Shouting "llama, llama, llama"

Our weekly games night arrived through the cold June drizzle at Sam's house. It began with Sam, Martin, Ian and Adam T playing L.A.M.A. for a couple of rounds until Katy and I arrived ten minutes late. The game was reset and all six were dealt in but before we could play a single card, Joe arrived.

We split into two groups and played two new (to GNN) games. Martin persuaded myself, Katy and Ian to try Situation 4, a team-based, simultaneous play jigsaw war game from the sixties.

Joe, Sam and Adam T played Xanadu. I know little about it except for someone saying something about tea. Adam T's post game summary of "Honestly, sometimes it's fun" didn't inspire confidence.

Adam T 41
Sam 33
Joe 29

If a jigsaw war game free-for-all sounds like crazy knockabout fun, then prepare to have your assumptions overturned. There's a strange frustration in not being able to find the right piece you need in ordinary jigsaws and this is doubled by the presence of other people trying to find the same piece.

This is war

It was fast moving in my head but often slow moving on the board, as certain pieces eluded everyone at times. It was so new and unfamiliar that we didn't deploy our tanks efficiently, and didn't deploy our paratroopers at all. Perhaps it was only right that it ended in a draw because, as Ian pointed out, there are no winners in war.

Brown land with orange pieces, me and Martin, Green with yellow pieces were Katy and Ian.

Martin and Andrew 1250
Ian and Katy 1250

Adam H arrived at this point and joined us to make a cosy fivesome at one end of the table. We got out Beowulf, the fun game of Viking epic poetry. It was Adam H's first go, but the rules are pretty straightforward. We set forth on our journey, spending a lot of time with Sea Hags, and enjoying Katy and Martin's bad luck. Adam, though, kept winning auctions and before long, he looked like the one to beat. Adam didn't seem to be enjoying it, though, and when he saw that Xanadu had been replaced by Orbit, he asked if he could swap games. I'm sure he only said that to shock us.

Beowulf in the near distance, Xanadu in the far.

Katy kept picking up wounds and Ian used his special cards to good effect. I was very good at being the starting player on rounds where we get to choose new cards, but that didn't help much. Adam remained bemused: "I don't know what I'm doing," he insisted. You're winning, Adam. You should recognise it by now.

Adam H 24
Martin 19
Ian 18
Andrew 12
Katy 7

Orbit was still unfinished and Ian was looking pensively at his watch, so we had another game of L.A.M.A. Once again, Adam H won while Ian ended the game on purpose so he could go and catch his bus, but not before he spouted the line that became this blog post's title. Thanks Ian.

Adam H 6
Katy 19
Martin 24
Andrew 25
Ian 42

Orbit had ended too. There must have been a fair amount of AP since I remember Sam asking "would it help if I move the planets now?"

Sam 41
Adam T 35
Joe 24

While they were just finishing up, the other four of us played a single round of Kariba.

Martin 17
Katy 13
Andrew 11
Adam 10

Now Adam T bade his farewells and left us to our final two games. First was Zogen, a Dobble-esque game of playing similar cards and calling out the name of the item that has changed. Its a crazy game of lightning reactions and I stopped playing halfway through, not finding it much fun. Martin had an early lead but was challenged on an illegal move and had to pick up all his cards again. He started to steam-roll his way back into contention, but too late since Sam put down his final card.

After this, showing little concern for the late hour, we played Just One. We started brilliantly, and started to believe that this was the time: a clear round. But duplicates crept in and when I was left to guess "Cinderella" with only "charming" as a clue (I guessed "Prince") our dreams were sunk.

And so, having failed to crack the Just One code, we set off in the night in Joe's car. Thanks for the lift, Joe and thanks to all for the fun.

Nicht noch einmal!

This week's GNN was looking to be reasonably populated, only for work and weather to cull us back to five: Ian was first in out of the heavy rain at my (Sam's) house, followed by equally sodden Martin and Katy, before Joe strolled in looking catalogue dry. The evening began in most un-GNN-like fashion as we sat with Sally and the boys chatting and eating apple pie, almost as if there were no games to be played.

