Silent Witness

Well, almost silent. There was quite a lot of whispering.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Tonight we began as an eight piece band of gamers: Sam (the host), Joe and Stanley (his sons), Martin, Ian, Matt, Joe and me. We began with Bring Your Own Book, the fun game of appropriate sentence finding. The game suggests a topic (an email signature) and you have to find a witty example in your book (Ian had Fermat's Last Theorem and his email signature was pi to the thousandth digit). Martin had high hopes for his choice of book (Pests, Diseases and Disorders of Garden Plants), but somehow it never quite worked. Until, that is, it was passed to Ian at which point it became a hotbed of witty replies. Kudos to Matt for his Name For A Fantasy City. His choice of "Furthermore" was so good I can't believe it hasn't been used before.

Ian 3 points
Everyone else got one, I think.

Then Joe the younger went to bed and we split into two groups. Sam, Stanley, Joe and Martin played Witness in which you have to whisper clues to each other in a game that rewards memory and clear diction. I was too concerned with my game of Cosmic Run, so all I gleaned was sentences like "half a beetle" before they counted up their final score which was seven. Pretty good, according to Martin.

On Cosmic Run, the three of us were busy proving that a one in six chance was effectively impossible, as one hopeful roll after another ended in disappointment. I got lots of aliens and a fair view of those mining chits to take a comfortable win.

Andrew 49
Matt 36
Ian 33

While we were deep in Cosmic Run, Witness had ended, Stanley had gone upstairs, and the three of them had started on Menara. It's a tower building game where you have to obey the commands on cards that are split into piles of easy, medium and difficult. Their first attempt was over so quickly that they tried again. "Feels more positive already," said Sam at what I thought to be a very early stage, but he was right. They got to the fourth or fifth level when it collapsed. Joe said as they packed away, "it's one of those games where you either win or it's really disappointing."

Now we shuffled our places around the table and began fresh games in new groups. Joe, Martin and I played Mini Rails. This game was new to me, but Martin thought I'd played it before so I only got a rules refresher type introduction before we began. Although that was fine because there's not much to it in terms of rules. Quite a lot in terms of strategy, though, with Martin taking long enough on his turn for me to get up and sort out my drinks for the rest of the evening. At the end, Martin had to juggle some numbers as his final move would either help him and me or him and Joe. In the end he was annoyed that he'd miscalculated when it ended

Joe 11 (wins on tiebreaker)
Martin 11
Andrew 9

If he'd played it differently, he would have had fewer points but won, with me in second. He cursed his unMartinlike mathematical error for some minutes. Joe looked delighted.

Sam, Ian and Matt played The Quest For El Dorado, with it also ending on a tie breaker. Ian just pipped it, though. Matt ended up in a distant last with lots of money but no machetes.

Ian
Sam
Matt

By now, we had begun a game of Sticheln, the trick taking game that is anything but fast and furious. How we agonised over its counter intuitive strategy. As Martin so wisely noted, it is a game where "difficult things happen."

Martin 25
Joe 20
Andrew 13

On the other half of the table, they had knocked off a quick game of Gold Rush which Ian won. The general consensus was that it wasn't as good with just three.

Then they played the devilish but delightful Avene. During this game, after an evening of victories, Ian returned to form and uttered those immortal words "that's me fucked, then". The moment when he does so will, it seems, now be referred to as "Ian o'clock".

Sam 63
Ian 24
Matt 20

Then, after a brief cameo from The Table Is Lava, we all joined together for a game of Just One. In this game we all give one word clues to a word-guesser with the proviso that any duplicate clues are eliminated. We started well, and Martin got the first right despite Joe giving a clue to the wrong word. Before long we were in the zone, avoiding duplicate clues round after round. In the final round, I was the guesser. We were on the cusp of getting "awesome" on the score track, but two clues were eliminated and I had Dre, Drake and Grandmaster to guess from. It was 50-50 and I chose Hip-hop as the word. But it was Rap and that mistake meant our score dropped from "Awesome" to a clearly sarcastic "Wow. Not bad."

And then we were done. Thanks all for another evening of sparkling entertainment. I hope to meet you all the next time the clock strikes Ian o'clock.

Into the Twilight

Following on from last night's epic Times of Crisis, another operatic battle loomed on the horizon. Specifically, the Chippenham horizon, as I made my way eastwards to join Chris and pals Stuart and Paul for the debut play - for us - of Twilight Imperium.

Chris and I had a little warm-up game of Cosmic Run to get us in the mood, which I won by a narrow two-point margin. Then as Paul and Stuart arrived, we began setting up the main event.

