That was the week(end) that was

I was the first to arrive at Sam’s at 2.00. Sam and his kids, Stanley and Joe, were there and we were just about to play Indigo when Adam and Hannah (and baby Arthur) and also Martin and then Ian arrived. Since there were enough of us, we split into two groups. Martin, Hannah and I set up Greenland in the kitchen, while in the living room Ian, Stanley, Sam and Adam played Hyperborea with its custom made box dividers.

I was a little surprised when Hannah agreed to play, and also a little relieved. I thought that Greenland might be one of those games that you always think “I must play that again soon,” and then it turns into a game that you don’t really want to play because it’ll need a rule refresher. Like poor old Canalmania, which was vetoed on Friday for just that reason.

Greenland was kinder to us this time, with most of the cards staying on the warm side of the board. Hannah had plenty of energy and I was slowly picking up VPs for cards. But Martin, who has played it several times since his last GNN jaunt, was stashing away the iron like he was about to build a bridge with it. Then, in the penultimate round, he converted to monotheism, and was able to convert me, too, leaving all my victory points worthless as forgotten relics of a bygone age. Hannah, though, resisted conversion and stayed Pagan until the end.

Martin 47
Hannah 19
Andrew 16

One of the more one-sided games of the evening.

Hyperborea, which was played out to the backdrop of School of Rock, ended:

Ian 44
Stanley 36
Sam 34
Adam 31

Then there was a break for food. All of us, except Ian and Martin, set off to the local chippy for chips. While we were away, Martin beat Ian at Biblios and Red 7. I was the first to finish my small portion of chips and a pickled egg, so I joined in a game of Red 7 which ended early, with the scores at Martin 18, Andrew 14, Ian 0.

Next was a period of confusion as babies were looked after and children put to bed. During this time, Jon arrived and his first game was new to him: Raj. Easy to explain, even with the closing scenes of School of Rock in the background. He seemed to pick it up well, going from third to first in a strong final round. Almost as impressive was Ian’s ability at attracting red tiles.

Jon 47
Sam 43
Andrew 36
Martin 14
Ian -2

Arthur was by now fed, and Adam took him upstairs to get him to sleep. Hannah, Jon and I played the new slimline Take It Easy. It was a quick sudden-death one-round game and, once again, Jon did well at a game he’d never played before.

Jon 149
Hannah 105
Andrew 77

And this was Hannah’s fifth second place in a row! Congratulations to her on a rare Perfect Ten!

After this, Sam, Jon, Joe and Stanley played Galaxy Trucker. Joe didn’t last the distance, going to bed halfway through.

Sam 89
Jon 65
Stanley 55

During this, Hannah and Steve played Hey That’s My Fish twice. First time was a 51-46 win to Hannah, and the second more aggressive game ended 50-50. Hey That’s My Fish may look like a kid’s game, but it can be brutal.

Adam suggested playing Railways of the World. I was keen but we needed to start immediately if we were to fit it in before Arthur’s inevitable re-awakening which was to be Adam and Hannah’s cue to head back home. Since it had to be short, we went for a four-player game on the Mexico map. This would be cramped enough, but we made it worse by all clustering around Mexico City.

One thing was clear from our game: no one had the baron that rewarded least bonds. I think the most money that anyone made in a round was a mere $12,000. Martin and Adam made most of the running, but Martin pulled away with a convenient bonus for delivering to Culican. I didn’t really get going, but I did finish the Vera Cruz to Santiago link via the longest possible route. Ian spent little and used his trading depots to fullest effect.

