Exhausting the cabin boy

After a Saturday that promised nothing but cold and rain, the bad weather eased off long enough for Ian and I to get to Sam’s house for an evening’s board gaming. He’d emailed us beforehand suggesting we try Tales of the Northlands: The Sagas of Noggin the Nog a new game that he’d tried solo not so long ago.

When we arrived, with the game already set up on the table, Sam admitted that his solo experience had been a bit longer ago than he’d thought, and he was a bit rusty of the rules. Of which, there are plenty. Every option on the board seems to have its own caveats, and it never seemed to gel with us. The main aim of the game is to complete sagas, but they come in multiple sections. This means that everyone can help in a saga and share the points, but it also means they hang around for far longer than they should.

Er... Wut?

Sorry to say, it didn’t seem like much fun and we abandoned the game after a few rounds in favour of something more knockabout and entertaining.

And our idea of knockabout and entertaining was Macao! It’s usually played by only Sam and myself, so to have a third player was a real treat. Ian shot off into an early lead by repeatedly exploiting his cabin boy for prestige points (it really was a different world back then). He also had both the Helmsman and the Captain for a very nautical tableau that worked together well. Sam picked up an early -3 tile for a full tableau but was able to put together a chain of city quarters for an end game boost. I made good use of a +1 point for each ware tile delivered: I only delivered six tiles in the whole game, but they netted me 36 points.

Sam 80
Andrew 71
Ian 62

Finally, we ended on Take It Easy. Today’s categories were Discworld novels (Ian), sitcoms (Sam) and ZX Spectrum games.

It has been said that if you were at a banquet with the Queen and you spilt your soup, she would also spill hers in order to distract any embarrassment from you. I wonder if can use a similar excuse to explain my third round performance, except that instead of deliberately spilling my soup, I picked up the bowl and flung the contents into my own face.

You see, in round two, Sam had a nightmare. He realised he’d left no rows open for nines just as one nine after another was called. He scored a mere 61 points. But in round three, I fell foul to every piece of bad luck and lack of concentration possible. By the end, I was relying on the 9-8-7 tile to bail me out, but it never came. My only scoring rows were ones, twos and threes as I picked up an earth-shattering 21 points. I fell from first to last.

Need a 9-8-7!

Need a stiff drink.

Ian 399
Sam 329
Andrew 289

The next morning, I tried to work out what the highest possible score with those tiles were, and got as high as 151, making Ian’s score of 143 in round three look very impressive.

Anyway, it was nice to be back and, despite Noggin’s cognitive load, a lot of fun.

Time (is on our side, yes it is)

Sam and I met up for an Easter gaming occasion which was originally going to be a grand event, with plenty of attendees but then got shifted from Friday evening to Saturday, leaving us on our twosome. It was also the first Finn-less games night, and it was quite sad as I kept checking my chair before I sat down and then remembered I didn't have to do that anymore.

We started at four o’clock and first we played Riverboat, from the same designer as Heaven and Ale, Michael Keisling. And it feels pretty similar to, with its hexagons and its multiple paths to victory. According to BGG, it has a ninety minute playing time, so maybe there’s a huge section in the middle we missed because Sam and I sped through two games as well as the rules explanation in the same amount of time.

The game has a nice balance between wanting to keep your (limited number of) workers on your play area so you can build up larger and higher scoring chains of crops while, on the other hand, needing workers off the play area to react to stuff that your opponent might do. Getting first choice in a particular phase is key, and so is getting a scoring card that you can maximise.

After two games, sharing one victory each, we set off for food. The chippy was shut and we felt too old for the Lazy Dog so we ended up in the Royal Oak. It was very nice. I still owe Sam for my share, though. We did pretty well on yesterday’s Guardian cryptic crossword, too.

Once back at Sam's, it was still early and we felt that we had at least a couple of epics ahead of us. We set off to Macao first, zipping through its early stages. We slowed down a bit in the latter half of the game, but still made a mockery of the game's official playing time.

And Sam made a mockery of me. We had somehow swapped tactics this game, with me picking up difficult to achieve but useful cards and Sam choosing office cards. However, Sam's cube-hoarding and focus on city quarters/deliveries set himself up for a 100+ final score. I luckily bought up those parts of the city that cut his chain of city quarters in half, otherwise the thirty-point margin of victory would've been even greater.

After this we played Flipships. It was enormous fun and we saved the Earth from destruction, as you may have noticed when you woke up this morning.

Then Sam and I set off on a trip through time. T.I.M.E. Stories, with its intriguing clean, white box. It's a co-op game, where you are time agents going back in time to sort stuff out, basically. Except, you can't possibly do it in your first time, because you're bound to waste too much time chasing the wrong leads and talking to the wrong people. It's a game that encourages replays (yes, I know they all do) but, like the film Groundhog Day, you experience the same stuff again so you can avoid certain people and get straight to that important bit.

a clean, enigmatic board before we begin

This is where we begin

But even that first try, despite being doomed to failure, was fascinating. Once we'd got over the rule book which doesn't make much sense until you start playing. Then it starts to click and you can get into character. Sam was Maria, a narcissist with a tempting cleavage, while I was Vasil la Fouine, cocaine addict.

Five doses of cocaine!

I asked if this game was age restricted. Apparently, it's 14+. Seems a bit low to me.

The first adventure is set in a mental asylum in 1921 and as we travelled from one beautifully illustrated location to the next, picking up clues here and there, I really got into it. As someone showed us the entrance to a secret passage, we had the option to follow him into it or beat him up and enter it ourselves. I leant over to Sam and, with a mad gleam in my eye, whispered “Let's beat him up!”

We did. I'm pretty sure that was the right thing to do.

But we ran out of time at that point. We put the game away (first time we've had to check BGG for advice on how to put a board game back in its box) and discussed what to play as a finisher.

