Played in Wales

A week in Wales with Mark, Katie, and the four sprogs meant that as well as the beach, chips and ice cream, we got plenty of gaming time as well. I took a couple of bags worth and all but three got played at some stage. Daytimes were often taken up with surfing...

Joe gets a push from Mark

...whereas the night - or the odd patch of rain - was about gaming. The hit of the week with Stanley and Peppa was Ninjato. I touched on this previously, but have since delved further into its depths with another four plays this week. I remain utterly terrible at it, whilst Stan won every time, to mine and Peppa's growing despair. It's fun calling Banzai, though the more I play the less 'lucky' the game feels - it's a tactical battle to keep control of Envoys and start rumours, which are as pertinent here as the cards in Stone Age.

Four skills, but I got nowhere

The early evenings were dominated by Insider, which everyone could and did get involved with. We played too many of these to count, but I was the Insider only once and every other player accused me! The successful Insiders, I noticed, didn't get too vociferous about accusing anyone. Sally was a terrible Insider too, but that was only because as soon as anyone accused her she hid her face in her hands. Mark, Katie and Peppa had the most success, whilst I offset my serial defeats with the joy to be found in the natural world outside:

that black thing is a bottle-nosed dolphin!

The other game that all the kids played was In a Bind - this was the Junior version, where there is marginally less physical challenge but the addition of making animal noises/waving/talking in a deep voice etc when you pick up a card. This is more fun than it might sound after a couple of glasses of the good stuff, but obviously the kids played it sober and seemed to like it too.

Peppa and Joe drew

Peppa, Stan and I also had a few goes at Cobras, which is another one I enjoy without ever getting close to winning. The closest I got was second place with game abandoned due to the late hour and surfing fatigue. I have never been so reluctant to bail on a game!

We managed one game of Near and Far, which my win at made some amends for continual thrashings on the Ninjato board. Mine and Stan's campaign game continues with me holding a slender lead overall...

Peppa and Stanley, both Near

...often the evenings had some kind of dance focus though, with Just Dance 2017 on the Nintendo galvanising all ages - with the exception of Joe - onto the floor. I have promised not to add any photos or videos of this, though, and considering some of them involve a balding tubster with no sense of rhythm, I'm happy to stick to that.

After kids had been scrambled to bed, we struck upon a pattern of Barenpark and Bandu. I had far more success in these arenas than I did Ninja-ing, Cobra-ing or Dancing, although Mark picked up a couple of wins in Barenpark. Tessellating bear houses was Katie's game of the week; in fact, although we also bashed out Wibbell and Honshu as well, Barenpark and Bandu were the nightly staples. Bandu got typically tense, and everyone had to perfect their 'Bandu Breath' - breathing off to one side so as not to disturb the fragile structures on the table...

Katie, breathing east

Late in the week though I thought it was worth introducing Mark to Flamme Rouge, which he fell in love with. It was a drunken Thursday night with everyone else in bed when we played three games in a row, Mark winning 2-1 with a deathly finish on the final race to clinch it!

This tablecloth did my nut in all week

We tried to introduce Katie to this cycling classic on our last night, but she felt she had done enough rule-learning for one week. So we stuck with Barenpark and Bandu, and when the ladies retired to bed Mark and I set up Flamme Rouge for one last race/game of the week; which Mark won, again on the final stretch!

We returned - heavy legged from the beach and heavy headed from margaritas, but sated. A lot of fun - Can't wait for Novocon now!

When Ben Rode the Snail

Tuesday, and despite a flurry of last-minute drop outs, there were still seven of us gathered around my kitchen table - Ian, Martin, Laura, Chris, Andrew, myself and long-time absentee Ben, who hadn't been seen in these here parts for a good half a year. Welcome back Ben!

We began the evening with a rousing game of Fuji Flush. This game's potential for volume is now nearing Hugo-like proportions, as the table regularly erupted in joy or dismay - but most often dismay. Andrew and Martin were down to their final card first, only for Laura, Ian and I to join them. Laura had the misfortune to pick up cards valued no higher than 4 though, which meant she kept going bust. My cards weren't much better. And fate was sealed when the Endersby/Griffith pair combined to win the game together:

Andrew/Martin 0 cards left
Ian/Laura/Sam 1 card left
Ben/Chris 3 cards left

With that appetiser out of the way, we moved on to the main courses of the evening. Ian seemed curious enough about Near and Far that we thought it worth recruiting another player, and Ben joined us at one end of the table as the other four played the barrel-rolling game that is Polterfass. I didn't see much of this, but I did hear that at one point Martin drank 46 beers. Really, the game should be called something else. It wasn't enough to out-booze Laura, either:

Laura 77
Martin 62
Chris 38
Andrew 6

 Nefertiti

They then set about haggling over presents for Nefertiti, whilst we continued adventuring in Near and Far. As explained in the previous post, there's a strong story element to the game, but the gist of it is that you're gathering adventurers to go off together and adventure, with the not-totally-hidden agenda of getting your camps down before anyone else - competitive tent-pitching, in a way. We don't mind bumping into each other on the road but if it happens in town, we have a duel, as appearances must be kept up.

Near and Far

Certain spots on the board trigger story elements where one reads out a passage from a book and something happens - or, as occurred to us, nothing happens. At least that was how the early stages went. Then Ben rescued a lady from a cage, and rode a giant snail. But his rewards were a phobia of caves and sores on his backside.