Martin 44
Adam 33
Ian 28
Andrew 26

In the other room, Jon was introducing Hannah and the newly arrived Steve to the fun game of bee communication (I assume) Waggle Dance. It ended:

Steve 5 honey, 9 bees
Jon 5 honey, 10 bees
Hannah 3 honey

In the gap between RotW ending and Waggle Dance ending, Sam came down from putting Stanley to bed, and we engaged in a quick league of Cube Quest. It had been a while, and it was well overdue a return to the table. Everyone played two games, and after a lot of laughter and amazement at Adam’s flicking power (one cube went out of the room and was still spinning in the hallway for several seconds before it finally came to rest) Sam took the crown:

Adam's destructive power in full effect

Sam won 2 games
Andrew 1
Ian 1
Adam 1
Martin 0

Then, we were all together. We decided on one last quick game before Adam and Hannah left and we chose Tsuro! For eight players! This could really hurt someone on the form table.

Steve started badly and ended quickly: the only tile he played left him at the mercy of Ian, who promptly sent him off the board. Possibly a record for quickest defeat in Tsuro. On my last tile, I was stuck with a symmetrical tile, so it didn’t matter what I did, I was at the mercy of those around me. Annoyingly, Ian put himself on a collision course with me, while Martin was sent on a wild looping course to safety. How annoying. It was enough to assure him of first place as everyone else crashed out of that round, too.

Near the end of Tsuro. Steve's path to oblivion is highlighted, bottom left.

1. Martin
2. Sam
2. Jon
3. Hannah
3. Adam
4. Ian
4. Andrew
5. Steve

Adam and Hannah said their goodbyes, and we split into two groups of three. Ian, Steve and Sam played Istanbul and Jon, Martin and I played Impulse. There were simultaneous rules explanations as the two games were new to Steve and Jon.

Twin rules recitals

Jon seemed to get the hang of things very quickly, as the game progressed in a very unusual manner: Jon and I sped into a lead, with Martin trailing. His part of the sector was full of Build commands, so he soon amassed a huge flotilla of transporters that couldn’t move very far. Jon and I sent our cruisers over, and this was the most violent game of Impulse that I’ve been involved in, with some last-ditch defending by Martin.

Finally, I was on 13 points and Jon was on 14. I was sure he could finish the game with just one more turn, so I worked out how to get seven points in one move and end the game. Phew! My first win, and it felt good. Jon cursed that he knew he should’ve started attacking me before. The only reason he hadn’t was that I’d gone to the toilet, and he wanted to keep the game moving.

Andrew 20
Jon 14
Martin 12

Over on Istanbul, their first game ended

Sam 5
Ian 4
Steve 2

And since we were still knee-deep in space battles, they decided to play another round. I was able to watch the final exciting stages, with all three players on four gems. Sam had lots of money, but he was already on the gemstone dealer square. It looked as if Steve and Ian still had time to get a final gem. But no! Sam had a “move zero” card! He could activate the dealer again and he won the game!

Sam 5
Ian 4 plus 24 money
Steve 4 plus 17 money

After this, Jon and Martin set off home, but the fun wasn’t over yet! Not at all. Us three remaining gamers poured ourselves more whiskey and set off on a Timeline. Considering how drunk we all were, we began like geniuses: the first three cards of each player were correct. But I was able, somehow, to finish the game without a single mistake! If only I could remember what cards I had and where I put them.

Andrew 0 cards left
Ian 1 card left
Sam 2

And with the clock telling us it was 12.20am, we then began the last game of the weekend, Love Letter. I need to play more games when very drunk, because I won with a couple of bulls-eye guesses of Sam’s card after he’d looked at my hand and was clearly about to dump me out of the game.

Andrew 3
Ian 1
Sam 0

And then, finally, we wobbled off into the night. Our craving for derring-do and strategic battles completely satisfied. Until Tuesday, that is.

And so now the Form Table looks like this...

