The Night of Obscure References

I arrived at Sam's only a little late but still late enough for Sam to beat Joe at a game of Aspen and for the two of them to start a game of Cross Clues with Ian, Katy and Martin. I got there just in time to be given the last free card.

We clued each other adequately enough, with Martin having to explain an absurdly optimistic clue referencing Kim Joy who is a celebrity chef who’s made a board game. General blank looks all round.

20 out of 25

Then we set up Triangulation, a team game based around giving clues to certain things: pop culture, places, people etc. You have to give three clues but the opposing team gets to guess first, using two of those clues. Pete was expected to join us soon but, since it was a team game, he could just join in once he arrived. And when he did, he made quite the entrance, dropping his metal water bottle loudly onto the floor.

Not to be outdone in the attention-seeking game, Sam then went outside, across his floorboard-free decking, balancing on joists several feet above the ground, just to pick up a couple of cans of gin and tonic.

Sam wondered aloud what kind of thing might be allowed - does the moon count as a proper noun? My favourite clue was Ian’s “Washington” “Compass” “Flight” which should have made us think of West Wing, but didn’t. Seemed so obvious after the reveal.

Then we split into two. Martin and I were early recruits for President Maker, but seemed to have enormous trouble getting extra candidates as everyone hedged their bets, waiting to see what else was on offer.

In the end, Dewan was the other game, with Ian, Katy and Joe. Sam, Pete, Martin and I chose President Maker, but Sam had to do Explaining duties on Dewan.

Once Ian, Joe and Katy were happy to continue, Martin talked us through the intricacies of the Korean electoral system as represented by five bits of cardboard and some cubes. In this game players can “rally” which means they can increase their popularity in an area, especially if no one else goes there.

Then you can play a card which allows you to move cubes, with the proviso that you may collect bombs - too many of those will damage your popularity with the voters.

Finally, all these cubes translate into tiles that go into a black cloth bag. And, once for each area, we draw tiles to see who gets the most votes. It was Sam by a country mile, and he couldn’t help but laugh as he pulled out yellow tile after yellow tile, somehow avoiding all of the many purple tiles in the bag. 

As we began the fifth and final area, Sam’s lead was so great that Martin observed his only way of winning was if all his tiles came out, and none of Sam’s. But Sam then drew two of his own and any sense of excitement was done. Except for Sam, who kept getting votes and very nearly broke the scoreboard.

1st Sam (Progressive)

2nd Andrew (Centrist)

3rd Pete (Independent)

4th Martin (Conservative)

Dewan finished without me paying it much attention, except for Joe’s disdain for the dividers in the game’s box as he tried to put it away.

Joe 43

Katy 40

Ian 16

Katy left and the six of us played Triangulation again. I can’t honestly say we were any better than the first time.

We saw some painfully obscure references where no one got the answer despite seeing all three clues (Pete’s “rise” “Of” “Pandemic” was a cryptic allusion to Cthulu, and my “Calvin” “Chuck” “Eighty Eight” did not lead anyone to Back To The Future although Ian mentioned it in passing while they deliberated) but equally we experienced some almost telepathic correct guesses after one word. Martin was aghast when “Material” lead almost everyone to agree on Madonna.

Pete, Sam, Andrew win

Ian, Joe, Martin don’t

Then Joe gave me a lift home. Only 10:10pm. Days of near-midnight finishes seem so long ago…

But the evening continued, as Sam reports.

 *                *                *

After Andrew left we had time for a couple more games. 

First up was Catan: On The Road, which dumps the original's spatial element whilst keeping the resources, trading, and first-to-x-win condition, which in this case is 7 points. We'd all played before but that didn't stop me getting confused about the harvest phase. Ian briefly flirted with winning, but then Martin stole his big road and I took the biggest army. Then Martin built a metropolis and won. Something like that, anyway. Martin and I have conferred today and found our memories somewhat erratic. 