Sam suggested Santorini as a quick-to-teach, quick-to-play option. It's basically Torres, but without all the dull stuff. Just towers and workers. We played twice and Sam won both times. It was good. And although I wasn't cocaine addict, I did become the goddess Athena for the second game.

A great evening with some exciting new games. Need to get back to 1921 soon, though. That time anomaly isn't going to mend itself.

Fruitful Pastimes

Another night, another alien invasion averted by the power of flicking. Yes, it was Flipships again, as Stanley and Joe were suiting up for space flight (furry onesies) just as Andrew walked through the door to join us at 7pm. We played a standard mission, and saw off the invaders so comfortably - about eight flicks to spare - I'm thinking it's time to play expert next time.

Joe hits the mothership. Cries of joy supplied by Stan.

The reward for saving the planet was a good night's rest, so I put the boys to bed whilst Andrew packed the game away.

We decided that it was a good night for Macao, the game that everyone many of us profess to like but only ever gets played by Andrew and I. Maybe because it's a much faster game with two, I'm not sure. Anyway, we went wildly divergent routes. I picked up hard-to-activate cards but because one of them - I managed to activate it - was the Idler, I could choose not to pick up extra cards from then on if it took my fancy, and this came in jolly handy.

Idler, skulking in the distance

However my idleness looked less than wise when Andrew got his gold-making engine going and repeatedly bought points from the tribute track, overhauling my narrow lead to push himself ahead. I came back into it though, using my stockpiled cubes to sail my boat repeatedly in and out of Antwerp delivering tea, like I'd fallen in love with a waitress there. My paper delivery got me double points too, and it was enough to see off Endersby and claim the Crown of Macao (just made that up, but it's like Mr Biblios).

It was approaching 9.15 but as it was a school night Andrew wanted something light to finish. I taught him the delights of Finca - it plays up to four, but is best with two as it's more tactical and less random. In the game your Farmers are delivering various types of fruit around the island of Mallorca, and the board shows what is in demand where. But the game itself is really about the windmill - a randomly-generated rondel system that works in a clever way: on your turn you move a Farmer as many spaces as there were farmers on the spot you started. Then you take fruit pieces equal to as many Farmers on the space you stopped in.

Extreme windmilling

You can forego collecting fruit in order to make deliveries, but the rondel - and the fact you collect the donkeys you need for delivering when passing certain spots on the windmill - is really the game.  I'd like to try it with three but I imagine four to be chaos.

A Finca is added when a region is sated

Andrew took a debut win after he sped the game to its end, which happens when five regions have had their fill of fruit:

Andrew 50
Sam 45

A delightful aperitif, thanks Andrew!

Feld of Dreams

Thursday rolled around with seven-day inevitability, like the next phase of the moon. And Andrew and I debated what to play... we both felt a bit Euro-y, so straight-up combat was out. I suggested La Granja, but Andrew didn't bite. Maybe that's too Euro-y... instead we went for our perennial two-player favourite, Macao.

Many Feld fans seem to think this is his dud, but I like the fact that - unlike Castles of Burgundy, say - the theme is tangible. I like the way it combines that dry engine-building stuff with the chance-based dice wheel - which admittedly isn't remotely thematic, but I suppose you could argue it represents fate - the best-laid plans, and all that...

In this instance I didn't really have a plan. As usual I played by the seat of my pants, especially at the start where Andrew was choosing his cards before me. I took cards that were easy to activate - specfically, cards that allowed me to trade in violet, green and grey cubes for gold. But the seat of my pants wore pretty thin as for the second half of the game I was picking up mostly blue and red cubes, meaning my activated cards did nothing except stand around and watch me flail.


thanks to As a Board Gamer

In contrast Andrew had built some kind of Heath-Robinson Macao machine, where cards triggered cards and he seemed awash in cubes and money. Despite my nabbing the first player spot and, at one point, building a 12 point lead, Andrew surged past me during the 11th round, and surged again in end-game scoring, courtesy of a long chain of ownership in the city. I didn't jot down the scores, but it was something like

Andrew 85
Sam 65

We didn't debate the next game for long - Take It Easy is another fave and, abandoning the recent meme of calling themes, we returned to the rhyming couplets of old. Andrew was far more creative in this regard, although I can't recall too many specific calls Bertie Mee was definitely involved. I found myself unable to break away from the fact that 'four' rhymes with 'door' so a third of my calls involved visitors knocking or pressing bells.

I began with a decent 167 and followed it up with 154 to give me a solid score, but Andrew's first round deficit was obliterated by his best round ever of 204 (I think) and he claimed the win:

Andrew 356
Sam 321

And as Finn was finally dislodged from Andrew's lap, we called it a night.

This one goes up to twelve

Thursday night, and Andrew and I surveyed the cupboard with both of us looking to play something reasonably hefty. When Andrew pointed out that we are - pretty much - the only people at GNN who are enthusiastic about Macao, our minds were made up. And fortunately, for the somewhat thinly-stretched meme of numbering the blog posts right now, it plays over twelve rounds.

once, it was oh so different

So we began! Claiming city quarters, grabbing goods and (eventually) shipping them to distant climes. For those hazy on the workings of Macao, you're collecting cubes to spend in future rounds, and the cubes can be spent in a variety of ways. Taking controlling of a city quarter (and picking up goods in the process), moving your ship (to deliver said goods) or moving along the wall (starting player/tie-breaker). Most crucially though, you're spending cubes to get cards off your tableau: cards on your tableau do nothing except cost you points at the game end, but once they're off they suddenly become useful. Finally if you generate gold you can pay 'tribute' and alchemically turn it into points...

How we approached the game was vastly different. Andrew took a number of easy-to-action office cards in order to get gold and claim points from the tribute track on a regular basis. He also had a card that allowed him to buy prestige twice per round (once is the norm)  but unfortunately he couldn't get it actioned until late in the game.