						Points
Andrew	1	1	1	4	2	9
Katy	1	3	2	2	1	9
Jon	2	2	2	2	1	9
Andy	2	2	3	2	1	10
Sam	3	3	1	1	2	10
Matt	4	1	2	1	2	10
Ian	2	2	2	2	4	12
Martin	3	1	3	1	4	12
Hannah	3	3	2	2	2	12
Chris	2	5	1	1	4	13
Joe	3	4	2	3	2	14
Anja	2	1	1	5	5	14
Adam	3	2	2	4	4	15
Steve	3	3	5	1	3	15
Stanley	3	2	4	1	5	15

I’m top, holding off Katy and Jon on the “best most recent” rule. But what about the division, I hear you cry. Well, this is the division for just this weekend...

Sam wins on points, Katy wins on points ratio, and I take the medal table.

And since it’s the end of the month, it’s time for the monthly division, with the weekend included...

Sam heads on points again, but Martin currently leads the pack on the medal table and points ratio. Only one month to go!

Don’t Take No (ko) For An Answer

I arrived at tonight’s games night with a troubled air. In the last GNN bulletin, I scored my fourth win in a row. Thus the first game tonight was to be pivotal. I stayed quiet, hoping that no one would remember. There were five of us at first at Adam’s house. Adam (his first time back after paternity leave), Ian, Matt, Sam and myself.

7 Wonders was chosen. I thought “This is possible.”

I was given the Mausoleum at Harlicarnassus. This one gives the player the chance to build a discarded building for free when they complete a part of their wonder. A tricky one, easy to get wrong. But play it right, and it’s pretty powerful.

The game was new to Ian and Matt, and Sam explained the rules to them. Considering it was their first time, they did pretty well. They focused on armies, facing off over a steadily increasing pile of blood red cards. Adam went for sciences but found that he couldn’t build his science-friendly wonder because of a lack of wood.

I kept my wonder unbuilt until the very end of the second round, when I thought there may be some decent buildings in the discard pile. And then in round three, I was able to build three guilds and a last minute army (to stop Adam’s sudden conversion from non-violent research to blood-thirsty warlord. No doubt driven to violence by the lack of wood) to assure a comfortable victory and my very own Perfect Five!

Andrew 62
Sam 50
Matt 49
Adam 45
Ian 35

						Points
Andrew	1	1	1	1	1	5
Sam	2	1	3	1	3	10
Joe	2	2	2	3	3	10
Martin	4	2	2	1	2	11
Matt	3	1	4	1	1	10
Ian	5	3	3	2	3	16
Adam	4	5	5	5	5	23

After this hands were shaken, celebratory texts were sent out, and I could finally relax as I basked in the glory of only the second ever perfect five!

Then Hannah came down from putting their baby to bed, and we split into two groups of three. I found the Japanese stylings of Takenoko (which I guess is 竹の子, Child of Bamboo EDIT: I was too literal. It means Bamboo Sprout) irresistible and so Adam and Matt joined me in the front room, while Sam, Ian and Hannah chose Concordia.

Takenoko is a lovely game to look at, with tiny but perfectly formed Panda and Gardner pieces to move around. The rules are simple: you have two actions and a random action decided by a die each move. The aim is to score points by achieving particular formations of tiles (coloured pink, green and yellow) on the table, or particular combinations of bamboo that the panda has eaten, or particular heights of bamboo that the gardener has grown. You find out these criteria according to cards dealt to you at the start of the game, but you can pick up more cards as you go.

The first player to successfully complete eight (me) gets a bonus of two points, and the other players get one more go to try to finish what they can.

Andrew 38
Adam 35
Matt 34

And I’d won my sixth game in a row! An occasion so rare, that it doesn’t even have a name! The Splendid Six, perhaps? Although the Smug Six might have been a more accurate description of my attitude once the scores had been added up.

We’d finished but Concordia was still in full swing. When I went in to check, Ian had France all to himself, and there was still a largeish pile of cards to be bought. We went back into the front room and decided on Galaxy Truckers: a game that Matt actually owned but hadn’t played yet.

