New Buildings Fall Down

After last week’s surprise hiatus, with vacations leading to an overall lack of venue and attendees, this week saw GNN back in business. Hannah (sans Adam, who was on a train at the time) hosted and Ian, Matt, Katy, Ben and me were the eager visitors.

With six, there was talk of splitting into two groups of three, and so we perused the games cupboard with this in mind. But I was in the mood for Fauna and, despite Katy’s warnings that Hannah would win and she’d come second, it was brought out as a nice inclusive starter. Katy was especially happy when she realised she was sitting to the left of Hannah, and so could copy her guesses for some easy points.

It had been a long time since I’d played Fauna and I’d forgotten how thinky it can be. Players took long pauses as they tried to remember what they knew about the beluga whale. Various mimes were employed as people tried to work out each animal's length and weight. Ben picked up a pack of cheese puffs and thoughtfully weighed it in his hands wondering how it compared to a muskrat. This lead to a little diversion about Ben’s potential as a new presenter of a populist nature documentary: “... and this bat is almost exactly the same weight as an electric whisk.”

Hannah was kind enough to point out whenever she already knew about an animal so we went on to the next one. I was lucky enough to be starting player with an animal that was found in only one area and had the word “Andes” in its name. Meanwhile, Katy’s prediction was only half correct. Hannah cruised past the eighty-point target with ease while Katy fell from second in a poor last round.

Hannah 95
Andrew 88
Matt 88
Katy 85
Ian 66
Ben 63

After this there was still some talk in the air about dividing into two groups, but someone suggested Bandu and so we stayed as a group of six for another game. Katy went from being delighted at the seating arrangement to being appalled. She was convinced that Hannah was going to find the most difficult piece to give her. And so it was.

(In the later stages) My building stands next to Katy's ruin

Katy crashed out early as she failed on only her third piece – an upturned egg-cup that she should’ve passed on to me, but it never occurred to her. Ian went out next, trying out quite an innocuous piece and dislodging another. After this, we carried on for some time. Matt’s structure was short and squat while Hannah’s was mostly tiny pieces clustered around a central pole.

Matt's still standing while Hannah is out

I had two spheres at the bottom of my structure, but managed to build it so that the upper pieces were all leaning on each other. Ben’s was another series of gravity defying blocks that was eventually topped off with a remarkable split-sphere effect as my attempts at giving him awkward round shapes backfired in a surprisingly artistic manner.

Marvelous

Tension increased as the stakes grew higher and higher. I even refused to breathe in the direction of the table during the later stages and Ian had to mop up his lively, overflowing craft beer a little more gently than he otherwise might have.

Hannah was next to fall, followed by me. The shock waves from my collapsing tower also caused Matt’s and Ben’s tower to fall, giving them a joint win.

1. Ben
1. Matt
2. Andrew
3. Hannah
4. Ian
5. Katy

It was then decided that we should finish with 6Nimmt. Thus, we began as a six and ended as a six. How convivial.

It was a higher scoring game, with all of us sharing the pain over the four rounds. Since there were six, that meant people were at risk right from the very start. And so it was: in rounds one and two Ben got stung both times. Once was sheer bad luck, but the other one was the result of someone playing low and taking a particular card.

Talking of playing low, Katy found herself frustrated at the number of times she played a card lower than any showing, but – she felt – high enough that someone else was bound to play lower. We almost never did, much to our amusement and her despair.

At the end of round three, Ian and Katy were a distant last, but the rest of us were on 35-36-37-37. Could Ben hold on to his lead against such opposition?

Well, it turns out he could. This time it was Matt who found himself on the wrong end of a row of six far too often. Ben’s single point in the last round giving him his first win at the game.

Ben 36
Andrew 43
Hannah 51
Ian 61
Katy 67
Matt 67

And so it ended. Katy said how much she enjoyed it, despite it being perhaps her worst performance in GNN history. A smashing evening, and it bodes well for the return of some of the regulars next week.

We may be one-third of the way through the season, but the Division still seems like it’s in its early stages. Katy still leads, but with a smaller advantage, and Matt has picked up the lead in points ratio.

