Merry Christmouse

Christmas comes round earlier each year, they say, and this year it came round at two o’clock in the afternoon. I arrived only a little late and found Laura (masked, overcautious, due to being a contact of a contact of a covid case, but asymptomatic (something like that, anyway)), Katy and host Sam. The first game was the Lateral Flow Test Game which has some pretty harsh player elimination rules for those who fail, but both Sam and I won so that was okay.

Our first real game was Whirling Witchcraft, a game I’d watched last week but couldn’t quite work out. It’s pretty simple: you have to keep using ingredients in your cauldron to make more ingredients, but the stuff you make ends up in your neighbour’s cauldron. If they can’t fit it in, then it comes back to you as points. There’s more to it than that but that’s the jist. 

We were mid-way through the first turn when Adam H arrived so we paused the game while he was given a rules explanation from Sam. Katy took the opportunity to indulge in some snack demolition, cleverly combining two separate snacks into a soft cheese and Japanese cracker sandwich.

Once Adam was up to speed, the game commenced and we swapped cubes with cheese-feulled abandon. Katy was first to reach four points, just one off the game winning total, but then she stalled and, two rounds later she found herself very disappointed with the final result, complaining that “all that cheese has gone to my head.”

Adam 8

Andrew 7

Sam 6

Katy 4

Laura 4

Next we played a co-op game: Siege Runedar, in which four players (Katy and Laura teamed up) try to escape from a castle that is under constant attack from orcs.

Before long we remembered why we rarely play co-op games, as failed dice rolls were greeted with sarcastic comments regarding the rollers suitably at orc-repelling. Adam was first to kill, but after that his luck ran out. Given his lack of fondness for dice rolling and co-op games we should have cut him a little slack. But we didn’t.

Mid-game Laura had to go somewhere and while she was away Katy kept the orcs at bay by herself, stating “Laura would be proud” after a particularly successful roll. Then we thought the game had ended, killed by a catapult while Katy was answering the front door, but we checked the rules and found that we’d been far too hard on ourselves: a quick reset and we recommenced.

We lasted long enough for Laura to return (in a new mask) but were soon in a hopeless situation, as we were only one mistake away from triggering any one of four of the game’s criteria for losing. In the end, the monster deck was exhausted, which did us in. Still, lots of fun.

I had to dash off at this point, promising to be back later. In my absence, more games hit the table...

They played Wavelength and got a world record [citation needed] 23 points. Ian won Tsuro, beating (in order of bestness) Adam, Katy, Sam and Laura. Sam won Heck Meck: Sam 7, Laura 6, Adam 4, Ian 1, Katy 0. Finally, Adam won Avenue: Adam 66, Katy 44, Ian 26.

By the time I get back it was 7.30 and Laura had gone, replaced by Martin and the aforementioned Ian. The next game had already been decided for me: Tinners' Trail, and I was up against Ian and Adam. Martin, Katy and Sam played Brian Boru, the game of medieval Irish matchmaking, or something.

In Cornwall, it had been so long since we last played that we had to reference the rule book several times. I started in audacious fashion by selling a pastie. Not sure if that’s a good move. Anyway, Adam bossed round one while Ian was king of the hill in round two. I was in dead last, worried that I might not even hit 54 points – the score you’d get if you only sold pasties all game. But I did have four mines on the board, compared to Adam and Ian’s two each.

Brian Boru was ticking along nicely. “It really builds up,” commented Martin. “Yeah,” agreed Sam, “as the board fills up, those high numbers become really important.” And then Martin said he was referring to the spicy crisps. Sam clarified he was merely externalizing his internal monologue rather than replying but, still, that’s one for the sitcom.

Back in Tinners' Trail I made a comeback of sorts (even getting past the 100 point on the money track), and I scored more in round four but by then the gap was too big to bridge. In the closing stages, Adam was convinced Ian had nabbed the win and he was surprised at his comfortable margin.

I am the Elon Musk of Cornish tin mining

Adam 148

Ian 135

Andrew 120

But if he was surprised by his win, then that was nothing compared to the surprise when cries for help emanated from the front room. Sam leapt into action and Adam followed. The rest of us stayed seated, not wanting to intrude, and soon found out that Sally had seen a mouse. Charlie the house cat, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen so Sam had to catch it. Which, amazingly, he did and he took it, in a cereal box, outside to the end of the garden.