Adam explained the rules to him, but it is simply a game about a bunch of unlucky jigsaw puzzles. Once put together, they are beaten up by cards and dice. My fate was sealed in round two: I had looked at the cards beforehand, and had planned accordingly. But a mistake in my ship meant that one of lasers fell off immediately, and before long a stray meteorite had removed a second, leaving me at the mercy of the same pirates and slavers I’d seen earlier and had been so confident of beating. Instead I was desperately trying to slow my ship down, and let Adam go first. Cowardly, but necessary.

But my shoddy engineering left me in a distant second, my dreams of a seventh win in tatters. Adam added insult to injury by hitting three figures.

Adam 100
Andrew 47
Matt 35

The last round of Galaxy Truckers was played with an audience, as Concordia had ended and been packed away, so the three of them watched us rush through our final round of meteorites after meteorites. Adam remembered a rule that allows sideways facing lasers to shoot either side of their level, but he described it so badly that no one believed him. In the end, he found it in the rule book, allowing him to reinstate his previously destroyed engine.

But as for Concordia, Ian's Francophile approach did not pay dividends. Sam said that if Hannah had been fully up to speed on the tactics, she would have won. Hannah expressed surprise at how easily Sam had spread his influence across the map. He explained that he’d just moved around a lot. Ah, such depth.

Sam 155
Hannah 144
Ian 117

All of which leaves me at the top of the form table, but more importantly, it welcomes two familiar faces back to the world of games. Cross fingers that they can come again soon.

						Points
Andrew	2	1	1	1	1	6
Sam	1	2	1	3	1	8
Joe	2	2	2	3	3	10
Martin	4	2	2	1	2	11
Matt	3	3	3	1	4	14
Ian	3	5	3	3	2	16
Adam	1	2	4	5	5	17
Hannah	2	5	5	5	5	22

12 Games of Christmas

This Christmas was the first Yuletide under our roof where it felt like actual activities substantially outweighed behavior-management. Stanley and (Little) Joe continue to have their moments of course, but their evolution from meeple-scattering tots to brow-furrowing AP merchants has taken a giant step forward.

As well as the savage violence of the allegedly infant-friendly The Hobbit we've managed to get several other games on the table. During the Morrison Christmas (23rd) Stanley, my mum and I played Love Letter. My mum displayed an impressive range of table manipulation, and though as much of it was directed at a 6-year-old to be fair she did enough to win. It's always the quiet ones, isn't it?

On Christmas Day Stanley and I played Lords of Waterdeep for the first time. And while some of the subtler tactics (or screwage) were beyond him, he clicked into the quest-fulfilling immediately and whilst I stagnated at the start, shot off along the score track. I never recovered:

Stanley 104

Sam 99

Then whilst Stan was off playing his drum kit Joe and I played a round of Galaxy Trucker. Joe beat me (though I did help him build his ship, so, y'know) and then we set about building the ideal third-round ship together:

only thing is should there be lasers pointing sideways on those horizontal sevens?

On the 27th Sally's family arrived en masse and what brother-in-law Matt and I have christened "The Chatothon" commenced. As relative light-weights in that department we managed to sneak in a couple of games of Biblios. Despite having never played it before Matt wiped the floor with me, chalking up what I think is a maximum win at 15-3 in his favour. Obviously I wasn't going to let that stand, and beat him in the return 9-5.

And several times Joe has requested Sumeria. We're playing it more or less correctly; on everyone's turn they add a trader to the land of Sumer, boosting that particular region; which means it moves to the left (or "up") in that row of region cards you see beneath the board. So throughout these regions are jostling for position. At certain stages of the game the top three regions reward those with a presence in them with some goods. And at the end of the game players score the amount of goods they have (any particular colour is squared, so 3 blue goods tiles gets you 9 points whereas 1 goods cube of green, blue and yellow would only get you three points)

Joe and I have played together; we've played with Stanley, and we've played with Stanley and Sally. I've won all these games, but losing doesn't affect Joe - he just announces that he won anyway. 