The lesser spotted Martin

With the usual bloggers unable to make the regular Tuesday games it seemed to fall to me (Ian) to write something and keep track of scores. So here it is; if this entry seems a bit more shambolic than usual, that is why,

Katy, Andy and I arrived at Hannah and Adam's at 7.30, and after the usual discussion about what we to play we decided to start with Celestia. Adam said he hadn't played it before, so Andy explained the simple rules and we prepared to sail off into the sky.

But then there was a knocking at the door, and it was Martin! With a tiny human strapped to his chest, making this baby Effie's first appearance at gamesnight. Martin remarked that somebody had given her first boardgame already.

It was a fairly standard game of Celestia; including a few rounds where our intrepid Captain was defeated by a single chicken. The scores ended up thus:

Adam 61

Ian 55

Katy + Marting 48

Andy 35

Hannah 32

Whilst Martin pondered if he could stay for another game, Effie started to awake, effectively making the decision for him. After bidding her and Martin adieu, we settled on a game of Fauna. Katy remarked that Hannah always wins Fauna, and after a couple of rounds this seemed a likely outcome.

With that in mind, the general strategy seemed to be "see where Hannah plays, then try and go adjacent". One round featured the yellow-spotted rock hyrax, which saw people expend cubes making estimated guesses at it's location; the Rocky Mountains, The Tibetan Plateau and Australia were all chosen, the later possibly because the yellow-spotted rock hyrax's Latin name is the Heterohyrax brucei.

Only when we had depleted our cubes did Hannah start placing her location cubes in the otherwise untouched Eastern Africa locations. She was correct, of course, and as predicted, Hannah won easily:

Hannah 116

Katy 76

Adam and Andy 57

Ian 40

Looking for some quicker games, we settled on Why First? I do enjoy this game, but it's rather silly. Adam took an early lead with 6 points, and Andy and I followed with 1 point each. As you have to come second to win, that meant that Andy and I were winning. But then Katy scored 3 points, putting her in the winning second position going into the final round.

The final score was this:

Ian and Adam 6 points

Katy 3 points

Andy 1 point

Hannah 0 points

But as the points in Why First? don't equate to winning, the final result comes out as this:

1st. Katy 

2nd. Andy  (closest to the winning score)

Joint 3rd. Ian, Adam + Hannah (all equally far away from the winning score)

Still having time for another game, we turned to No Thanks. I have to admit I can't remember much about the game; it was enjoyable as ever but specific details elude me. Coincidentally, I accepted Katy's offer of gin around this time.

I did note down the scores, however:

Katy 31

Andy 41

Hannah 46

Adam 43

Ian 48

After  No Thanks, Katy departed to get the last train home and Hannah retired to bed, leaving me, Adam and Andy to play a quick game of Raj. As with No Thanks, I'm afraid I can't remember the finer details, other than me and Andy picking the same card three  times in a row.

The end result came out as:

Andy 49

Adam 41

Ian 36

Thanks to Adam and Hannah for hosting and thanks to everyone else. I hope this report wasn't too painful to read; hopefully service will be back to normal next week!

Novocon 2015

Friday

As the starlings gather in fields to set of across the continents on their yearly migration, so it is that the GNN faithful gather together on email exchanges, eager to swap city concrete for the feeling of fresh country grass under our feet. Or at least visible through the window.

Sam, Stanley and I set off from Bristol heading south-west to Devon which, apparently, sat under a giant black storm cloud. Day swiftly turned to night as rain fell. The journey was arduous, but not complicated and after a couple of hours, we had arrived in Croyde!

Adam, Hannah, Arthur and Katy were there to meet us with freshly cooked lasagna. And as we ate, Steve, Anja and Luther arrived, followed by Jon. Finally, we were all together so the games could commence!

The first game was Steve’s egg game, in which he had to balance eggs on a shelf in the fridge door, unaware that it would give way any second. It did, with Steve unable to catch them all. In the blink of an eye we went from eighteen eggs down to three. There then came the tricky matter of how to pick up albumen from a kitchen floor. Mopping it up with a sponge? Scooping it up with a spatula? Steve worked hard to clean it up.

The second game was Steve’s beer game, in which he had to pour a drink from his new Old Speckled Hen mini-keg without it suddenly spurting drink everywhere. He lost. More cleaning up.

