Training Games

Tonight's games saw four players begin with two helpings of 7 Wonders, a game that was once considered medium length challenge and is now treated like a piece of light hearted fluff that fills ten minutes or so. I set up two games with Ian, Katy, Adam T and myself. In the first one, Ian won by being the quietest, I think. In the other one, Adam T finally clocked up a win. Unfortunately I’d set it up as a training game and Adam’s ELO score remained untouched.

Ian 59

Andrew 51

Katy 49

Adam 39

Adam 59

Ian 49

Ian 44

Katy 43

After this Martin and Andy B arrived and we split in two groups. Adam, Katy and Martin went off to play Ninety-nine while after some idle indecision, we remaining three chose Russian Railroads. It’s been a long time since this was seen at GNN and Ian got a rules explanation that I also listened to, trying to get back up to speed. 

It was possibly not the ideal choice for an already exhausted Ian, but he quickly showed his tactical nous with some astute moves. I, on the other hand, made the same mistake that I used to do: forgetting about the engineers. 

Andy 320

Ian 222

Andrew 190

As for the other group, once they’d worked out which Google Hangout that Katy had gone to, played Ninety-Nine, which I kept an eye on long enough to see Adam T get off to a slow start and also note that Sam had arrived and was watching them play too.

Martin 374

Katy 233

Adam 154

After this they played Yokai. Technically, they played twice, but Martin quit the game that he set up and the result showed that he’d lost and everyone else had won even though Yokai is a co-op game. The second attempt ended in a shared defeat for all.

Then Steve and Anja arrived while Sam bowed out. The five of them now played For Sale.

Martin 57

Katy 57

Steve 53

Anja 45

Adam 42

Finally, the weary Russian Railroaders joined up with the rest and they ended on 6nimmt, in which Ian crashed out in two rounds, picking up an impressive forty cards in the process. In the closing stages, it was very close with the standings at Anja 59, Andy 58, Steve 56, Martin 55 with two cards left. It ended

Andy 58

Anja 56

Martin 55

Steve 55

Katy 36

Andrew 27

Ian –22

And that was all for this week. See you all soon.

Threes

Earlier this week, to celebrate the confirmation of a bit of work (us self-employed types know how to live) I wandered into Area 51 and, 20 minutes later, wandered out with Kremlin under my arm - a feisty, screw-heavy game of political manoeuvring that, having brought home, I realised with it's multiple chits and health-score charts, was probably not going to be my cup of tea. A read of the rave reviews of Mombasa later, and I exchanged games.

The next night I watched a play through of Mombasa and realised that, despite it's high rating on BGG, it looked rather too Feldy even for me. So today I took that back and exchanged it - this time for two (one new, one second-hand) games that Andrew and I played tonight. I also rented a game that the ship refused to sell...

Here's how the games rated with us.

sniffy chieftain

Pueblo was a Kramer and Kiesling creation from the early 90s that was possibly inspired by Tetris. The players are constructed a 'pueblo' for tenancy and the chieftain strides around the complex making sure you're not making your own colours (rather than his preferred neutral colour of beige) stand out too much. Despite the potentially high AP factor it played reasonably quickly - I did well during the building, but at the end of the game the chieftain makes a final inspection, and at that point I came spectacularly undone:

Andrew - won convincingly
Sam - lost convincingly

Next up was Billabong, the rental. This is like a less-boring Chinese Checkers - or a less random Camel Up - as players race their kangaroos around an oasis, trying to be the first to get all their kangaroos 'home'. Kangaroos can move one space at a time, but they can also jump. The catch - or the advantage - here is that they can jump over another kangaroo for as many spaces as they are behind it - thus (as long as there is space on the board) a kangaroo three, four or six spaces behind yours can jump three, four, or six spaces in front of it. And as you can jump backwards, diagonally, and multiple-y, it was deceptively thinky too.

go let it out

Sam - won by about two kangaroos
Andrew - lost

The final newbie was Knitwit, Matt Leacock(Mr Pandemic)'s attempt at a Codenames-style word association - without clues this time. Players add a loop to an expanding board with a word attached, and after that, a spool - each spool ends up with at least one (or two, or three) word to define it. Players then write a definition of each spool: for instance, my living, slow and moving word was Sloth. My electrical word was Dishwasher. And so on. But speed also plays a part, and Andrew defined all the words way before I did:

Andrew 12
Sam 9

words

We both really liked it, but thought it'd be better with more players.

