For Goodness' Saké

Like a rare planetary alignment, every year or so four increasingly aging board gamers meet to catch up and share news, ancient in-jokes and some dubious double-entendres.

I arrived at about 1.30, and Sam told me that Chris and Paul were running late, still picking their way through Bristol’s bank holiday traffic. We drank coffee and chatted while I idly looked at the packaging for Tokkuri Taking, a game that would be our first once we were all here.

The packaging promises a bacchanial party of sake with dinosaurs. In practice, we were playing cards to either represent a clay bottle full of sake (the tokkuri) or the amount of sake each player will drink.

You have to play cards which will empty a (or many) tokkuri(s) exactly. If you achieve this, you flip the tokkuri card, action any text that you may see and keep it as a point. Unless it is a Dummy card, in which case the card is removed from the game and everyone else chuckles at your bad luck.

In fact, the revelation of a dummy card remained funny until the end of the game. It was a nice little game but, as Chris pointed out, where were the dinosaurs?

Sam 20

Chris 13

Paul 4

Andrew 0

After this game, to commemorate the day, Chris took a selfie of the four of us and unfortunately demonstrated how age turns technology into a mystery. We all posed and smiled and, instead of taking a photo, Chris promptly turned his phone off.

Never mind, we got there in the end.

Then we chose our next game. At least, me, Sam and Paul did. Chris stayed at the kitchen table, declaring himself too tired to make a decision. And so we played Tower Up, in which we were rampant civil engineers/town planners, intent on placing our roofs across city skyscrapers. Each of us had a player board with four scoring tracks in white, black, brown and grey which gave us the first childish sniggers as we spoke about “one up the brown” or a lack of “brown movement.”

Sam did impress mid-game with one move that got him three bonuses at once, but Chris’ slew of prominent yellow domes across the city pushed him into first place.

Chris 53

Andrew 50

Sam 46

Paul 40

Next up was Azul. I explained the rules to Paul and we were off. Sam kept picking up the first player token for minus points, insisting that he liked going first. Paul started slowly, with disparate tiles on his board, but managed to weave them all together with a final round that scored over 20 points by itself.

Paul 76

Sam 72

Andrew 70

Chris 66

We discussed food and, since Sam’s son Joe was going to get pizza for him and his friends, it made sense for him to get some pizza for us at the same time. That plan didn’t go down well and not even the promise of a side salad could persuade Joe.

Then we played Scout. A sort of trick taking game with a really light Circus theme. Not as tenuous as dinosaurs drinking sake, but still very tangential. I tried to bring the circus motif into play: when I put down a pair of tens I introduced it as “Lisa and Rebecca with their two cannons” but it didn’t really catch on.

Chris 38

Paul 34

Andrew 27

Sam 18

Next up was Misfits. Chris started with a cylinder placed upright. Then he sat back and smirked. We carefully placed piece after impossible piece until the entire edifice collapsed, leading Sam to declare “every c*nting piece!” as he ruefully swept the debris into his reserve.

We played twice and Chris won both times. After Chris’ second win, we kept playing Speed Misfits for second place, with Chris counting down the time limit in a vague German accent. I placed second.

After this we played Ito - the pocket version of Wavelength where everyone gets to make a guess. We didn’t do too well, with some pretty close calls. 

“Places to have a secret lair” did okay, with some nice distance between our guesses but in the category Imaginary Worlds to Visit we failed to differentiate the two-point gap between The Planet of Stale Farts and Pubic Hair World.

Following this we gave up on pizza and decide to get curry delivered. After that was ordered, we played Pina Coladice. Yahtzee mixed with Noughts And Crosses. Each square of a 4x4 grid has a target to achieve with five dice rolled three times. Place your meeple (if there’s still room) and four in a row will instantly win the game.

It was okay. I felt a bit like I was watching myself play, but there’s a certain amount of strategy as first Paul then Sam found their paths to glory blocked by other players taking the spaces they needed. But in the end, Chris won with four in a row.

With the curry imminent we played a couple of quick games of Toy Battle. A very simple war game with basic mechanics but a nicely balanced range of soldiers at your disposal. Sam beat Paul on a tie-breaker and Chris beat me outright, having successfully stormed my HQ.

Next we broke for food and then I chose the next game - my last of the day.

