City of Games!

This weekend is the City of Games convention here in Bristol which Stan and I attended, ostensibly to promote gamesnightguru, but in the main, it transpired, to play games ourselves.

I spent Friday night exploring Quebec, which is an interesting tactical game where every decision affects another decision. The theme is about the building of the city over four centuries, but the interesting decisions are slightly compromised by fiddly iconography and a fairly messy board. All the same, I'd be interested to try it with other human beings.

On Saturday Stan and I arrived the Futures Inn for City of Games about midday and, having nervously dropped some leaflets on a couple of tables, set about playing our first game - Raiders of the North Sea. This is twist on worker placement where having placed a worker, you also remove one from the board and activate that as well. There are also a hierarchy of viking types which come into play too. I was looking strong mid-game, but needless to say, Stan overhauled me.

We blasted through some games of Crokinole and Klask - a crazed two-player mash-up of hockey and magnets...

and then sat down with Wibbell designer Bez for a quick game of Grabbell, followed by another quick game of a prototype called Kitty Cataclysm. I'm not sure how much one should share about prototypes online but suffice to say it was a very Bez-ish fun, fast-moving filler. With puns.

I was eager to try out Quadropolis and Stan indulged me. The look of the game has never really appealed to me - pastelly tiles with comic-style drawings - but always seeing it in the shops made me think it'd be good to get it on the Guru website, at least. It's a fast-moving game too, where over four turns in four rounds you grab tiles from a central board and use them to build on your own. How the tiles interact and activate scores points, not massively unlike some other games, but the catch here is your four architects dictate both what you can have, and where they can go.

I enjoyed well enough - more than Stanley in fact - but although the puzzle element is fun, the look and slightly abstracted-Machi-Koro feel of it all didn't blow our minds. Maybe playing it knowing the scoring system would have helped though, but by the time I reached end-game scoring in the rule-book we were both reaching glazing point.

A few more games of Crokinole and Klask and we called it a day at the City of Games... although as it was a Saturday night, there were more games to be had at home. Andrew now takes up the baton of narrator...

At eight o’clock, Sam, me, Chris and Katy converged on Sam’s kitchen for a weekend dose of games. At first, it was the three boys, with Katy expected in fifteen minutes. For a few seconds we considered having a “conversation” until she arrived. And then, once the laughter had died down, we played Wibbel.

The game veered from unnecessarily long words to short, sharp terms of abuse as we swiftly sped through the deck. Luckily we were done and dusted by the time Katy got here so she didn’t have to see our reliance of body-parts vocabulary to get us across the finish line.

Sam 19

Chris 18

Andrew 11

After this, the four of us stared at the wall of games in Sam’s living room, eventually choosing Queendomino. This reworked version of Kingdomino comes with a few extra choices which, apparently, means it needs a much bigger box.

The core of the game is the same: make a 5x5 grid of tiles, trying to score for contiguous landscapes. Yes, I said contiguous. In Queendomino, you also get to build towers and end-of-game-scoring tiles or do a bit of taxing too, using the teeny tiny knights.

It was okay. A nice diversion. At the end I jokingly said “I reckon I’ve won that,” and it turned out I had.

After that we chose Rajas of the Ganges. While Sam set it up, Katy and I stood outside for a bit, enjoying the night air and being appalled by the student neighbours who played that “Dancin’ in the Moonlight”* song by Toploader twice in a row. Shocking behaviour.

As for the Rajas of the Ganges, I found that my previous game when I played as blue had completely rewired my brain. Or maybe it was the night air. Either way, I kept moving Katy’s blue pieces instead of my own red ones.

My initial feelings of sympathy towards Katy and Chris for going up against two old hands were quickly replaced by a sinking feeling as my dice-rich approach got very few points on the board early on. Chris got his markets going early on and sped off up the river, with the rest of us close behind. Katy went for fame points in a big way, getting her fame point marker halfway along the third side of the scoretrack. Sam went for money and by the end, his money marker was almost on the home straight. 