There was just time to bash through that snappy game of Russian Railroads (I won) and several games of Cube Quest (Andrew won most of them, although I beat him once by trying to flick his grunt off and careering down the table into his King...) before calling it a night.

Short Report

This Sunday, Sam, Ian and I met up for some board games. Sam and I discussed Russian Railroads while Ian was on his way, and when we suggested it, he seemed amenable so Sam talked him through the rules. Once we were underway, I took a photo of the board, saying it was just in case something happened and we had to blog.

Well, something happened. Ian happened. He ploughed through the Trans Siberian to a clear victory, beating out my three-pronged attack and Sam’s... can’t remember his strategy. Anyway, Ian used his own track-moving engineers so efficiently, sometimes he was hardly using the board at all.

Ian 433
Andrew 366
Sam 320

Then we finished off with a mad blur of games. Ian won Heck Meck, too, after I ended the game picking up from the centre instead of rolling again to see if I could steal from Ian. Sam was disgusted by my lack of courage. And by my sneaking into second.

Ian, then Andrew, then Sam.

Next up was Push It. I won with a two pointer, pushing me to 8, and Ian and Sam came joint second, but I don’t remember how much they had. Five?

Finally, we chose Love Letter. All my best bluffing came to nought in this game, as Sam clocked up his second win in a row in Love Letter (which may go some way to compensating for his recent defeat at the hand of his son).

Sam 3
Ian 1
Andrew 0

Another evening done.

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.

A no score report

Saturday, Sam and I met up for a quick evening of him versus me. It was not meant to be blogged, hence my lack of notes regarding the scores, but my remarkable performance on Take It Easy cannot go without mention. Luckily I’d been trying out the camera on my new phone this evening, so we have photos too.

We began at seven, with a game of Circus Flohcati. A simple game of set collecting. The main mechanic being a bit like Port Royal: keep turning cards as long as you want, but if you turn over two of the same kind, you go bust and cannot pick up a card.

Unlike Port Royal, though, only the last card goes into the discard pile. The rest remain on the table and your opponent can take one. And then you can take one. In fact going bust doesn’t seem massively punitive, apart from having one less card.

The idea is to put down trios (three of a kind in value) and with seven suits there were enough of each value for us both to complete any value of trios. I won’t go into the scoring system, but although Sam scored a “Gala” (got a trio of each value) I got points for unused cards in my hand.

Possibly Knizia’s simplest game. Maybe too simple? Looks nice, though.

Andrew won!

Then Sam mentioned that he’d bought a number of games from Joe who was having a bit of a clear out. Among the titles was Russian Railroads! We got it down and, after some rule refreshment, we got going.

It’s all well and good remembering the rules, but I’d forgotten about the strategy. I went for the usual Eurogame thing of “a little bit of everything” while Sam focussed solely on the top track with its multipliers. It was a thrashing.

Sam won!

It was over rather quickly, so we played again. This time, I went for the Kiev track as the quickest route to victory and it worked. My margin of victory was small – less than ten – by a victory is a victory, right?

Andrew won!

Then we played Codenames as a co-op two-player. We played twice, taking a turn to be the Spymaster, and both times we got a “Your watches are synchronized” rating on the chart of success in the rule book.

Sam knows me well, and went for a childish clue “Off” which I used to successfully identify “Mouth” and “Pants”. He needed to consult Google though, regarding a particular definition: Kiwi was a fruit but was it also a bird? When it was my turn to pick out the word, I also found myself hesitant over the definition of Kiwi in exactly the same way.

We both won!

Then we played Take It Easy, a game that I have difficulty with. This time, I boldly started by placing my first tile in the middle. After that, things started to go downhill and I ended the first round with what might be an all-time low score of 57.

Sam, on the other hand, got lucky in round two. He needed three five tiles in a row to finish and that was exactly what I chose.

Sam won!

So with the score tied at two wins apiece, we needed a decider. We chose Elk Fest, the game of shove ha’penny with massive ungulates using the pennies as stepping stones. Being quite drunk, the most difficult part was putting the elk on the stones.

Although I got almost within stepping distance of Sam’s base first, I couldn’t get that final stone to stop in the right place.

Sam won!

Then we played Push It. First to eleven and I had an end-game collapse, giving Sam an easy win to finish the night with.

Sam won!

