Happily Ever Rafter

 In the same way that Sirens drew sailors to their doom on rocky shores in past centuries, so the promise of board games drew us to Sam’s house. Not to our doom, but to jovial banter and salty nibbles.

I arrived at a little before 8 to find Sam, Ian, Martin, Adam H and Joe halfway through a game of The Gang, a cooperative version of Poker. It was the third hand and I noticed that Joe rearranged the cards in the flop in numerical order, like they were playing For Sale. Ian bet low, believing he only had Card High, and had to be told he had a Straight when he revealed his hand. He admitted he still didn’t understand poker and, indeed, at a rare poker night just this past weekend Ian was out first. I was dealt into the last two hands, but extra players only make it more difficult and we ended with two more failed attempts.

The gang's all here

2 successes, 3 failures.

Then we split into two groups of three, choosing games that would easily accommodate four since Katy was on her way.

Adam, Ian and Martin set up Cascadero. I didn’t follow it much, apart from someone saying it was Ian’s “first time with the farmers” which raised some smutty laughter.

Adam 39

Ian 37

Martin OUT (but scored 38)

Meanwhile, Sam, Joe, me and (latterly) Katy played Expiditions. I saw it only from a distance the other week and today was my first play. It involves placing arrows along one of three routes (red, blue or yellow) such that they arrive at secret locations that you have in your hand or are on display as one of the shared locations. It’s simple, but cunning. Use a ticket for an extra action, reach a blue square for another turn and reach a red square for a new ticket. And since this is a Eurogame, all routes begin in Essen, Germany.

Meanwhile, we’re all travelling to these distant locations. Sad to say, I hadn’t actually been to any of them. Not even Stonehenge, although I've seen it from a car window. Each location card has a little text to explain the site's charms. I was curious about Graham Land in the far south, due to its dull name (unless you happen to be called Graham, I suppose).

Sam seemed very adept at chaining blue squares and red stars together to propel himself around the world, ticking off his locations as he went. Joe pondered his next move in an Australian accent which I thought might be a possible tell. Katy surprised us all by asking “Where’s the Sahara?” when its card was drawn from the deck. Near the end, the winner was pretty clear. Joe took several attempts to count up his score and Katy seemed disappointed that she hadn’t enjoyed it as much this time.

Sam 15

Joe 9

Andrew 5

Katy 4

Katy demanded something fun this time, so we played Rafter 5, the game of dexterity and balance in a tiny box. As the planks slowly increase in number, our options become more and more absurd. 

Katy fumbled one of her turns but somehow managed to drop her chest onto the plank she’d just placed, so it was a valid move. I had less luck. I picked up one of the rafters deftly, causing murmurs of approval for my skill, but then I nudged a treasure chest with my plank and the whole thing collapsed.

Andrew lost

Then the groups shifted again. Joe, Martin and Katy played Seaside. You pull beach-themed tiles from a bag and make jokes about getting crabs. At the end of the first game, they just stacked up their tiles and I took a photo in lieu of a numerical result.

Joe on the right, Martin on the left, Katy hidden behind them both

The second game was even closer, and so they relied on numbers.

Joe 19

Katy 19

Martin 17

Then they played Sunrise Lane. I didn’t get the scores, but Martin won with Joe “squeaking second by a point.”

Then they played another game. This one had large cards and a pretty fabric play area thing. It was called Courtisans but I don’t know the scores, because I dashed out before they’d finished.

The reason for my sharp exit was a game of Empire’s End. This is a game of disaster avoidance using a No Thanks style mechanic of bidding to not pick up tiles. You begin with 11 parts of a gleaming civilization and will almost certainly be left with half of it in ashes and ruins. Try to protect the most valuable or take the disaster that will hopefully have enough resources on it to make it worthwhile.

It was fun but a little bit long. Including rules, it took about an hour and a half. As a four-player, with a couple of newbies, it was a little longer than I’d wanted. Ian went big on military but Adam hoarded wheat for two end of game bonuses along with, I think, another one or two bonuses that pushed him from last into a healthy first.

Shiny fire

Adam 179

Sam 153

Andrew 144

Ian 127

After I left, Martin, Ian and Sam played a three-player So Clover, getting a perfect 18 out of 18.

And after Ian left, Sam beat Martin 2-1 at Schipp & Weg

Thanks all. It was special!

