Mada as a March (on Kyoto) here

 At eight o'clock I stumbled through Sam's front door, wondering what gaming delights I was missing. Once in the kitchen, however, I found four of my friends sitting around chatting. Had I got the wrong evening? There was a board game on the table, but it was still firmly in its box.

As I was the last one expected for tonight we (Sam, Martin, Laura, Joe and myself) chose our first game: Mada. An intriguing push your luck game in which you play cards from your three-card hand but you have to play a higher or equal card to the one you previously played. If you can't then you're bust. When the first person goes bust then the round ends and everyone else scores according to the card they had last played.

The rules are pretty easy to remember even though I forgot one of them seconds after I’d explained to Joe why it was easy to remember: “You can’t hold a scorpion in your hand,” was my useful memory aid which lasted all of three seconds after which I drew a scorpion from the deck and put it in my hand.

Laura did amazing work when pushing her luck. Once she had a 13 and had to draw from the deck: she drew another 13 and stayed in the game. And on another occasion, in a similar situation, she drew a lemur and was therefore able to swap her cards with another player. However, relying on such astonishing feats of fortune isn’t a winning strategy.

Andrew 18

Joe 18

Martin 15

Sam 14

Laura 5

It was nice enough, and we entertained/horrified ourselves at the thought of playing it all evening. “It would be a madathon,” quipped Martin.

Next, because there were five of us and none of us were Katy, we chose Ethnos. Although maybe Katy doesn’t hate it as much as we like to pretend. Midway through repopulating Slovenia or Slovakia Laura got a call from a child who didn’t seem impressed by Ethnos and wanted her to come home now. 

But she couldn’t, not with a hand full of cards since she often had to choose a card from the top of the deck. So did Joe who grumbled about “topdecking.” He grumbled with good reason when, in round two, the second and third dragons came out consecutively (despite his extensive shuffling between rounds to hopefully avoid that predicament) and ruined his eight-card move.

Martin 108

Andrew 85

Sam 83

Joe 65

Laura 48

After this, Laura went home and the four of us played Joraku, a Japan-themed territorial control game where the number of scoring regions decreases during the game and the highest scoring region (number 6) in round one is worthless for the rest of the game while the opposite happens to region number 1, which is Kyoto: the eventual target for all our Daimyos and Samurais.

It was interesting. After round one, only two points separated the four of us, leading Martin to muse that “it’s almost as if nothing we do makes a difference.” Then in round two, I pushed myself into first, a dizzying five whole points ahead of Sam, only for us to concertina together again in round three.

Sam 62

Joe 61

Andrew 59

Martin 57

Despite his remarkable revival, going from last to second, I’m not sure if Joe liked it. It was a curious game and there was a sense of running out of things to do by the end.

Now it was my turn to leave and the remaining three played So Clover. They played twice, and got about 11 both times. In the photo, Sam points out Joe’s clue of Bunkbeds for Bedroom/Fry because “fry” is a young fish. Apparently.

Anyway, thanks all. I’m a no show next week but hope to see you all soon!

Kiss and Tell

We lost Andrew but gained Andy M, had no Adam T but Adam H stepped in as a late responder. The venue floated around before settling at mine, but the first half hour or so was mainly chat. Ian told a story about sleeping in mulch - or 'a ditch' as Katy liked to interpret it - and then he told it again to late arrivals Joe and Andy. Martin was due about 9pm, but after a diversion into whether conking out drunk is the same as going to sleep and another diversion on Venn diagrams, we finally played a game. It was Viva Pamplona!

Katy suggested that the orange safe spaces should actually be safe, as one pays to be there, and we thought Why not. So you can't be pushed while in an orange space, but neither can you collect courage points if the bull attacks (nor lose them if you're behind him, which had ramifications later). Good thematic sense! I regretted not bunching my runners together in my opening turn as no less than three others immediately took advantage, shoving me all over the place, like a rank amateur bullied by seasoned pros. We all fell behind the bull - but some of us hid safely in the safe spaces. Then we realised that we could keep a runner in a safe space all the way to the end of the game and not lose any more courage points - which we did; Katy, Adam and I lingering way back on the course like cowardly custards.

But Adam's rolling didn't favour him and he found himself forced to run, way way back behind the bull, who only paid out 2 or 3 times the entire race! Very few of us made it to the arena, and Andy cleaned up on his debut, shrugging off everyone teasing him about cheating.

