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