What an exciting episode. And after that, he sat down and finished of Brian Boru. By now, Martin had married twice (Niall and Connell) while Sam bagged himself Estrid, Princess of Denmark but it didn’t seem to help him.

Martin 45

Katy 41

Sam 28

Getting ready for the quiz

Finally, with mice ejected and everyone calmed down, it was time for the annual Christmas quiz. With five of us, it didn’t make sense to split into teams so we sort answered as a co-op team. Round one was “Spot the fake BGG comment” which we did well at, detecting 7 out of 8. Sam simply doesn’t have the sort self-righteous stupidity that the true internet hermit possesses. Then we did a GNN round, based on the post-online meetings. I was surprised how much I couldn’t remember but it was nice to be reminded that “cock-flavoured sand” was once used in Wavelength as the Worst Thing To Put In Your Mouth.

With the quiz done, we played a couple of six-player games. First was So Clover. We got 32 and we could’ve done better with a little more thinking. Ian’s clue of “Webber” made us think of Formula One, but we really should have noticed “cat” and “theatre” to make us think of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Adam’s clue of “Fishnet” for “String” and “screen” was well received.

Martin's

Finally we played Texas Showdown. For a long time it looked like either Ian or Katy would be the ones to go past the game-ending score of ten tricks as the game was swiftly rechristened Texas Bullshit. But they both had good fourth rounds and the game went on long enough for Martin’s form to collapse. Meanwhile, Adam and I vied for first place until I got stung in round four meaning the final round was a cakewalk for Adam.

"The sphincter of safety" (c) Sam 2021

Adam 2

Andrew 5

Sam 9

Ian 11

Katy 11

Martin 12

And with that, Katy and I were done. And, after I came back from the toilet, I discovered that so was everyone else. But what a great day. Sorry that so many weren’t able to attend but there’s always next year. Or did I say that last year...?

Thanks Sam for hosting and quizzing. See you all soon.

A Sol with a deadly weapon

Except there aren’t any deadly weapons in Sol, the new game that Ian, Sam and I tackled yesterday evening. This is a fairly simple strategy where you have to... well, I’m still not sure. Keep a dying sun alive by putting energy into it? Something like that. Use your ships to build stations that give you energy, allow you transmit energy or let you build more ships.

We set off just fine. Ian even had a thematically linked beer, a lovely bottle of Sol. But something just wasn’t working. It felt like three games of solitaire on the same board. The rules allow each player to use other players’ stations, but I couldn’t see a reason to.

Then I asked if our motherships, stationed furthest from the sun where all our ships are launched, are supposed to move? I noticed all these arrows on the board going in an anticlockwise direction and thought they might mean something. Sam checked the rules. Indeed, our motherships are supposed to orbit the sun.

Now the game made more sense, and was a lot more enjoyable as a result. We needed to plan ahead a little bit more this time. However, Sam had to delete the tweet of us playing the game since it was the kind of mistake that is clearly visible from looking at the board.

Spot the mistake

As for the score, I went from not scoring any halfway through the game to suddenly leaping up the track and squeaked a win just as the sun finally died.

Andrew 22ish
Sam 21ish
Ian 18ish

What the game would look like on a real sun

After this it was still only about nine o’clock so we felt there was another big game in us. We went for an old familiar: Tinners’ Trail.

We began like greyhounds out of the traps, with iron and copper both at their highest possible prices in round one. Then, in round two, they collapsed to their lowest. This meant, as round three dawned, there were still a lot of cubes on the board.

Sam went for trains, Ian went for adits, I went for boats, I think. Anyway, it was a close game under difficult circumstances.

Ian 89 (plus 4 cash)
Sam 89 (no cash)
Andrew 83

Next we played Spy Tricks. I fell into last place with no correct guesses in round one and I stayed there, unable to make by Double Agent piece work in my favour. Sam played us all for fools with his clever reaction to Ian’s guess of red five (“I don’t like how quickly you did that”) despite him having the red five in his hand. Ian’s unerring eye for the missing card won through in the end, though.

Ian 22
Sam 19
Andrew 5

Finally, after all that astrophysics, mining and espionage, we had to get a letter to the princess! Yes, we finished on Love Letter. I ran into a 2-0-0 lead. Then Sam brought it back to 2-2-0 before Ian staged a comeback. It was 2-2-2 and Sam won in the final round, meaning we all won at least one game tonight.

