Nutritious Scarecrow

Anja and Steve were our hosts last night, and Joe was on driving duty: picking me up a little after 7 and then Ian and Martin en route. Joe insisted he knew where he was going and he mostly did, only losing the thread at the final corner, questioning "Where am I?" in a way that suggested maybe he was reflecting on bigger things than the geography of Barton Fields. But moments later we were relieved of any further existential concerns and in the house, where Arthur and Louie formed semi-adjacent participants for the first game of the night: Perfect Mismatch. 

This is a weird party game where playing co-operatively (there's also a competitive variant) one player is trying to successfully clue the others to one of six possible words on a card. The catch is that the clueing is bizarrely restrained to a series of spectrums - sort of - where the extremes are completely unrelated attributes. Is a scarecrow more unbreakable than it is nutritious? Is a career more legal than it is daytime? Ian, Joe and Martin all took turns clueing as Anja joined us for the finale. We had mixed success, succeeding with maximum points only once but avoiding the ignominy of placing the right guess in the worst place. 

Steve was briefly glimpsed but still focused on settling Lennon, so whilst Louie and Arthur began building a den we split into groups of three and four. Adam wanted a Cascadero rematch and so Ian, Martin and I joined him for that. At the other end of the table, Joe talked Anja and Pete through Sunrise Lane, and the mini-Kniziathon was underway. 

Cascadero had a cagey start - nobody wanted to be the first to offer up points to someone else, so the envoys were largely eyeing the towns from a safe distance. Then when things kicked into gear it transpired we were talking different strategic approaches. Adam was harvesting seals as much as he could, working towards not only that three-point bonus but a late-game salvo that would catapult him up the track. Ian and I were probably more tactically-minded, trying to nab opportunities as they arose. Martin didn't pick up a single seal all game, but we naively let him generate a lot of farming income, and he built a huge early lead. 

Sunrise Lane ended around the same moment as Lennon's bedtime, with Joe taking the win:

Joe 108
Anja 94
Pete 90

And with bedtime also, which Steve appeared. As we were still mulling, occasionally to excess, in Cascadero, they began playing Indigo, a game I've never played but thought it looked a bit like Tsuro. "It's Knizia does Tsuro" Steve confirmed later. 

Or in this case, Anja does Tsuro:

Anja 10
Steve 8
Pete 7
Joe 3

In Cascadero we were now coming to a grand finale - grand for Martin anyway. I briefly caught him only for our resident Kniziaphile to surge away once more, reaching the top of his track just in time before the game ended as we ran out of envoys. Adam's seal-powered surge was impressive, but there was no victory this time. 

Martin 47

Sam 41

Adam 36

Ian 28

Adam and Arthur now said goodbye and made their way home. Louie delayed for as long as possible but the Dalton-Dale hammer came down and he was packed off to bed. The Indigo quartet played Indigo again! 

As Ian and I went from taking a pasting by Martin in one game to taking a pasting by Martin in another: this time, Gazebo. We tried a new board, with 'raised patios', the specifics of which are interesting when you play but too boring to list here. 

As with Cascadero, Martin had a strongish lead mid-game, we caught him near the end before he surged again. I had an outside chance of pipping him to the post with my last turn, if by some wild chance he had no blue on his dominoes. But he did, and instead of a triumphant victory I shunted myself from second to third. Fucking gazebos. 

Martin all gazebos erected!

Ian - two gazebos still in their packaging

Sam - three gazebos thrown across the lawn in a tantrum

At the other end of the table, Indigo had already finished:

Joe 10

Pete 8

Anja and Steve 7 each

And they were blowing each other up in Light Speed: Arena.

Joe won this by Griffithesque margins, with Steve baffled by what just happened. 

Joe - 25

Anja and Pete - 15 each

Steve 12

"It's a silly game, but I like it" said Joe, reholstering his space blaster. I tend to agree, even if you spend longer scoring than you do playing. 

Now what? We shuffled seats with Martin Joe and Pete teaching Anja Gang of Dice and Ian, Steve and I playing Misfits. Here are the three hand positions of the former, illustrated by Anja (whut) Martin (er) and Joe (hah).  