Phew. What an evening.

Week-ending Empires

Post-Rushay, I (Joe) almost - almost - felt gamed out. But our friends Henry and Rachel arrived on Halloween for the weekend, and that could only mean one thing - more gaming. Henry is a joy to play with - he's super-keen to try out anything new I might have acquired since his last visit, is a very gracious loser and gloats delightedly over each and every win. The perfect gamer!

Though he brought 1989, Dawn of Freedom with him, which we had played in the summer at his, the gaming ops points this weekend weren't really long enough to delve back in to anything that lengthy. That didn't stop Henry suggesting Julius Caesar, Hammer of the Scots and Warriors of God at various points. We also had Lost Valley out of the box several times, which Henry loved the look of; but without Martin to untangle the rules (particularly the two-player variant, which requires each player to control two prospectors), it also fell by the wayside.

Here's some gaming snacks, against a background
of the game of 1989 we played in the summer 

We did play was a lot of Machi Koro - which remains a current favourite of mine. We played in the garden, as this was the unseasonably warm Halloween - but as dusk fell and the kids all went off to the annual Bristol zombie march, we attempted a 2 player game of 1944: Race for the Rhine.

The circumstances weren't ideal, as I had to go upstairs and answer the door to trick-or-treaters every 90 seconds, but even so it didn't feel any less arbitrary than the 3 player game Martin, Sam and I played a few weeks ago. It's going on the next BGG Math Trade . . .

On Saturday we all went on a long walk in the Cotswolds, but in the evening we found a sizeable gaming window while waiting for supper to cook. First up was Razzia, with Flo and Matilda.
Razzia is the gangster-themed card-only version of Ra, with no disasters. Henry and I have splayed a lot of the iPad version, and I guess it's only real USP is the portability, but I really like it as a quick alternative version of its big brother. Not sure anyone else was that enamoured . . . though Flo won.

Henry and I then played a quick game of Race for the Galaxy, including the Alien Artifacts expansion, which is always a pleasure. Then we opted for Russian Railroads. Half way through explaining it I panicked that I'd over-reached; we were playing on the kitchen table and supper was not far off. But Henry's a quick learner, and we knocked out the game in little over half an hour. It was really good to play it again, actually - it's a very neat game, if a little one-dimensional.

Once the kids were abed Henry and I tried to entice Cha and Rachel to play a game. Neither were terribly enthusiastic, but agreed to play Long Shot, which I'd recently played at Rushay. Charlotte said that hearing us play a few days before had reminded her how much she doesn't like it, but graciously agreed to give it another try; and Flo joined in to make five. In fact Flo won. Next day Charlotte said she was now convinced she actively dislikes the game, but I think it's great, and in fact is particularly good for a late night session where you don't want to have to think.

The ladies left us to it at this point - it had gone midnight, after all. But Henry was still willing, and I, hapless dolt that I am, couldn't resist the chance to play another old favourite that he hadn't tried: Ascending Empires! It wasn't great with two; despite the relative simplicity of the rules, it's easy for a player to exploit a given strategy if the other doesn't know the way to combat it. But it reminded me what a great game it can be with three or four, and I'd really like to get it to the table again soon.
Just take an action and it's the next player's turn; the play is super fast and really interesting, despite my inept flicking.

Sunday morning we gazed longingly at Lost Valley, and then confusedly at the rules, before packing it away and playing Russian Railroads again. We both tried for the Trans-Siberian this time, but Henry spread his energies amongst the other three tracks as well and I was allowed an easy win.

After lunch another three rounds of Machi Koro, and our good friends had to hit the road. I hope Henry does pick up Lost Valley, so that when we next get together, around Christmas, we can have another game. Martin, your special trays are now secured with rubber bands - I'll bring it to the next games night I'm able to make. Hey perhaps we could even play it!!

We need to talk about Kiev-ing

If it’s Tuesday, then it’s games day. No need for explanation, just turn up at the pre-arranged house and spend a happy evening in the company of like-minded people.

I got there a little early, and found Ian, Martin and Joe (the host) trying out a new game that Joe picked up in a charity chop, called Stack. In this game, everyone has lots of dice, that they roll at the same time (try to avoid the “dice everywhere” effect, the rule book warns) and then you have to stack the dice, without them falling over, with each die going on top of another die of the same value. Anyone who successfully stacks four dice gets to keep them, and scores that value.

