Mad Kings go Bananas

This week was to have been at Adam and Hannah's but, due to a last minute slight illness, was quickly rearranged to Sam's. Six of us attended. Apart from Sam, there was Martin, Andy, Ian, and Katy. I arrived several minutes late, causing them to have a conversation while they waited. Apologies for that.

Our first game was a six-player, just to get us started. We went for Pairs. My luck with this game has never been great, so I stuck as soon as was possible, much to Martin's derision. Katy, though, had no such troubles. Staring down Lady Fate at every opportunity, she won the first three rounds for 18 points, and then did just enough in the fourth round to edge past 21 points for the win. Meanwhile, my slow and steady tactics got me second. Martin and Andy saw their luck evaporate with a string of instant busts as they were dealt pairs almost immediately. Ian managed to avoid a score of zero in the last round by sensibly ignoring Martin's advice to keep twisting.

Katy 22
Andrew 14
Sam 11
Martin 9
Andy 5
Ian 5

Then we decided to split into two. After some discussion Andy, Sam and Ian went for The Castles of Mad King Ludwig, while Martin, Katy and I went for Impulse. It was Katy's first play, and I wondered how she'd do against two experienced Space captains like me and Martin. Before I wrote this blog post, I went back and read how my first impressions of Impulse were not good and it wasn't until the third game that I felt like I knew what I was doing. Katy seemed frustrated by the experience, and I empathized as she stared at her hand, the map and then at the reference card in blank confusion.

She did well, though, building up a healthy fleet of ships, even if she was short on cards that would move them. Martin kept himself to himself, preferring to fly in circles, triggering point-scoring cards as often as possible. My plan was almost identical to his. As such there were no battles and only sporadic sabotages.

Martin 20
Andrew 18
Katy 7

Will Katy ever play it again? Will I score higher than 18 ever again? Tune in for the next episode in the space epic Impulse.

On the other half of the table, castles were being built. Andy's was quite a sexist castle, separating the ladies' rooms (knitting or something) from the gentlemens' rooms for billiards and an audience room (whatever that is).

Ian's rooms were mostly purple and indicated a luxurious, leisure-filled lifestyle. Exactly the type of king who'd be first against the wall come the revolution. Sam's castle was clearly the maddest and therefore a worthy winner.

Sam 138
Andy 123
Ian 120

We'd finished Impulse a while back, so I was introduced to the wonders of Trumps! Trick! Game! This is a simple trick-taking game. The twist being that everyone wins four tricks at the end of each round, therefore if you win tricks early, you'll just be giving away what's left in your hand. All this changes in the last round when you can win as many as you like in a last-gasp stampede for points.

There's more to it, for example the trumps, but it's quick and simple. It's another classic trick taking game for Martin to add to his wall of fame.

Andrew 148
Katy 132
Martin 110

While we were playing that, The Castles of Mad Ludwig ended, and they set off on a 3-player 6nimmt. This time, however, Andy persuaded Sam and Ian to try the “professional” rules of 6nimmt, where cards can be added to either end of the row. And so they played a much quieter, thoughtful game of 6nimmt. No doubt dreaming of riches in their future careers as professional 6nimmt players.

Sam 33
Ian 34
Andy 46

While we waited for them to finish off the last few rounds of 6nimmt, Martin, Katy and I played a brief non-leaderboard game of Win, Lose, or Banana. This is a bluffing game, in the style of The Resistance, or Coup or Look Out I’m a Werewolf! But with all the storyline nonsense stripped away. Three cards are dealt out: a win card, a lose card and a banana card. The person with the win card declares who they are and the other two have to convince them that they have the banana card. Simple and fun. And the ironic thing was, Katy actually had a banana at the time!

Finally, we were all together again for a final six-player game: Flowerfall. In this game, cards are dropped onto the table from eye level, with each player hoping to land their flowers overlapping (but not covering) cards with point scoring cards on them. It was very silly. Sam’s only point came from him dropping a card which had one of his flowers and one point scoring flower. Katy, however, couldn’t even manage that and ended with no points at all.

Martin 8
Andrew 7
Andy 2
Ian 2
Sam 1
Katy 0

And with that, that night was over.

On the Division, Katy’s lead is slashed from fourteen points to nine and a bit as Sam moves up to second. Ian moves up to sixth and is right on Joe's shoulder. Martin takes the medal table, and absent Joe hangs on to Points Ratio. And I’ve reinstated the Bracknell Bunch since I forgot about them last time.

Ten out of ten

Tonight, we were ten in number. Ten players and ten games!

There were nine players at first: me, Sam, Martin, Matt, Steve, Ian, Katy, Joe and our hosts, Adam and Hannah. Although, to be exact, the offer to meet up at A&H’s came from Katy’s email. On our way, we did wonder if perhaps tonight was a huge practical joke by Katy, and that actually Adam and Hannah weren’t expecting us at all. But it was all kosher in the end.

We decided on a rousing ten-player game of 6nimmt to begin the evening. Steve hadn’t arrived yet, but we dealt him in anyway, choosing random cards for him as we played without him. In the end, he didn’t turn up during the single round that we played (although we kept checking the front door, thinking we heard someone knocking) so we awarded his position to our imaginary player, Dirk.

