Luxory Goods

On Thursday I took the kids to Chris' house for a sleepover and screen-based tomfoolery whilst Chris' Chippenham gang and I took advantage of a big empty table.

Before Paul and Stuart arrived, the two of us had a couple of head to head plays. First up was Luxor, the 'third' game to be nominated for this year's Spiel Des Jahres after the favourites Azul and The Mind. Luxor seemed to have a question mark following it around as to the validity of the nomination, and having played it three times now I'd agree it's not in the class of the others.

But - it's a decent family game with an interesting twist on movement. Each player moves adventurers through the tunnel to the centre of a pyramid, collecting artifact tiles as they go. But some tiles need more than one adventurer to be collected, and some have a special ability associated with them. As you move you trigger further adventurers to do more stuff, and the final scoring is a slightly Euro-y five categories, including a set collection bonus that informs your planning during play. However the movement itself is managed by cards in your hand - you always have five, but can only use a card from the edge of your hand (either end) before adding a new card to the middle. This gives an otherwise basic move-and-collect game a nice twist, as you can plan some nice moves and - with more players especially - have someone else get there first.

I planned very badly though, and only my late game rallying made the scores respectable:

Chris 95
Sam 92

Then we played Boomerang, a card-drafting game about visiting Australia and crossing off destinations, animals, plants and tourist spots on a sheet.

As each card contains most elements of each set, there's a sense of juggling what you keep v what you give away. The cards look nice and I guess the overlapping sets give you lots of decisions. But for me it was like a bland 7 Wonders. Chris found it reminded him most of Sushi Go (I found that bland as well!)

Chris - won handsomely
Sam - didn't

Then Paul and Stuart walked through the door at the same time and after a brief catch-up, we were straight into the main event, which was Rajas of the Ganges. (Big thanks to Jacquie at this point for taking point on the ongoing Kids To Bed project which finally wrapped up an hour and a half later)

Chris went through the rules and we were up and running, with the rounds clicking by pretty rapidly. I stumbled on a huge advantage when I spotted that moving my boat up the river was going to trigger me two extra workers, and for 3 or 4 rounds I had more options than the others. Paul swiftly caught up followed by Chris and then Stuart, but that mid-game salvo had given me enough momentum for a convincing win.

Chris was rampaging his way around the fame track, but was cash-poor throughout the game, meaning he never triggered his various bonuses for a more balanced approach.

Sam
Paul
Chris
Stuart

With hour still reasonably early we had time for some short silly stuff, beginning with Face Cards. Chris seemed to be least-chosen when it came to matches and suffered as a result. I thought I might be up for a win, but Paul's canny ability to spot almost everyone's choices ensured that was not the case!

Paul 22
Stuart/Sam 17
Chris 11

After which we played the always-classic Raj. Over four rounds there was some brutal ties and much appalled hilarity as everyone, I think, took at least one unexpected hit. I don't recall the final scores but Paul certainly won, taking the first and final rounds with aplomb.

Then it was Chris and I v Paul and Stuart at team Push It, which we won. Much more to do with Chris than me, though. I couldn't get the hang of the tablecloth's time-bending properties as the discs would suddenly grind to a halt, as if remembering something they'd left at home.

And we finished the night with Rhino Hero - new to Stuart and Paul but not a heavy rule-set, obviously. Paul got himself down to a single card so we all started picking on him by swinging the turn order away or handing him extra cards.

But when the end came it was via a spectacular collapse at the unfortunate hands of Stuart.

Eleven-thirty had been reached, and with all of us the wrong side of forty (I think, apologies if not) our hedonism batteries had now run dry. But lots of fun, thanks all! Hope to see you again soon for that game of Twilight Imperium...

- Oh, and Chris and I played gaming bete noir Kingdom Builder the next morning and I won. Now I never have to play it again!

Octocon Fun!

Friday 28th Oct

The annual GNN-and-friends away-weekend, this year dubbed Octocon for reasons relating to the phases of the Earth orbiting the sun, began last Friday, and finished on Monday just gone. And it's taken me all week to write it up! Just in time for the next GNN-related outing, which I'm sure we'll get to hear about much more swiftly.

I (Joe) picked up Katy at 4pm friday on the dot, and with a car loaded with games (mostly mine - Katy's collection of three games fit snugly in a single hand (without a bag)), set off towards Ilfracombe, to meet up with Hannah, Adam and Arthur; Anja, Steve and Louie; and Jon. 