Andy 39
Katy 35

Sam 25
Joe 17
Adam 9
Ian 5

Joe and Katy then played Sea Salt and Paper while they waited for Martin, whilst I attempted to explain Terra Nova to Adam and Andy. I'm not sure what happened in SSaP, I missed the end. I also handed guidance duties over to Ian when I had to go away on bedtime patrol upstairs. 

For a reasonably simple game of build stuff to get in each other's way with a side order of tactical scoring, it does take a while to explain. Ian did a good job though, and we set off into the good hexagonal night, starting around the time Martin arrived and began setting up his latest Knizia offering, Aristocracy. I missed almost everything about this other the occasional expletive and Katy's happy air of satisfaction versus the boy's chagrin, but did manage to snap a photo:

At our end of the table Andy started well, but as we proceeded Ian's eye for scoring opportunities saw him streak ahead, establishing a solid lead. Terra Nova can be fruitful if you pay attention to the round-by-round bonuses, and try and time your actions on the board to them. Adam frustrated himself when he built a palace and a town earlier than was ideal, even though it catapulted him up the track: delaying would have been more productive in the long run. 

Despite building the largest network (12 point bonus!) after connecting two towns, I was struggling to stay anywhere near Ian. In fact I was struggling to keep up with Andy -(bonus points for towns!) and Adam (-being Adam). But it was Ian's day: he scored a shedload of points in round five as well and wrapped things up convincingly, seemingly unaffected - maybe even blessed - by his night in the mulch.

Ian 74
Adam and Sam 59 each
Andy 53 

Aristocracy finished as well, with Katy even more convincing:

Katy 66

Martin 48

Joe 47

And Martin telling Joe he should design his own version of the game. I've no idea what it's about, although the cover suggests a psychopaths-with-delusions-of-grandeur kind of vibe. Not something I would ever accuse the players of, of course.

EDIT: This morning Martin had to remind me that he Joe and Katy also played Spots around this point as we finished Terra Nova! Martin won. 

Ian took his leave triumphantly, whilst the rest of us debated what to finish with before settling on Wavelength. Memories are a little hazy now but I can vouch that at some point before/during the game, Joe revealed he had kissed Kylie Minogue "on the lips" (-because she's a kisser on greeting) having made some illustrations for her website back in the last century. "I've known you ten years, and this is the first time you mention this?" Martin cried. Joe confessed he'd been waiting for the right moment. There was also talk of foamy nipples and it was hard to tell what was the greatest emotion in the room - Joe's nostalgia, or his audience's astonishment. 

But we had business to attend to, and that was arguing about how much a grain of sand looks like a person (not at all? a little bit? a lot?) This was Joe's clue and he and Katy, post-reveal, debated what more looks like a person between a grain of sand and 'air'. "Air can look like a person!" Joe insisted, waving his heads around in what I supposed was meant to suggest that air can look like a person. I regretted my clue of snooker for mental activity/physical activity, and changed to to darts after they had set the dial. If nothing else this should prove to everyone that Andy is not the only one who can cheat. I waved away protests for not other reason than I wanted to. 

It didn't help much: we actually did rather badly overall, triggering no extra cards and only scoring ten points total. "You should have listened to me" Martin said, as the only person (other than me) who truly understands how physical darts can be. Lots of fun! Thanks everyone...

Corps Blimey

 With a few days off work I was able to attend a games night held at Sam’s this Saturday. Chris, Adam H were also there and when I arrived, the game Space Corps 2025-2300 was already set up. I was green, for a change, but any attempts at channeling Martin came to nought.

The game is simple. Or, at least, is a simplified version of space travel which I assume is awfully complicated. Each player has a range of actions they can use to spread themselves across the solar system/galaxy. Move, Explore, Build are the bread and butter of our exploration but then there’s Revelation and Genetics, which give you access to better moves or special abilities later in the game.According to the rulebook, the genetics cube is a tan colour but, whenever Chris moved it he’d say “that’s one up the brown.”

In front of each player is a mat with three spaces for cards. This is called “infrastructure” and you’re supposed to fill this with cards that you can use on your turn instead of frantically discarding cards and hastening the end of the round. Also, your opponents can use it (you get a small reward of one card from the draw deck into your hand) to augment their own cards/infrastructure.

In round one, we four newbies didn’t bother much with our infrastructures and burnt through the draw deck in double quick time. This meant that the inner solar system was still largely unexplored when round one ended (in the year 2069) and we set off, past the asteroid belt, to explore the planets beyond. In this round, Chris and I barely bothered the score track and I think I was still on three points when we’d ended.