Steve's beer. Fresh from the mini-keg!

Finally, while Arthur and Luther were being put to bed, we played a real game. You know, one that comes in a box with rules. We chose Forbidden Desert, a nice co-op game to ease everyone into the weekend. Jon, Stanley, Katy, Sam, Adam and myself all tried to find the pieces of the ancient flying machine in the shifting sands of the aforementioned desert. But we couldn’t. We were able to stave off thirst, only to die, buried under piles of sand.

Next, Adam beat Steve at Hive, and Anja joined the group on the Big Table where they broke out Celestia. Sam took out the special action cards, apart from the jet pac and spy-glass, I think. They sped through two games of high drama.

Jon 55
Katy 38
Sam 36
Stanley 30
Anja 29

Then...

Anja 52
Jon 43
Stanley 39
Sam 36
Steve 33

During the second game, Adam beat Katy at Hey, That’s My Fish, 59-38. Then, Adam took over Arthur-duties and Hannah and I did battle in 7 Wonders Duel. I explained the rules to her, and spent most of the game balefully believing she had beaten me easy. But then I picked up a number of guilds in round three to come out an easy winner, 76-51.

By now there was talk of trying something a little more substantial. Anja, Steve and I played Snowdonia. For a change, we tried the Blaenau Ffestiniog variant. This involves the players choosing which end they start from, with the events alternating between ends.

It only added frustration, as best-laid plans were scuppered by the game triggering an event to dig/build/lay tracks in exactly the place we wanted. I was unable to build any station buildings at all. However, we kept our spirits up in these arduous times by singing the hits of Bernard Cribbins. Yes, all three of them.

Steve 72
Anja 52
Andrew 25

While all this fraught contemplation was going on, the other half of the room indulged in light-hearted party games. First, they played Deep Sea Adventure, featuring Katy’s plaintive wail of “but I was being so careful!”

Jon 29
Adam 14
Hannah 13
Katy 0

This was followed by Spyfall, the game of using questions to try and deduce which player is the spy who doesn’t know the secret location. Who won? I’ve no idea, but it ended with Jon coming into the kitchen complaining that he’s always the spy.

This was followed by 6 nimmt.

Katy 23
Adam 26
Sam 27
Hannah 44
Jon 66

Finally for them, after Hannah and Adam retired, they played Raj.

Sam 59
Jon 54
Katy 25

Saturday

The very epicentre of the games weekend, and a whole day of games for all concerned. However, it was a slow start with people arising at different times, such that the thought of gaming was put to one side in preference for getting children to eat breakfast or trying to work out why the wi-fi/playstation2/TV/electric hob/wall socket doesn’t work.

In an attempt at getting us away from all this useless technology, we decided to walk to the nearby beach. Although the forecast was grim, the sun was out and myself, Sam, Stanley, Hannah, Arthur , Jon and Katy all set out defiantly into the buffeting wind.

The only game we played was pooh sticks between Jon, Katy and Stanley, which Jon won with his large chunk of branch beating Katy and Stanley’s twigs. Although we also played the running up and down the sand dunes game, which I was quite bad at and needed Jon to give me a helping hand.

As we were heading home we met Anja, Steve and Luther going the other way. After a brief chat and our friendly advice about which way they should go, we parted ways. We looked back and were impressed that they too were successfully attempting to scale the same huge dune that we had climbed.

We then paused at a local shop to buy pasties (English Breakfast Pasty was a big hit with me) before heading back.

Back at the house, there was still some time before lunch and so - at 11.45 - we began the first game of the day: Celestia!

Katy 52
Stanley 37
Andrew 37
Sam 36
Hannah 28
Jon 20

And this was followed by the serene delights of Takenoko. Hannah was the last to complete any actual cards, and was complaining how badly she was doing. Then she completed three high scoring cards in one turn and the game changed in her favour. Jon cursed his luck at only ever picking up green tiles (ironically, the colour that I wanted but never got). Katy was amazed at how badly she did at a game that she usually won. They seemed to find it a uniquely stressful game.

Hannah 38
Andrew 26
Jon 21
Katy 14

After Sam’s lunch of stuffed peppers, there was a kickabout in the garden for the more energetic of us, while others preferred to watch languidly from the sofa.

