Fünf for all the Family

Tuesday rolled around again and despite the inevitable post-weekend (see Andrew's odysseyian previous post) drop in numbers from the regulars, the lesser-spotted GNNers were out in force, at one point bumping up the numbers to nine around my (Sam's) table!

First to arrive was Joe, and the embryonic hour of 6pm. Sadly he was just dropping off things I'd left at Novocon, so after a chat, he left again.

Then at the allotted hour of 7.30, Laura Izzard was first through the door, followed by Matt, Martin, and Ian. With Anja and Andy Mosse both running late, we cracked into our games. Or to clarify, Martin heaped disdain on me for buying another game (abetted by Stanley, and then even Ian joining in) before getting out the game he'd just bought. Whilst Stanley, Ian and Matt began contesting Love Letter at the other end of the table, he talked Laura and I through the rules.

The game in question was Blue Lagoon, Reiner Knizia's latest offering. Arriving into the eponymous lagoon as settlers, you discover there are eight islands, and over two rounds you score points for having a presence on each one, for making connections between them, for having majority presence and for collecting resources. If it sounds like rote gaming circa-2018 (or earlier) the implementation is very Knizian - on their turn, everyone simply places one piece on the board and watches in agony as all the things you want slip away from you. It's part race, part bunfight, part mental torture.

After one round, all pieces bar your five villages are removed, and a second round begins with placement having to spread from your villages. I won our first game (I didn't note down the scores) but I mentioned that now I knew how it all worked, I wouldn't win next time - which proved to be true.

Meanwhile Stanley had won Love Letter, after successfully outing Ian's hidden cards four times:

Stanley 3
Matt 2
Ian 0

And with Anja now present, they began explaining Heck Meck to her. At our end of the table, meanwhile, Andy had also arrived, and as Blue Lagoon was already on the table, we set it up again for four. Little Joe turned up to watch for a bit, as people briefly outnumbered seats.

With Martin now familiar with the games' overlapping scoring criteria, it was a tougher proposition. He scored the bonus for being on all eight islands in the first round, collected a big resource bonus and then in the second harvested up lots of statues. The game played quite staccato though; lots of rapid turns occasionally broken by a long, cognitive-heavy one. I'd say it was close, but it wasn't:

Martin 192
Laura 127
Sam 126
Andy 124

Martin was flush with new love for another Reinerssance masterpiece, and we all liked it, albeit it hurt my brain. I struggle judging the need to further your own advances (in multiple criteria) with the overlapping/competing need to stop others (also multiple criteria!) is hard. From one angle, it's very very simple, but from another - it's not.

Meanwhile Heck Meck was continuing, with Anja rolling a spectacular set of worms:

Laura made moves to go, but the three dads present showed their paternal understanding by harassing her into playing one more game - Face Cards, the game that needs almost no introduction - make pairs of faces, and hope somebody spots your pair in the melee. Andy took the win despite our failure to see his Coati/Parking Meter combination.

Andy 12
Martin 8
Sam 7
Laura 5

And I forgot to take photos. Laura bid her adieus and disappeared into the night - the next time we see her she'll be with (actual) child, so good luck Laura!

Stanley also disappeared around this time, off to bed, as Heck Meck finally concluded:

Matt 15
Stanley 8
Ian 5
Anja 1

As Ian brought in a collection of games to choose from, he tripped over Andy's growing pile of rubbish on the floor, which he announced he'd left there on purpose. He gazed at the mess with a glow of pride, before I tidied it away. Now a pair of trios. Ian found himself explaining Istanbul to one, whilst Martin explained Kingdoms, my birthday present to him (also a Knizia) to the other.

Kingdoms was not massively dissimilar to Blue Lagoon, only slightly simpler, and slightly screwier. Tiles are played on a 6x6 grid, and you can pick up and place a points tile (there are positive and negative) or place one of your castles, which will score for both the row and column it's on. As soon as someone places a castle, of course, everyone else tries to put negative tiles next to it.

