Birthdaycon

By curious chance, four of us GNNers have birthday’s close enough to each other that we can organise a games weekend on the flimsy pretext that we have successfully circumnavigated the sun again. Me, Sam, Chris (all February birthdays) and Paul (March) all gathered at Chris’ house on Friday evening for a couple of days’ worth of board games.

Sam and I arrived at about quarter to eight, too late to join in with the earliest games: two rounds of Heck Meck between Paul, Chris and Chris’ wife and recent convert to (some) Eurogaming, Jacquie.

Paul 12
Chris 6
Jacquie 0

Jacquie 9 (highest tile)
Paul 9
Chris 0

Once us two latecomers had got settled in (and Sam had played against Chris’ kids at Rhino Hero), our first game was Las Vegas. A nice light, jovial game of dice-rolling to get us started. Chris had a poor last round to drop back into third while, as I recall, Sam picked up some choice wins due to a number of draws.

Sam 520
Andrew 390
Chris 340
Paul 260

After this Sam suggested Black Orchestra, the co-op game of killing Hitler. Chris is not a fan of the co-op style of gaming, but I thought this game might be one even he’d enjoy. It has a sort of Escape From Colditz vibe and an accidental dark humour to it, as the game instructs Hitler and his deputies to amble around Germany, stealing cards and items from you.

But best of all, we finally succeeded! We carried out a coup d’etat in the Gestapo HQ, with all of us present along with Hitler and a whole bunch of dice. Just as Chris was about to roll to see if we were able to finish him off, Paul yelled out “Wait!” freezing Chris mid-shake. Paul then checked a few of his cards before saying actually, no, it’s fine, carry on. After that moment of high drama, Chris rolled the dice and the plan worked perfectly.

We win! Hitler is dead!

Then we got out Istanbul for our next game. We laid out the tiles according to the quick set-up, and Sam certainly lived up to that. He used the Sultan’s Palace to great effect, while the rest of us wandered around warehouses.

Sam 5
Chris 3 + cash
Andrew 3
Paul 2

After this we got out an old familiar: 7Wonders. This favourite never ceases to amaze with its new ways of winning. This time, Paul came away the clear victor thanks to his four (yes, four) guilds netting him thirty points by themselves.

My losing tableau

Paul 61
Chris 47
Sam 47
Andrew 43

This was followed by Biblios, which Sam won more or less with the hand he had at the end of the draw phase, hardly buying any cards in the auction phase.

Mmmm, Biblios....

Sam 6
Andrew 4
Paul 3 + brown
Chris 3 + blue

Interesting fact about Biblios: I haven’t scored over five points for almost two years.

It was by now the end of the evening, so we finished on Push It, giving our colours new and exciting names: Chris was callisto, I was brusque, Paul was octavio and Sam was vongeburp. Chris sealed the win thanks to me hitting the jack neatly between his two pucks.

Chris 12
Paul 6
Sam 6
Andrew 2

Saturday morning and I popped back into Bristol to turn off my heating and pick up Concordia from Sam’s house. I was back by mid-morning, and we picked up where we left off with Tinner’s Trail.

Sam’s monopoly of the Lizard was enough to see him into first place. Chris controlled the eastern part of the board while Paul and I fought over the middle.

Sam 106
Chris 85
Andrew 63
Paul 55

Then, after lunch of pizzas (bought by Sam and prepared by Jacquie) we all sat down for a five-player game of Caverna. None of us had played with more than three players that we could remember, so it was a new and exciting experience for all of us. Especially Paul who’d never played it at all.

It turns out he did pretty well, coming in second just by playing the most Agricola-like bits, and ignoring anything new. He also kept slashing and burning when I wanted to, leaving me seeking other options and ending the game with six unused spaces on my board. Even Sam’s two dwarfs did better than my three.

Sam's stash of stone

Chris 72
Paul 64
Jacquie 61
Sam 50
Andrew 44

We all agreed that with five players, it’s more of a bun fight, with fewer options available. Chris and Jacquie were even forced to go adventuring, which they hardly ever do in their two-player games.

After this, Sam went off somewhere (to call his family, I think) and the rest of us played Heck Meck. Jacquie told us that she’d asked someone to translate the German phrase on the front of the box, “Heckmeck im Bratwurmeck” and the closest they could get was “Hullaballoo in the sausage worm area”.

Most of the hullaballoo in this game involved passing round the 21 and 25 tiles. I got an high tile early on and tried my best to defend it, but to no avail.

Paul 6
Chris 5
Jacquie 4
Andrew 3

After this, the kids Ava-Rose and Ashton joined me and Chris for an exciting game of Outfoxed. I explained the rules, but got one wrong (I forgot you had to announce what you wanted before rolling the dice) but it hardly mattered. We turned over an number of suspects early on and each clue seemed to point to Ingrid as the pie-thief! Eventually, we were certain of our convictions, so we accused her and we were right!

We win!

This was followed by the adults sitting down to play Love Letter to fill in the time until lunch. Ashton asked why it was called Love Letter and I had to admit there was no real reason, despite the first three pages of the rule book trying to convince you there is.

"Are you the handmaid?" Chris asked...