There was to be much drama in both games. At our end of the table both Steve and I made it to our last piece more than once, only to have things collapse on us. Ian at one stage seemed to have All The Pieces, and we confected something so top-heavy that the Gang paused their Dice to watch in wonder. 

Meantime in Gang of Dice Anja found herself on the receiving end of fate's indifferent attitude to plucky against-the-odds dice-rolling, almost entirely bereft of dice halfway through the game. But though I missed the finer details, she staged an incredible recovery - just not quite enough to catch Joe. 

Joe 48

Anja 46

Pete 39

Martin 29

Misfits finished at the same time, after an epic of wild swings and roundabouts. In the end it was Steve who took the win, after Ian and I both knocked things over one too many times. 

There was loose talk of getting Perfect Mismatch out again, but was no time for an all-person closer with the hour now gone eleven. After a brief consultation about Steve's facial hair/lack of, it was time to go home. Thanks all. 

Four gazebos in one day

 “You're early,” said Sam as he opened his front door. Technically, I was late but I had been too pessimistic in my ETA and had arrived a full six minutes before I said I would.

Inside, Martin, Ian, Adam H and Joe were just starting a game of Pairs. Continuous Pairs to be exact. Ian ended the game as he collected more than 15 points and Adam, who’d been doing very well, was disappointed that there was no winner, only one loser.

Since there were six of us, we split into two groups of three. At the far end of the table, Sam, Ian and Martin played Gazebo. This was a “new” Knizia game - a reskin of Qin, but I guess someone decided that it was less like a territorial battle for China and was more like making the biggest gardens.

The game requires that people put down tiles, trying to make areas of the same colour into which they can place gazebos. A single gazebo is in danger of being overtaken from neighbouring gazebos with a larger area, but a double gazebo is safe. The idea of the game is to be the first to get rid of your gazebos. 

They played twice:

Sam 0 gazebos left

Ian 4

Martin 5

And then 

Martin 0

Sam 4

Ian 5

Meanwhile, Joe, Adam and I played Ponzi Scheme. This game involves picking up money with impossible terms of repayment. I was bemused by the player aid, with its grey text on a grey background, but the game is simple enough that I didn’t need it. 

Adam was cautious throughout,  whereas I was the first to pick up a big card in round 3. Adam also excelled at trading, and he soon had a column of yellow buildings in front of him. Buildings are how you score points in this game but I was mostly selling them for money to pay off my debts. 

This explains the gulf in scores - the game suddenly ended when Joe admitted that he'd miscalculated a transaction and now couldn’t afford to service his debts. 

Adam 24

Andrew 4

Joe 0

At this point,  we rearranged our seats and games. Sam brought out some chocolates: only slightly sqaushed and discoloured with age. We still ate them. 

Meanwhile, regarding games: Sam, Adam and Ian played Cascadero while Martin introduced Joe and I to Gazebo.

Cascadero ended with a win to Sam, "and after all that complaining," he admitted.

I start badly, focusing on blocking Martin and Joe without having a plan of my own. Despite a good move in round three that removed two enemy gazebos (not a term you get to use very often in everyday life) and placed three of my own. But it was too little too late and Martin marched to a win. 

Martin 0

Joe 5

Andrew 10

We set up again. I was determined to erase the ignominy of the worst score of the day, a played super cautious. As indeed did Joe and Martin. We were so focused on not opening opportunities for our opponents that a third of the board lay untouched for most of the game. 

It ended with Martin stealing a territory from Joe, allowing him to place his last gazebo. 

Martin 0

Joe 2

Andrew 3

By now, Adam had left. Sam and Ian played Toy Battle and Sam won. They'd set up to play again but I left before any victor could be decided. 

Sam informed me late of two games of So Clover with scores of 22 and then 21 out of 24. Oh, and before I'd arrived, Martin had beaten Sam at Bombastic and then they'd all played a 1-round game of Jungo that Sam won.

Thanks all, another special evening.

Are We Young?

