Suit up!

I arrived at little early at Joe's and after catching up with he and Charlotte and getting mauled by Sybil, we had a couple of games of Focus. This is a co-op challenge of guessing each other's secret image from a grid of said images - the catch being that you clue your own using others: here, my image was the telescope and Joe's, confusingly, was the glasses.

If you are unfortunate enough to use your partner's word as a clue, you both lose. Otherwise when you're both satisfied you know what the word is, there's a countdown and you both put your fingers on it, Codenames-style. Joe guessed my image correctly twice, but I was wrong each time, lacking the focus required. However Martin and the Final Gareth turned up at this point and following them through the door were Laura and Katy and finally Adam H. Knowing this was Gareth's last GNN before leaving Bristol for Seattle and possibly beyond, he was presented with his present!

We debated what to play before settling on That's Not a Hat, even though Adam hated it. Then Katy remembered she hated it too and Laura confessed she wasn't a fan either. But it was too late for all that!

There was much confusion, chagrin and bamboozlement as various people were confident of what cards were until it was their turn. At one point there were about three Schrödinger's ducks and two Feynham newspapers in various states of reality, and it felt like everyone was bullshitting to the point that if anyone was bold enough to challenge, they'd be inflicting pain on the passer. But this theory proved wrong when Joe challenged Gareth on a duck, and by some insane coincidence, it was a duck!

Joe lost, with three busts at this point, with most people on one or two. I had none at all, but I don't think there's a winner in quantum gaming. We split into two groups now with Joe bringing another French purchase out, called Pass Pass. They were appalled that I took a picture before they started. 

At the other end of the table, the fun of Strike was held up by the fun of trying to get all the components for Gareth's present back into the box. Here we have a particle physicist and moonbase engineer on the case:

With that done, we blasted through a couple of plays of Strike, won by Gareth and Martin.

Then we played Harvest. I forgot to take photos of this, which was a shame because I won. Maybe neglecting blog duties helped me focus. Meanwhile at the other end of the table, Pass Pass from what I could glean seemed an alluring mix of engagement and bemusement.  

We played Sea Salt & Paper. I got off to a good start, chiselling an early lead, but we abandoned the game with Gareth apparently in the lead when Pass Pass finished. Then Gareth realised he'd inadvertently cheated so his win came with a big asterisk. 

Katy won Pass Pass, how I have no idea. Joe implied it needed an asterisk too as it was a learning game, but Katy's face disagreed. Having been wrapped up in numerous Martin-sized games with Martin and Gareth, I missed anything about Pass Pass other than there is some trick-taking. Now there were various games proposed, with nobody really biting at Hansa Teutonica despite mine and Gareth's hopeful cherubic expressions. I suggested Pioneer Rails to Martin and his face literally started twitching. But Joe was interested. After some more shenanigans and box-waving, Katy agreed to try Maldivia again with Martin, Laura, and Gareth.

And Joe, Adam and I went pioneer-railing across the nascent US.

Not so much a roll-and-write as a flip-deal-choose-and-write, in each round of Pioneer Rails you are doing two things: building railroads across the map, and constructing a poker hand. 

Poker hands are pretty straightforward; the map less so. Only the rank of the card you choose matters for poker, and only the suit is relevant on the map, where hearts/diamonds/spades/clubs are the four railways you're building. Beyond that, the choices tempt you in lots of different ways: gold and banks combine, so do cities and railyards, you can compartmentalise herds of cattle for points or circle around forts for escalating hauls. Along with the inevitable first-to-do-it bonuses, there's a fair amount to chew over, and we were a bit more thinky than the boisterous Maldvia.

Katy decided she liked the game this time, and winning may have helped. Martin, chief cajoler in it getting played at all, was rewarded with last place. It was close though:

Katy 9

Gareth 8

Laura 7

Martin 6

While we wrapped up they played Strike again: Katy winning twice and Martin once. Over in Texas or wherever it was close between Joe and I as we wrapped up our fourth and final round, with me inching ahead of him. But it was only close between us because Adam was miles ahead:

Adam 137

Sam 94

Joe 86

"That's my kind of game" he beamed, as Joe looked nonplussed. It is at the heavier end of an x-and-write game, but I rather like it regardless. There's room for some dickery in the poker hands, an option I neglected when I could have taken some points off Adam... 

Laura said goodbye and set off for home, leaving us as a six. We plumped for Trios, playing in partnerships. In this version there are no shared cards, but when any team claims a trio, other teammates can (must, in fact) swap cards. This is helpful for the team in question as they share increasingly more information about what they hold. But it's a nightmare for other teams as you can't be sure that y person's lowest card then is still their lowest card now.

Martin and Adam claimed the first win, with what looked like an advantage to my eyes as they both held a seven at the start. Swapping sevens, they knew they just needed to locate the third and once the other cards were out of the way, claim the win. Having said that, saying it's easier than doing it. Katy demanded a trio of Trio, however, and she and I won the second and third game with Gareth and Joe holding the wooden spoon. They did master the simultaneous sliding of cards down the table though. 

Then we played So Clover! Katy said she was going to be really sexist with her clues and not to put them on the blog, so I won't. We did pretty well - especially considering the amount of agonising going on pre-reveals. Gareth managed to navigate the combo of Silent Beef with the clue of veal - Katy was disgusted by everything - and Martin overcame his pessimism with some decent clues. 

My clover was a bit problematic as my clues seemed to go much better with the wrong words, but kudos to everyone for getting them on a second go. Our stumbling block was Adam's clover, which had Martin repeating the words 'Jelly belly' for about ten minutes as he couldn't believe we weren't all familiar with the insult. By the time we actually made any guesses, Adam was completely distracted by something on his phone. But we did it, and it was a rock-solid score of 32/36 all told. 

A momentous evening ended with lots of hugs and best wishes for our beardy friend on his new adventure. We'll miss you Gareth!