I went for some slightly harder-to-action cards that once out of my tableau bought me some good rewards, and stockpiled cubes to turn my ship into a kind of cargo-delivering speedboat on the final round. My strategy worked:

Sam 96
Andrew 47

With that old favourite tucked back in the cupboard we went for a two-player Codenames. Andrew began as spymaster and I - not for the first time - made a pretty miserable spy. Andrew's clue of "cupboard" should have alerted me to the word "game" at least, if not "centre", but having seen the word "amazon" out there, I couldn't shake famous children's novels from my mind and was convinced the clue related to Narnia in some way. We failed.

Swapping over was more successful. There were still a few bungled clues and/or guesses, but we defeated the insentient opposition by a comfortable three answers. There was just time for a bit of old-school PS4 (No Man's Sky!) before we called it a reasonably early night.

Hundred Club

Friday night, and Andrew arrived at my (Sam's) house for a spot of non-leaderboard gaming. The boys were keen to play and Stanley suggested Tokaido. Having just purchased the Crossroads expansion I was curious to try it out, so I was amenable. Andrew and Joe also agreed.

Tokaido is one of the gentlest games GNN has seen - it's a sedate journey where wherever you go, something nice happens. The theme is cultural enrichment, and the mechanic is get stuff. The expansion didn't change that much either; instead of doing a thing on a given location, you had a choice of things to do. But what it did bring to the party was more end-game scoring, which I totally forgot to do for myself - I should have added 8 points to my score for my collected coins.

Not that it would have changed my miserable placing. Stanley took us to the cleaners, breaking the scoreboard by surging past 99 and picking up all the bonus points for chatterbox, gourmand, bather and the other one.

Stanley 103
Andrew 74
Joe 62
Sam 47 (or 55 to be exact)

It's a sweet little game. Stanley went to bed happy and Joe - who not so long ago would insist on watching games - also seemed pleased with his pretty-much solo performance.

I told Andrew to set up whatever he fancied playing while I read stories upstairs, and when I returned to my delight Macao was on the table. Not quite the Euro of Euros (there's dice and luck involved) but still very little screwage.

However, I always find Macao a delight, and tonight was no different, even though Andrew surged off into an early lead... and kept it throughout, racking up a more than respectable 100+ score and breaking a scoreboard for the second time in the evening!

Andrew 112
Sam 93

For the next game we tried two-player Diamonsters. As suspected, it was a much more canny affair than the Dirk-like six player version on Tuesday. Even Finn was intrigued.

We established a house rule of choosing whether to refresh your hand each round or keep what you had - I needed the former with a hand of three 4's and two 2's hampering my bidding options. Official rules are first to five wins, but we played first to three:

Sam 3
Andrew 1

Andrew's turn to select and he went for 7 Wonders. Maybe Duel has had it's very brief day already, as we both went for the original ghost-player option. And in the early running Dirk was looking pretty good, but Andrew scored big for his wonders and guilds, overcoming a scrappy military and blue-buildings score. Before we added up the sciences - the last addition in scoring - I was on a measly 18 points! But my whopping 36points for green buildings took me just far enough to claim a win...

Sam 54
Andrew 53
Dirk 25

We wrapped up with Gobblet Gobblers, the game of flex-noughts and crosses. It looks so simple but you really do have to give each move serious thought, as your noughts/crosses (Gobblers) can be both placed or moved to any adjacent spot... and additionally big Gobblers can jump on small ones. It's possible to do the latter and find you've forgotten your opponent's Gobbler was hidden underneath, gifting them an easy win... that happened once or twice.

We played several games and won a few each, before wrapping up for the weekend...

King Bib

Thursday! It's now so well established we almost don't bother emailing to confirm any more. Except we do just in case, like last week, Thursday is on a Sunday. Luckily this week no such chicanery was at play, and Andrew, Ian, little Joe, Stanley and I sat down to play Safranito at 6.30pm. This was Joe's choice and he and I played as a team. Joe began as designated thrower but halfway through changed to designated fidget as he played with the box and the cards and I took over. Neither of us was really producing the goods, though, and like Stanley, we struggled. On the other side of the table Ian and Andrew had their gaming caps on and soon put and end to proceedings:

Ian 3 recipes
Andrew 3 recipes (2nd on turn order)
Joe and Sam 2 recipes
Stanley 1 recipe

The boys retired to bed with You Choose and half a chapter of The Hobbit. I came down to discover Ian had beaten Andrew so comprehensively at Biblios that the moniker Mr Biblios didn't really do it justice. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...

Ian (King Biblios) 18
Andrew 0

I'll leave them to explain this alchemy in the comments.

Andrew here. I won't use the comments, since photographic evidence is needed for this event.

History, they say, is written by the winners. Not this time, though. This game of Biblios will live long in the memory as the perfect gaming example of a fly being hit by a high speed train.

I started off okay but after a bunch of church cards, I panicked and changed tactics. Far too late, since we were halfway through the gift stage. This was followed by an appalling auction stage, where we were both low on money, except Ian didn't need it and the colours I wanted never came up.

I ended with a terrible hand. No card higher than a one.

Ian, meanwhile, swept the board. When one is beaten so badly, one can at least take solace in the old saying "where everything is bad, it must be good to know the worst."

We decided to play Macao, the weird cross between a standard euro and slightly convoluted roulette. Andrew started very confidently, clearing his tableau of cards whilst Ian and I picked up penalty chits for having too many. But Ian and I had a stronger second half of the game; Ian at one point delivering three tea tiles for 23 points to surge into the lead.

cubist panting

However my presence in the city quarters - and bonuses for them - saw me claim the lead:

Sam 75
Ian 72
Andrew 64

I remain very fond of Macao, even if the last couple of rounds are fairly head-scratchy. In fact we all enjoyed it.

It was only half-nine so, having failed to tempt Sally into a 4-player Codenames, we played Raj. Andrew suggested a variant where Dirk got involved - a fourth deck was randomly shuffled and a card turned over at the bidding stage. This came through for me at one stage when Dirk and Ian drew and my paltry 2 bid picked up a 9 tile...