This beast as been around for some time, highly respected in many quarters albeit guardedly (because of playtime) even amongst its admirers. Chris recently found himself in possession of the fourth edition (I guess he bought it) and each of us had spent a little time swotting up in preparation. Said preparation had warned us that a first play would take "all day" but with the evening ahead of us, we sat down at 3.30 with a vague notion of being done at a reasonable hour.

The first 45 minutes was a brief overview from Chris and refresher of the main rules. And at 4.15 or so, we began.

Like Eclipse - a game it inspired - Twilight Imperium sees you battling over the systems of a galaxy, only the premise being that we are each hoping to impress some ruling titans (I forget their name) by being the first to reach ten points. Ten points! You'd think it wouldn't take that long. But it does.

Each of us has a starting hex and - like Eclipse - we are inexorably drawn towards the centre hex Mecatol Rex, as it is the most powerful planet and potentially rewards you with a victory point for ownership. In a game with margins this fine, that's a big swing.

Play progresses through the selection of Strategy Cards - in a four player game everyone chooses two, and you get the primary action on your card. Everyone else gets the secondary action on your card, presuming they want to take it and can afford it. And there are also other actions too - activating a system in order to produce there, or move there and take control of planets. Activating an action card (there are many, and wildly varied) as well as trading with each other, fighting with each other (obviously) and, once Mecatol Rex is occupied, voting for laws and directives at the end of each round.

Paul was first in there and I found myself the beneficiary of the first vote, being elected Minister for Exploration. Stuart though wasn't keen on Paul sitting pretty in the middle of the board, and ploughed in to take it from him. Everyone voted in a crap law that penalised technology development, so I repealed it with an action card. Chris keep kicking himself for his own moves, Paul kept forgetting his faction's special power, and we all fell foul of our Eclipse-ic conditioning, forgetting that you can't move ships from a system that's already been activated this round.

We also slightly misunderstood the production rule, but corrected ourselves in round three.

Chris and I were first to trade (turn commodities into trade goods!) giving ourselves more spending power. Stuart remained aggressive throughout, seeing off Chris' attack on Mecatol Rex and powering through a wormhole to bat my solitary cruiser out of a hex at the other end.

Also at the end of a round is the opportunity to achieve objectives - some are public, some are secret. You can only achieve one of each in each round... but other objectives can be achieved during the action phase by meeting its requirements in combat or via some other means... I attacked Stuart's flagship and successfully destroyed it in order to meet a secret objective, and Chris placed four planetary defence systems on the board.

I began tweeting the whole thing in progress (@gamesnightguru) but would sometimes realise that many minutes, if not an hour, had passed since my last missive, as we all weighed up options and cursed our lack of command tokens (to activate things, or take secondary actions) or our previous decisions, or each other. Usually Paul. Paul's insistence that his faction was 'fragile' belied a steely determination, as he chipped away on the score track early on and set a healthy 4 point lead at one stage. We tried to inch our way back, with all our vague scattergun manoeuvring beginning to coalesce into something approaching logic, and Chris and Stuart actively going after Paul on the board, squeezing him into a narrow space.

But when 11 o'clock rolled into sight we agreed the current round would be the last one, with Paul's lead unassailable and, as it turned out, a pretty good plan to get the last two points he needed for a bona fide victory in a subsequent round anyway!

It ended

Paul 8
Chris and Sam 5
Stuart 4

And we stood, stretched and gazed down upon the last seven and a half hours of our lives, bar a short break for pizza. The verdict across the quartet was pretty much the same - a good game, perhaps a great game, with certainly more nuance to explore than we had uncovered in a single play. But was it worthy of the time investment needed? I certainly felt that although it had more going on than Eclipse, the successor ticked the space opera box in a third of the time, and I wasn't mad keen on all the action cards either - some seemed to spill over into arbitrary Take That territory, whereas others were a neat boost in battle or a way to retreat intact.

Inevitably a new day brought a wistful nostalgia though and this morning I'm intrigued to try it again while it's still fresh...

Meanwhile back in time we packed away and finished our evening with the pallet-cleanser of NMBR9. I put too much investment in the second 3 coming up early...

And suffered as a result, as Paul broke 100 for his second win of the night and Chris and Stuart claimed 2nd and 3rd. Chat returned to Twilight Imperium again, with what-ifs and hmmms running through everybody's heads.

*

This morning Chris and I were going to play Riverboat, but with the snow coming down hard and the memory of being stranded in Dublin fresh in my mind, I decided to head home while the roads were still open. An intriguing, dramatic night! Thanks Chris and all.

