The Adam Family

A balmy Bristol evening in late May, and what better way to spend it than cloistered around the Table Of Joe, doors thrown open wide, saying things like "you can activate as many energy nodes as you like, but you can only take your own bonus". So that's what we did: as well as the host, there was Martin, Katy, myself (Sam) and the two Adams.

How to distinguish them - in their absence - was the dominant early part of the conversation, but this was later succeeded by how to stop them, as both embarked on a winning spree that made up almost the entire evening.

However - before we even got to that point, Martin introduced Joe, Ian, Katy, Adam T and myself to Reiner Knizia's Spiel des Jahres-nominated L.A.M.A. Apparently it stands for (in German) something like 'avoid minus points', and with good reason. Like Fuji Flush, you're trying to get rid of your cards, by playing them in ascending order (-you can also play a matching value in LAMA) and if you can't go, you can pick up a card. But unlike Fuji Flush, you can also choose to stop playing when you still have cards in your hand (accepting their number value as minus points) while the other players keep going. In fact, even one player can keep going, if they have cards that don't jump anything on the number line. The numbers go from 1-6 and then the LAMA card links the 6 back to the 1 - but being left with a LAMA card in your hand is bad, as it scores a lot of points:

Adam T 1
Katy/Joe 2
Sam 5
Ian/Martin 8

After one round, Adam H had arrived and so we split into two groups. While Joe, Martin and Adam T set up Res Arcana, the rest of us introduced Adam to Sol: Last Days of a Star. I made sure to mention that motherships move before I explained anything else, and Ian mentioned it again right at the end of the explanation. Despite that though, we all kept forgetting to move our mothership. Even worse was that I forgot that activating stations triggers card draws, but I'm pinning this on having to say things like transmit towers convert energy into momentum within earshot of Joe's family.

Adam picked things up with no issue and we cleared up the activation gaffe pretty quickly. It was a game of elusive patterns as we circled the sun like a quartet of wary boxers, each hoping to... well, here the analogy breaks down. I sped into an early lead but with Ian and Adam hot on my tail. Katy languished on the momentum track ("Again!") and we sped through the instability deck like boxers intent on solar collapse.

On the other side of the table, meanwhile, a more combative battle was playing out, with Martin complaining that Joe was 'sapping his death'. Joe grinned happily. Whatever they were doing to each other, Adam invoked some kind of Darwinian strategy and emerged a convincing victor.

Adam wins.

And they enjoyed it so much, they played again. This time:

Martin wins.

They even snuck in a quick game of Good Little Tricks, and Adam T reclaimed the current-winner status, whilst previous incumbent Martin sank to a sweary third:

Adam T 0
Joe 9
Martin 18

Unfortunately I took no photos of any of these incredible events - we were in a combustive game - endgame, by now - of Sol. Adam (H) had surged ahead of me on the scoretrack, and I needed one more turn to activate my transmit tower for a piddling three points - enough to reclaim the lead. With only four cards left in the deck, however, Katy triggered three of them: and one was the last solar flare, instantly ending the game!

Adam 19
Sam 18
Ian/Katy 12

Whew. What drama! After the death of a star we needed something less portentuous. The groups cross-pollinated with Ian, Martin and Joe going for Ra, while the rest of us perused Joe's game collection. Adam T suggested Castles of Burgundy, but at 9.20 already we felt it might be a little late to start that one. Katy proposed Can't Stop and the murmurs of approval had enough weight to carry.

While we hurled dice on our side of the table - occasionally going bust - Joe was weaving some kind of magic in Ra. By the end of the second epoch he had a collection of buildings so colossal Martin and Ian must have felt like throwing in the towel. And despite his collection of low bidding tiles, he only added more in the third epoch, ending a high-scoring game like some kind of Egyptian contractor with a connection in the council office.

Joe 71
Martin 48
Ian 42

Meanwhile we'd squeezed in two games: belying his reputation as a zero-sum Euro-gamer, Adam H won Can't Stop with time and dice to spare. Katy and Adam found they couldn't stop. I stopped too often, except for when I shouldn't have.

Adam H 3
Katy 2
Adam T 1
Sam 0

We also played a quick game of Winston, the sausage-dog building competition featuring a wooden bone and wooden poo. To be frank, I think that description is as good as Winston gets, despite my phone's insistence on naming the game Einstein.

Adam H 20 (+6 for the bone!)
Adam T 16
Sam 15 (-6 for the poo!)
Katy 0

With the hour fairly late, Adam T and Ian now made their excuses and hit the road. The five remainers decided to return to LAMA, which - now we knew the rules - came into its own a little more. Joe and Adam found themselves locked into a stand-off as they both warily picked up cards, hoping the other wasn't about to quit and leave them with a bunch of non-ascending numbers.

