Bremen over with enthusiasm

 I arrived at 8, during a four player (Sam the host, Ian, Joe and Gareth)game of Kiitos. They cut it short for my benefit so I only got to see one word completed: "Codger" whose points went to Gareth.

Gareth 6

Sam 0

Ian -5

Joe -5

Since we were a fivesome we chose Hansa Teutonica as our main event. It’s a recent returnee to GNN and, after ten years, I needed a rules explanation and so did Ian and Gareth who were both new to the game.

We began in feisty mood, getting in each other’s way, hoping to have our counters bumped off routes so we’d be able to place two counters in adjacent routes. Gareth seemed to be a quick learner and made some shrewd moves but then, a few rounds later, he was still in last, with Joe a distant leader and Sam, Ian and I clustered around the mid-point between them.

We listened to Nick Lowe, who sounded like a number of different artists, and who Spotify believed only has a few songs. We were slowly getting to grips with Hansa Teutonica when Gareth completed the east-west route, pretty much in a straight line. We really should have stopped him earlier. This nabbed him a whole bunch of points and pushed him into joint first. Then my twin towns around a privilege action started scoring me pairs of points and I edged into the lead. In fact, the game ended when I reached 20 points, thanks to Joe completing a route with a town of mine on it.

But my lead was short-lived. Gareth’s bonuses pushed him further and further ahead, leaving us all with a sense of having been thoroughly schooled.

Gareth 51

Joe 37

Andrew 32

Sam 27

Ian 27

Next up was So Clover. Alas, we fell well short of perfection thanks to some unfortunate decoy cards. My clue for “feed/poison” was “Assassinate” but I was distraught when the decoy had “witness” on it, especially since it had a second word that kind of fitted another clue too.

Ian was also tripped up. His clue was “wattle” and we paired it with “rooster/mud” and just as we were congratulating him on such a clever clue, he reached over and removed the “mud” card. We got the right answer next go, but that was a cruel stroke of luck. Only Gareth and Sam got 6 out of 6, with Joe struggling with the pair “cream/needle” and finally he went for “vinyl”. Because of Cream, the band, see?

30 out of 36

Then Ian and I set off home while Gareth, Joe and Sam polished off a quick game of NMBR9

Sam 76

Joe 68

Gareth 38

And then finally, after Gareth had also departed, Sam and Joe played Kiitos again.

Sam 29

Joe -16

Thanks all. See you next Tuesday.

Garden of Delights

Last night's GNN coincided with Adam H's birthday, and what better way to celebrate than by playing some games and swearing gaily at each other? As the insane heat of the last two days slowly subsided, we gathered in Mel and Ben's back garden: as well as the hosts there was the birthday boy, Ian, Katy and Martin. I (Sam) was last to arrive, coming from a school gala (Stan played bass on Ain't No Mountain High Enough!) drenched in sweat and trying not to sit too close to anyone as a result. In fact my first ten minutes were pretty much recovering from getting there, as we kicked things off with Just One.

As there were seven of us we abandoned the game's suggested 13-card structure (and the scoring, in fact) to deduct - or attempt to - two cards each. There were duplications ahoy, with sine appearing twice for wave, waffles for potato and so on. Katy and Martin both seemed to feel we should be able to read each other's minds and avoid these situations, showering the culprits with disdain when it occurred. Just One remains as fun as it's always been.

Then we split into two groups with Martin leading Adam and Ian on a sortie to Babylonia whilst Katy and I introduced Ben and Mel to Llamaland. But first we sang Adam happy birthday and were all treated to cookies and ice cream!

Katy ambitiously thought we'd get Llamaland and Whale Riders both played whilst Babylonia ran its course, but the former, even without objective cards, proved to be something of an epic. Mid-game Ben appeared to have manoeuvred himself into a strong position, with more llamas than anyone and a heap of coins to go with them. Katy took the tile I needed and I called her a dick.

"A dick, but not a cunt? Smash the patriarchy!" she cried.

I reassured her I was happy to insult her in whatever way felt appropriate.

The llama-ing, meantime, had passed peak-Ben as we hit the the last couple of rounds: he ran out of land and we caught him up in llamas. It was close, but on this occasion I was Llamafarmer Supremo:

Sam 71

Katy 70

Mel 68

Ben 64

At the other end of the table they'd completed Babylonia, with Adam threatening Martin's now-alarming run of consecutive victories without quite pulling it off.

Martin 162

Adam 151

Ian 122

And they'd also bashed through a three-player game of Overstocked. 

Locking furry swords with Katy at this point, I missed the ins and outs. Adam's first play of this had seen him finish with minus points. He did better this time, but has yet to properly channel his inner toy investor:

Martin 28

Ian 22

Adam 2

Not only that, they'd played Eggs of Ostrich so quickly I didn't even get a photo (Martin won that too, edging out Adam 12-11, with Ian back on 8points). I did manage to snap a picture of Mel and Ben's frog though, who was rustling about in the bushes, probably wondering what all the noise was about. 

It was suddenly dark, so we heaved the table inside, got confused counting chairs and then shook up the groups a bit. I was keen to play Kiitos, and Martin and Ben joined me. Katy cajoled the others into the Knizian delights of Whale Riding. 

Kiitos is a word game where you're trying to get your own word spelled. Whomever starts a round lays announces the word they'd like to spell and lays down the opening letter from their hand. If the next player can play the next letter, they must do so, and we keep spelling the word. If they can't, they can announce a new word as they lay the next letter (with the caveat that you can't announce a word and finish it on the same turn). 

If you can't see an option on how to proceed (eg in the above, you don't have an n for locating or an o for location, and you don't see a way to make a new word) you get the cards as minus points. If anyone's word gets completed, the cards are taken as plus points by the player who announced it. The game gets more interesting when you mix in the Super Kiitos (add a letter at either end of the word) and Squeeze (add a letter anywhere!) rules. We agreed it would be best with two, but I love the scoring system and how it suggests you can play defence: Ben won despite never getting a single positive point!

Ben -11

Sam -12

Martin 16

There was more talk at that end of the table, but I missed most of it, as I was cursing letters, or sometimes Ben, who was sat to my right. But whilst we were ruminating, Adam was getting a birthday victory under his belt in Whale Riders. It was tight, though:

Adam 22

Katy 21

Ian 19

Mel 18

Ian then bowed out, feeling the fatigue of an early morning catch up with him. Could the rest of us do one last game? We felt we could, and cracked into So Clover. Instantly cries of dismay echoed around the room as everyone felt they'd been dealt impossible word combos. I was looking at crap like quilt / Switzerland and soap / ray. It sounded like others had similar issues. "I used the write the first word that came into my head" Katy explained to Mel, "But now I write the second. Or sometimes even the third!" 

We took a long time to figure our linking words - so long, in fact, that Ben migrated from the room. In the circumstances, though, we did pretty well, getting everyone's clues with just a few initial missteps. Martin was apoplectic that we didn't get assassination / region from his clue of Dallas first time, however, going into a sweary rant about Kennedy like a history teacher berating a bunch of talented but stubbornly unapplied pupils. I was more disappointed we didn't see the pet / cemetary link sooner.

So Clover: 22/30 - not bad considering our initial chagrin. And with that, another delightful, if foul-mouthed, chapter in GNN history felt the whispered breath of the curtains falling. The visitors stepped out into the night to feel the blessed relief of an air that didn't feel like hot cardboard on your skin, and we made our various ways home. Until next time!