Mix in the mountains (block rows and columns) the gold (doubles everything) and the dragon (cancels the good stuff) and you have a game brimming with evil - so evil that you start with fifty points, just to give everyone the opportunity to lose them all in the first round. Andy made a great start, but Martin overhauled him. I played badly and got what I deserved:

Martin 249
Andy 239
Sam 212

Fun. Whilst that was going on, Matt won Istabul:

Matt 5 gems
Ian and Anja 3 gems each (Ian second on tie-breaker)

And they'd also played NMBR9, which Anja didn't like at all. Ian did, though:

Ian 86
Matt 79
Anja 49

Considering how brief Kingdoms was, I've probably got the timeline of events all muddled up, but whatever had gone on previously, Anja certainly left at this point because we found ourselves a quintet, and began playing Five Cucumbers - or to give it it's German title, Fünf Gurken. Tricks are played (there's only one suit) and you must either match or beat the previous card, or lay your lowest card. The winner of the final trick picks up cucumbers, which are bad - collect five, and you lose the game.

The youngest player starts, but that took some time to establish, as Matt discovered he was younger than he realised, and Ian didn't even know what year we were living in. After that bombshell, Andy took an instant dislike to Fünf Gurken, openly scathing of the choice of vegetable and the fact there was only one. He critiqued the wooden cucumbers, which he claimed didn't resemble a cucumber - more on that later - and mimicked Martin and I throughout the game as we hissed at our cards. If it was a strategy, it paid dividends, as he ended with the fewest cucumbers. But unfortunately for Matt, we all won apart from him:

Matt: Five cucumbers.

or are they?

He actually ended with six cucumbers, which - by now we'd all conceded the cucumbers did have a scrotal quality to them - I said in a way, made him the winner. We speculated as to how much fun (or fünf ) one could have with six ball sacs; needlework, say, or artisan baking. Ian suggesting skiing. Martin and I got the giggles and I'm ashamed to say it was all rather immature. Especially considering we'd just played a game about not wanting five cucumbers.

Anyway, the witching hour was now upon us, so Martin and Ian put on their coats for the walk home. Andy said he wasn't going anywhere though, and Matt was tempted to stay as well, so we played Dice Heist - rob museums, collect artwork, gems and artifacts!

But owing to ancient heist-related traditions, only score paintings if you have the most combined value of them. Also if you have two gems, the second one is worth twice as much as the first! Matt and I celebrated our shared victory:

Matt and Sam - 27
Andy - 15

But we weren't done yet, with Ganz Schon Clever next to hit the table.

To be honest, I don't remember a huge amount about it now, except I recall Matt had to police my crossings off because I was pretty haphazard at this point and kept cheating. But I somehow managed to add up the scores correctly, to my surprise. We checked with a calculator.

Sam 236
Matt 228
Andy 200

With Tuesday now behind us and Wednesday begun, we bade each other good night, the end of a doozy of an evening: the return of Laura and Matt, some very feisty games, and a protracted schoolboy riff on dark green scrotums. What more can one ask of a Tuesday night?

In Vino Veritas

This week’s GNN was another slimline affair. Just five regulars huddled around Sam’s kitchen table, eager for their fix of gaming crack. We were, in total, Sam, Andy, Ian, Ben and myself.

After a brief opener where we (Sam, Ben and me) entertained Sam’s kids (Joe and Stanley) with a rousing game of Paraoh Gulo Gulo. The kid’s had a clear advantage with their little fingers expertly plucking the spheres from the bowl, but it was Ben who timed his game to perfection. He burst into the mummy’s lair after Stanley had opened it and Sam had failed, and successfully overcame the mummy’s curse. It wasn’t leaderboard, though. I didn’t even note down the positions of the other players. Also, we learnt that we’d got some rules wrong on the mummy’s movement. Oh wells.

After this we thought about the next game of choice. Glen More was considered, since Andy had played it on an app and so he kind of knew the rules. But we were also drawn to Viticulture. Andy looked at the time needed on the side of the box and optimistically said “We can probably play both!” And so Viticulture was chosen.