We were halfway through when my deliberately wonky stack of three collapsed under Martin’s fourth dice. We checked the rules to discover his forfeit. We discovered that he had to miss a turn and maybe roll a die to see how many points he lost. We also saw that anyone attempting to use an opponent’s die would be penalised.

We weren’t sure when you would want to do that, unless you’d forgotten which colour you were. We suspected that some of these rules had little to do with strategy and more to do with padding out the rules to cover at least one side of an A4 sheet of paper.

During the game, Sam, Gonz and Matt arrived, and Martin suggested that if we stopped now, we could pretend it never happened. Still, at least Joe got some nice dice for only a pound. So the seven of us discussed what to play. Russian Railroads returned to the table as Game Of The Month. Me, Joe and Martin said we’d be happy for another go. Then, after some debate, Sam joined us too, while Gonz, Ian and Matt chose Kingdom Builder.

By now, you would think that a winning strategy would have been found, but not just yet. Matin, who’d won so easily by using industries decided to mix things up and try building a railroad. Sam went for his classic tactic of a railroad plus multipliers, and I ended up going for a bit of everything. I had wanted to try industries, but everyone else got in on the action, too.

Martin cursed Sam’s ability to go where he wanted to go and, later in the game, my habit of picking up multipliers, apparently for no reason (I had an end-of-game bonus related to how many I had, though).

Joe, meanwhile, played smart. He maxed out industry and Kiev and St Petersburg and he got the 9-level train as a bonus, which I had my eye on. It was to prove a successful combination, as he broke the 400-point barrier and during the game he lapped first Martin and then me. Sam kept his dignity intact by only a few points.

Sam (yellow) in second just avoids being lapped by Joe. I'm further back, in third.

Joe 401
Sam 303
Andrew 292
Martin 262

On the other table, they’d managed to squeeze in two games of Kingdom Builder. The first saw Gonz hit by Explainer’s Curse, as he lost to two newbies.

Matt 29
Ian 22
Gonz 19

Or maybe he was just trying to lure them in: make them think they stood a chance and then, once they’re addicted, hit them for all they’ve got. That’s my theory, anyway. Gonz managed to win the second game by a narrow margin.

Gonz 59
Matt 56
Ian 47

We were still midway through Russian Railroads, so they began on a game of Trains. This time it was Matt’s turn to explain, as Gonz and Ian were playing the Dominion-esque game for the first time.

The four of us decided on a game of Quantum. This dice-based space-opera is “all about the fighting,” as Martin reminded us. Indeed, Sam needed no reminding after one brutal round which ended with him having no ships at all on the board. Joe’s tactic was to act like the school snitch, telling everyone when someone was about to place a cube, hoping to start an intergalactic war between his rivals. I didn’t work. Martin managed to close the game up nice and quickly, before the rest of us had really got started.

Martin 5
Sam 2
Andrew 2
Joe 1

Trains was still rolling along, so we dug out 6nimmt. It remains a chore and a joy. You face down impossible odds, placing hopeless cards, only to be saved by another player’s worse fortune. At least, you do if you’re Martin.

Woah! Super space age filters!

Martin 22
Sam 45
Joe 61
Andrew 69

And the game of Trains ended

Gonz 62
Matt 44
Ian 27

After this, we set off into the night. All of this activity leaves the form table looking like this:

						Points
Sam	2	2	2	1	1	8
Martin	1	1	4	1	2	9
Gonz	1	1	3	4	2	11
Joe	3	3	1	3	1	11
Ian	3	3	2	2	3	13
Andrew	4	2	3	3	3	15
Matt	2	2	1	5	5	15
Will	2	4	2	3	5	16

Quantum Beery

This week’s Tuesday saw a slimmed-down GNN, after last week’s bloated extravaganza: six eager gamers sat around Sma’s table. At first, though, we were just five. Joe wasn’t expected until eight, along with Russian Railroads. We (myself, Sam, Gonz, Martin and Ian) filled in the time until his arrival with a little three-round game of Raj.

It was to be my finest hour of the evening. In the last round, I noticed that everyone else had played their 15 cards very early, and the ten tile hadn’t come out yet. All I had to do was fend off minus cards, pick up a couple of lucky tiles thanks to other players tying, and victory was assured!

Gonz and Ian, though, had less luck. Gonz started making strange noises, which is his habit when playing a game he can't get a grip on, while Ian tended to start most rounds on the wrong end of a bidding war for minus tiles.