It's good fun - and as with Waterdeep, Stan has cottoned on to it - when all four of us played last night, the scores were:

Sam 32

Stan 22

Joe 1

Sally 1

We've also played Old MacDonald Lotto, Plop Trumps (don't ask) and a number of games of Pitch Car, which Joe has a bit of a knack for, beating me and Stan. Occasionally I think 'Oh I'll start taking this seriously' and promptly flick my car off the track...

Rainy Day Games

On a wet Sunday there wasn't much to do in the house. Having exhausted a few appealing options (Lego, books, squabbling) the three boys in the house decided to break out the games.

The final front room

First to the table was Galaxy Trucker. Aside from the timer the boys are now at the stage where they can play this - Stanley completely independently; Joe given some assistance at the build stage. As a result of this assistance Joe always finished his ship-building first, which was to serve him well in a decidedly peaceful universe. I talk them through the cards and while the finer details are still hazy the gist of it - grab cargo, avoid attacks, arrive in first if possible - is pretty much there. However Stan's admirable independence in building his own ship meant he always travelled at the back; and the way the cards came out favoured the front runner. We played all three rounds and Stan and I were soundly beaten by Joe, despite him spending much of round three reviewing proceedings from a static piggy-back position (my back):

Joe 88
Sam 63
Stanley 60

Next up was String Railways. This was a bit of an impulse by after a first-play impression - I thinnk it's not been out of the box much since. Not enough for me to be fully cognizant of the rules anyway - we did a sort of basic version which Stanley won by a significant margin:

Stanley 32
Joe 23
Sam 20

It's impossible to get a serious photo. Impossible.

Finally with the boys really getting into the gaming spirit we brought out Portobello Market. This s a bit of a halfway house game - it looks like a full-on game but time-wise could be thought of as a filler, as it can be over in well under an hour. I realised my explaining skills were not confined to Tuesday nights - as I did my usual mistake of explaining the turn order without giving the theme - when Stan said "But what am I actually trying to do?"

Stan and I drew the first game (66 each? Can't remember) then we drew the second game 82 each with Joe - assisted, but enthusiastic - 1 point behind us.

See?

Just like a Tuesday night though, all good things must come to an end. So we went upstairs and read a bit more of The Hobbit. It's really violent! I felt like complaining to someone. But who?

Coming out of the cupboard

This evening, a non-GNN games night was arranged at Roll For The Soul, a café that sounds like it’s already a gaming heaven, but the “Roll” but actually refers to bicycles, not dice. I don’t think we have any games about bicycles, but they didn’t seem to mind.

By the time I arrived, the first game had already begun. Hannah, Adam and two women (who I assumed were Sustrans-types but were, in fact, real people who had come out of curiosity) had started with Galaxy Truckers. They had, however, paused for food so Adam and I had two games of speed chess. It was the first time I’d played the game for years, and Adam won both times.

By then, food had been eaten and another attendee had arrived: Tim. He and I played a game of Agricola: All Creatures. I taught him the rules, and he seemed to get the hang of it awfully quickly, and it ended in a draw: 36 all. Adam, of course, pointed out there is a tie-breaker, and technically speaking Tim won, but he only did that because Adam does not rejoice in shared victories.

Galaxy Trucker had finished by then, with Hannah victorious, and the two newcomers set off with, hopefully, a new appreciation for Eurogames. A man arrived, whose name escapes me, and the five of us sat down to play Ticket To Ride.

Before long, Judith arrived, and she took over from the unnamed man. Whereas previously, he had been simply picking up cards (not, in itself, a bad idea: Adam and Tim had been doing the same) she began building tracks.

I was the first to build and, on a whim, I also build a long but unnecessary six-link railway for 15 points. This turned out to be my best move, as the region around the alps soon became full and I had to send my long track around the south of the map and up to Moscow via Turkey. Not very efficient, but it was all I had left.

