The Child Within

Today was Really Big Board Game Day, an event held to raise funds for the NSPCC. At GNN we thought - well, Anja suggested it - it'd be nice to embrace both the idea of fundraising and extending our hobby outwards, to the tragically unaware.

I confess to being slightly nervous. The opprobrium heaped upon me in the past for even mentioning that I play board games always makes me a little wary of making contact with The Normal People, and to be fair it's not merely paranoia - the first witness to Joe and I playing Masons said "Are they gamers, or are they saddos?", like Jeremy Kyle sent in to boil down a complex social issue to its base elements. At that point, sat in a large empty room with almost no daylight, I could concede it didn't look like the most vibrant hobby. But surely it would pick up...

Masons, you wait ages for one...

Anyway, Masons. This is a really simple abstract game that reminded me slightly of Kingdom Builder - although rather than sharing building targets, each player has their own and the opposition can only guess at what they are. On your turn you add a wall to the board, then roll three dice to decide what colour tower will go at the end of the wall, and what colour houses either side of it. As soon as walls form an enclosed space (a city) players can play one or two cards to score points. The cards are all manner of things, and having played one or two you add another card to your hand, so it's potentially diminishing during the game. I liked it.

Sam 81
Joe 77

At 3pm Ian arrived, closely followed by Stuart, a friend of Martin and Andy's. Joe was already setting up Lost Valley, so after a run through of the rules, we were away! It's a game of packing up the tools you need in your rucksack, and heading off into the hills to look for gold. Or if you played Stuart's way, strolling around the hills picking up an assortment of goodies previous quitters had left behind.

                                      

Gold! Always believe in your canoe

I liked the fact that whisky gave you an extra action - very thematic, in that you might possibly reject taking it. We all - bar Stuart, who played the game teetotal - took advantage of the whisky. And I built a canoe, which was awesome. But Joe won, by virtue of grabbing the most gold tokens and pawning all his crap back in at the trading post:

Joe 38
Sam 37
Stuart 26
Ian 24

Joe's friend Tim arrived, and we busted out Raj. Tim and Stuart were new to it, but it's not exactly hard to pick up. We played tournament Raj with the winning bonus going up in increments of three. Stuart didn't even need the bonuses, whereas Ian had an experience that recalled his finest moments in 6Nimmt:

Stuart 92
Sam 50
Tim 42
Ian 6

The space was starting to fill up - Andy, Martin and Sarah had arrived and were followed by some Centrespacers and Matt with his gang from Aardman. Suddenly there were two games of Castles of Mad King Ludwig on the go, along with Tichu.

                                        

Mad

Meanwhile Ian and I went to get pizza, and while we ate it, played Masons - Ian's first time. I took advantage of my previous knowledge and surged into a lead, but as the game progressed and my hand dwindled, Ian pegged me back. I think I would have just held him off anyway, but I picked up a spawny scoring card for the very last turn and nabbed a whopping 20 points for it:

Sam 129
Ian 103

                                       

Masonic ledge

The room was now humming with the slap of cards and the jovial laughter of people with a very sensible and money-raising hobby. Ian and I teamed up with Andy and we played San Juan, which I like but hadn't played for about two years. It was new to Ian again, who I later realised was having a whole evening of rule learning. However he nearly won on his debut game, as I only beat him on the tie-breaker as Andy suffered explainer's curse:

Sam 24 (2 money)
Ian 24 (1 money)
Andy 18

Andy subsequently realised he was one card short of building the building to win him the game. As Bruce Forsythe always says though, that's San Juan.

The evening now becomes somewhat hazy with more arrivals and more games being played I could possibly keep track of. So this report does remain throughout a slice of the evenings' cake, so to speak; a random stratum of gamage.

                                     

Joe with long-time absentee Will, and his son Felix

Speaking of random we then played Looping Louie, which was one of the hits of the evening - great fun (I think we all won at least once)

                                      

Loopy

...before moving onto one of the maddest games I've ever played - Artus. I can't even begin to describe it, except to say you're spinning King Arthur's table and making him change seats. And changing Kings, and often scoring negative points.

                                      

It is a silly place

Andy got the best handle on all the mayhem, and royally whupped us:

Andy 111
Sam 52
Ian 28

We took a break from sitting and stretched our legs at table tennis. I beat Adam, then Martin beat me in a bit of an epic, then he beat me much more easily. He beat Ian too.

boof!paf!

I drifted away to play Pairs with some friends of Joe's, plus Katy - who is also a friend of Joe's. Alistair said "you only live once" every round, and this fatalism served him well, as he and I celebrated our joint victory:

Alistair 22
Sam 22
Andy 18
Will 17
Stuart 8
Katy 6
Lady whose name I didn't catch 6

                                               

Not a game for 007

...How mysterious!