But there were, and our plans of Clanking or Rocketing (Stephenson-wise) were abandoned for some five player options: we started with The Chameleon, the cross between Spyfall and Codenames.

Like Spyfall, cards are dealt during each round that denote who the chameleon is, whose task to A. not reveal themselves and/or B. work out what the word of the round is. The other cards and a set of dice decide on the word, which is one of about 16 visible on a face-up card - and the visible words are of a theme: animals, music genres and so on. Everyone but the chameleon knows which word is the chosen one, and after a short period of "thinking time" everyone says a single, ostensibly related, word. Then everyone discusses and guesses who the chameleon is. If they choose wrong, the chameleon wins. If they choose correctly, the chameleon can still win by identifying the word.

 chameleon not pictured

The latter was the case for us half the time - in all but one round we nailed the chameleon, but half the time they guessed the word anyway - like Spyfall, you're trying to give the impression you know the word without actually giving it away to the chameleon, and we were being rather obvious. In the final round I was the chameleon, and I decided to go fairly random and just say the word "Orange", hoping to bluff my way out of it. But as luck would have it, I was last to speak and the other words revealed to me that the correct word was Christmas. I stuck with orange, happily remembering that oranges - or satsumas, as Joe correctly pointed out - appear in stockings. Thanks to kismet and some vague words from Ian and Katy, I pulled off the only outright chameleon win of the night!

We moved on to the meat of the evening, which was Beowulf. I rarely request this but I always enjoy it, and last night was no exception. The very first bid turned into an epic battle where everyone felt too committed to drop out, and as a result cards were a scarce commodity from early on. Joe and I both took scratches and wounds, but I managed to pick up a couple of scrolls as well, whereas Joe was bereft of them.

Oh, Beowulf

Ian and Katy both managed to build themselves enormous hands of cards at some stage, whereas Martin and I seemed short of them. Halfway through I sensed it was a battle between Katy and Martin, as Joe looked to be struggling still and Ian seemed too forlorn - but I had forgotten that is merely Ian's natural demeanour.

But spare a thought for Martin, who gallantly reminded Ian in the final, epic battle - where both of them successfully risked into existence numerous cards - that when Ian's risk finally failed him he had a special card to play that negated the risk and allowed him to go again. He did, and it proved a crucial moment in determining the victor, as Martin's risk response did not fare as well:

Ian 28
Katy/Sam 26
Martin 23
Joe 14

Martin's successful risks weren't quite enough...

After the tension of bidding in Beowulf we went for a different kind of tension: bidding in Perudo. This perennial classic showed all its qualities - apart from the Calza rule - as we bluffed and brinkmanshipped our way through another twenty minutes of GNN history. Despite Joe's death spiral, it was Martin first out as the others shed dice down to palafico status and I somehow held on to all five of mine. Ian and Joe soon exited too, although my dice were depleted by the time I faced Katy thanks to two moments where I wanted to call Calza (and would have been successful) but had to raise, and was successfully dudo-ed.

It was now a face to face between Katy (one die) and myself (two). I rolled a 4 and 6 but bid one 5, hoping Katy wouldn't bid a single six. It was risky, but it paid off as she went one ace and I dudo-ed her out of the game.

Despite Joe, Ian and I agreeing we were collectively 'pooped' Martin corralled us into one more game, which was Noch Mal ("Again" in German), one of Joe's roll-and-write purchases that have been making their way to the table recently. I was curious, since I really like Rolling America and Qwixx, but was less impressed than everyone else by Kribbeln. It was new to everyone but Joe and Katy, but the game is pretty simple: six dice are rolled - three numbered, three coloured - and then the active player chooses a combo of colour and number to cross off boxes on their Noch Mal pad. All the other players then choose one of the remaining combos for themselves, with the caveat that if they can't cross off adjacent boxes exactly (i.e. they can't access those boxes from previously filled ones, or they don't have enough space) then they can't cross off anything. Players completing a column or all the boxes of a particular colour score points, and certain boxes are minus points if they end the game un-crossed.