The game progressed, and we noticed people looking in the window at us, so we arranged the box so people could see the name of the game. And, during Ticket To Ride, people from the café came up to watch us and said “Oh, it’s a bit like Settlers/Risk” and I had to bite my tongue to not snap back “It’s nothing like Settlers/Risk!”

Near the end of the game, Judith discovered that unfinished route cards counted against any final score and so in a fit of sheer joie de vivre, she stocked up on extra route cards to try and counter the impact. In the end, she did finish in the black. By nine points. She still finished in last. I came fourth, one point behind Hannah and, amazingly, Adam and Tim came joint first. Adam was forced to go home rejoicing in a shared victory, whether he liked it or not!

By now, with our double-checking the scores and putting things away, the café was closing, with chairs already up on tables. We sallied forth into the central Bristol evening, having played a board game or two in full view of people, and the world didn’t come to an end! We must try it again sometime.

Deep Space Nein

With all the gaming over the last few days there was a chance of becoming jaded. Indeed Adam admitted that 12 and a half hours of the weekend had obliged him to take Monday night off. But thankfully by Tuesday he was back, chomping at the bit. Sadly Steve and Anja were late withdrawals but that still left Adam, Andrew, Joe and me (Sam) sat in my kitchen pondering our first move.


Or our second, actually, as while Adam ate his chips the three of us indulged in a game of Biblios, the game where you discard resource cards to pick up gold in order to buy resource cards. It is kind of counter-intuitive and for our second game (Joe's first) we still didn't really have a clue what the best strategy was. I was trying to collect just two resource colours, but whether that was decisive in my victory only the Lord knows. I think we were all under the impression we'd done badly, but I'd done less badly than the others. It's that type of game.

Sam 9
Andrew 7
Joe 2

That 20 minute warm-up back in the box, and Adam's chips making their way safely along various intestinal tracts, we moved on the the first big (ish) game of the evening: Hab and Gut. This had gone down well last night and Adam was eager to try it. We all sat stunned at his capacity to take in the two racks of secret cards without moving his head from side to side like human beings do. He merely let his eyes twitch, lizard style, as the resource markers trundled up and down the value tracks. Maybe Tom Cruise is right after all.

Hab and Gut feels like a gem; quite a find by Joe. A little like High Society, the player who donates the least cash to the church is out of the running, even if they're the richest, which put paid to Andrew on this occasion. I managed to wangle first place due to my unrelenting passion for rubber and coffee:

Sam 1130
Joe 670
Adam 580
Andrew OUT!

German stock-market engineering out of the way, we decided to finish the night with Adam's choice of Galaxy Truckers. This game of puzzle-solving against the clock, with a smidgen of strategy and a veritable cheese wheel of luck hasn't been out of the box in a while, but we were familiar enough with it - barring Adam's aliens-in-round-one faux pas - to start constructing our ships as if we'd been in space all along, adding our battery packs to our lasers in the much the same way they do at NASA, I imagine.

Adam made the early running and was in a strong position in round two. Then in round three, despite building the most ramshackle spaceship on show I hit a lucky streak a mile wide: shunted to the front in space I picked up a series of charitable cards and collected about twenty credits and 7 or 8 bits of cargo. Joe then sped past me in time to take all the crappy cards before I hit another slab of jarlsberg on the last card (open space) when I powered back into the lead and took the spawniest victory since... probably the last time we played Galaxy Truckers:

Sam 98
Adam 64
Andrew 41
Joe 30

So another fine night comes to end with Adam and I tied on the leaderboard as Joe and Andrew drop below Steve and Hannah. But it's tight.

						Points
Sam	1	1	1	3	3	9
Adam	2	3	1	1	2	9
Hannah	2	1	2	3	2	10
Steve	1	2	1	2	5	11
Joe	4	2	3	1	1	11
Andrew	3	4	2	2	2	13
Anja	2	2	1	4	5	14

Galaxy Truckers and Galaxy Caramel

Tonight, four of the GNN regulars had arranged to meet up (with Joe fuming enviously, unable to attend). As it turned out, Hannah was a late cancellation so three of us were sat around the table this chilly May evening: Adam, Sam and me.