It was an unconventional game, which is good since it shows there are still avenues to be explored here. I actually finished the river, which was a first for me. I kind of regretted doing it so soon, since that now meant I had one less option. It felt very different with four players. In a good way.

Katy won!

Chris second, but only just

Sam third, but only just

Andrew fourth, by miles

After that, we ended with Push It. I sent the jack off the table early on (caught by Katy before it hit the floor) putting me into negative points, and I never recovered. 

Sam 7

Chris 6

Katy 6

Andrew 0

Chris and I reached for our coats with indecent haste after this, leaving a bemused Katy plaintively suggesting Hit Z Road to a reply of arms through sleeves and scarves round necks.

A lovely evening. Thanks all. Cheers!

* I don’t actually know if the song title drops the “g” off the end of “dancing” but it’s so bad, that I expect it does.

*

It wasn't quite the end of the evening for me (Sam) though, as the rowdy neighbours were only getting louder and after the abortive texting I went around and hammered on the door like the proverbial suburban Meldrew, telling them it was nearly midnight and they had to bloody well pipe down. ...I'm not sure that's exactly how the conversation went, but certainly my many previous polite texts had used up my patience. They gave up singing some kind of demented barbershop chorus as a result, and went out. 

As a result of the booze and the games and the slightly gritted-teeth exchange, I was a bit fuzzy on Sunday morning when Stan and I made our way into town by bike. We began with breakfast and then decided, with similar reasoning to Quadropolis for me, and more enthusiasm from Stan, to try out Dice Forge.

This was actually rather fun: a simple dice-roller where your round by round choice is to upgrade your dice, or 'perform heroic quests' - buy cards. Cards can be helpful in-game and/or bring you victory points. We ended up playing three times during the day, and enjoyed them all; with the caveat of slightly fiddly pack-away and the potential for luck to undo your whole game: both Stan and I had times where all our upgraded dice were still rolling the un-upgraded sides, which was a bit frustrating. But the game is so brief it wasn't too upsetting. 

We bashed out another few games with Bez as well - another prototype that crossed Wibbell with Dobble to good effect, albeit I'm terrible at those games and Bez' mate Jake wiped the floor with us. 

After lunch we tried out Kitchen Rush, a real-time co-operative game of running a restaurant. In each of four rounds you place workers to carry out tasks, with the catch being each worker is a timer, and the task is not complete until 30 seconds are up. You can plan as much as you like, but once the round begins you have exactly four minutes - to bring in customers, take orders, prep food and cook it and add spice and buy more food and even wash the dishes. At the end of each round all your workers must be paid as well. 

It was... interesting. I can imagine it being fun at the right time - maybe after everyone's just had their third coffee. There was genuine stress in trying to manage everything and several times we - or I - got recipes wrong. We did win, but only by cheating both inadvertently and slightly-on-purpose. That was the easy version! Quite a mad one and despite the unique feel I'm not sure anyone at GNN would be keen on playing it more than once - it's like playing 8 overlapping games of FUSE. 

After playing EXIT last week (thanks Martin!) Stan was keen to try another Unlock escapade, so we blasted through the Haunted House adventure, where you have to rescue some lost kids.  If you can call me feeling increasingly tired and exasperated 'blasting'. The final puzzle we had to completely give up on. Oh well, it was probably bloody students again*

We hung around for a while hoping to win a basket of games, but didn't get our number come up in the raffle. I was hoping having the very first ticket might be rewarded, but there are no early bird rewards in probability. After some Looping Chewie, another game of Crokinole, and our third and final visit to the Dice Forge, we called it a weekend.

A very fun weekend too. It seemed like City of Games was a big success too, which is a credit to Frank West who not only organised the whole shebang but supplied his not-inconsiderable games library for people to use. Some of it was on the floor at the end! But then, so was I...

