played Gang of Dice, and one of us won it:

Sam 54

Katy 46

Martin 32

Ian 30

Then Mel went to bed, and the rest of us came together for Fun Facts. This was a weekend highlight - for me, anyway - as we debated how long we could stand on one leg for, a challenge that Joe and I had already attempted earlier in the day during Game Off and saw us now departing the table for the kitchen so we could all give it a go. Joe held his breath instead, insisting he could do so for longer than Martin would stand on one foot. Martin's single-leg capacity was pretty good though - even though it rendered him unusually quiet - and he and Adam lasted the longest, if not the 20 minutes he alleged in his Fun Fact chevron of numerical opinion. 

Other things contested included private concerts from our favourite bands, rating our own bravery and how long we'd stay on an all-inclusive holiday for. Adam put 'forever' and so there was a side debate as to whether it was still a holiday or not, if he was there permanently. A joyful chaos, even if 37 out of 56 isn't a triumph. 

The last game of the weekend - as far as I'm aware - was perhaps aptly, So Clover. This was a very decent attempt considering the amount of alcohol, games and tart we'd imbibed at this point - we even concocted a seventh clover for Joe, using the Fun Facts chevrons.

The game was notable for some tough combos and elusive connections. Toughest of all was Martin's red herring card containing the word 'mushroom' - one of his clues was the word Portobello.

A more than creditable 37/42 was attained, and any thoughts of another Midnight Party vanished with the emptying of the kitchen, as we pottered off to our bedrooms. Another Novocon was very nearly over - and then today it finally was. Thank you all for your time and generosity, particularly the wonderful chefs. Thanks also to those who sent me pics which I (as yet) haven't added, but hopefully will very soon. A marvellous weekend, as it always is - apologies for anything I've missed here.  Next year can't come soon enough.

*not sure why the formatting/font is so nuts, sorry