The game was laid out and explained to newbies Andy and Ben. They seemed to get the gist of it pretty quickly.

The usual pattern of slow start rising to tense climax was repeated here. In fact, Sam was still on zero points after one hour of play. Ben had taken a hefty hit early on, sacrificing three victory points for a stash of money. He then played a series of cards, giving us the chance to take advantage of certain opportunities to do things for cheap, in an exchange for a victory point for Ben. Before we knew it, he was out in first.

Ian horded wine and looked like any second now he would unleash a series of orders. He also kept taking the bonus spaces for actions, and then not using the bonus taking great delight in ruining it for the other players.

The risk of cards being too powerful was counterbalanced by everyone using lots of cards. So we all raced down the score track (even Sam, eventually) pretty much neck and neck for most of the game. In the end, it looked like it was either me or Ian who’d hit 20 points, since I was only three points away and Ian had a cellar full of excellent wines to sell, but in the end Sam snuck through the pack to trigger the end of the game with him in first place.

Sam 20
Andrew 19
Andy 18
Ben 17
Ian 15

After this two and a bit hour epic, we decided to end on something a little less substantial. Any thought of trying Glen More was forgotten about and instead Dice Heist was chosen, with Ben saying his goodbyes and going for his bus.

This game of art theft is a lovely slice of push your luck. The poor old Hermitage was a favourite target. I suppose they can’t afford decent security because they keep having to buy new exhibits. Andy picked up the Mona Lisa early, and after that was in pole position for paintings. Ian and Sam managed to tie for last place in paintings and so were both hit by the –4 point punishment.

Andy 22
Andrew 15
Ian 15
Sam 10

And with that, we were done. Thanks to Sam for hosting at the last minute and thanks to everyone for another great night.

I lead the division without having won a single game! Some form of history is being made here, surely. Points ratio and medal table stays the same.

Piracy is a Crime

Madame Ching was some lady. Not only did she command thousands of pirates hundreds of years ago, she also was directly responsible for Andrew and Ian sitting down with me (Sam) last night, to try out Madame Ching - the game of piracy via numeric cards.

The game is very colorful and the rules are not numerous. If anything, they fall a little short in specifying one or two things, as we discovered. Basically though, we are competing to impress the eponymous Madame by sailing our junks over the sea and completing expeditions.

aarrgh shipmates. etc

Everyone plays a card and cards are simultaneously revealed. The highest number plays first, and - as long as the card played has a higher value than the last one on your journey - moves their ship forward: in a straight line if the colour of the card matches any previous card played on their voyage, or diagonally forward if it doesn't. If you can't or don't want to play a higher card, you play a low one: your expedition ends, and you grab some loot. The further you travel, the better the loot gets. Don't worry about getting home, because that happens instantaneously!

That's the essence of the game, but inevitably there's a few other smells in the wind. If you visit the islands, you get an encounter card, and these can give you a little fillip. If you manage to play cards with a set of matching symbols, you pick up a skill - these are handy in-game advantages. And if you get all skills, Madame Ching rewards you with captaincy of the China Pearl: master of pirate junks centuries ago, these days, worth 5 points at the end of the game.

little gems

Nobody made it to Hong Kong, which would have been worth ten points. For a while we couldn't see how it was even possible (thanks, rulebook!)

The first half of the game felt like an exercise in repetition. Play a card, move a ship. Pick up a card, and repeat. But we began to see the strategy of trying to build a hand that got your ship further - potentially sacrificing an expedition now in order to make good ground later. And the final throes of the game had a definite race feeling as Andrew and I sailed after Ian, hoping he'd fail to claim the last available expedition. He didn't:

Ian 34
Sam 33
Andrew 26

(I think; I don't have the scores here)

We packed it away feeling a mixture of deflated, bamboozled and mildly intrigued. It was definitely not an instant hit, but I'm curious to try it again.