The tension was palpable, and very Knizia-ry. And Adam H's winning run finally came to and end as Joe got rid of all his cards, allowing him to return a ten-point chit to the supply!

Joe 7
Katy 15
Sam 25
Martin 27
Adam H 51

I now made my way home as well, with the final four still keen to play another game. I'm not sure what it was, but no doubt they'll let us know in the comments...

Santiago to Rome is a little under one metre

Only a couple of days after Martin had hosted Time Of Crisis, he was the genial MC of another games night: our regular weekly get together. Tonight there were seven of us. Martin, his friend and GNN debutant Adam, Sam, Joe, Ian, Anja and me.

We began as a six and to fill time until Anja arrived, we showed Adam how badly Just One can be played. In the first three rounds we passed and Sam was the first to get us any points at all (he guessed "white" from Christmas, blancmange and Spurs). We struggled to get going, but hats off to whoever wrote "sex offender" as a clue for "register" - Martin got it easily. We finished with our worst score on six, with the ever patronising score sheet rating us as "a good start."

But by now, Anja had arrived and it was time to play something we might be good at. Joe was keen to try Senators while Adam touted Santiago de Cuba. Sam and Anja went to Cuba while the Time Of Crisis cohort returned to the ancient empire of Rome once again. The table hummed to the sound of simultaneous rules explanations.

Cuba on the left, Italy on the right.

I know little about Santiago de Cuba except there are dice on boats and the players all ride around in the same car. Rather sweet, really. There was mild consternation from Sam that he'd been given too many points but for the record it ended

Sam 40
Adam 33
Anja 27

In Rome Joe was having a terrible time of it on his first game. Having just paid for a governor, the next event removed all governors from the game. This hobbled Martin, too, as he explained later that his senator was about to help him strike it rich.

Instead, Joe saw himself going backwards along the score track as he sold Senators to make ends meet while Martin struggled with cash for most of the game.

I got lucky (is it luck, though?) by getting a couple of cheap senators in bidding rounds and when Ian and I were first to cash out, buying three senators each, I was in a considerable early lead which I held on to. Martin clawed his way back to second place but then the fourth war broke out while Ian was on the toilet and the game ended.

Andrew 11
Martin 9
Ian 7
Joe 5

After this, while Santiago De Cuba was ending, we played a couple of rounds of Maskmen. Just like in Senators, Joe began by getting negative points but he redeemed himself with a first place in the second of only two rounds.

Andrew 2
Joe 1
Martin 0
Ian -1

Then we rearranged seats and groups. Joe, Adam and Sam played Spirits Of The Forest. Sam had undersold this by admitting that even he wasn't sure if he wanted to play it after his underwhelming first game, but this was enough to capture the interest of two of us.

Sam 23 wins on a tie breaker
Adam 23
Joe 16

They squeezed in a little one round game of Good Little Tricks, which ended

Sam 7
Adam 9
Joe 11

The rest of us chose Polterfass, a wholesome family game about beer and gambling. There were some huge points on offer as well as moments of real penny-pinching cruelty as some bartenders limited their stock just to annoy everyone else.

I put the cup on top of some barrels on the table and when I picked up the cup the barrels were wedged into the rim of the cup. Should've been worth points.

In the end, it was another shockingly high total that gave Martin the win. When he decided to roll again after an unremarkable opening amount of beer, he can have envisaged the luck he was about to receive. We all got our bets fulfilled but Martin picked up thirty one points in the final round.

Martin 87
Ian 73
Andrew 68
Anja 64

At this point Adam left so we joined together for a six-player nightcap, Texas Showdown. This game is as funny as it is evil and most of us had our share of bad luck. There was a serious discussion in round one about whether to keep your tricks face up on the table or face down. The trouble with face up is the extra information from the visible card, but if you keep them face down then there's the risk of picking them up by accident if you put your cards down.

We decided on face down and to refrain from putting our cards down. We also thought that the game should come with little ceramic animals ("ceranimals" (c) Joe) that you could put on your tricks to distinguish them from your hand.

But as for the game, it was very close unless you were Ian, in which case you had a decent lead. After round three it was 2-5-5-6-6-6 and I was bemoaning how difficult it was to target someone in this game.

This is what Ian looks like in a commanding lead

My bad karma flew back in my face as I entered a death spiral of 6nimmt-ish proportions, picking up five tricks in the second half of round four. Ian had another clear round to seal a comfortable win, and so did Sam which saw him go from joint last into second.