Chris 3
Andrew 1
Sam 0
Paul 0

After this came supper followed by a couple of games of 6nimmt. In the first, a four-player game, we all suffered one bad round:

Chris 50
Paul 63
Andrew 68
Sam 73

During the next five-player game I suffered from a lack of attention, playing cards I thought would be safe, missing the fact that they picked up all the cards from a different row.

Paul 16
Sam 27
Chris 36
Jacquie 39
Andrew 74

Now it was half past eight and if we were going to play Concordia, we would have to do it now. Paul was given a summary of the rules and we found out we’d got another rule wrong with our version drastically increasing the number of movement actions each piece should have. Oh well, c’est la vie.

I started feeling ill halfway through and missed two whole rounds while on toilet duty. Also, Chris’ cold, a bother for him for the whole weekend, seemed to get worse. On the other hand, Paul seemed to get the hang of the game quite quickly. There were moments of AP for everyone, and by half past ten we had reached the end.

Sam 91
Chris 87
Paul 78
Andrew 77

Next up was Codenames. Another new game for Paul, but the first round (with Chris and I as spymasters) was relatively straightforward.

Chris & Paul wins!
Andrew & Sam loses!

In the second round, with roles reversed, Paul & Chris shot off into an early lead, meaning Sam had to take a few risks with his guesses. Luckily, Chris mistook Paul’s clue of “Country Club” (“Is Country Club okay as a clue?” he asked. “It has to be, now” replied Sam) to mean “millionaire” and in that moment, Sam & I snatched the win as I finally understood Sam’s cryptic “Snow White” clue from earlier in the game (“poison” and “mint”).

A bad start

Sam & Andrew wins!
Paul & Chris loses!

The last of the biggish games to be played was Medici. This old favourite needed barely a breath of rules explanation, as we set up and sorted things out. Sam spent most of the game berating himself for spending 9 on two tiles (a five and a one, not matching) in the first auction of the game. He seemed to recover quite well. Other notable events: the gold tile was the very last to be drawn in both rounds two and three, and I filled up my final boat for the princely sum of £3!

Sam 134
Andrew 109
Chris 103
Paul 97

Finally we ended on Push It. Or, in this case, Extreme Push It. Usually, extreme sports are invented to increase adrenalin and push the body to its limits. Extreme Push It came about due to a reluctance to move our chairs. Instead, we stayed where we were and placed the jack in the middle of Chris’ extended dining table, meaning we all had to negotiate two small ridges in the table top where an extra middle bit had been slotted in to lengthen the table.

Oh, how we laughed as our pucks jumped and skipped about. Would the result have been any different in a normal game? We will never know. But it ended (with bespoke colour names in brackets)

Sam (Tacitagreement) 7
Chris (Clunge) 4
Paul (Pastiche) 1
Andrew (Louvre) 1

And so, to bed. Our game-athon finally drew to a close. Sam and I set off early Sunday morning. Many thanks to Chris and Jacquie for hosting and thanks to Paul for making the trek across England to join us. All that’s left is the division and it’s nice to see three different winners for the weekend.

Congrats to Sam, Chris and Jacquie and thanks to all. It was a blast.

Cautiously Unlimited

Hey, Internet, have you ever played board games? We have. By “we” I mean: myself, Sam, Katy, Martin, Ian and Joe. And by “have” I mean: at Sam’s house on Tuesday evening.

I arrived a few minutes late, just in time to see the last few seconds of Bandu. This a building game, with each player constructing some sort of tribute to public art sculptures of the 1960s and 70s. Last tower standing wins.

1. Martin
2. Sam
3. Katy
4. Ian

Codenames is the new craze that’s sweeping GNN and tonight the six of us split into two teams of three for three rounds of this crazy guessing game. Joe, Sam and Katy took on Martin, Ian and me. Katy and Ian were the spymasters in the first round. Katy found it hard going, and was 5-1 when she said “Mr Tumnus” and said it had a “cautiously unlimited” number of answers. They got up to 5-4 but then guessed wrong, and Ian’s team closed the deal 8-5.

Next up Sam and Martin were spymasters and controversy reigned when Katy unthinkingly touched a card that she was suggesting might be the answer. Martin pounced, saying since she touched it, she had to choose it! She quickly retreated, saying it was a mistake, but then Sam swooped in and accepted Katy’s “guess” even as she was disowning it, since it was a correct one. Martin ended the game (at 7-5 to Sam’s team) by steering us to the assassin with the clue “beak” (I think) and the assassin was hiding behind “Kiwi.”

Finally, it was Joe and I as Spymasters. A far less exciting round if my lack of notes are anything to go by. Joe (and Katy and Sam) won 8-7.

After this we considered splitting up, but Verflixxt/That's Life tempted us, especially since Joe hadn’t played it before. It’s a colourful game, but mostly due to the language we used when reacting to each roll of the die. Katy did best, picking up those all-important clover tiles to convert her minus points into plus points. I did not pick up any.

Katy 25
Ian 15
Sam 8
Joe 6
Martin 5
Andrew –7

By now it was around half past nine. Usually, this is the time where we start considering lighter fare to finish off the evening, but in the pile of six-player options that Sam brought in from the other room was Medici. This caught mine and Martin’s eyes and it was chosen.

