The Never Ending (Railway) Journey

One games night, eight hungry gamers. Sam was hosting, and Adam, Martin, Ian, Matt and Roll For The Soul regular (but new to Tuesdays) Katie were first to arrive. While they waited for the last two attendees, the old favourite Timeline was brought out to fill the, ahem, time.

Adam played his hands like an expert, such that his final two cards to place in order of occurrence were The Formation of the Earth and The Extinction of the Dinosaurs. He successfully put these down, and was out first. But Martin managed to place his card: The painting of The Raft of The Medusa just after Adam to share first place. Ian didn’t know that The Times was first published in 1785, and so could only manage second.

1. Adam - clear
1. Martin - clear
2. Ian – one card left
3. Sam – three cards left
3. Katie – three cards left
3. Matt – three cards left

By now I had arrived. Sam had a new game: Five Tribes, which he, Martin and the as yet absent Joe wanted to play. The remaining five had to choose what the other game would be. Adam and I were keen on Railways of the World and Katie likes trains, so it was chosen. Ian decided he wanted to play a new game instead of play RotW again, so Matt was left to learn the delicate intricacies of RotW.

It was a packed table, with the eastern seaboard of America sharing space with the tiles of Five Tribes. What a bustling games room it was, with two sets of rules explanation taking up the air space.

I have no idea what Five Tribes was about. There were a lot of meeples, a lot of cards being drawn and Sam crying out “Bollocks, Martin!” halfway through. I’ll leave it up to them to tell us what happened.

What happened on Railways? Well, a lot. Adam and I both missed a Railway Executive card as one of the opening cards on offer and neither Matt nor Katie knew how awesomely powerful it was to have two turns immediately. Adam only noticed it after he took his second go. He asked if he could take his go back, and I said “sure,” because, at that time, I still hadn’t seen it. So he did. How annoying.

Then, to pour salt on our wounds, Adam tried to warn Matt off a particular move, saying he could take it again if he wanted. Matt said he’d decided, so he’d stick with it. It was a free industrialise, so Matt turned a grey city into a vibrant new city full of cubes. And then Adam built a link to it, ruining Matt’s plan. Adam said “I tried to tell him not to build it!”

In Adam’s defence, he did notice a new rule that we’d never noticed before: that the Kansas to New York link only gets you points once you’ve paid the $30,000 to activate the Western Link.

Meanwhile, I took over the New York area, moving cubes around. By using other people’s links, I got the “four colour cubes” and “three-link delivery” bonuses on the same turn, and I continued to use other people’s links (mostly Katie’s) throughout the game. Possibly a mistake, but at the time, there always seemed to be some better way to spend my go.

It was an epic. Katie complained that we were halfway through and she’d already had two gins. She also texted home to let them know she’d be late. On the other half of the table, Five Tribes ended with the scores at:

Martin 165
Joe 120
Ian 109
Sam 96

And they began Ra, the game of Egyptian-style bidding. And it must’ve been a ding-dong battle listening to their reactions as tiles were drawn from the bag. We were still ploughing through our game, and this prompted Katie to comment that she wished she were playing a game with swearing in it, too.

But we had no swearing. Just long thoughtful pauses which could comfortably fit a visit to the toilet between turns. But time ticked on, and soon we had triggered the end of the game. Phew. And I made a foolish move: choosing to upgrade and move a cube for six points instead of moving two cubes for three points each. Why was this foolish? Well, just look at the scores...

Adam 80 (plus $7000)
Andrew 80 (plus $6000)
Katie 59
Matt 55

Matt’s last minute sprint up the scoreboard was not enough to close the gap on third, but I’m willing to bet he’d be a formidable opponent next go. Especially now that Adam’s taught him how harsh the game can be.

As for me, If I’d gone for the cheap option and not upgraded, I could have won. If I’d built a link instead of giving Katie about ten points during the game, I could’ve won. On the other hand, if Adam hadn’t been honest and discovered that new rule, he could have won by a mile.

By now Ra had finished, and Joe and Martin bade us goodbye and went home. The scores for Ra were

Joe 49
Sam 44
Martin 37
Ian 21

This left Sam and Ian with enough time for a quick two-player Ponte del Diavolo to fill the time while we finished. Sam won, but it was Ian’s first game. In fact, it had been Ian's first game at anything for almost the whole evening.

And this leaves us with a brand new name on the GNN form table. Welcome Katie, to a new world! Meanwhile, Joe heads the pack.

						Points
Joe	1	2	1	2	1	7
Martin	3	1	1	3	1	9
Andrew	2	1	3	2	2	10
Sam	2	4	3	2	1	12
Chris	1	2	1	3	5	12
Adam	1	1	4	3	4	13
Ian	4	3	2	3	2	14
Hannah	3	4	5	2	2	16
Matt	4	3	2	3	5	17
Paul	2	2	5	5	5	19
Steve	1	5	5	5	5	21
Katie	3	3	5	5	5	21

I said there’d be more divisions for our favourite games, and we played two this week. The division for Railways of the World is a pretty one-sided affair. Adam leads the pack in his favourite game by any measure you care to mention.