Then we bashed out a whole bunch of short games. Dice Heist, Love Letter, Push It all saw some quick-fire action. Best of all was the return of Bandu, which Andrew won after Ian and I toppled our fledgling buildings. I managed to dislodge the biggest piece in the game with possibly the smallest - with the tiniest of touches. Must play that again soon!

Gold, Blood, Art

Saturday night! Seeing as I (Sam) keep missing Tuesdays, and Sally keeps going out, I was grateful to have Andrew and Chris descend upon the house at 7pm. Whilst the boys caused havoc upstairs (my boys, not Andrew and Chris) we set up Fool's Gold on the kitchen table.

What more is there to say about Fool's Gold? It's the worlds-colliding combo of worker placement and push-your-luck, where the luck-pushing gets progressively more optimistic as the game continues. There's something delightfully funny about miners thinking sod it, I'll pan for gold in the snow, and turning up four bags of silt in a storm.

winter is coming

Chris and Andrew were both new to it, but it's not a hard game to learn. In fact the most confusing thing about it was Chris' money disappearing and Andrew accusing him of being thick, before it transpired that Andrew had been taking Chris' money, thinking it was from the bank. And at this point, we were all pretty sober. Oh, how we lolled etc.

Andrew 45
Sam  44
Chris 36

At this point Andrew and I indulged Chris in a game of Blood Bowl: Team Manager. Neither of us was really yearning to try it; it's a very Ameri-trashy, chit-heavy cross of fantasy and American Football. For a couple of Feld-positive Europeans, that's not exactly a siren, more a rock.

But we are nothing if not recalcitrantly begrudging, so we gave it a shot. It's about a series of football matches played out in a fantasy realm, rather violently. In each round players are contesting the matches via card play: cards have a value and the combined value of all your cards in a game decide who wins/loses. But individual cards can do stuff as well; like grab the ball (if you have the ball, you've more chance of winning the game) tackle (resulting in making opponent cards less effective) sprint (change up a card in your hand for a hopefully-better one) and, er, skull: which get your card a skull token. These are revealed when all cards have been played - they may help, but they may get the player sent off.

touchdown

The skulls make the game very swingy - which is fun, but also slightly undermines the idea of strategic play. I can imagine the longer the game is (we played three rounds) the feeling of arbitrariness growing from a sense of chaotic fun to mild annoyance. But overall the game was fine - Andrew said it was "not anywhere near as terrible as I thought it'd be" which, from his mouth, is praise indeed.

Andrew 22
Sam 22
Chris 18

What next? I brought out several options and Chris' phone chose Pueblo. This was the first play for me that wasn't a two-player, and I decided early on to get all my buildings of my own colour down as soon as possible. This meant I took a lot of early hits whilst Chris - and Andrew in particular - shimmied about, avoiding the eye of the chieftain and taking minimal point penalties. But when our building was completed and he took his final inspection, I was all but hidden, and I moved into a respectable first place. I didn't note the scores, but Andrew was second, and Chris third.

stroppy chieftain looms

We finished off with a couple of short games; Dice Heist is the game of the moment in the Morrison household - Stanley loves it and it goes down well at GNN too. Andrew and Chris fought it out over paintings, whilst I hovered around the edges, trying to pick up cheap heists in St Petersburg. But there was too much hovering, not enough heisting:

Andrew 28
Chris 27
Sam 17

Finally we bashed out Push It, which has not been seen for a few weeks now! At this stage, I was rather merry, and merriness and dexterity don't always go hand in hand. I flicked pathetically as the others jostled for position. Andrew surged off into the lead with Chris hanging on to his coat-tails. But as the pressure mounted around the ten-point mark, anxiety took hold and as the others bashed into each other, I came back into it. With the scores poised at 10-9-9 in Andrew's favour, anyone could win it!

Andrew 11
Chris 9
Sam  9

Lots of fun, thanks gentlemen. Enjoy Tuesday!

China in your hands

Last night Andrew and I played Sun Tzu - a two-player cheapy from The Works.