Pre-game-boxes

I thought it was a decent game, but compared to Qwixx or Rolling America it did seem to go on for a while; long enough for some to feel it out-stayed its welcome somewhat. Everyone eventually ran out of the helpful 'joker' spaces on their pads, meaning there were turns were you could do nothing but stare balefully at the table. I think a second play would change a number of tactics and alleviate this, but I didn't get the impression it would get played again soon... Ian hated it so much he lost all his powers of arithmetic and thought 12 + 2 was twenty.

Sam 22
Joe/Katy 18
Martin 16
Ian 14

Early-game boxes. Note that columns further from the centre 

(where you must start your box-crossing) score more points. 

And everyone - bar me - stepped into the windy night. Despite the underwhelm of Noch Mal, a very fun evening. Thanks all!

Fully Flushed

Five players congregated at Sam's this Tuesday for our regular fix of gaming delight: Sam, Ian, Katy, Martin, and me.

When we discussed what game to play, Sam wanted to play Covert and he tried a subtle piece of underselling by assuring Martin that he probably wouldn't hate it. Martin was not convinced by Sam's neuro linguistic programming and we decided to do the usual thing of staring at Sam's games wall and reading the names out loud to see if anyone is keen.

This time it took far less time than usual, as we all seemed keen on Beowulf, Knizia's homage to epic Saxon poetry.

I am unfamiliar with this game's source material but if it included a brave warrior who took one risk after another without failing any of them, then tonight's game reflected that perfectly. The hero in question was Martin who, by the end, was taking unnecessary risks because he thought a Viking without at least a scratch would look odd, especially alongside his wounded colleagues.

It was a masterpiece of fortune management, and was in stark contrast to the rest of us. Sam frequently came last in the bidding, but that did mean he was often first to choose which card he wanted in recovery sections. I was mostly fourth, missing out on both the first choice consolation prize and getting anything halfway decent. Ian shared my misfortune and despite his plucky attitude, crying "unleash the foxes!" at the start of some battle or other, he found himself on the wrong end of several bad risks.

Martin 41
Katy 22
Sam 21
Ian 11
Andrew 10

A great game, and very nice to revisit it.

After this saga (by the way, what's the adjective form of "saga"? Sagatic? Sagatious?) we went for the complete opposite as, to my delight, Tsuro was next on the table. It's only drawback is the dull coloured pieces given to each player which, according to Sam, look like colours you'd find in the worst bathroom shop in town.

And it played out as many Tsuro games do. We're all too experienced to make any schoolboy errors, so we were all still very much alive two-thirds of the way into the game. But then, one by one, we all fell from the board. Well, all but one.

1. Sam
2. Andrew
3. Katy
4. Ian
5. Martin

From here on, the theme of short and light games continued. Next was Rolling America, which is Take It Easy for people who preferred geography to maths at school.

Sam and I came joint first which was surprising considering how inefficiently Sam played. He used a guard option on a 2 and then, by the end of the game, he'd surrounded it with 3s, meaning he didn't need to use that guard at all. He could've done so much more.

Sam 9
Andrew 9
Katy 10
Ian 10
Martin 11

This was followed by Mamma Mia! It's been a while since I last played, and I was very slow off the blocks, putting down no recipes at all in round one.

But quite apart from the game, all eyes were on the Mamma Mia card, and whether it would finally fall into Katy's lap. She looked jealous when Ian got it first and then was so happy when she finally got it that she clenched both fists and looked to the heavens in joy.

By now we were well into our whisky from emoji-adorned shot glasses and as for the game, no one could catch Sam after a sterling three-recipe round one.

Sam 6
Martin 4
Katy 3
Ian 2
Andrew 2

Next up was another epic of sorts: a trilogy of Fuji Flush.

This game is already famous for its Dick Moves, whereby a player ruins a winning opportunity by playing a card just one higher in value. As if to say, "I'm only doing the bare minimum to crush your dreams. Because I can."

In game one, I won after we all pushed through at the start when we all put down a three as our first cards.

Andrew 0
Sam 1
Katy 1
Ian 2
Martin 3

This was followed by a resumption of Sam's parade of winning. In round two Katy, Sam and Martin were looking good with three sixes giving them a joint score of 18 until Ian shat on it with a casually played 19.