* swore about 25 years I would never say this except ironically 

Revolution nmbr 9

As England baked under a midsummer heatwave, Joe's call to host this week's event was met with a bumper response. Ten of us (Sam, Andy, Matt W, Matt K (previously known as Matt and Matt2 respectively), Martin, Katy, Ian, Adam, Chris and myself) arrived for an evening's entertainment that spilled out of Joe's kitchen and into the garden.

The first game to be done and dusted was Nmbr 9, a new game with Take It Easy tones in that everyone has the same options, which quickly diverge among the players.

Adam 95
Ian 79
Sam 61
Chris 50

I was one of the four lucky enough to start outside. Me, Martin, Joe and Matt K played Montage, a crossword game without any letters. Instead, colours stand for a group of letters.

The aim of the game is to give clues (maximum five words) to words whose letters fit the coloured counters on the board. It's a team game and you hope that your partner gets the clue (indicated by knocking on the table) before both - and it must be both - of your opponents do. The board is divided into nine sectors and the winning team is the one that gets a majority of its pieces in four sectors.

All of this takes place under the watchful eye of an hourglass. Everything in a turn: choosing the position, thinking of a clue, giving the clue, solving the clue, must happen before the sand runs out. Obviously, planning ahead is key.

I paired up with Matt and Joe was with Martin. Up against two giant intellects meant Matt and I were the underdogs. When Joe gave the clue "Prince's reign" and Martin got it with "purple" I thought we were in trouble. However, they were perfectly happy to go route-one with the clue "Number two" from Martin, meaning "poo" which Joe got without even looking at the board.

Martin & Joe 4
Matt & Andrew 1

Inside, Adam, Ian, Chris and Sam were flying the flag for chunky Eurogame with Raiders Of The North Sea. While Matt1 and Katy waited for Andy to arrive, at which point they threw themselves into Flamme Rouge. I know nothing other than the result.

Early days with Flamme Rouge and Raiders...

1. Andy
2. Matt
3. Katy

They followed this with Nmbr 9.

Matt 86
Andy 61
Katy 56

Meanwhile, us outside moved onto Movable Type, continuing the recent trend for word games. Joe sold it to us by saying "It has a fun aspect."

Sheer folly!

This time, there are four rounds of trying to make the highest scoring word using the five cards in your hand and three open cards that anyone can use. The better you do, the more cards you can take from the array of all cards that were used that round. Then, in the fifth and final round, those cards would be used to make the highest scoring word you can manage.

A ha ha!

Martin 20 (he won with Mashable)
Joe 19 (ticketing)
Andrew 17 (fleshy)
Matt K 16 (jilted) (I think. Can’t read my writing)

Apart from the marauding Vikings in the North Sea, the rest of us had finished our games at the same time, so we had a quick reshuffle. Katy, Joe and Martin brought a card table outside and played Cobras.

Cobras in the long grass

Joe was first to hit the game ending score, but then fell back due to negative cobras on his card at the end of the round. This allowed a delighted Katy ("We've screwed Joe!") to grab a win.

Katy 113
Joe 105
Martin 75

An unimpressed cat

Meanwhile, Andy, me and the two Matts played Escape From The Aliens In Outer Space. This is a game of hidden identities and escaping and/or attacking. I didn't have much of an clue how to play, and the game for me may as well have been called Have A Nice Stroll Through A Spaceship.

My unhelpful notes during Escape...

The two Matts were more clued in. Alien Matt W killed Human Matt K early on, just because Matt K made a noise near him. This meant the last human, Andy, had to escape. He managed to get to an escape pod, but it malfunctioned. Rather than try to walk across to another escape pod, he played a card the allowed him to mutate into an alien and the game ended in a draw.

Not a bad game. Would probably have been more fun if I'd known what was going on.

Still playing Raiders...

On the card table, Cobras had been replaced by Eggs of Ostrich.

Martin 15
Katy 10
Joe 9

The four of us played Andy's print and play (and laminate) version of Red7. After a rules explanation, I played a card that immediately knocked newcomer Matt K out. A very steep learning curve. But he came back well, and we ended after three rounds. We had to, since the light had faded so much that most of round three was played under the light from my mobile phone.