It was Quest for El Dorado. Paul’s first game, and he got a rules explanation from, as I recall, most of us at one point or another. It was pretty close throughout, apart from the usual early stages of one playing hanging back for tokens (Sam) while another sped off into the jungle (Chris). But Chris was no amatuer just pegging it and hoping for the best. He neatly balanced his deck and picked up tokens as he went. An purchase of the Captain just as he reached the watery fifth hex was probably pivotal.

I tried to think like Adam by buying a Travel Log (or Travelodge, as Paul called it) to whittle away the flab from my hand, but when I appeared I really didn’t know what to do with it. Nevertheless I actually thought I had a chance until quite late on. False hope.

Chris 1st to arrive, wins tie breaker

Sam, arrived same turn

Paul, only a few spaces short

Andrew, at least I reached the final hex.

*                *                *

mysterious change of narrator

*                *                *

Sam here. The hour was around 9pm, I think, when Andrew left us, and we had a couple more hours of ludological frolics ahead of us. We began them with Rebirth, the game of cathedral and castle construction in post-apocalyptic Scotland. I can't help thinking that if all the efforts going into these rebuilding games went into avoiding an apocalypse in the first place, maybe these great designer minds could come up with something. But anyway. This was new to the ever-patient Paul, so I went through the fortuitously-simple rules and away we went, brick by brick. 

Whilst I set about cathedralling like some kind of Ken Follet enthusiast and Paul remarked that he kept pulling the same type of tile, Chris sped off into a chunky lead, passing 100 points way before we did and enjoying saying the word 'dirigible' in celebration. But his momentum slowed in the final act, and my haul of highland castles and completed objectives got me a vanishingly rare win - by a single point! Chris threw his cards on the table in disgust. 

Sam - can't remember

Chris - can't remember -1

Paul - a few points further back

We celebrated/drowned our sorrows in the Milk Tray chocolates Chris had brought with him. There was no flavour reference so I tried one at random, which turned out to be a hazelnut whirl. I enjoyed it so much I had another, before discovering they were everyone's favourite, including Jacquie, who wasn't even here, but added to the chocolatey shame. Apologies all. 

We played Fantasy Realms next, and any crowing I might have been tempted to do in my Rebirth triumph stuck in my throat as I proved abysmally bad at realming fantasies. 

The game is super-simple: you have a hand of cards that score in different ways, and on your turn you pick up a new card and discard one to the table. You can pick up either from the table, or the top of the deck, but the catch is top-decking hastens the end of the game, which happens when a tenth card is added to the communal cards. Chris more than doubled my score, I think it was something like

Chris 190?

Paul 140?

Sam 80

I poured myself another gin as Paul asked me if I was getting tired. "He's got to wait up for his kids!" Chris pointed out, as if we needed an excuse to keep gaming. Little Tavern was next. 

Chris started and immediately parked an elf at his table. I advised him this was maybe not the best move, because elves in this game are racists and only like sitting with other elves. Chris nodded that he understood and immediately picked up three more elves to score 16 points in the first round. In the second I gave him a face-down romantic and he paired it with another face-up to win! Stupid game. 

We finished off with So Clover, of course, but whether it was the marathon games, the gin, the chocolate, the red herrings or the late hour, did appallingly badly with a 3-2-4 haul giving us 9 points from a possible 18! 

By this time, Joe and his pals were home and Stan was on his way back too. It had been ten hours of gaming and with midnight not too far off, we elected to end it there. Thanks all! Sorry about my foul-mouthed breakdown in Misfits. 

Elephant, Eldorado, 'elicopters

 When I walked into Sam's kitchen at about 7.10, the games were already underway. Sam, Ian and Adam T were deep into a game of Dice Miner. This game involves a nicely designed dice stand in the shape of a mountain and players take turns to pick dice from it. Players are aiming to pick up runs of numbers, point scoring dice, or beer dice which they can then sell to opponents, allowing them to take two dice from the mountain.

In the final round I watched, Ian sold a lot of beer to Adam which made him mine more efficiently but also gave Adam an extra dice each time, which he rolled with great skill/luck. 

Adam T 69

Ian 58

Sam 57

Next up, with Katy, Martin and Adam H expected soon we decided to play Cross Clues, a game that people can just jump into halfway through. In fact, Sam was on domestic duty elsewhere when Adam T, Ian and I began. Sam joined in and then Martin and Katy joined in too. We were going well until we became unstuck on Adam T’s clue of “Robin” which we did not guess was “Detective/motorcycle.” Perhaps we should have been more aware after his early clue of “Batman” for “Detective/car.”