We all arrived within half an hour of each other, our home for the weekend a pleasing top floor apartment in a converted cinema. Next door was the Masonic temple.

Our home for the weekend.

And just at the bottom of the road was Lidl. But more important than either of these was the entrance to the tunnel beach, visible from the windows.

Whilst Steve and Anja settled Louie, we five played the inaugural game of the weekend - Pairs.

I went bust in 4 of the 6 rounds, reaching a final score of 10pts. Katy raced to the win with Adam in second.

Katy 21

Adam 18

Hannah 12

Joe 10

Jon 9

With Steve and Anja now in attendance, we thought we'd have a quick 7 player game while Jon's jacket potatoes finished cooking. Incan Gold seemed like the perfect choice.

We played my recently acquired version, the new edition of the original game Diamant (confused?). Katy said she preferred the treasure from the original, whilst I think these new shiny rubies and diamonds are more . . . treasury. No one can argue with the new stay/go cards though - no ambiguity here, and consequently no gimmes for players who play the wrong card. The chests for storing your treasure are more robust than the tents, and don't look like chocolate wrappers, something that has often disturbed Sam in the past. Seemingly the only downside to this new edition is the absence of zombie ladies. They have been replaced with boring old spiky logs on ropes. Poor show. But a fun game with or without zombie ladies, and one which I won. Note the mid-pack, all separated by a single point, and then Steve. Sorry Steve.

Joe 26

Adam 19

Katy 18

Anja 17

Hannah 16

Jon 15

Steve 5

After dinner, the mooting of which games to play began in earnest, except there was really only one choice - tonight we would finally get to play Captain Sonar! Except Hannah bowed out, so we had 6 rather than the optimum 8 players. This meant captains took 1st mate duties too. I suggested we might try starting turn by turn, but by the time we'd been through the rules we thought it might be best to just go for it. Katy and I were radio operators on each sub, Jon and Steve captain/1st mate, and Adam and Anja engineers. A few rule clarifications were necessary, but I must have overlooked the rule which said do not put Anja and Steve on the same team. My job as radio operator (radiographer as Katy kept calling it - that's a different board game I think) was relatively simple, and I kept out of the way while my captain and engineer came to blows over the correct etiquette for imparting information between them. Meanwhile our opponents merrily hunted us down and blew us out of the water. We might have been able to limp away had it not been for my helpful advice earlier, involving leaving a blaze in the engine room to blow itself out rather tackle it (metaphorically), which meant we were already compromised.

There was much discussion afterwards, and Jon as the other captain seemed particularly proud of his teams coordination - Adam won extra points for his submariners beard. I want to play again with the full 8 now - and would have no hesitation in suggesting we hit the ground running with the simultaneous game. But it will be a rare evening where we get 8 players and only 8 players. Here's hoping.

Katy/Jon/Adam 0 damage

Joe/Steve/Anja 4 damage

The night was relatively young but we had all had a long drive, so we finished off with a few games of Rhino Hero, which we kept calling Super Rhino - he eventually got called much worse things due to his superpower seeming to be creeping around buildings looking through windows. I can't say the scores need recording in their entirety, but here you go:

Katy 2 cards left

Adam 3

Joe 4

Steve 4

Anja bust (knocked over a bit of the building)

Jon bust (ditto)

game 2

Adam 1 card left

Anja 2

Steve 3

Joe 3

Katy bust

Jon bust

We then played For Sale:

Anja 49

Katy 45

Jon 42

Adam 41

Joe 36

Steve 34

And went to bed. Apologies for the lack of pictures - my phone was charging.

Saturday 29th October

Mornings start early when you have young children, and we were most of us up and about around 8am. Among the tea and coffee, toast and cereal and episodes of Peppa Pig, that unsettling feeling of 'when are we going to play a game'  crept in, and before long, Jon and I sat down to Paperback. This is a recent favourite of mine; having played and loved the iPad implementation, I tracked down a copy for sale, and it was a big hit with Charlotte and Bea during our break in Polruan at the beginning of this half term. It's essentially Dominion with the added fun of making words. Which, if you like making words, is a lot of fun.

Jon took to it like a pro, but my experience with the game won out, and I won. But I can't remember the scores.

