GNN meets NSG at LHG

Apologies in advance for the lack of photos :(

The summer season seems to be in full swing, with many GNN-ers away on holiday, or wilting in the unseasonal heat. With no-one able to host, Martin and I decided to brave the North Street Games meet-up at Left Handed Giant brewpub in Finzels Reach. Not that there was anything much to brave - they're a very friendly bunch, and Martin has been to several of their meet-ups at other venues in the city. 

Martin brought along Nathaniel, who he knew from years ago at London on Board, and who he had discovered was cat-sitting in Bristol, a stones throw from him in Easton! Nathaniel left the cat at home, as far as I'm aware.

I'd brought a bag of games - actually a bag of games in bags - all suitable for three players. We kicked off with Ra, and it was a pleasure to play with what has been called Super Ra, the original Rio Grande edition updated with my playmat and resin tiles. For all the lovely production values of the new version, the simplicity of this one is pretty perfect really - a testament to the fact that bells and whistles don't make a game better (unless it's a game of Bells & Whistles, I suppose).

It was a feisty one, with Martin getting two full racks of tiles to himself at the end of the first epoch, after Nathaniel and I had bowed out. None of our chanting of "Ra! Ra! Ra!" seemed to make any difference whatsoever, and the Ra tiles burrowed ever deeper into the bag. The second epoch was a different story, and ended with all of us still with Sun tiles to play. We all judged the third epoch just about right, and the scores could hardly have been closer, Martin squeaking the win by a point.

Martin 46

Joe 45

Nathaniel 43

Next was Sea, Salt and Paper, which Martin had brought with him. Again, a tense finish, with all three of us crossing the finishing line in the same round, and Nathaniel beating me on the tie breaker. We noted that in 3/4 player game, if any opponent beats the last chance challenge, all opponents get their hand points, which is nice, to quote a phrase.

Nathaniel 41 (w)

Joe 41

Martin 36

During SSP, there was a prize draw to mark the 2nd anniversary of North Street games at Left Handed Giant. Three games and a four pack of beer were the prizes, and we reckoned our chances were pretty good, as we were 3 of 28 people in attendance. But we didn't win, which is fair enough I suppose, given that we're only casual attendees. The games were Spectre, Next Station Tokyo and Under Falling Skies - all good stuff, and brand new!

Back to the bag of games in bags for our next game, Seaside. This sweet little push-your-luck game hasn't seen much action at GNN, mainly because I keep forgetting to bring it, or forgetting I've brought it. It's good pub-table fare, and my stack of wooden chips just beat the others for the win, meaning we'd all won a game so far (I'd rather have won Ra, of course, but I'll take it - a win's a win, as they say).

Our final game was Azul - the travel edition which comes in a bag! For the most part it's a successful miniaturisation, with tiles the size of Spangles, as noted by the two of us at the table old enough to remember Spangles (not Martin). But as also noted, it's not really small or convenient enough to play whilst travelling - I'd rather decant the full size one into a bag and use that.  Whatever, it did the business, and I made some good early running. Nathanial caught me up, but Martin struggled to get his Spangles in a row. Some entirely appropriate dickishness (aided by possibly bad play by me) in the last round left me taking 8 minus points, and Nathaniel winning by 7.

Nathaniel 69

Joe 62

Martin 52

Nathaniel had instigated a handshake after each game, which I rather like, and I suggest we do this at future Tuesdays. Unless of course the game is cooperative, in which case we should give each other the Vs up, or something.

It was only 10.30pm,  but Martin had to be up to catch a plane to Cincinnati and Nathaniel had cats to feed back in Easton, so we wandered off into the warm night, briefly confused by the roadworks blocking Bristol Bridge. A very fun night, and a relief to keep the GNN flame from puttering out, at least this week!

Rolling with Alan Moon

It was a busy night in Fishponds with Joe, Katy, Martin, Mel, Ben, Anja, Steve, Louie and me (Adam) in attendance. Louie had just finished school for the summer and so bed time had fortunately become somewhat negotiable.

We started off with the coloured-line-matching joy of Take it Easy (Joe had ten boards with him just in case) and Joe was elected caller. A few of the newbies (I think Louie and Ben hadn’t played before, perhaps Anja and Steve too?) missed calls which led to a human megaphone system to ensure the integrity of the game.

We thought about scaling up further and between the sets owned by Joe, Martin and Sam it sounds like we could get 30 players. Do we know 30 gamers?

Anyway, somehow Martin and I managed to play the exact same pattern, but inverted, for all except the last three tiles which meant we scored the same:

• Adam/Martin 173
• Joe 164
• Anja 157
• Mel 154
• Ben 145
• Steve 129
• Katy 121
• Louie 110
  

We then split into two with Katy, Ben, Martin Joe and I picking Oasis by Alan Moon (Ben wondered if the game required dice, and would we need to roll with it, and was then forced to repeat his joke for Martin’s benefit.) Anja, Steve, Mel and Louie went for Robot Quest Arena. I know little of this game except that Louie picked his favourite robot, the heavy-duty Crate, loaded it up with weapons (“I love Tesla Coils!”) and as usual battered his way to victory, clanking four kills along the way:

Metal action!