But soon we were back to the board games, and Hannah, Katy and Anja played Fauna while us guys hung out in the kitchen and played the slightly more boyish game of Cube Quest. We tried to complete a full league contain six players: Stanley, Adam, Andrew, Steve, Jon and Sam. We didn’t really get close but at the end the mini league looked like:

Sam 2 wins out of 2
Andrew 2 wins out of 3
Adam 2 wins out of 3
Steve 2 wins out of 3
Jon 1 wins out of 3
Stanley 0 wins out of 4

As grown men, should we be ashamed at how seriously we took our games against Stanley? Perhaps.

Cube Quest. A serious business.

Notable victories were Adam’s win over me, in which he picked out my king from a crowd of cubes. Also when Jon beat Stanley, his winning flick was so strong, the king flew off the table and hit Sam in the face.

Meanwhile, Fauna ended

Hannah 130
Katy 85
Anja 72

Hannah put down her comfortable win due to the fact that three animals came up that she already knew about, and she seemed somehow disappointed that she didn’t win by guessing. Surely rewarding knowledge is the whole point of the game.

Then I taught Adam how to play 7 Wonders Duel, and I didn’t patronise him by going easy on him just because it was his first go. I won 83-53. Meanwhile, Katy did not enjoy her introduction to Chocolatl, giving Dirk control of her game halfway through.

Sam 56
Steve 43
Hannah 43
Anja 33
Katy/Dirk 13

Then Steve and Anja broke away to prepare food, while Katy, Sam, Jon, Adam and me played a rousing game of Mystery at the Abbey. Adam found it hard going and, at two hours, it did last longer than I expected. Jon got a free revelation (ie, didn’t lose you points at the end of the game) and seemingly used it to confuse us, saying the murderer was a Franciscan, when it turned out to be a Templar. I successfully got the murderer, so I was happy at least. I don’t think Adam was impressed by how low-scoring a game it was for so much effort.

Andrew 2
Katy 2
Adam 2
Sam 0
Jon 0

Finally, I tried to teach Matcha to Adam, but the rule book text was too small and my brain couldn’t cope, and food was imminent. I apologised and gave up.

After a hearty feast of frittata, salad and something else I can’t recall, six of us played Midnight Party while the toddlers were being put to bed since this would be our last chance this evening to shout and scream.

Stanley 22
Katy 25
Steve 25
Andrew 27
Sam 34
Jon 44

Then Adam beat me twice on Hive, using the same tactic twice. Grr. Meanwhile, Jon introduced Hannah, Katy and Steve to Waggle Dance, another game of considerable length and low scores:

Jon 5 honey
Hannah 4 plus 5 nectar
Katy 4 plus 3
Steve 3

And Adam, Anja, Sam and me played a couple of games of No Thanks in which those who gambled on the high cards were richly rewarded for their bravery.

Sam 11 (with a run from 35-29)
Anja 15
Andrew 19
Adam 43

And then...

Anja 5 (with a run from 32-26)
Sam 19
Andrew 20
Adam 28

By now it was just past nine o’clock and anyone who wanted to play a long game needed to make a decision and convince others soon. Jon persuaded Adam and I to play Power grid with the promise of robots. Steve and Anja felt their chances of playing Wallenstein slipping away, as they agreed to an evening of short, fun games which would give Hannah the chance to bow out early if needed.

They played Celestia, the hit of the weekend.

Sam 51
Katy 43
Steve 34
Hannah 25
Anja 22

Then Bandu:

1. Steve
2. Anja
3. Hannah
4. Katy
5. Sam

And then, after a few retirements, Anja and Sam played a couple of games of Matcha, winning one game each.

On Power Grid, meanwhile, Adam played like a pro, quickly moving to trap Jon and me into a corner of the map. The robot, meanwhile, was actually a cardboard cut-out made up of several pieces with rules that the robot always obeys when it’s his turn. You can put this robot together from a wide selection, meaning it will almost never play the same way twice.

Anyway, there were a couple of hairy moments when the robot was in second place. The honour of the whole human race was at stake here. In the end, Adamn had such a good start that he could barely lose, even though Jon said Adam had made a big mistake in one of the closing rounds and might have ruined his chances. I hadn’t noticed anything.