Then it was time for the green plastic. We did very well, rolling 4 sixes straight out the gate in pretty short order. There were some nice clues in there, with Martins tip for waiter/garbage being perhaps the most lateral. We were so pleased, and Martin had so much beer left, that we played again. The second game was so bad nobody took any pictures, but here is the first:

And with that, the GNN Tuesday closed up shop for another week. Until then!

Games Knight Knews

I arrived at Sams’s in the turmoil of a game of Cross Clues. I ignored the usual gaming wisdom of never playing until you’ve taken your coat off and sat down and I looked at my card which prompted me to give a clue for “Kinght/Night.” I said “homophone” and got an easy point and an idea for the blog post title. Other attendees apart from me and Sam were Martin, Ian, Adam H and Pete. Martin was a clue machine but Adam was stymied by two clues involving Cauliflower.

21 out of 25

The six of us split into two groups. I joined Ian and Sam in a game of Torchlit, a trick taking game in which you have to guess how many tricks you’ll win. You’re guess is hidden in the form of a face down card and your progress is shown as a meeple on a track.

If your guess is correct, you get 3 points but you can get extra points if that space on the track has cards placed beneath it. Of course, if you miss your target, you can still pick up the points from any cards placed on that particular space.

It was fun. I played the first round in a fog of confusion, trying to work out what was a good hand and what wasn’t. In round two Sam did badly as he won a trick he didn’t want that pushed him onto a low scoring space: just two points for that round. He couldn’t recover and, after three rounds, the scores were

Andrew 18

Ian 16

Sam 13

On the other half of the table, Pete, Martin and Adam played Maya. It’s minimalist design, pastel coloured hexagons with a distinct lack of Mayan flair, gave it a 90s look. I know very little about the game, apart from a typically Martin-esque phrase mid-game, “I have to do that to you to screw you out of ten points,” he said to Pete. Not that it made a difference as it ended:

Pete 157

Martin 147

Adam 131

After this some limited edition (for Easter, I think) chocolate and chili crisps were shared. They got a mixed reaction, but people kept eating them in a sort of fugue state of disbelief at the taste.

After Maya finished, the players discussed it and we soon realised that a lot of our geographical knowledge comes from board games. Although a lot of that knowledge was focused in Germany.

We then split into two groups once more. I stayed in my chair for the third game in a row and watched people move around me. Me, Sam and Adam played Dewan - placing our camps across a map to satisfy various criteria drawn at random from a deck of tiles. 

Adam seemed pleased when he heard there was no hand limit and, indeed, as he played he always seemed to have cards to choose from. I was living hand to mouth, cards-wise, despite my plan of putting camps in the middle of the board, hoping to get cards from anyone wishing to pass.

It was a close one and, to be honest, I was surprised I came last.

Sam 46

Adam 46

Andrew 43

There is a tie-breaker: player with most cards left over wins, but Sam disdained that rule and announced it was a tie, even though he would have won by it. I wonder if we can backdate that decision to my game when I drew with Martin...

At the far end of the table Rebirth: Ireland was in full swing. Clearly, Martin and Pete had not had enough hexagon-based map games for that evening. 

And as I stepped out into the evening, Sam picked up the blogging duties

After Andrew left, Rebirth was still continuing, and it sounded like Ian's early lead was getting pegged back by Pete and Martin. We had time for a two-platyer, so Adam and I stared at the alcove in the front room before deciding on card-shedder Chu Han, which Adam may or may not have played before. Even after beating me, he still wasn't sure.

I won the first round before Adam took the second. In the third round I had huge clutches of 4s and 5s and if I could just get rid of a single six, Adam would be in trouble. But shedding the six gave him the lead *and* doubled points for the round, something I came to regret when I just couldn't get it back and he went out to leave him poised for a win at 29-10. As Rebirth was packing up by now, we decided to award him the victory, as my comeback looked improbable at best. 

Adam - wins!

In Rebirth, Ian had been scampered past by late-game business from the other two, and on realising he had a forgotten objective Pete also realised he'd just completed it with his last tile - enough to take a St Patrick's Day win on the Ireland side of the board!

