That end of term feeling

Tonight was the final evening of the most sparsely populated GNN season for a long time. For some reason, it had a knockabout craziness to it, perhaps because we were not battling until the final seconds over a hard-fought title, but instead watching me stroll over the finish line thanks to attendance alone.

We (Sam, me, Joe, Ian and Katy) began with Sam’s boys, Joe and Stan, indulging in a couple of rounds of Codemasters with pictures. I didn’t note the scores, but I do remember Katy’s impudence in suggesting I’d made a mistake in giving my clue. Although the spymaster is supposed to stay silent, I couldn’t let this go unchallenged, and I reminded her to “never patronize the Spymaster.”

Then, while Sam put the boys to bed, we decided what the next game might be. Isle of Skye was almost our choice, but we decided it might be a bit much with five players and two newbies.

Instead we went for Fool’s Gold as a nice push-your-luck game that everyone knew. Before long, the sledging started, with Joe loudly questioning my tactics on my first move.

After the generous first round (except for me, who’d played quite badly as Joe had noted) the game got meaner and meaner. Gems were snatched from our hands by false alarm cards, and gold nuggets were replaced by card after card of silt.

It was close at the end, with Ian beating Joe beating Katy on a tie-breaker.

Ian 26
Joe 26
Katy 26
Andrew 23
Sam 21

After this, Sam introduced us to Om Nom Nom, the simple game of trying to eat things without being eaten yourself. A load of dice decide how much of the lower two links in the food chain are available to eat and then the players decide which cards they want to play in order to eat those things. The clever bit is that everyone has a card from the uppermost link in the food chain. So, if you think “ah, there’s lots of flies, I’ll play my frog” then there’s probably someone else around the table who had already thought of that, and will play their hedgehog to eat your frog.

Doing things that no one else is doing seems to be a good strategy. I got lucky in round one, scoring 16 points while my nearest rival had but three. It was too big a gap to bridge. Meanwhile, Joe, with one point after two rounds decided to go Dirk for the third and final round. Dirk did better than Joe did.

Andrew 24
Ian 18
Sam 10
Katy 9
Joe 3

It was still early, and Joe had come to the realisation that you can keep drinking Budweiser and never get drunk. The games continued with Magician’s Night, the glow-in-the-dark game of pushing things towards other things.

Charging up our magicians

Since it’s only a four player, Joe decided to sit out the first game. There then followed a, shall we say, full and frank discussion about what Joe might be doing in the dark while we play. Sam claimed that there was a bit mid-game where the lights suddenly come on, in case Joe got any ideas.

As for the game, once we’d remembered how to set it up, Sam won.

After this, Joe played and Sam sat it out, with a win for Katy.

Since there are no placings, it can’t be leaderboard, but it was a lot of fun.

Next up, much to Katy’s despair, was Skull. She insisted that she didn’t like it and we insisted that she did. Or would, once she got the hang of it.

During the game, people kept coming up a cropper on Ian’s skull. However, he himself won no actual hands of his own, leaving him in last place.

1. Andrew, 1 flip, 3 tiles left
2= Katy, 1 flip
2= Sam, 1 flip
2= Joe, 1 flip
3. Ian, no flips

Finally, the played Pairs, as whiskey and Jaegermeister were brought down from the high shelf. Pairs was as Pairs is: blueberries killed off Ian and Sam. Joe didn’t score at all after round two. There was controversy near the end of the game when Katy, in first place, twisted for the match and Sam accidentally drew two cards. The card he initially showed was okay for Katy, but he took it back and played it again with the right card showing, which bust her. She complained, have briefly thought she’d won, but Sam was firm on the rules.

However, she only had to play safe in the next round and wait for enough people to go bust to win.

Katy 22
Andrew 18
Ian 16
Sam 12
Joe 8

Which ends the season! Congrats to me for my win in Points, and to Katy for the Medal Table, and to Adam for Points Ratio.

Complexity 5 and 6

This is the sequel to the post Complexity 4 as Sam and I met up for games not only on the Friday evening, but also on the Saturday during the day.

A quick run through of Friday since I didn’t take many photos.

First up was Codinca, a game of strategy and some puzzling as you move your squares around a 4x4 grid to try and achieve certain patterns before your opponent does. I won.

