You Ankhers

Saturday night’s alright for fighting, according to Elton John, but recently it’s also been alright for gaming. Sam hosted while his wife’s absence meant he was housebound. The evening started early since Sam’s oldest son, Stanley, was keen for a game of Lords of Waterdeep, with little Joe in charge of distributing cubes.

Matt texted to say he couldn’t make it, so there were four of us around the table: myself, Sam, Stanley and Ian. Waterdeep is familiar enough to all of us that no introduction is necessary. I made sure I always had plenty of money coming in, while Stanley had a powerful machine for collecting Intrigue cards. At the end, Stanley came first, and I was trying to win quite hard.

Stanley 122
Sam 114
Andrew 112
Ian 103

Martin turned up and watched the end of the game. He noted with approval Stanley’s low-key celebrations on winning. After that, Sam put his children to bed, and the rest of us played Biblios. Martin told us that the real tie-breaker was amount of gold left in your hand (how boring). This game was remarkable for no one going for orange, and so it was discarded at the end of the game. Also, there were loads of church cards making things complicated.

Martin 7
Ian 3 (+7 gold)
Andrew 3 (+4 gold)

Sam rejoined us and we decided on a new game: Nefertiti. This is a game of bidding on cards at a constantly changing set of market places. Once the not difficult rules were explained, we were off. Winning an auction means you can take either two cards, or one card that has the royal seal on it. Then on your next go, you can trade these seals for special actions (or keep them for three point each). And after each turn, the player passes on the ankh to his neighbour so we can keep track of whose go it is.

Collecting sets is good, unless other people are collecting the same sets. Then the value of both sets goes down. We all started well, going for the same special action of immediately scoring a set in your hand. But Sam and Martin later managed to build up a new sets that only they had, sending them far ahead of me and Ian.

Martin 146
Sam 134
Andrew 98
Ian 82

It was a lot of fun, and with each market having different criteria for closing the auction, it never got boring or samey. I think we shall be playing this again soon.

Then, to finish of, Mutineer was brought to the table for the first time in –oooh – over a year at least. I was quite drunk by now, but as I recall we sailed round in circles while Sam was captain for most of the game. The least mutinous game of mutineer ever. His bribes for support were so consistent (always one point) that we decided it was more like a wage than a bribe. How anyone else ever had the right goods for the island we were heading to is a mystery to me.

Finally, we noted that the amusingly titled island Fingerhut is actually one of the duller places on the table.

Martin 53
Sam 31
Andrew 19
Ian 18

And with that, it was over. Nice to have a new game like Nefertiti that’s fun and challenging, and also nice to be reminded that Mutineer is a good game.

I’m too tired to do a form table just now, but be aware that Martin is just two away from a perfect five.

Mutiny, plagues and dragons

All in an evening's work for the core four members of Games Night News. Sam, Adam, Joe and me arrived at Sam's place for the night's cardboard entertainment.

We began with a board game without a board, if you can imagine such a thing. I think they're called "card games". However, this game straddled the world between the two. Some of the cards acted as the board, while other cards were... cards.

The game in question was Mutineer, a game in which players have to choose their role each turn in the hope that this will maximise their returns for that round. If you're captain (or a successful mutineer) you can get points for controlling the ship as it comes into harbour. A merchant gets favourable results if there's a tie in the trading section. That guy who carries things around (I forget his proper title) gets a wider choice of cards for the next round. Meanwhile, the Ships' Mate and the Cabin Boy are basically hangers-on, hoping that they can get points for helping the captain or mutineer respectively.

As we sailed around the table, we noted that this is a very social game, with a lot of opportunity for discussion and coffee-housing. The rules are confusing at first (there are no less than ten phases to a round) and it certainly needs a handy summary for each player. We did have one, but it was in German.

I liked it. As I said, a lot of banter, and there's certainly room for bluffing and counter-bluffing. I'm still not sure of the correct tactic, though. The trading bit is a little confusing, but I'm sure it'll become clearer with practise.

Adam 35
Andrew 26
Joe 25
Sam 21

After this, another new game was brought to the table. It was another card game, but this was simpler due to the fact that each card told you what it did. It was Plague and Pestilence, a silly game of disaster management in the face of everything the Middle Ages could throw at you.

Mongol hordes, Wars, Crusades, Floods, anything you can think of. Even the Pied Piper turns up to annoy people. In the first part of the game you roll dice and play cards to increase your population (while trying to stem the growth of others) and then the plague ship arrives, and then game changes. Although, frankly, with a name like "plague ship", I'm amazed they let it in the harbour. But I digress.

After this point, the dice rolls take population away, and it's a case of who can last the longest. Joe succumbed first to the plague with me in third. By the end, only Adam had people left alive although he wasn't sure why. It's another game that involves a lot of interaction, even if most of that is inflicting terrible things on your opponents.

1. Adam
2. Sam
3. Andrew
4. Joe

One last game was suggested, and then Joe remembered he had honey-roasted pretzel pieces! Was it too late for such a treat? Let's decide after we've eaten them! We chose Tsuro as a nice quick game to end the evening. This timeless classic of ancient light cycles is still a favourite of mine. But myself and Joe blundered desperately as we drew ourselves into the same corner with no hope of escape. After a few rounds of running parallel to each other, I was able to dispatch of Joe first, but only slightly before I feel off the edge myself.

The main tussle was between Sam and Adam. They had more space to play with, and as options ran out for Sam, it looked like Adam would take a third win of the evening. But no! He put down the wrong tile on his penultimate go, and was left with no choice but to send himself to his doom! Sam won!

1. Sam
2. Adam
3. Andrew
4. Joe

All of which sees a familiar face back at the top of the form table.

						Points
Adam	2	1	1	3	1	8
Sam	1	2	4	1	3	11
Andrew	3	3	2	2	2	12
Hannah	2	1	5	5	5	18
Joe	4	4	3	3	4	18