Before the weekend began, I had promised Katy that I would swim in the sea, and so we all set off for the Tunnels Beach, leaving Adam to cook and listen to Test Match Special. Swimming happened. Here are the photos to prove it. The sea was much warmer than recent dips in Henleaze lake, but I was immediately very cold on emerging, and headed for home, leaving the rest of the gang to enjoy the sea air.

pic by Katy - the tunnel to the beach

In the tunnel

Great photo by Steve

Back at the pad, and warmed up, Adam and I talked cooking and crossword until the others returned. Anja and Steve treated us to a smorgasboard of cheeses, salads and crusty rolls, aided by their own and Jon's extremely fine homemade chutneys and pickled beetroot. "But . . . games", I hear you mutter. "Where are the games?"

Qwixx proved a decent dice-chucking filler over the course of the weekend, and in its inaugural outing we had an unusual 3 way tie for the win:

Jon 43

Anja 43

Joe 43

Adam 38

Anja took Louie off to see a friend, Arthur and Hannah had a lie down, and Katy took herself for a stroll (NOT a hike). We men settled down to the first big proper game of the weekend - Scythe, which Jon had brought. 

We had all played before, either with Sam or Jon, so we were up and running fairly swiftly. It was my second game, and I'm still getting to grips with it. Both of my games I have pushed for my upgrade star, and it seems to me it's one that inevitably takes most of the game to complete - I feel I should have had other irons in the fire whilst that was going on. I did focus on keeping my popularity on the up, and combat was eschewed by all for most of the game. But Jon was consistently dropping stars, and inevitably we began to bump up against each other on the board. My paltry power did me no favours in the ensuing clashes, and I lost an important hex to Jon. Adam then chanced his luck with a double fight against Jon, but made a tactical error. He dropped a lot of power on the first fight and won, leaving the second battle Jon's for the taking - and Jon only needed one combat star to end the game. And so it was. I was convinced I was staring at fourth place, but the tie-breaker gave me the silver. However, a look at the scores reveals the sad truth - we were all very much in Jon's shadow.

Jon 63

Joe 37 (most pieces on board)

Steve 37

Adam 36

Steve wanted to play Scythe again straight away! But I had agreed to go with Katy to check out the state of the sea at high tide in prep for Sunday's swim, so the others packed it away while I nipped out.

Katy's pics of Ilfracombe

Damien Hirst statue.

On our return, we found Carcassonne with the kids in full swing. But the game had slowed down, and Jon offered to double up on a game of Qwixx with Katy and me. It was a different story to the earlier three-way tie:

Jon 73

Joe 70

Katy 56

When it finally finished the scores for Carcassonne were:
Adam & Arthur ~90
Jon ~70
Steve & Louie ~65

We all settled down for supper, Hannah and Adams delicious lasagne, and a particularly lovely looking salad.

And they made a crumble with custard too. It was all very tasty. Young 'uns were bathed and bedded, and we debated the evenings games in various ways. Anja suggested first, second and third preferences on post-its, Adam countered with 'push the one you want to play towards the centre of the table'. Katy picked up Castles of Mad King Ludwig and took it over to the coffee table, which settled the matter for Jon and Adam, who joined her. I know nothing of the shenanigans, but the scores were:

Jon 124

Adam 123

Katy 115

Ludwiggers

Meanwhile I introduced Steve, Anja and Hannah to Isle of Skye. I really enjoy this, and am always intrigued by the way the scoring tiles interact, as well as the consistent agony of how to price your tiles. I can't remember precisely what went on, because we were also drinking, but in the end, Hannah won handily:

Hannah 54

Steve 49

Joe 43

Anja 35

Not the most fascinating pic

We played a quick game of Qwixx while Ludwig was played - in fact I think we played it whilst they scored Ludwig. I will refrain from Martin-esque comment on the significance of that.

Joe 61

Steve 59

Anja 56

Hannah 51

Qwixx remained on the table for a 5 player game whilst Katy and I stepped out for a breath of unfresh air, and Jon added to his burgeoning roster of wins:

Jon 72

Hannah 64

Steve 57

Anja 56

Adam 35

After that, Hannah called it a night. Did we even moot Captain Sonar at this point? I think we didn't, it was getting on. But we somehow decided on Dream Home and Thurn & Taxis as the next games on the table.

Thurn & Taxis finished:

Adam 30
Anja 22

Dream Home is a new acquisition of mine, and I'd played a couple of games with my girls in the days before Octocon. I nearly didn't bring it with me, as it's pretty light fare - Ticket to Ride with less strategy kind of light. But it's pretty charming, and was the perfect weight for the time of night and gently fuzzed brains available.