Ra is slightly more generous in sharing out its honours. Sam is top on points, with Joe the leader on points ratio and on the medal table.

Nine hours of games

While Sam's family were away, he took the opportunity to host a day-long games night. Sadly, Joe was unable to make it but Adam and myself arrived at Sam's at three, eager to take advantage of the good weather by sitting indoors all day. Anja, Steve and Hannah were all expected in the early evening.

The first game brought to the table was Toledo, in which you have to forge swords and collect art in an attempt at getting prestige points. In this game, the players create the board and move along it at the same time. The game begins with a featureless street leading up to the palace on the hill. Placing shops along the street gives the characters a place to stop, and the playing cards in your hand allows you to move multiple times each go, but only if the value on each card is the same.

It's a bit like Ludo according to Wallace, since landing on another character sets off a duel, and the losing piece goes back to the cathedral. The game ends when one player has three men in the palace. It was okay, but I found I didn't get the cards I needed to progress how I would've liked. But isn't that just like life? Adam and Sam had no such problems.

Adam 22
Sam 19
Andrew 12

Then we went back to an old familiar, Alhambra. We considered playing with one of the extensions, but no one seemed terribly keen when we looked at them, so we stuck to the original, pure and simple. It's definitely not a very sociable game, and there were a lot of tense silences as we all weighed up our options. In the end it was very close with me just squeezing past Adam by the slenderest of margins.

Andrew 126
Adam 125
Sam 121

Then we went outside! First we played headers and volleys. Sam's passing skills were a little wayward, and he explained that he was used to passing into space for people to run on to the ball. He then demonstrated this by passing into the ample space of next door's garden.

This was followed by cricket, which wasn't leaderboard since we were making up the scoring system as we went along, but Adam kept mentioning it throughout the evening when he was asked how many games he'd won.

Adam 19 not out
Sam 10 out (B.O.F. – ball over fence)
Andrew 4 not out

Back inside, we sat down for another new game, Biblios. This is a card game, where you collect books of a certain type (including mucky books – or Forbidden Tomes as they're called in the rules) which then score you points at the end of the game. It's a case of choosing a category or two and then trying to push up the scores for them by using special "church cards" and hoping no one is also collecting the same things. It's okay as a game. I didn't really get what was going on,though. Adam did.

Adam 9
Sam 5
Andrew 2

Then reinforcements arrived, in the shape of Anja, Hannah and Steve! Sam took the opportunity to start making some pizzas, while the five of us played Trans America. It was apparently Steve and Anja's first time playing the vexation rule but they seemed to take to it very quickly.

Adam 4
Steve 6
Hannah 7
Anja 9
Andrew 15

And so, having eaten well, we split into two groups of three. We insisted that Steve finally play Stone Age, and he joined Sam and Adam for foraging larks. Hannah, Anja and myself chose San Marco. I can't remember why. Hannah and I explained the rules to Anja, and then watched in helpless bemusement as Anja took us to the cleaners. In the final round I think she scored in every region.

Anja 78
Hannah 57
Andrew 34

Meanwhile, Steve seemed to be getting on fine with Stone Age. He was a long way up the score track and was even calling the starting player marker "Brian Blessed". It was if he'd been playing it all his life. And there was no last minute sprint up the score track from Sam or Adam, so it ended:

Steve 214
Adam 169
Sam 161

Those two games ended at similar times, so there was a brief period of discussion before we split into groups of four and two. Anja wanted something a bit more thinky, so wanted to play Ponte del Diavolo, while I wanted something silly and decidedly not thinky, so I suggested Mord im Arosa.

So Steve, Adam, Hannah and myself went looking for (and hiding) clues to the murder of two small red cubes. It's a game that requires listening skills and, most of all, a good memory. Something that Steve insisted he didn't have. But he still came second. Sort of.

Adam 11
Hannah 11
Andrew 21
Steve 21

Meanwhile, Anja's lack of experience with the scoring system on Ponte del Diavolo was surely an aspect in her defeat.

Sam 21
Anja 10

By now it was half past ten. Usually the time of the evening when we consider a quick game to finish, or maybe even calling it a night. But not tonight!Tonight is a special night where push towards midnight with a Martin Wallace double bill! Toledo returned to the table, and Tinners' Trail, too, was chosen.

I was up against Hannah and Adam on the Tinners' Trail half of the table. They'd recently bought this game as a joint birthday present to themselves, so they clearly had an affinity to the game. Certainly, Adam cleverly played it so that he ended the first and second rounds in a position to buy a cheap mine. I never really got going, with my mines all over Cornwall. And Hannah was hurt after putting money into buying a new mine, only to discover an underground lake.

But no one could have foreseen the crash in the market in the last round. For me, it meant that mining copper would just break even. I may as well sell pasties

Adam 131
Hannah 104
Andrew 92

Grr. Adam again!

Over in Toledo, Steve and Anja showed Sam that experience is no substitute for beginner's luck.

