Dominant Maroon

On Saturday afternoon Ian and I wended our way down the M4 to Chris' house in Chippenham. The plan was to play Dominant Species: Marine during the day, and then some other stuff in the evening. So with a little ado and catching up, I began setting up the game and explaining it to Ian - who'd not played before - and Chris, who'd only played the significantly-different big sister Dominant Species. 

In DS: Marine, we are competing animal types way back at the dawn of multi-celled life, climbing from the primeval ooze to spread our species across the world, by mostly sea but also (high-scoring) land. There's about 12 actions to choose from initially, but each action you take narrows down your subsequent options, until you choose to retrieve all your pawns and start afresh. The actions are numerous, then, but broadly do three things: advance your own cause, screw with someone else's, or both. This is a GMT game, and although the theme isn't the expected warfare, it's a combinatorial experience. 

My fishes (blue) started well, but Chris' cephalopods (orange) 

are proliferating at a dangerous rate while Ian's reptiles look on

In the original Dominant Species, all pawns are placed and then activated in order. Marine foregoes that somewhat phase-heavy approach by simply activating them when-placed, and simplifying both the scoring system and the board interface: instead of constantly recalculating dominance across the board, players choose a single tile to score as and when they want/are able to. It's not a simple game but, apart from one or two pauses when pawn options dynamically change, it cracks along really quickly. We didn't play the short version, but still finished in under two hours.

I'd led for much of the game but in the finale - when every tile gets scored - both Ian's purples and Chris' oranges caught up, and in the latter case, overtook me for a debut win. 

Chris 107 

Ian/Sam 102 each

I enjoyed this. It's nasty, swingy and tactical, with all the actions making easy sense, with only the special pawns needing more than a glance at the explanations. 

Next up was So Clover. We started out as a three, scoring a bang average 12/18, and didn't improve with four when Jacquie joined us (15/24) initially, only to pull out a storming 24/24 on our third attempt as minds synchronised. 

Jacquie dropped out and Ashton stepped in for Push It, which I took a kind-of win in, leading when we abandoned the game in favour of a delicious tea, a dish entirely driven by Chris winning a cheap bottle of white wine in a pub quiz. Chris actually described it as 'bleach' but it seemed to go well with the chicken. 

After stuffing our faces I managed to win another game - Spicy. 

While we were playing Aiden arrived and watched the duplicity play out as we fibbed, half-fibbed and occasionally told the truth on the way to the frantic conclusion.

Sam 35

Ian 31

Chris 23

Then Ian and I cracked our bottles of wine open. Well - I did. Ian was struggling with the cork and as he wrenched it out, the bottle smacked down on the counter-top and smashed. As wine poured everywhere, nobody was quite sure what to do and Paul arrived on the scene to see the carnage, fortunately not turning around and leaving directly. I did what you're meant to do when accidents happen these days - I took a photo of the scene. 

I must take my hat off to Chris and Jacquie, who weren't even slightly fazed. I guess running a childminding business has it's upsides. Anyway after Chris and Ian went at the scene with plentiful kitchen towels, the five gamers kicked off the evening session with Raj. We played five rounds with an escalating winner's bonus in each one, but it felt like they were mostly taken by Aiden. 

Chris kept kind-of pace with him, but Paul was serially stiffed by unlucky ties and Ian and I harpooned each other's bids with metronomic frequency, almost always playing our 14s and 15s at identical times. With five players, there's a lot of ties, and Aiden seemed to be taking advantage. Until the final round, where Chris rode some luck, did some canny bidding, and took the whopping 15pt winner's bonus to snag victory from the jaws of second-place...

Chris 81

Aiden 78

Ian 37

Paul 27

Sam 19

A lot of laughter in Raj. Rather less in what followed - the lesser-spotted Istanbul - but it was pleasurable in it's own fashion, with all of us concocting semi-formed plans and then seeing them slowly come together. But in Aiden's case, it wasn't so slow - he rocketed past everyone to claim a win so fast I missed it, having gone for a wee. I think Paul Ian and I were all 'just about' to get another gem, but it would only have got us squabbling for scraps...

Aiden 5 gems

Chris 4

Paul 3 + most cash

Sam 3 

Ian 2

Then Ian went to the shop for replacement wine and we played Push It again. Although going clockwise is less tactically compelling than the official furthest-away rule, it does at least keep things moving at a humorously hectic rate. At one point Paul couldn't even see the puck, as it was lodged behind Ian's crisps! What larks. You can keep your class A drugs, city folk!