With Adam supplying plentiful chips, we had to eat them up quickly and wash our hands since we had decided on Galaxy Truckers as our first challenge. This game of ad hoc spaceship construction is more tactile than most games with all players scrambling to uncover the best tiles, so greasy fingers are a definite faux pas.

We decided on a variant of Adam's own choosing: start on round two and then play both round threes. An interesting new twist to the game, it avoids the relative safety of round one and throws you straight into a field of big meteors, pirates and epidemics right from the start.

Galaxy Truckers is a great game and quite different to anything else we play. The randomness is offset by the opportunity to look at the cards beforehand, and our own haste and stupidity are as much our enemies as the pack of cards we have to navigate through, since bits often fell off our spaceships before each round had begun... to great hilarity from the other players.

I played a safe game. I finished my ship last, but always solidly made, and I was rarely in first when it came to facing down pirates or nabbing goods from abandoned ships. Sam took most of the these events, cleverly dropping back just in time to let someone else take a few meteorites in his face or laser blasts from behind. And it was usually Adam who faced the worst of these incidents, not helped at all by his evil nemesis: dice.

In the end, Sam's space-age handiwork won the day, with me coming in a comfortable second. I suppose we should've felt bad for Adam coming in last when he'd also supplied such brand-appropriate chocolate (the Galaxy Caramel in the title)... but we didn't.

Sam 132
Andrew 80
Adam 67

Next we chose Seven Wonders, a game undergoing a bit of a revival at GNN Towers recently. I had the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, which had the tempting option of building a discarded card for free whenever you build part of your wonder. I thought (and still do) this this was a very powerful option, and I made sure to discard good cards knowing I could build them easily later on. But I put all my building into the last round, and didn't have enough time to do everything I wanted to. Plus I should've discarded a guild that gave Adam about fifteen points, but I didn't notice it until it was too late. As it was, my lack of foresight left me in third while the warmongering Adam wrestled first from Sam by the narrowest of margins.

Adam 59
Sam 58
Andrew 45

It was still early and I still had half a can of beer beside me, so another game was suggested. Tsuro – that classic game of tense duelling with dragons on rails – was chosen. In the first game I graciously allowed Sam one extra go when I could have annihilated us both, but he couldn't make the advantage count, and Adam took first place again.

1. Adam
2. Sam
3. Andrew

Finally, Sally arrived from swimming. Or not swimming. Either way, she joined us on our last game of the evening: one last round of Tsuro. This time I sent Sally into the corner of doom, while Adam and Sam leapt off the board like synchronised lemmings, leaving me with a last-minute win for the evening.

1. Andrew
2= Sam
2= Adam
3. Sally

Meanwhile, all this mucking about with three-player games has left the three of us at the top of the Form Table. What a coincidence! Plus tonight saw the first use of the high-tech scoreboard to track tonight's progress for all to see.

						Points
Sam	2	2	2	1	1	8
Adam	2	1	1	3	3	10
Andrew	1	3	3	2	2	11
Steve	2	2	1	5	2	12
Hannah	1	1	3	5	5	15
Joe	3	2	5	3	4	17
Anja	5	2	2	4	4	17
Quentin	1	3	5	5	5	19
Jonny	2	2	5	5	5	19
Sally	3	5	5	5	5	23

No laughing matter

After our recent foray into comedy gaming with Robo Rally, I started to think about games with a deliberately funny aspect and how little I enjoy them in the long run. It’s like a joke may be funny the first time you hear it, but after a while it starts to grate.

Robo Rally is supposed to be comedy slapstick, as cruel fate forces your robot into ever more dangerous situations, but instead it just comes across as awkward and needlessly unhelpful. I do remember once finding it funny when I got a hand of useless cards and had to spend a go merely rotating on the spot, but now instead of chuckling at my dizzy robot, I grimly tolerate my lack of progress for another turn.