• Louie 28 
• Mel 21
• Steve 19
• Anja 17
  

Over in Mongolia Oasis consisted of a mostly-dusty map with a few bits of green sneaking in at the edges. Amazingly the 20-year-old game which Martin discovered in a charity shop had never been played and to everyone’s delight tiles needed to be punched out.

Can you tell which bits are camels?

To play the game each player would turn over 1, 2 or 3 cards from their stack of five (replenishing 2, 1 or 0 cards respectively) and then in turn order we got the opportunity to take someone else’s offering with the first taken becoming starting player next time.

The cards could feature grass, gravel or sand tiles (which we could add to the map to claim territory), camels (which claimed a different sort of territory - the roady-sandy bit in the middle), bonus multipliers and extra-card cards.

Martin claimed it wasn’t like Kingdomino, but it is a bit. Joe and Ben went for early camels, the rest of us going after tiles and trying to block each other in dastardly fashions. In the end Katy quietly built up a pile of ten gravel-multipliers, meaning her eight gravel tiles scored more than any other player in the game.

• Katy 124
• Martin 66
• Joe 58
• Adam 56
• Ben 46
  

While we waited for the robots to stop clanking into one another we got So Clover to the table. It would have been a perfect 30 except that we thought Meteorology was meant to be Storm/Rain when it was obviously Log/Rain. Sorry Martin.

• 28/30

Then everyone (except Louie, who finally had to go to bed) was back together for a slightly truncated Just One. The first two rounds featured bonus points aplenty as we had two duplicates in both. Martin was somewhat puzzled by Manure, but when Steve changed Brass to Ass it seemed to help. Throughout the game Lego Aragorn helped to balance the clues as we pushed the game to it’s limits.

Lego Aragorn. Helping.

We were on a winning roll until Joe was subjected to a field of obscurity – what would you guess for Quadrophenia, Ray, Ali, Redford, Entertainer?

What if we added in Tantric?

No?

Highlight this text to find out:

Sting

At that point we decided that was quite enough of that. I'm not sure what the final score was, but probably loads.

And with that we congregated outside for farewells and adieus until next week.

Reinerlander

 I arrived at Sam’s house marginally before Ian did, giving me the rare privilege of being first to a games night. The three of us waited a few short minutes before Martin arrived and that would be the total attendance for this week. Sam mentioned that Martin was bringing him an old Reiner Knizia game, apparently in a huge box. The box, when it finally emerged from Martin’s bag, wasn’t quite as big as Sam was expecting, but it was colder. Martin explained it had been next to the beers.

The game is area control where you place your knights according to the cards in your hand, numbered 1-50-something. You can place a knight using this card on the relevant space or discard any card and then expand any already existing group of knights: a Duchy. Gaining control of castles allows you to add knights and strengthen your Duchy which is important because if they connect to an opponent’s larger duchy then you will lose control. Duchies get you points and, as the rulebook’s helpful strategy guide tells us, getting a high score is a good idea.

Ian and Martin battled over a large Duchy in the West while I collected castles – this used up my knights and threatened to trigger an early end to the game until the others picked on me and sent my castle-sitting knights back into my supply. Sam, meanwhile, built up his presence on an island, quickly dubbed “Samhatten” which remained a constant threat that he may be able to cross the river and join it to an opponent’s duchy.

He never did, though. He didn’t need to.

Sam 53

Ian 43

Andrew 29

Martin 27

Next up wasa welcome return for Montage, the crossword game, with Martin & Ian v Sam & I. We used the Bolivia set up which, we soon discovered, limits players to three and four letter words for most of the game. We clued as best we could, given the shortness of the words involved. Martin’s clue “old fashioned email” for Fax was nice, but failed. So did my “Cloth box” for bag. Shamefully, this logic was used again later when Martin clued “Cardboard bag” for box and I was too slow to knock and Sam and I lost the chance to intercept.

There were a couple of times when all three knocks came simultaneously but someone blurted the answer out anyway. We played on regardless, and Sam and I took the win but the tight Bolivian layout meant it wasn’t quite the smash hit that I recall. Hope to see it again soon, though.

Sam & Andrew, 4 quadrants

Ian & Martin 2

Then I decided to be sensible and leave early. It was only 10pm but since I’d got there first, I felt that I’d had my fill. The other three got out Mille Fiori.

Martin 197

Sam 195

Ian 183

And then they banged out three So Clovers!

16, 18, 18

Thanks all. See you next week!