I then beat Ian at Cube Quest before imploding twice in a row against Adam. I left Adam and Ian to duke it out and took on Andy at table tennis, exacting revenge for Artus.

Then Martin, Andy and I played Las Vegas.

                                  

Vegas, baby

It was a close-run thing, with another tie-breaker! I managed to snatch the victory from right under Andy's cocained-laced (thematically speaking) nose:

Sam $330 wins on notes
Andy $330
Martin $290

The room was starting to thin out a little and I was ready to go. But I'm nothing if not cajolable, and cajoled I was - by Martin, of course - into played Potato Man. This trick-taking game is new to me - I think I've seen it played before - but I quite liked it. There's something about saying the word "sack" over and over that seemed oddly engaging. Or maybe it was sexy potato. Who knows? All I know is when Evil Potato Man struck, Super Potato Man was there to defend us. It was another close one:

Andy 16
Sam 15
Martin 9
Ian 8

They were still playing on the other tables - I saw Ticket to Ride and Ra going on - but I was shattered and had to head home. Lots of fun, and £130 raised for the NSPCC! Well done everyone. Sam

Sunday update
Joe here, with details of the shenanigans that went on that evening.
During Lost Valley, my friend and distant relative Tim turned up. He watched the game play out patiently, even helping distribute some tools and whiskey, and after it was over played Raj with Sam and the others whilst attended briefly to my work.
Then Tim and I took on Matin and Sarah at Tichu. I say 'took on' but they are seasoned professionals, whilst Tim had never played before and I had only dabbled (enough to know how much I enjoy the game).

Part of the art of the game is recognising when you have a strong hand, and that's difficult to do when you're new. I didn't once have a Tichu-able hand (which didn't stop me calling Grand Tichu at one stage, but then it was all getting very desperate). Tim on the other hand got a few rather good hands, including a bomb on his very first. Thus, despite not calling Tichu, he managed to go out first at least three times. As he got to grips with it, he began calling Tichu, but of course, aided and abetted by me, failed to make these. When he finally did make a Tichu it felt like a huge achievement for both of us, but as the final scores will attest, it was in fact a horror story.

Martin/Sarah 1000
Joe/Tim -300

Tim's EIGHT card bomb!!

 During Tichu, Will and felix turned up for a quick game, so I taught them Welcome to the Dungeon. Will won, then I left them to play a two-player, which Felix won handily.

Next was a five player game of TransEuropa, between Tim, Sarah, Me, Emma and . . . someone else. Adam? Stuart? Sorry, whoever you were. It was over in two rounds I think, but was fun never the less, and Tim won I believe.

Then Katy, Tim, Stuart and I played Ra. New to Stuart and Tim, and as brilliant as ever, though quite an odd game. So many Niles, so many monuments, and a l,ighning third epoch as all our Ra's appeared practically one after another. II made a list of all the scores to all the games I played in, but lost it before the night was out. I did win Ra though, for the record. My record in Ra being one of the only ones I care about, as I do seem to have a handle on it.

By now Sam had left, and so had Martin. On the table behind us, Matt and his friends had played Ticket to Ride and Incan Gold, and probably others besides, he'll have to tell us in the comments.

Emma nd Hugh had returned from the private view next door, and tried to play Rummikub but were distracted to the point of hysterics by the sight and sound of Tim, Katy and me being taught Deep Sea Adventure by Stuart. I've wanted to play this very beautifully produced diminutive Japanese gem for ages, so it was the perfect nightcap. Players make forays from the submarine to pick up treasure, but as soon as they have any, the oxygen begins to drain and it becomes harder to drag yourself back to the sub. We mostly died. great fun, and I think Katy texted Andrew in japan there and then to request a copy. Here's hoping.

Somewhere along the line I played and lost a game of Table Tennis to Hugh, despite being far less drunk than he was, annoyingly. And then we called it a night. Thanks to everyone who cam along, it was great fun and we must do it again soon. The Chocolate Factory proved the perfect venue for board-gaming, enhanced no end by the Letterpress private view going on next door - when it ended Nick and Harriet brought through the remaining canapes and wine.
If I find the scores for all the games I'll update this post with them. Joe

Snow Exit

We had thought that Tuesday would be a wash-out, but at the last minute, Joe was able to attend. And Will said he thought he could make it, but in the end he had to cancel. That makes it official! Leaderboard, here we come!

We put current favourites, A Castle For All Seasons on the table, and talked Joe through the rules, even realising that we’d got a couple of rules wrong. When we started, Joe seemed to grasp the rules pretty quickly. Quicker than Sam, who suffered from Explainer’s Curse: the terrible affliction that means that the person who taught the rules always does badly.

I capitalised, putting my men in places that Sam was aiming for. He never got a chain of production going, and ended the game in a humble third.