Love Letter's version of dead man's hand.

Sam 3
Andrew 2
Ian 2

Cheers for hosting, Sam, and see you all soon.

One more time around the world before she leaves

This week's games night was Katy's last one before setting off on a crazy bike ride across America. It seems only fitting that the games we played had a globe-trotting theme, taking us to deepest Cornwall, the Scottish Hebrides, South American jungles, Japanese bamboo groves and a slightly dubious re-imagining of some Caribbean Islands.

Adam and Hannah's house was the venue and, along with the hosts, we were: Katy, Sam, Ian, Matt, Stuart, Martin and me.

We split into two groups. Martin, like a jovial shepherd of fun, corralled three other players into a game of Tonga Bonga. This is a race game where four players speed around some regrettably named Caribbean Islands ("Samboa Bay"? Really?) and the richest player wins. In that sense, at least, it is a remarkably accurate portrayal of the development of modern sport.

I didn't watch it much, but at the end Sam was surprised to see how far off the pace he was and Katy was just pleased to not be in last by herself.

Martin 149
Ian 121
Katy 110
Sam 110

On the big table, we were playing Isle of Skye. With five players. What an adventure! We had all played it before, but so long ago that we needed a rules refresher. Cue Adam and his laid back method of pointing at things and saying what they are while others point at other things and ask what they are.

Before long, we were off. Despite the high number of players, it went pretty fast. I lead for most of the game, which meant I was cash poor. But I kept scoring every round. Stuart began slowly before charging up the score track in the final two rounds. Hannah impressed everyone with her extensive collection of lighthouses, bothies and farm houses but not a huge amount else. Matt was in contention mid-game but slowed down as the game wore on. In more ways than one. He fell into analysis paralysis in a big way on his final turn, prompting me to declare "This is going in the book!" as I grabbed pen and notepad. All that thoughtfulness couldn't save him. Adam won the game having spent the whole game at my shoulder in second place before easing past me during the end of game bonuses.

Adam 55
Andrew 50
Stuart 49
Matt 42
Hannah 42

Before we'd ended, the four on the other table had started a game of The Mind. I feel I should apologise for their weak showing, since just as they started round six I announced I'd brought A Fake Artist Goes To New York, and I waved it about a bit. This was enough to distract Ian who failed to put down his 4 before the 6 and 7 went down in quick succession.

Then again, to be on your last life on round six... Poor show, despite their elaborate method of 'palms on the table, lifting them up together' method of synchronising psychically.

There was now a bit of a reshuffle. Adam, Martin and Ian chose The Quest for Eldorado. Sam, Stuart and Matt went for Tinners' Trail. Katy, Hannah and I, for old times' sake, chose Takenoko.

There were rules explanations for Tinners' and Eldorado, and a rules refresher for Takenoko. In fact, the reason Takenoko has been away for so long was due to the fact there was always a rule we'd misunderstood or misapplied.

I think we got it right this time, though. We didn't move the panda so much, meaning the bamboo grew strong and fast. Katy triggered the game end and was far enough ahead that neither Hannah nor I had any chance of catching up.

Katy 37
Andrew 32
Hannah 29

The Quest For Eldorado ended in uproar, with Martin declaring that Adam had broken the game and there was no point in playing it any more. At least not with the tile containing two base camps next to each other. Since these allow you to trash cards, Adam went back and forth between them to give himself a supremely efficient hand of just five very powerful cards. He ended the game a full two tiles ahead of Ian or Martin, who were languishing in a second or third place so distant there was little point in distinguishing between the two.

Adam wins
Martin/Ian not even close

They finished before we had finished Takenoko, so they had a one round sudden death game of Krass Kariert. Ian lost, apparently.

Then us Takenoko-ites joined them while Tinners' Trail played out its final stages. Hannah retired to bed so the rest of us played a one round sudden death game of Zero Down.

Katy 0
Martin 7
Adam 7
Andrew 11
Ian 19

Now we were all together, since Tinners' Trail had ended. Despite sharing a table with it and actually being quite jealous that they were playing, I didn't follow the game. Where it was won and lost will remain a mystery. Unless someone tells us in the comments.