From Milk Production to the Milky Way

Tonight Chris joined me for another bash at two-player Clans of Caledonia. Ian was going to join us, but with a big move coming up at the weekend, he had things on his mind other than cheese, bread and whisky. Well, maybe not whisky.

Before we could play Clans though, Stanley joined us for a bash at the lesser-spotted King of Tokyo. I realised we'd been playing a rule wrong - quelle surprise - but not a major one, fortunately, and long enough ago that Stan didn't think to tease me about it. Chris went on the attack, establishing himself in Tokyo and refusing to be budged, right up until the moment I killed him. One down, another to go.

Unfortunately the other in question was me, as Stanley kept poisoning me until I too expired. As ever, Stanley's comeuppance for this cheek was to be packed off to bed.

King of Tokyo: Stan

On to Clans. We'd played it a couple of weeks back so the rules were still fresh for Chris. He played as the Clan Who Build Next To Lakes, and I was the Clan Who Angle. We checked what the ports did and what the scoring was for each round, and we were off!

An hour and a bit later we were done. Despite Chris's late surge on importing sugar cane, my extra exports and proliferated settlements meant I claimed the win.

Chief of the Highlands: Sam

I have glossed over the rest to reach the high drama of the evening, which was the also lesser-spotted Cosmic Run, which after a flurry of plays on arrival has sat underneath Knitwit for the best part of a year.

I began well, conquering the cheapest planet as Chris ate my dust. But as well as hoovering up my dust, he was also hoovering up points in the form of alien cards and those other things that score points, whatever they are. Mining chits?

And suddenly Chris was surging up the planet tracks too. Four times I exhausted all my dice trying to chase him and ended up achieving nothing. The only time I managed to roll four of a kind was when I had ludicrously gone after the five-of-a-kind planet. In the end, it was a utter whitewash with Chris in the high eighties and me barely breaking 40 points.

Overlord of the Galaxy: Chris

And with a win each for the participants, the lesser-spotted Wednesday Night games also came to an end. Thanks Chris and Stan!

Cheese a Devil Woman

One thing I do remember from Tuesday evening was a brief discussion about how baffling the notes made in the drunken haze of a games night could be the next morning. And so it was that today I found myself staring at the words now being used as this article's title with little idea of what prompted me to write it down in the first place.

Last week's Solid Six turned out to be a little flakey this week: with Martin unable to come and no one else to take his place, we were just five. Sam the host, Ian, Joe, Katy and me. At the appointed time Sam was out collecting his son from martial arts training so the four of us entertained with a jolly game of Mamma Mia.

Joe's copy of Mamma Mia seemed to have an

exclusive expansion pack

Midway through the game, Katy was doing so well that she set her sights on making a complete set. Ian, on the other hand, played very few recipe cards in the first two rounds.

Round three, though, reminded me of the final stages of Eclipse, with everyone piling in because, why not? Katy didn't complete the set and I came close to a tie for first.

Katy 7
Andrew 6
Joe 4
Ian 3

By now Sam was back and settled so it was time to decide on the evening's entertainment. Sam and Joe were keen on revisiting Great Western Trail before they forgot the rules and we're happy to play a two-player if no one else wanted in. Which was the case.

Us remaining three perused Sam's games wall, trying to decide what to play and then chose Katy's copy of Isle Of Skye.

"Watch out for moneybleed!" warned Ian

as our respective currencies threatened to merge

We set up swiftly (both games, with Sam and Joe arranging the pieces of GWT with lightning speed) and started our respective adventures. We got a good selection of scoring tiles, meaning we had to concentrate on sets of buildings, completed areas, sheep, and money. Which is more or less the point of the game anyway.

I fell behind, but midway looked like staging a comeback, only for Ian and Katy to speed off without me in the final stages.

Katy 7
Ian 70
Andrew 63

Still, it was fun and relaxing, especially since some of us were still recovering from the AP overload of Saturday.

When we were done, GWT was still in full flow so we picked out another game. Ian and I suggested Quantum, but then preferred Cosmic Run as lighter fare.

After explaining the rules to Katy, complete with confusion over the role of the aliens and a remarkably lucky roll of three fives to illustrate a point I was making, we got down to it.

My luck with the dice during the tutorial did not desert me. Throughout the game I think I wasted maybe a couple of dice. Ian and Katy, though, both had opportunities scorned by Lady Fate, returning home unrewarded for their dice rolls.

Andrew 87
Katy 59
Ian 58

We finished as Joe and Sam had totted up the scores and were packing away.

