Hello' Ian

This week's games night fell on Halloween, so when I arrived at Adam and Hannah's door I was greeted with a bucket of sweets to choose from, even though my costume was old man in coat. Inside, Arthur's impressive Adam-made costume loomed over us from the corner, as returnee children compared sugar hauls.

Someone else in costume was Gareth, although this was not in person but as he appeared on a card in his friend's freshly-minted game, Utopia. 

There was some loose talk of playing it, but as it's reasonably heavy - time travel and butterfly effects with added megalomania - in the end we decided it needed it's own specialist slot, so maybe that'll happen in the coming week. Instead we kicked off with Cross Clues. Hannah was putting Arthur to bed, so as well as Adam, Gareth and I also present were Katy, Adam T, and the happy late addition of Ian, who made it over despite feeling not at a hundred percent.

Cross Clues was something of a triumph, with numerous nimble minds to compare clues - and also eliminate possibilities they happened to hold in their hand. The only misfire was Liz Truss, whom we pinned as Prime Minister/Cheese instead of Prime Minister/Lightening, due to her brevity of office. But 24/25 is a pretty good show. Then with very little debate, we splintered into two groups. Whilst Adam H, Ian and Katy set up the long-absent Castles of Mad King Ludwig - last seen over six years ago! - the rest of us adjourned to the front room to set sail in Maldivia. 

Despite not being present, this play was Katy's Revenge, as Martin was buffeted through a veritable storm of events, swamped by fog, blocked-in and stolen from on several occasions. "This is why Katy hated it!" he realised, as we took more of his fish. He did have plenty to take, however. 

In the end it was Gareth's final turn that clinched him victory, cannily delivering to two islands by virtue of mooring up in a corner of the board. This catapulted him past me as Martin and Adam were left at sea:

Gareth 13

Sam 10

Martin 8

Adam 7

In the other room, foundations were still being laid in the three titular castles...

...so we broke out Noli, the tinpot crackpot maelstrom of bids and rolls as we all sought to build the highest tower. 

Noli's rules are pretty simple - bid for four actions - but the constant collateral damage inflicted by the winners, and the fact that unsuccessful bids must also be paid, makes the game feel rather fire-fighty. We all got hit by poverty and found whenever someone built a boat, someone else destroyed it. I ignored the influence track entirely, reasoning that it at least gave me one less thing to fret about, but that meant I lost ties on bids and ties in the endgame.

A fact which turned out to be irrelevant, however, as Martin raced up the track to trigger the finale and at that point he had the highest tower anyway. 

Martin 5

Sam 4

Adam 1

Gareth 0

Adam wasn't a fan. I still rather like Noli, even though it does feel like a slow-motion car crash and being down to one boat and frantically rolling uncooperative dice can feel like having your face rubbed in it. Meantime, in the kitchen, Ludwig's architects were playing a slightly more cerebral affair, and things were beginning to take shape.

We busted out Stomp the Plank, now with its previously-defective box replaced. For the uninitiated, it's last elephant standing that wins and each turn the active player flips cards, choosing whether to stick or twist on a bunch of vaguely pirate-themed suits. If you get a duplicate, you're forced to walk up the plank. If you restrain yourself and quit while you're ahead, all other elephants add these wooden discs (Barrels? Crokinole boards?) to the ends of their planks. In a game of numerous early bustings, Martin was first to go:

And, as we continued to bust at around, I would hazard, 80% of our turns, Gareth's plank collapsed, and the impact of it hitting the table caused mine to cave in as well! So this was Adam's Revenge. Stomp the Plank being so rapid, we had time for another quick game in Prey Another Day, Martin's latest filler favourite. 

I won this game by mostly doing unexpected and possibly unwise things that Martin couldn't predict. They made sense to me at the time, although now I can't recall any of them. Probably for the best.

Sam: 5 points

Everyone else: 2 points.

Then I made a terrible faux pas of referring to Adam's gerbils as rats. "Rats?" he said, as though I'd just asked him if his wedding cake was made of shit. 

They are very sweet, even if getting them to stay still for a picture is tricky. 

Adam, still reeling slightly from Noli, left us as Castles came to a dramatic end with cards to be scored and podium places up for grabs. Ian raced ahead of Adam, but then Katy announced she had "All the rooms!" and raced past both of them. 

Katy 142

Ian 133

Adam 122

Ian debated staying or not momentarily, but elected to leave us as a five, and we tried Martin's new purchase of memory game Trio. 

not pictured: Adam's disdain

Each player has a hand of six cards, with six more face down in the middle, and the cards are three each of numbers 1-12. Your goal is to collect two trios (ie matching numbers) that can make the number seven, either by adding them together or subtracting one from the other. Do that, and you win! Or, if you're lucky/clever/eidetic enough to get the trio of sevens themselves, that's a win too. 

cards must be arranged high-to-low in hand

Each turn you can reveal up to three cards, either by flipping them from the middle, asking an opponent to reveal their highest or lowest card, or taking the highest/lowest from your own hand, with the goal obviously being to reveal three of a matching number. As soon as a non-matching number appears, your turn is over: cards are returned to hands and any flipped from the middle go face-down again. So it's a question of trying to remember what card is where, and guesstimating, at times, that if Gareth no longer has the three in his hand his lowest card might be the five I need. 

Adam declared he hated the game from very early on, an opinion that was reinforced by Martin winning it. But we tried again, and Adam won, perhaps somewhat pacifying him. Then we played once more and he announced that no, he definitely hated it. I wasn't sure either - I like how it looks and it's undoubtedly a clever thing, but trying to remember 14 different cards and their locations was hurting my head. Gareth finished the last game of the night with a suitable flourish, however, when he revealed the trio that wins by itself!

Next week is his final games night before he departs for the stars. Hope to see you all there, if not before.