Sam 71
Stuart 58
Matt 43

Now we were all together again, and keen to end on Fake Artist. After a quick rules explanation to the newbies, we began with me deliberately choosing Matt as the fake artist, and Theatre as the subject to be drawn. But Adam was chosen as the fake, apparently because he doesn't know how to draw a stage with one line. Matt couldn't guess the word, though, so we won!

In round two, Katy shuffled the clue cards so she didn't know the fake. The topic was "places" and the actual word was Mexico. Cue lots of abortive attempts at drawing a cactus or sombreros. A circle in the sky became a sun and then a football but all this was not enough to distract the fake artist, Martin. He was correctly identified, but was able to guess what we were drawing.

In the third and final round, the word we were drawing was "helicopter" and, between us, we pretty much drew a helicopter. I seem to remember that it was identified as the fake artist. Wrongly, of course. The true fake was Stuart (memory is a bit foggy here) but he was easily able to guess the word.

And once that was done, so were we. And so was Katy! There were hugs and goodbyes and a promise that she will blog if she gets the chance to play a board game or two in America. Bon Voyage and Happy Trails, Katy, or whatever they say these days. As for the rest of us... same time, next week.

What's the opposite of a point salad?

This week's regular event saw the final games night of the season. Dizzy with anticipation, eight of us crammed into Sam's kitchen: Sam, Katy, Ian, Joe, Martin, Andy (arriving later), myself and newcomer Matt.

While we waited for Andy, we cranked out a swift game of Fuji Flush. It was new to Matt, but there aren't many rules. So few, in fact, that Martin felt he had time to explain the concept of dick points. During the game, Katy complained about her cards, and that gave us the opportunity to explain to Matt that Katy's level of annoyance is in no way connected to how well she's doing.

As for the game, Sam and Joe crossed the finish line hand in proverbial hand. Furthermore, Sam got most dick points, too. Pity it's not a tie breaker.

Sam 0
Joe 0
Matt 2
Martin 2
Ian 3
Katy 3
Andrew 3

By now, Andy was here and with Joe, Martin and Andy bringing new games with a fierce desire to play them, dividing into groups took very little time. Joe, Martin, Matt and Katy set up New York Slice. I know little about it except the basic premise is that you have to share a pizza but you inevitably get last choice, so you have to balance the options, Mammut style. It also looks like the kind of game you don't want to play if you're hungry.

It finished with Joe looking surprised that he'd won.

Joe 33
Martin 30
Matt 28
Katy 28

Ian, Andy, Sam and I went for Flamme Rouge, a cycling game which involves careful deck management as you guide your two cyclists around a course. You have a Sprinter and a Rouler, how each have their own deck of cards. Slightly disappointingly, the artwork is pretty similar, leading to occasional Incan Gold style confusion.

The game itself is rock solid, though. Simple but strategic enough to be exciting. Andy pointed out how well the game recreated the ebb and flow of a real race as we jostled in the peleton, after the leaders.

My strategy was to send one rider off as fast as possible right from the start, to see what happens. Answer: he gets tired.

Sam kept his riders tucked away in the chasing pack, conserving energy. Ian seemed to go from hopeless last to challenging for first and Andy complained about his cards. "It's mostly luck," Sam said, ever the gracious host. Did he mean it?

1. Sam
2. Ian
3. Andrew
4. Andy

By now, New York Slice had finished, and they were onto Ponzi Scheme, a game that has the dubious USP of being a fun re-creation of uncontrollably spiraling debt.

They ran the gamut of emotions from agony to desperation, with the only light relief being other players' discomfort. Joe was in trouble early on and somehow kept holding on, stating at one point "I'm extremely soluble right now." He managed to stay afloat until Katy joined him in ignominious bankruptcy.

Katy, meanwhile, rued her chances of stopping Martin. If she'd given a pound to Matt, he could've done something (I didn't fully understand. I wasn't really listening) and beaten Martin. But she didn't.

Martin 29
Matt 23
Katy 0
Joe 0

It looked like hell, but they all seemed to enjoy it. It also seemed quite long, since the four of us where able to squeeze in a game of Tinners' Trail.

It was Andy's choice since it's a game he feels he should play more but doesn't. We didn't need any prompting as it was set up, quicksticks.