Ian returned so we wrapped things up with Chris the kind-of winner on this occasion. 

Chris 7

Sam and Paul 6 each

Aiden 4

If Ian and I hadn't seen Istanbul in a while it was even longer - or felt it - since we last encountered Port Royal, the card-flipping, luck-pushing, symbol-collecting game of first-to-twelve points. I remembered being terribly bad at it, but hadn't recalled how complex it was. I mean - it's not complex, but in my head it was simpler than this, with cards doing various things and flipping to become money and objectives and repelling and all sorts. I think I enjoyed it, but it was only near the end I understood what was going on. Chris took the laurels here...

Chris 12

Paul 10

Ian 8 + most cash

Aiden 8

Sam 7

Then we played 7 Wonders! It was remarkable how setting up the physical version takes the same length of time as playing the digital one, but 7 Wonders remains a Speedy Classic I think, and it was nice to be handling cards again rather than gazing bleary-eyed at pixels. Aiden took the win, mainly thanks to his large army. It was a curious, fairly low-scoring play, with everyone resource-rich and so cash-laden that the bank ran out of money...

Aiden 55

Ian and Sam 47 each

Paul 46

Chris 44

We had time for one more game and Ian suggested Texas Showdown - new to Chris and Aiden, but very easy to explain. Harder though to get one's head around the best moves, and death spirals were had by both Chris and Ian. Aiden and I had good rounds and bad ones, but Paul's canny play saw him picking up minimal tricks - a one, a two, a zero - and he claimed a comprehensive win as Chris and Ian fell over the finish line...

Paul 5

Aiden 8

Sam 9

Chris and Ian 13 each

We'd played a lot by now - it was approaching midnight - eaten our own bodyweights in crisps and Maltesers, been exceedingly rude to each other and probably drunk a fair bit too so we finished our marathon session of a smorgasboard of gaming delights there. Wonderful stuff - thanks to our hosts and everyone for making it fun. 

Season’s End

This Tuesday was a grim looking one, with grey skies and vague suggestions of rain. But that wouldn’t stop seven gamers of dreaming of capping their season with a glorious run of form on its final day: Sam (the host), Joe, Katy, Ian, Martin, Andy and me.

I arrived bang on time, but found the fun was already underway, with Ian and Sam going head to head in NMBR9.

Sam 68
Ian 45

Katy was there too and before long, the rest of the gang had arrived. We split into two groups. At one end of the table, Sam, Martin, Joe and I began with NMBR9. This was mine and Martin's first go and, having watched baffled as other people played, I was keen to learn the secrets of this game.

The rules are very simple: just build up layers without overhanging or covering gaps. The shapes of the numbers, though, must've taken ages to get right during playtesting since they often seem to hint at a winning position without it ever really coming to fruition. This explains Martin's comment "It's already annoying.'

Sam mused on the role of the four: a low value, an awkward shape, but such a nice colour. I thought I'd done badly but I was quite pleased to have beaten Martin, whose maths skills are so strong he was able to tell us what he'd scored just by glancing at his tiles.

Sam 99
Joe 79
Andrew 50
Martin 46

"Right," said Martin in a tone of voice usually used before spitting on both palms, grabbing an axe and chopping down a tree, "we have to play again."

So we did. Sam had daddy duty to attend to upstairs, but we had no trouble remembering the few rules. Martin did slightly better this time.

Martin 103
Joe 84
Andrew 77

On the other half of the table, Andy, Katy and Ian began with For Sale. I was too engrossed in my game to pay it too much mind, but I did notice that Katy picked up both zeroes and lost a low bidding round with a decent highest card.

Andy 84
Ian 82
Katy 67

Then they dug out Port Royal which I think was Ian's suggestion. If so, it ruins my recent theory that the player most keen on a game does worst.

Ian 12
Katy 10
Andy 9

Then they whipped off a quick Beasty Bar. The scores, according to Katy's notes, were:

Andy 4 - 32
Katy 4 - 33
Ian 0

Katy left a note of explanation: "[Ian] went to the pub, night club too noisy!"

While this was happening, the four of us were knee deep in Montage, the crossword game from1973. It was Joe and me against Martin and Sam. Just like last time, I was very quick to get Martin's clues. For example, "every colour has one," I correctly guessed as "Vowel" because in the game, each of the five coloured tiles has a vowel. Both Sam and Joe complained that was far too meta.

In the end, though, Joe and I had enough of a connection to take the win. The general consensus was that it was a fun game, but very stressful.