But overall, Dirk didn't impress the way he's done recently at 7 Wonders. Maybe he needs more practice:

Sam 81
Andrew 39
Ian 18
Dirk 1

Andrew was threatening to leave but we cajoled him into a couple of rounds of Take It Easy - I called chocolate bars and Ian went full-nerd with Deep Space Nine characters. Andrew is probably glad he stayed, and his theory of losing at Take It Easy because of "always being shitfaced" was blown out of the water:

Shitfaced Andrew 297
Fairly drunk Sam 266
Inebriated Ian 214

It was not yet 10.30 but we called it a night, reminiscing already about Ian's masterful Biblios performance.

Andrew again. Just a quick mention of the weird rainbow over Bristol this evening as I walked to Sam's. I swear I will never play Biblios when there's a rainbow ever again.

Was it you or was it me?

Perhaps wanting to shake off the experience of In The Shadow of the Emperor, or energised by the subsequent non-travails of Cube Quest, Andrew and Ian came to my (Sam's) house this evening for another wee games session before the next week falls upon us.

Nobody was really angling for anything, and for a few minutes we actually sat at an empty table talking, almost as though Settlers of Catan had never happened. But of course the talking stopped, and we went and chose Macao from the cupboard. What can be said about this game that hasn't been said already? It's Stefan Feld's slightly unpredictable offspring, who a few people (I count myself among them) love, and many more say it doesn't measure up to his other offerings.

What I like about Feld games are the neat mechanics - but unlike, say, Castles of Burgundy (also great, but abstract) or Bora Bora (I can't even remember what it's about) or even Rialto ("about" influence in Venice, but essentially a double-bluffing bidding game) Macao does kind of hold onto it's theme after you open the lid of the box: establish a presence in the city of Macao in order to trade with far-distant climes.

We all got off to a slightly cagey start, but before the early rounds move quickly, and before long Ian had a whopping chain of activated cards working their magic. In fact there was so much for him to do each turn as they game closed out, there was time for me to go to the toilet and write a couple of emails before he timed out. Andrew muttered into his cards whilst I, courtesy of activating the Idler card early on, spent a few rounds avoiding trouble and concentrating on my end-game plan - grabbing a big chain of city quarters. In the end it was enough:

Sam 96
Ian 87
Andrew 76

We elected to finish off with Take It Easy, which Ian hadn't played in a while and Andrew and I are always up for. Part of the appeal, perhaps, is the GNN meme of calling the tiles with a subject of the callers choosing. Ian pulled off an impressive array of Game of Thrones characters, Andrew displayed incredible knowledge of Japanese pop culture, and I let the side down with a series of Genesis and Phil Collins songs. Sorry everyone.

On  the board however I was more cultured, and whilst Ian and Andrew struggled (Ian's opening round was a spectacular 48) took control early on and even the mention of Whodunnit couldn't sway me. Meanwhile Ian, previously staggering around the Take It Easy arena like a man incapable of putting three sevens in a row, pulled a great round out of the fire near the end to make his score more respectable:

Sam 484
Andrew  279
Ian 227

The whisky had been flowing already, but I had a bit of a cold and fancied a cup of tea in front of the telly, so as the curtain came down in the weekend, we also drew the veil on our night.

Many a Macao Maks a Muckle

A quiet Sunday evening, and two cheerful old friends took time to meet up away from the hurly and the burly of a full GNN meet.

I went to see Sam at his house, bedecked with Christmas cheer, and we settled down for a quick game of Macao. A remarkably quick game in its two-player guise, especially in practised old hands like ours. We sped through the first few rounds, and never let up until the dice where all ones, and it was make or break in the final round.

Free points!

But, by then, Sam had pretty much won it. Some lucky rolls mid-game gave him the chance to chain together some cards to get some gold and buy prestige points. That put him in miles in the lead, and though my little engine to create two (later three) points per round for doing nothing really helped catch him up, by the end his chain of city quarters put him out in the lead again.

Sam 88
Andrew 74

Then Istanbul was brought to the table. Sam and I are old enough to play on a random board, and that’s exactly what we did. But it was a bit of a tricky layout, which involved several trips back and forth through the Turkish capital just for one jewel. Early on, Sam suggested we play until five jewels, not six and I agreed.

Sam

We struggled on, having difficulty in looping back and picking up our assistants without it being a bit of a wasted move. Then Sam struck! I was on four gems, when he managed to get to the Sultan’s Palace and got his fifth gem. Victory!

Except it wasn’t. I only realised when I got home but, since Sam started the game, I had one more go. We’ve all been playing Impulse and Quantum and Palaces of Carrara so much recently, that we clean forgot that Istanbul doesn’t end the moment the first player gets the required number of jewels. I was one move away from the gemstone dealer, where I would have got my last jewel. It would’ve been down to a money tie-breaker, and I didn’t make a note of that. Let’s call it a draw. EDIT: according to Sam, he only had one lira left, and as I recall I had about twentysomething, about to buy a jewel for nineteen lira, so it looks like I would've won a tie-breaker.

Andrew 5 (wins on money)
Sam 5

And then, having sped through two games that, in their four-player version would take a whole evening, we set about a little light game to wind down. Good old Biblios. It never fails to intrigue. I even had the crazy idea, halfway through, that I might be able to win all five dice. That’s could have been the whisky doing my thinking for me, though.

This time, I feel that the game was won and lost on the red cards. Halfway through the auction round a red card came up. I passed, since I only had one. Sam passed too. This rang alarms in my head since the reds were only worth two. Would he really have stockpiled enough to assure victory?

The next time a red card came up, Sam passed and I bought it. And the same again the third time, too. Sam looked nervous. In the end, we both won what we thought we would win, but Sam just pipped me on reds: he had four points to my three. So, instead of a 6-5 win to me, it ended:

Sam 7
Andrew 4

Sam retakes his crown as Mr Biblios. A rather battered crown by now, since it is automatically passed to whoever just won at Biblios, but still a crown nevertheless.