Sam went for a new strategy: buying poor but well-placed mines for cheap. I used the tactic of bidding on empty and distant parts of the map, hoping no one would bid too much against me. Ian put all his energy into taking over Land's End and Lizard Point, while Andy took over the south coast.

By round three, with prices low, we were all hoping for a bumper crop in the final round and the board was still replete with cubes. But Andy's dice rolling let him and all of us down.

Prices stayed low, which goes some of the way to explain the low scores. Ian regretted an adit, Sam miscalculated how much money he'd need and Andy had too much ground to make up. I can't complain, though.

Andrew 91
Sam 79
Ian 68
Andy 63

And now, we were all together again. Katy was keen on Dead Man's Chest and so Matt got the dubious delight of having rules explained to him by people who didn't fully remember the rules themselves. But once we'd all reminded ourselves of how to play, we were off!

Katy struck upon the tactic of always calling low (3-1) as a safe strategy. I looked back in the GNN archives, and the only other person who did that came last too. It seems like it’s only safe for the person you’re sitting next to.

1. Sam
2. Ian
3. Martin
4. Andrew
5. Joe
6. Andy
7. Matt
8. Katy

And with that, we were done. After an evening of all last places, Katy still seemed happy and as she, I and Joe walked home, we discussed Gold West and wondered what the opposite of a point salad would be. I suggested point custard, but they said it had to be something you usually eat by itself. Katy thought of point blancmange, which I liked but Joe didn’t like crossing over from savoury to sweet. He came up with point pie or point sandwich before texting me late at night with his eureka moment: point smoothie! The debate may never be resolved.

On the division, Ian wins the season! Hurrah! Meanwhile, Adam takes points ratio and Martin win the medal table. And that’s it. Phew. See you all next week!

Birthdaycon

By curious chance, four of us GNNers have birthday’s close enough to each other that we can organise a games weekend on the flimsy pretext that we have successfully circumnavigated the sun again. Me, Sam, Chris (all February birthdays) and Paul (March) all gathered at Chris’ house on Friday evening for a couple of days’ worth of board games.

Sam and I arrived at about quarter to eight, too late to join in with the earliest games: two rounds of Heck Meck between Paul, Chris and Chris’ wife and recent convert to (some) Eurogaming, Jacquie.

Paul 12
Chris 6
Jacquie 0

Jacquie 9 (highest tile)
Paul 9
Chris 0

Once us two latecomers had got settled in (and Sam had played against Chris’ kids at Rhino Hero), our first game was Las Vegas. A nice light, jovial game of dice-rolling to get us started. Chris had a poor last round to drop back into third while, as I recall, Sam picked up some choice wins due to a number of draws.

Sam 520
Andrew 390
Chris 340
Paul 260

After this Sam suggested Black Orchestra, the co-op game of killing Hitler. Chris is not a fan of the co-op style of gaming, but I thought this game might be one even he’d enjoy. It has a sort of Escape From Colditz vibe and an accidental dark humour to it, as the game instructs Hitler and his deputies to amble around Germany, stealing cards and items from you.

But best of all, we finally succeeded! We carried out a coup d’etat in the Gestapo HQ, with all of us present along with Hitler and a whole bunch of dice. Just as Chris was about to roll to see if we were able to finish him off, Paul yelled out “Wait!” freezing Chris mid-shake. Paul then checked a few of his cards before saying actually, no, it’s fine, carry on. After that moment of high drama, Chris rolled the dice and the plan worked perfectly.

We win! Hitler is dead!

Then we got out Istanbul for our next game. We laid out the tiles according to the quick set-up, and Sam certainly lived up to that. He used the Sultan’s Palace to great effect, while the rest of us wandered around warehouses.

Sam 5
Chris 3 + cash
Andrew 3
Paul 2

After this we got out an old familiar: 7Wonders. This favourite never ceases to amaze with its new ways of winning. This time, Paul came away the clear victor thanks to his four (yes, four) guilds netting him thirty points by themselves.

My losing tableau

Paul 61
Chris 47
Sam 47
Andrew 43

This was followed by Biblios, which Sam won more or less with the hand he had at the end of the draw phase, hardly buying any cards in the auction phase.

Mmmm, Biblios....

Sam 6
Andrew 4
Paul 3 + brown
Chris 3 + blue

Interesting fact about Biblios: I haven’t scored over five points for almost two years.

