Seven Lords a-leaping

This week’s Tuesday happened at Sam’s house. Of course, it happened in lots of other places, too, but the most important bit happened at Sam’s

We began as a quintet: the host, Sam and then Martin, Katy, Andy and myself. While we waited for the final two of the group to arrive, we played Abluxxen. Katy said she’d hated the game the last time she played it, but she decided now that her work-life balance was better than it was back then, she was willing to give it another go.

Katy did enjoy it more this time, but that could be because (a) we only played one round, and (b) she came second. I couldn’t get my five threes down on the table without them being abluxxed back into my hand, and Sam started the game with seven out of his initial thirteen cards as singles.

Martin 12
Katy 9
Sam 8
Andrew 7
Andy 2

Then Sam’s family came back from wherever they’d been and Ian arrived. Stanley wanted to play a game, and so Midnight Party was brought to the table. Andy had to make a call, so the five of us circled around this oh-so-familiar corridor before dashing into doors in a sort of tabletop version of Musical Chairs. Notable events were four Hugos in a row, wiping out half the board and also Katy’s full lap that she had to do with Hugo chasing her after she carelessly wandered past the final empty room. And she did all this without swearing.

Ian 17
Andrew 28
Martin 38
Stanley 40
Katy 53

After this, we split into two. Joe was now in attendance with his usual touting of Lords Of Vegas. Sam suggested Lords of Waterdeep as an alternative, and when Andy said he hadn’t played either, he was recruited to Waterdeep, complete with the Skullport expansion. The left the almost impossible task of Martin and Katy playing a quiet game of Lords of Vegas together, with Ian and Joe making up the quartet.

In the front room, rules were explained and before long we were off, recruiting and questing and picking up skulls (minus points) for choosing the most powerful actions. Or, as Sam put it, “going dirty”.

Despite it being Andy’s first go, he took to it very quickly, and we all stuck together pretty close as we went around the scoretrack. Andy, however, cursed his indecision when he didn’t pick up a quest in the seventh round, thinking he couldn’t complete it, only to realise that he could’ve done after all.

My best move was probably taking a 40-point quest, with no intention of completing it, just so the others couldn’t get it. Sam collected and then returned skulls. He was disappointed that he had the plot quests that involved owning buildings, but he never built any buildings. “The complete opposite of building an engine” he said, and we all chuckled, fluent in gaming terminology.

Andy 158
Andrew 140
Sam 138

Meanwhile, in Vegas the big winner was Ian who must have done something good in a previous life as two mega-casinos dropped into his lap when another player rolled a bunch of dice to gain ownership of them. Add to this that each time Joe sprawled into a vacant lot, its real owner turned up later to claim it, and it must have been a typically cruel game.

Ian 44
Katy 23 (plus cash)
Joe 23
Martin 16

Then, while we were finishing off Lords of Waterdeep, they squeezed in a quick game of Imperium, one of the games from the Knizia compendium. I didn’t really get it, but Joe understood it well enough to win the final two big-scoring rounds and end the game in a comfortable first.

Joe 26
Martin 20
Katy 16
Ian 15

At this point Katy and I bowed out, leaving the remaining five to bang out a couple of games of Pairs.

Ian 22
Sam 21
Joe 10
Andy 8
Martin 4

Andy 24
Joe 20
Ian 18
Martin 11
Sam 7

On the Division, Martin ends my bafflingly long stay at the top, and Sam loses his points ratio lead to Adam.

The Gin Genie

A new venue, a new era. Tonight saw the inaugural GNN meet held at Katy’s. We were five in total: our new host, Martin, Andy (who both supplied the games, otherwise it would have been Deep Sea Adventure all night), Ian and me.

After a brief spell of chat while Martin went to Sainsbury’s to get beer, we began with Why First? The racing game of coming in second. It was pretty difficult to describe, since Katy had difficulty with the fact that winning didn’t mean being in first. The game was played over five rounds, with only the person placed in second getting any points. At the end of five rounds, the person who came in second overall is the winner. So it doesn’t even reward who was best at coming in second!

The game is simple, hand cards ranging from -5 to +5 to other players or yourself to push meeples up and down the track. Whoever’s in second gets the points according to the space they were on at the time. I got picked on for no reason, allowing Andy to deftly get himself into a joint second place. By which I mean joint first place. Other places were decided according to how far away they were from second place (or first place, if you prefer).

1. Martin 6
1. Andy 6
2. Katy 5
2. Ian 7
3. Andrew 0

After this, Martin introduced us to his compendium of Riener Knizia games Neue Spiele im Alten Rom. This is a compilation of 14 admittedly abstract games which have all been given an Ancient Rome theme. It comes complete with a huge rule book and a flattering picture of Reiner Knizia as the Roman’s might have drawn him. Sort of.

We played Circus Maximus, the chariot racing game. Each player has cards from 1 to 5 to share amongst their three chariots, but you have to take care: you can’t barge into other chariots, meaning that it’s possible to get stuck in a position where you can’t move and a card is wasted.

We did our best to get in each others’ way, but it was Katy who won the day, deftly guiding all three chariots back to salute Ceaser. The rest of us got two back, with Andy getting his second in before us, giving him second place.

1.Katy
2.Andy
3.Martin
4.Ian
5.Andrew

It’s a great addition to the collection, and perfect for when we want a quick Kniz Fix.

Katy now offered her selection of flavoured gins, which we all indulged in. Very nice they were too.

Then we played Deep Sea Adventure. Martin and Andy seemed doubtful that it would be much fun with five players, but I don’t know what they meant. I had a great time. Not many people drowned (to Martin’s disappointment) but Katy did get two zero treasures.

Andrew 43
Andy 36
Martin 32
Katy 31
Ian 15

Next we played Mamma Mia. This swift memory game of card-counting and pizza making is a rare sight, but always welcome. Katy had bad luck again in this game, going through the final two rounds without picking up a single olive which was especially unfortunate since she was the player that needed olives in their pizzas.

Martin 6
Andy 5
Ian 5
Andrew 3
Katy 2

Finally, to finish off the evening, we went for Raj, the fun yet painful game of bluff. Katy came out top this time, thanks to the rest of us drawing a couple of important hands in round two, allowing her to pick up some cheap points. Most notable when Ian and Martin tied 15-15 and Andy and I tied 3-3 allowing her a big tile for just her 1 tile.

Katy 39
Ian 32
Martin 24
Andrew 20
Andy 11

And after an evening of short, sharp and silly games, it was time to head out, leaving Katy to explain to husband and housemate about her strange new friends.

On the leaderboard, I appear to still be top. Not sure how.