Joe 55
Sam 48

With Sam commenting that the win was more convincing than the score would suggest.

Since we were a five again, we played a lovely communal game: 6nimmt.

Oh, the agony. 6nimmt is a game that seems to hate its players. We wailed at our grim fate, or delighted in others' discomfort. I got a hand full of multiples of eleven, and didn't know how to play it. Joe put down a card which would normally be safe except that everyone else crammed onto that row before him. This prompted another baffling drunken note: "Amazing. Write that down. Gareth Hunt."

Joe started well with a clear round and Katy and Ian also went clear later on. But it was Katy who clocked up another win as I edged over the 66 limit.

Katy 17
Ian 19
Joe 40
Sam 46
Andrew 67

After this there was time for one more game. We considered Dead Man's Chest, but when we found out that Katy had never played Perudo, it was brought to the table, quicksticks.

With her familiarity with Dead Man's Chest, she had no problems with the rules. As we played, Joe was first to go down to his last die, but he then survived while myself, Ian and Sam all fell by the wayside. A remarkable performance, which ended with him facing off against Katy, die versus die.

He made a bid, but Katy couldn't work out why he would lie. Sam explained the many bluffing techniques open to Joe but Katy wasn't having any of it. She made her bid as if he was being honest and won.

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

And that was that. Another evening of cattle trading, space exploration and clan building in the Outer Hebrides. And there's not many hobbies where you can say that.

Like, wow, Holmes

I arrived at the opening week of the season a little late, and found Sam's kitchen crammed with eager gamers. Nine of us were present: Sam, Matt, Ian, Joe, Katy, Chris, Martin, Andy and myself. Also joining us for the first game was little Joe, Sam's youngest. We chose Pairs and Sam teamed up with his son.

There were hardly any occasions when people went out on their second card and, indeed, most people lasted three or four rounds. This was bad for me since my strategy relies on other people being unlucky quickly.

In this race to twenty one, little Joe called the shots in the father and son team, and he made the early running, too. Only a poor third round for them allowed other players to catch up and eventually overtake.

Andy 25
Ian 23
Sam & Joe 21
Joe 17
Chris 14
Andrew 10
Katy 9
Martin 8
Matt 7

After this we split into two groups. Flamme Rogue was still in demand, and Katy , Martin, Matt all joined Andy in a game. The rest of us pondered. Watson and Holmes was mentioned but received a guarded response. But five players is a difficult crowd, and after some umming and ahhing, Chris decided that we should play Watson and Holmes after all, reasoning that if we can't decide what to play then we may as well play something new.

We set up in the front room so we could deduce in peace, away from the rowdy rabble of cyclists.

Sam explained the rules and read out the opening scene. Mr Porterfield was murdered! During a piano recital at his mansion, no less. Whodunit?

I got off to a good start, visiting a location that was dripping with clues. After that, though, I mostly wandered about aimlessly, learning very little. The most exciting moment involved the character cards we're dealt at the start of the game. I took great pleasure in announcing that I was Lestrade! And was therefore able to move all the police tokens currently in play. Didn't help much, but felt good.

Joe was the first to go to 221b Baker Street, and he checked his theories against the game, but turned out to be wrong. Despite still technically having a role in the game, he was tempted away by the other group who'd finished Flamme Rogue.

Katy
Martin
Andy
Matt

Katy credited her win to a cyclist she'd christened Rob, after her better half but then, in case I misunderstood, she specified that she had won, in case I gave Rob a win on the leaderboard.

We remaining four kept deducing until Ian made his move by going to 221b Baker Street and successfully answering all three questions.

Ian wins!
Joe, Sam, Chris and Andrew don't.

Once the murder was solved, Sam commented that all three of his guesses would've been wrong. I only got one right - the murder weapon. It was fun, but it did feel a lot like we were all playing the same solo game at the same time. There was a little more interaction than in the three player game, but nothing pivotal.

In the kitchen, the group that stole Joe was playing New York Slice. I didn't pay it much mind, but it ended:

Joe 28
Andy 25
Martin 22
Katy 21
Matt 13

While they played that, the four of us returned to the kitchen and perched on the end of the table and played Cosmic Run. During this game, Chris and Sam both tweeted almost identical photos of the game. A special treat for anyone who follows both accounts.

I kept losing points for planets, but conquering the five dice planet and having aliens made it respectable. Chris clocked up his first win thanks to a last minute grab for treasure.