I started well, getting the biggest boat for the first two rounds, but my attempts to get enough commodities in the final round fell short. Sam surged up from third in mid-game to take a handsome win. Katy said she did not like it.

Sam 103
Martin 89
Katy 76
Andrew 67
Joe 65
Ian 53

All that's left is to say congrats to Martin on his forthcoming new addition to his household. No, not another game. And he didn't tell us straight out. Sam was talking about how much space was needed for his games collection and Martin sympathised, saying that he had to reorganise his games too because "we will be needing the spare bedroom soon." And then he paused while we worked it all out.

Honestly, why couldn't he bring that form to Codenames?

Shots fired!

Being the 3rd Wednesday of the month meant that it was another chance to join up with the Reading Boardgame Social. Tonight we were 8 and as I arrived the assembled members were all sitting around waving foam pistols at one another. These were the very necessary props for Ca$h N Gun$ which was to be the nights opener. The principles of this game are simple. 8 rounds. Each round you select from your deck of 8 cards either one of the 3 bullets you have or 5 blanks. This is hidden from everyone else. Then after the count of three all players point their gun at someone (Not yourself). You then need to chose whether to duck out and avoid potentially being shot or risk staying in to in order to be able to select the money cards. Of course if nobody is aiming at you you have a free ride! Each round someone is the godfather which means they can deflect a person aiming at them. If you get shot you take one damage, 3 damage and you're out of the game! Harsh. (You can repair if you get the right card). At the end of the 8 rounds those still in count their money. Most money wins.

Do ya feel lucky? Well do ya?

Its all very noisy and a lot of fun as people shout out in mock (or real) disbelief at being targeted and swear revenge in the next round. I managed to stay off peoples radar for quite a few early rounds but as my money pile grew evidently bigger more guns came my way. Although my stash looked good I hadn't been picking the bigger scoring cards and at the end a different Chris took the win.

The group then split into two gangs of four. Places for Thebes was quickly snapped up which left me, Daryl (Organiser), other Chris and Bob (His girlfriend with a tricky to pronounce name) to debate and deliberate over what to play next. Luckily I had brought a big bag of games with me so we could prolong this discussion. In the end Kingdom Builder was selected. It was nice for me to play this as a 4 player as so often it's only three or less. It really comes into its own with 4 as space becomes tightly contested along with bonus tiles. I managed to squeak a win courtesy of one extra city that I managed to paddock jump to!

Final board

To my surprise nobody in this group had ever played Medici so after my promises of easy to learn rules it was accepted as our next game. Explainers curse took hold in royal fashion as I paid way too much for tiles, eager to win biggest boat only for the gold tile to come out and spoil my plans. Daryl played a tight game hardly paying for anything whereas Bob had a plan to maximise one or two of the goods. This plan held true after trailing behind Daryl for most of the game she came sailing past him with 30 points worth of pelts!

To end the evening, those left joined together to play two really raucous games of Incan Gold. This gang really know how to throw themselves into a party game. Roars of disbelief ran through the pub as yet again another Zombie Lady (Which they now all shout in the GNN way.) came lumbering through the cave. Such was the craziness of the games that winners and placings was a little lost but nobody cared it was definitely the taking part and goading each other to leave the caves which was important.

So another good night at the board game social, even if I did spend most the night playing my own games!

The Bracknell mini meet

Nobody can surpass Paul's commitment to gaming - every other week he travels from Croydon to Bracknell to join Chris and James at the table. So the least Andrew and I (Sam) thought we could do was make the effort to trundle along the M4 and join them - the last time we made the trip was nearly three years ago, and another attendance was long overdue.

The games began in the car, as Andrew and I played our still-unnamed word game we devised about a quarter-century ago in Maidstone. In turn each player says a letter, and the first person to end a word (4 letters or longer) loses. But you can't say any old letter as your opponent can challenge, and if you don't have a word to back your choice up, you lose. Equally if you challenge and your opponent does have a word, you lose (Andrew challenged me on CRESC) We played first to 6 victories and it was a close-run thing:

Sam 6
Andrew 4

(if you play it on a table with scrabble tiles you can insert letters in anywhere, which is a much harder challenge - you might insert a Z into HP, making HZP, thinking your opponent will never think of cHutZPah, only to find they stick an N on the end (making HZPN) and are thinking of scHiZoPhreNia)

We arrived at the Smith's abode where Jacqui, Ashton and Ava were waiting for us. Ostensibly they were watching Enchanted, but as I'd brought them a little present of a game (the crazy-lookin' Galapa Go) the focus quickly changed and we ripped open the packaging. Then we saw there were 12 pages of rules and we packed it away again. However it looks quite easy after all.

Chris arrived having collected Paul from the station, and after a while catching up (I know! Talking!!) Paul, Andrew and I played a game of Hey That's My Fish with Ashton. Ashton knew the rules, but that didn't necessarily mean he was going to follow them like some brain-dead sheep. However, despite threats to fly his penguin over the ice floes, he stuck to the games established parameters, and not only that, pulled off a (joint) victory.

1. Ashton
1. Sam
2. Paul
3. Andrew

Then Paul suggested we try Samurai: The Card Game. We weren't averse to the idea and it has a certain similarity to its chess-ish big brother, in terms of scoring and winning. And also in terms of being very thinky and abstract.