Saturday Night Several

Saturday night games are usually rather sparse affairs, with only a few gamers with nothing better to do on a weekend evening. Tonight was a different affair, though, with six of us congregating in Sam’s kitchen which for most of us is less of a kitchen, more of a portal into other worlds. Sam, myself, Ian and Matt were joined by Steve and Anja, bringing their baby with them.

The worlds we chose this evening were Amerigo and Macao. Two games from neighbouring centuries jostled for space on the same table. Sam, Steve and Anja went for the epic sweep of Amerigo, while Matt, Ian and I chose a make our fortunes in the Portugese colony of Macao.

Macao was a strange game, with no players spending much time gathering city quarters and shipping goods. Instead, we relied on a remarkably generous Tribute Track, allowing us all to trade cubes for coins and buy prestige points that way. But Ian’s three Baronesses gave him 15 bonus points at the end, while Matt’s minus 12 points for uncompleted cards dragged him back into second.

Ian 90
Matt 77
Andrew 66

Amerigo still had another round to play, so the three of us broke out Biblios. I reminded Matt and Ian of the rules, and I like to think I was hit by Explainer’s Curse but, let’s be honest, no one knows why people win or lose at Biblios.

Ian 6
Matt 5
Andrew 3

With that win, Ian became Mr Biblios: a rather fleeting title that’s given to whoever just won a game.

Anja and Steve had to leave to catch the bus back, while Sam totted up the scores and grumbled his way through the lengthy period of packing away that Amerigo requires. In the end the scores were:

Steve 113
Sam 111
Anja 99

I set off home after my game of Biblios but, like Steve and Anja’s baby boy, the remaining three weren’t quite ready to go to bed just yet. They stayed on for another game of Biblios, with Sam picking up the title of Mr Biblios.

Sam 8
Ian 4
Matt 3

On the form table, Ian rises to pole position with just one evening of the season to go! See you for the grand finale on Tuesday!

						Points
Ian	2	1	1	1	3	8
Adam	3	2	2	1	1	9
Martin	2	1	5	1	2	11
Matt	3	2	2	4	1	12
Chris	1	2	1	3	5	12
Sam	1	2	2	4	4	13
Joe	6	1	3	1	2	13
Steve	1	1	1	5	5	13
Andrew	3	3	2	3	3	14
Hannah	2	2	3	4	5	16
Paul	2	2	5	5	5	19
Anja	3	3	5	5	5	21
Katie	3	3	5	5	5	21
Jim	4	5	5	5	5	24

As for this week’s mini-divisions, Macao sees Sam on top of a table that shows what an even playing field Macao is, with eight of us players having clocked up a win. Adam leads on the medal table and points ratio.

And for all the talk of Mr Biblios passing from one player to another, we all know who the real Mr Biblios is.The spreadsheet never lies (unless I’ve made a mistake) and Sam’s mastery of the game is there for all to see.

Tribes and Tribulations

Tonight we congregated at Joe’s. In attendance were six regulars: Joe, myself, Martin, Ian, Matt and Sam, along with newcomer to the group (and to board games) Jim, and old friend of Sam’s and sometime acquaintance of me and Joe’s.

Jim spoke of experience with Agricola and Settlers, and so he, Sam, Ian and Matt embarked on a four-player game of Macao. Martin had requested that Sam bring Five Tribes so he could try it again, so he, me and Joe set up on the rickety card table.

Joe started, and immediately left Martin with a move that got him the fifteen point tile. I sighed and grimly started wondering how I was going to make up that deficit. I went for resource cards, Martin built up his stock of viziers and djinns while Joe relied on his djinn’s special power to get him out of a tight spot. He was able to put three random meeples on an empty square. Unfortunately, twice near the end, the meeples he drew were the wrong colour for what he wanted and they ended up being wasted moves.

The defining characteristic of the game, it seemed to us, was that it’s not enough to maximise your points, you also have to leave nothing behind for the next player. We were all guilty of accidentally leaving the board in a state that another player could exploit for profit.

Martin 188
Andrew 164
Joe 143

A discussion about Five Tribes amongst everyone later that evening prompted Sam to suggest that a timer would make things better, but Martin thought that this would just mean that players made mistake more frequently. Perhaps, he said, the only way for the game to improve was if we all got better at it.

By the time we’d finished, Macao was still about halfway through, so we thought about what to play next. Joe insisted on Wizard. Martin wasn’t keen, and I didn’t know it, but Joe was so excited about the idea that we agreed.

Wizard is, basically, Contract Whist with eight extra cards: four Wizards that allow you to win any hand, and four Jester that allow you to lose any hand. Now you might think, looking at my performance, that what I’m about to say is sour grapes but I’ve never liked card games that are merely tweaked versions of games that already exist. The new cards don’t seem to add anything except an element of unpredictability. Especially if you don’t have any in your hand. While it was fun while it lasted, there really is no reason for this variant to exist and it certainly shouldn’t be pretending it’s a completely different game.

Joe 200
Martin 180
Andrew 0 (yes, zero)

We ended our game of Wizard to coincide with the end of the epic game of Macao. They told me the scores, and Jim made sure to tell me that, while he came last, he enjoyed it.

Matt 65
Sam 64
Ian 52
Jim 39

Since we were all ready for a new game together, we chose 6nimmt. Jim sat it out, saying he’d prefer to watch. We explained the rules to him anyway, so he could at least understand what was going on.

It was a typical game of 6nimmt, with people dodging cruel fate or, more often, running straight into it just as it's looking for a fight. In the first round, Joe picked up 40 points, and in the second round Sam did the same. As we entered the last round (the 66 point rule dropped due to time constaints) it was between Martin on 13 and Ian on 14 points. But this time, the hands on the clock of doom were pointing to Ian o'clock, and he picked up 31 points while Martin escaped with a clear round (as did Joe, by the way).