Chris 54
Sam 52
Ian 51
Andrew 49

As we finished, the others played For Sale. The 30 came out in the first round (along with two other cards in the high twenties) and Martin made a big bid for it, prompting Joe to ask if he was spaffing his wad in the first round. If I remember right, Andy took the thirty. It didn't seem to help.

Matt 61
Martin 59
Katy 56
Joe 47
Andy 33

And so that meant they wee packing up For Sale as we were ending our Cosmic Run. Which meant only one thing: 6nimmt!

During this game, our collective astonishment at the cruelty of the cards was summed up in the phrase “Like... Wow.” Which Joe had learned from his daughters. Joe had special reason to utter these words as he went from first to eighth in the space of a single, terrible round. Martin also suffered a collapse in form, picking up 37 points in the final round.

Ian 17
Sam 24
Andy 32
Andrew 32
Katy 50
Joe 50
Martin 57
Chris 62
Matt 66

And so, we bid farewell to our host and took turns in the toilet before going back home. For some reason, Joe, Katy and I talked about Coldplay. Perhaps we will never know why.

There’s no Division, what with it being the first week and all, so instead I leave you with the 6nimmt Division, ordered by points ratio. Thanks all!

Bombers

Last night Andrew, Matt and I assembled primed to journey back through history to the time of Henry V - intrigue in the courts, and blood on the battlefields of France: Lancaster. Because I had neglected to tell him, the first Matt knew of this was when he saw the game set up - but it's reasonably easy to explain, so having guided him through the high spots we were off.

 Lancaster!

In Lancaster there's worker placement (your knights, going to the aforementioned courts/battles) but there's also worker bumpment, as your knights have levels from 1-4 and a more experienced or highly regarded knight can kick a lower-level one back home. Lower-level knights can counter this by bringing squires as their wing-men, but squires are a flighty lot, and will bugger off after one use. 

The courts bring you little tasty morsels  (more squires, gold, votes) or a nobleman to eat at your table, reflecting your increasing political clout. Or, if you have a few coins to pay, you can take both. Heading off to battle the French gets you an insta-reward from the King, plus 'power points' (points) if and when the battle is won. Making sure you win the battle is also, like life, a better outcome than  losing it, points-wise.

my unavailable Knights

What gives Lancaster intrigue though is the laws. At the end of each round players vote on three new laws, a majority or tie meaning that law comes into effect - bumping an old law (the King only likes three laws at any time) and potentially rewarding everyone, or more likely, only one or two. Getting a law passed is a way of pushing your points up - the law that rewarded knights battling the French got me 15 points all told - a big swing. 

After the laws the courts and battles are resolved and you get rewards from your hopefully expanding castle. And after five rounds the jig is up: everyone scores points for the values of their knights, castles, and something else I've forgotten. We didn't write down the scores but the places were

Sam

Andrew

Matt

Having foisted Lancaster on them, I stayed out of choosing the next game, pouring myself a large glass of celebratory wine. They returned from the cupboard with Ascending Empires, the space-subbuteo mash-up. I'm not sure what the choosing mechanic was, but Matt didn't know the rules so I talked him through them, and we were off!

Matt builds a city

As ever with Ascending Empires, the early hours are marked by cautious expansion and developing tech for the inevitable punch-up to come. To mix metaphors slightly, I was first out of the blocks when I blew up Andrew's ships, and following that both Matt and I came lurching into his territory: I was after the silver planet - I'm not sure what Matt was after. Matt's flicking was reminiscent of Joe Berger's: time and again he flicked too hard, or (more likely) rather gingerly, as though he was trying to bump-start a galactic Ford Anglia. 

Andrew got his purple tech up to maximum (stop sniggering) and began ramming our ships to pick up victory points. This collective suicide by his people did enough to give him a convincing win, despite having to cope with Matt and mine's shenanigans. 

Andrew 29

Matt 25

Sam 22

I poured a glass of consolatory wine. Then we played Cosmic Run! This seems to be the new Biblios - our go-to game for the last half-hour of the evening. And kudos to Matt for agreeing to learn yet more rules! 

Cosmic

Give Matt a space game though, and he consumes rules like a sponge. I forsook my usual tactic of playing reasonably safe and went for several optimistic moves, none of which I recall paying off. It was a battle between the others, and it was Matt that won it by the finest of margins:

Matt 65

Andrew 64

Sam 41

We night capped the evening with Push It. I have no idea what the scores were because my glass of optimistic wine had by this point been consumed, and although I think I won, I can't be sure. The boys headed off into the night as Sally returned, and I stumbled into bed with the age of Henry V now seeming a long time ago...

Novocon Fun!