Round two introduced a new board with new rules. And radiation, such that at least one of your build/move actions needed to be shielded. I mistakenly played an illegal card to my infrastructure, and Sam realised he’d done an illegal move when pushing up his genetics cube. Plus, Adam snuck in and built a base on the asteroid that I’d just explored. That’s not actually cheating but it is a dick move, so Chris concluded that he was owed one.

I don’t think he ever took his “cheat” move, although Adam remained dickish throughout. He picked up a “co-operative empathy” card which allowed him to use an opponent’s infrastructure without them picking up an extra card as a reward. In other words, not co-operative nor empathetic.

As we continued to head towards the Oort Cloud, our pronunciation of Uranus went from sniggering double entendre to outright just saying “your anus”.

Round three began at 10.25 and we all stood up. By now we were looking at a decent chunk of the galaxy, with multiple bases around each star and a new option to Colonise a star system. With the new cognitive load, I sat down again at about 10.35. Little by little, I started to flake. I had a card that allowed me to pick up cards used by an opponent but I never stayed focused enough to register what they’d done. The distant stars on the board merged with the crumbs from the sugar-coated nuts and I started to need a calculator to work out if I could do an intergalactic space hop to the next unoccupied star.

When it ended, it was midnight. Adam had a win, thanks to being so “empathetic,” even lapping me on the score track. Sam came second, after having been in first for a brief period.

Adam 79

Sam 67

Chris 56

Andrew 24

I read out the text Sam had sent me, explaining how the game was easy to understand and super speedy, and then realised he’d said the first board was super speedy, which I suppose it had been.

Next time I’ll build better infrastructure and muck about a bit more with genetics and stuff. But with a game this long, taking up this much room, when will that be?

Thanks all. See you on Tuesday.

Ablazin' Saddoes

 This week I arrived at a shamefully late 8.20, havong already received photos of the group playing Cross Clues twice, scoring 19 and then 22. As I finally walked into Joe's kitchen, I found a place set for me at a game of San Francisco. I was up against Martin and Gareth - the same opponents I'd had last time I played. Meanwhile, Ian, Joe, Sam and Adam T sat at the other end of the table  playing Oriflamme Ablaze. I have no idea about what this game involves (or what the name means) except a lot of cards, and I forgot to take a photo. All I know is, towards the end, someone said “Joe played a trap!” and trapper Joe replied “So I get a coin.”

It was probably more exciting than that. For Ian, at least.

Ian 14

Adam 13

Joe 11

Sam 5 

Sam appeared to be distracted by the Prince’s expression, saying “he looks like a cross between John Cusack and a stupider John Cusack”

In San Francisco, Martin built an early skyscraper (on the harbourside. Very nice) and never looked back. The foundation cards came out fast, such that we were down to the last foundation and only a couple of rows had been completed. I didn’t finish any rows at all, so most of my points came from builders.

Martin 10

Andrew 8.5

Gareth 8

The game was over so fast that, when Oriflamme Ablaze ended and they were considering a game of So Clover, we insisted that we were only minutes from ending. Eventually, they chose Cross Clues which began with Joe giving a clue to the wrong space. Disaster was averted since luckily Adam was currently holding the card for that particular space.

Martin, Gareth and I joined in half way through, with the caution that they hadn’t made a mistake so far. However, Martin soon noticed that two cards had been put down in the wrong place. They insisted the right co-ordinates had been clued, though.

25 out of 25

A perfect score, if not a perfect way of getting there.

Then we split up again. Adam felt he could stay for one more and Mille Fiori seemed to be about the right duration. Martin, Sam and I agreed. Gareth expressed an interest in Thurn & Taxis with Joe and Ian joining him.

Joe 26

Ian 14

Gareth 12

As we began Mille Fiori, we contemplated Katy’s recent record-breaking score and if anyone would get close. In the end, no one did. After everyone scoring two points each on their first turn, Adam got off to a flyer, reaching 69 points at the end of round 2 while I was in second with 22.

But soon the deficit narrowed. I managed to do the move that Sam wanted, much to his dismay. Instead he did a multi-move mega-turn which made me very glad I stopped him doing what he had planned.

No one monopolised any area, leading to a close set of scores. When Martin suddenly ended the game Sam reacted with anguish because if he’d known the game was so close to finishing, he’d have played a different card and could have won the game.