Andrew 60
Sam 30
Martin 26
Gonz 12
Ian 4

After this, Joe arrived and we split into two groups. Joe, Martin and I set forth once again into Russia to build awesome railroads. Sam, Gonz and Ian set forth into the future to fight over planets and dice in Quantum. I don’t know what happened there, since I was too worried about my game, but it ended:

1. Gonz
2. Sam
3. Ian

We were still in the middle of building the railroad to St Petersburg, or inflating our industries, so they started on a game of Lords of Waterdeep. Before they began, Ian asked what a decent score was. Gonz said “100 something” and then Sam expressed surprise, saying he was about to suggest 80 something.

In Russia, I was ploughing through my new and extremely simplistic tactic: get those useless non-scoring black tracks out of the way as soon as possible, and start getting bonuses. It kind of worked, but towards the end, I took my eyes off the prize and wasted a turn building an industry that I never used. Was this the difference between second and third? We will never know.

The difference between second and first, though, was huge. Martin’s twin industries scored handsomely, and he was able to win with a one-level locomotive still on the board, and no tracks more advanced than grey.

Martin 388
Joe 307
Andrew 299

What was most depressing that Martin said he didn’t enjoy the game. I mean, I’m sure he enjoyed the soul-crushing nature of his victory, but he didn’t care for the game itself. Still, two more weeks for the Abacus Of Fun we call Russian Railroads. Who’s up next?

Lords of Waterdeep was still in full swing, so Joe, Martin and I decided to try Quantum. I’d played it the day before, and Martin had read the rules on the internet, so we were confident that it wouldn’t be too much of a learning curve. As it was, Martin reading the rules trumps any other playing experience, as he hones in on misunderstood rules like a kestrel. Still, once I’d got used to the idea that Martin knew the game better than me, even though he’d never played it, everything went smoothly.

Meanwhile, on Lords of Waterdeep, it ended

Gonz 158
Sam 136
Ian 128

Which is a very creditable result for a first go from Ian, especially against two old hands like Gonz and Sam.

After this, they embarked on a quick game of Timeline. It’s one of the few games that rewards paying attention at schoool rather than a idiot savant level of understanding of probabilities. Ian won. I will not be so cruel as to reveal which of those three uttered the terrible pun “Uranus was discovered after your Arsteroids.” What happens at games night stays at games night.

1. Ian
2. Sam
3. Gonz

Back on our half of the table, Martin was ultra-aggressive right from the start of Quantum, attacking two of Joe’s cubes. I was on the other side of the galaxy and couldn’t help. Not that I wanted to. I thought, if they cancel each other out, I may squeak a first place here. But Martin’s combined skills of maths and luck are not to be underestimated.

He strode to another solid win. It was so obvious, that I spent my last move making sure Joe couldn’t place another cube, giving me joint second instead of another dismal last.

1. Martin
2= Joe
2= Andrew

By now it was only half past ten, but by now people had to set off. We ended the evening at a sensible time, our gaming thirst quenching for another week.

Then, when I got home, I realised it was the last Tuesday of the season! A time for prizes and accolades!

The form table ends with Martin on top of the pile, narrowly beating Anja. It was a close season, though. Only five points seperated first from eleventh.

						Points
Martin	1	1	3	2	2	9
Anja	2	1	2	3	2	10
Andrew	2	3	1	1	3	10
Hannah	1	3	3	2	2	11
Sam	2	2	2	2	3	11
Gonz	3	1	1	4	2	11
Steve	3	2	1	4	1	11
Matt	1	2	2	5	2	12
Joe	2	2	4	3	1	12
Adam	3	1	1	4	3	12
Ian	1	3	3	5	2	14
Will	3	2	5	5	5	20
James	4	5	5	5	5	24
Charlotte	4	5	5	5	5	24

On the Division, after seventy-one games in total, Martin has a complete whitewash spoilt at the last moment by Sam winning on the medals table. Otherwise, Martin takes first in points and also, impressively, in points ratio by a mere three hundredths of a point. A comprehensive performance.

We still have any final results from Bracknell to come in, but other than that, it’s goodbye from us for another glorious season. See you next week for a brand new chance for glory.