24 out of 25

Interestingly, we had five chances to clue “helicopter” but no one said “Airwolf”. Tragic.

Next the six of us dug out Wilmot’s Warehouse, a curious memory game in which tiles with vague images are drawn at random, one by one, and everyone decides what it is and where to put it in the “warehouse”. It is placed face down, but we invent a story to help us to remember where it is. Then we all search through cards and place them on top of the matching tiles.

Thanks to our memorable tale of an elephant with, trunk, ears, poop, who was standing on a flower and there was an information booth with someone who had cake, and there was weather overhead. Sometimes new rules are brought into play. Some are odd and pointless, but a highlight was the round in which we could only talk in single syllable words, making us all sound remarkably like cavemen.

Adam H came in halfway through and he kindly operated the stopwatch, timing us in the final stage of the game where we all race to match cards to tiles. We did it perfectly, no mistakes, in only 2 minutes and 38 seconds. Eagerly we checked the rule book to see what brilliant rating we’d achieved.

“Congratulations. You’ve met the operational requirement.”

A strangely discouraging result. Like a team leader at an Amazon distribution hub grudgingly accepting that you’d hit your daily target.

Now we were all together, we split into two. Ian, Adam T and Adam H wanted to play Quest for Eldorado and I agreed, purely on the basis that I didn’t want to change seat. Martin, Katy and Sam played Klink.

I didn’t follow Klink at all, but I couldn’t miss the end of the game, with Martin announcing “And Katy loses!” sounding like a game show host revealing that night’s big prize.

Martin 46

Sam 71

Katy 84

In Quest for Eldorado, Ian and the two Adams took their time early on, picking up tiles and trashing weak cards, while I sped off into the distance. I had a healthy lead - at one point a full tile ahead of my nearest rival - but it was an illusion. My opponents’ better cards meant that all passed me by. But Adam T also seemed to struggle with his hand, deciding twice to simply discard a hand when it was his turn. 

Adam H 1st

Ian 2nd, one tile away

Andrew 3rd, two tiles away

Adam T 4th, six tiles away

But Adam T felt that the win was tainted by the three of us all picking up barriers between tiles without passing through them, strictly speaking against the rules of the game.

Sam and Martin had, by now, introduced Katy into the world of Cascadero, with Sam promising her “at least second place” emphasising how bad he was.

They were still half way through the game when I decided to call it a day. Ian and the Adams were considering Mlem as I left, but I later found out they’d chosen Quantum, with Adam H just sneaking a win over Adam T.

Cascadero ended with Martin scoring 50+ with Katy and Sam tied on 44 and as the games that went on into the night, Katy won Spicy and then two attempts at So Clover scored 18/24 and then 19/24.

Finally, a quick recap of the scores from last week’s unblogged games night:

Spots

Adam 6

Martin 3

Ian 0

Cascadero

Adam 53

Ian 49

Martin 43

(and Martin came last after being in the lead right up until the final round)

Havalandi

Adam 79

Martin 69

Ian 64

Klink

Martin 73

Adam 82

Ian 82

A turnip for the books

Two o'clock on a drizzling afternoon between Christmas and New Year is not usually an occasion to celebrate but this Saturday saw the annual GNN Christmas do and I was there right at the start. Katy was the only other gamer at Sam's table and, after a brief chat, we began the day's gaming with Misfits. This is basically Bandu but we all share a single tower and we're all trying to make it impossible for other players to place pieces without collapsing.

Katy initially thought it was co-operative but Sam assured her to be dastardly. So she left it almost impossible for him to add anything, prompting him to say “That's dick dastardly.” Katy won the first round, having never picked up a single piece. 

Joe arrived and we began again and Katy began with a very mean upright circle. It didn't last long but soon our tower had one section, a narrow but usually flat-topped part of the tower, where we kept building up and it falling down. No one went for too long without picking up more pieces and Sam soon said that it was the longest game he'd seen “by about 150%.”

Katy won again after I thought I'd stopped her from placing her last piece with a clever use of an upright circle. But her cube perched happily on top.

Then we played Word On The Street, a sort of tug of war with letters. A card suggests a topic and you have to think of a word that fits. Then spell that word while dragging certain letters of the alphabet towards you if you use them. Drag them far enough and they're yours. First to have eight letters wins.