Steve, Anja, Louie and Lennon were our hosts last night so after a day of more rain Martin and I (car) and Adam (bicycle) made our way to Mayfield Park to join them, along with new arrival Pete, whom Martin and Joe had met at the Bath Kniziathon. After some crumble, Anja escorted Lennon off to bed and we debated how to start the evening, eventually settling on Courtisans (Martin, Adam and Pete) and Spots (myself, Steve and Louie). 

Pete was new to Courtisans and Louie hadn't played Spots before, so there was a bit of rules explaining going on before we tucked into our openers. I didn't keep up with the drama in court, although Louie pithily remarking that just sitting next to it gave him a headache was commentary enough. It does a look more mad than it actually is though. 

In Spots Louie and Steve were first to 'bank' dogs as I trailed behind, before lurching to an unexpected and frankly jammy win just as Louie looked poised to wrap up a debut victory. In contrast Pete was emerging the winner on his first play of Courtisans.

Pete 8
Martin 7
Adam 6

Both games ended at the exact same moment and Anja reappeared to take bed-bound Louie's place. We shuffled seats, with Anja and Adam intro-ing Pete to Cascadero whilst I talked Steve and Martin through the rules of Foundations of Metropolis.  

Here, we're building a city on a shared board in a game where you take one of three actions on each turn. You can purchase a deed in the city, take income from the bank, or build on areas where you own the deeds. The building's the thing, as certain buildings up your income, others push up your population (points) and civic buildings will score points depending on what other buildings they're next to. 

The population of each player has a quirky methodology - on a separate track to the points track everyone scores the position of the next player ahead of them. Whoever's in first place scores their own position plus a bonus, which escalates over each round of the game. This meant that as Steve and Martin fought it out over the population majority, I sat back on a single population point knowing that I'd score (kind of) second place - and focused my energies on getting as many civic buildings out as I could. 

Steve is appalled. Can't remember why

It's got a nice brisk pace to it and both the parasitic leaching of the civic buildings and the more aggro claiming of deeds, especially if you know someone else wants them. Having played a few times already my experience helped me out, but both Martin and I were confident he'd beat me next time.

Sam 118
Martin 93
Steve 82

On the Cascadero board meantime Anja was having the kind of experience that I have serially undergone at the hands of Martin, as Adam chained all manner of bonus bonanzas together and he and Pete pulled away up the track. We played Klink, which Steve announced he would be terrible at, but it transpired that the fates had it in for Martin on this occasion. At the climax of the game he listed the numerous numbers he could flip that would all help him in some way. None was a ten, which is what he turned over.

The player with the least points wins when someone reaches 77...

Sam 33
Steve 44
Martin 101

And Cascadero finished with Adam taking the insta-win by sailing past 50 points. Debutant Pete was back on 37 and Anja laughing in deranged disbelief on 22. I felt her agony. Brilliant game. Painful game. Martin was flabbergasted at the envoys having zero decorum, with most of the horses on their noses. 

The clock was ticking so we quickly bashed out So Clover - yet another new set of rules for Pete, who showed remarkable equanimity to be taking on instructions at 10.30 with a return drive to Bradford on Avon looming. During the mulling period he pondered aloud about using the same clue twice, and we all chortled at the very idea. But then he did it, putting 'Light' on two sides of his clover. Whatever the collective noun for synonym spotters/confirmation-bias victims is, we became it as we found 'Light' seemed to go with everything - even, at one stage, Pumpkin (my suggestion). To be fair though we only got one card wrong and that was because of Pumpkin. "Who suggested that?" Adam cried, not unreasonably. It did now seem rather ludicrous, although was it as silly as Cinderella taking an Uber to the ball?

Other highlights were Anja's slaw for salad/religion and Martin's overactive for coffee/rabbit. We only came a real cropper on Steve's clue of Licken, where we missed his sound logic in favour of combos such as 'Tunnel Hen'. Overall though, a solid enough 31/36 to round off the night, after Anja explained her clue of 'bass' related to drum and bass - what young people listen to. 
"Young people in the 90s" Steve added, before Adam mournfully voiced the blog title aloud, almost to himself.

A fun night, thanks everyone. Sorry about the pumpkin. 

Ten More Years!