Thumbs Up

Last night's games began early as Adam T and I played a couple of head to head games as we waited for 7.30 to arrive. Adam had Hey That's My Fish in his bag, and so we began with that. 

Neither of us had played in a while, and we both remarked on how feisty the game is v it's cute and cuddly appearance. I played numerous dick moves, hampering his penguin movements, and kicked off the evening with a win:

Sam 59
Adam 36

Then we played Match of the Century, a chess game that isn't chess, but kind of channeling it in a Spassky v Fischer match-up, recreating the epic battle of 1972. This is essentially a lane battler where playing the higher value gets you the advantage, and a secured majority in advantage wins you the round. The catch is that whomever loses a particular lane activates the special power on their card, gathering pawns (power boosts!) more cards (more cards) mental strength (potentially both more cards and pawns) or occasionally - Adam made use of this a fair bit - negating any advantage to the winner. 

We were neck and neck when Martin knocked on the door, so called it an honourable draw. Ian and Joe followed in short order, and we had half-hour or so until Katy arrived, so began the official GNNing with Courtisans - new to Ian. 

This has been explained elsewhere already, but is essentially Biblios crossed with set-scoring crossed with extra dick. I thought Ian's relentless palming off of white cards onto me was going to put me in last, but I managed to negate the minus 7 points with my last turn, and that was enough for a win:

Sam 13

Adam 8

Joe 7

Martin and Ian 5 each

We followed that with Cabanga - new to Adam. This was the opposite experience from the last time I'd played - there was so little Cabanga-ing then the game felt a bit procedural. Now we couldn't stop shouting cabanga! and at one point Joe was cabanga-ed an entire new hand of six cards. Bad luck Joe!

I snagged another win. Not sure how really. 

Sam 1
Martin 5
Adam 8
Ian 9
Joe 15

Katy had arrived for the finale and now we split into two teams to play Turbo Kidz - new to everyone. 

This is a racing game where the driver is blindfold, and their teammates must guide them around the track, which is a laminated board. The car is represented by a marker, and the racing line the progress it makes as the team-mates 'steer' them by a. using the driver's non-dominant thumb as a steering wheel and b. yelling (sorry - I got excited) directions at the same time. If the 'car' crosses a white line at any point, that's considered a crash, and the driver is returned to the previous checkpoint. 

It's quite a surreal experience as the driver - losing sense of scale as well as direction - and also the thumbing co-pilot, as your movements get interpreted in semi-mysterious ways. A pretty bonkers experience all around.

First to two race victories wins the game, and the Joe/Ian/Sam team thought we'd won it, but there was a steward's enquiry regarding a white line, forcing a decider - and we lost!

Katy/Adam/Martin - Podium!

Joe/Ian/Sam - Odium

Then, after the usual shenanigans, we split into threes. Joe Katy and Ian set up Sunrise Lane, whilst Adam, Martin and I went to the haunted house in Spectral.

I'd found this game bamboozling on my first visit, with its cards-referencing-other-cards geography and deduction-with-area-control approach to gameplay. This time, it was Adam's turn to be bamboozled - although to be fair, with more decorum than I managed - as we diligently made our notes. Both Martin and Adam said they didn't really have a system down yet. Joe won Sunrise Lane and they began playing The Gang as we reached our finale...

Adam was undone by ghosts and Martin surprised by the lack of gems where he had investigators. 

Sam 57

Martin 45

Adam 36

Adam confessed he was watching our moves to see what we were getting up to, and both Martin and I said that was next-level Spectraling. "Well, it didn't work" Adam pointed out. We did some seat-swapping as Katy, Adam and Joe set up Mille Fiori and I suggested Cascadero, a proposal I would come to regret. 

We played the roving Heralds variant: only two of the heralds on the board, but whenever one is scored the active player can choose to move it to a neighbouring town. This apparently simple tweak was enough to send me into cognitive meltdown, and I sulked my way through "all of" (Martin) or "the middle twenty minutes" (me) of the game, as everything I did seemed to resonate with pathetic ineffectiveness. Happily, the other end of the table were making up for it, with Katy at one point complaining about "Cocks in my furrow!" in a loud voice. 

I attempted to rally, like a deranged patient briefly experiencing lucidity, but my grand plan to come less-feebly-third was kiboshed by Martin passing 50 points and ending the game instantly. "Cascadero is kind of like Mille Fiori crossed with a staple gun" Joe sympathised, adding "in the eye" for clarity. 

Martin 55

Ian 37

Sam 25 and DNF

At the same time, Katy wrapped up a win in Mille Fiori. It was close, though:

Katy 209

Joe 199

Adam 184

It was time for So Clover! We played twice, first as a sextet. I don't actually remember much about the first attempt apart from the seemingly endless ways the words went with my clue of priapism, although most of them everyone agreed would have made me write 'wank' instead. "Wank goes with everything" said Ian at one point, like he was seeing the matrix for the first time. 