Paul won his first game of his newest purchase: always a good feeling.

1. Paul
2= Andrew
2= Sam

Jacqui then served up a delicious bolognese and berated herself for overdoing the dough balls. It was all great Jacqui! Then there was ice cream and finally, like Victorian gentlemen retiring to the lounge to discuss matters of the world, we played a game whilst the Smiths put the children to bed.

Only the game was Max the Cat, a children's co-operative. As a team we were trying to get three little creatures - a bird, a mouse, and a chipmunk - from the back door to the safety of the garden tree. Potentially spoiling the fun, and alerting young players to concepts such as peril, death, and grieving, is Max. He's chasing them all the way and if he catches them they get devoured.

Fortunately as a team we also had three treats with which to tempt Max back to the house whenever he got too close to the wildlife. Thanks to the treats - and to Paul's canny idea to let Max go past his prey via the shortcuts on the board - we got everybody to safety. Thanks, fellow doomed mortals!

Then Chris returned, James joined us, Bristol and Bracknell truly merged, and we cleared the table in time to pillage the Incan Temples, like the exploitative bastards our forefathers were.

I bailed out early on the first round and watched in horror as loads of gems came out. Then I cackled with glee as most of the others died under a hail of falling rocks. James picked up an enormous cache in the second or third round which made him chip leader. I kept jumping out early which meant I finished the game safe, but of course Incan Gold really rewards - unless it kills them first - the risk-takers:

James 37
Chris 27
Sam 21
Andrew 19
Paul 4

After this we wanted to play something a bit weightier. Paul, enthusiast that he is, was pushing for Ticket to Ride, but it was only really me getting onboard with him. Chris mooted Lords of Waterdeep and despite Andrew and I playing it the night before, we agreed. It's never a trial playing this game.

In contrast to Monday's game I got off to a flier and managed to keep in either first or second place until the end of the game. Again I began with Lord-unfriendly quests but for whatever reason I managed to get a good thing going on - playing a lot of intrigue cards and completing a few relatively low-scoring quests.   Chris was pushing for the lead all the way as Andrew and Paul seemed to struggle James was playing a dark horse/unlit mule type of game, not seeming to do that much before suddenly hurling a load of wizards back into the city/plastic bowl and completing a high-scoring quest.

Despite being hit with Mandatory Quests twice by Chris, I grabbed a win:

Sam 147
Andrew 129
Chris 122
James 110
Paul 110

We'd breezed through the city of Waterdeep in no time and so without further ado we broke out 7 Wonders. Although the Bracknell crew know the game well, as with the previous game, playing with five players was a novelty to them. But there are no rule changes, just some new cards, so we jumped right in. I had the wonder which allows you to build discarded cards for free - which always seems really exciting until the moment you discover a load of abandoned bricks and a compass.

On the other side of the table Paul was building a strong military and Chris was cussing him out. James was specializing in blue buildings and Andrew seemed to be doing a bit of everything. The game ended and we were unsure who was on top - I thought it was me or James, James thought it was me. It was actually James, but nobody realized how well Paul had done until the final count-up:

James 58
Paul 57
Sam 54
Chris 42
Andrew 42

It was now 10.20 and Paul's train left at 11pm. What to do? As I went to the loo they debated, and I was surprised to find on my return they'd plumped for Medici. In half an hour?? Paul said there was a later train if necessary, and we started throwing stuff into the sea like renaissance merchants were prone to do.

Back when GNN was young - pre-blog - we played this A LOT. Then it lay fallow for a while, but it's seen the table a good deal in Bracknell, I believe. Thematically it's kind of nonsensical, as one would presume even in the infancy of trading, merchants would go down to the docks with some kind of mental shopping list and not just take whatever comes off the boat - but as it's a Reiner Knizia it inevitably plays well. I nabbed the gold on round one and scored the best boat. Then I subsequently concentrated more on the colours - specifically red and blue (or cloth and dyes). James and I shot ahead of the others and then James edged ahead of me and up along the score track. And he would have most probably stayed in first place had I not pulled out two jammy tiles at the tail end of the final round - a blue 4, and the gold again.

They say not to sell your soul to the devil but it's working out ok for me.

Sam 128
James 113
Chris 95
Paul 95
Andrew 66

There was just time for a coffee and another brief chat before James headed for home and Chris drove Paul back to the station. By this point I was a little tipsy, but I still managed to push Andrew all the way in a quick game of Hey That's My Fish:

Andrew 52
Sam 48

And then Chris returned. It was only about half eleven and at that hour, what else is there to do but play 7 Wonders again? So we did. This time my wonder encouraged me to go for sciences, so after some cussing out of the sciences, I did.

I don't think any of us played our A-game at this point to be honest, and I was certainly approaching the development of my civilization with a laissez-faire attitude. However my scientists took advantage of this fiscal freedom and went for it in a big way, scoring 40+ points for me in the green buildings. Sadly I cocked up my last move, otherwise I might have pipped Chris at the post:

Chris 61
Sam 59
Andrew 47

It was nearly pumpkin o'clock, so we called it a night, and Andrew and I only returned to games in the loosest of sense on the return journey when we attempted to name all the USA states. We missed out seven: Conneticut, Maryland, Nebraska, North Dakota, Vermont, Wisconsin and Oregon. It's harder than you think… I mean, I can't help thinking Maryland is totally made up.