Only days after a large chunk of GNNers had spent a weekend away playing games, it was the turn of the four aging war horses of GNN to stagger out of their stables and stare, confused and short-sighted, across the green fields of this great nation.

Luckily, it was raining, which meant it was perfect gaming weather with no temptation to try “going for a walk” to distract us.

Sam and I arrived first, at about two thirty and I was impressed by how much like home it felt. Especially because the tablecloth was the same kind as the one in Sam’s kitchen. Sam got the fire going, made coffee and cheese on a bagel. I offered him a pickled egg for his efforts. He couldn’t finish it and would later insist that it gave him a headache. Then we spent about twenty minutes popping and sorting the various pieces for A Feast For Odin. It already looks like a beast of a game.

Then Paul and Chris arrived, and once they’d sorted themselves (and we noticed we had three copies of Love Letter and two of Istanbul) out we sat down for our first game at exactly 3.48pm! Then we had our first drink at exactly 3.58pm!

The game that accompanied our first tipple was Cosmic Run. It was Paul’s first, but it’s not the most complex game, so after a few rules clarifications, he was away.

With four players, there’s more time between turns for planets to be hit, and more emphasis on getting cards and crystals: two things I didn’t do very well. I didn’t land on any planets, either.

Paul 69
Sam 66
Chris 58
Andrew 52

After this, we were all hungry enough for Sam to start on an early supper while the other three of us tried Paul’s own creation: The Seven Bridges Of Königsburg. This is a game of demand and supply, where deliveries happen on the five islands of Königsburg according to the roll of the dice and the wishes of the player. On certain rolls (double six and double one) you have to move, and you can never cross the same bridge twice. There were a few rule tweaks to be made, and there’s something in it. It just needs a bit of pepping up.

We finished it while we ate Sam’s Chorizo and Prawn stew with rice, and it ended:

Chris 34
Andrew 26
Paul 23

Now it was the evening proper, we felt like something heavy. A challenge. We went for Nations. Not the simplified dice version, but the full epic game, taking in the entire sweep of human history. Not necessarily in the right order, though: I had built my first factory as Paul was finishing off Machu Picchu.

There are a lot of rules and icons to get your head around, and at first I didn’t enjoy it at all. But over time it started to click and by the end I was using my resources pretty efficiently. It was too late, and my mostly pacifist philosophy was proven to be the least successful social model to follow. Meanwhile, military-minded Sam did far better, starting several wars that cost Chris and I several victory points each.

Checking the rules

Sam 39
Chris 37
Paul 28
Andrew 26

It also gave us our first schoolboy-sniggering joke of the weekend when Paul placed a meeple on a card, innocently saying “I’m going to stick him in the aqueduct.”

After this epic, we went to the complete opposite of the scale, with a rousing game of Push-It. Chris sped into an early lead thanks to two two-pointers, and the rest of us couldn’t catch him, although it was close at times.

Chris 13
Paul 10
Andrew 9
Sam 8

There was still time on the clock, so we finished on an old familiar, El Grande. It took no time at all to set up and get started (if you don’t include the hiatus for cheese and crackers) and with only a couple of rules references (due to vague wording on the cards) we glided through the game effortlessly.

It was close after round one, but in round two Chris opened up a lead and, just like Push It, he couldn’t be caught. Sam and I tied for second.

Chris 104
Sam 89
Andrew 89
Paul 80

With that we were ready for bed. I shacked up in the games room, with only the dim glow of fading coal to keep me company. And the lights from the fridge, TV, clock etc.

On Saturday morning, I got up at 6.30 and pottered about a bit. Sam soon joined me at 7ish and we went for a walk in the crisp clear country air.

On returning, we sat down for a quick two-round game of Take It Easy. Sam’s subject for calling in round one was “Trees” and he even did it in alphabetical order. I chose “comics and magazines I read as a kid”. Sam had a nightmare second round (116) allowing me to steal the win.

Andrew 276
Sam 259

After this Paul and Chris emerged and while they busied themselves with coffee, showers and talking, I entertained myself with a swift solo game of Tiny Epic Galaxies. I won, defeating The Rogue Galaxy 13-12. Ha!

By now it was ten o’clock and time for the first four-player of the day: Heck Meck! Chris introduced it by reminding that his wife usually beats him thanks to some amazing good luck. However, I think Chris’s own bad luck might contribute too.

Sam 8
Paul 3
Andrew 1
Chris 0

It was quite a long game, with people preferring to steal off each other when they could rather than risk another roll and a better score. It was almost strategic.