Smallworld, too, is a game that I can happily never play again. Far from being a cross between Lord of the Rings and The Ramones, the entertainment relies solely on the funny names of the races involved. And while I have happy memories of Kill Dr Lucky, I strongly suspect that playing it again would be a painful experience.

This makes me worry about games that I find funny now. I wonder if in a couple of years, I’m going to look at Galaxy Trucker in the same way. Although you can look at the cards in advance, there’s still an element of the unknown to be faced. So far, it’s still funny when half my ship falls off, and it is satisfying to limp across the finish line, whatever shape your ship is in, but one day I may not be so tolerant of the game’s random elements.

And what of The Adventurers? This game relies on the player pushing his luck in order to get more treasure. But that’s slightly different, since there’s always the option to play safe so if you do fall down a pit or get crushed by a boulder, you always know you had the chance to get out. I don’t find the odds against the player too unreasonable.

As for Colosseum, I doubt this will fall to the same problem because the game itself is played completely straight: the mechanics are good and a poor round isn’t the end of the game for a player. The jokes come from trading gladiators for flowerpots, having the best horse or describing failed attempts at putting on shows rather than anything the game does to you.

As Colosseum demonstrates, it should be the situation that’s silly, but the game’s mechanics should be as solid as any other game. In my opinion, using random elements to create amusing situations is not really workable. Luck makes a terrible dungeon master.

The perils of inter-railing across Europe twice in one evening

Our usual Tuesday night shenanigans were re-arranged for Monday due to prior commitments and with Joe unable to make it, there were three of us clustered around Sam’s kitchen table like moths around some board games. Ticket to Ride was chosen, since Adam was attracted to the box’s newness.

The game progressed unremarkably, with Adam making good progress, including picking up the 21-point rail link, and looking good for the win. Sam chose to pick up extra routes mid-game: a decision that was to prove costly. Then we realised that Adam was down to a handful of carriages, and the game would end soon. This left Sam in an appalling position, with a number of unfinished projects. I, however, was still confident of a solid second place.

Then came the revelation. Sam’s terrible score was no surprise, but only hours after the golfer McIlroy collapsed in the last few holes of the US Masters, similarly Adam had made important errors in calculating his final moves. First, he was missing a link for one of his routes, which knocked him back. And the longest route was snatched away from him by me by one link. Add on to this the scores from unused stations, and my victory looks almost comfortable.

Andrew 104
Adam 89
Sam 28

Since this game had been finished quickly, a second game was suggested. Adam and Sam were keen to erase the memory of past mistakes, and so they played a much tighter game. Meanwhile, I went for a crazy, romantic attempt at getting two of the longest short routes and the Edinburgh to Athens trip as well. In the end, I didn’t even get across the English Channel. Or, in fact, as far as the Benelux countries. In a game full of complaining over unwelcome cards, Sam fretted about Adam’s in-depth knowledge of the longest routes, but still managed to fulfil all his commitments this time.

Adam 125
Sam 106
Andrew 60

A game of Galaxy Truckers had also been suggested at the start of the evening and since it was still only 9.45, a shortened version (rounds two and three only) became the last game of the evening. Sam is an old hand at this, and cruised to an easy win, while I was amazed that my ramshackle ship made it to the end of the game at all. Adam was slightly undone by building a ship bristling with double engines and lasers, but a lack of batteries to power them. As such, he drifted further and further behind in round three.

Sam 74
Adam 57
Andrew 30

So, despite the early promise, it wasn’t the evening I had hoped for. I had rashly said I would write up the notes for the blog after I’d taken first place in the opening game. And now I have to write about me coming last twice.

The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio
Sam	5	20	4
Andrew	5	19	3.8
Adam	3	13	4.3
Joe	2	8	4