Each player starts with an empty house, and over 12 rounds kits out their home with rooms, scoring points for a two card kitchen, a three card sitting room and so on. At the end there are bonuses for functionality - a bathroom on each floor and a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom - and for a complete roof. There are a few unique rooms, including a games room with real games which we all fought over (except we had nowhere to put it), a sauna and a pantry.

Jon won (again!), but there was a tie for second, and Dream Home has a very cute tie-breaker. You scour the rooms of your home for hidden children (does that sound weird?).  Steve had more children secreted in his home than Katy (yeah ok, it's weird):

Jon 44

Steve 37 (more hostages)

Katy 37

Joe 34

Katy's dream roof

After that it was approaching midnight. Adam had vowed not to set foot out of the house, and he and Jon played a couple of games of Patchwork whilst the other four of us took the air again.

Jon 19

Adam 2 

Jon 12

Adam 2

We returned, everybody was pooped and we all went to bed after a very lovely evening.

Sunday 30th October

The clocks went back during the night, and because this means nothing to small children, we were all up bright and early with an extra hour of gaming to look forward to! In the event, I can't say we made the most of that opportunity - games were not even mooted until lunch had come and gone - but it's quality not quantity that counts (that's patent nonsense, I realise). I had promised brunch, which we decided should be called lunch because everyone was already eating breakfast. Steve, Anja and Louie had to head back to Bristol, so after a round of jolly farewells, the others set off to get some air (fresh this time) while I prepped Shakshuka - a favourite recipe from the Ottolenghi book Plenty, involving stewed peppers, tomatoes and eggs. And spices.

Brupper was served at 12 noon on the dot, and our minds turned to games. But also swimming in the sea. 

Hannah and Adam settled Arthur for an afternoon nap, and then they and Jon debated what big afternoon game to tackle. Waggledance won out, and whilst they got cracking, Katy and I played Patchwork. 

It was Katy's first game, but Jon is a master of rules explanation, and she seemed set to wipe the floor with me, getting a fime button economy going from the outset.

However, one of Jon's bits of advice was 'don't bother going after the 7 button bonus tile - take it if you can, but it's rarely a game winner'. I thought this was sensible advice, but in the closing stages the opportunity arose for me to complete a 7x7 square and take the bonus, and I took it. And I won by a point. 

Joe 15

Katy 14

Katy and I left the Waggledancers to it and hit the sea. We chose a different beach, one that had been closed for a wedding the day before, and clambered into the fairly calm waves over a very rocky shoreline. I suggested swimming out and round the rocks to the beach we had swum from on Saturday; Katy was sensibly more cautious. We had been in the sea for about 10 minutes when the swell picked up considerably, and we looked back at the rocky shore to see quite large waves crashing on to it. We wondered how to get back without being dashed on the rocks, and a Radio Four news report began playing in my head, worrier that I am. 

We headed in, and after a few big waves with a nasty undertow, the swell subsided again and we clambered out. A little scratched and bruised, and cold, but essentially safe.

These photos by Hannah are from the previous day, just because there were to many to post at the start. And also so that you can't see the fuss I was making about some little lapping waves.

Steve looks vexed by our idiocy.

When we returned, Waggle Dance was in full swing, but paused while Arthur was settled. Katy had a bath and a nap, while Jon explained the precarious tension with the current gamestate to me. I didn't properly understand. As the game resumed I chewed away at Saturday's crossword, which was pretty chewy, and the final scores were:

Hannah 7 (fewest dice)

Adam 7

Jon 6

Katy returned from her nap and began prepping curry for the evening, and while Hannah kept Arthur entertained, Jon, Adam and I played Isle of Skye. This means that only Katy didn't play IoS this weekend, and didn't on the subsequent Tuesday fixture either, opting for Scythe. Isle of Scythe. Hmmm.

I did quite well for the first few rounds, but Jon and Adam both jumped ahead in the final reckoning, and the final scores were:

Jon 71

Adam 62

Joe 58

Curry continued to be made, with some discussion over the-rice to-naan ratio;. With Arthur happily imbibing episodes of something CBeebies-ish on the tablet, we four played TeamPlay. Hannah thought it would be funny if she and Adam were on the same team; Adam was willing to give it a go. As it turned out, they pipped Jon and I for the win - it was a great game. We also inaugurated a fun way of revealing the scores. One team plays a score card, then the next team plays score cards until they're in the lead, then the first team play more score cards etc etc. It was nail-biting! And that's from someone who could have drowned earlier the same day. 