Really quite dark now

Matt K 39
Andy 12
Matt W 0
Andrew 0

By now Raiders of the North Sea had ended. Everyone else had gone through multiple games and rules explanations, but the pure of heart on one half of Joe's kitchen table had gone through an epic. A game, after which, they all stood around proudly and talked about what they'd just done.

Nearing the end of the game

Ian 43
Adam 39
Sam 36
Chris 31

And they even managed to squeeze in a game of Nmbr 9. Ian quickly said he’d got off to a bad start. I couldn’t tell how he knew this so I took a photograph, hoping that one day I’d look back and understand what he’d meant.

He was right, though.

Adam 72
Chris 67
Sam 61 (“Again!”)
Ian 52

Finally, we were all together and all inside. So we went for a rule-stretching 11-player game of 6nimmt. We could only manage two rounds before time caught up with us. Short, but agonising, as the quotes I jotted down demonstrate:

“Joseph, you wanker!” me, probably.

“It’s like golf!” Ian

“My dreams were ruined years ago.” Sam

“I’m going to get boned and not in a good way.” Katy

It ended like so:

Adam 10
Matt K 12
Matt W 14
Chris 14
Sam 19
Ian 28
Katy 35
Andy 39
Joe 39
Martin 43
Andrew 52

Thanks all. A bit of a classic.

Mr 75%

Sunday, and after five hours of intense Bristol heat - the world really has changed - watching the boys play cricket, I laid down on Joe's bed and listened to the sounds of children in the gardens playing. When I said to Sally I might have drifted off, she confirmed I did with an allegedly accurate impersonation of my snoring.

But Stanley had been promised a game, so whilst I brewed coffee he set up Raiders of the North Sea. As previous posts have elicited, the basic premise of Raiders is that you gather what you need to go and pillage: violent viking! But subsequent plays have shown there are other avenues of pursuit - staying at home to make offerings for the chief: Sycophantic viking! Or indeed, trying to build a quick lead and then hurry the end of the game before anyone catches you: Lazy viking. If you're clever about it you can even time the killing off of your crew in order to gain maximum points on the Valkyrie track (Psychopathic viking).

I went for the lazy option. Stan asked me to play at 75% (determination to win) but to be honest my head was pretty fuzzy at the start anyway. I tried a new tactic of not bothering with the far-flung, inland raid-able places such as monasteries and outposts, instead blitzing the harbors for a meagre two points reward per raid. Although this didn't build much of a lead, it did give me a shedload of resources. Allied to my Forager - who gave me a steady stream of provisions to raid with - I realized that I was well-placed to go Crap Raiding: taking my rubbish crew to fortresses, and emptying them of resources whilst scoring no points (- the stronger the crew, the higher your points reward for a raid)

Stan pretending to be sad

Stan's tactic was more honorable - if you can call raiding honorable - building a stronger crew, and sacrificing them nobly in battle before building them up again. But seeing I was about to end the game, he changed tactics and quickly made an offering to the chief at home, successfully pulling off the violent, psychotic, sycophantic, blend that marks the true viking.

But when I raided the penultimate fortress though, I'd done just enough to impress the chief. I hadn't killed anyone outside of the harbours or let any crew nobly die in battle but my three offerings at home were just enough to hold off Stan's surge up the track by virtue of all his dead raiders:

Sam 46
Stan 45

We shook hands as Stan resolved to get me next time.

Now Joe joined us for Trans America, which 2 or 3 years ago was the game of choice for the boys before Stan went heavy-Euro and Joe refused to play anything except Spyfall. Halfway through the first round I realized he'd forgotten you don't have to build track contiguously but can go from anywhere, and had to keep reminding Joe as his spirit of adventure saw him striving for new boundaries by himself instead of hitching the available lift.

But once he kept this in mind, he actually beat us. Stan won the first round, but Joe the second by a bigger margin, ending the game (we only played the two rounds) with Stanley and I joint second. Very nice end to a hectic weekend, and a taster for Tuesday...