Hothouse Flowers

Not the kind of flower that grows out of the ground, but the kind that flows. Tonight’s name is in honour of three brave gamers who chose to play Manila twice! And also in honour of Joe's kitchen being quite warm

But tonight was a historic night for many reasons: Three new names on the leaderboard. Three games running concurrently! Seven games in total! And one retirement! And Fursty Ferret ale in a can! So many things never before seen.

It was also the first night of the Game Of The Month. Russian Railroads was given pride of place on its own table, with Joe, Martin, Sam and myself seated around it. On the other table, while they waited for Anja and Steve, they played Incan Gold. We four looked on with jealousy as they played out a game that was actually fun. Adam, Matt, Hannah and newbies Ian, James and Joe’s wife Charlotte set out to plunder five Incan temples. The first one of which was so evil that Adam wondered if the pack of cards was missing some treasure.

At the end, Adam won with Joe’s visiting friend James in last. He’d been introduced by Joe to the wonderful world of board games previously and he must’ve enjoyed Incan Gold, since he stuck around for the next game. Charlotte, however, could not be tempted. After coming fifth in a game she says she hates, she seemed only too glad when one of her daughters called down to her to watch some TV together.

Adam 39
Matt 34
Ian 34
Hannah 31
Charlotte 29
James 28

We ploughed on with Russian Railroads. Martin made an excellent start on the industries and looked to have the whole game sewn up after two rounds, with Sam languishing in last.

On the other table, they made the best of what space they had by splitting into two groups and playing Colosseum (Adam, James, Ian and Matt) and Manila (Steve, Hannah and Anja). Theatre larks and ship-gambling, right in front of me? It was almost as if they’d chosen those games to torture me.

But I’m being harsh to Russian Railroads. The fact is, I never really got going. I began by starting on all three railroads, but this game does not reward diversifying. Joe began to power away in round three, with Martin trying to keep up.

Joe was first to hit 100 points

Meanwhile the first game of Manila ended. We’d heard moans from Steve throughout. In particular, we all heard a very jaded “Well, that’s another shit round from me” from Steve at one point but at least he didn’t come last. Anja, Queen of Pirates, came out top by a significant margin.

Anja 127
Steve 70
Hannah 66

They enjoyed it so much (at least, Anja did) that they started on a second game. Also because it was clear that neither of the other games was about to end any time soon. In fact, this was so clear that James retired from the game of Colosseum.

We finished Russian Railroads, and saw that Sam very nearly used his multipliers to their best effect by rocketing up the scoretrack in the last two rounds. Not enough to overtake Joe, but a valiant effort.

Joe 377
Sam 363
Martin 329
Andrew 215

Joe pointed out that I’d won Russian Railroads on my first go, Sam had won it one his second go and Joe had won it on his third go. Indicating that Martin would win it on his fourth go. We shall see next week.

After all that thinking, we broke out Raj, just to show the other table that we knew how to have fun too! Oh, how we laughed as a three-way tie gave Martin a high-valued tile for next to nothing. How we gasped as the game began with Sam turning over four negative-value tiles. No point in going to detail, though. The anecdotes of Raj are very much of the “you had to be there” type.

Sam won convincingly. To give you an idea of how easy it was for him: In the final round, he came first with 34 and I was second with 6!

It was also notable as being the second game that evening when two players had tied on 34 points.

Sam 71
Martin 41
Joe 34
Andrew 34

Manila II and Colosseum still hadn’t finished, so we leapt into 6nimmt: The 20th anniversary edition! The came with “jokers”, in the form of decimal places that you always got to place first, either replacing a row, or adding to it, as you wished.

I still found it a frustrating and baffling game, but this time, I squeaked through for my first win at 6nimmt! There was some debate that we should finish the game properly (ie, once some gets 66 points) but Colosseum and Manila were both packing away after round three, so it seemed sensible to me to end. And I had suggested we finish after round two, when I wasn’t winning, so my conscience is clear.

Andrew 33
Martin 36
Sam 48
Joe 54

Colosseum finished like this:

Matt 82
Ian 73
Adam 62
James 25 (retired)

And the second game of Manila was a closer affair:

Hannah 86
Anja 83
Steve 78

After this, we set off, very grateful to Joe for his capacious hospitality. Twelve people in attendance. Thirteen if you include Hannah’s and Adam’s little meeple who is due any week now!

The form table has transformed after all this activity. Sam is still top, but Anja, Hannah and Matt all make great strides in an upwards direction.