We scored a decent 30/36 but lost Adam to hometime. Katy insisted the five of us play again, so we did. After Katy blamed herself for not getting a six on Ian's clover, she began rooting for us to score badly, but we actually did rather well again. Katy's clue of Bellend for dirty/hood was a highlight. Or lowlight. Either way, it was an excellent but imperfect 28/30 to round off an action-packed night of no less than eleven games! 

Happily Ever Rafter

 In the same way that Sirens drew sailors to their doom on rocky shores in past centuries, so the promise of board games drew us to Sam’s house. Not to our doom, but to jovial banter and salty nibbles.

I arrived at a little before 8 to find Sam, Ian, Martin, Adam H and Joe halfway through a game of The Gang, a cooperative version of Poker. It was the third hand and I noticed that Joe rearranged the cards in the flop in numerical order, like they were playing For Sale. Ian bet low, believing he only had Card High, and had to be told he had a Straight when he revealed his hand. He admitted he still didn’t understand poker and, indeed, at a rare poker night just this past weekend Ian was out first. I was dealt into the last two hands, but extra players only make it more difficult and we ended with two more failed attempts.

The gang's all here

2 successes, 3 failures.

Then we split into two groups of three, choosing games that would easily accommodate four since Katy was on her way.

Adam, Ian and Martin set up Cascadero. I didn’t follow it much, apart from someone saying it was Ian’s “first time with the farmers” which raised some smutty laughter.

Adam 39

Ian 37

Martin OUT (but scored 38)

Meanwhile, Sam, Joe, me and (latterly) Katy played Expiditions. I saw it only from a distance the other week and today was my first play. It involves placing arrows along one of three routes (red, blue or yellow) such that they arrive at secret locations that you have in your hand or are on display as one of the shared locations. It’s simple, but cunning. Use a ticket for an extra action, reach a blue square for another turn and reach a red square for a new ticket. And since this is a Eurogame, all routes begin in Essen, Germany.

Meanwhile, we’re all travelling to these distant locations. Sad to say, I hadn’t actually been to any of them. Not even Stonehenge, although I've seen it from a car window. Each location card has a little text to explain the site's charms. I was curious about Graham Land in the far south, due to its dull name (unless you happen to be called Graham, I suppose).

Sam seemed very adept at chaining blue squares and red stars together to propel himself around the world, ticking off his locations as he went. Joe pondered his next move in an Australian accent which I thought might be a possible tell. Katy surprised us all by asking “Where’s the Sahara?” when its card was drawn from the deck. Near the end, the winner was pretty clear. Joe took several attempts to count up his score and Katy seemed disappointed that she hadn’t enjoyed it as much this time.

Sam 15

Joe 9

Andrew 5

Katy 4

Katy demanded something fun this time, so we played Rafter 5, the game of dexterity and balance in a tiny box. As the planks slowly increase in number, our options become more and more absurd. 

Katy fumbled one of her turns but somehow managed to drop her chest onto the plank she’d just placed, so it was a valid move. I had less luck. I picked up one of the rafters deftly, causing murmurs of approval for my skill, but then I nudged a treasure chest with my plank and the whole thing collapsed.

Andrew lost

Then the groups shifted again. Joe, Martin and Katy played Seaside. You pull beach-themed tiles from a bag and make jokes about getting crabs. At the end of the first game, they just stacked up their tiles and I took a photo in lieu of a numerical result.

Joe on the right, Martin on the left, Katy hidden behind them both

The second game was even closer, and so they relied on numbers.

Joe 19

Katy 19

Martin 17

Then they played Sunrise Lane. I didn’t get the scores, but Martin won with Joe “squeaking second by a point.”

Then they played another game. This one had large cards and a pretty fabric play area thing. It was called Courtisans but I don’t know the scores, because I dashed out before they’d finished.

The reason for my sharp exit was a game of Empire’s End. This is a game of disaster avoidance using a No Thanks style mechanic of bidding to not pick up tiles. You begin with 11 parts of a gleaming civilization and will almost certainly be left with half of it in ashes and ruins. Try to protect the most valuable or take the disaster that will hopefully have enough resources on it to make it worthwhile.

It was fun but a little bit long. Including rules, it took about an hour and a half. As a four-player, with a couple of newbies, it was a little longer than I’d wanted. Ian went big on military but Adam hoarded wheat for two end of game bonuses along with, I think, another one or two bonuses that pushed him from last into a healthy first.

Shiny fire

Adam 179

Sam 153

Andrew 144

Ian 127

After I left, Martin, Ian and Sam played a three-player So Clover, getting a perfect 18 out of 18.

And after Ian left, Sam beat Martin 2-1 at Schipp & Weg

Thanks all. It was special!