This was followed by a journey to the nearest town for some supplies, and then back for the quick crossword (completed) and a brief sighting of a drowsy wasp in the kitchen. And I took a closer look at the strange carving in the garden, which was both phallic and vaginal at the same time.

The next game was Magnum Sal, suggested by Sam since it was a game that had sat unplayed in his cupboard for about two years. This game is set in the salt production industry of fourteenth century Poland, so I can’t imagine why it’s not grabbed our attention before.

It’s a worker placement game, as you seek to make chains in the mines to carry out salt mining. I found it quite combative, as new opened sections of mine would get quickly invaded by the next player, and if you had a bucket, it was possible to move water in your section to a neighbouring section. Chris’s early surge into a lead mid-game faded away as his orders for the king were taken by other players, and Sam surged from distant last into a close second with a profitable final round.

Paul 84
Sam 81
Andrew 69
Chris 33

We tried to work out the meaning of the icons on this card from Magnum Sal. We came up with "Touch the bottom of a cube. Touch the top of a cube. Stop touching the cube!"

This was followed by food: a wide range of cheeses and meats with bread. With a couple of tomatoes, as today’s vague gesture to healthy eating.

Then we went for a walk in the nearby nature reserve. In the fading country sun, it all looked so lovely that every few seconds seemed like an opportunity to take a photo. Chris and Sam saw a deer, but Paul was more transfixed by the trains that sped by occasionally.

Back home, there was a quick game of Perudo for money, and Sam won four whole pounds!

After this, I chose Eclipse as the next game. The epic game of space explosions is a favourite of mine, and perfect for a Saturday evening, before supper, about the same time that Dr Who is on. A bit longer than Dr Who, though.

Paul got a rules refresher, and played with great gusto, helped with a 11-power hypergrid source that he won in a battle. I went for my swarm of wasps strategy which I don’t think has ever won, but is lots of fun to play. Chris and Sam were both aliens, and Sam went heavily for research. He completed two tech tracks which we hadn’t quite understood the full implications of. One minute he was a plucky underdog, having a go at the Ancients in his sector, then Chris attacked him and within a couple of upgrades Sam’s ships had transformed into death machines of fear, bristling with guns and hulls.

In the final round, Sam also pushed into my area, since I was distracted by my attempt at attacking Paul’s ships in Chris’s central hex. Another impressive endgame from Sam handed him another win.

Sam 35
Chris 29
Andrew 22
Paul 20

Andrew and I (Sam) also did the Igloo Pop challenge

This was followed by a nice little parlour game that Sam introduced us to, in which someone chooses a book, reads the publicity bumf on the back to everyone, and then the other players secretly write what they think the opening sentence might be. Then these are all read out, along with the real sentence and people have to spot which one is the genuine article. Points are given for correct guesses or if someone guesses your sentence.

It was lots of fun, especially on one occasion when the real opening sentence was considerably worse than anything we came up with.

Sam 4
Chris 2
Andrew 2
Paul 2

After this little non-tabletop distraction, we got back into geek mode with Roll For The Galaxy. I haven’t played it before, but I remember being daunted by it when I shared a table with it a GNN evening.

It took a while to get around the rules which aren’t exactly intuitive, but I entertained myself by giving myself a difficult tile to develop right at the start, to see if I could do it before the game ended. I just about made it. And it game me lots of points, too, giving the impression that I was more involved than I actually was.

Chris 30 + dice tie-breaker
Sam 30
Paul 24 + dice tie-breaker
Andrew 24

Finally, Paul tempted us to stay up for one more game of Push-It. In the early stages it was pretty close at 4-3-3-3, and I remarked it showed that we were either evenly matched, or the whole thing was just random.

But then Chris pulled ahead and Paul sent the puck off the table while I proceeded to score no more points at all. It ended

Chris 11
Sam 8
Andrew 3
Paul 1

And so to bed…

Sunday morning, and I was up first again. Slightly cloudier outside, and colder but still nice outside. People slowly stirred and so our first game (sans Paul) was No Thanks! at about nine o’clock. We were all hoping for the final card to fit onto our runs of cards. It was the nineteen, which nobody wanted. So it just collected more and more coins until it was worth picking up.

Sam 43
Andrew 44
Chris 47

When we were all four together, we dug out Cosmic Run again. This time, only a little rule refresher was needed at the start. This time I went for planets, with a little side-dish of cards. It all ended with all of us rushing along the five-of-a-kind planet which was the only one left, finally getting to the end before it exploded. If that’s a good thing.