Sam 0
Ian 1
Andrew 1
Martin 1
Katy 4

Then in round three, Katy was stuck on one card for a long time, unable to close the deal and then Sam snuck a win by playing the same card as the about-to-push-through Martin.

Sam 0
Katy 1
Martin 2
Andrew 2
Ian 4

Once we'd finished, we all voiced our appreciation of the game, which once looked like a luckfest but is now showing certain subtle strategies to (somewhat) negate the luck.

It's back to normal for the Division this week.

Thanks all! More next week!

Take the Fifth

I’m sure I’ve used this before as a title, but never mind.

Today we congregated at Martin’s house for our GNN weekly. There were just five of us: the host Martin along with Ian, Katy, Joe and myself. Joe and I arrived last, after Joe took a diversion for Piri Piri chicken. When we got to Martin’s house, we found Katy cradling Effie in her arms, glad to have properly met the tiny baby outside the confines of Martin’s papoose. Ian, meanwhile, was cradling a huge glass of lager. Who was the happier? Perhaps we’ll never know.

We considered what was best with five players. Winner’s Circle was mentioned, which I was keen on but Katy wasn’t. Then Beowulf was suggested. We all seemed happy with this suggestion, and Katy was open to learning new rules.

Martin taught her while trying to rock Effie to sleep. This was surprisingly successful. The rule-teaching, I mean. Not trying to get a baby to sleep.

Beowulf started out with some big battles very early on. Bids up to seven symbols were seen as early as round two, as Ian and Katy raised the stakes and got away with it thanks to some luck with their risk taking. Joe and Martin, however, had the worst luck imaginable. I trod a middle path: safe but unprofitable.

It got to such a point that Katy started apologising for her luck. Meanwhile, Joe happily accepted risks, saying “My luck’s gonna change, right?” before he learnt that it would do no such thing. He kept getting kicked out of bidding and was forced to take the fifth choice token (hence the blog title). My tactic (successful in previous games) of saving up until the final round was undone with an unlucky risk, meaning I ended the game with a whole bunch of unused helmet/wild cards in my hand. What a waste.

Katy strode to a clear victory, but perhaps most impressive was Martin who, despite his poor luck, managed to gain second. Ian, after looking so good for much of the game and entering the final stages with a huge hand of cards, might have been disappointed with third. Joe actually scored 18 points, but was hit with a last minute third wound, giving him a –15 punishment.

Katy 35
Martin 21
Ian 14
Andrew 12
Joe 3

After this, with one hour left on the clock we chose Blockers as our next five player battle. Again, this was new to Katy, but it’s so simple that it didn’t take long to explain.

By now, though, Effie was in full grizzle-mode and would not keep quiet for long. She’d seemed quite occupied by watching Beowulf from her father’s arms, but Blockers – despite the brighter colours – didn’t seem to captivate her.

With this distraction, Martin wasn’t at his best. And with Katy perhaps on full-on win mode after being robbed of her favourite colour (I was purple, she had to make do with sky blue) (or cyan, if you like) maybe the result was a foregone conclusion.

The game progressed with plenty of captures and cursing other players for not being in the right places so we could steal from them without damaging our score. Again, right at the end, Joe saw his plan foiled as Ian stole from a group that meant that Joe couldn’t steal from it (since it would split a group) and this apparently took the win from him. It’s a game of fine margins with five players, and with some lengthy pauses for thinking in between goes, even with Effie’s wailing, it took up the final hour.

Katy 5 (and 5 tiles captured)
Joe 5 (and 7)
Ian 5 (and 8)
Andrew 6 (and 9)
Martin 6 (and 13)

With that, we were done. And it was still light outside! “What kind of a games night was that?” asked Joe, amazed at the early hour. It was an evening full of epic tales and abstract reasoning, that’s what kind it was.

Normally, there’d be no point in putting together a leaderboard for week one, but I though Katy would like to see that she’s already scored more than twice as many points as her closest rival.

Climb Every Mountain!