Ian 2
Sam 6
Anja 7
Martin 7
Joe 7
Andrew 11

And with that it was back home thanks to taxi Sam. Thanks to Martin for hosting and hello to another Adam. We should do this again soon.

Markers Aurelius

This week's games night began with eight people sat around Sam's kitchen table: Sam, Stanley, Joe, other Joe, Martin, Quentin, Katy, and me. We needed a short game we could all play before one of the Joes had to go to bed. We chose Insider and dealt Quentin in despite him never having played before.

Regular gamer Joe was the master and he handled our questions dutifully until Martin blurted out "Is it a volcano?" which was the correct word.

We discussed whether or not Martin was the Insider, but we had very little to go on. In the end, only Joe voted against him and it went to another round of voting, with Quentin's questions "Is it geological?" and "Is it a mountain?" bringing suspicion upon him, but he wasn't the Insider either. It was Stanley!

We played again, after Martin explained the finer details of the rules to Quentin, and this time it was the smaller of the two Joes who was the master. I guessed correctly ("baseball") but only Katy voted against me. Maybe there's something about him, but we chose Quentin again and we were wrong again because it was Stanley again.

One Joe went to bed and we split into two groups and played a couple of short games until Ian was due to arrive. Joe, Katy and Martin played Maskmen. Katy won with a whole round still to play but was a little put out to see her magnificent lead shorn down to a narrow victory by the end.

Katy 4
Joe 3
Martin 1

Sam, Stanley, Quentin and I chose Spy Tricks, a game I had no recollection of despite having played only a few days before. Sam won big in the final round, putting his double bet onto the correct card, and just squeezed past his son into first place.

Sam 25
Stanley 24
Quentin 20
Andrew 11

Now Stanley went to bed and Ian arrived. We rearranged the groups into me, Martin, Sam and Ian playing Senators while Joe, Katy and Quentin played Let's Make A Bus Route. That game ended

Joe 60
Katy 47
Quentin 47

And then they moved on to Good Little Tricks, a devilish card game whose basic premise escapes me at the moment. There was a fair amount of people claiming they were going to "shoot the moon," though.

Joe -21
Katy -26
Quentin -34

We were still playing Senators when they were done, so they bashed out a quick single round of Little Tricks:

Quentin 0
Joe -7
Katy -20

Meanwhile, over in Ancient Rome, we'd seen all kinds of history flash before our eyes. After Sam had the rules explained to him, our first game was over in minutes as the fourth War card game after only five or six rounds.

Sam 8
Andrew 7
Ian 6
Martin 6

We set up to play again and this time it was more of an epic, with the fourth War card not coming out until the very end. But before then all manner of events unfolded. I was hit by Civil Unrest and a lack of cash during some extortion, meaning I lost two senators but I was then able to cash in two high scoring sets of cards for 51 in cash which I used to buy my way into first place. Other players took turns being in last place, first Ian then Martin and finally Sam. But that fourth War never seemed to arrive and Ian ran out of cash, meaning he slipped further back while my frugal final rounds got me first on a tie-breaker.

Andrew 11 + 8)
Martin 11 (+2)
Sam 10
Ian 9

Finally we were all together for a game of Just One. We started well, but soon duplicates started to creep in. Sam did well to get 'cocoon' with only 'chrysalis' and 'enclosed' to guide him. Joe was less fortunate, having the impossible task of getting 'panda' from the two remaining clues (after four bamboos wiped themselves out) which were 'diplomacy' and 'eyes'. Once again we were "wow, not bad" according to the score sheet.

There was one more game in us thanks to generous offers of lifts from Joe and Quentin, and it was Fuji Flush. I was first to one card but just couldn't push through. Mid-game, Katy was doing so badly that she claimed she had more cards than when she started. But it was Quentin who was able to join his last card to another already on the table and push through for victory.

Joe's best Godfather face during Fuji Flush.

Quentin 0 cards left
Andrew 1
Martin 1
Sam 2
Katy 2
Ian 3
Joe 4

And that was all. As we set off, I somehow managed to lose my phone so at the moment I have no photos from the evening, but hopefully I'll put them on later (EDIT: done it!). Thanks to everyone for a splendid time.

A Trick of the Rail

With Andrew off in Japan and Katy not yet returned to the fold, stalwarts Martin, Ian and myself (Sam) were joined at Joe's house by Steve, who made the trek from Easton through the skirts of Storm Freya. Because Ian wasn't arriving until later, the quartet began without him with a game of Byzanz. But before that happened Joe, Martin and I bashed out a quick game of Good Little Tricks, the trick-taker where winning a trick can be harmless, or can be terrible if said trick contains the final card of a suit - the trick winner collects all the cards of that suit and turns them into points.