Andrew & Joe 4
Sam & Martin 1

Then the trio broke out Flamme Rouge. The course (chosen at random) was completely flat: no hills at all. And while Katy and Andy set up, Ian took one of the little plastic cyclists, placed it on the neck of a beer bottle, stared at it, and then put it back on the table. Oh, the mysteries of Ian's internal workings.

Katy had an interesting strategy: one rider sped off ahead (using all three 9 cards in the first three turns) while the other lagged far behind in last. Andy was the only one to cross the finishing line, leaving the other two to rejoice in their shared defeat.

1st Andy
=2nd Katy
=2nd Ian

While this was going on, the quartet were playing Barenpark, the game that’s apparently impossible to play without saying it’s better than Cottage Garden.

Martin 89
Sam 82
Andrew 79
Joe 65

Finally we’d all finished together. Katy and I swapped seats and the gaming madness continued. The four of them launched into Cobras while Ian, Andy and I chose Hit Z Road.

I know little about Cobras, except for a dunken note of “stale peanuts” next to the results on my scrap of paper. However, Joe kindly gave Katy and I a lift home afterwards and he explained how satisfying the game was, especially since he always seemed to have the card that Martin didn’t want him to have.

Joe 109
Martin 92
Katy 57
Sam 46

Hit Z Road offered up the usual crazy and impossible escapes that your typical zombie movies have, complete with the ending of one guy still alive with no hope of escape as the credits roll. Ian rolled five targets to wipe out five zombies in one go, then Andy rolled four targets agaist five and later I rolled four against four.

Most impressively, though, was Andy’s last stand as his final survivor with his final die rolled one target after another and picked off six zombies. But then another six turned up and he died immediately.

I won merely by being last man standing.

Andrew: alive!
Andy & Ian: both dead!

Then we were all together for a game of Fuji Flush. I was too lazy to take note of the dick points but if memory serves, they were pretty rubbish, with 3s knocking out 2s and the like. Only Martin impressed, removing five 2s with an eleven, even though he could have joined in with a 2 of his own. Classic Martin.

Ian 0
Martin 1
Andrew 1
Andy 1
Sam 1
Joe 3
Katy 4

And that was that! We all sped off, eager to be back home far too late for a weekday evening. As for the Division, despite Katy’s poor showing, no one else was able to put together a challenge to unseat her from the top. Adam’s points ratio is invincible.

And I think I’ll rest the Division for the summer months, since attendance gets a bit sparse and it becomes, dare I say it, a bit silly?

But that’s for the future! Next week, to be exact.

See you then!

Can't Stop Shan't Stop

This week's GNN meet happened at Joe's cosy home. The six of us gathered around Joe's green felt table were Joe, Sam, Ian, Katy, Andy and me. Vague plans were suggested that we all play together, but instead we split into two groups.

Joe, Katy and I chose the Japanese themed card game Honshu. Meanwhile Sam, Andy and Ian broke open Ulm, described by Sam as a typical Euro game of gaining prestige in medieval Europe. It even came with it's own cathedral.

Honshu was substantially less ambitious fare. It's a trick taking, set collecting, city building game. Despite the three-pronged attack on our gaming senses it's quite a simple game. Each card has a number and a piece of the city on it. There are twelve rounds and in each round, every player plays a card face up. The highest card wins and that player may take whichever card they liked the look of and add that to their city with the proviso that it must overlap (or underlap) with another card.

There is a hint of other games in there. A bit of Between Two Cities. A smidgen of Isle Of Skye. But overall was quite a gentle laid back game, apart from the last minute panic from Katy when she realized she wasn't doing very well. This panic, as it turned out, should have been scheduled earlier:

Joe 61
Andrew 55
Katy 49

It was nothing to do with Japan, though.

On the other half of the table, Ulm was proving to be a bit of a steep hill to climb. In the early stages, I saw Ian shaking his head while laughing to himself and at one point it almost seemed like the game might be abandoned. Sam asked that it be given ten more minutes and apparently in that time it showed enough of its charms to convince people to last until the end.

Watching them play, I must admit it was one of those moments when I had a glimpse of what we must look like to non-gamers. The board was baffling, with a grid of 3x3 counters that shuffled around seemingly at random. There were boats and shields and icons and that cathedral which seemed to make Ian particularly angry, as he considered it to be, frankly, unnecessary and unhelpful.

But we had finished Honshu and we're pondering another game. Someone mentioned Botswana, but I didn't fancy it. It did, however, remind me of 10 Days In Africa so I asked Joe to dig it out. It was new to Katy, so she listened to the rules explanation with the same expression you might have if you were listening to a salesman you suspect is trying to steal your money. She had become increasingly concerned with her lack of form, and she didn't think this was the game to put things right.