Thursday - Sam (me) was joined by Matt, Ian and Andrew. As Matt was running late the three of us started the evening off with a quick blast of Love Letter. We'd all won a round each when Matt arrived, and Andrew claimed the decider:

Andrew - 2 cubes
Ian/Sam - 1 cube

We debated what to play but with Andrew keen, Ian curious and Matt amenable we elected to play K2 - unlike Tuesday's gentle sortie, we went for the brutal(er) winter side of the board, replete with shitty weather. I left one climber behind and with the other surged to the summit. I'd erected a tent just off the peak and planned to return to it to see out the winter - but I'd reckoned without Matt and Ian following close behind me - as the top of the mountain only allows one climber per space, I was stuck, and eventually expired.

Chilly

How I laughed despotically when Matt and Ian's climbers suffered a similar fate!

How I didn't laugh when Matt's remaining climber reached the near-summit and survived until the spring!

But it wasn't enough. Andrew's softly-softly approach had kept both his climbers alive, and even though they were the least daring, being alive apparently counts for something in mountaineering:

Andrew 10
Matt 9
Ian/Sam 5

Gone... all gone

We'd blasted through the Himalayas in short order, and if a few people had to die for our fun it wasn't going to stop us jumping into our board game time machine and travel back to ancient Egypt, for Matt's first play of Ra. We had an almost Ra-free first round, where everyone had time to consider their bids without the pressure of the auction track imploding. Matt carefully made sure he had high bidding tiles for round two - were they too high? He did seem reluctant to play them. Andrew meanwhile cursed his luck - especially on round three which saw his low bidding tiles abetted by a surfeit of Ras. At least he got the highest-bidding-tiles bonus, having gotten rid of his low bids...

Sam 35
Ian 27
Matt 18
Andrew 11

It was still not yet half past nine, so having all already played it, we broke out Beowulf. The risk option in this game is really what makes it - even when you play the rules all wrong like we did. We weren't out of the bidding when a risk failed (as we should have been) and we picked up scratches when we should have been picking up wounds.

Note the thematically empty crisp bowl

Oh well - a fun romp anyway, and one that we took a break from to sample Sally's home-baking. How Norse we felt - and must have looked - surveying the board in tense silence, eating raspberry muffins. I thought I might have won, had I not been hit with a double-wound from the dragon late on... but as it turned out, Andrew had the win sewn up either way...

Andrew 36
Matt 17
Ian/Sam 15

For the third time on the night Ian and I tied for last place!

We finished off with Pairs. This is already a classic at GNN and even my crappy Professor Elemental deck didn't ruin the game for us. Matt - at one stage at least nine points behind everyone - almost staged the greatest of all great Pair comebacks... but on the last round second place was enough for me, and when Ian and Andrew went bust I heaved a raspberry-scented sigh of relief.

Sam 23
Matt 21
Andrew 20
Ian 14

And that was that.

7 Wonders, 7 Hours, 7 Games

Thursday's non-curricular gaming began in slightly unpromising fashion. Ian joined me (Sam) before the working day was even done (4pm!) to try and crack Gingkopolis, which has been sitting on my shelf unplayed for a good six months. But despite watching a guide on BGG and following the instructions, we were still none the wiser, and abandoned it after half an hour of fruitless cryptography.

Instead we played Letters From Whitechapel, the game of hiding and deduction. Except Ian's Jack The Ripper flew close to the wind and was caught in the second move of the first round. But as Joe had just texted to say he was on his way, this proved serendipitous for us as well as the wretched pawns of Victorian London. We just had time to squeeze in a couple of games of Elk Fest (winning one each) before Joe arrived, and introduced us to the pleasures of Ninety-Nine.

Dry Moose

Ninety-Nine is a trick-taking game using a standard deck of cards but removing the low values of 2-5. Each player is dealt 9 cards and then, like Contract Whist, they predict how many tricks they'll take. But there's a twist - you have to make your bid using the cards from your hand: each player discards three cards to predict how many tricks they'll win, with diamonds = 0, spades = 1, hearts = 2 and clubs =3. So if you think you can win all nine tricks you discard 3 clubs.