Adam 17 cities
Jon 15
Andrew 14
Robot 13

And, with the time at midnight, the day was finally over. Phew.

Sunday

And, as we all know, after Saturday came Sunday. Known for its sleepy slow awakenings and quiet gentle breakfasts. Unless you’re us, in which case it involves a massive space epic. I mean Eclipse, of course, and because Sam, Stanley and I were scheduled to head home mid-afternoon, we pushed for a meaty epic before lunch. Railways of the World was mooted until a thirst for new rules and sci-fi adventures won the debate and Eclipse was set up.

Sam talked us (Jon, Stanley, Adam and myself) through the rules, with Adam referring to the rules throughout, much to everyone’s dismay. Indeed, he found a couple of rule clarifications which would have helped his military plans if he’d known about them. This, at least, counts as mitigating circumstances regarding his final placing.

We played a truncated game, since (lunch) time was pressing. When round six ended, we finished with the scores at:

Jon 25
Stanley 22
Andrew 19
Sam 18
Adam 17

After this, while I made pizzas Steve and Anja played two games of Matcha, winning one each while Jon, Adam, Katy, Stanley and Sam played football. This was followed by a swift one-round blast of Raj for some of the mud-crusted footballers.

Stanley 20
Adam 12
Sam 8

Then at around three o'clock, Sam, Stanley and I set off back to Bristol, leaving the rest to play the “Five adults with child care duties decide what to play next” game.

Adam emailed me with scores and a little description of the final games of the weekend. Adam's home made Settlers of Catan finally got an airing. He reports...

Settlers:
Katie 10
Hannah 7
Adam 6
Jon 5

Katie got a strong position picking on the turn and ended up getting 5 wheat everytime 9 was rolled. Hannah was Close behind while John and I grumbled and stumbled in soundly beaten. Don't let the scores fool you into thinking it was close...

Waggle dance
Anja 5 honey, fewest dice
Steve 5 honey, next fewest dice
Katie 5 honey, more nectar
Hannah 5 honey, dead weight

7wonders duel:
Katy 74
Hannah 68

Wallenstein:
Anja 62
Adam 52
Steve 47

Steve was unceremoniously squashed between Anja and I. Meanwhile she and I danced around cagily loading more and more troops into Sachsen until Anja finally struck in the second last round, taking one territory and reducing another to one cube. That victory proved decisive as I collapsed to farmer revolts in the second winter and we were definitely finished by midnight...

- - - - - -

Thanks Adam. All that remains is the division. Well done, Drs Katy and Anja. Looks like Anja was right to insist on that game of Wallenstein after all.

 And, since we played quite a lot of two player games, I made a division for those games too.

Thanks, everyone. A lovely weekend and nice to get some epics onto the table. It'll be a long time until we have a table large enough to host five-player Eclipse.

Wailways

This week Adam and Hannah offered to host games night. And then they forgot what day it was until Martin knocked on the door, eager for games.

This week, as is usual in the time of summer holidays, attendance was sparce, with just six of us. The two hosts, Martin, Ian, Katy and myself. We began with a rousing game of Fauna, with Katy happily reminding everyone that she recently came second in Fauna to someone from the BBC Nature Unit.

We began and I was a little shocked to see that such a fun, family game should have tactics, with the more experienced players guessing areas or dimensions according to whichever scored the most. What’s wrong with just guessing like a blind fool?

Anyway, we got a bit lucky with the animal names, with the American Black Bear and the New Zealand Sea Lion appearing, as well as references to cotton and Java in other names. Adam had a poor game until the final round when he scored more points than he had in all the previous rounds put together. Katy repeated her previous form by coming second again. This time to Martin. Somehow, she didn’t seem as pleased.

If it has 'Cotton' in its name, it must be around here somewhere.

Martin 91
Katy 83
Hannah 67
Ian 56
Andrew 50
Adam 40

Then we split into two. Railways of the World was a strong favourite but a six-player game would have been far too long, so a suitable alternative was debated. In the end, Ra was chosen and Ian, Katy and Martin decamped into the front room to play. Meanwhile, Hannah, Adam and I set up Railways of the World while little baby Arthur decided that only losers snooze, and kept waking up and needing attention.