But then I guess they all are.

Thanks to Chris, Paul and James and not to mention Jacqui and the kids for having us. Hopefully next time will be before 2017.

Three is definitely not a crowd

Tonight’s games night, tucked away in a late Easter holiday, did not attract many gamers. Less than one month ago, we were replete with attendees, with Joe’s flat full to bursting. This time, there were just three of us in Sam’s kitchen: myself, Sam and Ian. Steve and Anja were a late cancellation, so we began our evening’s entertainment as a trio.

First, we went for something quick but not too luck-based. After a quick look over Sam’s games cupboard, Medici caught my eye. A game that was once fated, but is now under-rated, it was brought out as a nice little filler before the main course.

Since it was Ian’s first go, he wasn’t sure of what strategy to take. Sam’s tactics were bolstered by a bit of luck in round one as the Gold tile came out when his two opponents had full boats and couldn’t bid for it. This gave him an early lead that couldn’t be overtaken, and it ended

Sam 181
Andrew 138
Ian 120

After this we asked Ian if he wanted to play something that he already knew. The trouble with being new to gaming: there are so many games to learn just to become even half-knowledgeable. In the end, he chose a game that was new to him: Stone Age. This game of resource management with a gambling edge is definitely a gateway game.

As before, Ian didn’t have a real strategy, but what strategy he had was the same as mine as we both went for civilizations. Sam went for the twin multipliers of meeples and axes, and it served him well, despite having no fields and having to send most of his family to get food every couple of rounds. I also had hut and field multipliers, which got me into second.

Sam 157
Andrew 134
Ian 77

Finally, we decided on a light game to end the evening. If a game involving cruel fate and desperate agonising over the turn of a tile can be described as “light”. We tried to make it more palatable with bingo-style calling from all of us. I started badly, with a first round score of just 84 before two good round propelled me past the other two, who were no doubt too intent on thinking up couplets for each tile. Sam even managed to get a bit of Shakespeare in there.

Andrew 380
Sam 321
Ian 308

And with that, the evening ended, or gaming thirst quenched and our beers all drunk. It was time for that final visit to the toilet, and then home! On the form table, Sam remains in pole position while Ian creates a little bit of history with a score of all threes.

						Points
Sam	2	1	1	2	2	8
Martin	1	1	4	1	2	9
Gonz	1	1	3	4	2	11
Andrew	1	2	2	4	2	11
Joe	3	3	1	3	1	11
Ian	3	3	3	3	3	15
Matt	2	2	1	5	5	15
Will	2	4	2	3	5	16

Paul's Thurn.

On a blustery Wednesday all focus once again turned to the little Tesco bicarbonate of soda container which holds the names of the remaining unplayed games. First out of the pot was quickly returned by Jacquie. Whilst I was upstairs reading the children's stories James had pleaded with her not to pull out Agricola due to his lack of sleep affected fatigue. Next out was Thurn and Taxis. Then Alhambra after a few miss draws.

It had been a while since the game about the 16th century swiss and german postal system had some table time therefore we decided against adding the expansion. A brief recap for all and then it was to the roads, as we began to create meandering routes across the board. Being one of those games where you can only get a feeling of the points total due to the closed scoring rule it was difficult to truly perceive who was ahead. However, it was evident that although James and I had been playing a steady game, Paul had been taking a few more first place tiles than us.

The game has an interesting risk reward mechanism where you need to assess how likely it will be that you will be able to add to your route next turn. Failure to do so means you lose your route and have to start again. In a game where the difference in points is in ones and two's it was vital this didn't happen.

However, I did manage to create a totally unnecessary route and have to start all over again. Not a clever tactic although the way Paul was motoring it made little impact to the final result.

Paul - 39
James - 30
Chris - 26

What should have been next was some palace and wall building in the form of Alhambra. A glance at the time showed that we wouldn't make it for Paul's train so instead we plumped for a non "leaderboard" game of Medici. This game will be remembered (if at all) for the gold cargo that appeared in every round causing havoc and the brutal bidding which saw a lot of cargo tossed into the sea, deemed so inferior that it was better to have nothing in it's place! My small leads in the first two rounds was eroded by some astute cheap purchasing by Paul. Greatly overpaying to be first in the boats saw my lead disappear as the goods were totalled. Another win for Paul!

Paul - 135
Chris - 115
James - 89

The Table so far:

Chris - 3
James - 2
Paul -1

Bad Lieutenant

Friday, and I realised the next three nights I'd be home alone, bar the gentle snoring of Stanley and Joe upstairs. I quickly despatched some desperate texts and managed to wrangle two people to play with me - GNN linchpin Andrew, and Matt, who has been tempted to join us for some time but until now unable to.

It was not exactly a baptism of fire. We didn't start with Brass - I don't have it, for a start. And I don't remember it. But Lords of Waterdeep, whilst being friendly to the newcomer, offers enough depth to feel like there's something going on beneath the surface. Matt might be new to GNN but he's played his fair share of games - Samurai and Cosmic Encounter were mentioned - and quickly got up to speed.