Hannah and Adam 29

Jon and Joe 27

The Bombay Mix was so fine it had to be eaten with a spoon.

We stopped for Katy's curry, and delicious it was too. Jon and I had pledged to leave no naan behind, so we went back for seconds and thirds. And there was still an untouched pan full of curry on the hob. Katy cooked for 12.  We all enjoyed the benefit of the clocks going back - it was only 6pm, and the lovely evening of games stretched ahead. 

Hannah tactfully suggested Adam could bath Arthur alone if he liked; and while he did, we four played Dream Home again. Jon won. Again. And no need to go searching for hidden children.

Jon 42

Hannah 38

Joe 37

Katy 33

Adam joined us, and we somehow alighted on Colosseum as the big five player to play next. It's apt that we played it since Jon and I had both brought it - this may be the only game that was in evidence twice for the whole weekend - and it's also a GNN favourite that has been long absent.

Only Katy hadn't played, and whilst it's not complex there are phases, and lots of bits. Jon did some more expert explaining, and we settled into putting on fabulously camp shows in ancient Rome.

For the first three, perhaps four rounds, Katy stormed ahead of us all. Adam had pointed out the pitfall of this (that the last place player gets to take one of your tiles), but equally, Jon pointed out that this meant +3 points for each winner podium accrued. As we who have played before know, in Colosseum, you're only as good as your last show - meaning the show you put on in the final round. And everybody (except me) had a little something up their sleeve. Katy looked on in dismay as first Jon, then Hannah, then Adam leaped ahead of her on the scoreboard. I did the decent thing and languished in fifth place, despite my three star performers.

Adam 89

Hannah 82

Jon 81

Katy 71

Joe 61

many Gandalfs

Caesar's in town. And he's brought a friend.

Colosseum remains a firm favourite of mine, but it is long with five, and I was dismayed (more dismay) to see how time had flown whilst we fiddled while Rome burned. We discussed Lords of Vegas, which Jon had been keen to try for several years, but felt a five player game would be too long, so we decided to introduce him to Midnight Party instead.

It's reputation may have been overplayed, as it wasn't the raucous scene that's lead to it's being banned in several households, but then we were playing with five and the knowledge that a small child was sleeping close by. We played three rounds, and Jon showed us all how to escape from ghosts. I accrued what may be an all time losing score, over seven times the winner and double the next worst score. Ahem.

Jon -10

Hannah -24

Adam -29

Katy -33

Joe -71

Octocon was drawing to a close. Hannah and Adam bowed out, but those of us without present children struggled on. Katy was still using the words 'Lords' and 'Vegas' quite a lot, and it may not have been much later than 9.30pm, (the current benchmark for how late LoV can be broken out) - but it would have been a learning game for Jon, and that tipped the balance. We settled into a gentle game of Land Unter. Or Turn the Tide, as less cultured folk like to call it.

I can't remember much about the game, and it's not one that provides a big narrative apart from the threat of drowning sheep, but Katy beat us both, and boy did she let us know iot. No I'm kidding, she was magnanimous. Actually I can't remember either way; but I feel sure the event wouldn't have gone unremarked.

Katy 10

Joe 2

Jon 1

More scintillating photography!

And yet more...

Were we ready to call it quits? Nearly, and if one person had but the other two had kept playing we'd have gone out with a real whimper - but we were all up for a quick and very silly game of Kakerlaken Salat. This is part of the same family as Kakerlaken Poker, but the similarity is only cosmetic. It's more like Dobble in terms of gameplay, with players trying to rid themsleves of a stack of cards. When you place a card you must name the vegetable in question. Except if it's a repeat of the one underneath you have to name another. And if you play a cockroach card, it forbids the naming of a certain vegetable. So of the four vegetables you may find only one is nameable, and if you hesitate, or name an illegal vegtable, you have to take the stack of cards. It's fun and very silly, and the perfect end to a spiffing weekend of games.

We all woke early on Monday, packed up and scooted without so much as a single die or meeple hitting the table (we did nearly finish the crossword with a little help from Google for the difficult last few clues). But as Katy and I discussed on the drive home, there are always more games to be played, and three evenings of gaming just leaves you wanting more. Thank you to all involved, it was huge fun, and I'm already looking forward to next years con. Septicon? Decepticon.