Then we gave Nippon another outing: we thought it was best to get this out quickly before we forgot the rules and it ends up in the same fate as Canalmania, occasionally suggested but never chosen because no one remembers how to play it.

This time, I got my game up and running faster, with an early consolidation. Then I went mad on ships and trains. Sam, again, built six factories and was poised to make his big point-scoring move in two moves when I pointed out the game only had one turn left.

This gave me a handsome win, with Sam ruing his lost opportunity. Then, as I went to the toilet, before he packed away, he worked out what the scores would have been if his plan had worked. I still wouldn’t have won, but it would’ve been closer.

Then we played Magician’s Night a game played entirely in the dark, with only the luminous characters on the pieces visible. The idea is to nudge your cauldron into the middle while hoping you don’t knock anything off the play area. When you hear the “clunk” of a piece falling, it’s someone else's turn.

With two players, it’s not great. Just a case of pushing one way then the next. Sam won.

Then we played Heck Meck. Sam informed me during the game that on a recent holiday he’d played it against someone and lost 18-0. His luck hasn’t improved much.

I won 16-0.

The next day, me and Ian went round to Sam’s at 1.30 to try Sam’s recent acquisition: Scythe. The behemoth of a game (“It’s even heavier than Caverna,” said Sam) has a big old rule book to go with it’s figurines, cards and meeples. It looked daunting. I’d watched a half-hour walkthrough on YouTube, so I felt I had a handle on the concepts. Sam went through the rules and, before too long, we were off.

Where you sit around the table decides who you are (or vice versa) since every character has their own home base. They also have their own special powers. Mine was “meander,” which does not seem like such a great military strategy, but it meant I got to chose two options during an encounter rather than one. Encounters are like a light-hearted vignette, where a little scene plays out with rewards for the player involved.

One thing I didn’t do mcuh was expand. Unlike Sam and Ian, my empire didn't get bigger than five hexes until the very end. Sam sped to the game-ending criteria of six stars for certain achievements, while I boosted my popularity for the end of game multipliers.

Although Sam had six stars compared to mine and Ian’s four and three, my better popularity meant more returns on what I had, getting me the win.

Andrew 62
Sam 49
Ian 42

Ian had to go home soon to look after a dog while the owner was away. We chose a short game: Bandu. Shorter than Scythe, certainly, but still longer than we’d expected. Ian went out first.

Sam and I built increasingly rickety buildings.

Sam won.

Last photo taken before my tower (front) collapsed

Then we fired off a quick round of Timeline, where Sam won again and Ian and I came joint second.

Then Sam and I did (most of) the Guardian cryptic crossword for last Monday, ate food, and played Pueblo where we both tried the strategy of leaving your neutral blocks until last. It was a close thing.

Andrew 66
Sam 69

So now, Chris was on his way so we set up Scythe again since we knew Chris was keen to give it a try. This time Sam and I chose different characters. This time my special ability was that I was able to win more than two stars for combat. Slightly more aggressive than my previous meanderings.

This time I concentrated on upgrading my skills so everything was cheaper and better. Sam did the same. In fact, he was so efficient that he still only two workers on the board about a third of the way into the game. Chris expanded cautiously and steadily. Perhaps too much so, as his lack of specialising meant he put down fewer stars than the rest of us.

I was on four stars when Sam suddenly sped past me, putting down two stars in a turn and setting himself up for a win the next turn. My previously peaceful plans would take too long, so I had to use my special ability. I initiated two attacks, winning them both for two stars, and ending the game. Although I was less popular than Sam, my multipliers were still good enough to score another win.

Andrew 78
Sam 63
Chris 26

I like Scythe, perhaps because I won both times, but also because of the mix of resource management and strategies. But it does satisfy the same needs as Eclipse does: an epic with many ways to win and lots of different bits to move around.

Then the three of us played Magician’s Night.

Sam charges up the pieces

With three players it’s more fun. Chris won the first one, and then liked it so much, we set it up again. I won the second thanks to Chris nudging my cauldron into the centre while trying to push his own.

I set off after this, leaving Sam and Chris to play Raptor.

What a day. What a couple of days. Thanks for hosting, Sam. Enjoy your travels and see you in two and a bit weeks.