Martin 178

Sam 176

Adam 167

Andrew 160

Then we ended with a quick hit of Hit. Martin was in a good situation as he finished the deck but he couldn’t resist drawing the final card. It made him go bust and gave me an unexpected win.

Andrew 84

Martin 75

Sam 66

Adam 55

Adam and Ian left and we reformed into a five-player group.

Then we sped through a game of Rapido. Sam led throughout, I chiselled my way into second, newcomer Gareth was behind me, ahead of Martin and Joe who would lose points almost as quickly as they gained them.

I should’ve bumped off Sam when he was within rolling a pair of twos for a win, but I thought he was more likely to go bust, so I got greedy and went for points. Sam then rolled a double three.

Sam 21

Andrew 14

Gareth 9

Joe/Martin 3

 

Then we ended with So Clover. Very close to a perfect score. Our bette noir was a clever clue from Joe. Too clever, it turns out. His clue was “Harvest” for “Nail/Young” which was actually had at one point, wondering if that’s the sort of thing Joe would write. Alas, we went with “Young/Heart” because “Heart of Gold” is on the album.

I struggled with mine, being the last to finish. I couldn’t think of a clue for “Ghost/Cookie” (although now I think “monster” might have worked) and instead went with “Crumbs” but luckily they got it, even though another clue “Garibaldi” could’ve matched with “Cookie”. I’d actually written it for “chocolate/soldier” leading Joe to pontificate “Garibaldis aren’t chocolate but maybe Andrew doesn’t know that.” I didn't. I'd been thinking of Bourbon. Got my European dynasties mixed up again. But they got it in the end.

28 out of 30

And then we were done. Thanks all. That was a joy.

Glassy-eyed

It was a sparsely-attended GNN again this week, with various members out of town, unavailable, or poorly (get well soon Adam). When I stumbled through Laura's back door a little after half-seven, there was just Laura and Martin sitting there, like shepherds with flocks misplaced. With Katy on her way as the fourth and final participant, we just had time for a quick bash at Hit. Fortune favoured me in the briefest of warm-ups, but it was pretty close:

Sam 83
Laura 70
Martin 29

Then Katy arrived, with biscuits, and we swiftly set up Mille Fiori. Martin was denied the opening salvo of the last time we played as things began slightly more cagily, with Laura and I getting in the way of his key strategy. I regularly found my cards offered little for me, but - as was noted later - I was sitting c**t-side of Martin. Katy professed some mild bamboozlement, but whatever was troubling her clearly lifted, as she eased away up the scoretrack like sportscar pulling away from three streetsweepers. Martin's voice pitch ran the gamut between disdain and despair, as Laura's percentage of professed understanding of Mille Fiori dropped from 80% down to 50, even as she shuffled into second place.

Katy in fact was so far ahead that it became a fight for second place, as Martin and I (green/red) recovered to catch Laura (orange). In the picture below you can just about make out Katy's valedictory fingers moving her own marker (purple) even further away from us on the fare side of the board. 

And the game concluded with Katy scoring a whopping 262 points, dwarfing previous high scores by regular Fiorians Martin and Joe Berger. She was sitting doofus-side of me though; maybe I should have played a more dickish game. In the post mortem, Martin realised Katy had concentrated her efforts on one side of the board only, ignoring keys and pyramids (or whatever they are). 

However she did it, it was a score for the ages.

Katy 262

Sam 230

Laura 214

Martin 198

Katy began making going-home noises, but we managed to coax another game out of her before she left, promising that Viva Pamplona would be less than half an hour. I didn't time it, but I think that was more or less the case. Everyone seemed to roll high at first, and found themselves too far ahead of the bull - except Laura, who took a cosy bovine strategy and found herself the chief beneficiary of the attacks, surging into a points lead. 

But if there's one thing GNNers don't like, it's a clear points leader, and Laura found herself the target of repeat pushing as jealous bull-runners ganged up on her. Even so, she was probably still decently placed for a possible win - until the bull sped up at the end, hurtling around the final corner to leave all of us licking our wounds and counting minus points. 

Sam 38

Katy 30

Martin 29

Laura 21

Brutal stuff. Katy then left, with plans for early-morning swims in glacial waters, and we changed gears somewhat with a revisit to Quirky Circuits, the pick-up-and-deliver game with an engine powered by The Mind-style table-reading and guesswork. Tasked with guiding our bee around the garden delivering pollen, we screwed up quickly as slight game-fade combined with engineered confusion caused misunderstandings. 