It was by now the end of the evening, so we finished on Push It, giving our colours new and exciting names: Chris was callisto, I was brusque, Paul was octavio and Sam was vongeburp. Chris sealed the win thanks to me hitting the jack neatly between his two pucks.

Chris 12
Paul 6
Sam 6
Andrew 2

Saturday morning and I popped back into Bristol to turn off my heating and pick up Concordia from Sam’s house. I was back by mid-morning, and we picked up where we left off with Tinner’s Trail.

Sam’s monopoly of the Lizard was enough to see him into first place. Chris controlled the eastern part of the board while Paul and I fought over the middle.

Sam 106
Chris 85
Andrew 63
Paul 55

Then, after lunch of pizzas (bought by Sam and prepared by Jacquie) we all sat down for a five-player game of Caverna. None of us had played with more than three players that we could remember, so it was a new and exciting experience for all of us. Especially Paul who’d never played it at all.

It turns out he did pretty well, coming in second just by playing the most Agricola-like bits, and ignoring anything new. He also kept slashing and burning when I wanted to, leaving me seeking other options and ending the game with six unused spaces on my board. Even Sam’s two dwarfs did better than my three.

Sam's stash of stone

Chris 72
Paul 64
Jacquie 61
Sam 50
Andrew 44

We all agreed that with five players, it’s more of a bun fight, with fewer options available. Chris and Jacquie were even forced to go adventuring, which they hardly ever do in their two-player games.

After this, Sam went off somewhere (to call his family, I think) and the rest of us played Heck Meck. Jacquie told us that she’d asked someone to translate the German phrase on the front of the box, “Heckmeck im Bratwurmeck” and the closest they could get was “Hullaballoo in the sausage worm area”.

Most of the hullaballoo in this game involved passing round the 21 and 25 tiles. I got an high tile early on and tried my best to defend it, but to no avail.

Paul 6
Chris 5
Jacquie 4
Andrew 3

After this, the kids Ava-Rose and Ashton joined me and Chris for an exciting game of Outfoxed. I explained the rules, but got one wrong (I forgot you had to announce what you wanted before rolling the dice) but it hardly mattered. We turned over an number of suspects early on and each clue seemed to point to Ingrid as the pie-thief! Eventually, we were certain of our convictions, so we accused her and we were right!

We win!

This was followed by the adults sitting down to play Love Letter to fill in the time until lunch. Ashton asked why it was called Love Letter and I had to admit there was no real reason, despite the first three pages of the rule book trying to convince you there is.

"Are you the handmaid?" Chris asked...

Chris 3
Andrew 1
Sam 0
Paul 0

After this came supper followed by a couple of games of 6nimmt. In the first, a four-player game, we all suffered one bad round:

Chris 50
Paul 63
Andrew 68
Sam 73

During the next five-player game I suffered from a lack of attention, playing cards I thought would be safe, missing the fact that they picked up all the cards from a different row.

Paul 16
Sam 27
Chris 36
Jacquie 39
Andrew 74

Now it was half past eight and if we were going to play Concordia, we would have to do it now. Paul was given a summary of the rules and we found out we’d got another rule wrong with our version drastically increasing the number of movement actions each piece should have. Oh well, c’est la vie.

I started feeling ill halfway through and missed two whole rounds while on toilet duty. Also, Chris’ cold, a bother for him for the whole weekend, seemed to get worse. On the other hand, Paul seemed to get the hang of the game quite quickly. There were moments of AP for everyone, and by half past ten we had reached the end.

Sam 91
Chris 87
Paul 78
Andrew 77

Next up was Codenames. Another new game for Paul, but the first round (with Chris and I as spymasters) was relatively straightforward.

Chris & Paul wins!
Andrew & Sam loses!

In the second round, with roles reversed, Paul & Chris shot off into an early lead, meaning Sam had to take a few risks with his guesses. Luckily, Chris mistook Paul’s clue of “Country Club” (“Is Country Club okay as a clue?” he asked. “It has to be, now” replied Sam) to mean “millionaire” and in that moment, Sam & I snatched the win as I finally understood Sam’s cryptic “Snow White” clue from earlier in the game (“poison” and “mint”).

A bad start

Sam & Andrew wins!
Paul & Chris loses!