Andrew 61
Sam 54
Chris 52
Paul 44

After this, people did the shower thing and the rest of us played short games. Paul, Chris, and I played Love Letter, first to two. Chris’s one point came at the end of a remarkable round where I knew he was the Princess for three turns but couldn’t get him out.

Andrew 2
Paul 1
Chris 1

Then there were a couple of games of Cube Quest.

Paul 2
Andrew 0

And

Sam 2
Paul 1

Finally, with everyone clean(er) we set up the “long version” of Lords Of Waterdeep, ie the one with all the extensions. Paul stunned us all with an epic piece of AP on his penultimate move, as the rest of us were able to go to the toilet, get a drink, etc before he made his move.

In the end, his final moves were pretty good, but he said he thought he could’ve got another twenty points if only things were different.

Chris slightly over-prepares for a quest

I went skull-heavy, while Paul and Sam were the most noble of us. Or, at least, the best at getting rid of their skulls once they’d got them. But Chris showed why they almost call him “Mr Waterdeep”:

Chris 167
Paul 166
Andrew 147
Sam 141

Then we went for a walk in the rain, complete with rainbow.

Once we’d returned, Sam taught Paul how to play Scythe while Chris introduced me to Cartography. After a shaky start, my knowledge of Go held me in good stead and I won the second game handsomely.

Meanwhile, on the big table, Scythe was up and ready to go. Paul was yellow, Chris was white, I was black and Sam was red. While I got an early lead, Sam came charging up, getting to four stars and then ending the game with his next go by attacking Paul. Truly, it is the way of all things, that a student must one day defeat their teacher. But Paul didn’t win. Sam did, and then used Paul’s oil to upgrade for his sixth star.

Sam attacks his own protege

Although I had more territory and stars than Chris, his exemplary housekeeping meant he had plenty of money in the bank, which added to his paltry end of game bonuses ruined my hopes of a runner-up place.

Sam 77
Chris 42
Andrew 38
Paul 19

There was room for one more before Paul had to go and get his train. It was 7 Wonders, and I remarked it must make him nostalgic, playing this while keeping half an eye on the clock. Chris’s military might and high scores across the board meant the winner was never in doubt.

Chris 62
Paul 54
Sam 46
Andrew 38

And with that, Paul was off into the night, heading back to Clapham Junction.

After we ate Chris’s meal (made for four, but the three of us finished it off) we leapt back into gaming with Terraforming Mars. Chris said he liked it, but it was a bit long for what it was. I didn’t understand what he was talking about, it had always flied by for me, but tonight I understood. We began at eight and finished at half ten. Two and a half hours for three players is a lot.

The game itself was notable for people pushing up the temperature really fast while not putting down any city tiles. Chris had loads of titanium, but seemed unable to get titanium-feulled cards from the deck. Oh, how we laughed. By the end, it was a very populated Mars, with nine cities, an active volcano, lots of greenery and a commercial centre. You know, somewhere for the bank holiday shopping.

My sudden leap up the score chart with victory points on cards (24 pts) wasn’t enough to get out of last, but at least saved my blushes.

Sam 90
Chris 83
Andrew 71

We followed this up with a trio of small games. I won at Love Letter:

Andrew 3
Chris 2
Sam 2

And then Chris won his first ever game of For Sale:

Chris 72
Sam 65
Andrew 62

And finally my luck deserted me on Heck Meck as I went for three rounds without rolling a single worm. Sam was a clear leader midway through the game, but luck can go down as well as up, and Chris managed to overturn some of his recent poor form in the game.

Sam 6
Chris 6
Andrew 3

Finally, it was time for bed. Except for Chris, who sat down with a cup of coffee. Crazy.

Monday morning was a leisurely mostly Sam-less affair, as he had a lie in. Chris and I read rule books, with me taking on A Feast For Odin as my morning read.

After a while Chris and I decided to have a little game of Agricola: All Creatures Great and Small. It’d been a while for both of us, but Chris pig farming prowess made him look set for the win. In fact, that’s how we first counted it up. It wasn’t until afterwards when I was grumbling (good naturedly, I hope) about Smith’s way with a pig that he reconsidered that he might not have had fifteen after all.

We checked the photographic evidence, and he decided that he can’t have. This gave me a win, after a recount:

Andrew 45
Chris 44

Finally Sam woke up at 9.55, meaning his hopes of setting off at 10.00 were pretty much over. For our last game we chose Raj, the fun game of bluffing and accidental telepathy. It ended:

Sam 65
Chris 52
Andrew 27

All that was left was to tidy up and fail to find the recycling bins and we were away! Thanks all for a lovely long weekend.