And so it was. It's a game that doesn't encourage a great deal of banter so Joe and I tried to pep up our descriptions of winning journeys by building a narrative round them in the vocal style of Cary Grant. "I woke up in Morocco with no idea how I got there. All I knew is, I had to be in Somalia in ten days."

We played twice, with the second game happening at Katy's request, once she understood the rules.

Andrew 10
Joe 9
Katy 7

And then...

Joe 10
Katy 6 (wins on fewer transport tie breaker)
Andrew 6

Finally, Ulm finished with the scores at

Andy 53
Ian 45
Sam 37

Since we were all together again, there was a little talk of a six player. But instead we reorganized into new groups of three. I was lucky enough to have another of my suggestions brought to the table, and Sam, Joe and I played Can't Stop. Andy, Ian and Katy got busy with Port Royal.

Can't Stop was a cautious affair, with all of us keen to get counters on the board rather than push our luck. But as I took a 2-1-1 lead, with one row just one space away from completion. When it came to Joe's turn, he decided he had to go for it and, amazingly, he did. He finished two more rows to snatch the win.

Joe 3
Andrew 2
Sam 1

Since Port Royal was still ongoing, we brought out Land Unter. This trick taking game where it's usually better to not take a trick, had Sam baffled. We played through a single round while Port Royal ended.

Ian 12
Katy 11
Andy 5

At this point Ian and Andy left and we ended our fledgling game of Land Unter and began afresh with Katy on board. Katy won this game, which cheered her up considerably (or was it the ginger wine) now that her run of bad form was over and that there was one game that she could rely on to get her a win when she needed one.

Katy 10
Andrew 8
Sam 7
Joe 3

After this, we set off home. The division, with only two meetings left until the end of the season, looks like this.

Berger’s Last Go

Games! Tuesdays! Joe’s!

This week, we numbered six: the host (Joe), Sam, Ben, Ian, Andy and me. Joe, Ian and myself were first to arrive and swiftly grabbed a one-round (and, surely, non-leaderboard) game of Tumblin’ Dice. This game got its debut recently at our NSPCC event (sadly unblogged, but Sam and I were too tired) and was a big hit.

For some reason, this game reminds me of the hang-gliding Monkey Target mini game in Super Monkey Ball. In Tumblin’ Dice, you flick a dice off a slightly raised platform and send it down the board, hopefully picking up multipliers as it does. Much like SMB’s flying, bouncing ball that you hope ends on a multiplier.

Super Monkey Ball: Monkey Target

Not during the game, alas.  We're not that good.

It’s a huge success and endless fun. A dexterity game that even Andy likes. Is there any higher praise?

Anyway, like I said, it was only one round before other people arrived, but I’d like the record to show that I got twenty points with one die, and ended as the winner.

Andrew 25
Joe 13
Ian 10

When all six of us were present, we played Team Play. Again, non-leaderboard, but who’s counting? The teams were me and Ian, Joe & Andy and Sam and Ben. I’ll be honest, I thought Ian and I had it sewn up. We were first to eight missions and nabbed a ninth mission card in the final round. Sam and Ben were nowhere to be seen when both got stuck, unable to complete their missions, but I hadn’t reckoned on Joe and Andy’s canny reliance on big scoring missions. The final count was:

Joe and Andy 30
Andrew and Ian 28
Ben and Sam 23

The game did, at least, give us our blog title. When I triggered the game end with my eighth mission, Joe dolefully sighed “This is my last go,” sounding as if after this, he’d stop playing games completely. This prompted Sam to liken it to a Beckett play, which lead to the blog title.

After this we split into two groups of three. Sam, Joe and Ben played The Road To Canterbury. This game, recently blogged about, is all about selling fake pardons (as if there was such a thing as real pardons) to Pilgrims on the way to Canterbury.

Ian, Andy and I played Port Royal with a few extensions thrown in. Ian needed a rule refresher and, as with Russian Railroads, new rules are no barrier to Ian. Despite Andy leading for most of the game, Ian cashed in his relics at the last minute to take the win.

Ian 12
Andy 9
Andrew 7

At this point, those on the road to Canterbury were still somewhere near Maidstone, so we got out Kodama. I find this game of tree growth quite relaxing and I sort of wafted through it quite happily.