The last of the biggish games to be played was Medici. This old favourite needed barely a breath of rules explanation, as we set up and sorted things out. Sam spent most of the game berating himself for spending 9 on two tiles (a five and a one, not matching) in the first auction of the game. He seemed to recover quite well. Other notable events: the gold tile was the very last to be drawn in both rounds two and three, and I filled up my final boat for the princely sum of £3!

Sam 134
Andrew 109
Chris 103
Paul 97

Finally we ended on Push It. Or, in this case, Extreme Push It. Usually, extreme sports are invented to increase adrenalin and push the body to its limits. Extreme Push It came about due to a reluctance to move our chairs. Instead, we stayed where we were and placed the jack in the middle of Chris’ extended dining table, meaning we all had to negotiate two small ridges in the table top where an extra middle bit had been slotted in to lengthen the table.

Oh, how we laughed as our pucks jumped and skipped about. Would the result have been any different in a normal game? We will never know. But it ended (with bespoke colour names in brackets)

Sam (Tacitagreement) 7
Chris (Clunge) 4
Paul (Pastiche) 1
Andrew (Louvre) 1

And so, to bed. Our game-athon finally drew to a close. Sam and I set off early Sunday morning. Many thanks to Chris and Jacquie for hosting and thanks to Paul for making the trek across England to join us. All that’s left is the division and it’s nice to see three different winners for the weekend.

Congrats to Sam, Chris and Jacquie and thanks to all. It was a blast.

The Old, the New, the Extravurm

Saturday night. While the boys watched Strictly in the other room, the responsible adults munched through a big plate of chilli before setting up the newcomer in the house: Ulm. Ian was intrigued enough to try it again, and Andrew was agreeable.

 it's a church!

As we found on Tuesday, the game plays fairly quickly. As we also found on Tuesday, I'm rather bad at it. Everything happens around the cathedral - draw an action tile from the bag, slide it into the grid and take the three actions you're left with. I decided early on to try and build a hand of cards, and pretty much stuck to that. But the others found that placing seals in the city seemed to be more productive, and Ian sealed the deal using the same city quarter Andy had earlier in the week - scoring points for every quarter of the city he had seals in. Allied to the fact he scored points for placing a seal there in the first place, it was a killer move.

Ian 54
Andrew 48
Sam 44

After that we broke out an old favourite: Tinner's Trail! Andrew set off into an early lead as he capitalised on high copper prices in round one. I set about turning the lizard green, while Ian played a game of few mines. We all snuck a cheap mine at some point, and at the end it couldn't have been closer:

Sam 101
Andrew 100
Ian 92

Industry

I suggested Heckmeck, as I wanted to try out the expansion, Extravurm. It's not a game that really needed an expansion, but I'd been intrigued by it and as it turned out, it was rather fun. Taking two '1's gets you a bratworm, there are two new low-value tiles of 11 and 13, and there are several specialists you can pick up: the canning worm functions as a worm if you don't role any, the weasel gives you a free re-roll, the sitting hen protects your tiles, and there's a golden extra die to claim as well.

The game was one of the longer Heckmecks I've played, but that was mainly due to all of us stealing the 24 off each other. Ian took the honours again, making great use of his weasel.

Ian 13
Sam 10
Andrew 5

Time for another old favourite: 7 Wonders. The evening was starting to get a little blurry at this point so the strategies and tactics are now slightly beyond me, but I recall both Andrew and Ian insisting they'd lost. They hadn't:

Andrew 48
Ian 46
Sam 43

Four games down, three to go. In a flurry of late-night Saturdayness we bashed through three more staples of the GNN diet: Andrew took the spoils on Extreme Biblios after beating me out of the reds on a mere whim of alphabetisation:

Andrew 5
Ian 4
Sam 3

Living it large

Then he made it three wins in a row as he trounced us at Love Letter 3-1-1; before finally finishing with No Thanks. Here Ian and I had an unusual shared victory, with 27 points each to Andrew's 56.  With the hour of 11 now past, we wrapped up a very satisfying weekend's gaming.

One for diamonds, two for gold

This week was a special date in the GNN calendar. it was a Katy's birthday. However, due to a nasty cold, it was not the happiest of birthdays. Perhaps, we hoped, some good company and better games would improve matters.

