Colonel Berge

I was a little late to Joe's house but in time to see him bidding on sticks with Ian, Katy and Martin. This is Stick Collection, where players are trying to create a 'staircase' of sticks by collecting different lengths, with disparities of 5mm between them. You score ten points for each stair in your longest staircase, plus whatever cash you have left (to a maximum of 22) - or you can win instantly by getting four sticks of identical length. The considerable catch is that you have to judge the length by eye from your seat, while it sits in the middle of the table. 

It's more boisterous than this photo makes it look, with regular laughter and howls of complaint - largely from Martin - as people outbid each other only to discover the stick is not staircase-friendly.

Katy fretted that her good start had gone up in smoke, but she stayed out of a lot of biddings and it seemed to give her a strong enough end as well:

Katy 44
Ian 39
Joe and Martin 24 each

Mel had arrived towards the end, glasses steamed up from the chilly outside, but her sight had returned as we split into two groups with Martin signing up/press-ganging Mel and Katy into a game of Camden as Ian, Joe and I rejected it for various reasons: Ian didn't want to learn rules, Joe and I objected to the artwork. I know nothing of Camden other than it's by the designer of Lords of Vegas, there's some tile-placing and tangible dickishness. 

Similar vibes were being felt in Ireland, where Ian got off to a stormer as Joe seemingly dawdled behind, on zero for a while as his urban settlement tiles came out early. I say 'seemingly' because we suddenly realised he had seven castles out to mine and Ian's 2 apiece, and he was picking up speed...

Whilst at the other end of the table Martin picked up a win in Camden, with Mel runner-up.

Martin 55
Mel 45
Katy 42

They began playing Conic, a Knizian area-control with blind-bidding. 

After last week's epic everyone anticipated Rebirth would go on far longer, but we wrapped up shortly after Camden had finished. Somehow Joe had an extra tile, which he got to place at the end. But it wasn't quite enough to stop victorious Ian!

Ian 220
Joe 218
Sam 210

They'd only just started Conic (I think) so we broke out Misfits. And what a dastardly game it was, with Ian kicking things off with a doozy of a foundation...

Before it backfired, collapsing on him in such a way that even the bottom piece flipped over. Joe began things anew with the hexagon of relative safety...

Which grew and grew, but so precariously the top half of the structure wobbled whenever we put anything on it. But it didn't fall, and didn't fall, and still didn't fall... until it did. 

Joe simply had to place his last cube on top of the ruins to win - and he did. 

Joe wins!

Although it was slightly less rambunctious, Martin was claiming a similar victory in Conic at the same time:

Martin 12
Mel 9
Katy 4

It was only 9.30 but I was starting to fade and said I could do one more game. The group graciously defied convention to make that game So Clover, with its meta-game of who can draw the most lewd or revolting number on the back of their plastic leaf. Katy is normally Queen at this but I threw myself into contention with a poo in a bum that - along with Joe's musings about which direction it was travelling - made me feel so nauseous I had to change it to a frog. Then we actually played the game.

There was a lot of tension - especially from Katy...

...and some excellent clueing - although we came a cropper on Mel's clover missing an obvious choice - until we reached Joe's clover, which included two words I didn't even know. 'Col' I thought might be overhanging snow (actually cornice, I now remember: Martin identified it as a kind of mountain pass) or maybe Colonel, but I'd never heard of 'Nimh'. Fortunately Ian had, and identified it as a mouse. But 'Col' turned out to be Flea/Cake, which - bizarrely, but having no suitable alternates - we'd guessed!

"Explain yourself Joe!" Martin demanded, and Joe did. Although my notes say 'explanation unacceptable' I recall that because Colin the Caterpillar is a cake, then a contraction of this would be a smaller cake, and a smaller name: a flea cake. Or something. We got it, so maybe we knew more than we realised! Mysterious ways from the Berge. 