Eventually, he got off to sleep and we began while Ra was midway through its second epoch. I was lucky. While Adam and Hannah were distracted by their charming baby boy, I got a long look at the board set-up. During most of the game, I monopolised the North-East of the board and my San Antonio Hotel card got me a whole bunch of points throughout the game. Adam started in Mexico City, with its glut of red cubes and Hannah went for Guadalajara.

In the other room, Ra came to an end, and what a close game it was:

Martin 59
Ian 57
Katy 43

However, they weren’t finished with pyramids. Oh, no. They began a game of Zendo, the game of doing Zen, I suppose. They spread out the multicoloured pyramids on the multicoloured tablecloth, which probably made the game a little bit harder.

Back in the good old US, Adam had the speed bonus and the four-colour bonus, but Hannah and I were both lucky enough to have a delivery bounty in our neighbourhood. At one point Adam linked his network to Hannah’s. When she then didn’t move a particular cube at risk, he suggested she might want to rethink her move. She did and shipped the cube for points, wondering out loud why Adam built the track and then didn’t take advantage of it. I suggested it might be love.

Adam’s good deed went unrewarded, however. Late in the game, Hannah decided to urbanise a grey city, and put down a black city right in the path that Adam wanted to use to ship a black cube. Adam’s first game on his own set of RotW was not going well. We ended at 10.40.

My match-winning move

Andrew 71
Hannah 49
Adam 45

Don’t know what happened with Zendo, since it was non-leaderboard. I think Martin won. At least, he said no one guessed his rule.

And with that, we were off. Another evening of high tension and crumbly shortcake biscuits.

Meanwhile, Katy complained that the division was making her too competitive and she was obsessing over it, so maybe it could go back to a monthly thing. But Katy can rest assured she is no longer bottom of the table.

Fauna-cation

Tonight was the last night of the season. Six of us clustered around Adam and Hannah’s table (me, Adam, Hannah, Sam, Katy and Joe) before we realised there was no appetite for the suggestion of six-player Railways Of The World.

Instead we began by comparing our various Christmases. Adam and Hannah had to host a large number of family members who came and went. Katy spent five days with her parents, bookended by two days visiting friends. Sam several spent days with two different branches of his family tree. My Christmas was done and dusted in a single day, as I visited cousins for a meal and that was it. Joe arrived late, and when he asked how everyone’s Christmas was he was told that we’d already done that conversation. He said he’d wait for the blog.

As for the games, once Joe had arrived, we began with the slightly less-thinky Fauna (not counting the aborted game of Linkee was began while we waited for Joe). Fauna was all about Joe and Katy battling for top spot. In the end, Joe won for hedging his bets over some obscure animal that no one’s ever heard of anyway.

Joe 83
Katy 78
Sam 68
Hannah 57
Adam 48
Andrew 39

Then we split into two groups. Alas, we did not play two three-player games of Railways Of The World (since Joe brought his copy to go with Adam’s copy). Instead, Sam tempted Adam and Hannah with the new exotic delights of The Castles of Mad King Ludwig. They sprawled out luxuriously on the floor of the front room (the usual table was in the shed, apparently).

Joe, Katy and I played Ra. Joe explained the rules to Katy since it was her first time playing. Like a gentleman, he kept offering advice to her while we played, right up to the end of round two when I had to ask him to stop, since he was giving advice to someone who clearly already knew what they were doing.

Despite my wise choice to bow out of the battle of the Pharaohs (which ended something like 8-7), I had a barren second round where I lost points, losing precious ground. My Nile and Buildings were not nearly enough to combat Joe and Katy’s scoring on civilisations most rounds.

Katy 51
Joe 48
Andrew 29

Since them in the front room were still building castles, we three squeezed in a quick game of For Sale. This was also new to Katy but that doesn’t stop her from winning most games she’s never played before. And so it was again.

Katy 71
Andrew 62
Joe 60

And by now the castle builders in the next room had finished, with the scores at

Adam 106
Hannah 79
Sam 68

And we come to the end of the season! Katy takes top spot on the form table, just sneaking the win away from the absent Martin. Congratulations!