Points are bad.

Joe 13
Sam 18
Martin 23

Steve rocked up as we wrapped up the second round, so it was Byzanz time. Martin ran Steve through the rules (see Andrew's previous post) and we were off!

Steve seemed perplexed but also seemed to be scoring a lot of fours. Martin scored a bunch of threes, but also traders. Joe tried the tactic that failed me last week and made it work. I bid high and failed again. I didn't even fail better.

Martin 26
Joe 24
Steve 23
Sam 21

Ian watched the last two rounds play out as he sank his first beer so fast he surprised everyone, including himself. Maybe it was Steve's exceedingly hot bombay mix, which had everyone sweating except Joe, who remained curiously unperturbed.

Then it was time for Martin's new game, Northern Pacific. This takes Mini-Rails' simplicity and aligns it with the brinkmanship of Medina: everyone collaborates on building a railroad across America, but can only take one of two options on their turn - build track, or invest in a station. The stations pay out when - if - the track reaches them, and up to three investments can be made in a single station, leading to agonising decisions as to when and where you lead the track, because taking it to Glasgow, say, will eliminate the possibility the train ever arrives in Butte. So if you've invested in Butte - bad luck.

When the train reaches the west coast the whole thing starts over, and after the route is built a third time the game ends with the richest player the winner. Despite some leader-targeting in the mid and late stages, the leader was Martin. I pipped Joe for second on the tie-breaker.

Martin 24
Sam 21
Joe 21
Steve 19
Ian 18

After a quick conflab we moved onto Las Vegas, with one of Joe's expansions mixed in: the big die that represents two dice when placed in a casino. This simple rule was slightly complicated by the spoiler dice (white) also having a big die that didn't represent two, and my big die for purple actually being blue. Echoes of the hostility from Northern Pacific were felt in the game, particularly when Steve disparaged statisticians.

But Joe mellowed the mood by getting us to imagine a beach where "all the pebbles are dice". To really picture the moment you also need to imagine Joe dreamily smiling, with both hands holding lots of dice. He was so immersed in the moment he didn't realise he'd won, until Martin pointed it out.

Joe $380k
Martin $370k
Sam $260k
Ian $210k
Steve $110k

At this point Steve bowed out, so now a quartet again we played a game of partnership trick-taker Yokai Septet, with Joe and Ian taking on me and Martin. This is a neat trick-taker where players are trying to win the '7' cards from seven suits which each have a 7 in, but in the lowest numbered suit the 7 is the highest card and in the highest numbered suit it's the lowest. Win four '7's to win the round, or win seven tricks (without winning four 7s) to lose it.

We didn't play more than a couple of rounds, but won one each, with mine and Martin's tricks proving slightly more valuable:

Martin and Sam 4
Joe and Ian 3

With the storm blowing lustily outside and the hour now past 11pm the curtains drew on another marvellous GNN night.

Bring your own birthday

This Tuesday saw the leatherette fliptop diary of the modern world crammed with three vital appointments: The meaningful vote in the Commons on Brexit, the weekly GNN meeting and Ian's birthday. Ian celebrated his new orbit of the sun by wearing a dapper brown waistcoat and by promising to drink all his beers this evening.

We began as a six. Sam (hosting), Stanley, Martin, Joe, Ian and me. Steve was expected in around fifteen minutes. Our first game (after a brief attempt at a 'conversation') was Bring Your Own Book. This fun game involves everyone taking a book (luckily, Sam's house is full of them) and looking through them to find a phrase that would suit a theme drawn at random from a deck of cards. The winner of the round is the funniest. Like a genteel Cards Against Humanity, basically.

For example, the first criterion was "The Meaning of Life," which was ironic since Joe was using a Douglas Adams book. Martin (Streets of Loredo) said "wisdom came too late," but Ian (Among the Thugs) had "underpants full of dodge marks."

Sam's other son, Joe, joined us halfway through and, using a Charlie Brown book, he found the perfect response for A Name For A Cat: "stupid dog." Steve also came in halfway and did great things with a book about knots. We ended when it seemed like we were ready for something more substantial, with Ian getting a birthday win.