All of this must be done within the time set by a very strict hourglass, which made it all very stressful. Katy left the spelling to Joe, lacking confidence in her own abilities. She also demonstrated a strange habit of answering "crucifix!" to a number of questions.

Sam & Andrew 9

Joe & Katy 7

During this, Laura arrived with pizza and then Steve and Anja turned up with crisps and children. After some rearranging and making sure the children were happy with videogames, we split into two groups. 

Sam, Steve and I played Apiary, the thinly themed game of bee-based science fiction. Laura, Anja, Katy and Joe played Quest for Eldorado. The table hummed to the sound of simultaneous rules explanations. Just as things were beginning, Martin arrived. We'd known he was coming but somehow we expected to be further into our games than this. “If I'd known, I wouldn't have been in such a hurry to get here,” he said.

Despite his insistence that he was fine to relax and watch, Laura decided she could happily sit out Eldorado and join him in a two player game, so they took over the sofa, grabbed a stool as a table and played Romi Rami, a variant on rummy.

Eldorado was new to Anja but it was Katy who found it hard going, spending ages stuck behind “a wall of nonsense.” Joe won and Anja came second.

Apiary was slow moving. Steve found parts of it baffling but it didn't seem to hurt his strategy. I, for some reason, focused on the favour track (“That's one up the Queen's favour!”) and ignored the end of game scoring. A hopeless idea. Even if I'd maxed out the favour track, I still would've been last.

Steve 81

Sam 71

Andrew 46

In the time it took us to finish Apiary, two other games were completed.

Hitster was a Timeline-style game with QR codes on cards, read by an app that would then play a pop tune, anywhere from the 50s until today. Put the card in the correct place (once you've tried to identify it). Since I wasn't playing, I found it easy to guess the songs but me and Steve agreed that, should we actually play it, we'd find it impossible. Katy had trouble with song titles, having to sing Dancing in the Dark by Springsteen right up until the chorus until she was able to guess its name.

Joe won, and Laura must've come last based on her (good natured) refusal to ever play it again. At this point Joe had to leave, because he had friends visiting from London who, apparently, would think it strange if he wasn't there to greet them.

Adam and Hannah arrived (with Arthur, who swiftly disappeared in the front room). They all played Cross Clues, and scored 22 out of 25. Anja had the highlight of the game by cluing Red and Light with “district.”

Finally, with Apiary finished and back in its box, everyone was available again. The next game we played was Food, which is a resource management game concerning the pizzas that Laura brought from Lidl and Adam and Katy walking through the rain for chips, mushy peas and curry sauce. Just like Agricola, we had to also feed the children but unlike Agricola they weren't able to eat wood.

During the meal, we did the annual GNN quiz. With Sam as the quiz master we split into teams according to where we sat around the table. 

This lead to a slight imbalance in terms of regular attendees, with Martin, Adam, Laura and Katy on one side and Steve, Anja, Hannah (“I think I was at the start of one games night this year”) and me on the other side.

But we did okay. Steve got up to get a beer just as Sam asked a question that he would've known, which was irritating but equally he did help me get the answer to What was Joe's clue for Nail/Young in So Clover.

In the end, we did okay, but I think that if I'd just answered Joe every time, I would've scored 6.

Katy etc. 14/25

Andrew etc. 10/25

So, having been reminded that Joe kissed Kylie Minogue and finding out how much Katy loves Fields Of Arle (she had to stop playing it when she began dreaming about it) we began gaming again.

In a tussle for players, Martin lost Katy’s commitment to Big Top when Sam and Laura started to set up Raccoon Tycoon, leading to some falsetto claims/denials of betrayal between the two of them.

Adam, Steve and Anja set up Cascadia at the sensible end of the table, while Martin and I returned to the games cupboard to choose a game for us and Hannah. We plumped for Spots and we were just setting up when Laura got a call from home, asking for help with getting the kids to bed. She had to go, leaving Raccoon Tycoon not yet started. 

With this new development, Martin gallantly did not insist that's exactly what Katy deserved but instead we joined together for a five player game of Texas Showdown. We played with the New Rule, in which playing the highest card in a winning suit means that suit is cancelled and can't win, unless all the other suits are cancelled too. It makes the game much more uncertain as playing a suit that you're sure no one else has may still win the trick if everyone else plays a suit that is subsequently cancelled.

It was great fun. Sam's first round was appalling and maths genius Martin helpfully pointed out that he was already halfway to the losing score of twelve. But then he turned it around and by round three he was still last but level with me and Hannah and only three behind leader Katy. But he picked up four tricks in round four while Katy went clear for a comfortable win.