Unfortunately for him he picked up the Lieutenant quest. Normally that'd be a good thing, but the Lieutenant has history with us of being a little too effective, and Andrew was not about to let Matt get him operative early in the game. Matt's cubes became targeted as Andrew began a series of intrigues down at the docks, and whilst he forwent helping Matt out I became the grateful recipient of a bunch of intrigue by-products.

Andrew was going for his big-scoring quests, and surged into an early lead. Matt was trying to recruit the Lieutenant but became side-tracked with other, more achievable targets, and didn't actually recruit him until the end of round four.

consider yourself placated

I was smiled on by fate. The first quests I completed were Plot Quests and gave me cubes and money whenever I picked up Fighters or Rogues. Andrew and Matt both built buildings that gave both resources. And I had a Lord who rewarded Warfare and Skullduggery Quests - which in the main require fighters and rogues. Though I only managed one big mission I accrued a series of small ones, and picked up 48 points at the end of the game. Matt also had concentrated on the bonus missions, and skipped past Andrew into second for an impressive debut second place at LoW:

Sam 227
Matt 194
Andrew 192

As has been said many times - except by Adam - it's such a good game. Once you know the basic premise - complete quests - almost everything else pretty much explains itself.

It was still fairly early, so we decided on Medici as a reasonably short game. A few years back this got played a lot but Andrew and I were both a bit rusty on the rules. For those not in the know, the idea is you go down to the docks three mornings in a row and try and maximize what you're picking up from the ships unloading there. Similar to Ra in that you can play it safe or push your luck; either can end up the winning strategy depending on what the luck is - for both you and others.

a shipment of toilet brushes were thrown in the sea

Matt and I began well and after rounds one and two we were fighting over the lead while Andrew lagged ten or so points back. But in the final round I was out-savvyed by both and ended up with a free set of junk - I was lucky to scramble past Matt in the final reckoning, but we both stared open-mouthed as Andrew cut a swathe through the docks, picking up most valuable boat and beating us out on the colored bonuses on the board:

Andrew 156
Sam 119
Matt 111

Matt unsurprisingly was more enamored of Waterdeep than Medici, and though I like some things about Knizia's boat auctioning, I was surprised we played it so much once upon a time. But I guess that was before Joe and I lost all self-control over games purchasing...

Nice to see Matt and hopefully, now he sees his name on the leaderboard, he won't be able to resist joining us one Tuesday soon!

						Points
Adam	2	2	2	1	3	10
Andrew	1	3	1	3	3	11
Gonz	1	1	3	5	2	12
Sam	2	1	3	1	5	12
Chris	1	1	3	4	5	14
Joe	4	2	3	3	2	14
Quentin	4	1	1	5	3	14
Matt	3	2	5	5	5	20
Hannah	2	5	5	5	5	22
Steve	2	5	5	5	5	22
Anja	3	5	5	5	5	23

Elephant in the room

Last night saw the welcome return of Taj Mahal for the Bracknell collective. Paul and I had played it once yonks ago and James was new to it therefore we spent the first 20 minutes or so in a crash course rules refresher. The rules seem to hint at a complicated game but as with the first time I played it, after the first round the mechanics become straight forward. Keeping abreast of the different scoring possibilities proved tricky for us and at one point we had to perform a count back as we were adding a point for every palace placed.

James and I were quickly into a bunch of heavy bidding wars for early territories while Paul sat back waited to see where the dust settled. James identified link between the provinces to be a key to victory whereas I felt getting goods and the elephant tiles as the way to go. As the game developed Paul came more into it. This game has a lovely balancing mechanism where winning a round of bidding can see you dominate a province but repeated wins means you retain fewer cards and are left with just one to add.

Everybody loves the Palace colours

Cards mean power in the bidding and thus it proved that I lost out in the latter stages to Paul's fist full of cards. Such as it was that my game trailed away like a toy boat pushed out to the middle of a pond. The initial shove showed great direction and promise but eventually it just ended up floating around aimlessly going nowhere. Unlike that cracking analogy! Inbox me if you require similar - it's no trouble.

I really fancy a curry

So Paul's late surge made the game a lot closer than it maybe looked half way through, James' Palace links making the difference.

James - 55
Chris - 48
Paul - 45

Then with time short we chose one of our favourites, Medici. There must have been some rustiness as I was allowed to load fairly generous cargos for relatively little money. Although it must be stated I was lucky with one draw where I needed a 5 to win the ships total for my last space and actually drew it out!

Chris - 163
James - 121
Paul - 114

Plow Factor Beats Wow Factor

For the second time in a week, Chris and James faced each other, farmers at the ready, for another game of Agricola. But this time, Paul was along for the plough ride. Literally, because Paul was dealt the much-envied (okay, twice-envied) riding plow in his hand of minor improvements. But first he played the clay pit and specialised in clay, threatening to disappear behind clay as he stacked it up.

James was determined to sow some grains this time round, but he fanned out his hands of cards and the cards told him instead to build a sprawling farmhouse so good it could feature on Grand Designs. In the meantime, Chris showed signs of dabbling in a bit of everything. Again. 