Ian 2
Sam, Andrew, Martin, Joe, Joe, Stanley, Steve 1

With one Joe departing for bed, the other Joe successfully corralled Steve and Sam into a game of Western Legends. Meanwhile, Martin, Ian, Stanley and I chose Blue Lagoon, another Knizia mind melter. The rules could hardly be simpler: place settlers and villages across a map to get resources, link islands and gain territory. But my brain is not built for such games and I scored fewer points in the whole game than Martin did in round one. Stanley, too, seemed to dawdle across the map and was kicking himself at the end when he misremembered that he had built a link to another island when, in fact, he hadn't. Martin's win came despite only placing three villages and Ian's last minute comeback wasn't enough to stop him.

Martin 169
Ian 161
Stanley 105
Andrew 94

Meanwhile in Darkrock, Sam was vocally regretting his career choice as an outlaw having lost three games of poker. Joe was the only law giver in the game, the role I had failed at last time. I seem to remember him heading off to the doctor to see him "about my hand size."

As for us, Stanley set off to bed and we remaining three went to peruse Sam's games wall. After spending a few minutes trying to find Ra, all of us convinced that Sam owned a copy, we chose Azul instead. Back in the kitchen, we were shocked to discover that Sam didn't have a copy of Ra, despite our conviction that he had. Clearly a glitch in the matrix.

Anyway, we sat down to play Azul. I started slow (one point in round one) but got stronger, with Martin predicting a win for me mid game. But either he spent too much time looking at my board, or I spent not enough time looking at Ian's, because he snuck past us both at the end for another birthday victory.

Ian 72
Martin 69
Andrew 65

But perhaps most amazingly was my phone's predictive text correctly guessing Martin's score in Azul.

By now there were signs that Sam's game was picking up, with Steve referring to him as Billy The Shit, after being on the receiving end of a hold up.

After Azul, we played Ticket To Ride New York. A sort of mini TtR that doesn't take up a whole evening. Trouble is, it's a bit too short. I misjudged when the game would end badly, failing on my big route while Martin successfully completed two of his.

Martin 38
Ian 27
Andrew 13

Then we played an odd little game called "Good Little Tricks." It's hard to describe without the game in front of you, but the basic premise is that as tricks are taken the cards played are laid out according to suit. If someone wins a trick that leads to all of the cards of a suit being on the table, then they take those cards. And cards are bad. However if you pick up all of the cards, then you actually score nothing and your opponents are lumbered with 27 points each.

I had little idea what was going on, despite my best efforts. Strangely, I was dealt the trump suit (just two cards, a 1 and a 2) all three times.

While I did badly in round one (a familiar pattern by now) falling into a 0-6-21 last place, I then managed to Shoot The Moon in the next two rounds, so it ended...

Andrew 21
Ian 54
Martin 60

Western legends had ended now. In fact, it had appeared to be in the closing stages for some time with Sam one point off the game ending 15 point mark, but unable to dig out one more legendary point to trigger the final round.

Instead it was Honest Joe who did that and then gained four legendary points visiting the "theatre" to seal a win.

Joe 25
Sam 21
Steve 19

Now we were all together we had a rousing game of Fuji Flush, the only game I have any kind of form in, despite it being pure luck. In the first game we began with 2, 2, 2, 3, 3. With the table poised so delicately, which team would Ian chose?

He chose neither, and put down his big swinging dick: a seven, clearing the table. But Martin also put down a seven, and then Joe too, calling it "a greasy twenty one" referring to how easily it would slip past. And he was right. It clearly set him off on the right foot.

Joe 0 cards left
Sam, Andrew, Steve, Martin 1 card left
Ian 2 cards left

Since it had been a very quick game of Fuji Flush, with people pushing through almost every round, we played again. This time my 50% success rate* was maintained as my final card, a 12, piggy backed onto Martin and Joe's 12s.

Andrew 0
Martin 1
Joe, Sam, Ian, Steve 2

Then Martin and Steve left but the others stayed for one more game to give Ian a chance to finish off the last of the three whisky miniatures he'd been given for his birthday (the three beers had been finished long ago). I was fortified by Sam reminding me about a bottle of Sake I'd left here before Christmas.

We played Love Letter. I did worry that Sam's aging, threadbare, much-loved copy might not have enough red cubes for four players, but it turns out there were just enough.

In round one, Sam won on Highest Card with only a Baron! Then in round two Ian asked if I was the King. I confidently said "no" but then checked out of habit. I did have the King after all.

But Sam could not be stopped after his audacious Baron win.

Sam 3
Joe 1
Ian 0
Andrew 0

And with that Ian and I gratefully accepted a lift from Joe. We were both quite drunk by now, as illustrated by Ian suddenly veering off towards the flower beds as he walked down the garden path. Happy birthday indeed.


* I should probably check this.