It's a battle mildly reminiscent of Condottiere. There's a small map showing ancient China, and the players are contesting ownership through card-play.  Over nine rounds players play different strength cards to each area, which are revealed simultaneously. The difference in strength between the cards is the effect on the area - if blue plays a 6 and red plays a 4, red will lose two armies in the area (if they have any) or blue would add to armies (if they already have armies present, or the area is empty. If red had one army present, that would go, and blue would add one army.

Like Condottiere though, there are other elements at play. You have a base set of cards valued 1-6 that you always take back into your hand at the end of a round. But there are stronger cards to be added to your hand, and these are only available once. There are values 7-10, cards that take away strength from your opponent, add strength to yours, and even a Plague card that stops any opposing army having an effect. It's the timing of these cards that can decide the game.

There are also event cards to incorporate, but we didn't bother. Looking at the rules it felt like extra guff. Maybe we'll try them next time.

After the third, sixth and ninth round scores are calculated: what a region is worth varies from round to round (and game to game). It's possible to win on the third or sixth round, but we lasted the duration. My strong showing on round nine claimed the win:

Sam wins
Andrew doesn't.

We liked it. Not a classic, but a faster play than Condottiere and a decent blend of luck and tactics. Plenty of scope for the odd bluff too.

Then we blasted through some short games - I was a disaster spy master and agent in Codenames; Andrew out-honeyed me in worker placement/bidding game Waggle Dance, and took me to the cleaners in Dice Heist.

House Rules!

My mum said she couldn't face watching or talking about Brexit last night, so instead we played games.

We started with Dice Heist at around 7pm. Only a few of us have played it at GNN, but it's a fun game of luck-pushing where you're stealing stuff from art museums. My mum betrayed her oft-denied competitive streak by claiming a card after not announcing a targeted raid, then said it was my fault for "talking". Really mum! It's this kind of behaviour that will give the UK a bad name.

Stanley: won by loads
Sam: somewhere in the middle
Mum: lost by loads

The boys headed off to bed and we broke out the Scrabble. Mum and I have been playing this for years, and - thanks in no small part to fighting it out online with Chris - I think I win more often than not. But there are several house rules to be taken into account: changing the root meaning of a word is +5pts, blanks can be claimed back from the board by placing the tile of the letter they represent in their place, and points can be awarded for 'style' - an enigmatic quality at the best of times.

Last night we also introduced the final rack rule - you can play any combo of letters you like, as long as you can justify it with a fictional definition inside ten seconds. I managed to get out an acronym-based slang for ejector seats (airc) and the noise old men make getting out of a chair (hn). Mum gave a definition that was so long, I now can't remember what the word was.

And I won, but that was only because my mum found a 7-letter word for me. Another family convention is the freedom to insist on viewing your opponents'  tiles and being told where to put them.

Sam 364
Mum 334

With Sally now back from her class, I insisted we play Knit Wit. We really must play this at GNN, it's great. Throw out a few loops with words (sometimes phrases) attached to them, place spools in the loops: you create a venn diagram where spools are caught in one or more loops. Then you have to write a word or series of words that defines the spool - so, for instance, my word for Historical, Purple and Small was Prince.

Before we got to the answers the ladies were underwhelmed to say the least. I think this was the exchange pretty much verbatim:

"Who invented this? It looks like an old man, who still lives with his mum"
"Yeah, and his cat has just died."

But when we got to the answer-giving stage they got into it a lot more. I was very impressed with Sally's answer for Out in the Open, Secret and Stinky: a stash of blue cheese in a hedge. My mum struggled with the pace of it - there's a racing element and it's possible you run out of time - but enjoyed the silliness, which the game actively encourages. It doesn't encourage smuttiness, but I blame the wine.

We played again; I'd won the first game by a point but Sally took the honours in the second.

It was around 11pm now so we bashed out a couple of games of Pairs. "I like this!" my mum exclaimed. Then she kept going bust, often on her second card. "I just want to win!" she said. Then she did win - a round - and immediately lost all interest: "I've done it now! I don't care about the rest"

So Sally and I fought it out and won a game each. And with that, we went to bed.