Paul didn’t actually do much of anything with his hoard of clay. Instead, he was again drawn to the sheep, collecting them up and promising them a good life (most got eaten). Chris soon had a frenzied grain industry on the go but also did up his farmhouse, often snatching reed and stone just before James reached for it. James’ architectural plans had the need for reed, but reed baron Chris hogged the lot, even flaunting his reed pond full of, erm, reed.

James treaded water, well fed as he was with his fishing rod and his fruit orchard. Paul took his riding plow for a spin, rapidly surrounding his sheep with fields before planting his grain. Chris grumbled constantly that he was falling behind even as his windmill churned out the foodstuff. But if the grass seemed greener on the other side, it was only because James, once again, wasn’t really doing anything in it.

James' field is looking a bit empty unlike farmer Paul's!

New Starburst Morphs were tried and the ceiling was stared at as the players tried to guess what flavours were morphing in their mouths. Ever-changing they were not and Wonker-style wonder was not achieved.

Again, the game’s end loomed too soon over the horizon. James searched his occupations cards for a chrono-mancer, hoping something would stop the march of game-time. But just as he completed the most splendid five-room farmhouse of stone, he could do little else but once again fence off his entire board as a single, empty pasture. With no points for tumbleweeds, he knew he was doomed to last place.

Paul seemed quietly confident, adding a few flourishes to his farming utopia. Chris couldn’t hide his frustration at his unused squares and regretted doing up his farmhouse as much as he had.

The scoring was totted up. Paul had done it, though only by a fairly small margin. An award-winning farm, run from an undeveloped farmhouse, marked by an unused pile of clay. Chris’ farm came second, all windmill and waste ground. James needs to swear on someone’s life that he will actually sow some grain next time. But nobody especially close, in case he doesn’t.

Final score: Paul 37, Chris 34, James 24.  

A quick glance at the clock and it was decided a game of Medici would end the night nicely. James rubbed his miserly merchant hands and readied his pea-green ship. James’ fingertips were gold magnets and he roared ahead, twice finding gold and having the best ship in all three rounds. Chris was always in second place, Paul always in third.

Final score: James 170, Chris 121, Paul 115.

Report by Paul, rumoured to be ghost written by James.

More shared glory

I decided to give poor old James a break from reading rules to new games this week and declared that we would select from my improving back catalogue of titles. I piled up the most likely picks at the end of the table and revelled in the delicate selection process. To my surprise El Grande was plucked from the mini wall and I couldn't have been happier.

All three of us adopted differing tactics from the start. I spread my men very thinly over the whole board in an attempt to gain influence whereas James hoarded his chaps in court and opted to see how the land lay and Paul banished his voters to the castillo in order to perform his favourite "Shock troops" move. With the usual jiggery pokery taking place over home territories the scores remained close. Paul then pulled a high risk "Jefferies" move where he redistributed all of his cabelleros from one region all over the board. It was something like 8 pieces and neither James or I came out very well from it. When it came to the last scoring round Paul and James had cleverly exhausted their cabelleros whereas I still had a stack unable to be used having played a fairly miserly game of bringing in just what I needed. The upshot of this was James' home region Basque Country being the most congested I've ever seen with at least 20 guys in there. Thankfully the king was on it at the end to prevent anymore being stuffed in.

Paul's air dropping tactic came up trumps this time granting him his first win ages.

Paul - 147
Chris - 141
James - 135

Then on to Medici after Alhambra was craftily discounted by me.

My really boring tactic of winning the boat count saw me coming in first after some tense bidding rounds and out right luck.

Chris - 158
Paul - 153
James - 105

In the next round of Medici James and Paul made sure I paid a lot more heavily for my tiles and my boat tactic went up in smoke. Again some fortuitous final draws from the bag made this an exciting and unpredictable game. James' usurping in me in indigo in his final cargo haul was enough to reel me in and gain an impressive win.

James - 131
Chris - 120
Paul - 117

So we all won a game which was nice.

3 Wonders

We three of Bracknell sat down again to play another of my new birthday games 7 Wonders. Even though Paul has played twice before it is not one that will stick in his memory and, as the last two times, spent the entire first game saying "I have no idea what I'm doing"

James though, had come prepared as he had spent the afternoon boning up on the rules. I remembered that I had always done fairly well by being ahead in military and picking a few technologies and true to form thats what I did. There's something about those military cards that brings out the belligerent in me. All those shiny swords and polished shields...I don't know... Anyway whilst I was flexing my muscle admiring myself in the reflection of my gladius James had gone all hippy on us and had a incredible stack of culture cards. Looking at it I considered it might become a problem. In the meantime Paul scratched his head and looked on.

And all so quickly, as it always does, the third age finished and we began the exciting totalling up process. James and I tied for first place but due to my greater money total I squeaked into first.

Chris - 55 - 3 money score
James - 55 - 1 money score
Paul - 41

The second game flowed a lot more naturally with everybody now accumulating the correct resources and markets allowing us heightened purchasing power. James once again ate up all the culture cards, I grabbed military and guilds, and Paul went all sciencey. James won with a flourish and posted a reminder to me to not let him get all those culture cards again. They really score big!