Thick as Thebes

 Joe’s house on a sultry June evening. Elsewhere around the country, football fans dutifully sat around televisions to watch England play Slovenia. But since the national team had already qualified and their style of play didn’t exactly amaze and delight, seven of us convened for a game or two. Sam, Adam T, Ian were at Joe’s before me. I carefully picked my way down Joe’s exterior staircase to his kitchen and Sam remarked that, like him, I’ve started making little noises at even the slightest physical exertion. Both myself and (after ten minutes or so) Katy were back after a period away from gaming. 

We began with just fine, as Joe got out his home-made version of The Gang. This is a game of poker (Texas hold ‘em) where the players have to bid on what position their hand will finish. Each player bids four times: after they receive their two cards, then after the three-card flop, the after the turn and finally after the river when all five communal cards have been revealed. It’s co-operative in that, in order to win, we all have to be correct.

We began with five and then dealt in Martin who arrived just as we started. The first round was, technically, a success. The strongest hand was the one showing, so the cards we had to ourselves were irrelevant. It got more difficult after that, especially with non-poker-playing Ian admitting he didn’t know how likely certain hands were supposed to be. We had success in round four, but thanks to some luck as Martin and I finished with identical hands.

Katy arrived mid-game in sunglasses, looking like she’d stepped off a yacht. But it was actually a bicycle, and she apologised as she got ready, admitting she might have blocked Joe’s garden path when she locked it up.

We split into two. Katy, Martin and I went down the heavyweight route, with Thebes – a game of digging up ancient artefacts in the early 20th century, which Katy insisted she was going to give back. During Martin’s rules explanation he said “To get an artefact, you have to go to the site just like you would if - ” and I thought he was going to say “… you were doing a real dig,” but instead he said “… you were picking up a book of knowledge,” referencing an earlier rule. My suspension of disbelief was ruined.

Joe, Ian, Adam and Sam went for shorter games, beginning with Sunrise Lane. This is a game of area control mixed with card management, and it is very short. Over much quicker than the forty-five minutes they were expecting.

Joe 68

Adam 63

Ian 63

Sam 59

The sound of distant cheering reminded us of the match, but no one seemed too upset about missing the spectacle. Towards the end of the evening, Martin did check his phone and told us it was 0-0. The cheering must have been for a disallowed goal.

Back in 1901, Katy, Martin and I were zipping back and forth across Europe, trying to gain enough knowledge to make our archaeological digs worthwhile. One book of knowledge allows you to draw one tile for a bag, and this is where most of your points will come from. Except the bags are about half-full of worthless tiles – dirt. Martin must have thought he’d be okay with nine books of knowledge, but then proceeded to pull out one dirt tile after another. All nine tiles were duds. Even Katy felt sorry for him by the end.

The other half of the table played Knarr. I know nothing about except the scores.

Sam 42

Joe 39

Adam 39

Ian 29

Then they play Rafter 5, a fun balancing game with a nautical theme. Ian was first to place his last chest and then Sam did too before Adam triggered yet another collapse. That triggered the end of the game. Not sure who won.

On our side of the table we were also drawing to a close. Christmas in 1903 means that we were all trying to work out if we could do anything useful in those last few weeks. It was very close… but first and second.

Martin 79

Katy 77

Andrew 49

Then we rearranged seats and I joined a game of Sunrise Lane against Martin, Sam, and Ian. It was a very quick learn and soon I was on my way. There was a lot of shuffling as we rinsed the deck pretty quickly, especially Ian who often drew two cards and then discarded down to five on his turn.

It was fun. Nicely dickish, you might say. I built big in the big-building areas while the others splurged across the area-control areas. Martin cruelly built between two of Sam's conurbations, ruining his chance of a big bonus. Might have been Martin's best move.

Martin 88

Sam 81

Andrew 78

Ian 53

Katy, Joe and Adam played a game that I totally forgot to note the name of. Afterwards, I tried to look it up, but searching for a board game based on travel by air and has a map of the world gives some pretty broad results.

I don’t even know the score since, after Sunrise Lane, I set off home, squeezing past Katy’s bike as I did.

Via WhatsApp, I later learnt that Ian lost at Rafter 5 and then they played So Clover twice scoring 21/30 and then 27/30. Close, but no clover.

Thanks everybody. Great to be back!