Pete 244
Martin 241
Ian 232

A triumphant but tired Adam now departed, but Ian said he'd be up for a So Clover. So we did that. Despite some hesitancy and trepidation, it was another Record of Legends night with a cement-hard 24/24. This was despite my putting Queenie for Perfume/Chess. Ian's cradle for Life/Grave was nice. 

Now we lost Ian as well but the three of us still felt we had enough energy for a crack at Biblios, with Martin and I introducing Pete to the Extreme foul-mouthed variant. I suspect Martin ate his own shit at one point, but he didn't say, and who can blame him. I tried to stay out of the battle for brown and blue and focused all my efforts on red and green. If they could outscore any other pair of dice I would be King Biblios once more! 

But this went wrong when I outbid Martin for a +1 Church card late on, only to find the very next auction was a +2 Church card. Pete and I were broke, Martin picked it up dirt-cheap, and with it the crown. 

Martin 7

Sam 6

Pete 3

And that was that for another GNN. See you all soon...

You are Dewan for me

 I arrived at Joe’s house to find Martin knocking at the door as I approached. Martin looked at me quizzically and asked “did I just walk past you?” I was dimly aware of someone having strode past me a minute or so ago so maybe he had.

We began the evening as a quintet, with three others expected along the way. I was introduced to Link City “the Martin Variant”.In this game, a player draws three (or four) city sectors into their hand and decides their location on an already existing city in such a way that we’re able to guess where they would go.

The Variant is in the fact that the person who knows the city sectors also choses where the coloured cones go as opposed to the official rule where someone else places the cones. It was fun trying to work out if Ian would put a 5-star hotel next to an Intelligence Headquarters or a Leisure Centre. The only issue with the Martin Variant is making sure you’ve properly hidden your choices before revealing the options, as Martin himself forgot to do.

Katy arrived during this game and even took part in a round, scoring only one point. I wonder if there’s a thing whereby new arrivals joining games always do badly. But actually, overall we did pretty well.

43 points

Adam H and Pete join us around this point and we split into two groups. Martin, Sam, Joe and myself play Dewan. Katy looked at her co-gamers and sighed “we’ll never agree on what to play”. She made an early bid for Lords of Vegas but instead Mlem was chosen. 

And what a game it was. Ian seemed hopelessly optimistic as he immediately loaded his Deep Space Double cat onto the ship, but he made it all the way there. In fact it was a very high scoring game, with the top half of the board heavily populated while the lower reaches were largely ignored. Ian got the Deep Space Twice token and towards the end of the game Pete noted that they’d been to deep space more often than they’d exploded. Amazing scenes.

Ian 47

Pete 42

Adam 37

Katy 33

As for Dewan, this was my first game but the rules are quite straightforward. Place settlements on the map and score according to criteria on your story tiles. As we played, bits of Joe’s table fell off and I asked if we were safe as we jammed them back on again.

Joe said “it’s quite stressful” (referring to the game, not his table which he didn't seem worried about) and it ended very close. Martin scored 22 points from his story tiles while I got points for separate groups of settlements. Only an unfair and totally arbitrary tie-breaker could separate us.

Martin 38 and more cards left in hand

Andrew 38

Joe 37

Sam 34

Next up for the four of us while we waited for Mlem to finish was Jungo. My second variant of the day: this was called Hachi Train, and the deck was made up of the cards from 1 to 8 and the “two value” cards to one side as a draw pile. When putting down a stronger hand, you have to pick up the cards you just beat. 

We didn’t finish the game, playing only two rounds, so we never found out the overall loser but, for the record, I lost round one and Sam lost the second.

Now everyone was together, I decided to take a bow and leave. Without me Ian, Adam, Joe and Sam played a tiny version of Azul which Ian won with an almost indecent margin of victory.

Ian 103

Adam 56

Joe 66

Sam 45

After this they failed five times at Yubibo.

Meanwhile Pete beat Martin and Katy at Mongoose before they played 1am Jailbreak.

Katy 8

Pete 5

Martin 4

Then they played So Clover twice. Some people must have left because Sam sent photos of five then four clovers.

Another special evening. Thanks all.