James - 53
Paul - 45 - 5 money score
Chris - 45 - 3 money score

We finished up with a hotly contested game of Medici which saw the result come down to what tiles came out of the bag for James' last cargo hold. A 0, 1 , 2 would have seen me win the "biggest boat" score but it wasn't to be as nice plump 4 rolled out.

James - 145
Chris - 135
Paul - 102

Ship of fools.

Due to my kids chunder fest on Sunday night games night was postponed to Wednesday this week. I had got three new games for my birthday and I was itching to get one of them played. We opted for Medici, rules are simple to learn and it has a quick playing time. So quick in fact that we managed to play three games on the trot but I'm getting ahead of myself here.

The first game for the newbie merchant ship captains was a curious mix of badly over bidding for goods and random tactics so it is probably little wonder that I came out on top. In this game each player spent a little time out in front.  It was quite incredible that the final score spread was only 5 points.

Chris - 129
James - 126
Paul - 124

Afterwards with all present staring at the board it was generally agreed that this was a smashing game with James going as far to say that it was his new favourite, of the shorter games.

So to round two, where I played a mean game of only bidding on the high tiles. A couple of winning ships later and I had quite the lead. It turned out to be enough in the end with neither Paul or James being able to mount a comeback.

Chris - 165
James - 123
Paul - 104

It seems in our last game that James had learnt all my tricks (Whatever they were) and sailed off round the scoring track, momentarily looking back over his shoulder every now and again to sail off in a puff of spices.

James - 169
Chris - 127
Paul - 107

For our final game we thought we'd give Web of Power another spin. This time it was a very cagey game with a few complete territories not even broken by the first scoring round, which James edged. I fell into my usual flawed tactic of spreading my advisors around the place and running out of them James and Paul managed a much more focused approach and in the end some canny placement by James won him the game even if he did think he had a road of 11 cloisters. It was actually one of 6 and one of 5 which only made the total of...........11. HAHAHA.

By this point we had all shared a big bag of Maltesers and a similar sized bag of skittles. I think we were all on a sugar rush...

James - 64
Paul - 53
Chris - 48

Hannah and her systems

It seems that Thursday is too late in the week for some of us hardy gamers, and so it was that Adam and Hannah hosted a Monday evening for the cardboard-deprived.

At first, there were four of us: the aforementioned hosts and Sam and myself. Joe was due to arrive later in the evening.

We began with an old favourite, Medici. Once upon a time, it was over-played and fell out of favour, but recently nostalgia has set in at GNN Towers and old games are being reassessed. And so, after a brief rule refresher, we were trading goods and chucking them in the sea with gay abandon.

It was a game of differing strategies. Sam spent big, while I picked up unwanted cargo for next to nothing. Hannah almost handed the game to Adam when she pulled two tiles worth five from the bag, when they could only be bought by Adam. However, as it turned out, Hannah's strategy runs a little deeper than that. And Adam's doesn't.

Hannah 118
Sam 114
Adam 109
Andrew 87

After this, Joe was expected soon. We contemplated Biblios, but instead we went for the slightly more challenging Ra. Another classic that recently come back into favour, this is another bidding game, this time hoping for favours from the gods, a flooding Nile and advances in architecture in return for points.

It ended with a second win for Hannah, despite her claim that she's rubbish at bidding games.

Hannah 36
Sam 34
Adam 33
Andrew 26

During this game, Joe arrived and spent his time waiting for us to finish by looking over the rules of Libertalia, Sam's new game. This game is in the style of Citadels or Mission Red Planet, in that everyone has an identical hand of cards from which they play their characters who have effects/bonuses that effect the way the game plays out.

While I enjoyed it, we did notice that the cards in the final round (at the start of each round, one player chooses their cards randomly from a pack of about thirty, and then the other players make up a hand of the same cards) did not make for exciting or fun times. And, unlike Citadels, there are no occasions when one character will stop another, which means there's little opportunity for deliberate sabotage. As Sam said on the drive home, it is a lot like everyone is playing their own game.

Another problem with the game was that we started far too late in the evening. It said it was a short game on the box, but it was our first time and we spent ten minutes looking up a rule on the internet. This posed a unique problem in the annals of GNN history: Hannah's bed time.

We had completed two rounds out of three when she retired, and the scores were

Hannah 64
Joe 62
Adam 52
Sam 51
Andrew 45

The four of us carried on through the final round, and it ended

Adam 91
Joe 90
Sam 74
Andrew 64

But how should this be scored? It can't be considered two separate games (as Keeper Of The Spreadsheet, I won't allow it) so is it a first place for Adam or Hannah? For now, I've left it off the form table completely, but we need an official decision.

On the form table, Sam gets rid of that "6" and moves up to second as a result. I continue on my journey southwards. At least I can't go any further.

EDIT: with the scores from Libertalia in, we now see Hannah jump up to second, with Adam up to third.

						Points
Anja	2	1	2	2	3	10
Hannah	4	1	1	2	3	11
Adam	1	3	3	1	4	12
Joe	2	3	1	2	4	12
Sam	3	2	2	4	2	13
Steve	1	2	2	4	6	15
Jon	3	5	1	5	5	19
Andrew	4	4	4	5	3	20