As you travel about you're gathering coins and gems - how many depends on how attentive your crew is - and spending them to purchase artefacts. Your crew can also help you fight and negotiate hazards. But somewhat perversely the adventurers don't like sharing space with other adventurers from their own faction, so there's a bit of personnel juggling at play.

Ian at the saloon

Over in ancient Egypt, they came to the end of Nefertiti before we finished Near and Far, and Chris won the Pharaoh's favour, despite buying the titular character a bunch of chairs - much to Martin's disdain:

Chriss 113
Andrew 89
Martin 88
Laura 84

They moved onto the trick-taker of the moment, Cobras, whilst we surged toward the end of our adventuring. It was a close-run thing, but in the end Ian won on his debut, whilst Ben was left to rue his decision to ride the snail:

Ian 68
Sam 65
Ben 54

Cobras was still in full swing, so Ben called it a night and Ian and I bashed out a couple of quick games in NMBR9 - the nines came out right at the end!

Sam 93
Ian 90

And 303, the Battle of Britain-themed bunfight in the air. Ian's job as the Luftwaffe was to reach London with his bomber, while my fighters tried to stop him. The Luftwaffe has fighters as well, but they are trying to shepherd the bomber forward and keep it from being attacked.

Ian attacks

It's a quite luck-heavy game (dice-rolling decides hits) but very-fast moving. Fortunately for London - and the world - I managed to blow up the bomber on round five:

Allies win
Nazis are defeated

By now they were scoring Cobras, and although Andrew had emerged the victor, every single one them broke the hundred mark!

Andrew 132
Martin 127
Laura 103
Chris 100

We polished off the evening with a game of Wibbell, notable in the main for Martin's alacrity of thought and Chris' silence until the last few rounds, where he suddenly burst into life and shouted out "Zither!" Or maybe that was Andrew. I don't remember now. I do recall shouting out "Moustachioed!" only to be beaten to the punch. If only I'd gone for Pistachio instead.

Martin 14
Sam 12
Andrew 8
Laura 6
Chris/Ian 4 each

It's a great game, Wibbell, but surprisingly tense. Possibly better as an evening-starter rather than an evening-ender? I was energised by it, but with the clock approaching 11, it was time to say goodnight.

Near and Far and back again

I had been intrigued by Near and Far for a little while, as it combines some of the kind of friendly mechanics I like with a storybook, somewhat in the manner of Tales of the Arabian Nights. Due to finally selling off an accordion (long story) I'd gone a bit meeple-crazy and purchased it.

The conceit - you are adventurers seeking a long lost land that will grant you your greatest wish, or something. The game comes with a book of maps, and each map functions as a game board. You can play all eleven as a campaign game, or just treat each one as an individual (replayable) one-off in the arcade version. There's no Legacy-style tearing of cards or writing on the board here so the game isn't finite.

Stan and I played the introductory game, which reminded me a little of Raiders of the North Sea - in the viking game, you gather crew to go and plunder. Here, you gather adventurers to go off and - well, have an adventure. It's altogether gentler than Raiders, with any stop containing a Quest token meaning your opponent reads from the storybook and you choose from two choices as to how to proceed. There's a skill roll involved, so it's possible nothing happens - but there are few bad outcomes; at least at this stage of the game...

from front: adventure map; town board, tea towel

Outside of ending up with one leg in a Baghdad jail with a bad omen following you, the story element is rather like the Arabian Nights: there's a mystery to it and obviously having choices makes it more immersive than it might otherwise be.

The rest of the game is made of the Stuff Martin Hates: collect things, use them in different ways. There's a slightly point-salady feel to it all, albeit not in the realms of a Feld game. Adventurers help you in combat, they help you find things, they help you with skill rolls. You buy artefacts that may help you in the game. You can establish trade routes on the map. That stuff is all very straightforward.

adventurers! backpack! tents!

The slightly less intuitive aspect is the player interaction. When you're not out rambling the mystical lands, you're in the town, crewing up, digging for gems in the mine, or making sandwiches ready for your next adventure. At this point the carefree, bucolic adventuring becomes decidedly more hostile, as players cannot stand to be in the same building as each other, and if we bump into each other at the General Store or in the Saloon, it always ends in a punch-up.

If the active player wins they gain (or lose) reputation, depending on whether they fought nobly (or dirty) and they then use the building as standard. If the defending player wins, the active player goes to jail to cool off for the night. With two of us, there's Dirk to consider as well - he's always at the town hall, and forever in a terrible mood.

I hadn't quite cottoned on to the fact that the game ends when someone has pitched all their camps - either out on the adventure map, or in the mine - and was caught slightly cold by Stan who wrapped things up with a 46 - 33 victory.

this bird is carrying a sack

We both enjoyed it though and decided to play again this evening, embarking on the first round of the campaign game. The only real difference here - at least, until I discover there are more - is that for every interaction with the storybook whether successful or not, you gain some experience. At the end of the game - or games - you can cash these in to give your character skills (a lá Arabian Nights again) which they can use in the next game, and onwards.

This time, despite ending the game with a terrible reputation, I had built a cornucopia of artefacts, all of which was enough to see off Stan this time, winning 72-53.

It's nice. The various cards are more finely balanced than Raiders, and the productive nature of your turns plus the strong story element will make it appeal to Andrew and Ian, I think. It's less feisty than Raiders too - there's no down-side as the defender in a duel, and after spending the night in jail you can go wherever in town you like with no risk of duelling. I think it does a more streamlined story job than Arabian Nights, though not necessarily better: the comedy regularly apparent in Nights is mostly absent here. At least until your wife hears you say you've just purchased a meteor pickaxe, anyway.