Chance would be a fine thing

For the first time since we stopped going to Roll For The Soul, GNN set out into the public arena as we decided to hold this week’s event in Bristol’s new board game cafe, Chance ‘n’ Counters. We took in the ambiance, and looked at the wide selection of games, and also noted the sensible drink holders attached to the sides of the tables.

There were five of us: Sam, Joe, Ian, Ben and me. In the beginning, Joe hadn’t arrived, so the four of us played Rhino Hero, noting that the tables in the cafe were sturdy enough to hold a balancing game without juddering or shaking.

By the time Sam completed his go and Ian stood up, the hotel was leaning notably. When Ian built with a card that reversed the player order, Sam’s fate was sealed. He was about to place his next card when the building collapsed beneath him.

1. Andrew
2. Ian/Ben
3. Sam

Then Joe arrived we wondered what we could play and couldn’t come up with a decent idea. Five players is a tricky number and nothing on offer seemed to be right. Then Joe admitted he’d brought Lords of Vegas which, with the expansion pack, plays five. Although it seemed a bit odd to come to a board game cafe equipped with your own game, it was the only title that everyone was keen on.

At the start of the game, Sam sped into an early lead. He quickly acquired two two-tile casinos and also earned quite a lot of money by people gambling in his casinos and losing badly.

Ben also got a two-tile casino, but it didn’t seem to do so well for him. I kept pace with Sam with a few single tile casinos and Ian pondered what to do with his conveniently clustered plots. Joe got off to a slow start.

Joe’s slow start turned into a slow middle. He got involved in a war over a five-tile gold casino with Sam and Ian. There were many reorganisations, but whenever he was boss, the casino never paid out. In fact, gold hardly paid out at all in the whole game.

This left Joe in a predicament, and Sam and Ben, too as they had built gold casinos. Sam’s reduction in points allowed me to overtake him. On the other side of the Strip, though, a Leviathan of a casino was being built. Two green casinos (mine and Ian’s) merged together, with Sam as a minority stockholder on the board, hoping for a bit of luck in any reorganising.

So determined was I to keep hold of it that I sprawled twice into unused plots, just to get another dice in there. And it almost worked, too. Ian finally managed to take over the casino late in the game. I worked out that with a bit of luck (ie, the game ending soon) I’d still win. I built another casino on the strip – a three-tile silver casino – to try and consolidate rather than risk losing a reorganisation roll.

But I didn’t have any luck. The green casino paid out on the next card, and then the Game Over card was turned over. The fact that the green casino paid out twice put Ian level with me on points, and he had enough money in the bank to sneak the win after fighting back from a distant third.

Joe was ruefully upbeat about his record low score. In a way, Joe’s luck-dodging performance will be just a memorable as Ian’s late comeback.

Ian 29 (plus $47m)
Andrew 29 (plus $39m)
Sam 23 (plus $33m)
Ben 23 (plus $18m)
Joe 8

After this heady excitement I wondered if I’d got a bit carried away, standing up while taking my go and punching the air after a lucky dice roll. I hope I didn’t embarrass us.

We settled back down to Earth with a game of Skull and Roses. Or should that be: (The Worst) game of Skull and Roses (in the World).

None of our predictions came true. Not one. Well, not until the very end. It was a horror show. The pile of discarded tiles grew and grew. At least the failure was evenly spread, with all of us having just two tiles left at one point.

Eventually, though, people were whittled away. It finally came down to me against Sam. I put down a rose, and it was my turn to call. It was simply a matter of guessing if he’d put down a rose or not. I guessed that he had, and bid “two.” He hadn’t.

1. Sam
2. Andrew
3. Ian
4. Joe
5. Ben

And with that, the evening was done. We paid our bill, tipped according to whether we liked cats or dogs, and bade our farewells. A very pleasant evening.

On the division, Ian widens his lead over the rest, and I take the medal table. Adam is still top in points ratio.

The Discharge Pile

This week, a mere (mere in quantity, not in quality) five gamers arrived at Sam’s house for their weekly dose of board games: Apart from the host, we were myself, Katy, Ian and Joe.

Joe was the last to arrive, and while we waited for him, we played Rhino Hero. Another reading of the rules gave us a method of grading us as 1st, 2nd, 3rd... instead of just having one loser. It would be leaderboard! However controversy reigned as the tower collapsed several seconds after Katy had completed her move and just as Ian was poised to put a card on top of the tower. Who was responsible for the fall? Arguments raged for tens of seconds before we agreed on joint third. Or joint last. Whichever you prefer.