 This week’s games night was in celebration of Laura’s birthday and when I arrived, she (hosting), Katy, Sam and Martin were in Laura's newly remodelled kitchen playing a card game. Martin suggested I try to work out the rules of the game, which I failed to do except you had to get rid of your cards by putting them on the table and reading out the number they made, but didn't understand it apart from that. I also failed to make a note of the name. But Sam won.

Sam 2

Katy 4

Laura 5

Martin 7

Then Adam H arrived and since everyone was here, we got out the cake: a caterpillar cake, which was sliced up and served with ice cream! Katy also asked if there was any coke available, apparently thinking this was a children’s party.

When we raised out glasses and made a toast, Katy happily cried out “Ten more years!” which I said was a bit bleak. Katy said she didn’t mean it like that: she meant ten more years of gaming with us, at least. But the joke stuck that Katy had wished Laura ten years of life, maximum, and it was referenced throughout the evening.

But what about the games? We split into two groups. Laura, Martin and Katy played Captain Flip which was GNN’s present to Laura. Adam, Sam and I played Guild of Merchant Explorers, a very short eurogame in which you have to explore a map within the turn of a few cards. In fact, I don’t think Adam or I really appreciated how quick the first round would be and after five cards had been played, Sam told us to take our cubes from the map and start again.

With this regular reset in mind, it’s important to build villages, which allow you to start exploring fro a point other than the centre of the map. Also, there are things like treasures and towers and trade routes to discover. Before long Adam was muttering to himself and trying to max out his moves. In fairness, it worked.

Adam 149

Sam 144

Andrew 127

The first game of Captain Flip ended in the most amicable way possible, with a tie for first.

Laura 45

Martin 45

Katy 35

Katy mused that she used her lookouts too early (don’t know what that meant, but I made a note anyway). They played again.

Katy 46

Laura 43

Martin 33

Then we drank some “pink fizz” and gazed at Laura’s games cupboard. Then Martin, Laura and Sam played Via Nebula. Adam, Katy and I played Cascadero. Martin and Sam had actually brought one copy each, meaning for a time we considered everyone playing Cascadero at the same time. But then sanity prevailed.

Katy wasn’t sure about playing, and throughout the game she complained that she didn’t really know what she was doing, even when she was about twenty points ahead of Adam and I. Then she completed all of the bonuses for linking cities together and admitted that that was her strategy.

Now she was in a fix - in the lead but way behind on the track that you have to complete before the game is over. I was in last in terms of points, but my track was all but complete. I had to use up all my meeples before either Adam or Katy finished their tracks. Adam was in the middle - behind me on the track and behind Katy on points.

Of course, he won, hitting the game ending 50 point mark at the same time as, or the turn after,  completing his track. I came second and Katy seemed to think she’d never play the game again.

Adam 50

Andrew 34

Katy 47 (DNF)

I missed most of Via Nebula apart from Sam saying “I’m going to finish the game,” in the kind of excited voice you used to hear on adverts for MB Games.

Sam 27

Martin 23

Laura 13

And while we struggled through the end of Cascadero, they played a quick Captain Flip.

Martin 44

Sam 37

Laura 25

Then, because it was Laura’s birthday, I didn’t leave early but stayed on for a game of So Clover. With six of us, there was a chance of a golden 36! 

But it didn’t last beyond my clover. Sam’s was first and we got a bit of luck - one of his words was “Tiny” and “tiny” also appeared on a card so we were fairly safe in assuming that was the decoy. 

Then we finished Adam’s with no bother before we got to mine. Two of my words were LOOP and KISS and I couldn’t link them apart from the fact that they’re both rock bands, so I wrote “bands”.

Alas, a word on the decoy card was “DREAM” which everyone linked with D-ream. The other word seemed to match too, so they were happy to offer up their guess. Katy was so confident that she'd picked up the fifth card and stuck it back in the box. I sadly told them they were wrong and Katy had to start looking through all the cards in the box to try and get the fifth card out again. 

Katy searching for a card

On their next attempt, they got it - although Sam and Adam thought it was a reference to Looper. Only Martin mumbled something about Loop being a noise band.