Cheap hills

Oh, Tuesdays. You wend through our lives like a glittering river through open dales and fens. This week it wended through Joe’s house, with Katy, Adam, Matt, Ian, Sam and myself making up the seven combatants for the night.

The main point of interest at the start were the snacks. I’d brought these new Dill Pickle flavoured Pringles, which were either loved or hated, while Sam broke out the Roast Beef Monster Munch.

By the way, combining the two was strangely underwhelming.

Then Joe brought out some Honey Mustard Broken Pretzels and Adam, not to be left behind, had a packet of Skittles. We need a leaderboard for snacks!

We began with a seven player version of Dice Heist. The official game only goes up to five, but when Sam asked Joe if he had any spare dice, Joe’s slightly offended expression that Sam even had to ask told us that he had. Before too long, we all had a black die each and plentiful supplies of white dice to use as sidekicks.

It works okay as a seven-player. A bit of a gap between goes, but otherwise perfectly serviceable. Mind you, I would say that: Some games and artifacts and the best collection of paintings pushed me into first. Poor old Joe had a hard time stealing anything, ending up with a solitary painting that at least meant he didn’t get the minus four points for worst art collection.

Andrew 18
Adam 14
Katy 14
Sam 8
Matt 5
Ian 3
Joe 0

Next we split into two groups. Joe, Katy, Ian and Sam went for Fools’ Gold, the new push-your-luck worker-placement game that’s taking GNN by storm. Adam, Matt and I went for Kingdom Builder.

Now, each of us have some kind of form on Kingdom Builder. I used to be top of the KB Division in points ratio, but that was a long time ago. Matt’s win ratio is 50% (played four, won twice) and Adam is... well, he’s Adam.

Once again I fell behind when it came to picking up those bonus-move tokens. Adam was quickest off the block to grab them, and they helped him finish off his settlements first and claim a win.

Adam 74
Matt 69
Andrew 51

Fool’s Gold was only halfway through, so we began a game of 7 Wonders to keep ourselves occupied. I found it odd to unbox Joe’s copy 7 Wonders after being so used to Sam’s copy. Where was the molded plastic insert? Why weren’t the cards already sorted for a three-player game? So confusing.

The game itself wasn’t, though. It was as familiar as old socks. I avoided military and went for blue buildings and my lovely 20-point Giza pyramid. It worked.

Andrew 65
Matt 58
Adam 49

At the same time, Fool’s Gold ended. It had certainly seemed like an exciting game, with everyone commiserating with each other about how bad their luck was, not matter if they were in mountains or hills, rivers or lakes.

Sam 35
Joe 29
Ian 23
Katy 23

And with us all back together it was time for Dead Man’s Chest! This game of bluffing is so simple that we keep forgetting the rules. Lower is bad, right? Anyway, I played well. At least, I just passed on Sam’s bid, raising it by one, to Matt who then had to decide what to do. He chose badly, and was out first.

Adam won kudos for getting Katy to lose a gem by bidding “Dead Man.” Your only choice is to challenge or shake and bid Dead Man again, neither of which are very likely to end in success.

That was the only gem she lost, though.

1. Katy
2. Adam
3. Andrew
4. Sam
5. Joe
6. Ian
7. Matt

And finally, it was time for Pairs. It’s been a while since we played it and we initially forgot the Lowest Card Starts rule. We played until 21 and Matt wrapped it up in four rounds, never going bust once.

Matt 23
Sam 21
Katy 13
Adam 11
Joe 10
Andrew 10
Ian 3

And with that, we were finished. Someone spoke about a league at Chance & Counters and also a singles night was mentioned. Joe said “Surely every night is singles night at Chance & Counters” and we all laughed heartily, taking our joie de vivre home with us.

Meanwhile, with one week left, the Division looks like this...

Ian is still top, but I take back my lead on the medal table. Hannah jumps to top in Points Ratio without actually playing since I noticed today that my spreadsheet hadn’t included the scores from A Fake Artist Goes To New York.