Katy 5

Martin 9

Hannah 11

Andrew 11

Sam 12

Cascadia had been bubbling along with occasional phrases drifting across the table. “Anja, always with the fish,” said Steve, sounding like a disappointed Jewish grandfather at Passover. “I've got no elk,” Anja realised late on while Adam wondered if it was “too late to get into bears.”

It looked like being a tie for first place, until Adam mentioned that pine cones also score points, a rule that newbie Steve hadn’t been told about.

Adam 94

Steve 92

Anja 87

Then there was a period of general kerfuffle while Adam & Hannah and Anja & Steve made arrangements to leave, taking their clans with them. Laura, meanwhile, returned from parenting duties. Despite it being 8 o'clock, I only had one game left in me, so we chose So Clover.

We played twice and during the first game, Martin got so agitated by our logic when doing his clover that we began to worry that he was genuinely annoyed.

“Look at all the words,” he hissed, unable to stay silent any longer. Sam said that was cheating but Martin insisted that he was merely telling us the rules. But thanks to this rules refresher, we noticed that Medusa went better with his clue of Snakeskin than whatever we had at the time.

24 out of 30

In the second attempt, we started well and Katy, Sam and Martin all created perfect-scoring clovers. Then Laura turned over her clover and we were intrigued to see that “Joe Berger” was one of her clues.

Our sense of intrigue changed to bemusement as nothing seemed to fit. Soon we saw Paintbrush which seemed good, but what to pair it with? Putting Foot/Envelop with her clue of “sock” seemed right but that gave us Turnip/Paintbrush for “Joe Berger” which seemed unnecessarily rude.

In the end we settled on Old/Paintbrush even though it didn't quite fit with the other clues. 

“I like old paintbrush,” Martin insisted.

“I like him too,” said Sam, “but…” 

In the end we went with it, but it was wrong. This left us with only one option: Old/Turnip. It was correct. We were baffled and unfortunately Laura was laughing too much to explain what she meant. 

We then thought about phoning Joe to tell him about this before he read the blog - a conversation that quickly digressed into a discussion about how posh his visiting friends might be. If Joe's ears were burning at this point, no one would've been surprised.

My final (and relatively boring) clover was solved, giving us a final score of 28 out of 30. Not quite a perfect score, but a game worth remembering for its own reasons.

But on that note I went out into the persistent rain. What a Christmas do. Thanks all. 

I'll hand over to Sam for coverage of the final stages...

*            *            *

After Andrew left we found ourselves an incongruously tiny four and debated what to play. We kicked off with Big Top, Martin's new auction game. This is quite bonkers but basically you score points by getting cards and everyone takes turn auctioning them. You can buy your own cards but, as Martin pointed out, it's not a great habit to get into. The cards themselves then need to be 'filled' by covering the numbers with coins, and you do that by bidding that number on subsequent cards (whether you win them or not). It's crazy. 

Being a little drunk possibly helped me. I think Laura was the most sober of us and subsequently the most confused. But we were all confused. I won this one with 71 points, with the others back in the 50s and 40s.

What next? Katy introduced her strawberry gin so that helped us decide, jettisoning Misfits in favour of Hitster. This was my first experience of it and we tried the co-op version, playing tracks and trying to align them in chronological order (much like Timeline) before revealing our triumphs/errors. It didn't take that long to make the five mistakes we needed to end the game, but it was enough time for Laura to display impressive audio prowess, correctly placing a track she didn't even know just going on the production style. 

I drunkenly demanded we followed that with Rankster, and the others allowed me my little fit of pique. With this little ditty, players are trying to match their rankings (one active player, then everyone else, Wavelength-style) of three historical characters in a given situation. EG Who'd make the best drummer in your rock band? Martin favoured Henry VIII over George Washington, and we agreed. We also agreed that Pele would eat more donuts than the Queen. 

This was incredibly funny even though Martin and I both managed to interpret King David as King Herod, which explained our slightly inebriated/jet-lagged mirth. We wrapped up Rankster scoring (I think) 5 out of 8. I drunkenly demanded more games but was this time ignored as three tired gamers went out into the abysmal weather to end a dramatic day in a dramatic way. A lot of fun, thanks everyone!