						Points
Katy	1	1	2	2	1	7
Martin	1	2	1	2	2	8
Jon	2	2	2	2	1	9
Matt	2	1	3	4	1	11
Andy	2	3	1	3	2	11
Joe	3	2	1	3	2	11
Anja	2	2	1	1	5	11
Ian	1	4	2	4	1	12
Hannah	2	4	3	3	2	12
Adam	1	5	3	2	2	13
Chris	2	5	1	1	4	13
Andrew	2	3	6	2	1	14
Sam	3	3	3	2	4	15
Steve	3	3	3	5	1	15
Stanley	3	2	4	1	5	15

Meanwhile, on the Division, Sam wins on Points and the Medal Table and Anja wins on Points Ratio. Congratulations to them too!

And before I forget, this is the Division for two-player game for the season.

Well done to Sam and Joe, our two two-player champions.

And that's all for the season! All that's left is to put together the end-of-year review in statistics, which should be up later. Then, it's a bit of rest and relaxation in the pause before the start of the next season.

Which begins on Friday!

Four Tribes. Five Days.

Five days in Dorset with four families - Joe's, mine (Sam), our friends Tom and Hannah (plus Theo and Esme) and Alison and Simon (plus Elliott). It's something of a tradition now, as this was the third year running we piled into a rambling 1930's house and indulged ourselves in fine wine, fine food and of course, games.

It's only really myself and Joe who are committed gamers, but Tom, Simon and most of the children are at least intrigued, and often keen. It was amazing to watch how young children will pick up a game very quickly, whereas some of the adults will start to glaze over, defeated, as soon as there is a third or fourth rule.

I'd brought along a few games and Joe a few more. We both had a new purchase with us - Istanbul for me, and Machi Koro for Joe. Both were big hits.

Image courtesy JackyTheRipper

Machi Koro is a game of dice and cards. Thematically each player is building a city, and they grow from their initial two cards (Bakery and Wheat Field)) by generating money to build more buildings (or other things, such as the curiously un-urban Forest), which beget more money, which beget more buildings and so on. The first player to build four specific landmark buildings - Radio Tower, Train Staion, etc - wins. Personally I didn't get on with it. A series of rubbish dice rolls and consistent strategic ineptitude on my part in three attempts all ended with me soundly beaten and somewhat frustrated. But I was the sole voice of dissent, as Joe, Tom, Simon and the kids played it serially over the five days to much appreciation. I think Tom usually won.

Istanbul won the Kennerspiel des Jahres, the award for the "Gamers Game" this year, apparently seeing off Concordia in doing so. I don't know if it's the better game, but it's certainly more accessible. It's slightly reminiscent of Five Tribes in layout and movement, but any similarities end there, as the game moves much faster and finishes much quicker. Each player is trying to be the first to get a number of gems - 6 in a two-player game, 5 with more. Everyone has a merchant they move around the variable set-up board, dropping off assistants to do tasks in worker-placement style. You can try and generate money and buy gems, or pay for them with resources. Getting certain in-game bonuses or extras will also get you a gem. Key to the game is movement - you can only do the action of a building if you're dropping off or picking up an assistant, so you can't go scattergun all over the place.   I played this as a two, three, and four player and enjoyed them all - admittedly I won them all, but Tom never played it.

 Image courtesy Kenneth Hiew

Cube Quest was also a big hit, particularly with the kids. Big Joe and I spent a good deal of our time searching for cubes behind or under furniture as the flicking velocity increased. It's a great leveller, Cube Quest. I won a few games - but I also lost to both Little Joe and Stanley, and Stanley defeated Tom (Tom!) with possibly the Flick of the Trip - a two-mat sniper-style hit on Tom's King.