1. Adam 0
2. Martin 1
2. Katy 1
3. Joe 3
4. Hannah 13
5. Sam 19
5. Dirk 19
6. Matt 24
7. Andrew 25
8. Ian 45

Then we tried a new game, Pairs. So simple: a deck of cards has values one to ten. Each value has the same number of cards as the value (ie, there is one 1 card, two 2 cards, three 3 cards, etc). Each player is dealt one card at the start and then a player can either chose to stick or twist (get a new card). If they get a pair of anything, they are out. Highest points according to values on the card wins: eight points for first (because this was an eight player game: Dirk bowed out and Joe was dealing), seven for second, etc. No points at all if you had a pair. First to 21 points wins.

It was a fun game of pushing your luck and then cursing it when it let you down. Katy and Matt both scored nothing in three out of the four rounds we played. I stuck early, hoping that other people’s greed would improve my rankings. As you’d expect from such a timid technique, I finished more or less in the middle.

Adam 23
Ian 21
Martin 19
Hannah 19
Andrew 18
Sam 15
Matt 8
Katy 4

During Pairs, Steve arrived and we split into three groups. Four played Potato Man (Martin, Joe, Hannah and Katy). Three played Casltes of Mad King Ludwig (Adam, Matt, Steve) and the final three played Rialto (Sam, Ian and me). We were in the kitchen, while the other seven went into the front room. Judging by the amount of chatting and laughter, they had a high old time. Apparently, though, they were all briefly distracted - and amused - by Sam yelling “Bridges!” at a moment of high tension.

As for Rialto, I found it less intriguing this time. My initial impression, that there were several ways to win, took a knock. Sam bought up three buildings that helped increase his hand size, and when one player has seven cards while another has eleven to choose from, it becomes almost impossible. Maybe it’s sour grapes as I clock up my second last place in a row, but unless I’m missing something, it’s not as deep as I’d thought.

Sam 90
Ian 62
Andrew 49

After this, people in the other room were still knee-deep in their respective games, so we played Tinners’ Trail, convinced we could squeeze it in before it was time to go home. Speed Tinners’ Trail, we optimistically called it.

My Little Kingdom in Cornwall

It all went surprisingly well for me. I established a little network in the south west of Cornwall, while Sam and Ian fought over the same areas, bumping up their costs for mines as they did. The prices of tin and copper, too, seemed to suit me when it mattered.

Andrew 124
Sam 111
Ian 92

In the other room, the Potato Man people had finished:

Katy 23
Hannah 23
Joe 21
Martin 10

And had also completed another quick game of Pairs...

Hannah 11
Martin 10
Joe 5
Katy 4

This was Hannah’s last game of the evening, as she retired to bed. The remaining three on that table tried Trump Tricks Game! A card game that Martin often brings along, but has never appealed to me in the same way that a TV show called “Endless Laugh-a-thon Chuckle Show” would make me run the other way. I’ll leave it for them to describe its charms, because they seemed pretty impressed with it once it had ended.

Katy 143
Martin 125
Joe 118

Castles of Mad King Ludwig had also ended by now. No danger of Explainer’s Curse for Adam here. But it was close. Mighty close.

Adam 92
Matt 91
Steve 87

At this time (this blog post is a bit like Pulp Fiction how it plays with chronology, don’t you think?) we were still finishing off Tinners’ so, after Steve went home, the five of them played No Thanks, with Adam getting the first negative score since Joe managed it in the pre-blog days.

Joe is upset at having to share his claim to fame with Adam

Adam –2
Matt 13
Martin 23
Katy 30
Joe 34

Finally, we were all together again. Sam went home, but the rest of us clung on for one more game of Pairs. At first, Adam bowed out. We asked why, and he said he had to wash up the bottles in the kitchen. He also added, foolishly, that he’d just won four games in a row. Of course, now we all insisted that he join us for one more game. History beckons! We cried (even though Adam has already achieved a Perfect Five).

Of course, one of the secrets of a Perfect Five is to hope that no one else notices that you’re about to achieve it. Ian knows this, Steve knows this. So why did Adam announce it? We will never know. Maybe he was drunk. Either way, trying to finish a Perfect Five on such a luck based game when everyone wants to stop you was a hopeless cause.

Ian 24
Katy 21
Joe 16
Adam 14
Martin 11
Matt 10
Andrew 6

Finally, it was over. What a roller coaster of an evening. Ten whole games. Some people managed to squeeze seven into one evening.

The form table looks like this after a brutal evening. I have two sevens and Matt has three sixes! Adam missed out on his Perfect Five (and we all apologised afterwards), Katy worked hard to get rid of the seven she got at the start of the evening, and with good results.

						Points
Adam	4	1	1	1	1	8
Katy	2	4	1	4	1	12
Hannah	1	1	3	4	5	14
Sam	2	1	5	5	2	15
Martin	5	3	2	2	3	15
Ian	1	3	2	2	8	16
Andy	2	3	6	2	3	16
Joe	3	5	3	3	2	16
Steve	3	3	3	4	5	18
Matt	6	2	2	6	6	20
Andrew	7	1	3	4	7	22
Anja	6	5	3	4	5	23
Dirk	5	5	5	5	5	25