						Points
Sam	3	1	2	1	1	8
Anja	2	1	2	3	2	10
Hannah	1	3	3	2	2	11
Steve	3	2	1	4	1	11
Matt	1	2	2	5	2	12
Gonz	2	3	1	2	4	12
Adam	3	1	1	4	3	12
Joe	4	3	1	3	1	12
Martin	2	2	3	4	2	13
Andrew	1	3	4	5	3	16
Ian	2	2	5	5	5	19
Will	3	2	5	5	5	20
James	4	5	5	5	5	24
Charlotte	4	5	5	5	5	24

The adventures of sheer luck

Dusk on Tuesday brings Bristol’s finest out to the best games night there is for miles around. This week it was Joe who was hosting, and Martin, Adam, Sam and I arrived first, with Steve and Anja expected shortly.

To fill the time until their arrival, rather than talking to each other, we thought we should play a game, even if it meant Adam reaching awkwardly over his plate of chips and between various condiments when it was his turn. We chose No Thanks, because it’s a good game. I poo-poohed my “take the lowest card” strategy in favour of a “take a fairly low card” strategy. Not much of an improvement. Me, Martin and Adam were swept aside by Sam’s high-card tactics and by Joe’s joining of cards 28-24, with plenty of chips in reserve.

Joe 11
Sam 13
Martin 20
Andrew 27
Adam 36

There was still no sign of Anja and Steve so we played Timeline. An excellent game (if you know history) and a perfect excuse to see Joe’s automatic shuffler in action.

Once the game got going, we placed our bets and showed our ignorance. Wrong guesses were, for the most part, only out by a decade or two. I think I made the least accurate guess of the evening: Apparently, microbes were discovered in the 1500s, and not in the late 1800s as I had thought. But I still battled back to run out joint winner with Joe and Martin. Sam came second with Adam in third, having made one correct guess.

From the invention of writing to

walking on the moon, in one evening

1= Joe
1= Andrew
1= Martin
2. Sam
3. Adam

By now, Steve and Anja were here. The seven of us decided to split into two groups of four and three. Adam, Sam and Joe went for Russian Railroads. Me, Martin, Anja and Steve chose A Study In Emerald. This had been mentioned in emails before the evening, and I’d got the idea into my head that this was some kind of cross between Mr Jack and Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective.

My discovery that the storyline included giant octopuses and was based on a short story by Neil Gaiman was offset by the fact it was designed by Martin Wallace. But my initial doubts grew into convictions during the game. It crammed into one game the secret identities of Revolution, the rule of avoiding last of High Society, the deck-building of Dominion, the sudden endings of Palaces of Carrara, and the area-control of, oh, lots of games.

A country called "Gary"

The secret identities bit didn’t work at all, as I accidentally attacked my team mate, and then the next go, before I could undo my mistake, Martin saw which way the game was going and chose an option that luckily allowed him to end the game. A bit of an anti-climax, frankly.

We were in two “teams” but since the winning team came first and second, I’ll just put the points as we ended.

Martin 18
Anja 13
Andrew 11
Steve 7

After this, Steve and Anja went back home. The game of Russian Railroads still had half an hour to go, so Martin and I sped through a game of two-player Agricola. We scooped up wooden meeples like poker chips, and before you knew it, I’d lost again 52-30, despite Martin’s disgusting battery farming of horses. There must be a law against this.

Finally, RR came to an end. Martin and I marvelled at the final round scoring of 100+ points, and that’s before bonuses. It seemed like one opportunity after another to add to your score. In the end, Sam won, using an improved version of the strategy he used last time. The first time we played, the three of us ended 14 points apart. That didn’t happen this time:

Sam 482
Joe 424
Adam 397

By now it was almost eleven. We drew this evening’s entertainment to a close. Joe insisted he could clear away the bottle-strewn, meeple-infested table after we’d gone. And so, we went.

On the form table, while Gonz is away in Spain, Sam takes the opportunity to steal top spot. It’s a narrow margin, though. Only the "best most-recent score" rule separates them. Despite coming last, Steve actually improves his score. But the big winner tonight is Joe, who replaces two “6”s and a “1” with two “1”s and a “2”, sending him up from ninth to fourth.