Little Joe prepares for battle

Possibly the biggest hit, though, was a variation on many party games which Alison introduced: one by one the adults chose a book and read out the title, and blurb on the back. Then everyone wrote their own opening line to the book in question, and they were all (including the real one) read out. Points are awarded for a correct guess and for anyone who guesses your own faked effort. I won this game narrowly but it helped me massively that, being only fairly drunk in a room full of paralytic people - courtesy of some extremely strong margaritas - I had my wits reasonably about me. I have never seen Joe as drunk as during this game. I'm not sure I've seen anyone as drunk as Joe during this game. He fell off his chair three times, went outside for a mysterious 'walk', and fell asleep upstairs during the last round whilst the children - still up to witness events - regarded us all with appalled, yet justified, disdain. The game definitely benefited from our inebriation though, as well as an impressive collection of 1950's literature on the house's bookshelves - titles including The Swish of the Curtain, The Houses Inbetween, Destination Unknown - and best of all Gently Sahib, the story of a tiger killing someone in a sleepy England town and poor old Detective Gently assigned to investigate. Our own investigation of the novel itself featured a fleeting appearance of Sausages and Mash, the game of reading out sections of a book and turning any words beginning with S or M into 'sausages' or 'mash' - or variations thereof. No-one - or maybe everyone - is a winner with this venture.

Our rival to Simonen

Other games were played - Dominion, Fauna, Camel Up and X-wing (basic version). The latter three were curiously flat: Charlotte admitted Fauna had never lived up to its first play when there was hysteria over the Bushy-Tailed Gerd. Though we played to the end nobody requested it again. I had a disaster, finishing stony last and embarrassing myself by thinking Balearic music came from Central America. Music and geography - not my specialisms. I tended to focus on the map and not guess at length and weight that much. Personally I really struggle with weight once you get beyond a pound - I've realised I measure weight in terms of cheese.

Dominion, and Elliott's leg.

But Fauna was probably the success of the non-successes; Camel Up was okay but it lacks the immediacy of something like Cube Quest, and actually is a tiny bit fiddly rules-wise for something that plays in 20 minutes. X-Wing I really need to learn the proper rules to, as the base game - played by Elliott and I - is fairly dull. I'll bring it along to GNN and let Matt teach me! Trans Europa also saw the table at one point early on, and the eerily prescient event of Tom winning happened. I think apart from Fauna and Cube Quest he may have won every game he played.

Take It Easy got played a couple of times, with Joe beating me in a two player, and I'm not sure who won the group game. Probably Tom. Wizard also made the table, although I only witnessed a small part of the game which was Theo going for every single trick in two subsequent rounds. Tom won.

Simon won Dominion (Tom didn't play) in a tie-breaker with Elliott, who had a bit of a crazy week overall. On the second night he fell out of a tree and broke his leg in two places. He spent a night in hospital and then returned with his limb in a cast and recommenced gaming, albeit more statically before. As someone who can generate a few days' worth of complaint about a split nail, I take my hat off to his calm stoicism throughout the whole episode. He also - pre-break - beat myself and Theo at Raj, when I picked up two minus cards thanks to the boys tying on lower bids. A late surge when the boys were left with low-numbered cards was not enough to catch up. Oh Raj! Why dost thou forsake me so?

There were also several games of Top Trumps, both Stan's several-years-out-of-date European Football Stars deck (Tom beat Stan) and Joe's Transformers version. I now know that Optimus Prime travelled to Earth after thousands of years in search of the Allspark, only to find his nemesis Megatron awaiting him. Poor Optimus.

Vegas, and the crossword

We didn't spend the whole time at the table. There was walking and beaches and Lyme Regis and football and cycling and even mushroom foraging, leading to the discovery of the Shaggy Ink Cap, which is non-poisonous unless eaten with alcohol, or even (apparently) combined with potent aftershave. Simon already knew this, as he recounted the fact that Georgians tried to cure alcoholism by feeding the afflicted with the shaggy ink cap, and thus supplying them with non-fatal yet lingering hangover symptoms.

We didn't need mushrooms for that.

Shaggy

On the last night we played (Las) Vegas (Tom won) early in the evening, and Joe's plan for Lords of Vegas as the main event were stymied by lengthy meals and lengthier chat, including Joe himself coming up with the tagline for the relaunched Soda Stream: Force Air Through It! He did still try and push Lords of Vegas through, but at 10.40pm, my shying away from it dissuaded others. Sorry Joe. Instead they played Long Shot, the game of betting on plastic horses. In fact that's what he, Tom and Simon are playing now as I write. All that remains to be seen is who finishes second behind Tom. I'm going to bed.