But with time - or battery power - running low, we finished the task by the skin of our teeth - and moved on to Spots, which Laura had never played. I made a dice dog while Martin explained the rules.

Then we jumped in to the dice-rolling fiesta. I think we all went bust, Laura at my hands - one action allowed me to increase the value of dice in her yard - and Martin most spectacularly, as he went from the verge of three complete dogs to a trio of crestfallen mutts. Meanwhile, I expanded my kennels...

After 15 minutes, only Laura had banked a single dog. But Martin changed all that by auto-banking three of them, and then repeating the same trick shortly after. 

Martin wins!

We felt we had one more game in us and, though Laura professed a hesitation to play a word game, mine and Martin's enthusiasm (-sorry Laura) for So Clover ended up trumping the alternatives.

But if Laura's hesitation was performance anxiety, it was misplaced. Her clover was our sole success, with Movember a great clue for Beard/Time and Patisserie giving us Dessert/Group. Only Fire for Pig/Lava gave us pause... In contrast, Martin and I struggled, even though I felt Mugtree was a decent clue for Cup/Forest and he was appalled that Laura and I settled on the Forbidden/Border combo for his clue of Rim. Sorry Martin - it's just not like you to pass up that kind of literary opportunity. 

So, a fairly paltry score of 12/18, but a nice way to end the evening all the same. Thanks to our host, Laura, and hope to see you all next week!

Rejoining the “You’re up Ian” Union

After two weeks away, I eagerly knocked on Laura’s front door for a dose of gaming goodness only to be told by Laura that there’d been a change of venue and, cursing my lax checking of emails, I set off again, this time to Sam’s. When I arrived, I found three gamers: the host Sam, Martin and Ian, playing Sea Salt and Paper. When I walked in, Martin suggested they end the game and call it void, but Sam was keen to continue. A brief look at the scores explained why: Sam was poised to win while Martin was a distant last.

So they continued. “You’re up Ian,” prompted Martin, giving this blog post it’s title. Sam called “stop” but then realised he was one point short of a win, so had to risk “Last chance” for that extra point. No one could match him, although Martin came very close, and Sam took the win by a deceptively wide margin.

Sam 35

Ian 26

Martin 15

Then we played Castello Methoni, a territory control game where you can win despite having very little territory at all. Selling your land (or, more accurately, watching another player annex your land) gets you money and money equals points.

Martin's grey tower marks the game's first domain

We tried out various tactics, not really sure what we were doing. Martin was the first to make a domain, which I commented was a grand name for what was basically just a market. I was pleased with my 6-tile hexagonal domain until Ian made an 8-tile one.

Martin 66

Ian 57

Andrew 42

Sam 32

By now we were sure Laura wasn’t joining us so we decided it was time to introduce Ian to Mille Fiori. He listened to Martin’s rules explanation and so did Sam who’d recently taught this game to his family and wanted to know if he’d got any rules wrong. For the most part, Sam sat in contented silence until he asked Martin to clarify a rule about scoring the shipping.

“Was that the one?” asked Martin after he’d explained. “Yes,” said Sam, “and I’d been doing so well.”

It was a typical game of Mille Fiori. I was doing well and challenging Martin for first, although with a little help: I played a card to move a ship when Martin pointed out that I could use it on the board, get an extra turn and score more points. Unfortunately, Ian had the exact same card so his plan was ruined. Sorry Ian.

Martin 209

Andrew 192

Sam 165

Ian 115

A tough introduction for Ian against three experienced players. Hopefully he’ll be back before too long.

It was coming to the end of the night for Ian and I and we ended with So Clover. My clover was pretty easy and I was confident of 6 points but I was cruelly undone by an evil rando. I’d written “Hilter” for “race/butcher” but the extra card had “Belgium” on it and people instantly paired “Hilter” with “Belgium/butcher” and to make things worse, the other word on the tile was a perfect fit for the adjacent clue.

Pity, really. And we’d done so well to get Sam’s clover right with Ian noticing at the end that “Fairy” went better with Sam’s clue of “Liquid” than “cup” did.

20 out of 24.

The Ian and I went home and Sam and Martin finished with a couple of two-player games. Sam won and Schnipp And Weg while Martin claimed victory at Spots.

Thanks all. Hope to see you next week.