Then the remaining clovers were all completed successfully, although there was a lot of anguish over Martin’s clover. “Lemon” either related to “RECIPE/SHARP” or “RECIPE/YELLOW” and in the end we got it right (Sharp was the correct word).

34 out of 36. Close but no clover.

Then I did go home and found out that they’d played So Clover again.

17 out of 30. Never mind.

See you all next week and happy birthday Laura!

The envoys are all glistening with chip fat

 I arrived at Joe’s to see the host, Ian, Katy, Sam, Martin and Adam H in the middle of a game of Cross Clues. I was offered a card to join in, but my mind hadn’t caught up with my body and was still a few minutes from getting here. There were a few mistakes, which I didn’t note, and a nice clue from Martin, using “Vet” to signify “cow/firefighter”. Amazingly, Katy started chatting before the game had concluded.

22 out of 25.

With all attendees present, Katy instantly suggested Lords of Vegas - insisting that the usually dice-phobic Adam was keen. Katy put the box on the table, "just in case anyone was interested" and Joe and Ian joined. No doubt Ian was keen to erase the memory of his last game where he scored only six points.

Martin, Sam and I played Cascadero. I was keen since I hadn’t played it since I’d learnt it, and needed to revisit it before I forgot everything. Apparently, I was up against the two most experienced players in the world, according to game count on Board Game Geek. An awesome achievement.

Early on in the game, Martin professed to being worried by Sam’s lengthy caravan of meeples. “This disquiets me,” he said. But he soon started to chain moves together, storming off into an impressive lead. “We're sitting at the same table but that's as far as it goes,” says Sam as Martin reached the top of his track and opened up a 29-13-12 lead.

I finished the last crisps in a bowl, reaching the point where Ian’s high class posh sea salt and peppercorn crisps mixed with some fake frazzles, and Martin made the observation that now adorns this blog post: “The envoys are all glistening with chip fat.” At first, Sam and I thought he was being poetic and commenting how rich and opulent the envoys would be if they were real but, no, that was the literal state of some of the meeples at this point. An amazing sentence, though, and one that could only be used in the context of board games. Or one of those orgies in Ancient Rome, perhaps.

It ended as a cake walk for Martin. “But you enjoyed yourself?” Katy asked Sam. “No,” he bluntly replied.

Martin 52

Andrew 20

Sam 21, but didn't finish his track 

Vegas was still barely halfway through, with various quotes drifting across the table such as “You can't lose more than you have,” Joe. “That really hurt,” Katy and “Fuck it, it’s Vegas,” Ian - at that point he was once again in a distant last.

Martin, Sam and I played Via Nebula. Before we began Sam told me and Katy that we’d played it before. “It's like being gaslit by Martin Wallace,” I said, as I couldn’t remember anything about it, if I had ever played it.

After the rules explanation, I went first and - not knowing what else to do - I made some resources available. Martin expressed bemusement about what he was actually aiming for. What “the shape of the game should be,” I think he said. He checked the rule-book mid game and found a rule that made the game less of a dickish co-op game and more conventional. Sam admitted to some disappointment.

Martin built buildings and I kept uncovering resources, both of which gained points. Our two very different strategies got us a joint first place.

Martin 22

Andrew 22 tied, and we shook hands as per the rule book's instructions

Sam 15

Then we played seaside, a game of pulling tiles from a bag and deciding which side of the tile you want to action. One side will usually let you have another turn, while putting more resources into the shared area in the middle. Or the other side will let you pick up some of what is available. At the end, we stacked up your tiles to see who’s the tallest!

Sam wins!

I was dimly aware of a lengthy discussion in LoV while Joe asked for donations to reroll a casino, but eventually the game ended with an impressive win for Katy. And an almost-as-impressive comeback for Ian.

Katy 54

Ian 23

Adam and Joe 20

Katy commented that Adam only rolled ones throughout the game. Adam the dice-skeptic didn't seem to want to comment.

And that was it for me. But the others played on and scored a perfect 36 out of 36 in So Clover.

And finally Martin, Joe and Sam played Klink.

Joe 93

Martin 82

Sam 64

Thanks and see you all soon.

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!