These bids are made face-down but players have an option to declare, which means they turn their bid face-up for everyone to see. They can also (having declared) choose to play a completely open hand. This strategy is obviously rather risky but a if a declared hand wins the predicted tricks there's a 30 point bonus. An open hand is 30 points on top of that - and as a game where the winner reaches 100 points first that's quite an incentive - one that Joe went for and pulled off! He was leading by several points when Andrew arrived and we abandoned the game in favour of chips and, following that, Beowulf.

Bidding for Victory

We all needed a refresher of the rules (in fact it was Andrew's first play) but having done so, the game was away and over the hills - rather like Beowulf himself I expect. It's neatly devised so the second half of the game speeds by - having done quite well in the first I continually felt short of cards as the game (of almost entirely bidding) closed out, with Joe looking in a strong position. But having ignored the opportunity to rid himself of a wound, he picked up another wound and was hit by a brutal -15 points, careering from what would have been second to last.

Sam 28
Andrew 20
Ian 19
Joe 15

Adam - who had texted just as we took on the Hag - arrived with perfect timing, as the last card went back in the box. After a short debate we broke out 7 Wonders, which - we realised - has really only been played with 2 or 3 players for some time now. With 5 it's a very different beast. My collection of guilds saw off Adam's impressive array of sciences:

Sam 68
Adam 58
Andrew 53
Ian 52
Joe 36

Joe's disastrous form at 7 Wonders returns!

Despite feeling like we'd been playing for hours - probably because we had - it was still early, so we went for another Knizia - Colossal Arena.

Nothing like a bum

This has been played enough recently that the bum jokes are starting to feel tired. In fact they barely featured. What did feature was some brutal screwage as various folk found their backed beasties killed off in the scrum. I think three of us bet secretly on the Magus, who was out first round!

Sam 13
Ian 10
Joe 9
Adam 6
Andrew 6

Then we played Hugo, which I certainly didn't realise Adam hadn't played yet! He picked it up well enough, though like almost everyone he also self-Hugoed. I managed another win, beginning to wonder why I can't pull this kind of form off on a regular GNN night...

Sam 21
Adam 43
Andrew 48
Ian 51
Joe 56

Jolly, yet homicidal

Joe headed off home as the rest of us went for a gaming aperitif. I was now (I realise writing this up) on 4 wins in a row, one away from a non-curricular Perfect Five. If only I'd realised at the time, maybe I wouldn't have been quite so gung-ho in picking up several high-scoring cards early on in No Thanks, hoping to chain them together and also force my opponents to pick up shitty cards. It wasn't a solid strategy:

Andrew 10
Adam 23
Ian 34
Sam 36

There was just time for me to tread on a slug before the night ended.

Grape Expectations

February is a busy month for birthdays. Sam's, Joe's and Chris's birthday all fall within these four weeks. And so do the birthday's of Matt and myself, which were both celebrated (inwardly, without any fuss) on this very day.

But games are a serious business, and there was to be no let up in the white heat of competitiveness just because we were one year older.

And if this wasn't exciting enough, Sam had a new fridge delivered at the start of the evening.

There were seven of us and we decided to put off the decision about what to play by first playing 6nimmt. We declined Andy's suggestion that we should play professional rules (able to put a card on both ends of a row) because it just made things more complicated. And besides, I doubt that there's really a professional circuit of 6nimmt players.

The game brought new levels of cursing to GNN as everyone was convinced they had the worst hand. On a couple of occasions Ian and I were so baffled, we chose our cards at random ("Going Dirk," as it became known, named after our imaginary friend) despite Katy's insistence that you should "Choose with your brain!"

After round one, Joe arrived. A pleasant surprise, since we weren't expecting him. He joined in, and we gave him the average score of everyone else as his score. I decided to not round it up, hence his score having a fraction.

Joe 25 ½
Martin 28
Katy 31
Ian 37
Matt 43
Sam 50
Andy 64
Andrew 69

Then we split into two groups. Matt, Katy and I chose the Castles of Mad King Ludwig, simply because we all knew it. In the other group, Martin, Joe, Andy, Ian and Sam embarked on the epic Beowulf. I didn't try to follow their game, but it seemed pretty raucous. Every time I looked over, I expected to see them in Viking helmets, drinking from goblets while eating chicken legs in an over-enthusiastic am-dram manner.