Martin 13
Andrew 41
Ian 43
Matt 53
Sam 58
Joe 61

On the form table with barely two weeks to go until the end of the season, Martin replaces Joe at the top.

						Points
Martin	1	2	1	3	1	8
Andrew	2	3	2	1	2	10
Chris	1	2	1	3	5	12
Adam	1	1	4	3	4	13
Sam	5	2	3	1	2	13
Joe	6	1	3	1	2	13
Matt	4	1	4	3	2	14
Ian	3	3	2	3	4	15
Hannah	3	4	5	2	2	16
Paul	2	2	5	5	5	19
Steve	1	5	5	5	5	21
Katie	3	3	5	5	5	21
Jim	4	5	5	5	5	24

But hey, I hear you all cry out, isn't there a division for 6nimmt we can all gawp at? Sure there is. Sam comes first on the medal table and is top on points, with "Silver Specialist" Steve taking points ratio. Well done, all.

Crosstown Traffic

Thursday offered a dilemma for me. Sam was in and offering to host games on the same night as a Roll For The Soul gathering. Which should I do? Luckily, Sam’s evening began at 8.30, so I was able to do both!

My mini-marathon (if that’s not a contradiction in terms) began at Roll For The Soul, with Martin and Andy. I decided I’d be willing to give Impulse another go, since I had come to the conclusion that it was not a resource-management game as I’d initially thought: it was a war game, with a bit of resource management tacked on the side.

And so I began by building up my fleet. And, almost as if to confound my expectations, the usually warlike Martin stayed tucked away in a corner, shuffling back and forth between his trade cards for points.

The game was played out to a background of two squeaky voiced clowns who had set up a little show at the other end of the cafe. It was a little distracting and annoying, but at least we were as far away from them as was possible.

Andy and I both did our best to knock Martin out of the sky, but when Martin was out of reach, we turned against each other, and so he was able to work away, like a little space-age Switzerland, getting rich while everyone else laid waste to a generation of soldiers.

Something like that, anyway. Martin ended in first, but for once, he didn't fight his way to the top. I came last, but enjoyed it more this time. If you approach Impulse in the right way, it's a pretty good game. The scores were something like...

Martin 20
Andy 14
Andrew 13

Then I said my goodbyes and I had to hotfoot it across town to Sam's for more gaming. There I found him and Ian jut finishing off a “ding-dong” game of Age of War. For our main game, we chose Macao. New to Ian, this is a classic which has found itself in our bad books ever since a four-player game stretched out into a two and a half hour epic.

But now it was back. We explained the rules to Ian pretty quickly (if you don't include the many occasions where we said “oh, and one more rule...” during the game) and we were off! Ian found his feet very first and midway through the game he looked like the one to beat, with Sam way back in last. But Sam is never to be discounted, and with an epic final move which involved activating then using the diplomat so he could buy 20 points, while having enough cubes to zip around the board, filling up spaces, he ended in a comfortable first.

Sam 110
Ian 82
Andrew 67

I was ready to call it a day, but Sam insisted I'd enjoy a quick game of Age of War. And I did. As you'd expect from a Knizia, the game's mechanics are simple and cunning: very much an example of Good Dice. And I do feel at home with Japanese-themed games. Plus, after two last places, my luck was bound to change sooner or later.

Andrew 20
Sam 9
Ian 6

						Points
Joe	1	2	1	4	2	10
Sam	2	1	2	3	2	10
Andrew	1	3	2	2	3	11
Ian	3	2	3	1	2	11
Martin	3	1	3	3	1	11
Chris	1	2	1	3	5	12
Adam	4	3	4	1	1	13
Hannah	3	4	5	2	2	16
Matt	2	3	5	3	4	17
Paul	2	2	5	5	5	19
Steve	1	5	5	5	5	21

And, since I've got all the spreadsheets on my computer, it's time I did something with them. I'll start posting up divisions for our most-played games as and when we play them again. This is the division for Macao.

Do have a macao

On Friday I tempted Andrew over for a game. If that sounds like the candles and incense were lit it's not that far off - I promised him a lift home.

As we were starting quite late courtesy of some boisterous boys, and Andrew had said he didn't mind what we played, I took the liberty of setting up Macao.

Haven't played Macao? This is a bit like the black sheep of the Stefan Feld family, the dud he allegedly churned out whilst gearing up to the highly-rated Luna and Castles of Burgundy. Except that 1. anyone who thinks this is Feld's black sheep hasn't played Rum and Pirates, and 2. it's rather good when the planets align. By that I mean I've played a game where we never really got going, and I've played a game that took about six hours to complete, which is too long. But I've also had several - usually 2 player, but one or two with 3 people - where it really hit the spot.

Friday was one of those times. Andrew strode in, took off his coat and picked up his first card - we were off. Haven't played Macao? Well there's a bit of grabbing and delivering goods, a bit of generating gold and a bit of chaining cards. And best of all there's the wheel; a wheel that spins between rounds to a new segment that you have previously populated with a number of cubes. Plan well and with a bit of luck you have the right combo of cubes to activate your cards. Don't plan well and you'll be saying "What the hell shall I do with this green cube? Oh God. I'll move my boat"

And so on. Your activated cards get you goodies, but there's a balance to be struck between easy-to-activate cards that don't do much and harder-to-activate cards that do. I erred toward the former, but having got a great presence in the city quarters with an end-game-multiplier that scored city quarters, thought I was in like Flynn.

But I was in like Edward G Robinson - Andrew had worked wonders with his better cards and got enough endgame bonuses to catapult him 10 points ahead of me in the final reckoning:

Andrew 88
Sam 78

Great game - and over in 80 minutes.

Andrew still had some beer to drink and I was up for another game, so I didn't blanche when proposed Biblios. Everytime this game is played in GNN World the Mr Biblios title (or Mrs/Miss/Ms) is up for grabs. And again I thought I'd done it when I had a pocketful of gold with several cards to come in the auction. If just one of them was an orange, I was in like Flynn...