1. Sam
2. Andrew
3= Ian
3= Katy

Then with Joe on his way, we discussed what five-player game we should set up. Viticulture was considered, but instead we chose Istanbul, because Katy thought she remembered liking it. Joe seemed happy with our choice when he arrived, and once he was taught the rules, we were off!

Katy went big on the black market, trying to stock up on gems. I went for a card-heavy tactic, but as a consequence had too few goods or cash and when I did have some goods, I kind of wasted them on an expensive gem from the Sultan’s Palace. Everyone chased the governor and the smuggler around and visited the mosques.Katy lead from the start, and swooped to a swift win by buying two gems from the gemstone dealer in one go. Ian snuck ahead of Sam by one coin.

Katy 5 gems
Ian 3 gems and 4 coins
Sam 3 gems and 3 coins
Andrew 2
Joe 1

Next, Joe introduced us to The Grizzled, a co-op game set in the trenches of the First World War. And, I have to say, it succesffuly recreates the confusion and feeling of bitter fatalism that I assume real trench warfare had. At least it did the first time we tried it.

In this game, we are all French soldiers, making our way through missions by playing cards from our hand while avoiding three-of-a-kind in anything, such as terrain (rain, snow, night) or threats (gas mask, shells, whistles).

Also we need to support each other in case one of us gets too many “hard knocks” – a kind of status change that makes the game more difficult. If anyone has four at the end of a round, the game ends in defeat. But if we can support our comrade, then they can discard two hard knocks. The simple aim of the game is to reduce a stack of cards until the dove at the end is revealed, while trying to avoid cards being taken from the other stack of cards which has a war memorial at the end.

The first game was confusing, and difficult to know what was going on or what was a good move. We didn’t do very well. But were we downhearted? No! We tried again, and this time did somewhat better. There was a brief moment of debate over whether Sam’s misunderstanding of a rule meant he could take back a turn even after Ian had taken his. In the end, we did, with Joe mumbling about “hollow victories.”

As it turned out, though, we didn’t even get that. With the dove card in sight we were unable to clear the final mission with everyone intact: Ian had five hard knocks and not enough people could support him so he couldn’t discard any.

Four of Ian's hard knocks

Next, we had a quick game of Tsuro. During this game, Katy (perhaps still thinking about WWI) called the discard pile “the discharge pile” Oh, how we laughed (quite drunk by now, you see). As for the game, I killed Ian, Joe killed me, and then Sam and Katy couldn’t do anything but throw themselves off the board, leaving Joe as last dragon standing.

1. Joe
2. Katy
3. Sam
4. Andrew
5. Ian

And we ended with a lovely game of Spyfall. And I’ll tell you what: we did not hang about with our accusations. In the first round, we accused Joe (can’t remember why) but it was Katy who was the spy. Next game, Katy made a fatal blunder. She was the spy, and she relied on her old familiar “What’s the atmosphere like in here?” except this was an outdoor scene. Sam drew attention to her gaffe and before long, she was voted out.

In the third round, Katy decided to bluff and brought suspicion on herself deliberately. But there’s no point in bluffing in Spyfall (unless you’re the spy) and she was voted out, giving the real spy Sam an easy win.

In round four Joe stopped the questioning and revealed himself as the spy. He almost won, too. He guessed we were in a circus tent, but we were actually in a theatre.

Then in round five, I was (rightly) accused as being the spy from very early on, and was voted out. This was annoying, since I’d worked out the location from only a few questions – a passenger train.

And with that, we were gone. Ready for Friday and the NSPCC big games bash thing in an art gallery. Possibly with no chairs. We shall see.

Twist for Funzies

This week’s games night at Sam’s attracted just six gamers: Sam (obviously), Joe, Ben, Katy, Ian and myself. After some initial attempts at “conversation” (that mostly failed due to confusion over who was or wasn’t present at games nights for the past two weeks) the four earliest attendees (Sam, Katy, Ian and myself) decided to try Rhino Hero, a game of building a tower out of cards, while trying to place a tiny rhinoceros meeple on the floors when the instructions on the cards tell you.

There’s no winner, only one loser: the player who knows the tower down. I lost.

During this, Ben arrived and we weren’t expecting Joe to arrive for another ten minutes, so we began a good old fashioned game of Pairs. Sam went out immediately in the first two rounds (two eights, then two tens) and then Joe turned up, so we made it a brief dash to eleven points. My lassiez-faire attitude to twisting gave rise to the phrase that is this week’s blog title.