Perhaps this sense of detachment was helped by Joe generously pouring me a shot of some Italian spirit which, apparently, contained myrrh. And, judging by the aftertaste, also quite a lot of aluminium.

Then Road to Canterbury ended, with the scores at:

Joe 86
Ben 65
Sam 51

And they started to play Can’t Stop, which I admit, I found rather distracting. Especially when Joe did crazy things like going bust when he rolled four ones, or deciding to do the entire six lane in one go and almost made it before he went bust with two sixes and two fours.

Kodama ended as

This photo is actually from the NSPCC evening.

Andrew 147
Andy 128
Ian 122

And Can’t Stop finished

Sam 3
Joe 2
Ben 0

Now we were all together again we ended with For Sale. Joe is now duty bound to pick up the one card since he said that it was a viable strategy.

During this game, Ian told us how he’d drawn a sad face on his toaster, and now making toast made him really depressed. Not depressed enough to give up on winning, though.

Ian 51
Ben 47
Andrew 47
Joe 43
Andy 42
Sam 38

And with that, we were done! And it all seemed so painless.

House rules rule!

The first Tuesday of a new season, and nine of us converged at Sam’s house for an evening of white hot battle (with drinks and nibbles and a newly fixed light overhead). Attendees were Sam, Joe, Matt, Martin, Ian, Katy, Ben, Andy and myself. Since the front room was in use, we were limited to the kitchen and, even with Sam’s kitchen table at full stretch, it would be snug fit.

We began with a nice friendly game of Continuous Pairs: the version were there’s only one loser. Which was me.

We split into three groups of three. Martin and I were unable to find a third for Impulse, so instead Ben, Matt and Andy took up the middle of the table with Beasty Bar. Martin, Katy and Ian perched at the end nearest the wall, playing Vikings. Finally, Joe, Sam and myself occupied the other end with Manila.

With so many games happening at once, it was hard to keep track of anything. The middle group quickly sped off two games of Beasty Bar:

Ben 6
Andy 3 (and 23)
Matt 3 (and 25)

Followed by

Ben 4
Matt 3
Andy 1 (“a charitable one,” as he described it)

And after that they began a game of Port Royal. At this point, Martin looked up from his board and surveyed the table covered by three games with seas and boats and said “It’s all gone very nautical in here.” A nice thematic moment to the evening.

The next game to end was Vikings:

Martin 74
Katy 43
Ian 38

They began a game of Biblios to fill the time until other games had ended.

In Manila, we placed our bets on the three boats pulling into harbour and our share of the cargo/landing fees. We needed a rule refresher and found the similarity in names of two roles: the pirate and the pilot, rather confusing. But we got going eventually. Joe went big on nutmeg, Sam on blue silk while I was impressed enough by lucky ginseng that I tried a late attempt at buying some.

During the first few rounds Sam or Joe had always put ginseng in the third lane at zero. But it managed to come in once when I was the only one on board and then I landed on it as a pirate, so it seemed especially charmed for me.

Not charmed enough to overcome Sam’s and Joe’s more sensible spread-betting, though.

Joe 112
Sam 97
Andrew 87

By now Port Royal was over and Ben had clocked up another win while Andy blamed Explainer’s Curse.


Ben 13
Matt 8
Andy 7

Since Biblios was still ongoing, the six of us decided on a quick dash through Dragon Run. Even though it’s a five-player game, we thought it could accommodate one more, surely. At first we stuck to previous definitions of Treasure Card mean card with actual treasure on them, but a reading of the rule book indicated that a Treasure Card was any card from the Treasure Deck. Another rule to be challenged was that “You may take another turn” allowed a player to stop without having to hide in the shadows or cry like a girl.

I think the discussion about took up most of the game. It ended with another win for Joe:

Joe 16
Andrew 14
Sam 12
Ben 8
Matt 7
Andy 6

I suppose Andy could blame Explainer’s Curse again, since he was the one explaining the real rules to us while we played.

During Dragon Run, Biblios ended with all five dice on three. Katy just won on the dice-colour tie-breaker (and, technically speaking, the money tie-breaker).

Katy 6 (plus blue die)
Martin 6
Ian 3

And they also managed to squeeze in a game of Port Royal

Katy 12 (plus 9)
Ian 12 (plus 2)
Martin 7

Before we all joined together for a rousing game of 6nimmt. Agony was shared around evenly this time, in this high scoring round. Ben (already in last with 62) had to go before the final round, so Dirk took his final go for him. And for a while it looked like Dirk might do quite well. Only for a while, that is. Martin sealed the win with two clear rounds in a row.