Steve 23
Anja 19
Sam 17


All of which makes the Form table look very different. Unfortunately, I played so many games that my early win of the day has already been replaced by other, more recent more regrettable results. Adam, meanwhile, equals the best ever score.

						Points
Adam	1	1	2	1	1	6
Hannah	2	1	2	3	2	10
Steve	1	2	1	2	5	11
Sam	3	1	3	2	3	11
Anja	2	2	1	4	5	14
Andrew	3	2	3	5	3	16
Joe	4	4	3	3	4	18

We played games this evening

The call went out for another games night, and three hardy gamers converged for a Thursday evening's strategy.

At first, it was just Sam and I. We began with a quick non-leaderboard game of Il Ponte Del Diavolo, which was an enjoyable and tense affair of creating islands in each others' way while trying to build bridges between them. Sam won quite comfortably, but I didn't note the scores. 28 to 16? Something like that. Finn the cat sat on a chair and watched us with disdain.

There was then some faffing about while we waited to see if Jonny could get here in time for a full game. As it was, he arrived just in time as Sam and I had set up a two-player game of Alhambra (realising, as we did, that this would put the "third player" Dirk on the leaderboard) but we had barely started. We happily jilted our imaginary friend in favour of Jonny and began again.

Jonny sat down and Sam reminded him of the rules. This turned out to be a mistake as Jonny quickly got back into the swing of things and Sam might have benefitted if Jonny's memory had been more vague. By the end of the second scoring round, only five points separated the three of us and the excitement could be felt in the air. Like electricity. Or a paper aeroplane. Like an electric paper aeroplane.

In the end, my short wall (which I managed to make shorter in the last round) was balanced out by winning several categories. Sam's last minute charge up the score track thanks to his wall was not enough to catch up with Jonny.

Andrew 130
Jonny 119
Sam 117

Then since it was still early, a game of Tsuro was suggested. I started in bullish mood, trying to trap Sam and then, later, I managed to send both of them across the board while I had the other half to myself. In the end, I dispatched Sam and was able to outlast Jonny who found himself tsuro'd into a corner.

1. Andrew
2. Jonny
3. Sam

Not a great evening for Sam, but because he loses those pesky red fives, he moves ahead of Hannah on the Form Table. I make amends for Tuesday's poor showing, and Jonny's two second places make him the new Mr Consistency. Meanwhile, everyone take a screengrab: Adam's last!

						Points
Sam	3	3	2	2	4	14
Hannah	1	1	3	5	5	15
Andrew	1	1	3	6	5	16
Steve	2	3	1	5	5	16
Jonny	2	2	5	5	5	19
Joe	1	4	5	5	5	20
Anja	4	2	5	5	5	21
Adam	2	5	5	5	5	22

Up Pompeii

Tonight was all about Italy. I arrived early, and was introduced to a quick two-player game called Ponte del Diavolo. This simple game of bridge building and land reclaiming is simple to learn but difficult to master. There's plenty of scope to stymie your opponent, while trying leave yourself with enough options so you don't become the stymee to your opponent's stymer. For the record, Sam squeezed past for the win, 21 points to 18.

By this time Jonny and Joe had arrived and a new game, The Downfall of Pompeii, was unveiled. This was Joe's birthday present from Sam, and with a pedigree like that hopes were high. We got the Frankie Howerd impersonations out of the way early, and then Joe talked us through the simple rules. The game goes through two phases: re-populating the city of Pompeii after an earthquake that struck in 62 AD, and then evacuating the city again after Vesuvius erupts in 79 AD.

All through the game, each player has ample opportunity to cast other players pieces into the plastic recreation of the volcano, through various Omen cards, or by drawing out lava tiles in the later stages of the game. This was a lot of fun, even if it was a shame that lava didn't flow diagonally.

The first game was a closely fought affair, possibly due to us not knowing the correct strategies. Joe came out first on a tie-breaker, and Jonny snaffled third from me in the same way.

Joe 8 (6 in the volcano)
Sam 8 (8)
Jonny 6 (12)
Andrew 6 (13)

On the second game, we were all a little better prepared, but the random ways of lava cannot be predicted. At the risk of sounding like a moaner, none of my lava tiles hurt my opponents. Meanwhile, a well-drilled lava-aware population were able to get out in greater numbers than before. And this time, not even a tie-breaker could separate Joe and Jonny, who took joint first place.

Jonny 11 (8)
Joe 11 (8)
Sam 10
Andrew 8

An excellent game, accompanied by Sam's generous helpings of cheese on toast. I enjoyed this evening a lot. Even Finn the cat kept his plaintive mewing to a minimum. Meanwhile on the form table, Joe advances to a commanding lead, while Sam falls to joint second with Steve. Jonny leaps two places to fifth.

						Points
Joe	1	1	2	1	3	8
Sam	2	2	1	5	2	12
Steve	4	4	1	1	2	12
Adam	5	3	1	1	3	13
Jonny	1	3	5	3	3	15
Andrew	3	4	3	2	4	16
Anja	2	2	4	4	5	17
Quentin	1	3	5	5	5	19
Hannah	2	3	5	5	5	20