Andrew 13
Katy 9
Ian 7
Sam 5
Ben 2

With all six of us around the table we began the night proper. We chose Last Spike as a game we could all play together. It was new to Sam, whose evening was to be noteworthy for the amount of new rules he had to take in.

The Last Spike is all about holding on to your best pieces and hoping for a few payouts. The game could’ve been much shorter, as a route across the board through the centre was only two tracks away from being finished. But it must have been two different players who held those tiles, since neither was placed (allowing the other to take the $20k bonus for finishing the route).

Ben had to sell a share since he ran out of money thinking he could pass if he couldn’t build, which probably contributed to his poor showing. Sam did well for a beginner and I got lucky (again!) and placed the last track tile. Without that $20k bonus, I would’ve been a feeble last.

But well done to Joe, who was unlucky in the early stages and got no free stations at all. But he promised to demonstrate how some judicious purchases could override his bad luck. And he did.

Joe $67,000
Ian $60,000
Sam $50,000
Katy $48,000
Andrew $40,000
Ben $31,000

Now we split into two. Katy, Sam and Joe chose Russian Railroads for their evening’s main course, while Ian, Ben and I decided (after not being able to find Istanbul) to play 7 Wonders.

This GNN favourite is new to Ben, and I thought it would be a perfect time to introduce him to it. I explained the rules to him and, instead of overloading him all at once with every detail, I spread my explanation out across most of the game by saying “Oh. One more rule...” every time something occurred to me.

It must have been a decent method, since Ben just scraped a victory in his first game of 7 Wonders.

Ben 48
Ian 47
Andrew 42

After this I suggested we play again. I was keen to get rid of explainer’s curse and see how he’d cope against a fully focused opponent.

Obligatory reference to 7 Wonder's artwork

Turns out, he coped pretty well. Apart from knocking some bottles (thankfully all empty) across the table mid game, Ben played well, recording an even bigger win than before. In fact, after the first three scoring rounds (money, military and wonders) I had one point, Ian had eight, and Ben had forty-one! A large gap to recover.

Luckily, I had my blue buildings and Ian had his sciences. It wasn’t enough to secure a win, but at least it wasn’t too humiliating.

Ben 60
Ian 50
Andrew 45

At the other end of the table, Russia still had plenty of Railroading to be done (and it looked like Sam and I had missed out on a lot of rules in our recent two-player jaunt), so we had enough time to play something else.

I went to get Biblios, but I came back with Raj. I figured even I could explain these rules in one go and not have to keep going back and adding something new.

We played a three round game, and in round one it looked like Ben was going to crush us all over again as he took an early 43, 4, -4 lead.

But Ian and I are nothing if not persistent, and over the next two rounds we limited him to four points per round and, in doing so, I took the chance to close the gap. Admittedly I got some luck (or was it skill?) getting a nine-tile with my one with Ian and Ben played their fifteens.

I got a little bad luck a few minutes later, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

In the end, I took first place.

Andrew 63
Ben 51
Ian 30

And Russian Railroads was just finishing too. Katy, who’d seemed quite keen on the game earlier, had not played well in the final stages. She blamed her last place on Sam “producing a bit of magic” in the final round. Joe, again from a weak start (where he’d begun all four scoring tracks), sailed to a handsome victory.

Joe 384
Sam 318
Katy 253

Now we were six again, and Dead Man’s Chest had been sitting patiently on the table all evening and now it was its chance to shine! Sam got an explanation of the rules. But he kept forgetting that doubles were high, and when he bid 44 as a middling, innocuous bid, Katy challenged and he was out. It didn’t help that he had his little chart of dice values upside-down for a while.

Joe kept saying that “Dead Man” (21) came out more often than you’d think, but when he bid Dead Man this time, Katy challenged and he was out.

Ben had to leave for the bus, and I smartly dispatched of Ian and Katy to take the win.

1. Andrew
2. Katy
3. Ian
4. Ben
5. Joe
6. Sam

And with that, we were done. It was 11.30. Katy, Joe and I walked off together, discussing politics and how Katy can stop her need to win spoiling her enjoyment of games.

And then, the next morning, when I emptied out my bag, I found a bag of Skittles in there! Thanks, whoever it was. I hope it was one of you guys, otherwise it means I had a trip to a 24-hour garage that I have no recollection of.

We haven’t seen the leaderboard for two weeks, but Ian is still top. Meanwhile, Joe now has points ratio and I head the medals table.