Bab alone

Some additional Thursday night gaming this week, as Ian and I (Sam) kicked things off with Zombie Kidz as we waited for Chris and Gareth to show up, the co-op game of rushing around locking gates before the undead overcome you. Whether it was fate, luck, our brilliance, or a bit of all three, we wrapped things up in ten minutes with an easy win. Chris arrived a quarter-way through it but didn't have long to wait.

After briefly catching up we set up Babylonia, knowing Gareth had played before. Because he was running late though we decided to begin, with me taking his opening move. I thought my second turn on Gareth's behalf was pretty good, but as he showed up then we reset to allow him autonomy, and he did something very different. 

It was an unusual game in that we didn't interfere with each other much at all in the early running, perhaps all hoping that the others would do so on our behalf. Instead everyone carved out a section of the board to themselves in a strange isolationist approach. 

Chris (white) and Ian (brown) did so the most effectively. Chris' final score of 153 beat Ian by a point! Gareth was back on 128 and my score wasn't worth speaking aloud. A dreadful effort on my part, especially considering I felt reasonably confident for the first half of the game. But excellent chaining from the others. 

I would extract some measure of revenge in our next Knizia: The Quest for El Dorado. I forgot to take photos at this point but my only strategy was gutting my deck of starting cards. Having a tiny set of cards (7), one of which allowed me to draw two more almost every time, meant I stormed off into a convincing win, although it should be noted that both Gareth and Ian were blocked in on two or three turns when they wanted to move - it could have been very different had this not happened...

Gareth had to head home so the three of us finished off with Thunder Road. 

The deliberately dumb racing game was as fun as previous visits, as we slammed into each other, shot each other off the track, and in one instance blew up our own car. Three cars each start on the finish line and the two ways to win are either last one standing (bully win) or first to the finish line (skill win) - but the finish line only appears the moment the first player is eliminated. Otherwise the modular tracks keep cycling down a never-ending road, presumably downhill considering the lack of petrol stations. 

I lost a car on the first turn when Chris shot me and I skidded off the track. Then Chris was victim to his own helicopter, then we realised Ian still had all three cars and began shooting at him and missing. 

If Ian eliminated Chris' last car, I was well-placed to reach the finish-line first. So he went for me and missed. I shot at Chris and missed. Chris shot at Ian and blasted his last car out of existence (I think - it was pretty hurly-burly at this stage). Then he eliminated me as well and didn't even need to reach the finish line as he blew the smoke from his muzzle. Bully win!

And that was that. Thanks chaps!

Without a wordle

 When I arrived at Joe’s kitchen, a group of gamers (Joe, Ian, Martin, Gareth, Sam, Adam H) were in the final stages of a very tricky Cross Clues. The 5x5 grid was full of gaps and a look at the words along the edges explained why: Box and Chest were next to each other and, just for good measure, Wood was on the other axis.

16/25 with a regret that they hadn’t changed one of box or chest before they'd started.

Laura was expected in ten minutes so we simply re-dealt ourselves a new game and started again. We did much better this time with only a couple of mistakes. Ian clued “crown” which we immediately selected King and Hat, but it should’ve been King and Cauliflower. And Laura came in mid-game, was given a card and she clued “spur” before she’d even sat down and we got it wrong. But Ian made amends with a nice clue of Italy for Ma and Ankle.

23 out of 25

Next the eight of us split into two groups. Sam swiftly attracted three gamers when he casually asked if anyone fancied an apocalyptic death race. Sam, almost as swiftly, had to explain that wasn't the actual name of the game but it might as well be. Him, Laura, Ian and Adam set up for Thunder Road.

Meanwhile, Hooky got back onto the table with Me and Martin joined by newbies Gareth and Joe. Martin explained the rules while Joe provided the pens, although Martin asked for his brown crayon to be replaced. “It’s not a precision tool,” he maintained.

Hooky was played mostly in silence. The pauses were so long that when Gareth didn’t realise it was his turn, no one noticed for a good few minutes.

By means of contrast, the other end of the table was alive with action, as they spoke about shrapnel, mud, slams and airstrikes. Sam was eliminated before the game ended and Adam asked where the finish line was. In the end, Laura yelled “What is wrong with these dice?!” and Sam declared “we’re all equal losers.” It must’ve been carnage.

On the other hand, Hooky trundled towards a conclusion. Martin started thinking about how he’d redesign the player pads, since it is quite faffy to track each discovery in several different places.