Andrew 75
Joe 60
Sam 33

After this we tried another new game that Joe had brought along. Snow Tails looked like a fun card-based racing game where you guide your husky-powered sled along the unforgiving frozen track to the finish line. It was enjoyable, but the rule book was vague about “drifting” (the method used to go from one lane to the next). We muddled through in a way we thought was logical. And we couldn’t help but notice that the person who started first finished first, etc. We did wonder if that might be a flaw in the game: whoever starts, wins.

But it looks nice, and the modular nature of the tracks means that plenty of different routes are available. And at just £2.50 from a charity shop, I’d say Joe did well.

1st Joe
2nd Andrew
3rd Sam

By now, Sam was hurting from two last places in a row. He suggested a third game, San Juan. It was certainly not one of my strong suits, but Joe’s recent practice on his iPhone clearly paid off. While Sam dashed to the 12 building limit to cash in on his violet building multiplier, Joe had the Palace and a couple of monuments lying around, giving him another victory.

Joe 30
Sam 27
Andrew23

Sam thought we could squeeze in one more game, despite Joe’s better judgement. And so we played Biblios. Joe says he’s never won, and he managed to keep his spotless record intact. Meanwhile, my brief taste of glory at Biblios has not lasted. I got far too many dice cards early on, before I’d even begun picking up colours. Sam, meanwhile, was very much Mr Biblios. Seemingly having cards to spare during the auction round. How does he do it?

Sam 8
Joe 6
Andrew 0

Meanwhile, on the form table, Joe makes his bid for glory at just the right moment. Can he keep this up until the end of Thursday? The heat is on!

						Points
Joe	2	1	1	2	1	7
Steve	1	2	1	1	3	8
Anja	2	3	1	1	3	10
Andrew	3	3	2	1	2	11
Sam	1	2	3	3	3	12
Jon	2	1	2	3	5	13
Adam	2	2	1	5	3	13
Quentin	2	2	3	5	5	18
Hannah	3	4	4	5	2	18
Martha	1	5	5	5	5	21
Will	3	3	5	5	5	21
Bea	4	5	5	5	5	24

Drop the Pilot

Friday night. Gloucester Road heaves to the rhythm of people on their way to pubs and restaurants and also to me, on my way to Sam’s for a quick game or two.

I had been inspired by the Bracknell bunch, and their tales of derring-do over a game of Lords of Waterdeep, so when I suggested it as the first game of the night, I was glad that Sam agreed so easily.

I remain endlessly impressed with the effortless way the pieces come out of the box while you set up. It’s almost as if you can pour it over the table, and it’s ready to play. But game box ergonomics aside, what about the game?

Well, bearing in mind my constant mispronunciation of “Plot Quests” as “Pilot Quests”, you’d have thought I was clueless, but I had focused early on these Plot Quests as a means to getting bonus points and cubes and how to chain them together. Thanks to these, in one round I managed to complete three quests in a row and catapult myself around the score track, building up a lead that Sam never caught, especially not after he realised he’d picked up the wrong quest in one round, and ended up completing a quest that scored no points at all, but got you two points every time you played an intrigue card. Not much use in round seven out of eight.

The fabled "fifth bowl" of Lords of Waterdeep

Perhaps the biggest laugh was when a Plot Quest came out that promised money every time a player took a black cube. Well, I already had a Plot Quest that gave me a black cube every time I got money. How we chuckled over the image of a game that’s ground to a halt because a player is trapped in an infinite loop of getting gold, then getting black cubes. We imagined him sitting next to a huge pile of black cubes and cardboard chits, while his opponents pop out to buy more black cubes. However, any chance of it being a viable sketch on a TV comedy show was ruined by the amount of time it’d take to set that joke up. Basically, we’d have to explain the rules of Lords of Waterdeep.

Still, we found it funny.

Andrew 228
Sam 199

Since it was still early, we dug out San Juan. This is the new light game with a deep heart. Short, but complex. Sam got his production buildings down early, while I put out violet buildings, again, trying to maximise an early bonus card, and I got a gold mine which didn’t really help. Sam traded well, and the tower meant he could save up his cards. I completed twelve buildings first, but Sam really won it on the “?” cards, getting bonuses for all his buildings.

Sam 36
Andrew 28

Adam wasn’t yellow

A new(ish) venue for GNN tonight. We all arrived at Will’s house despite (or perhaps because of) his 4 o’clock start tomorrow morning.

As well as Will, Joe and Quentin also arrived, no doubt tempted by the school reunion flavour of the evening (didn’t they all go to school together or something? I wasn’t really listening). Sam, Adam and I made up the rest. At first Sam and Adam ate chips, and Will very kindly added to their feast with fried egg and baked beans. If he thought that might make them go easy on him, he was in for a rude awakening.