There were seven of us at Adam's: Adam, Ben, Andy, Ian, Katy, and myself with Joe expected along shortly. We tried to think of a nice group game we could all enjoy together, but without Martin or Sam or Joe, we were short of options. No Pairs, no Celestia, no Push It, barely anything. Only 6nimmt was available, and so we played that.

Since we were expecting Joe to arrive soon, we dealt in Dirk as a dummy hand that Joe could take over once he arrived. As you might expect from a random series of cards, Dirk veered from uncanny escapes to hopeless doom. But then again, so did the rest of us.

Midway through the second round, Martin arrived, all aglow with the joys of new fatherhood. He was only supposed to say hello, but with an unclaimed stack of cards on the table, he couldn't resist the invitation and took over Dirk's role for the rest of the game.

Andrew 21
Katy 36
Andy 36
Adam 42
Ian 47
Dirk 53
Ben 80

After this, Martin set off home and Joe arrived. He'd brought Birds of a Feather with him (the game, not a DVD box set of the sitcom) and since it played seven, he explained the rules and we all had a couple of games.

The game is very simple. From your hand of cards (with birds on), everyone plays one card into to centre. You, as a birdspotter, can see any birds that are in the same environment as the card you played. This means, you can tick off those birds on your scorepad. Then all these cards move into the centre, but stay face up, giving you the opportunity to spot birds that you missed with your next card (assuming you have the right environment in your hand).

It was fun and surprisingly thinky.

Andy 26
Joe 23
Katy 22
Andrew 22
Adam 22
Ben 20
Ian 15

In the next game we played an extra rule: the raptor rule. This means that when a raptor (a bird of prey) is played, all the birds from the previous round from the same environment are scared off (turned face down) and can't be spotted.

Andrew 29
Joe 25
Andy 24
Katy 23
Ian 19
Adam 16
Ben 12

A nice, relaxing game. Joe said that he wished he had some recordings of birdsong as a background. I have a feeling it's also meant to be educational, but I didn't look at the cards enough.

Then we split into two groups. Andy, Adam and Ian went the hard route, battling each other with tactics and pasties in that old favourite: Tinners' Trail.

We remaining four struck out into lighter territory with another new game from Joe: Karuba. He described it as a cross between Incan Gold and Take It Easy, and that's exactly what it was. Four meeples are placed along two sides of each players' playing area and four temple (of matching colours) are placed along the opposing two sides. Everyone starts with an identical set-up.

Then one player picks their tiles randomly, while the other players choose the same one from their supply and then play it on their area. The tiles have paths, and the idea is to get your meeples to their matching temples, picking up any gold (two points) and diamonds (one point) on the way.

We played twice and in game one, I did well. I put down to crossroad tiles in the middle of the board and they were very useful in ferrying my meeples to where they needed to be.

Andrew 23
Joe 20
Katy 19
Ben 14

So, in the second game, I tried the same tactic again, except the crossroad tiles didn't come out. In fact, hardly any junctions at all came out, and before long I was stuck, not wanting to put down tiles nor was I able to move my men.

Halfway through the second game, Katy's cold started a coughing fit and she had to retire for a few minutes. When she came back, we insisted that she rest her throat, so it was an uncommonly mute Katy who chose the tiles and held them up for us to see. This inconvenience didn't stop her from winning, just one point ahead of Ben.

Katy 22
Ben 21
Joe 17
Andrew 8

In the other room, Cornwall was still being plundered for its natural resources, so we played Castle Crush. It was new to Ben and I, but the rules are pretty straightforward: built a castle to protect your king and general from the cudgel of doom that topples from a circular platform onto your opponent's structure.

That's the theory, anyway. The two newbies began with contrasting fortunes. My first castle proved unexpectedly strong (I'm still not sure why). But on Ben's turn he tried to attack Katy's castle, only for the cudgel to bounce off harmlessly and it ended up hitting the side of his own castle and the king and general both popped out the other side.

But after that, Ben had better luck (or was it skill) and he quickly made up lost ground. Joe seemed think he was being picked on. Perhaps he was. Either way, his strong final round castle (withstanding two hits with barely a tremor) was not strong enough and Ben dealt the decisive blow.

Ben 75
Andrew 59
Katy 59
Joe 33

Tinners' Trail had ended by now, too. Adam had done enough to overturn Ian's high scoring first and third rounds.

Adam 137
Ian 125
Andy 108