						Points
Sam	1	2	2	1	2	7
Gonz	2	1	2	1	1	7
Martin	1	1	3	2	3	10
Joe	2	1	1	3	3	10
Steve	4	1	3	3	1	12
Andrew	3	1	4	3	3	14
Hannah	1	3	4	3	4	15
Anja	2	3	2	4	5	16
Adam	3	3	5	2	3	16
Will	3	2	5	5	5	20
Matt	5	5	5	5	5	25

Ural-y got a hold on me

Today’s regular Tuesday meet attracted eight gamers to Sam’s abode: Sam, Joe, Adam, Steve, Anja, Gonz, Martin and myself. With eight people around Sam’s fully extended kitchen table, two four-player games seemed like a logical choice, but there was a desire to keep rule explaining to a minimum. With that in mind, we split into three. Adam and Martin took Race For The Galaxy into the front room. Anja, Steve and Gonz played Seasons. Finally, Sam, Joe and I played Russian Railroads.

Joe had been keen to get Russian Railroads to the table, but he’d always been slightly scuppered by the self-effacing way in which he suggests new games: he described RR as “a spreadsheet”. But tonight, perhaps fresh from our RotW escapades, Sam and I were amenable to a new train game. And so, with a range of quality alcohol in front of us, we all began.

Joe explained the rules: despite the theme, there is no track building. Instead you move your pieces along four scoring tracks, accord ing to where you placed your meeple on the main board. The mass of options is quite overwhelming. Sam asked Joe if it was better to specialise or diversify. Joe said to specialise, which is exactly what Sam did.

While I played I tried to block out conversations drifting over from the other side about “The Icon Of Familiars” whatever that is, and the difference between a crystal and an energy token. Seasons looked interesting, but also baffling. There were four sets of big dice (bigger than a meeple!) which had mysterious symbols on them. It all seemed very runic.

Halfway through, Martin and Adam popped in to see how things were going with us and to report the scores from the first game:

Martin 30
Adam 17

Then, after satisfying their curiosity about our new games, they went back to their room for another Race For The Galaxy.

Back in Serbia, I went for a bit of everything, but mostly going for a “score 20 points per round” bonus halfway up one of the tracks. I enjoyed this game, and it seems to offer a lot of flexibility. I shot off into an early lead and I managed to hold onto it. Sam’s incredible 100+ scoring Trans-Siberian railway wasn’t enough to get him past the King of Engineers, Joe. It was very close, though.

Andrew 293
Joe 288
Sam 279

Martin and Adam had also finished there second bout of Race, with the surprising news that new-boy Adam had just beaten Martin on a tie-breaker.

Adam 32 (plus seven cards)
Martin 32 (four cards)

Seasons still had a little time to go, so Martin and Adam played a tie-breaker, and after we’d packed away, Joe, Sam and I went for a little game of Rocket Game, for ages 4-7. It’s basically all luck, but I’d had a whole bottle of wine by now, and confident after my win, I said this should be leaderboard. I forgot the old saying: lucky on trains, unlucky in spaceships.

Joe 11
Sam 10
Andrew 1

By now Seasons had ended, with scores at

Steve 195
Gonz 164
Anja 98

And the third game of Race For The Galaxy had ended, too. I don't know the scores but apparently it was a comfortable win for Adam.

After this, Steve and Anja had to go back home. A majority vote saw everyone keen for a game of Take It Easy. Everyone except one. Gonz couldn’t get over his previous last place, and he bowed out of the evening at this point.

The five of us played three rounds, doing our best to come up with bingo-style calls for the numbers. I can’t remember any, but I have a feeling that a lot of them were quite similar.

It was another close game, and Martin can feel relieved that his only leaderboard game of the evening ended with a win:

Martin 391
Andrew 390
Adam 387
Sam 384
Joe 246

Adam also got the GNN record for most points in one round: 202.

I went home, drunk but happy, only to find my computer no longer recognised me as a user. By two o’clock I’d sorted it out and then went straight to bed, hence the delay in the write-up. I usually prefer to still be drunk while writing these reports. If I wait until the next day when I’m sober, it all seems a bit... silly, somehow.

						Points
Martin	1	1	2	1	3	8
Andrew	2	3	1	2	3	11
Sam	4	2	3	1	1	11
Steve	1	3	3	1	5	13
Adam	3	2	3	3	2	13
Joe	5	1	2	3	2	13
Gonz	2	6	1	2	5	16
Anja	3	2	4	5	5	19
Hannah	5	2	3	5	5	20
Will	3	2	5	5	5	20