Andrew 7 (wins on colours)
Edward G Robinson 7 (loses on colours)

And so another wonderful GNN appendage comes to a close. Til tomorrow...

all pics courtesy of lovely BGG folk

Sole Trader

I am hoping for a bumper crop of blog posts about everyone’s gaming escapades over the holiday break, describing our attempts at converting family and friends to the joys of gaming until we get over-confident, mistakenly suggest Caylus or Hansa Teutonica, and they never speak to us again.

Before that happens, I thought I’d write about my holiday gaming. The last time I looked after Finn while Sam was away, I tried a one-player version of Macao that I’d seen on BGG. I found it a tedious experience, far too rule-heavy for no good reason.

Mine! All mine!

This time, I tried again, but I played the usual game of Macao, treating it like a puzzle where you have to get the highest score possible.There’s no wall, naturally, and some of the cards refer to being in first or last – simply discard those and draw another. But with those minor tweaks, it was much more enjoyable, and it works well. With no opponent to take the card you want, you can really plan ahead.

My choice of cards at the start of game three.

Pity I couldn't take all of them.

In my first game, I scored 84. I was fun, but I had no idea if it was good or bad. I played two more games and scored 75 and 81. Turns out I had a bit of beginner’s luck: in game one I built the Abbot, which means any unbuilt cards didn’t count against me. That card alone was worth twelve points.

But it was nice and quick (half an hour) and it definitely scratched a gaming itch.

Novocon for the soul

Our fondness for squeezing as many board games into one cottage in the country has not happened recently. Instead, Anja and Steve have kindly offered to recreate the experience over a weekend

Saturday

Thanks to the appalling traffic on the M3, Chris couldn’t make it to Sam’s beforehand and had to go straight there. Due to some confusion over house numbers, he knocked on a stranger’s door before realising that the overall ambiance of paint pots and discarded ladder, this probably wasn’t the right place. He called Sam for further directions while people from inside the house stared at him. Obviously, Chris’ “Weekend Bailiff” look had unnerved the locals.

But he found the place, then me, Sam and Gonz arrived, followed by Adam and Hannah. We were ready to play!

We split into two groups. Four of us (Sam, Adam, Chris and Anja) chose Macao. The rest of us went Waterdeeping. For the first time in ages, I wasn’t black or purple, which meant I kept looking at the wrong players on the board for the opening rounds. I went for my previous tactic of only going for big scoring quests, while Gonz did the opposite, picking up small quests by the dozen. Steve relied on Intrigue cards, which he would gaze at longingly.

Hannah couldn’t get an engine started, and my quests scored big during the game, but low during the final bonus stage. Gonz, already in the lead by the final round, shot off into the distance, and Steve crept up on me right at the end.

Gonz 178
Andrew 131
Steve 131
Hannah 103

Then Jon arrived! The people on Macao didn’t seem anywhere near ending, so as Steve went off to do fatherly things, we began a new game, La Guerre des Moutons, otherwise known as Wooly Bully. This puzzle-ish game of tile placement requires that each player tries to build the biggest possible field with their sheep in. You have to match the sides of the tiles you put down, plus there are wolves in neighbouring forests who can ruin your flock, or hunters who can kill the wolves.

At the start of the game, no one knows who is which colour. Jon said this meant you could bluff as to which colour you were. As such, I began by trying to make people think I was yellow and helped build that field. Before I knew it, Hannah had completed it, and it was large enough to win the game for her. So much for bluffing. I could’ve equalled her, but I couldn’t find the right tile for the final space. Gonz stole the win from Jon by putting down a wolf in a nearby forest just at the last minute.

Hannah 18
Andrew 12
Jon 5
Gonz 3

They still hadn’t finished on Macao, so with Steve back at the table, the five of us went for 7 Wonders, with the Cities expansion. After my last dismal showing, I wasn’t confident but at least it wasn’t all new to me. My strategy was to get money and rely on my neighbours having lots of resources, and it seemed to work well. I got The Palace and some very nice black cards. Hannah and Steve built huge armies, at which point Jon got a dove token rendering him immune to attack and forcing Steve and Hannah’s massed ranks to combat each other instead. In my imagination it was a terrible battle of blood and revenge. In truth, it was mostly Steve sighing in disgust and picking up a “-1” token.

Andrew 73
Gonz 69
Steve 67
Jon 53
Hannah 45

By now the other table had brought their epic Macao session to an end after over two and a half hours.

Adam 65
Sam 47
Anja 44
Chris 42

After this, my notes get confused, not helped by the batteries in my phone running out, so no photos to help me remember what happened after what.

Cube Quest was broken out. This game is a simple knockabout contest, and we at GNN Towers are slowly realising we’ve been playing almost every rule wrong. This time, it was the role of the medic cubes to be clarified. Now we were playing by the real rules Steve beat John 2-0, and then Chris and Gonz shared the honours 1-1. And Adam beat Sam in a deeply thoughtful strategic game. Anyone looking at them would’ve assumed it was chess, but in fact it was Hey That’s My Fish. Adam 49, Sam 43.

Chris tries to flood the midfield, while Gonz goes for fast wingers

Even in Cube Quest, cultural stereotypes shine through.

Also around this time, Sam regained his title of Mr Biblios as he took first in a four-played game. Sam 7, Adam 4, Gonz 2, Chris 0.

Anja and Steve went into the kitchen to prepare dinner, we split into two. Chris, Gonz and Jon went onto the dining table to play a Discworld game, Ankh-Morpock. Chris won. In fact, he didn’t realise he’d won until two rounds after he’d actually done it. He finally worked it out just as Gonz was going to declare his own victory. Jon came third.

While this game carried on, the other four of us went for 7 Wonders sans expansions. This time, I failed to get going since the wonder I had, Stonehenge, was a bit rubbish, frankly. Hannah came second, to her delight, and Sam had two high scoring guilds to push him into first.