As for the mad castles, Katy shot off into an early lead. I stayed in contention, with Matt never too far behind, but with a healthy handful of bonus cards threatening us with a last minute boost up the score track. In the end it was me that got my bonuses working, though.

Andrew 123
Katy 119
Matt 111

We finished at almost exactly the same time as the Beowulfians. Their scores were:

Joe 28
Sam 23
Andy 21
Martin 16
Ian 15

Joe's win got him some revenge for his previous score of -4.

After this, Joe and Andy left despite (or perhaps because) Sam getting the whiskey down from its shelf. The six remaining gamers stayed on for a game of Pairs. I did badly, having to twist to have a chance of winning, but knowing it would spell doom. And it did. Katy also displayed psychic powers, predicting the appearance of a lemon right on cue. Alas, knowing the card to come won't necessarily save you from it.

Ian 23
Martin 13
Katy 12
Sam 9
Matt 6
Andrew 5

Then Martin left for the bus, and the remaining five of us played That's Life. I still haven't got a grasp of it, and the random course offered little in the way of any obvious strategies. At least, not to me. Everyone else seemed to be doing okay.

Sam 17
Katy 6
Ian 4
Matt 1
Andrew -8

So, I got one win but also three last places, and Matt's performance was middling-to-poor. To quote Jerry Seinfeld, "Happy birthday? No such thing."

On the Division (I'm going to try doing it weekly, to see how interesting it is) Katy stays top by a considerable margin, despite not winning a game. Joe, though, grabs Points Ratio from her, and Martin and Katy tie for the Medal Table.

						Points
Martin	2	4	2	1	1	10
Hannah	1	5	1	1	3	11
Katy	2	3	2	3	1	11
Joe	1	1	4	2	4	12
Adam	1	3	3	4	1	12
Sam	1	4	2	6	1	14
Ian	3	1	5	4	1	14
Steve	3	3	3	4	5	18
Andy	3	7	3	3	3	19
Matt	4	5	3	5	2	19
Andrew	5	6	1	8	2	22
Anja	6	5	3	4	5	23
Dirk	5	5	5	5	5	25

Sails and sales

Sam's in China; Gonz is in Spain; Andrew was... somewhere else, so a select group of four gathered at Joe's last night. Before Matt arived, Joe, Ian and I fitted in a quick game of current fave Port Royal. Ian was able to get to the crucial 12 VP on Joe's turn, which made for a rather anticlimactic finish as Ian could just do nothing on his turn and win.

Ian 12
Joe 9
Martin 8

I'd brought along Beowulf: the Legend a few times recently without success, but tonight it got its chance. Being a Reiner Knizia game, it's not the most thematic ever, with Beowulf's epic travails represented through the medium of auctions. I think it's a lot of fun though, with plentiful opportunities to play the odds and double-entendre-prone cards ("double fist" anyone?). Unfortunately for Joe, it seemed the odds preferred to play him, as he proceeded to fail almost every risk he took. It was a lot like last week's game of San Quentin Kings, but without the twist ending where he won.

Martin 31
Matt 26
Ian 24
Joe -4

Finally, Joe was eager to unbox his new acquisition Sail To India. I thought it was a very clever game, boiling the Euro genre down to its purest essence of cards and cubes. But I'm not sure I found it that much fun. It seemed like we each fell into one of a few fairly obvious strategies (I was the trader, Ian was the explorer, Matt was the banker and Joe focused on strongholds) and churned the cubes until we had a winner. Which was me ;)

Martin 23
Matt 21
Ian 18 (wins tie-break)
Joe 18

						Points
Martin	1	1	3	2	2	9
Sam	1	2	3	3	2	11
Andrew	1	4	1	3	3	12
Matt	2	2	4	2	2	12
Gonz	3	1	4	1	3	12
Ian	3	3	1	3	3	13
Joe	4	4	2	4	1	15
Will	2	4	2	3	5	16
Anja	2	5	5	5	5	22
Steve	4	5	5	5	5	24