Sam, Laura, Ian and Adam embarked on another race, this time the Quest for El Dorado. Adam got a rules refresher and then they set off across the jungle. I don’t remember much except for it being very close mid-game. Finally I heard whoops of victory and learnt that Laura had won, with Adam then Sam following. Only Ian couldn’t end, despite being closest to the finish in the last turn.

“Joint second?” Sam suggested to Adam. “Take it up with the judge,” he retorted.

1. Laura

2. Adam

3. Sam

4. Ian

By now we’d finished Hooky, with another lengthy bout of concentration for our final guesses, the only noise coming from Joe who complained that he'd run out of letters. But we got to the end, dazed and confused.

Martin 48

Andrew 25

Joe 25

Gareth 19

Next we played High Score, since it was a dice roller with little cognitive load. It was new to Gareth and we rolled them bones with the usual crazy examples of luck (or lack of) that you’d expect. In the end Martin won by the “most golds” tie-breaker.

Martin 12 (2 golds)

Joe 12 (1 gold)

Andrew 10

Gareth 9

Then, just to fill time while El Dorado ended, we dug out The Mind. Such hilarity as we stumbled through one round after another. Round 5, at least, was us back to our brilliant best and we got through that in fine style. Lost in round 6, though.

With that, Adam, me and Laura went and the remainers played So Clover and, according to Sam’s late night message, got 28 out of 30.

After this, Sam and Gareth left with the hardy final gamers about to commence a game of Sea Salt and Paper. No news of any results, though.

Thanks all. Next week, yeah?

Playing hooky

 I arrived at 8pm, having received pics and news of the already attending players playing Fuji Flush (Martin won) and then Pairs (Martin lost then Ian lost). A nice retro start to the evening – remember when we always played these games? Happy days.

 

Two games were already in preparation when I walked into Sam’s kitchen. Sam, Adam T, Adam H and Gareth were at the beardy end of the table, setting up a game called The Staufer Dynasty.

 
Adam T gave the other three a lengthy rules explanation, during which Sam wilted visibly. Adam admitted he hadn’t played in about seven years. “Two more final things...” I heard him say as he checked something in the rule book.
 
At the other end of the table, Martin, Ian, Laura and I chose The Quest For El Dorado. It was new to Laura, so Martin gave a quick run down of the rules before we set off on our campaign of competitive exploration. Ian, Martin and I all buy a Captain, thinking its three-water value would help in what was a pretty blue map but all of us cursed its complete uselessness as we either got stuck in a desert (me and Ian) or circumnavigated it completely (Martin). Laura also got stuck in the desert and she mostly stayed there after Ian and then myself extricated ourselves from the sandy tar pit.

Martin was the first to reach the last part of the board, but then spent a turn dawdling such that Ian caught him up. One turn later, I was also on the final stretch and in a good position to win with my next go, when Ian crossed the finish line. Since he was the last player to start, the game ended immediately. Martin said he couldn’t get to El Dorado with his next cards anyway, despite being closer than me to the end so I suggested that meant that I’d actually finished 2nd because I could. Martin disagreed.

 
1. Ian
2. Martin
3. Andrew
4. Laura
 
Despite her last place, Laura seemed to like it a lot.
 
The Staufer Dynasty was still in full swing, so we dug out a game that looked for all the world like a light piece of fun. Hooky is a letter deduction game and the basic premise is that out of 26 cards with the alphabet on, three cards are removed from the game and eventually we have to deduce which letters they are. The players are dealt five cards (with letters on) each. By giving a player a five-letter word, they have to tell you how many times that their letters appear. Make notes and draw conclusions and make noises of despair while you think about what word to ask.

It was fun, although I did terribly. Another way of scoring is to guess what five letters the other players have and I was reduced to guessing letters based on personality, for example, Martin is just the kind of person to have a Q in his hand. And he did. One of the few correct guesses I made. Laura did slightly better than I did while Ian, who’d declared that he’d be surprised if he got any points at all, came second. Martin won, which is fair since he seemed to be most tortured over his choices by the end.

 
Martin 46
Ian 32
Laura 16
Andrew 15
 
Then the Staufer Dynasty ended.

 

Gareth 73
Adam T 62
Adam 61
Sam 58
 
Despite the early hour, barely past 10, I set off early having been woken by a car alarm that morning at 5.30. Laura and maybe Adam T (?) left too. The evening ended with a game of Insider Inside Job.
 

The agent won.

 
And then, of course, So Clover
 

22/24

 
Thanks all. See you again soon.