Sam 66
Hannah 53
Adam 52
Andrew 46

After this, Hannah and I played Mr Jack. I won the game but Hannah found it so stressful that she went home afterwards. I have that effect on women.

Finally, after food, people began their final game of the night. Adam, Sam, Anja and Steve went for a new option New England. The rest of us discussed and debated and finally settled on Spartacus. I’m not a fan, but it was either that or more discussion and debate. At least I wouldn’t have to learn any rules.

It was slightly better than before. Gonz’s rule of the loser of the first initiative roll goes straight to the middle of the board sped things up and avoided the humiliating sight of one gladiator chasing another one around the edge of the arena.

I’m still not a huge fan, though. The card game bit reminded me of I’m The Boss, and the fighting bits were just like the wars in Risk. It’s possible to win without winning any fights at all, which Gonz achieved.

Gonz 12
Andrew 11
Jon 10
Chris 9

On New England it finished,

Adam 37
Sam 36
Anja 35
Steve 21

We went home, tired but happy and very well fed.


Sunday


Today, Chris went home after he, Sam and Adam all played some Sunday football against the amusingly named Bathelona. Sam couldn’t make it today, and nor could Gonz, but Joe was able to escape from his lovely family for three short hours.

In attendance was myself, Joe, Jon, Anja, Steve and, finally, Hannah. When Joe and I arrived, Jon, Steve and Anja were giving Kingsburg a go. It was quite pretty, but hard going. Mostly because of the many interventions of baby Luther, who was not being the little angel he’d been the day before.

While they finished their game, Joe and I played Agricola: All Creatures Big and Little. Joe had recently been practising, honing his skills against his young daughter. And it showed. He glided through the game, twice picking up six lots of wood in one fell swoop, while I was left picking up scraps he left behind. He won 44-30.

When Hannah arrived as we were nearing the end of the game, she told us that Sam, Adam, Chris et al had lost 7-1. Adam would be along soon. He probably needed some time to himself. He had, however, won man of the match so that should have cheered him up.

Then the guys at the big table decided to give Kingsburg another go. Now they felt confident of whizzing through it at the sensible pace. Hannah, Joe and I played a new game, Spyrium, from the maker of Caylus. This game of putting pieces down and then picking them up again doesn’t sound great, but once you get going, it starts to make sense and it’s quite fun.

Hannah got the hang of it first, powering past us with two technique cards that gave her cheap buildings. So many, that Joe was pushed further and further to the corner of the table.

Hannah 75
Joe 67
Andrew 62

Our game ended as the game of Kingsburg finished and, now that Adam had arrived, we were ready to change partners, as it were. The two games of Kingsburg ended:

Anja 35
Steve 25
Jon 20

Steve 36
Jon 35
Anja 34

The winner of the second game was effectively chosen by a roll of a die at the very end. They could have saved all that time, and just said “1, 2, or 3, I win” right at the start.

Next, Steve and Anja went to start work on food and Joe returned home to force his kids to learn things. The four of us remaining decided on Power Grid: Jon’s favourite game. We chose it while he was out walking the dog, and you should’ve seen the look of joy on his face when he came in. It was like Christmas!

While we played, Steve and Anja found enough time to play three rounds of Cube Quest, with Steve winning 2-1.

As for Power Grid, I had a better idea of what I was doing, but it seemed awfully similar to last time I played it: Hannah didn’t have enough money to power all her cities and Jon spent way too much money on a power station and then sat there in a daze, saying “I shouldn’t have done that.” Adam showed us his blister. I’m sure that didn’t happen last time, though. I would have remembered that. It was quite a monster, and it explained why Adam was walking around on the heels of his feet, waddling along like a penguin with a magnificent beard.

At the end, Adam, Jon and I all built and powered 17 cities in the same round. It came down to the money tie-breaker. However, I had only one single note in reserve. Personally, I think this shows efficiency and good planning and therefore I should have won, but the rules said otherwise.

Jon 17 cities and £26,000
Adam 17 cities and £15,000
Andrew 17 cities and £1,000
Hannah 15 cities

After this, we all sat up at the big table and ate a lovely roast dinner. It was just after nine when we’d finished and cleared away the dinner things, so we decided to wind down with a quick game of The Resistance.

I say “quick”, but I mean “agonising”. This is a bunch of gamers who love discussions, and boy, does it show. The spies were me and Steve, and we were sitting next to each other. To make it harder, I had to start. First, I sent in innocent Jon, and we succeeded. Then, Steve sent in himself, me and Hannah. Another clear round.

Steve’s choice of sending in two spies seemed to work wonders as now everyone thought we were innocent. Unfortunately, too innocent, since both of us were sent on the third mission, too. We both put in fail cards. And now the discussions began.

The main debate argument in our favour was that Steve sent me on a mission with him, and a spy wouldn’t send another spy on a mission in case they both chose “fail” and blew their cover. The argument against that, from Anja, was that Steve may not have known what he was doing.

The whole game rested on how clever we thought Steve was. What should have been a jolly game of bluffing and guessing suddenly came very close to us dissecting exactly what we thought of our friend. Adam was the leader on the critical round, and he had to chose. He asked each of us our opinion. I simply said what he’d said earlier, thinking if I agreed with him, he’d send me. He did. But not Steve, thankfully.

I put in a Fail card. My cover was blown, and there was no point in hiding it. Now it was just a case of who the last spy was. Hannah thought it was Steve, so the rest of them went on a successful mission and the evil government was overthrown.

By now it was half past ten, and Jon had to get back, kindly giving me a lift most of the way. The crisp November aired filled our lungs as we stepped outside after two days of farming, quests, revolution, building, trading, and sheep. What a world we’ve built for ourselves!

On the division, it’s all about Adam, as he tops the table in Points and Points Ratio and also on my silly two-player division as well. This guy has to be stopped somehow. Maybe he’s trying to fit as many wins as he can into the time before he becomes a dad and he has more important things to think about.