Election Night Special

I arrived at Andrew’s at 7.25, and after five or six minutes he’d finally made it down the stairs to let me in. Wanting to avoid the election coverage at the start of the evening, I ended up seeing about 3 hours of it in the end - but in the meantime Andrew I had business over the North Sea, as I talked him through the basics of Raiders. 

This was my fourth play in 4 days and the game - whilst still being basic on the rules - showed a little more of itself again. There was a tension over the ending: Andrew had the wherewithal to finish the game but because I didn’t, he bided his time and picked up a few points. Should I gear up for the raid myself, or kill off my crew? The problem with the latter is that would leave Andrew free too take as much time as he wanted. But as soon as I had the potential to raid, he carried out the final bit of pillaging himself, and I realised I might have been able to stymie him with more careful viking-management… my earlier raiding had me far ahead on the scoretrack, but Andrew’s final raid combined with his offerings to the chief saw him nab the victory!

Andrew 56

Sam 55

With Raiders wrapped up we set up Flamme Rouge. Andrew shot out in front early doors and I was forced to play high cards just to keep up with him. I kept my rouler in front of my sprinter for as long as possible, and did wonder - again - whether he had enough cards to make it over the line. But he did - after the final hill both my guys made a break for it - the sprinter pulling off a convincing win with my knackered rouler with enough in they tank to claim second:

Sam - wins

Andrew - doesn’t

Andrew had also requested I bring 7 Wonders, so we set up the three player (the third player is Dirk) where you take turns to play Dirk’s hand for him. The early signs weren’t good for me when I kept getting the rules wrong, and I made an early decision to go for sciences. But I only had resources in the form of stone and logs, and scientists can’t do all that much with that. I did manage to chain several cards together to build a decent score, but struggled to do anything else, and Andrew ended the game cash and resources rich, with the most military, some guilds… at least I beat Dirk.

Sam's resources as we enter round three!

Andrew 58

Sam 54

Dirk 41

Obligatory reference to the artwork on 7 Wonders

We ended on Biblios - not exactly a banker for me, but a game I have a decent pedigree in. But Andrew completely trounced me - he’s Mr Biblios! - and walked away with a convincing win. 

Andrew 11

Sam 4

It was almost as if I had entered the episode over-confident of my own success, and a softly-spoken man had taken me by surprise. 

Eight games a week

Tuesday rolled around again and it was sans Endersby chez Joes'. Whilst Andrew was at home nursing his leg, I joined Ian, Katy, Martin, and Matt (2) with the host at the table. Matt (1) and Andy were late withdrawals.

After we got over our shock that Ian had forgotten his beer ("You don't bring any games" Martin cried "That's the one thing you have to remember!") we cracked into things with Fuji Flush. I had a bunch of twos and threes and every time I got rid of one, I picked another up. There was a lot of teamwork going on around the table and - as ever - plenty of dick points, delivered with great relish. With the game quite far progressed both Katy and I still had plenty of cards. We both made a late surge for it, but were beaten to the punch by Joe.

Joe - no cards
Katy/Ian/Martin/Sam - 1 card
Matt - 2 cards

Those of us broken by the experience consoled ourselves with the beautiful view out of Joe's window:

We then split into two groups of three, with Martin leading the Hit Z Road faction and me suggesting Raiders of the North Sea. Matt and Ian were amenable, so while Martin talked Joe through the rules of the zombie apocalypse, I explained Raiders.

Raiders has a simple worker-placement thing going on, but with a couple of twists. One is that every time you place a viking (taking the action of a location), you also displace one from the board - taking the second action too. Another is that the vikings have a hierarchy - black, grey, white - and this has a bearing on placement too. You're basically building a crew and gathering what you need to go off and raid - but each member of your crew gives you a little ongoing bonus, and a potential action to play as well. Some of these - not many - involving stealing from your fellow competitors, but while Matt and Ian got into a tit-for-tat of nicking provisions off each other, I was left relatively unscathed.