Martin 30
Katy 39
Ian 49
Matt 64
Andy 65
Joe 66
Sam 68
Andrew 69
Ben 94

And that was that. Off back home to bed to dream of Joe’s “largest D20 in the world” (approx).

As for the Division, a bit weird (as early divisions usually are) with Ben's lead on Points Ratio entirely due to the fact that only three players have played enough games to have a points ratio. His lead on the Medal Table is more deserved, and Martin leads on Points.

Don't go Dirk!

Tuesday. Games. Joe's. Seven gamers attended: Joe, Martin, Andy, Matt, Ian, Katy, and myself. When I arrived, people were discussing a new game, Kobayakawa. This is a painfully simple betting game, whereby players bet on whether they have the highest card. The twist being that in the middle of the table whose total is added to the score of the lowest card. On your turn you can do nothing, change your card or change the card in the middle of the table. Very interesting. It plays up to six, but we couldn't think of a reason why seven couldn't play. Until we tried it. If seven play, then there's a good chance that all the cards are used. As such, whoever has the winning hand knows if they've won, and those that don't know that they've lost. We decided to stop playing and split into two groups.

Joe, Martin, Katy and Ian chose Members Only, a game making its GNN debut. It was all about recreating the refined atmosphere of a gentleman's club and their propensity for betting on various things, like hats and cups of tea.

Matt, Andy and I also played a new game: Empire Engine, a small game of few options, but a clever way of choosing those options. To choose an option you have to rotate your cards. It's simple to understand, but hard to explain succinctly.

Matt 15
Andy 13
Andrew 11

Then we played Port Royal, and Matt gave us a real lesson in how to play successfully. He doubled up on cash bonuses for 5+ cards, and it paid off handsomely.

Matt 13
Andy 6
Andrew 5

Since the gentlemans' club across the table were still knee deep in wagers about Big Ben, we continued our little run of short games, deciding to give Kobayakawa a try with three players. I enjoyed it. There's room for bluffing and a bit of manipulation, but mot so much that it gets bogged down in AP. I was in first until the last round, when both Andy and Matt were close enough behind me that I had to bet or I wouldn't win. I bet. I didn't win.

Matt 10
Andrew 6
Andy 3

Finally, the league of extraordinary (the swearing, that is) gentlemen finished. And as you would expect from a modern progressive society, this game of masculine conceits was won by a lady.

Katy 31
Joe 21
Martin 20
Ian 14

Now we were all together as a band of seven. After a little discussion, Igloo Pop was chosen, while Joe and Martin decided to try Patchwork, the rough and tough game of quilting.

I described the rules, while Andy said it seemed a lot like a game he'd sold once. We shook our igloos, we guffawed at our guesses and then were amazed by the result: Andy's first win of the season. Obviously, he'd sold that other game, not because he didn't like it, but because he'd become too expert in it.

Andy 22
Katy 19
Ian 13
Andrew 13
Matt 12

Meanwhile, Patchwork ended:

Martin 11
Joe 6

No idea what kind of game it is, but Katy did note that there wasn't much swearing.

Finally, the seven of us got together for a big old game of Incan Gold. And what a game it was. The first temple ended immediately after two rock falls. And with the laughs of incredulity still audible, the second temple was stuffed full of Zombie Ladies. Surely we'd be able to at least get through the door in the third temple.

And so we did, and the game played out as it should do. Matt demonstrated his expertise in getting out alone when there was an artifact to be had. At one point Martin, baffled as to what to do, decided to Go Dirk and chose randomly. This caused an outcry, as everyone beseeched him “Don't go Dirk!” It then caused a series of copycat threats as Joe and Ian also threatened to chose randomly. This caused Martin to reconsider. And then so did Joe. Only Ian was true to his word and, as it turned out, he left by himself, taking all the loot with him.

Additionally, Joe dazzled us all with his steely nerve in refusing to back out of a temple until he's hit the jackpot. What a shame his plans never panned out. Andy, though, took advantage of all the excitement on the other side of the table to sneak unnoticed to his second win of the evening/season.

Andy 26
Matt 22
Ian 22
Andrew 21
Martin 21
Katy 8
Joe 2

It was now 10.30. Andy and I called it a night, but the remaining five ploughed on, giving Kobayakawa another turn on the table. The results were:

Ian 11
Martin 8
Matt 6
Katie 3
Joe 0

On the division, Katy rebuilds her lead to over ten points again and, just to rub our noses in it, she takes the medal table too. Joe hangs on to Hannah steals Points Ratio from Joe.