We began with Incan Gold, an amusing game of bluff and facing down Lady Fate with a steel-cold glare. All with a light-hearted theme of exploring Incan temples. I was a little disappointed in the lack of Zombie Ladies! since they are, after all, part of the fun of the game. This time we had to put up with a new foe: the fire/spider combo which repeatedly turned an otherwise safe and tranquil temple into a death trap. With devastating results. In this situation, Sam’s tactic of get-out-early paid off.

1. Sam 30
2. Joe 20
3= Andrew 15
3= Quentin 15
4. Adam 10
5. Will 6

Then we split up into two groups of three. Me, Joe and Quentin took one half of the table, and Will, Sam and Adam took the other. At our end, we chose San Juan since we all knew it. This Puerto Rico-esque game of card management is a lot of fun, but I found myself quickly out of the running between Joe and Quentin.

Quentin rearranges the options in San Juan. Glass, bottle. Bottle, glass.

I’m sure Joe raises his game whenever there’s someone from school at the table. Maybe he thinks it’s payback time for when he got humiliated in double science or something. I don’t know. But whatever, tonight saw Joe in his pomp, chaining together purple buildings for maximum effect (except his Gold Mine, which was rubbish). Quentin played his part, though, and it remained close until the end. Joe squeaked it just because Quentin had mis-identified some cards as monuments, when they weren’t. His final plaintive cry of "I could've built a palace" will haunt me for years.

Joe 31
Quentin 30
Andrew 18

On the other half of the table, they’d chosen Tinners’ Trail. It was new to Will, and I suppose you have to start somewhere, but to go up against Adam and Sam in your first game is a tough proposition, and feeding them doesn’t help at all. A joke springs to mind: What’s the difference between Adam and Sam and a pack of hyenas? When hyenas are full, they stop eating.

However, it wasn't easy for the experienced players. Whenever I looked over at the board, the prices for copper and tin were pretty low. So much so that no one invested money in round two. Sam came first in a low-scoring game. I was, however, struck by the lack of yellow counters in front of Adam. It didn't seem right somehow.

Adam is... red?! The creeping ketchup?

Sam 97
Adam 77
Will 60

After San Juan, we chose Ra as our third course of the evening. No need for an introduction for this beauty. However, it was more of the same for me, as I ended up a distant last to the two who clearly still have unresolved issues from the sixth form common room.

The exciting early stages of Ra

Joe 55
Quentin 51
Andrew 28

Over on the other side of the table, they’d managed to squeeze in one more game. This time 6nimmt was brought into play, and Adam won again, making everyone suspicious that he had a strategy. He tried to explain it: something to do with “thinning out” and “spreading”. Or maybe he was describing his physique as he approaches middle age. Either way, he won.

Adam 15
Sam 38
Will 74

On the form table, Joe leaps to the top after a very productive evening. Quentin makes an appearance hot on my heels, and he's still got those red fives weighing him down! Thanks to Will for hosting and see (some of) you next week!

						Points
Joe	1	1	2	1	2	7
Sam	2	1	1	2	3	9
Adam	1	2	4	3	1	11
Hannah	2	1	4	2	5	14
Anja	1	1	3	5	5	15
Steve	4	4	4	2	1	15
Andrew	3	3	3	4	3	16
Quentin	2	2	3	5	5	18
Jon	2	3	5	5	5	20
Will	3	3	5	5	5	21

Juan To Look Out For

Friday night, and Andrew and I convened for a little writing session. However, little was all it turned out to be, as a series of computer and weather-related circumstances meant we were without the script we had scheduled to polish into a gleaming diamond.

Instead we played San Juan, the card-based version of Puerto Rico. I haven't played the latter in some time so I can't be equivocal about what's different here, but suffice to say it's a much simpler game and very easy to pick up and play. On each turn the starting player (or 'Governor') chooses a role and actions it - his opponent has the option of the same, only without the privilege that the card gives you. Then the opponent chooses an action and the same thing happens.

That's pretty much it - everything else is the movement of cards, which either represent - when front side up - buildings, or - when face-down - goods, to be shipped and turned into... more cards.

It's extremely basic then, in essence, but it's possible to 'chain' your buildings and make particular moves extremely productive. And thus it's quite more-ish. We played one game and I won narrowly, by 35 to Andrew's 32 points, but we realised I'd been mis-using the Library Card somewhat; apportioning it power it didn't have. If I'd played it correctly I think Andrew may well have won, so we disregarded this game and began again.

This time we were much faster moving. Andrew quickly established a fruitful trade route and a black market (allowing him to manipulate the cards) whilst I focussed building the violet 'bonus' buildings. The game, albeit played with two, only took about 25 minutes, and this time I ran out a verified winner:

Sam 42
Andrew 24

Perhaps not as deep as Puerto Rico then, but to some that's not necessarily a criticism. It's definitely deserving of a place in the cupboard and perhaps a not-too-distant visit to a group play is in order...?