All the same, it looked to be Matt's game as the final furlong came into view. Ian was ready to raid and end it - however he was stymied by both Matt and I stealing provisions from him. I really wanted to raid and end the game myself, but didn't have the viking to do so. However, with the finale postponed, I hit upon a new strategy: killing off my crew. Vikings love a noble death, and the more you lose in battle the more points you score at the end - so there's a balance to be struck between short-term loss and long-term gain. I managed to kill off my whole crew just before Ian finally wrapped things up - I''d love to say I planned it to perfection, but I didn't. I just got lucky. Nice game though.

Sam 62
Matt 56
Ian 53

While we'd been raiding the North Sea, Martin had been the sole survivor in Hit Z Road, with Joe biting the dust somewhere around Colorado - not helped by rolls like this one:

...and Katy falling at the final hurdle, eaten by the living dead with a marvellous view of the Pacific.

Martin - survives!
Katy - dead last (second)
Joe - dead first (last)

Matt now left, leaving Ian and I to witness the end of Jump Drive, which Joe likes to describe as the snack version of Race for the Galaxy: it follows a very similar path of card selection and using other cards to pay, but with a simpler interface - and a much quicker playtime.

I suggested maybe it was the Boy Band version of RftG, but for whatever reason Joe did not approve. Either way, the ending was very dramatic, with Joe scoring more in his final round than Katy managed in the entire game. He and Martin both finished with the same score, with the latter winning on a tie-breaker!

Martin 91 (wins on tie-break)
Joe 91
Katy 38

After all that competition, it was time for a light-hearted semi-co-operative game where nobody falsely accuses anyone of being something they're not. But instead we played Insider.

I think I'm right in saying Ian was the Insider in the first two games and was correctly accused both times. Oddly we had to guess Board Game in one of them, and failed miserably. Ian gave himself away but justified it by saying we were all being really dense, which was a fair comment considering the context.

Then - drama! - Martin appeared to be the Insider and we all at one point were convinced. "You were asking all the pertinent questions" I said. "That's just because I'm clever!" Martin protested. Remembering his bewilderment at having to lie in Ultimate Werewolf (and subsequent hatred of the game) I was having doubts now. Joe, too, had a hunch that Katy might be letting Martin take the heat. We subsequently accused Katy of being the Insider, and she was!

Phew. All that co-operation was exhausting, so we went back to our default mo of trying to screw each other over - in Perudo. Joe tried to hide 20 dice under the cup lid again, but still couldn't manage it. Maybe he was distracted by the cup lid conundrum, because he was out rather quickly, following Ian. Joe's tactic seemed to be going for high bids, so I - to his left - kept dudo-ing him.Then he made what he described as a premature dudo, and was gone!

Martin fell next, when he found to his chagrin I had 3 aces. It was left to Katy and I, and I managed to dudo her away:

1 Sam
2 Katy
3 Martin
4 Joe
5 Ian

With the shadows lengthening over Europe, and an early start looming for Ian, he stole away before the clock struck eleven. The rest of us kept playing. Next to the table was Qwixx, the dice-roller that gives Joe a chance to bring out Das Exclusive.

It's a funny beast this one, where everyone gets to take the two white dice and on your turn you can combine one of them with one of the coloured dice. All the while you're crossing off numbers on a score pad - and potentially locking off certain colours. I'd played it years ago with Joe and forgotten how sweet it is. There's a tactical element, but also quite a bit of luck.

Sam 61

Martin 36

Joe 24

Katy 15

We finished off with Rolling America, another notepad-assisted experience where you roll dice and assign numbers. Your numeric map of America swiftly takes shape, then just as swiftly falls apart, as numbers can only go next to a matching number or one numerically adjacent. In a game where points are bad, Katy and I picked up a joint win:

Katy/Sam 10
Martin 11
Joe 12

And with no less than eight games played we finally called it a night and weaved our ways home. Thanks all!