Katy and I both left at this point, but the remaining quartet went on to play Tower Up:

Which was another victory for Ian:

Ian 54
Joe 49
Mel 34

Martin 41

And that was apparently that!

I, Conic

 On the first wintry night of the year, I approached Sam's place and saw a strange shadowy figure moving from house to house, peering at front doors. Was he a burglar staking out his next prey? The bottle of wine suggested otherwise. It was Pete, a newish member of the GNN group, and he and I entered Sam's house together. 

We found Martin at the kitchen table in front of an unfinished game of Conic, a new Knizia which Sam described as “Raj with a map.” They soon ended and, as Martin counted up the scores, Sam's insistence that the game was all luck and chance became ever louder. 

Martin 22

Sam 9

Ian and Joe followed shortly afterwards and, after brief spell where Joe tried to work out if he'd met Peter before, we all sat down to play games. Sam, Martin and Pete played Rebirth while Ian, Joe and I set up good old Mille Fiori.

I know little about Rebirth, except it’s played on a map of Scotland and one minute Martin seems to have two castles in the Outer Hebrides and seemingly the next minute, he’s expanded to six. In the end, it was pretty close.

Martin 180

Sam 177

Pete 169

As for Mille Fiori, in round one Ian found that his choices were invariably taken by other players first. Strangely, we all pile into the markets - usually the least popular area on the board. (Officially, these areas are of the board are called “Townspeople” - I checked on BGG)

Joe ignored the Warehouses in what was a demonstration of a Mille Fiori masterclass. He was first to chain several turns together and did so repeatedly throughout the game. In fact, my smugness at nabbing an “extra action” late on in the game was somewhat tempered by the fact there was only one card left to choose which earned me a single point.

Joe 216

Ian 203

Andrew 156

While we waited for Rebirth to end, the three of us played a quick Tsuro. Ian painted himself into a corner while Joe and I faced off. I got some unlucky cards and could only kill myself in the final reckoning, giving Joe another win. But then he keeps going, guiding himself around the board until the final tile sent him off the board. Another masterclass.

1. Joe

2. Ian

3. Andrew

Now we were all together, there was a reshuffling. Pete wanted to try Orbit and Martin and Joe joined him. My only notes for this game is Martin’s quote “Is there anything I can fuck up?”

Martin home first

Joe and Pete, 2 planets left to do

Ian, Sam and I brought out the much-scuffed and oft-played Quantum. Ian and I quickly get two cubes down, and then Sam manages to wipe Ian’s fleet off the board. With no green dice on the board, I forget that Ian’s still playing and I begin my cleverly thought out move when it was actually his turn. What a faux pas!

Later and with a full fleet back in play, Ian mused to himself that he could win by placing a cube, picking up a card that gave him 2 dominance and let him place a second cube.

He paused.

“In fact, that’s what I will do.”

Ian 0 cubes left

Andrew and Sam both 2 cubes left.

While Orbit ended, Ian Sam and I played a couple of rounds of Misfits, made all the more unpredictable by the occasional tremors, eventually discovered to be caused by Martin’s elbow on the table. 

There was another masterclass, this time from Ian, who placed a series of seemingly impossible pieces on our collective tower while (mostly) me and Sam suffered the consequences. Sam escaped one perilous situation, though, placing a piece, the tower moved notably. Without removing the piece, Sam slowly “walked” the piece to a position of safety.

We played twice. Ian won the first and I think Sam won the second.

While we played Misfits, Joe, Pete and Martin played Conic, which Pete seemed to be doing rather well at as I pulled my coat on and got ready to leave.

Pete 16

Martin 9

Joe 6

Without me, the five of them played Champions. 

Sam 24

Martin 20

Pete 18

Ian 15

Joe 15

I’d love to know who, out of Ron Sexsmith and Gary Lineker, buys books but never reads them.

Then they finish, of course, with So Clover.

26 out of 30

Thanks all, see you next week.